Seeding

Change: A Center for Asian American Movement Building

PDF Assembly of Documents for Roses Too Asian Sex Worker Rights Across Borders
Presentation by Kate Zen and Kavita Bissoondial


CONTENTS

PART I. Human Rights Abuses Against Sex Workers in Asia

Harms by Foreign Anti-Trafficking NGOs in Asia

1. Hit & Run: The impact of anti-trafficking policy and practice on sex workers human
rights in Thailand. Participatory action research by Empower (Thailand Sex Worker Org,
reaching 20,000 per year), 2012.
2. A report by Empower Chiang Mai on the human rights violations women are subjected
to when rescued by anti-trafficking groups who employ methods using deception, force,
and coercion, 2003.
3. Soderlund, Gretchen, PhD. Running from the Rescuers: New U.S. Crusades Against Sex
Trafficking and the Rhetoric of Abolition. NWSA Journal 17:3 (2005): 64-87.
4. Kourabas, Michael. (Oct. 22, 2014) Cambodian Program Sends Sex Workers to
Sweatshops. Triple Pundit.
5. Koyama, Emi. State Violence, Sex Trade, and the Failure of Anti-Trafficking Policies,
2012. (Preview of her zine please support her research at eminism.org).
6. Koyama, Emi. War On Terror & War On Trafficking, 2011. (Preview of her zine please
support her research at eminism.org).
7. Moore, Anne Elizabeth. (Jan. 27, 2015) Special Report: Money and Lies in Anti-Human
Trafficking NGOs. Truth Out.
8. Bernstein, Elizabeth, PhD. Militarized Humanitarianism Meets Carceral Feminism: The
Politics of Sex, Rights, and Freedom in Contemporary Antitrafficking Campaigns. Signs:
Journal of Women in Culture and Society 36:1 (2010).
9. No More TIPs Please: Empower reflections on TIP report 2014 by Empower (Thailand
Sex Worker Org, reaching 20,000 per year)
10. The Bangkok Call for Justice for Women Migrant Workers Global Alliance Against
Traffic in Women (November 6-8, 2002, Bangkok)
11. Moore, Anne Elizabeth. (Jan. 17, 2014) Whats the Price of Workers Lives in Cambodia?
Truth Out.

State Violence: Police Violence Against Sex Workers in Asia

12. Human Rights Watch (2010) Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses
Against Sex Workers in Cambodia.
13. Cambodian Womens Development Association, Survey on Police Human Rights
Violations of Sex Workers in Toul Kourk Serey Phal

14. Zi Teng (Hong Kong Sex Workers Organization) Action Against Police Violence of Human
Rights in Hong Kong
15. Human Rights Watch (2013) Swept Away: Abuses Against Sex Workers in China.
16. Asia Catalyst (2013) Custody and Education: Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex
Workers in China.

Ending Violence Against Sex Workers Requires Decriminalization of Sex Work

17. China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum, Research On the Impact of 2010
Crackdown on Sex Work and HIV Interventions in China. (January 2011)
18. UN Population Fund and the UN Development Programme. Policy Brief: Sex Work,
Violence and HIV in Asia From Evidence to Safety. (June 2015)
19. World Health Organization, Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical
Intersections Violence Against Sex Workers and HIV Prevention.
20. Asian Pacific Network of Sex Workers, Eliminating Violence Against Sex Workers in
preparation for the 1st Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work,
October 12-15, 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand.
21. UN Development Programme, UNFPA, UNAIDS, The Right(s) Evidence: Sex Work,
Violence, and HIV in Asia: A Multi-Country Qualitative Study. (2011-2015)



PART II. White Lies, Yellow Peril: U.S. History of Xenophia and Immigration Policing
through Anti-Prostitution Moral Agendas and Panics

22. Lui, Mary Ting Yi, PhD. Saving Young Girls From Chinatown: White Slavery and Women
Sufrage, 1910-1920. Journal of the History of Sexuality (2009.)
23. Ludwig, Mike. (July 2014). From Somaly Mam to Eden: How Sex Trafficking
Sensationalism Hurts Sex Workers.
24. Soderlund, Gretchen, PhD. The Rhetoric of Revealation: Sex Trafficking and the
Journalistic Expose. Humanity (2011.)
-- Lying with Nicholas Kristoff; Somaly Mam and uninformed celebrities; how
investigative journalists took down the lies of the White Slavery moral panic in the
last century; and how we will have to do it again this time around.
24. Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, Whats the Cost of a Rumour? A guide to
sorting out the myths and facts about sporting events and trafficking, 2011.
25. Zen, Kate. (Apr 24, 2015). The JVTA: Not Just Bad for Trafficking Victims. Tits and Sass.
-- Also 2-page fact sheet on Debunking Age of Entry into Sex Work as 12-13


State Violence: Police Violence Against People in the Sex Trade in the U.S., NGO Exclusion of
Sex Workers From Services


26. Young Womens Empowerment Project (Chicago) Participatory action research on state
violence: police, social workers, shelters, the foster care system. Girls Do What They

Have to Do to Survive: Illuminating Methods Used By Girls in the Sex Trade and Street
Economy to Fight Back and Heal.
27. Koyama, Emi. Disloyal to Feminism: Abuse of Power and Control within the Domestic
Violence Shelter System 2003. (Preview of her zine please support her research at
eminism.org).
28. Koyama, Emi. Understanding the Complexities of Sex Work/Trade and Trafficking,
2011. (Preview of her zine please support her research at eminism.org).
29. Streetwise and Safe with the Urban Institute, Surviving the Streets of New York:
Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex, 2015.
30. Human Rights Watch, Sex Workers at Risk: Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four
U.S. Cities, 2012.
31. Red Umbrella Project, Criminal, Victim, or Worker: The Effects of New Yorks Human
Trafficking Intervention Courts On Adults Charged with Prostitution-Related Offenses.
October, 2014.


PART III. Rights Not Rescue Now: How the Asian American Movement Can Support
Human Rights of Sex Workers in Asia and North America


Look at Asian Sex Workers Kicking Ass We Can Do This Here!

32. Asia and the Pacific: Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment,
Global Network of Sex Work Projects, 2014.

How hundreds of thousands of sex workers in Asia form unions, cooperative
banking, microfinance and support for small businesses, planned retirement and
exiting, vocational training programs, childcare and schooling, eliminating
trafficking, underage sex work, violence and exploitation in the sex trades.

33. Asia and the Pacific: Good Practice in Sex Worker-led HIV Programming, Global
Network of Sex Work Projects, 2014.

34. Sex Workers Manifesto First National Conference of Sex Workers in India (November
14-16, 1997, Calcutta).


How Nordic End Demand Laws Harm People and Violate Sex Workers Human Rights


35. Berger, Stephanie M, PhD. No End in Sight: Why the End Demand Movement is
the Wrong Focus for Efforts to Eliminate Human Trafficking. Harvard Journal of Law and
Gender. Vol. 35. (2012)

36. Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, Moving Beyond Supply and Demand
Catchphrases: Assessing the Uses and Limitations of Demand-Based Approaches in Anti-
Trafficking, 2011.


37. Kirby Institute of Medicine, University of New South Wales, The Sx Industry in
New South Wales: A report to the NSW Ministry of Health, 2012.

38. New Zealand, Occupational Health and Safety of Migrant Sex Workers in New
Zealand.

39. Pivot Legal Society, Beyond Decriminalization: Sex Work, Human Rights, and a
New Framework for Law Reform, 2006.



Global Human Rights Organizations Supporting Sex Worker Human Rights

40. UN Global Commission on HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights, and Health, 2012.
41. UN Women: Note On Sex Work, Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking. October 9, 2013.
42. World AIDS Campaign, Sex Work and the Law: the Case for Decriminalization, 2012.
43. Open Society, 10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A Reference Brief, 2012.
44. American Jewish World Service, Sex Worker Rights: (Almost) Everything You Wanted to
Know But Were Afraid to Ask, July 2013.

Support Amnesty International

45. Amnesty International leaked internal document and extensive background research
in support of sex worker human rights and decriminalization.
46. SANGRAM (India) letter in support of Amnesty Internationals position.
47. Empower (Thailand) letter in support of Amnesty Internationals position.
48. Freedom Network letter in support of Amnesty Internationals position.

Sex Workers Research on Anti trafficking in

Thailand
by Empower Foundation 2012

Hit & Run

The impact of anti trafficking
policy and practice on
Sex Workers Human Rights in
Thailand
by
RATS-W Team
empower foundation

Supported by Mama Cash

First printed 2012/2555

MIDA TAPESTRY

The Mida Tapestry is a 10 meter piece of cloth with 13 embroidered panels

sewn along its length. The panels depict how women experience raid and
rescue missions. Each panel is hand embroidered by migrant sex workers
and is an important part of our research documentation.
It is an art work and a document that best speaks to and from the migrant
sex worker community.
Images from the tapestry have been used throughout our written report.

Table of Contents
Introduction to our story ............................. i
Who we are and what we did Methodology..ii
What we found....Executive Summary .. vi
What needs to happen next.RECOMMENDATIONS. 1
Chapter 1: The Current Context of Our Work and Lives.. 3
y Migration in Thailand today
y Sex Work in Thailand: the modern context
y Still Migrating with Hope in 2011
Home and deciding when to leave
On the Road
Crossing the border
Travelling in Thailand
Finding a job
Working conditions
Loans and debts
Just passing through
Overseas sex workers in Thailand
y

Human Trafficking is to Sex Work, as Birthday is to Shovel

Chapter 2: On Top of a Mountain of Laws 28

y Punitive Laws
y Extra punishment for migrant sex workers
y We are persons before the law: protection and recognition
y But what about the children?: Legal framework for protection of children/minors
Chapter 3: Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act BE 2551. 39
y Problems in definitions
y Protections
y Penalties
y International protections
Chapter 4: Government Anti-Trafficking Policy 44
y National Policy and Structure
y Provincial MOU
y Regional and Bilateral MOU
Chapter 5: Policy and Practice Mind the Gap . 50
y When Good Policy Becomes Bad Practice
y Hit and Run: True Stories of Raids and Rescues
Chapter 6: Specific Violations Incurred 84
y Human Rights Treaties Violated
y Thai National Laws and Policies Violated
y Regional Agreements Violated
y International Anti-trafficking Standards Violated
Appendix and Bibliography.. 99

Introduction to our story

We travel for days up the mountains, across rivers, through dense forest. We follow the paths that
others have taken. Small winding paths of dust or mud depending on the season.
I carry my bag of clothes and all the hopes of my family on my back. I carry this with pride; its a
precious bundle not a burden. As for the border, for the most part, it does not exist. There is no line
drawn on the forest floor. There is no line in the swirling river. I simply put my foot where thousands
of other women have stepped before me. My step is excited, weary, hopeful, fearful and defiant.
Behind me lies the world I know. Its the world of my grandmothers and their grandmothers. Ahead
is the world of my sisters who have gone before me, to build the dreams that keep our families alive.
This step is Burma. This step is Thailand. That is the border.
If this was a story of man setting out on an adventure to find a treasure and slay a dragon to make
his family rich and safe, he would be the hero. But I am not a man. I am a woman and so the story
changes. I cannot be the family provider. I cannot be setting out on an adventure. I am not brave
and daring. I am not resourceful and strong. Instead I am called illegal, disease spreader, prostitute,
criminal or trafficking victim.
i

Why is the world so afraid to have young, working class, non-English speaking, and predominately
non-white women moving around? Its not us that are frequently found to be pedophiles, serial
killers or rapists. We have never started a war, directed crimes against humanity or planned and
carried out genocide. Its not us that fill the violent offenders cells of prisons around the world.
Exactly what risk does our freedom of movement pose? Why is keeping us in certain geographical
areas so important that governments are willing to spend so much money and political energy? Why
do we feel like sheep or cattle, only allowed by the farmer to graze where and when he chooses?
Why do other women who have already crossed over into so many other worlds, fight to keep us
from following them? Nothing in our experiences provides us with an answer to these questions.
Instead of respect for our basic human rights under the United Nations Human Rights Council we are
given protection under the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. We are forced to live with
the modern lie that border controls and anti-trafficking policies are for our protection. None of us
believe that lie or want that kind of protection. We have been spied on, arrested, cut off from our
families, had our savings confiscated, interrogated, imprisoned and placed into the hands of the men
with guns, in order for them to send us home all in the name of protection against trafficking.
Its rubbing salt into the wound that this is called helping us. We are grateful for those who are
genuinely concerned with our welfare but we ask you to listen to us and think in new ways.
After raid or rescue we will walk the same path again, facing the same dangers at the same border
crossings. Just like the women fighting to be educated, fighting to vote, fighting to participate in
politics, fighting to be independent, fighting to work, to love, to live safely we will not stay in the
cage society has made for us, we will dare to keep crossing the lines.

Who we are and what we did METHODOLOGY

Empower Foundation
Empower is a Thai sex worker organization started by Ms Chantawipa Apisuk, a group of sex workers
and activists in Patpong, Bangkoks in 1984. Empower promotes the human rights of sex workers
and provides a space for us to own, belong, organize and assert our rights to education, health,
access to justice and political participation. More than 50,000 sex workers have been a formal part of
Empower over the last 27 years. Our members include sex workers from Thailand and migrant sexworkers mainly from Mekong countries such as Laos, Burma1, China, and Cambodia. Empower
currently has centers based in 11 provinces in Thailand reaching over 20,000 sex workers regularly.
All centers are largely led and managed by sex workers. In each area Empower is part of the sex
worker community.

In this report the name Burma is used for Myanmar, as migrant sex workers from Burma do not
accept the military regimes legitimacy in changing the countrys name and they still call home
Burma.
ii

Why do research on anti-trafficking?

Sex workers in Thailand must be one of the most researched groups in the world. For decades
individuals and groups have made their way to Empower to complete a PhD, make a documentary,
write an article, or fulfil their grant terms. We have lots of experience with research.
For the past ten years sex workers in Thailand have had our human rights violated under the guise
of implementing anti-trafficking law and policy. We have experienced an onslaught of slander
vilifying our entire industry; violent police raids on our workplaces, arbitrary detention, forced
rehabilitation in government shelters and deportation. We have continually advocated for reform and
human rights protections especially for migrant sex workers. Despite these efforts our industry is still
over represented in anti-trafficking raids and misrepresented as inherently violent, exploitative and
an equivalent to human trafficking. People still do not know about or understand how current antitrafficking practices are not only abusing the rights of individuals, but are a huge barrier to our
efforts to further reduce exploitation in our industry.
In 2010 Empower decided to undertake a nation-wide community research project to identify and
document the impact of the current Thai anti-trafficking law, policy and practice, on sex workers in
Thailand, and to develop relevant and achievable solutions. Our secondary aims were to strengthen
knowledge and awareness amongst our community about our legal and human rights; and to build
our skills to design, carry out and collate research for use in our human rights advocacy.
How we did it
Soon after we decided to do our research Empower was introduced to a human rights impact
assessment tool that was developed in 2010 by the Netherlands human rights institution, Aim for
Human Rights and the European anti-trafficking network La Strada International.2 The tool - The
RighT Guide - provided us with an internationally recognized instrument to help us measure the
human rights impact of anti-trafficking policy and practice.
Initially we imagined a small team of three or four women would make up the research team,
undertaking interviews etc. working under the project name RATS-W. We thought the team would be
comprised of two sex worker leaders, a legal advisor and someone with experience in research and
documentation.
However when we introduced the research idea at a project design and planning meeting of 90 sex
workers held in Empower Nontaburi, it quickly became apparent that many more sex workers
wanted to be directly involved. By the end of the research 206 Thai and migrant sex workers had
become part of the RATS-W project; leading the research consultations, interviewing, giving expert
testimony, investigating and undertaking the analysis and preliminary documentation. The 206 sex
workers who worked on the project can be divided into 170 research partners; 36 research leaders
coordinated by a research working team of four. They are all referred to herein as research leaders,
research partners or sex workers interchangeably.
(A summarized list of contacts can be found in the Appendix)

Aim for Human Rights 2010 The RighT Guide

iii

It was decided to limit the scope of our research to women from the Mekong countries of Thailand,
Laos, Burma, China, and Cambodia doing sex work in Thailand. We didnt include men or
transgender sex workers as to date they have not been targeted for anti-trafficking interventions or
generally mentioned in the discourse. Although we are aware they are also impacted by antitrafficking interventions, we do not know sex workers from overseas countries well enough to invite
them to join us for this kind of project at this stage.
Our research team and partners collected information from thirteen provinces, nine of which had
Empower Centers, with many located in border areas of Thailand.3
In each centre migrant sex workers used storytelling to explore, describe and analyze the current
situation with special reference to:
y
y
y
y
y
y

home situation and decision making

experiences of travelling to and within Thailand
conditions within their workplaces
relationships with local police other authorities and Non Government Organizations (NGO)
experience and knowledge of trafficking and/or the anti-trafficking law
knowledge of their rights under Thai law

Our research partners in each centre had a wide range of relevant experiences. This included women
who had been rescued by mistake and detained for up to two years; women arrested and deported
as a result of anti-trafficking raids; women who were currently in situations that fit the legal
definition of human trafficking, if not the spirit; women who had been reluctant witnesses in
trafficking court cases and women who really had been trafficked in the past.
The sex worker leaders in each centre also contributed additional general information on the local
sex industry conditions and issues. This information was based on the knowledge gained from years
of experience of providing weekly outreach visits with the local sex worker communities.
The research team also made outreach visits in each area to visit the bars, brothels and restaurants
where women were working. Cross border visits were made by the research team to three areas
two in Burma (Tachileik and Kawthaung) and one in Laos (Savannakhet).
The research partners arranged interviews with five convicted or alleged traffickers. Three of these
were employees at a Karaoke bar, who were arrested in an anti-trafficking raid and were currently
on trial; one was an individual charged with the trafficking of minors for exploitation of prostitution;
and one was a karaoke bar owner who had been threatened by police with being charged with
trafficking in the past.
Sex workers also conducted interviews with local bar owners, police, immigration officials,
government officials and NGO staff in the same areas. Visits were made to two government
womens shelters: Baan Kredtrakarn in Bangkok, and Baan Song Khwae in Phitsanalouk, northern
Thailand.
Empower centers are located in: Thai-Burma border (Mae Sot, Mae Sai); northeast provinces and
near the Laos border (Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Mukdahan) Chiang Mai, central Thailand
(Samut Sakhon, Nonthaburi and Bangkok) South (Phuket and Krabi)
3

iv

In addition, the research team collected written data from government departments including the
police, attorney generals, anti-trafficking and social welfare departments. Members of the research
team also attended a number of regional and provincial level committee meetings, hosted by
government officials and NGO working in the area of trafficking prevention.
Early in the research period two anti-trafficking raids were conducted in the north of Thailand.
A total of 30 women working in the sex industry were apprehended in these raids and faced the
usual array of abuses and miscarriages of justice. Our research team and sex worker leaders from
the areas involved documented the lived experience and impact on human rights of those who were
involved in the raids and rescue. This process also included advocating for the rights of those
apprehended as well as maintaining contact with the anti-trafficking NGO involved along with police,
shelter staff and court officials. Empower also recorded the impact on families and supported them in
their efforts to contact the women. The findings and evidence collected during this process have
become a core part of our research.
Our research project was supported by Mama Cash as part of our
Empower Chiang Mai grant. Thank you ma ma cash

What we found: . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The impact of the Thai Suppression of Human Trafficking Act BE 2551 (2008),
associated policies and practices on the human rights of sex workers in Thailand.
Our research did not set out to measure, prove or disprove the existence
of human trafficking within the sex industry in Thailand. There is already a
plethora of wildly contradictory reports on the subject. More significantly,
as the leading sex worker organization working on the ground for the past
30 years, we already were well aware that human trafficking has been
steadily disappearing from the sex industry in Thailand over the last 15
years.
Instead we set out to measure the impact of anti trafficking law and
practices on the human rights of women who are accused of being
trafficked and other women who are not trafficked, but severely
affected by anti-trafficking measures.

The old days of all

young girls forced to
work in locked
brothels are past.
That is very old
fashioned thinking.
All we have now is a
few teenagers who
are where they
should not be.
Anti Human
Trafficking Division 4

We have now reached a point in history where there are more women in the Thai
sex industry who are being abused by anti-trafficking practices than there are
women being exploited by traffickers.
It is recognized internationally that anti-trafficking law, policy and practice should adhere to core
human rights principles and at the very least do no harm to victims or others who might be
caught up in trafficking interventions.
Despite this principle our research has shown that since the enactment of the Thai Suppression of
Human Trafficking Act BE 2551, July 2008, dozens of the fundamental human rights to women are
violated by its implementation. These violations have
been perpetrated by both State and non-state actors
against migrant sex workers, as well as women who
were classified as victims of trafficking.
Our findings revealed that these violations are
embedded in the interpretations or practices of
10 sections of the Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act, they occur regularly and are
nationwide.
There is also abuse by omission where certain human
rights protections and entitlements that are stipulated
under the Suppression of Human Trafficking Act are
not being met by either State or NGO agencies.
Furthermore some elements of anti trafficking
practice in Thailand are in breach of other national
laws, such as the Witness Protection Act 2003 and
various protections in the Thai Penal Code.
vi

All human beings are born with certain

equal and inalienable rights. These
rights are protected by and enshrined
in Thai Constitutional and National
laws; plus in the regional and
international treaties that have been
signed and ratified by the Thai
Government. Being at odds with the
Suppression and Prevention of
Prostitution Act 1996 or breaching the
Immigration Act 1979 does not change
our fundamental rights; including our
right to be seen as persons under the
law and protected by the multitude of
other laws that exist in Thailand.

Devil in the Details?

Problems with the definition of trafficking under the Act
Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act BE 2551
(2008) Section 4: Definitions

Exploitation means seeking

benefits from prostitution or
distribution of pornographic
materials, other forms of sexual
exploitation, slavery, causing
another person to be a beggar,
forced labor or service, coerced
removal of organs for the purpose
of trade, or any other similar
practices resulting in forced
extortion, regardless of such
persons consent.

There seems to have been no effort made to refine and

adapt the definitions from the UN Protocol to suit local
conditions and needs. Prostitution (sex work), appears
prominently in the definition. Apart from begging, it is the
only occupation singled out thereby implying it is a distinct
form of trafficking. As the definition of trafficking already
includes forced labour and sexual exploitation there is
confusion as to what then constitutes trafficking for
prostitution? When does seeking to benefit from
prostitution become exploitation or trafficking? Under the
current anti trafficking law, deciding on exploitation in
prostitution is completely subjective and in the eye of the
beholder.
For example: I buy my disabled brother a wheelchair
from my earnings, he clearly benefits... but is this
exploitation?
My employer collects 20% of the money I charge for my
services. Is this exploitation?

Highlighting the word prostitution implies that prostitution in and of itself is the crux of the problem,
rather than whether women are forced or exploited within prostitution.
The confusion between sex work and trafficking remains a barrier
identification of trafficked persons. It also hinders efforts to
tackle the real concerns sex workers have about our working
conditions, as we risk that the response to workers complaints
will be increased raid and rescues not improved labour
standards. Labelling all migrant sex workers as victims of
traffickingeffectively makes it impossible for sex workers to
take a pro-active role in addressing human trafficking in our
industry. We are all at risk of arrest detention and for the
migrants among us, deportation so cannot be as effective as
we could
be.
In practice many anti-trafficking organizations, networks
and the media continue to fuel the confusion and
increase stigma, perpetuating the myth that trafficking
and child sexual abuse in the Thai sex industry is
widespread.
Sex workers are targeted for far more interventions than
workers and communities in other industries. Moreover
the sex worker community has been primarily targeted
using punitive criminal justice strategies rather than
education and awareness strategies. Sex workers are
discriminated against under the Act.

vii

to effective responses and

RATSW posed the following

question to Senior Police of the
Anti- trafficking Division, Northern
Thailand (Chiang Rai); who had
been through various specialist
trainings on anti- trafficking law
and response:
RATSW: If a woman agrees to go to
work in a brothel but ends up sent
to a factory and forced to sew, is
that trafficking? Would you rescue
her?
Police: No that is not trafficking. We
wouldnt rescue her. That is called
an opportunity. If she really wanted
to she would have to get out
herself, come back to the border
and start again.

Collecting evidence or creating crime?

Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act Section
27.4: Police may enter
dwellings or premises in
order to seize evidence of
trafficking in persons.

Clause 27.4 was predominately included in the Act to give police powers
to enter private homes to assist women trafficked into domestic work.
However it is much more commonly used to authorize police to go on
undercover operations in Entertainment Places.
Typically plain clothed police will pose as customers and specifically ask
to buy sexual services from migrant girls under 18 years of age. These
entrapment operations in Entertainment Places are frequent and occur
throughout the country carried out by corrupt police looking to extort
money, as well as police on anti-trafficking or anti-prostitution
assignments.

In 2003 the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand recognized that police entrapment often leads
to serious human rights violations, especially against women in the sex industry and recommended it
should only be used under a clear and precise system that prevents such human rights abuses. However
instead of stopping the practice of entrapment or developing adequate safe guards, under the Suppression
of Human Trafficking Act 2008, use of entrapment by police and NGOs has increased and appears to be a
routine practice that continues unmonitored regardless of the negative consequences for sex workers and
entertainment place workers.
In our research, the use of entrapment has resulted in at least two incidents of minors deciding to sell sex
for the first time then being detained and later deported.
Both of the girls were entrapped by police and falsely identified as being victims of trafficking on the basis
of their immigration status, age and the fact that they were working in an Entertainment Place, where sex
workers were also employed. Neither of them were working as sex workers; and they did not want to be
assisted by the government welfare department nor rescued from their working or living situation.

These NGOs are making the problem.

They come pretending to be customers,
asking everywhere for young girls and
waving big money around. Pretty soon
people start looking to hire younger girls
to meet the demand.
Jay, Brothel owner, Chiang Mai.
The practice of entrapment to collect proof of
trafficking not only leads to spurious and
inaccurate evidence, it also promotes the
sexual exploitation of minors, and is an
assault on the human dignity of young
women working in the entertainment industry
in Thailand.

I came to Chiang Mai about 4 months

beforehand. I was staying with my aunty and
working in the karaoke bar. When I applied for
the job no one asked my age and I never
thought to mention it. I didnt know it was
important. I wasnt ready to go with customers. I
felt too shy. There was no pressure from anyone,
it was up to me. It just meant I didnt earn as
much as the others. Then this guy came in three
nights in a row. He said I looked very young and
he wanted me to go with him. Even though he
offered to pay a lot I refused for the first two
nights. Then I dont know why but on the third
night I thought well, he seems nice and it would
be good to have some more money. So I agreed
to go with him. Big mistake. He turned out to be
a policeman and I was arrested and locked up for
8 months.
Tip, research partner, Chiang Mai

viii

Nearly a century of RAIDS: time to stop?

Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act Section
27: Police can enter
dwellings or premises
without a warrant to
discover and rescue a
trafficked person and to
seize evidence of
trafficking in persons.

Police raids are terrifying traumatic events for all involved. Raids are
not a new phenomenon as Thai police have been raiding Entertainment
Places since the late 1920s, for almost 100 years. Generally Thai law
demands that, apart from exceptional circumstances, police raids must
be conducted in daylight hours between 6am and 6pm, as they are
frightening and potentially dangerous operations for people in the
premises and for police themselves.

However raids on Entertainment Places are traditionally carried out in

the night and our research shows that raids in response to instances of
suspected human trafficking in the sex industry are regularly carried
out around 11pm or later. According to tradition usually large numbers
of armed police arrive at the Entertainment Place, enter and apprehend all women on the premises
and any other workers present e.g. doorman, cashier, manager. Any women who attempt to run
away, often from fear and confusion, are chased and controlled by force. It is not unusual for women
to be injured in police raids while trying to escape. Since 2008, under the Section 27 of Suppression
of Human Trafficking Act the police have been free to conduct such raids simply by gaining
permission from a senior authority without having to have a warrant. This means they have
extensive powers to enter and search, not limited by warrant conditions. Police may use Section 27
to gain access to the premises, then once inside they are able to insist on carrying out other
searches such as urine tests for drug use, immigration checks, copyright licensing etc.

Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act Section
29: Suspected victims
of human trafficking
can be held in custody
for 24hours, then the
court can grant
permission to extend
the detention for a
further 7 days.

It was so late. I was

scared, tired and confused. I

just put my thumb print to
anything because I thought
the quicker I did this the
quicker Id get out of there.
Besides once the police have
caught you, you just do what
youre told. I never knew
there was a choice
Som, Mae Sai

All women who are apprehended in a raid are taken by police to the
local police station where they are questioned by NGO workers and
police in an attempt to ascertain whether they are indeed victims of
trafficking in need of rescue or undocumented migrant sex workers in
need of punishment. The interview process often doesnt begin until
midnight and can take a few hours to complete. Migrant sex workers
all reported that they were never given to understand why they were
being interviewed and not one woman had ever been made aware of
her lawful rights as a suspect, victim or as a witness. These rights
include the right to know what one has been charged with; the right to
call a trusted person or family member; the right to legal
representation; the right to speak to a lawyer in private; and the right
for a trusted person or lawyer to sit in on all interviews with police.
Neglecting to inform people of these rights is in direct breach of rights
enshrined both in the Thai Constitution and under the Thai Penal
Code.
It is common practice for police to hand each woman a printed copy
of her rights and have her sign if she is able, or otherwise authorize it
with her thumb print. However, there is no attempt to verbally
translate the document or read these rights to the women, who are
generally not literate in Thai.
In much the same way women are compelled to authorize written
statements, confessions, lists of belongings etc without being able to
verify what they are agreeing to.

ix

There are no trained translators employed at police stations, or as part of the Anti Human Trafficking
Division or the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Anti-trafficking NGOs may have
volunteers they can call on, though they are also not trained translators. Women feel these amateur
translators often have inadequate language skills and bring their own attitudes and agendas about sex
work to the interviews.
In addition work colleagues, friends, employers and families are anxious and worried but unable to
make contact with their loved one, and she in turn is effectively prevented from contacting them. This
becomes even more important when they may be able to provide important evidence of age or other
information that could make victim identification and assistance more rapid, efficient and accurate.
In more general terms raids also disrupt migrant sex workers access to rights such as right to
education and essential health and social services.
Organizations providing access to education and health for migrant sex workers can be shut out of
areas for months after such raids as employers and workers try to keep a low profile to avoid further
police activity. Ironically such organizations are the ones most likely to uncover exploitation, including
trafficking and be in a position to assist those affected.
Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act Section56
Privacy and Media: No
person shall take, circulate
or publish a picture of a
trafficked person that might
lead to their identification
at anytime. In addition no
one shall disseminate or
publish information
disclosing the history, place
of work, home, or education
of the trafficked person

Photos and details of police raids, especially those raids on

Entertainment Places implemented under the Suppression of
Human Trafficking Act appear regularly in mainstream printed
media, television and online. The photos are taken during the raid
and subsequent police questioning, all without consent. There is
even a lack of any implied consent, as often women are pictured
making obvious and overt attempts to avoid or refuse being
photographed. At times the media include photos of the women
with black strips across their eyes, which simply makes them
appear as criminals and fails to protect their confidentiality. To
protect against recognition South East Asian faces need the bottom
half of the face obscured not the eyes. News agencies commonly
publish photos, and the name and address of the workplace,
which is specifically prohibited under Section 56.

The media also plays a large role in perpetuating an inflated picture of trafficking of young women in the
Entertainment Industry in Thailand. They routinely publish reports with sensational photos and headlines
that give the number of women apprehended as the number of victims rescued. In actual fact our
research has found that the ratio is around 6 to 8 non- trafficked migrant sex workers arrested, detained
and deported for every persons classified as a victim of trafficking.
For example in the two raids we followed during our research, a total of 30 women were originally
apprehended and of these 5 were finally classified as victims of trafficking (these five continue to deny that
they were trafficked and it is likely that the number will decrease again). The headlines from one paper
read 14 Burmese girls rescued from a brothel raid. When in fact over the following 24 hours it turned out
to be three rescued and eleven arrested. By this time the news has moved on but the image of large
numbers of trafficked girls in brothels remains in the public psyche fuelling misinformation, misplaced
interventions and more abuses.

Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act Section 33:
The Ministry of Social
Development and Human
Security must provide
assistance to trafficked
persons, including medical
treatment undertaken with
the opinion of the trafficked
person sought and providing
that human dignity and the
differences in sex, age,
nationality, race and culture of
the trafficked person be taken
into account.

All women who are apprehended in raids routinely undergo

mandatory medical tests with no information provided to them as to
why the tests are required, and no genuine opportunity to refuse
these testing procedures. There are no trained translators employed
by hospitals where these tests are taken. Screening includes blood
tests for infectious diseases, including HIV and internal vaginal
examinations for sexually transmitted infections. Both exams are
only enforceable under Thai National Security laws and/or if directly
ordered by the court for specific purpose. In all other situations,
mandatory testing is a serious breach of rights under the Thai
Constitution.
There is no clear process, procedure or evidence of whether women
are informed of their results or not; when that might be; or if HIV
treatment is ever offered.

It is also unclear who else has access to their test results but our
research proved that the results are not kept confidential as we
were spontaneously given the results of medical exams of one
group of women.
It is impossible to say why these tests are carried out as part of the
anti-trafficking response. In addition these tests are discriminatory;
as they not routinely performed for other suspected trafficking
victims e.g. men trafficked into the fishing industry. They are a
further affront to the dignity and rights of migrant women.

Defiant damsels in no distress

Our research found that women apprehended in raids since
2008 have overwhelmingly stated they came independently to
Thailand and are working voluntarily in work they have chosen to do.
They do not experience their work as exploitation and dont feel they
have their freedom of movement restricted. Those who have taken
loans and owe money to employers are not in systems defined as
debt bondage. They may have various concerns about their working
conditions but these are not a part of human trafficking. The only
exceptions to this seem to be when women go along with the scripted
story presented to them of being tricked and forced; in the mistaken
hope they will avoid punishment and be released from custody. Once
they discover this is not the case they often make a new statement.
Generally women fiercely deny they have been trafficked and routinely
give their age as over 18 years.
Anti-trafficking agencies place themselves in the bizarre
situation of having to commit acts of violence and human
rights abuses on the women and girls they rescue, in order to
try and prove a crime has occurred, despite the denial and
lack of cooperation from alleged victims.

xi

What on earth has the state

of our vaginas got to do
with whether we are
trafficked or not?
Lek, RATS-W team

People dont seem to take

into account or understand
that being asked why you are
a sex worker is a loaded
question. The question asks
are you just a bad woman, or
are you a good girl made
bad? Answer one way and
you may be treated with
disgust. The other way may
get you pity. Its a hell of a
choice. One answer makes
you a criminal, the other
makes you a victim
...either way you end up in a
cage.
Empower

Suppression of Human
Trafficking Act Section 4:
anyone procuring, buying,
selling, vending, bringing
from or sending to, detaining
or confining, harbouring, or
receiving a child for the
purpose of exploitation is
guilty of trafficking in
persons. Child means any
person under eighteen years
of age.

Unlike some other occupations where minors as young as 13 may

work, albeit with special conditions applied, it has been illegal for
anyone under 18 years to work in an Entertainment Place in
Thailand since the enactment of the Entertainment Place Act BE
2509 in 1966. Furthermore the Prevention and Suppression of
Prostitution Act BE 2539 of 1996 introduced harsh penalties for
people guilty of involving children under 15 years or minors aged 15
-18 years in prostitution. If the person apprehended in an antitrafficking raid is under 18 years then this is automatically defined
as exploitation and consent to work etc is irrelevant.
Although Empower agrees sex work is an adult job that requires
physical and emotional maturity, our research shows the methods
used to estimate womens ages and the subsequent treatment to
be a human rights abuse.

Most migrant workers have been denied their right to migrate and work legally either by their home
country or Thailand or both. In a raid and rescue operation migrant sex workers who appear to the
rescue team to be over 18 years and/or can produce documentation showing proof of age are charged
under the Prostitution Act 1996, the Immigration Act 1979 and/or the Alien Working Act 2008. They are
then released or deported depending on their immigration status.
Young women giving their age as 18 or older without documented proof of age at hand are automatically
disbelieved. There is no attempt made to secure such proof via the family or other sources, instead the
women are sent for bone and dental age assessments.
Age assessment is not mandated under the Suppression of Human Trafficking Act although it is covered at
provincial level under MOUs on anti-trafficking activities in Thailand which predate the Act. The 2008 Act
does however mandate the need to respect the fundamental human rights of victims of trafficking which
includes the right to informed consent in medical treatment The Act also requires that medical treatment
for trafficking victims must be undertaken considering the opinion and human dignity of the trafficked
person. In practice women are treated as dishonest and subjected to a bewildering series of
x-rays, not related to their health or well being. Many who are sub-sequentially told they are younger
than they stated are outraged, frustrated and indignant. Others are shaken and confused. All experience
it as an assault on their human dignity.
The use of dental and bone examinations to determine the age of victims of trafficking is
highly questionable practice in terms of human rights. Moreover estimating age solely on
dental and bone x-rays is not credible scientific practice.
This practice is unacceptable as bone and dental testing is an unreliable measure to determine the
specific age of persons between 16-20 years old. In the US and Europe, forensic bone and dental tests
are never used as stand-alone age assessment tools as it is recognized that they can be incorrect by a
period of up to 5 years. So called standard bone x-ray procedures are especially inappropriate to assess
the age of young migrant women in Asia, as the age baseline used within these tests is based on a study
of American children in the 1940s. It has been proven that significant variations in bone age will occur
due to factors such as race, ethnicity, socio-economic and nutritional status.

xii

International Anti-Trafficking Guidelines requires that assessment of alleged victims should be

undertaken by trained and qualified individuals who should consider the following:
the verification of the victims age should be take into account:
the physical appearance of the victim and his/her psychological maturity,
documentation,
checking with embassies and other relevant authorities,
consensual medical examination and opinion
the victims statements
Given the unreliability and inconclusiveness of forensic testing procedures, it is now recognized that
accurate age assessment must include additional processes such as longer periods of in- depth
observations and input from experts from the same culture and background as those being assessed.
The age assessment procedure relies heavily upon the principle
within both international and national anti- trafficking guidelines,
6
of presumption of age and victim status. In general terms it
encourages people to be treated as under 18 if doubt exits. While
this principle is intended to protect young people in our situation
it is being used to violate human rights. The principle and practice
of age verification is being used to contradict the stated truth of
young women who are working in the entertainment industry. The
practice in its present form essentially forces them to accept a
false identity as a victim of trafficking. This practice violates the
core principle of rights-based support for victims.

One of the women in the

raid we followed was
detained for over 10 months
because her tests estimated
her age as 16 years. When we
were finally able to obtain her
documents she was 20 years
old, exactly as she had stated
at the time of the raid and at
every other opportunity given
to her

Bearing Witness

Suppression of Human Trafficking Act

Section 27: Police can summon any person to
give a statement or evidence of trafficking
Section 27: paragraph 3 and 4: Criminal
Procedure Code shall apply: Witness
testimony can be taken promptly and used
instead of witness physical presence at the
trial.
Section 31: The Court shall hear the
statements of witnesses promptly.

Non-trafficked migrant sex workers without

immigration documents who are apprehended
in raid and rescue operations are frequently
compelled to be witnesses, which is lawful
under the Suppression of Human Trafficking
Act 2008. However the Act also requires the
prosecutor to take the witness testimony
promptly, if necessary by invoking the Criminal
Procedure Act and recording the witness
testimony prior to the trial if long delays are
likely.

In reality migrant sex workers are being held

against their will, in detention in police cells or womens shelters, whilst awaiting the court hearings for
weeks and months. Migrant sex workers have been detained as witnesses for periods up to a year, due
to delays in the court hearings. This amounts to arbitrary detention. The police do not provide women
with their legal and basic human rights and entitlements.

xiii

The accused trafficker however has a lawyer, either hired at

his own cost or appointed free by the court. Women and
girls who have been trafficked are represented by the
public prosecutor, and in some cases also have a legal
advocate provided by an NGO. However, the women held
in custody as witnesses are not provided with any
independent legal advice or representation. They are
unable to contact family, friends or outside agencies, and
those in shelters are forced to join education and training
activities whether they want to or not. They have no real
access to compensation or remuneration. They are
restricted from any outside contact until they have testified
in court; and have no access to seek redress for this
injustice.

Legal Limbo Dance of nine women

detained in police cells in Chiang Mai
for over a month:
RATSW: Can they have a lawyer?
Police: No they dont need a lawyer
theyre not victims or defendants,
theyre just witnesses.
RATSW: So can they be released?
Police: No theyre illegal aliens
RATSW: So they can be deported?
Police: No, they have to stay as witnesses
RATSW: Can they have a lawyer?

According to Thai law migrant sex workers could be enrolled as voluntary witnesses under the Witness
Protection Act 2003 which mandates that witness have the right to protection, proper treatment;
necessary and appropriate remuneration from the State.7 Under the Witness Protection Act women would
be entitled to safe accommodation (outside of a police cell), daily living allowance, legal advocacy and
support, training, education and protection.

Caged

Suppression of Human Trafficking Act

Section 33: The Ministry of Social

Development and Human Security

must provide assistance to trafficked
persons, including medical treatment
undertaken with the opinion of the
trafficked person sought and
providing that human dignity and the
differences in sex, age, nationality.
Race and culture of the trafficked
person be taken into account.

Guideline2.6: in the OHCHR

Recommended Principles and

Guidelines on Human Rights and
Human Trafficking: States must
ensure that trafficked persons are
not in any circumstances held in
immigration detention or other forms
of custody.

Women and girls apprehended are not consulted about

their place of detention, have no choice about which
place they go to and cannot leave once they are there.
There is no independent complaints mechanism
accessible to women in the shelters.
The conditions in Thai shelters are highly problematic
across a wide range of human rights issues. Restrictions
on freedoms, quality of care and punishments are all
major areas of concern.
As far back as 2009 the Global Alliance Against Traffic in
Women raised concerns at the Twelfth Session of the
Human Rights Council.
In brief major violations within shelters identified in our
research include but are not limited to the following:
Dignity: Adult women are referred to and spoken to
like children and in many ways treated as such.
They are given chores, scolded and dressed in the
uniform clothes.

xiv

Access to family: There is no attempt to create ways for migrant women

and girls to have access to their family. In at least one instance family
members were told they could only make contact if they could
communicate in Thai as the conversation would have to be monitored and
no translation was available.
Privacy of communications: Generally before the trial is over women
and girls, whether witnesses or victims, are prohibited
from having any communications with others. Even after this time all
correspondence is opened and read before being passed on.

We couldnt wear our

normal clothes but
had to put on a
uniform.
Only two kinds of
people wear those
kind of clothes;
criminals and people
in hospital. I wasnt
sick and I wasnt
a criminal.

Employment and Study:

Shelter staff told us they assess the womens intelligence by
asking them questions and if they are deemed smart they can study. Otherwise they must take gender
biased training in sewing and handicrafts. They are not paid for their labour but may earn pocket money
from sales after the costs of materials and tuition is deducted.
Religion, language and culture: The only religion recognized in state shelters appears to be
Buddhism. Christians and Muslims are not provided for. This is especially abusive for Muslim women as no
proper dietary considerations mean women often simply dont eat or eat only plain rice. This was
particularly distressing for one woman during Ramadan. The culture of the shelters is such
that she didnt dare ask for fear of standing out to staff. There are no trained translators for any of the
Thai ethnic or Mekong languages despite the numbers of women and girls detained form these countries.
Only Thai cultural events are recognized and there is no understanding or consideration for the differences
between women and girls in the culture of daily life, for example women all complained the food was of
poor quality and not what they are used to eating.
Punishments: The shelter psychologist told us that if women or girls misbehaved the most useful
punishment for the staff was to cancel family visits, often without letting family know before they arrived.
This was seen as especially useful for staff as the women knew their family would travel long distances
and waste a lot of money for nothing.
Isolation: the same psychologist often orders periods of isolation for up to 6 weeks where women and
girls are isolated from all outside contact when they are first sent to the centre. She says she uses this
time to convince the women and girls that their parents are bad people who trafficked them. Sometimes
this can take months she complained.
Health care: Women detained as witnesses reported being
denied appropriate health care. One woman was distressed as she
had not been taken for her regular pre-natal check-ups. She was
also not given any of the vital vitamins and mineral supplements
that are routinely dispensed to pregnant women in Thailand. A
second woman asked to be taken t a dentist for treatment of a
severe toothache. She was consistently refused and given
paracetamol instead. A third woman with headaches and fever
requested to see a doctor. The staff who are not medically trained
told her she was just stressed. This is despite the fact the woman
had a high fever and comes from a malaria prone area.

Maybe they think that

anything is better than
a brothel but in the
brothel my employer
took much better care of
me than they do here. If
I was sick he took me to
the clinic, he provided
good food for our meals
and talked to us politely.

Discrimination: Compared to Thai women, migrant women and girls are less likely to receive formal
educational opportunities and more likely to receive occupational training that is not formally recognized.
xv

There are obvious inequalities in the application of the Act between men and
women affected by trafficking. Women are offered only very limited
opportunities for work all within the shelter. Men however are able to seek
work outside the shelters, going out and returning every day. Staff give the
reason that women are weaker and more vulnerable to being exploited if
allowed outside the shelters to work. Women are offered piece work for
factories contracted by the shelter or make handicrafts to be sold at local
shelter stores. They are not paid for their labour but rather earn money
when their products are sold. If they sew badly or no one visits, they make
nothing. Men on the other hand are able to work outside shelters, earning
the daily minimum wage or more in labouring jobs.
This double standard discriminates against women, and is especially harmful for women who are often
supporting families and children in their home communities prior to being detained in the shelter.
Suppression of
Human Trafficking
Act Section 37:
Trafficked persons
have the right to
temporary work in
Thailand, while
waiting for court
outcomes and
repatriation.

Suppression of
Human Trafficking
Act Section 33-35:
Compensation:
Prosecutor must
inform the trafficked
person of their right
to compensation
and make a claim
during criminal
proceedings in the
Court.

No Money No Honey
Compensation has only been applied for and awarded to people affected
by trafficking in occupations other than in prostitution. Women are not
properly informed of their right to compensation or given access to the
process to claim it. There seems to be an assumption that because the
work, prostitution, is not legal than compensation is not warranted.
Migrant sex workers regularly earn well above the minimum wage. Three
young women who were detained for 8 months were recently deported
home. No compensation claim was made on their behalf. Each was given
4,000 Baht by a leading anti -trafficking organization. That amount is equal
to just a single month of salary.

Repatriation or disposing of the evidence?

During the research migrant sex workers currently living and
working in situations which satisfy the definition of human
Suppression of Human
trafficking explored the Suppression of Human Trafficking Act,
Trafficking Act Section
especially sections outlining assistance for those affected by
38: Repatriation:
trafficking. They were unanimous in their findings that the current
Officials shall
Act did not meet their needs. They wish to be able to leave their
undertake to return
current employer, find new work often within the Entertainment
trafficking victims to
Industry and have access to legal immigration status. The Act
their countries of
does not provide for any right or opportunity to stay. (They were
origin without delay
pleased to note the inclusion of access to education but
disappointed to find it came with compulsory detention.)
Even given that deportation is not what many migrant women want, repatriation without delay currently
means a waiting period anywhere between 3 months up to 2 years. Women and girls affected by trafficking
and deported are not guaranteed effective follow up or any ongoing support due to problems in cross
border collaboration between States and NGOs. This is of major concern for women being deported back
to Burma. Women are deported to areas of military conflict; persecution and systematic rape of ethnic
women by the State military; and face punitive attitudes of officials towards women who have been
working in the sex industry. Womens families and villagers have all been alerted about her situation.
Women report that there is a lot of gossip leading to a great sense of shame for the woman and her
family, upon their return home.

xvi

What next?............................... Recommendations

Despite the fact sex workers and others in the entertainment industry are supposed to be the
most vulnerable group to be affected by trafficking, to date we have not received any information
and/or awareness raising about the crime of human trafficking. In fact sex workers are much
more likely to be targeted by state and non state anti-trafficking actors, using punitive
suppression strategies rather than capacity building and educational programs. No sincere
consultations have ever been undertaken with sex workers to seek their input, assistance,
knowledge and experience in designing and implementing trafficking intervention and prevention
strategies within our own industry. Instead sex workers are humiliated, blamed, raided, detained
and punished, all in the guise of trafficking prevention.
The Thai Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2008, associated policies and practices has
become a tool for corrupt police to extort more money from migrants, employers and sex
workers. The Act has become a barrier to migrant sex workers asserting their human rights.
1.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE THAI GOVERNMENT:

1.1 The Royal Thai Government urgently consult with representatives of sex worker organizations,
human rights organizations and legal experts to create a clear, accurate and objective
definition of human trafficking.
1.2 We urge the Royal Thai Government to repeal those Articles under the Suppression and
Prevention of Prostitution Act BE 2439 that criminalize sex work: and apply and enforce
existing Labour, Social Security and Occupational Health and Safety Laws to Entertainment
Place workers. Such legal reform must also include consulting with migrant sex workers to
create mechanisms whereby migrant women can access permission to work in the
Entertainment Industry.
1.3 The use of entrapment and raids on Entertainment Places must undergo urgent and thorough
review by independent experts, including representatives from sex worker organizations and
Entertainment Place Associations with the aim to either end the practice or at a minimum
create strict guidelines to protect human rights.
1.4 The practice of illegally detaining migrant sex workers as witnesses in trafficking cases must
be immediately ceased and any persons compelled to be witnesses must be given access to
remuneration and all entitlements under the Witness Protection Act 2003. In addition
witnesses must be given the option to be represented by legal advocates separate and
independent from the prosecution and the defense, who are charged with protecting their
rights throughout the trial and as long as necessary. The cost must be borne by the State.
1.5. The Royal Thai Government must take comprehensive and immediate steps to ensure that all
women who are apprehended during trafficking investigations be awarded their full rights
under the law. This includes but is not limited to: the right to contact a relative, friend, or
other party; the right to translation and to understand; informed consent and the right to
refuse medical procedures; protection from identification in the media.
1

1. 6 Where any trial delays are possible, prosecutors must be strongly urged to pre-record witness
testimony promptly so that persons affected by trafficking can be released from the obligation
to appear physically in court and therefore not be in situations of prolonged detention.
1.7 The Royal Thai Government in cooperation with sex worker organizations, migrant worker
organizations, legal and language experts, should develop a training curriculum for translators
in the Mekong languages. Government funded training courses using this curriculum should be
provided, along with access to work permits for potential translators from Mekong countries.
These trained translators must be available to all persons affected by trafficking at all times.
1. 8 The practice of mandatory detention in shelters must be immediately ceased.
1. 9 Accessible safe complaints mechanisms must be created and implemented in all shelters, both
State and non State.
10.0 There must be an urgent review of the questionable practice of dental and bone x-ray
techniques to determine age, and alternative models of age determination developed that are
more likely to be accurate and do not abuse human rights. In addition every effort must be
made to locate documents or other proof to verify age or other information.

2.

SUGGESTED ACTIONS FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY: i.e. sex worker

organizations, other stake holders

2.1

Sex workers must be supported to achieve improvements in working conditions in order to

reduce exploitation.

2.2 Information and awareness campaigns for employers and workers in the Entertainment
Industry be developed on safe migration, human rights, labour rights, and migration, including
trafficking, for wide distribution.
2.3

Guidelines be developed and implemented with the media in Thailand to provide minimum
standards for media coverage of instances of human trafficking within the entertainment
industry.

2.4

An independent legal advocacy team for sex workers be available to represent and support
sex workers in Thailand affected by trafficking.

2.5 A broad based approach to improving conditions within the sex industry be implemented
highlighting improved working conditions for sex workers as a strategy to prevent trafficking
and reduce exploitation within the industry.

CHAPTER 1: CURRENT CONTEXT OF OUR WORK AND LIVES

Migration Today
For thousands of years we have moved freely between countries. We grow the same
crops, weave the same cloth and hold similar festivals. Your river becomes my river;
when it rains on my house soon it will rain on your house. It was natural to visit our
neighbors in times of need or celebration; sometimes to make war and sometimes to
make love. It has only been in the last one hundred years that the natural movement
of people has had to struggle with the artificial barriers of borders, passports,
immigration laws and law enforcement. These man-made barriers are often more
difficult than the jungles, mountains and rivers we cross on our way to a better life. 4
In modern times, Thailands comparatively strong economy, level of development and easily
negotiated borders make it a popular destination for migrants from neighboring countries. In
addition over the decades and in some cases centuries, migrant communities and networks have
developed and strengthened, providing a loose safety net for new arrivals or migrants in trouble.
There are also shared cultural practices and traditions in the region that make Thailand feel a little
less alien than destinations further afield.
In 2010, official data shows that there were 1,157,000 immigrants to Thailand predominantly from
China, Burma, Laos and Cambodia.5 Estimates based from local organizations however tell us that
approximately 3 million migrant workers currently work and live in Thailand with the majority
coming from Burma.6
Though Laos and Cambodia are also less developed than Thailand we dont see the same numbers
of people moving across the border as those from Burma. For sixty years the economy and
development of Burma has been wallowing in an environment of mismanagement, corruption and
neglect by the ruling military junta. There are few ways of making a decent livelihood and even
fewer ways of improving ones quality of life. Migrating to Thailand has become one response by
the peoples of Burma to the dire economic situation inflicted on them. In addition, people from
Burma also migrate to escape the ongoing civil war, armed conflict and persecution from the
State.
Most official migration systems in the Asia region are inefficient, face problems with corruption and
provide little protection against labour exploitation and human rights abuses for those who
migrate.7 In addition in many countries in the region it is more difficult for people to access
identity documents than to cross the border without them.

Excerpt from Submission to Mr Jorge A Bustamante Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of
Migrants from Empower Foundation , July 2010
5 World Bank (2011) Migration and Remittances Fact Book Thailand Country Profile
6 Interview 2011 Jackie Pollock Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) Foundation Thailand
7 Hugo (2009) ILO Asian Regional Programme on Governance of Labour Migration, Working Paper
No.17
4

I live about 15 kms from the Thai border. If I want to get passport I must go to
Rangoon 1,300 km trip by bus on terrible roads. In Rangoon I will have to pay 3,000
Baht for passport fees (the average wage in Burma is 750 Baht a month). The process
is also very slow. I will have to spend a month in the city waiting which means more
expense and no work. Then another long trip home. It doesnt make sense to even try.
We all come the regular way - we catch a 10 minute ride to the river (the border), pay
maybe 50 Baht to a boat man and just go across.
Ami, Akkha, Shan State, Burma
In Burma, formal migration channels have essentially been inaccessible to most people, especially
women from ethnic groups, due to restrictive emigration policies enforced by the military regime
over the last fifty years.8 This includes their anti-trafficking policy which forbids women under 25
years from travelling unaccompanied in border regions.
The long natural tradition of people moving between neighboring countries in the region is older
and more relevant to people than the much newer and strange tradition of needing documents to
do so.
Beginning in 1996 Thailand, with cooperation from the neighboring countries, attempted to
regulate migration and formalize documentation. There have been a range of methods created,
some more successful than others. Basically the Thai government would like to know the identity,
nationality and occupational details of all migrants within the country; collect revenue from
migrants to compensate for supposed increased use of government services; and restrict the
movement and freedoms of migrants so they are available for immediate deportation if needs be.
Not all migrants see any benefits in registering and even more are not eligible to register in any
case.
Migrants are restricted to working in occupations the government has recognized as having a
labour shortage. The labour shortage has often arisen because the particular work is not
respected, not safe, poorly paid and provides no path for improvement in life circumstances.
Except for cleaners, migrants working in an Entertainment Place are not able to join the
registration system.
In 2002 the first of a series of MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) governing migration was
signed by Thailand, with Burma, Laos, and Cambodia. These have culminated in a system whereby
migrants already registered in Thailand must go to border areas and apply to have their nationality
verified by their government. This has been problematic to say the least.
In 2010 of the 145,457 requests for Nationality Verification, less than 20% (only 28,191) have
been processed via the formal MOU registration system with Laos, Burma and Cambodia.9
The majority of migrants remain outside the government system either by choice or circumstance.
Despite the overwhelming need Thailand has for migrant workers, the government has never
developed assisted migration or employment recruitment agencies. This void in access to services
8
9

Asian Migrant Center, 2005, Asian Migration Yearbook 2005

Mekong Migration Network (2011) Update on Nationality Verification & MOU Thailand

created by government oversight has been filled by informal employment systems, i.e.: brokers.
Brokers are used by both employers and migrants to assist with travel and finding employment.
Brokers operate outside the system with no monitoring body and often work with impunity.
Migrants must take a chance as to whether the broker they are dealing with is fair or exploitative.
This will influence not just the migrants travel costs and safety, but also to a large extent the
working conditions at the end of their journey.
The Labour Act BE 2547 (2003) includes protection for all workers in Thailand, both Thai and nonThai but the Act is not effectively enforced for either. The work that migrants are permitted to do
in Thailand is the least protected work, with exploitative conditions common in factories,
agricultural and the fisheries sectors. Overall it is estimated that 90% of migrant workers in
Thailand currently work in exploitative conditions.10 For undocumented migrant workers it is
considered normal to receive wages that are below the legal minimum wage, and it is common for
employers to withhold or refuse to pay wages.
Ratification of human rights treaties in the Asia region in general is low and Thailand has faced
ongoing criticism for its failure to protect the human rights of migrant workers. Migrants in
Thailand, particularly undocumented migrants, commonly face violence, harassment and
exploitation by corrupt police, immigration, government officials, and abusive employers.11 It is
common practice for corrupt police or immigration officials to extort money from migrants, and
deportation of undocumented migrants is a regular event in border towns. Undocumented
migrants who are arrested are held in immigration detention centres or police cells for processing,
after which they are transported to border towns and dropped off at official border crossings to be
repatriated. Many people however return almost immediately to Thailand, via informal border
crossings or bribe corrupt immigration officials, and either return to their previous workplace, or
seek other work.12 Sometimes employers are able to make payments to immigration police to pay
a fine for undocumented workers, who are then released and able to return to work without being
deported.
Women on the Move

As a young woman growing up in Shan State Burma, coming to Thailand to find work
is a normal stage in life. We dont think about whether will we come or wont we it is
just a matter of deciding when to come, not if.
Nuan, empower research partner, migrant sex worker, Burma
Since the mid 1950s it has been recorded that globally, women have increasingly been migrating
independently of men to find work.13 Women now constitute nearly 50% of the overseas migrant
work force in Asia, and in some countries womens overseas labour migration has overtaken
mens.14 Currently 48% of recognized migrants to Thailand are women.15

10
11
12
13
14

Interview with Jackie Pollock, Migrant Assistance Program, Thailand

Human Rights Watch 2010, From the Tiger to the Crocodile
Migrant Movements (1996-20101) Migrant Assistance Program MAP Foundation Thailand
UNESCO 2006, Feminization Of Migration, Remittances, Migrants Rights, Brain Drain
UNIFEM (2009 ) Gender, Migration and Development - Emerging Trends and Issues in East and

Our research found that in reality women have been moving to, from, within and through Thailand
for centuries; seeking work, adventure and opportunity. Of course not every young woman has a
good experience.

It was mostly my mothers idea to come. I didnt know what I would be doing here.
Ill be glad to go home really
Lisa, American student volunteering in Thailand
Thai women have also been migrating within the country and overseas for work, education and
travel for decades. The most popular destinations regionally are Malaysia, Singapore and Japan,
and internationally women travel to the US, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Women from
neighboring countries travel through Thailand to reach countries such as Malaysia, Singapore or
Hong Kong, the Middle East and other international destinations.
Migrant women working in Thailand now have more work choices than their sisters had even just
ten years ago, but they are still paid less than men. This is true for both the Thai and migrant
workforce. In this context migrant women generally have the lowest potential earnings, and often
work in unhealthy and unjust conditions. It is a reflection on their home country situations, that
even given the exploitative conditions in Thailand; they continue to migrate for work.

Whatever we find in Thailand its still better than what we had back home. There is
nothing there for us, nothing
Muay, research team, sex worker, Mae Sai
The most common working sectors for migrant women are: domestic work, fisheries processing,
agriculture, construction, restaurants and retail. Women are more likely to be employed in the
informal sector, which can mean less pay, more vulnerable conditions, less freedom of movement
and employers who are less willing to declare and register them.16
Women without friends or family links in Thailand must use brokers to assist with travel, negotiate
border crossings, organize documentation and to find work in Thailand.
We have found that paying to be moved, especially across borders, and taken to work in unsafe
and unfair conditions is the current form of regular migration for men and women coming to
Thailand. Though it neatly slides into the definition of trafficking under the law, it does not in any
way resemble the spirit of the trafficking crime and does not require the same responses. This
regular way of migrating to Thailand is how migrants are managing to overcome the bureaucratic
barriers blocking their right to movement and right to work. It is for the most part, not trafficking,
but simply the movement of people seeking work and opportunity in Thailand, using the most
affordable and accessible means that is available. Unfortunately the governments of the region do
not yet provide viable alternatives.

We would prefer not to break any laws. We arent criminals, we are just honest
South-East Asia
15 World Bank (2011) Migration and Remittances Fact Book Thailand Country Profile
16 Sciortino 2009, International Migration in Thailand 2009, International Organization for Migration
(IOM)

people trying to find work and build a better life.

Kiaw, migrant sex worker, Laos

Of the estimated 1,440,000 migrant women in Thailand, a small minority work in the
Entertainment Industry predominately employed in massage and karaoke bars.

Sex Work in Thailand: the Modern Context

No one knows when the first man in the world paid someone for cooking his rice; washing his
8

shirts; cutting his hair; cleaning his house; sewing his pants or giving him sexual pleasure. We
dont know who the sellers were; what they thought or how it all came about. We do know that
people have been buying and selling services for hundreds of years, and the services have
developed into professions like cook, seamstress, laundress, hairdresser; sex worker and domestic
worker.

Our industry hasnt changed, rather it has developed. All occupations develop. As
better choices become available, then its natural as workers, we choose those.
Development and improvement doesnt come from closing doors to keep us out or to
keep us in, but it comes from opening more doors for us to step through.
Wi, research leader, sex worker, Empower Foundation, speaking at UN Regional
Taskforce Working Group, Bangkok November 2011
Our research has shown the working conditions in the Thai sex industry have improved strikingly
over the last ten years. As recently as two decades ago the sex industry in Thailand was plagued
with exploitation and severe human rights abuses, including locked brothels, abusive employers,
lack of access to health care for women, forced sex with no protection against STI and HIV-AIDS,
debt bondage and the sexual abuse of minors.17 The word trafficking was rarely heard but
would have described the situation of many women. Those interested in our history can find
accurate descriptions of those days in Bad Girls of Lanna by Empower Foundation 2011,
Migrating with Hope by Images Asia 1997 or for even earlier descriptions in Human Rights
Watch 1993, Modern Form of Slavery.
As for the present, in 2011, we are delighted to report that although we still have a
way to go, the working conditions in our industry have improved manifestly. We have
reached a stage where severe exploitation such as we experienced in the 1990s is
now the rare exception rather than the rule.

Women being tricked and locked up in brothels is very old fashioned thinking. All we
have now days are a few teenagers where they shouldnt be.
Police, Anti Human Trafficking Unit: Division 4
In Thailand most sex workers now work in an Entertainment Place. Places advertise for staff and
we go and apply just like other jobs. If our application is successful, the employer outlines the
conditions and if it suits us then, we start work. For most of our working shift we are serving
drinks, dancing, singing, chatting with customers, playing snooker or giving massage - depending
on the kind of entertainment place we work in. We also spend a lot of boring time waiting for
customers. We may have sex once or twice a week, or three or four times a shift depending on
our style of working. Women in the entertainment industry work fewer hours and have
comparatively more freedom of movement than women who are working in factories, fisheries,
agriculture and domestic work.18
However, as in other industries in Thailand, the entertainment industry also has its share of poor
17
18

IMAGES ASIA, 1997, Migrating with Hope: and Human Rights Watch 1993, Modern Form of Slavery
CARAM ASIA 2010, Remittances: Impact on Migrant Workers Quality of Life

working conditions including salary cuts for punishment of workplace rule infringements, quotas
for selling alcohol, quotas of customers, no paid holiday or sick leave, too few days off etc. The
punitive legal environment also ensures sex workers are targets for abuse from authorities, and
migrant sex workers face added rights violations similar to other undocumented migrant workers.

All jobs have their good and bad points. I know because I worked in many jobs before
sex work. Sex work is the job where I can earn more than any other job open to me. I
dont have to have start-up capital or educational qualifications, and its much more
Lek, research leader, sex worker, Empower Chiang Mai
interesting too.
We found the library shelves and the internet groaning with the weight of the research done on
the sex industry in Thailand. There is a dazzling array of conflicting numbers, percentages,
statistics, graphs and anecdotes that can support every side of every argument imaginable, with
little concrete evidence.
Rather than add more numbers to these lists our research looked at the official Thai government
estimates of the numbers of sex workers in Thailand. The Thai government largely bases its
estimates on the number of Entertainment Place registrations and the number of sex workers
visiting government STI clinics (Sexually Transmitted Infection) via records and mapping. We
found that only about one third of our workplaces have ever been registered. We also found many
of us are not part of the government health service register, as we choose to use private health
clinics. So the official figures are likely to be lower than reality. Still government estimates of
200,000 - 300,00019 feel a lot closer to our reality than the wild numbers put forward by some
groups e.g. 800,000 - 2.6 million!

We know that many people want to count us but we dont understand why? Do they
count other working women? How many women in Thailand sell noodles? Will
counting us help us to be closer or further way from reaching our dreams? After
counting, are our lives better or worse?
Wi, research leader, sex worker, Empower Coordinator, Ubon Thani
Another measure of the size of our industry is the amount of revenue we generate. In 2003, the
Thai sex industry was said to yield an annual income of US$4.3 billion which is likely to have
increased significantly over the last 8 years, as the Thai economy and tourism sector has
developed.20
Much of the tourism industry is dependent on the sex industry which has been estimated to make
up around 7 percent of national GDP - more than rice exports.21
As far back as 1998 it was estimated that sex workers in urban areas of Thailand sent close to
USD300 million annually to our rural families, a sum that exceeded the budgets of government-

UNDP 2004 Thailands Response to HIV AIDS; Responses and Challenges ; WHO 2001, Sex Work In
Asia
20 The Age 2003
21 CNN International 2010
19

10

funded development programs.22 This amount will have also increased significantly over the last
decade. Migrant sex workers are also sending huge amounts of money to their home communities.
Migrant sex workers working on this research project all send between 15 - 26% of their monthly
income home to their families.
Sex workers in Thailand are usually the main family provider, supporting families, including
children, either in Thailand or in our home country. We work hard to give our family a better life,
paying for education, housing, land, farming machinery, health treatment and basic daily living for
an average of five other people.23
Our workforce is made up of men, transgender and women from Thailand, Burma, Cambodia,
Laos, China, Europe, and Africa. Our services are sought out by men respected in society of all
nationalities, all levels of society and all occupations e.g. businessmen, civil servants, university
lecturers, doctors, politicians, labourers, migrant workers and many others.
Despite the significant size of our workforce, the enjoyment of our services from respected men
and our role in supporting the national economy, sex work however remains illegal under the
Suppression and Prevention Act BE 2539 (1996).

22
23

ILO 1998 The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia
Empower Foundation, Thailand

11

2011 Still Migrating with Hope

Across Thailand in 2011, migrant sex workers came together for the research and re-created their
journey to Thailand, to work and beyond. Together they told a story of how migration and sex
work happen in the modern context. Over two hundred women took part representing their own
story and the stories of their sisters and friends. Conclusions were reached by consensus, so when
a majority (85-90%) shared an experience it was said to be general. The stories were then
brought together and using the same measure of consensus, a single tale was created that reflects
how we move, find work and build our lives in Thailand today.

Generalizing means taking the most common features and talking about them as if they belong to
all. It can be a dangerous practice. However in the following section, we will be generalizing to
give a snapshot of the most common experiences and lived reality of migrant women coming to
work in the Thai sex industry in present day. We arent claiming it is everyones story but we do
claim that if you know of some women who have not had this experience, then we know
thousands more who have.

12

Travelling to Thailand Migrant Sex Workers from the Mekong Region

There are many similarities in womens experiences of migration from the neighboring countries of
Laos, Burma, Cambodia and China.
A decade ago most young women coming to Thailand from neighboring countries lived on farms
or in small villages in remote rural areas. Nowadays those young women migrate to the larger
towns and cities, and it is the women from these towns and cities who are migrating to Thailand.
Development in their home countries has meant they are likely to have been to school, some until
the age of 15 years, though others for much shorter periods.
Some things have not changed. For example in their home countries, even though they attend
school, from the age of 10 years old girls are expected to work, either helping to raise vegetables
or animals, small jobs for neighbors or working in the family businesses to help with family
income.
The decision to migrate is generally made independently by women, though it is common to
discuss their plans with family members. Though most are older, some girls as young as 14 years
still migrate alone from Burma, whereas it is more common for women to migrate at the age of
18-20 years from Laos and China. In addition women from Burma said that apart from economics
and adventure, women migrate to escape the harassment from armed forces in Burma who
commonly abuse, demand bribes, and confiscate belongings and livestock from families and
communities in the ethnic areas of the country.
Except for the women from Laos, many women have no specific plan of what work they will do.
Rather the vision is very general of coming to Thailand to workwhatever job. Though some hope
to have a chance to work in the karaoke bars they have heard about, many more have given it
little thought.
On the Road
When leaving for Thailand, women and girls prefer to travel with friends or family members, for
safety reasons, cost sharing and company.
However under the anti-trafficking law of Burma, it is illegal for women under 25 years to travel
unaccompanied by a guardian. In addition women from Burma and China often must travel
without formal documents as it is difficult and expensive to get a passport in these countries.
(Women have to travel to capital cities to apply). Under these circumstances women will generally
use a broker a person who can assist with travel and finding employment in Thailand. They
contact the broker by mobile phone and he/she arranges to pick them up. The broker will travel
with the women, and negotiate all the arrangements and fees.
Fees are fairly standard throughout the region. A fee for service and travel costs to reach Thailand
ranges from 3,500-10,000 baht (USD 120 -330) depending on how far the women need to travel.
Women pay for travel costs in different ways sometimes they pay up front using savings,
sometimes they borrow from family members or the family will take out a loan. Some take a loan
from the broker.
13

In some circumstances where the family is in immediate need, a woman may add an advance on
her earnings to the loan to leave some cash with her family to survive on until she can begin
earning and sending money home.
Its not compulsory to take a loan from the broker if you have other ways of paying. If you do take
out a loan there is usually no interest added and the cost of travel is not increased as a condition
of the loan.
Women from Laos however do not commonly use brokers to travel to Thailand as they can use
formal migration systems, e.g. it is affordable and convenient to get a passport in their local
towns, without difficulty.
Most women from Laos have had formal education, access to general knowledge about the world,
and generally migrate with more planning and detailed decision making, as they are moving from
situations of poverty but not civil war as in Burma. For example they are the most likely to have a
specific workplace in mind and already know a lot about what different jobs entail and the working
conditions. Most women are able to read and write in Laotian and many are also literate in Thai
(which is a similar language).
Some women from Laos will take out a loan with a broker of up to 5,000 baht (USD160) in Laos,
to support their families at home which they agree to pay off from their earnings in Thailand. In
some situations, women from Laos and China will travel to Thailand without documentation, cross
the border at informal crossing points using local transport where they work to earn money for
their passport. When they have enough they return home and purchase the correct documents to
come back to Thailand legally.
Crossing the Border
Women cross the border into Thailand either via marked immigration points or unmarked river or
land crossings - depending on the route used by the broker and the womens documentation
status. It is common practice in Thailands border areas for undocumented migrants to pay a
small fee to cross into Thailand, sometimes having to bribe officials or soldiers on either or both
sides of the border. Women with documents will cross through immigration checkpoints and pay
the usual visa and entry fees. Those without documents also sometimes cross through formal
checkpoints but they are required to pay a higher fee as a bribe to corrupt immigration officials
in order to cross. Bribes are negotiated by the brokers. In Burma it is also common to make
payments at military checkpoints along the way; generally the amount is equal to more than a
days pay, i.e. around 1,000 kyat (40 Baht or 1.50 USD per person). The total amount of bribes
paid on a journey is unpredictable so is not covered in the price quoted for travel costs but rather
must be paid as necessary by the women themselves, either up-front or added to the amount
owed to the broker.
Travelling in Thailand
The ease of travel within Thailand differs depending on a womans immigration and citizenship
status. Thai women working also travel from their hometowns to other provinces to work. Most
Thai women, apart from women from hill tribe areas, have Thai ID cards so are free to move
14

legally around the country using local transportation. Interestingly though some will also use local
brokers, to negotiate loans for travel and recruitment costs to different areas in Thailand. These
services are not expensive and they do not need to make bribe payments to police at checkpoints
along the way.
Migrant women often travel from border areas to the bigger cities in central Thailand such as
Bangkok, Pattaya and Samut Sakorn; or to the border of Malaysia to look for better work
opportunities. Those with tourist visas and passports can travel to all provinces in Thailand legally
using local transport. Women with migrant worker cards can only travel to the areas named on
their cards, and in the company of their employer.
Migrant and Thai women without identity documents have the most expensive and difficult travel
options in Thailand, they often must use brokers, and commonly must bribe police and
immigration officials to move between districts or provinces.
Generally women do not have up-front cash to pay brokers for travel within Thailand so they
negotiate a loan with the broker. The average up-front price that the brokers charge women to
get from the north of Thailand (Mae Sai) directly to another workplace on the Thai-Malaysia
border is about 45,000 baht (USD1, 500). However this does not include payments to officials at
checkpoints. Women pay about 5,000 baht (USD160) for bribes at each police or military
checkpoint they are stopped at along their journey. The more checkpoints there are the more
expensive the trip. If they could take it, a trip by public transport, including meals and
refreshments would cost them just 1,500 Baht (USD 50) and by air the trip is about 6,000 Baht
(USD 200).
Sometimes women are not aware of the added costs of bribes paid and end up with a larger than
expected debt to pay off. A trip from the north of Thailand into Malaysia itself with work prearranged could cost about 150,000 baht.(USD5,000) It is a huge sum of money, equal to the
amount Thai men pay official agencies to send them to Taiwan to work. However women dont
see this as exploitation.

No its not exploitation...its expensive. If you dont want to go you dont pay it. No
one is making us. Its like buying a Mercedes its expensive but thats what it costs.
Anyway in under a year, about 8 months, we have it paid off and another 150,000 Baht
Muay, research partner, sex worker, Mae Sai
earned on top.
Finding a Job
The choice of workplace in Thailand is generally dependent on the contacts that women have
(brokers, friends or family members). Some women just use brokers to get to Thailand i.e. to
negotiate immigration checkpoints but then find their own work independently. Others use the
broker to find work sometimes the same broker that assisted with travel, sometimes another
broker in the area they are seeking work.
Some, especially those under 18 years, will firstly work in other jobs such as domestic work or
restaurants in order to learn some language and build confidence. However the earnings in these
jobs are far less than in sex work, (e.g. domestic work is 2,000 baht per month (USD65);
15

restaurant 2-3,000 baht per month (USD100). In an Entertainment Place they can earn a
minimum of 3 - 4,000 baht per month (USD100 -130) plus tips by having drinks bought for them
and chatting /singing with the customers. If they are adults and provide sexual services there
income increases markedly. Most women can earn more than the Thai daily minimum wage in
Thailand, by providing services for just one customer.
Unless it is a pre-arranged contract with a broker, if women want a job in an Entertainment Place
they need to apply and pass an interview by employers or managers before getting the job. Most
women will approach a karaoke bar or restaurant as a first option, while others find work in
brothels, and those with massage certificates can work in massage parlours.
For girls of 14-17 years, it is more common to start working in domestic work, noodle shops, as
cleaners or waitresses, and then some may consider moving into sex work when they are older.
The hiring and exploiting of young girls in the sex industry is not common practice. In the past
when young women came to Thailand, they were often ignorant about sex work but these days
young women generally understand that working in karaoke, bars, massage and some restaurants
can include having sex with men for money. Young women these days often talk to each-other
about the pros and cons when deciding whether to take up sex work. Some younger women (1617 years) will work in bars and karaoke venues as cleaners or waitresses, and may socialize with
customers, but do not do sex work or go with customers. In most workplaces, women say that
they are able to decide themselves whether they will take up sex work and do not feel they are
pressured or forced into accepting customers, either by other sex workers or the venue owners.
Their decision is mostly based on personal circumstances, financial needs, their confidence and
maturity levels. Age is not an issue talked about during the job interview or even discussed very
much in the workplace as it is deemed fairly unimportant. Many women do not have formal
documentation verifying their age.

16

Working Conditions
Most women in the Thai sex industry work in an Entertainment Place e.g. karaoke bars,
restaurants, massage parlours, beer bars and brothels. Wages and conditions differ depending on
the place and the owners conditions. Women in all workplaces get paid in cash. Economically it is
the most profitable work choice for migrant women who can earn approximately 15 times as much
as migrant workers in other available work. Women are not commonly in situations of forced
labour they have freedom of movement and some choice over their working conditions, however
the lack of labour protection and adherence to minimum standards means that all workplaces are
exploiting their workers labour on some level.
It is normal practice for employers to take a share of the money that sex workers generate. The
money may be made from sales of alcoholic drinks, massage or bath services, customers paying
for a workers time and company in the workplace as a sitting fee or away from the work place
paid as a bar fine or as a portion of the money paid for sexual services. The system is generally
felt to be unfair; however women do not define this as exploitation as long as the employer does
not take more than 50% of their earnings.
In most workplaces there is a set of rules imposed by owners or managers, who will cut womens
wages or earnings should they breach the rules. Wages can be cut for various things such as
lateness, weight gain, dress code infringements, and arguments with customers, etc. This is illegal
under the Labour Law. Although cuts are standard in all work places and normal practice, sex
workers consider such wage cuts as exploitation. In addition most sex workers do not have health
care entitlements or paid holiday or sick leave.

Its hard work, its not fair but thats the way it is
Nok, research partner, migrant sex worker, Burma, Mae Sot
17

In all areas there are corrupt police who extort money from women and owners. Mostly it is the
owners who have to pay police bribes but often they will deduct some or all of the costs out of
womens earnings. In some places women are paying 10-17% of their earnings in police bribes.
Most women these days do not live at their workplace but either organize their own
accommodation or live in shared accommodation with other women from the workplace. Some live
with other workers in a house provided at an affordable rent by their employer.
In the rare places where women do live on the premises the women must work whenever the
brothel is open (generally from 10am - till 2am). In practice this means that the women are oncall 24 hours. They also have limited freedom of movement, having to get permission to go out
and often having to be accompanied by another employee e.g. doorman. These are echoes of the
old style of brothels. Women who joined the research, and were living and working in these
circumstances, were informed about the assistance available under the anti-trafficking act, but
they unanimously decided they would prefer to manage the situation themselves by paying back
advances on salary or other debts and then looking for better working conditions in the future.
In most workplaces women choose their customers and can refuse customers if needed. However
some employers impose customer quotas that sex workers must meet. It is rare for owners to
demand sex workers accept all customers. Any pressure, force or quota for customers, women
define as exploitation.
Condom use for customers is enforced by workers, who generally have an understanding of the
need for protection, however they are not usually offered support by employers. For most
customers condom use is now the norm, still a few need to be convinced and the small number
who remain uncooperative are generally refused service.
Most women access their own health care independent of their workplace, either through the
public health system or more often by paying for private health care. Despite the lack of support
for workers safety, most employers insist on mandatory health checks for workers demanding
they have regular HIVAIDS and STI checks which are recorded in health documents that must be
shown to employers, as a precondition for getting your salary.
Women do not have any information about Thai law, including the anti-prostitution law, the antitrafficking law or labour law. Often migrant women are not aware that sex work is illegal in
Thailand. Given the general visibility and tolerance of the industry, women will often assume it is
legal and that the police raids and bribes are purely due to their immigration status rather than
their work.
Working Off Loans and Debt
Different scenarios are negotiated by women needing to borrow money including:
y
y
y

Borrowing from the broker to cover travel and recruitment costs, and agreeing to pay
back the debt from wages in Thailand, generally without interest being charged
The broker may transfer the debt to the employer once in Thailand and the women
then pay back the debt from their wages to the employer, with or without interest
The women may take an advance on their earnings from the employer to cover start18

up costs. Generally women will consider borrowing 10-30,000 baht (USD 30-1,000) to
cover costs such as makeup, clothes, phone, and transport plus send money home to
the family to cover the initial work period. Most women who have migrated from Burma
generally need to send money home to their families at least every 2-3 months.
Some women will pay off their initial debt and then take another loan from the
employer for investments in housing, family education costs, buying a motorbike,
medical costs or to make a return visit home etc.

There is no written agreement on the loan and women generally monitor their expenses and debt
repayments themselves. Women in all workplaces are paid in cash, minus police bribes and debt
repayments.
Generally the earnings are split three ways. 50% goes to the employer, 25% goes to the loan, and
25% goes to the worker. This means at least she continues to earn while paying her debt off. It is
considered normal practice for women to pay their loan repayments back at interest rates that can
be 10 times higher than local banks. Most women however have no other access to loans,
especially migrant women who do not have bank accounts. Women say that they do not consider
their loan repayment as exploitative, as long as the interest is equal or less than 5 baht per 100
baht (5%)
For larger loans (i.e. 100,000 THB or 3,300 USD) sex workers consider it is normal practice for
their employer to require them to stay on the premises and that they will have limited freedom
during the months they are indebted. However they do not consider this exploitation or debt
bondage because they are adults; taking a loan is not compulsory; and they knowingly agree to
the debt and the conditions. They also feel the employer needs to apply this rule as insurance for
debt repayment as he cannot go to the courts if the debtor doesnt pay up, or disappears. There
is a general understanding in all workplaces that women need to repay their debt before they can
leave the workplace and work elsewhere. Sometimes the limits on their freedom are considered
too harsh and women may run away. At least one woman in the project told of being able to
change workplaces and negotiate with her original employer to repay the debt at a new rate. Most
of our research partners in the project did not have a debt. Those that did have current debts, the
amounts ranged from 3,500 baht to 30,000 baht (USD 115-1000), though some had previously
had debts of over 100,000 Baht. Generally women say they can pay small debts off over 2- 3
months, moderate debts of 50,000 - 80,000 Baht (USD 1,600 - 2,300) take 4-5 months and even
the highest debt incurred by women of 150,000 baht (USD 5,000) could be paid off over 8
months.
Just passing through
Some women will travel through Thailand on their way to work elsewhere either in countries in
the Asian region or further afield. Aside from women from China and Burma going to Malaysia
women are also travelling to do sex work in Singapore where they are guaranteed good earnings
as well as having an opportunity to travel.
Thai sex workers also travel overseas to work in other countries. Some travel a circuit to
Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau to work. A small number go to other regional
destinations such as Australia or Dubai. They usually have a passport however often use a broker
19

to help find workplaces overseas and assist with travel arrangements such as airfares and visas.
Usually women will take on a debt for these costs, which they pay off once they start work
overseas. Costs for Thai women travelling to Australia can be as high as 200,000 baht (USD
10,000). Its not just very expensive but it is considered exploitative because brokers are grossly
overcharging as women have passports and can access visas. However, no regulated brokers for
our industry exist. While the cost was known to be high, the capacity for earning money was also
high.
An example of the value of overseas remittances from Thai sex workers was noted in the
research, in one town in the northeast of Thailand where there is a modern, upper class, housing
development known as Singapore Village. This was built using remittances from sex workers who
worked overseas in Singapore to support their families. The sex workers in the area consider this
to be a symbol of their success and hard work in supporting their families and are proud of their
contribution to their community in Thailand from their work overseas.
International Sex Workers in Thailand
Women coming from overseas to work in the tourist areas known for their thriving entertainment
industry have a different style of migration. In addition to thousands of Thai women, some women
from Russia, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Japan, Korea and South America also work in entertainment
places in Bangkok, Pattaya, Patpong and Phuket. While the research team had limited access to
European and African sex workers in Thailand, some information on their migration and
conditions, was available from our research partners and venue owners working in the same
areas.
The women from Europe working in Pattaya appear to be mostly in their twenties, with many
coming from Uzbekistan. They sign employment contracts as dancers, usually stay between 3-6
months to earn money, pay off their debt for airfare and travel costs, and then return home.
Every few months groups of new women arrive to work in the bars in Pattaya. The employers
cultivate good relationships with the local police, and ensure that there are no minors (under 18
years) working and the sex workers appear to be free to move around independently outside of
their working hours.
In Phuket entertainment places (A Go Go Bars) have been specifically set up for sex workers from
Russia. The work conditions are published online and include employment contracts for women
seeking employment as artists in Thailand - written in Russian. The employment contract
includes more than 30 bar rules with quite punitive and unjust working conditions with costly
fines for making noise, being out of the room, talking with people other than customers, etc. The
salary starting point is 9,000 baht (USD 300) per month, over twice the Thai minimum wage, and
the women will also have the opportunity to earn more from customers and tips. The experience
of women from overseas, working in these areas in Thailand is not possible to gauge from this
research. Inviting them to join future projects may be useful for them to learn about the labour
and human right protections available to them.

20

Modern way of moving

Our research shows women from neighboring countries are migrating largely independently to find
work in Thailand. Brokers are generally seen as helpful and most dont charge exorbitant rates for
their services. Most women are over 18 years when they apply for work in the entertainment
industry and then make further independent decisions about whether sexual services will be part
of their work or not. Migration is a part of the culture of sex work, with women moving to other
towns, provinces, countries or continents.
We found a wide range of working conditions in the Thai sex industry most of which, at best,
are unfair and some elements of exploitation remain. Generally sex work provides sustainable,
economically lucrative opportunities for both local and migrant women. Our research shows that
migrant and Thai women have individual and collective agency and opportunity to decide, manage
and to some extent control their working conditions within the Thai sex industry. However our
research also makes clear that there is an urgent need to create an enabling legal environment
that protects and promotes the rights of sex workers and puts an end to discriminatory and
criminal practices of corrupt police and authorities.

Human Trafficking is to Sex Work as Shovel is to Birthday

At least they are calling us human
Wi research leader, sex worker, Ubon Thani
Sadly our research went on to show that often when people discuss human trafficking into the
Entertainment Industry they call it sex trafficking and the word human disappears. They dont
use similar terms like sewing trafficking or fishing trafficking. The focus isnt on our human rights
after all, but rather the problem seems to be that we are having sex.
One of our research team put the following question to a senior policeman from the antitrafficking division who had told us he had attended many training sessions on trafficking.

If a woman agreed to go and work as a sex worker in a karaoke bar but instead was
taken and made to work for no pay in a garment factory, do you count that as
trafficking?
No thats not trafficking, thats a good opportunity he responded.
So you wouldnt help her?
No if she really wanted to work in karaoke shed have to get out herself, come back to
the border and start again

21

The International Perspective

In fact the modern concept of human trafficking covers a wide range of illegal practices including
slavery, forced labour, exploitation, forced begging and organ trading. However it also singles out
exploitation i.e. seeking benefits from prostitution though what that would actually constitute is
not defined. This oversight is partly responsible for sex work and human trafficking being
frequently conflated to mean the same thing, both in Thailand and worldwide.
Our research found that hysteria over the human trafficking of women for prostitution is not a new
phenomenon. It has its roots in the historical movement to protect white American women from
being sold into prostitution in Europe in the early 1900s. The first agreement to combat this traffic
in women emerged with the 1904 League of Nations International Agreement for the Suppression
of the White Slave Traffic. This law explicitly focused on protecting women who were transported
for immoral purposes and prompted a worldwide effort to combat prostitution. The 1904
Agreement has since been modified five times over the last century, into its current format as the
UN Trafficking Protocol (2000)24 which now includes protections for men, women and children,
and a broader definition of trafficking.
The historical focus on abolishing prostitution however haunts the definitions of the current
Protocol and is alive and well within the modern day anti-trafficking movement.
Over the last two decades the push to abolish the sex industry globally has been heavily promoted
under the guise of anti-trafficking by abolitionist groups and their champion - the US government.
One such group, the Coalition against Trafficking of Women and Girls (CATW) was formed to
challenge the demand for prostitution and to curb the legal acceptance and tolerance of the
global sex industry under the name of anti-trafficking.25 CATW consists of people, largely from the
academic world, who view all sex work as exploitation, and see it as inherently violent, abusive,
and degrading to all women, and based on the sale of women as commodities in the
marketplace.26 The opinions of sex workers about our own work and lives are at best deemed
irrelevant or outright unacceptable.
During the Bush administration in the USA (2001-2009), the anti-prostitution lobby expanded
further by joining with Christian fundamentalists, which also strongly promoted an abolitionist
approach as a response to human trafficking. Both groups, endorsed by the US government,
became a powerful lobby group in the international anti-trafficking movement.
Sex workers and civil rights proponents have consistently argued for clear separation of the
trafficking issue from sex work. Sex workers promote the end to any criminalization of the sex
industry and recognition of sex workers labour rights as the primary method to stop the
exploitation of sex workers, including but not limited to trafficking.
The UN Trafficking Protocol was signed into force in 2000 as part of the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). In the development of the
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and
Children Trafficking (2000)
25 CATW website 2011
26 Raymond, J: Legitimizing Prostitution as Sex Work ILO calls for Recognition of the Sex Industry
24

22

Trafficking Protocol there was much contention on how the law should address the issue of sex
work and the sex industry.
Sex workers and other activists demanded a clear distinction be made between: sex work (the
exchange of sexual services for payment, in cash or kind)27 and trafficking (the forced coercion of
women and children into sexual exploitation), and decried the use of the word prostitution within
the Protocol definitions.
The abolitionist lobby argued from their fundamentalist perspective that prostitution is inherently
exploitative and degrading to women; and all sex workers are victims of sexual exploitation
regardless of their consent.28
In the end, the final draft of the UN Trafficking Protocol used the word prostitution in its
definition. However it deliberately avoided defining the terms: prostitution, exploitation of the
prostitution of others or sexual exploitation in order to allow State Parties to define these terms
according to their own national law.
However our research shows that like most governments, the Thai government simply copied the
UN description of trafficking that sets prostitution apart as if it were in itself a distinct form of
trafficking. This lack of clear definition allows for highly subjective judgments to be made and
acted upon by a variety of agencies depending on their agenda.
This includes giving space for abolitionists to continue to blur the lines between abolitionism and
anti-trafficking. In addition the identification of prostitution as some kind of separate form of
trafficking automatically links the sex industry to organised crime, drug trafficking, weapons
trading and terrorism under the UNTOC Convention. This encourages and condones government
excesses against sex workers.
For the last 10 years, the anti-prostitution agenda has been heavily promoted internationally by
the US government via its anti-trafficking policies. In 2002, just months after the 9/11 terrorist
attack on the USA, President Bush began forcing trade partners worldwide, by threat of sanctions,
to tighten their border controls and restrict smuggling in the name of preventing sex-trafficking
and global terrorism.29 The Bush Administration proclaimed all sex work was trafficking and in
2004 implemented a policy (which remains in place today) whereby any organization worldwide
who receives US funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, must sign the Pledge and follow a mandate to
actively oppose any legalization or acceptance of sex work.30
The US anti-trafficking agenda is monitored and enforced via the annual Trafficking in Persons
(TIP) report, which ranks more than 184 countries according to whether or not they have achieved
US and international standards in anti-trafficking activities.31 The TIP report ranks each country
NSWP, Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers, Draft 2011
Burge, N 2011
29 President George W. Bush Address to the United Nations, 23 September 2003;
30 Amendment on Prohibition of Funding to Organizations that Promote Prostitution Adopted in US,
2004
31 TIP Ranking is based on standards set forth under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)
2000 and the 3P principles of prevention, protection and prosecution, in the UN Anti-trafficking
Protocol.
27
28

23

against a tier level from 1-3, whereby countries that are deemed to have under-achieved are
ranked downwards onto a Watch List with a Tier 3 level indicating failure. Each countrys ranking
is linked to its eligibility for US financial aid with a Tier 3 ranking precluding them from receiving
funding from US sources. The TIP report in reality provides a blunt tool for alleged reform to
combat human trafficking, which is directly linked to US economic, political and strategic interests
worldwide. The TIP report process has been criticized worldwide for its overt political agenda as
well as its failure to meet standards of evidence-based policy making; its insufficient discussion of
the root causes of trafficking; and its tendency to lay the blame for global trafficking on
governments in developing countries.32
The TIP report directly promotes the US abolitionist agenda via its rating system, based on
minimum standards within the US Anti-trafficking law (the TVPA). These standards mandate
governments worldwide to make serious and sustained efforts to reduce the demand for (A)

commercial sex acts; and (B) participation in international sex tourism by nationals of the
country.33
Furthermore the TVPA explicitly targets sex trafficking as a distinct form of trafficking separate
from all other human trafficking, with an emphasis in the TIP Guidelines on the need for state
officials to identify and assist victims of sex trafficking including women who do not identify as
trafficked women and who do not wish to receive legal support or intervention.34 Because of the
significant economic and political power of the US in todays global economy, these conditions
mean that that the international anti-trafficking movement is inextricably linked with the
movement to abolish the sex industry in countries worldwide.
For more on the global situation of conflating sex work and human trafficking see NSWP, Global
Network of Sex Work Projects: Briefing paper #3 Sex Work is Not Trafficking December 2011 at
www.nswp.org
Our research found that far from being defeated by this seemingly overwhelming opposition, sex
workers and the sex industry have continued to work, develop and expand.
Human Trafficking in Thailand
Over the last 80 years, Thailand has in fact, enacted three anti-trafficking laws in the country. The
first Act passed in 1928 was in response to concerns for women from China working in the
brothels of Sampang Lane in Bangkok. More recently over the last 20 - 30 years there has been
significant advocacy at the domestic level from some Thai womens organizations and welfare
groups, many of whom support abolition. This combined with pressure to meet the US led antitrafficking agenda has led to a range of anti-trafficking policies and practices being implemented in
Thailand.
Thailand has signed but not yet ratified the UN Trafficking Protocol. Even so it has co-opted the
protocols broad definitions. According to the Thai Suppression of Human Trafficking Act BE 2551
Jordon A 2011 State Department TIP Report: A need for more evidence and U.S. accountability,
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Minimum Standards for the Elimination of Trafficking in
Persons
34 TIP 2011 Definitions: Techniques of Control Used by Sex Traffickers and Pimps
32
33

24

(2008) trafficking includes exploitation of prostitution. The only indication of what exploitation
in this sense may involve is the broad definition of seeking benefits from the prostitution of
others with no further explanation of what exactly this entails.35 As stated previously the lack of
clear definition allows for highly subjective judgments to be made and acted upon by a variety of
agencies depending on their agenda.
Thailand is a major strategic ally of the USA in Southeast Asia, and relies on US investment in
health, trade, business and development. The conflation between sex work and human trafficking
however is a thorn in the side of this strategic relationship and has led to harsh criticism from the
US State Department of Thailands anti-trafficking efforts.
While on the surface the TIP report is meant to measure a countrys responses to human
trafficking, the not so well hidden agenda is the abolition of sex work. The TIP report criticizes
Thailand for its neglect of persons trafficked into other industries apart from sex work, even
though its clear that Thailand has simply been following the US abolitionist agenda.
Although Thailand has in fact made some progress in addressing the situation of trafficked
persons, it keeps being reprimanded for failing to curb the sex industry, even though this is a
completely separate issue.
The 2011 TIP report noted that sex tourism continues to be a problem in Thailand,
and this demand likely fuels trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.36 The
trafficking of men and boys into the fishing industry is of real concern in Thailand. The
US government continues to highlight this in the TIP reports but has to date not called
on Thailand to curb its consumption of fish as this demand likely fuels trafficking for

labour exploitation.
To add to the confusion, while Thailand is struggling on the Tier 2 watch list, and in trouble for not
doing enough to abolish sex work; New Zealand, who decriminalized sex work many years ago, is
on Tier 1 and the US reports that the Government of New Zealand fully complies with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
We found some anti-trafficking organizations and agencies understandably bewildered by these
inconsistencies.
Apart from a handful of prevention campaigns with youth and poor rural communities, the primary
strategies for reducing trafficking in Thailand have been focused solely on the Entertainment
Industry. Over the last decade this has included police raids, arrests, detention, and deportation of
migrant sex workers; detention and rehabilitation of Thai and migrant sex workers in shelters.
Even the National Action Plans stated aim to assist victims of sexual exploitation37 is still not
enough for Thailand to pass the US TIP standards.
The confused and frantic efforts to comply with US requirements has led to a punitive, criminal
Thailand Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act B.E. 2551 (2008), Sections 4&6
US TIP Report 2011 Thailand Country Report
37 Thai Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, National Action Plan to Prevent
Trafficking 2011-2016
35
36

25

justice response to women, men and communities who live and work within the sex industry in
Thailand. While this approach has allegedly led to the rescue of women and girls, who were
judged to be trafficked into the sex industry, it has also led to unacceptable human rights
violations against an even larger number of women sex workers, their families and communities.
We have major concerns regarding current anti-trafficking interventions given the lack of objective
evidence, accountability and independent monitoring of anti-trafficking practices. Almost 10 years
after the US anti-trafficking push began, according to US government data, 11 out of 12 human
trafficking incidents do not involve sex work 38 However in Thailand and worldwide the
propaganda, hysteria, and poorly thought out anti-trafficking law and policies continue to target
women working in the sex industry.
It will always be impossible to accurately measure the number of people affected by trafficking.
This gap is often exploited as an excuse for people to give wild estimations to create a false
perception that millions of children and women are trafficked into the Thai sex industry each year.
Anti-trafficking groups, media, and researchers commonly cite information that is based on
spurious estimations, or referenced to sources that are 15-20 years old but presented as if still
relevant today.
The propaganda, emotive stories, and vastly contradictory statistics promoted to the public, have
combined to form a perception that the Thai sex industry is one of abuse, violence, forced
exploitation and gross human rights violations. This image however is completely at odds with the
research findings in this report which provides an overview of the modern sex industry from the
lived experience of migrant sex workers working in Thailand in 2011.
In the last fifteen to twenty years Thailand has seen wide reaching social changes
such as higher levels of education, greater wealth distribution, and more access to
knowledge and communication technology. In addition there has been a stronger
focus on human rights and gender rights. However the legal system that attempts to
control prostitution was set up decades before this when abuses such as trafficking,
debt bondage, forced labour and locked brothels were common in the Thai sex
industry. Current day sex workers in Thailand live and work in a totally different
context. Nowadays sex work in Thailand closely resembles many other occupations
whether applying for a job, working conditions, work tools or earning power. Old style
brothels have been replaced by modern entertainment venues and old style pimps
replaced by managers. The laws are outdated and irrelevant to the way sex workers
work today.
Our research, reinforced by decades of experience, finds that trafficking and child sexual abuse is
uncommon in the Thai sex industry; most women have freedom of movement; and we work in
visible and public workplaces. One of the most problematic outcomes of the moral panic and
hysteria of anti-trafficking propaganda, is that unsubstantiated data has been regurgitated over
and over for more than a decade by anti-trafficking groups, politicians, researchers, media and
policy makers with no regard for the experiences and opinions of women who actually live and
work in the sex industry. This has effectively sidelined any informed, systematic debate and
38

US TIP report 2009

26

evaluation of strategies to assist either trafficked persons facing forced exploitation, or sex
workers wanting to improve exploitative working conditions.
A related impact of the anti-trafficking movement in Thailand has been the changes to and the
disintegration of effective partnerships within Thai civil society. For thirty years in Thailand HIVAIDS activists, womens organizations, sex workers, migrant organizations, government, and
community organizations have managed to work together on HIV education, advocacy and care
despite holding very different positions on sex work. However, the US discrimination policy, the
pledge effectively polarized individuals and organizations in Thailand and forced them to choose
between being for or against sex workers. There is no longer any midway option and many
effective networks across the country have been split and weakened.
At the same time numerous new organizations have sprang up, or changed their name and focus
to take advantage of the millions of dollars available within the anti-trafficking industry. This
includes both Thai and international NGO, faith based organizations, private ex-military rescue
organizations, and local organizations supporting community development, women, children and
migrants.
A UN body, UNIAP (United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater
Mekong Sub-Region) was established in 2000 just to co-ordinate the 13 UN agencies and 8
International NGO who ran programs or policies on trafficking in the Mekong Region. In 2010, in
Thailand alone 61 organizations were given government support to run some 103 projects focused
on anti-trafficking.
Practices in the anti-trafficking or rescue industry39 vary widely, however many organizations
work without monitoring or accountability. The anti-trafficking movement in Thailand includes a
glut of organizations in the rescue industry some of whose main aim is to raise money for the
supposed rescue and rehabilitation and often Christian conversion of women and children. Older
well established organizations such as Daughters Education Project and New Life Centre, who
have worked for decades to empower girls, provide assistance and reduce exploitation, are forced
to compete for funds with the swell of new organizations under the anti-trafficking banner.
These older organizations must find gaining donor support and public interest in the
empowerment of girls more difficult, when their competition is so willing to misrepresent and
sensationalize the reality as seen in the following examples.
One anti-trafficking organization based in the north of Thailand claims: The sex industry sets its

sights on the Northern Hill-Tribe villages to buy, trick or kidnap their daughters who are usually
very young (no more than 7 years old). They traffic them all over the world. To 'season' the
children, they put them alone in a locked room with no windows for two years, serving 10 to12
customers a day. The men do not wear condoms because the competition is too great between
the brothels. Abba House Foundation website, Chiang Mai, Thailand 2011
There is another group who promotes Thailand as a key trafficking destination and offers reality
tours of trafficking hotspots, charging USD1000 and more for the experience to meet victims of

39

Agustin, L ( 2007) Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry

27

trafficking and visit vulnerable communities to learn effective strategies for undermining slave
rings, and experience first-hand how emancipated slaves rebuild their lives.40
Yet another group consisting of former special-forces soldiers and ex-policemen, originally from
Australia, have worked in Thailand for years as undercover operatives who mission is to save
children who are trafficked into brothels and hunt down perpetrators. They use military espionage
techniques to work under the radar and win by stealth41. Even this group however admits it is
getting more difficult to actually find children in brothels in Thailand. In 2011, they have come
under investigation by the Thai Police Department of Special Investigations, for allegedly falsifying
and sensationalizing claims of trafficked village children in the north of Thailand in order to raise
funds for their organization.
In its evangelistic aim to save women and girls, the rescue industry promotes rehabilitation. Sex
workers spend years detained in State or non-government shelters, until they are deemed to be
reformed and if their families are judged to be adequate and they are no longer at risk of being a
prostitute they are released.
These violations against women who work in the sex industry have occurred regularly, often in an
arbitrary manner, perpetrated by both government and non government agencies and have left
women with no recourse for complaint, remedy or access to justice.
Since 2003, the rescue industry in Thailand has taken steps to shun some of the most ridiculous
groups and ensure a more formalized approach to their operations. This has resulted in the
development of a series of a MOU, governing anti-trafficking approaches at the provincial level,
documentation and training in standardized operational guidelines. There is now a core group of
organizations who work closely together, but they still have not moved on from the raid and
rescue response.
The groups include international and local NGO, Thai Police and state social welfare authorities,
who coordinate raids. The raids are now more likely to be carried out by police from the Anti
Human Trafficking Division (AHTD) who are separate from local police or ex-military groups, and
people are supposedly identified, rescued and processed according to standardized procedures
and legal obligations. The court and deportation process has also seen recent reform and various
agreements and protocols for support and deportation of trafficked persons have been developed
across the region.
In recent years, on paper at least, there has been an increased concern for the human rights of
trafficked persons, greater protection and support and a focus on different forms of trafficking
such as forced labour.42
However as our research shows, there remain strong incentives within the anti-trafficking
movement to target the Thai sex industry using the old raid and rescue approach, which results in
human rights abuses, legal violations and incompetent practice, all of which are still prominent in
Not For Sale Campaign and Global Exchange 2011
A, 2012 article: The Grey Man Will Blow Critics Out Of The Water
42 World Vision, 2010, Ten Things you need to know about labor trafficking in the GMS; UNIAP
Estimating Labor Trafficking: A Study of Burmese Migrant Workers in Samut Sakhon, Thailand
40

41 Drummond

28

the anti-trafficking movement in Thailand in 2011.

CHAPTER 2: ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN OF LAWS

29

LAW AND POLICY IN THAILAND

Sex workers in Thailand live and work on top of a complex stack of laws, many of which aim to
restrict and control our work.
Sex work is illegal in Thailand. The specific details of Thai laws that affect us follow. However first,
it is important to understand the implications of criminalization of our work as we found it has a
flow on effect with important consequences for the policy and practice of human trafficking law.
The process of criminalization begins when society makes a moral judgment that according to an
ideal of sex only within marriage, we have sex with too many people, the wrong kind of people,
for the wrong reasons. Society then makes a law to protect their moral standards, whether real or
imagined.
The Suppression and Prevention of Prostitution Act is one such law. Looking at it closely we see
that most sections in the law are not trying to stop us working, but are aimed at keeping what we
do hidden. We cannot solicit, we cannot advertise, we cannot be in groups, we must be confined
to certain areas etc.
Under this legislation, our work is not work, its a crime and we are considered criminals. Our boss
is automatically a crime boss rather than a businessman and employer.
The place we work is not a workplace but is considered a place of criminal acts. The Labour Act,
Social Security Act and Occupational Health and Safety standards are not enforced in criminal
businesses so our employers are outside these laws. They make up their own laws that we work
under.
Society has to make more special laws to manage these crime areas: the Entertainment Place Act;
the Social Order Policy; Zoning Laws; and Special Administration Areas, none of which offer us any
benefits or protections. Problems at work can end up in the criminal court instead of the Labour
Court.
The people who enforce the laws in places of crime are the police not Labour Inspectors or Health
and Safety Officers. To show they do their job well, police must arrest us regularly. To arrest just
one or two of us they use entrapment which is most common, to arrest more they raid our
workplace which happens regularly like other festivals, and every year or so they will have a
crackdown where they raid many places, sometimes across the country. During or after these
raids and crackdowns they can put photos of us on the TV, in the newspaper and online so society
can feel reassured. They can also show their good works by investigating where we work for other
crimes like drug use, money laundering, immigration, copyright infringements and so on. We dont
get automatic protection from the normal police but instead must pay corrupt police for protection.
Currently breaches of the Suppression and Prevention of Prostitution Act carry a maximum fine of
1,000 baht (USD33) for sex workers. Police generally fine Thai sex workers 200-500 baht (USD 616), after which we are released from custody and return to work. Police data shows that each
year in Thailand there are between 30-40,000 sex workers arrested for prostitution of which only

30

around 65 prosecutions involve minors43

In raids on entertainment places, migrant sex workers can be charged with prostitution; being
outside their designated workplace, working illegally and illegal entry into Thailand. Hence we
become a more impressive indicator for arrest records and/or a more lucrative target for police
extortion.
If the raid is by corrupt authorities for extortion, the owner or the workers themselves will usually
pay bribes in the police station after which the workers are released.
If the raid is genuine then migrant sex workers will be fined for prostitution, sent to immigration
and fined for immigration offences. We will be held in detention until transport is available for our
deportation, usually not longer than two weeks. Fortunately due to longstanding fears for womens
safety, usually women from Burma are left on the Thai side of the border crossing and told to go
home, rather than handed over officially to the military junta.
The third type of raid is called a rescue. When most people think about trafficking they think
about crime gangs, women and prostitution. So it is no surprise that once again our workplaces
are targeted for anti-trafficking raids. These raids are equally as terrifying and violent as the other
kind of raids. Women are apprehended and taken to police stations the same as other raids.
Reporters are given free range to photograph us the same as other raids. Our research shows that
women have no idea what the raid is for, why they have been apprehended or what their rights
are. We are eventually deported but unlike other deportations, we sometimes wait a year or more
and rescues result in official deportations where we are handed over to our home governments.
Fortunately as human beings we also have our human rights which are defined and recognized at
the national, regional and international level. Our rights must be protected and promoted by the
Thai government the same as other people, according to law.

Punitive Laws
The following section provides an overview of the laws that currently impact on the everyday lives
of sex workers in Thailand.
1. Employers Bar Rules
These rules have the biggest direct impact on our everyday lives. The rules are used instead of
labour laws and occupational health and safety standards. They are created by our employer
following a fairly standard pattern. Rules include how much we are paid in salary or commission;
what time and for how long we work every day; what we must do and must not do at work; and
how much we are fined for breaches of the rules.

43

Royal Thai Police 2008, Central Information Technology Centre Statistics

31

2. State Laws
Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act BE 2539 (1996)
Thailands first law criminalizing sex work was enacted in 1960 during a moral cleansing campaign.
It was amended in 1996 resulting in the current Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act BE
2539. Under the law prostitution is defined as sexual intercourse, or any other act in order to

gratify the sexual desire of another person in a promiscuous manner in return for earning or any
other benefit (Section 4). In a promiscuous manner means with more than one man, added so
that men could retain their mistresses and minor wives without concern.
Prostitution is deemed an offence whenever there is evidence of soliciting, advertising, recruiting
others or arranging the prostitution of others for self-profit (Articles 5, 6, 7, 9). The maximum
penalty for a sex worker is a 1,000 Baht fine (USD 30) or one month in jail. There are provisions
for mandatory rehabilitation for adults but this is very rarely invoked in current times. The law in
itself is reasonably lenient but the consequences of being judged a criminal are horrific, as
discussed earlier.
The Entertainment Place Act BE 2503/2547 1966 (amended 2003)
This Act was originally enacted during the Vietnam War when US armed forces used Thailand as
an R&R destination. The Entertainment Act allows for the registration of entertainment places
where there is any kind of dancing, or any massage service provided (e.g. massage parlors, bars,
night-clubs, Go-go bars etc) to hire service employees (e.g. waitresses, masseurs, dancers etc).
The Act provides entertainment place owners with an opportunity to legitimize their business
through registration or licensing. Under the Act owners must register their venues and employees
with the police. This involves workers providing the police with a detailed family history,
fingerprints and photos. In 2006 the National Human Rights Commission found the police were
recording workers history on a criminal suspect forms which was a breach of the human rights of
workers. There are no provisions for working conditions labour rights or OH&S standards under
the Act. Only a third of Entertainment Places have ever registered under the Act.
The Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999)
The money laundering act lists sex work as a predicate offence (Section 3.2). This law gives the
State the power to investigate financial transactions related to illegal activity. It makes it illegal to
conduct any financial transactions using assets, property or money gained from the business of
prostitution or the trafficking of women. The law has penalties of 1-10 years prison and fines of
up to 200,000 baht (USD 6500) and allows the state to freeze, seize and confiscate assets and
money gained from sex work or used in money laundering. The law is targeted to prosecute
criminal offences at the higher end of money laundering and organized crime, and has been
mainly used to target the illegal drug trade in Thailand rather than prosecuting individual sex
workers.

32

Extra Punishment for Migrant Sex Workers

Immigration Act, B.E.2522 (1979)
Migrant sex workers are restricted by an extra set of laws governing their immigration status. The
Immigration Act, B.E.2522 (1979) prohibits all undocumented and unskilled migrants from
entering Thailand for work and in Section 12.8 explicitly prohibits immigration when there is
reason to believe that entrance into the Kingdom was for the purpose of being involved in
prostitution or the trading of women of children.
Technically there is a provision where non Thai women can apply to work legally in entertainment
venues as performers or entertainers. Under the Immigration Act, entertainment venue owners
can apply for work permits for migrant women to work as temporary entertainers or performers
for period of up to 3 months.44 However the employer needs to demonstrate a minimum business
capital of not less than 20 million baht (USD 650,000); provide a minimum monthly income of
25,000-50,000 per month for each woman (USD 800- 1,600: the minimum wage in Thailand is
around 4,000 Baht per month USD130 ); and the workplace must adhere to licensing and labour
law requirements. In reality it is an exclusive system that isnt possible for the majority of
entertainment venues in Thailand to access. The system also excludes women who do not have
access to passports.
Under the Immigration Act, undocumented migrants found to be working illegally are arrested,
detained, fined and deported. Under the law, the costs for detainment can be charged to
employers, while deportation costs must be paid by migrants themselves. The maximum
punishment is 2 years prison and 20,000 baht fine (USD65). In addition anyone who "brings or
takes an alien into the Kingdom is liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine up to
100,000 baht (USD 3,000).
The Alien Worker Act BE 2551 (2008)
This Act further restricts migrant sex workers through prohibiting undocumented migrants from
working in Thailand without registration. Supporting Cabinet Resolutions limit occupations that are
eligible for registration to domestic work, factory work, construction work, agricultural labour,
fishing industries and general labourers. Working in a karaoke bar or giving massages are not
criminal activities in themselves, and migrant women make up a large part of the workforce in
these sectors of the industry. However they cannot join the registration process so must work
unregistered or falsely register in other occupations. The Alien Worker Act allows police to arrest
and fine undocumented migrant workers or those that are working in jobs that are contrary to
their registration cards. Penalties range from 2000-100,000 baht (USD 65 -3,000) and 5 years
prison. They may also be sent to Immigration for deportation to their country of origin. With no
access to documentation, most migrant sex workers from neighboring countries in Thailand are in
breach of both the Immigration and Alien Worker Act, and therefore vulnerable to arrests and
deportation or extortion and harassment, the latter being considered by women to be the lesser
Section 35 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 and Section 11(4) of the Royal Thai Police Act B.E.
2547

44

33

evil.
Other Acts that specifically mention prostitution or are used to punish or suppress sex
workers include:

Penal Code Amendment Act (No. 14) BE 2540 (1997 AD)

Penal Code BE 2429 (1956 AD)

Drug Suppression ACT BE 2547 (2003 AD)

Regulations
In addition to State Law, national provincial and local regulations also impact directly on sex
workers. These regulations include: Public Health Regulations such as the 100% Condom Use
Policy; clauses in tourist areas that have been declared Special Administrative Zones and have
regulations and penalties for bothering tourists; regulations under the Social Order Policy that
influence working hours, zoning etc. Lastly local council regulations can control sex workers
conditions e.g. dress codes, only two workers can sit or stand outside the entrance at a time.

We are persons before the law - Protection and Recognition

Despite the fact that sex workers at times may be in breach of the Suppression and Prevention of
Prostitution Act or the Immigration Act, we are entitled to recognition under all other laws and to
protection of our full human rights. Like other workers, sex workers have legal protection provided
within the Penal Code, criminal justice law and basic human rights entitlements framed within the
Thai Constitution and according to international conventions ratified by the State.
If we are affected by a crime we are eligible for the same legal protection and redress as any
other person under Thai law. For example the Thai Penal Code provides protections for all women
against rape and sexual abuse (Thai Penal Code Section 277). However, because of the legal
status of our work, sex workers are less likely to seek legal protection or redress for crimes or
human rights violations, especially when many of these violations are perpetrated by corrupt
police officials. For undocumented migrant sex workers, access to justice is even more difficult as
there is a climate of impunity for perpetrators of violations against migrants who are rarely
prosecuted or punished under Thai law.45
Thai law also includes protection for sex workers who may be witnesses in criminal cases, via the
Witness Protection Act, B.E.2546 (2003). This law provides guarantees for protection in cases of
sexual offences and other crimes under the Criminal Code, with rights to protective custody being
granted with the consent of witnesses in cases of need. Protective custody includes financial
support for daily living costs, education, training, housing, security and in some cases the right to
financial compensation.46 In practice however, while sex workers are commonly being held as
witnesses in trafficking cases they are not being recognized or granted any of their legal rights
under the Witness Protection Act.
45
46

Briefing Paper :Putting Women Migrant Workers into ASEAN, MAP Foundation Legal Support Unit
Sections 7, 8, 9, 10,15 and 16 Witness Protection Act, B.E.2546 (2003)

34

National human rights protection mechanisms also guarantee legal protection for sex workers.
The 2007 Constitution of Thailand guarantees fundamental human rights and freedoms. For Thai
sex workers this includes the right to work, travel, access state health care and education services,
live and work in circumstances free of discrimination, and entitlement to protection of these rights
by law.47 In addition the Constitution has legal provisions against unjust discrimination and
declares that all persons are equal before the law and shall enjoy equal protection under the law,
regardless of origin, race, language, personal status, economic or social standing.48
While protection against discrimination is guaranteed within the Thai Constitution however it is
not protected by any specific anti-discrimination law at the national level. The National Human
Rights Commission guarantees both Thai and migrant women recourse for investigation and
remedy of human rights violations via the Office of the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) in circumstances where judicial and other state remedies have failed. This applies to all
human rights that are guaranteed under the Constitution, under Thai law or under treaty
obligations of the Thai government. In reality however the national human rights institution is not
accessible to individual women. After the 2006 coup, under the 2007 Constitution the NHRC
became a semi-independent body which is to a degree State controlled, and has not yet taken a
stand against State human rights abuses.
The Labour Protection Act 1998 does not specifically exclude entertainment work or sex work.
Although not enforced in the Entertainment Industry, in theory sex workers could make claim for
labour protection or redress for breaches of the Labour Act.

Regional Protections
At the regional level Thailand has signed agreements as a member state of the Association of
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes human rights protections for women and
migrants in Thailand. This includes the:

Declaration on the Advancement of Women in ASEAN 1988

Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women in the ASEAN Region 2004
ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers
2007

These ASEAN mechanisms have clear protection obligations for the Thai government to uphold the
rights of sex workers in Thailand. This includes specific recognition of the fundamental human
rights of migrant women including their right to access justice, education and training49 and state
obligation to eliminate discrimination and violence against all women in the ASEAN region; to
strengthen womens economic independence; and to protect their human dignity and fundamental
freedoms. In addition Thailand is an active member of two ASEAN regional institutions focused on
human rights protection for women. The ASEAN Inter Governmental Commission on Human
Rights (AICHR) requires Thailand as a member state to uphold the fundamental human rights of
Section 34,40,49,51, Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2550 (2007)
Section 4, 30 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2550 (2007)
49 ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, Sections:
5,7 &9; ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, Section 5
47
48

35

all peoples in the ASEAN region.50 The ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of
the Rights of Women and Children requires Thailand to promote the well-being, development,
empowerment and participation of women in the ASEAN community.51 While these mechanisms
clearly outline core human rights protections for sex workers in Thailand, they have to date been
relatively ineffective due to the limited protection mandates within ASEAN institutions, and the
precedence given to national laws and policies over human rights in the region. In addition there
remains a challenge in advocating for the human rights of sex workers via regional and ASEAN
mechanisms, due to differing views of sex work between governments, institutions and indeed
womens rights advocates in the region.

International Law
At the International level the Thai government has signed a number of treaties which enshrine
state obligation to protect sex workers in Thailand. Thailand adopted the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 and since that time has ratified four major international human
rights instruments including:

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (acceding on

5 Dec 1999)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (acceding on 29 Jan 1997)
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) (acceding on 27 Feb 2003)
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
(acceding on 8 Sep 1985)

These Conventions provide important binding legal protections for the human rights of sex
workers in Thailand including: the right to work; right to access justice and for equality under the
law,52 the right to liberty,53 freedom from arbitrary detention,54 the right for human dignity,
privacy, family life, reputation and honour.55
Within CEDAW however Article 6 is used to excuse human rights abuses against sex workers by
the State. Article 6 mandates States to take any appropriate measures to suppress all forms of
traffic and exploitation of prostitution of women. This effectively provides governments with a
free hand to use of aggressive suppression approaches targeted at women in the sex industry.
This clause needs urgent amendment.
More recently in 2008, the CEDAW Committee issued General Recommendation No. 26 specifically
detailing the obligations of countries with a significant migrant population, such as Thailand, to
protect and uphold the fundamental human rights of migrant women with a focus on protections
50 ASEAN Inter Governmental Commission on Human Rights Terms of Reference: Section 1.4, 2.2,
2.3;
51 ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children
Terms of Reference: Section 2.1, 2.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5
52 UDHR 2, 6, 7 & 8; ICCPR 2(1), 14, 16 & 26;ICESCR 2(2) & 3; CEDAW 1 & 2; CERD 1 & 5
53 UDHR 3 & 9; ICCPR 6 & 9; ICERD 5; CRC 6; CRC 37
54 UDHR 3 & 9; ICCPR 9.1
55 UDHR 12 & 16; ICCPR 17 & 23; ICESCR 10; CRC 9, 10 & 20

36

for those who are undocumented.56 This would include migrant sex workers in Thailand.
The Thai government however has fallen short of their obligations within many of these
Conventions and has also not yet ratified the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of
the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
The International Labour Organization provides a definition of work to include any economic
activity that people can do or can be forced to do which would include sex work. This means that
under international labour law, sex work can be considered as a recognized form of labour and
therefore be eligible to fundamental labour rights protections under ILO conventions related to
work. In 1998 the ILO in fact recommended that economic recognition and the extension of labour
rights be granted to sex workers.57 The ILO Committee of Experts has always treated forced
prostitution as a form of forced labour.58 The 2010 ILO Recommendation 200 on Work and HIV
does not exclude sex workers as workers. The ILO framework which the Thai government has
endorsed via many ratified conventions does provide an opportunity for greater protection of sex
worker rights should there be the political will to endorse this option in the future.
The current legal environment leaves sex workers in a position of vulnerability to exploitative
working conditions with no practical legal recourse, and hinders efforts to improve the safety and
work standards for the entertainment industry as a whole. It also clearly discriminates against
hundreds of thousands of Thai and migrant women whose work supports the national economy,
their families and communities.
It is clear that the Thai Government has enshrined comprehensive legal obligations for human
rights protections at the international, regional and national level. However our research shows
that the Thai Government is failing in its current obligations within regional agreements and
international law to protect the fundamental human rights of sex workers in Thailand. It is also
violating the legal rights enshrined within its own domestic law and state officials are themselves
perpetrating rights violations in the name of anti-trafficking policy and practice.

But what about the children? Legal Framework for Protection of

Children and Minors
Thai society places high value on children and protective law has been in place for centuries. A
large majority of sex workers in Thailand are mothers who have a strong commitment to the well
being of children and young people. Children in Thailand are protected as specified within the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990 which has been ratified by the Thai Government. This
Convention supports comprehensive rights for children, and protections from economic
exploitation, harmful work, sexual exploitation and abuse, abduction, sale and trafficking.
CEDAW General Recommendation No. 26 on Women Migrant Workers, 5th December 2008
Lin Leam Lim, The Sex Sector: The Economic And Social Bases Of Prostitution in Southeast Asia
(ILO 1998).
58 AIM for Human Rights; Fact Sheet 13; Right to Free Choice of Employment and to Just Conditions
of Work
56
57

37

Other laws which provide penalties for the sexual abuse of minors include the Child Labour Act,
and the Thai Penal Code Section 277 and Amendment 278 (Statutory Rape law). The Penal Code
Amendment Act (1999) extends jurisdiction of the law irrespective of nationality and national
location of crime as well as bringing in heavier penalties for commercial sexual abuse of a child.
Amendment 278 provides protection for boys and girls who are the victims of sexual abuse or
sexual assault with penalties for sexual abuse of minors under 13 years from 7-20 years prison
and 14-40,000 baht (USD 466-1300) or Life imprisonment; and for 13-15 year olds: 4-20 years
prison and 8-40,000 baht (USD 266-1300) fine.
In line with the moral ideal that only married people have sex there is no legal age of consent in
Thailand. The Thai Marriage Act sets 18 years as the legal age of marriage for women and men
(Section 1435). However in some circumstances minors under 18 years can be legally married
providing they have the consent of their parents, guardians or a court in Thailand.
Both the Suppression of Prostitution Act and the Entertainment Act have specific provisions and
penalties related to age. The 1996 Suppression of Prostitution Act originated from the older 1960
law that criminalized sex work however did not specify ages or refer specifically to commercial
sexual abuse of children.
The 1996 Suppression of Prostitution Act made commercial sexual acts involving minors under the
age of 18 years an offence, with the strongest punishments reserved for offences involving
children under the age of 15 years. The law has appropriate penalties for venue owners and
procurers ranging from 10-20 year prison terms and fines of 100,000-400,000 baht (USD330013,000). It also has penalties for parents including 4-20 years prison and 80,000-400,000 baht
(USD 2600-13,000) fines; and customers: 1-6 years prison and 40,000-100,000 baht (USD 130030000) who engage in or support the prostitution of minors.
Overall the penalties for the prostitution of minors range from 4 years to life imprisonment and
include the death penalty for cases of extreme exploitation and violence. The Suppression of
Prostitution Act also provides for children and minors to be sent to PODC or welfare shelters,
where they are entitled to welfare assistance, support, education and care under state
guardianship as outlined under the Child Protection Law BE 2546 (2003). The Child Protection law
covers all children in Thailand including migrant children, with a requirement for the child to be
returned into family or guardianship care as soon as possible and institutional residence seen as a
last resort.
The Entertainment Act law also includes age restrictions, setting 20 years as the minimum age for
patrons and 18 years as the minimum age for women to work in entertainment establishments.
The penalty for employing under-age girls is up to 2,000 baht. In practice, if girls under 18 years
are found to be working in entertainment venues in Thailand they are either returned to an
appropriate family environment, or sent to shelters under state guardianship until they reach the
age of 18 years (until 20 years old in special circumstances).
This combination of laws provides a strong framework to protect children and punish individuals
and organizations that sexually exploit or abuse minors. They also clearly define the
entertainment industry in Thailand as an industry of adult workers.
38

In practice however there is a serious gap in resources and real employment options for mature
teenagers who have family responsibilities and need to earn a significant amount of money.
Apprehending and detaining such minors is not effective strategy, they need safe choices, respect
and ongoing support.
Aside from the possibility of compensation, the Suppression and Prevention of
Trafficking Act has added little of benefit to the existing legal framework especially for
women and girls. It is interesting to note that the Suppression and Prevention of
Prostitution Act BE 2539 (1996 AD) carries far higher penalties for the offences
against minors and children. Prison terms for acts against minors for example incur up
to 5 years longer and the fines are double that of the maximum penalties in the
Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act.
Even so it seems authorities and anti-trafficking agencies prefer to use the anti-trafficking Act even
when the Suppression of Prostitution Act would seem more fitting.
During our research we talked with a man on trial for human trafficking. He had been a gardener
at a city park. He noticed a group of 4-5 homeless teenage girls living in the park and selling sex.
They had all ran away from home, all were Thai and from the local area. They told us they knew
of social services available to them but didnt want to contact them. The gardener got to know the
girls, aged 16 -17 years. Soon he had quit his gardening job, rented a house where the girls
moved into and he began arranging customers for them and collecting most of the money i.e.
taking advantage of them and their situation. The girls say they were happy enough with the
arrangement and were free to come and go. He was reported to police and arrested, but instead
of being charged with the recruiting and sexual exploitation of minors or other offences under the
Prostitution Act, he was charged with human trafficking. His case was concluded during our
research period and he was given a 3 year custodial sentence. All the girls have returned to life
and work in the park. We suppose that he and the three girls rescued will be recorded in the antitrafficking statistics and the upcoming TIP report to add to the misleading picture of human
trafficking in Thailand!

39

CHAPTER 3: SUPPRESSION AND PREVENTION OF HUMAN

TRAFFICKING ACT BE 2551

40

The current Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act, hereafter referred to as the Act,
is an amendment to the 1997 anti-trafficking law which did not include recognition of trafficking of
men or boys. The 2008 changes rectified this and increased protection measures for all trafficked
persons.
While the Act contains a number of important protections there remain significant problems both
within the definitions and in the enforcement.

Problems of Definitions
Under the Act the offence of trafficking in persons is defined as consisting of three elements:
TRAFFICKING:
1. Movement or trading of human beings:

Procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining,
harbouring, or receiving any person
2. Use of force or deceit:

By means of the threat or use of force, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or of the
giving money or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person
3. For the purpose of Exploitation
Exploitation means seeking benefits from prostitution, production or distribution of pornographic

materials, other forms of sexual exploitation, slavery, causing another person to be a beggar,
forced labour or service, coerced removal of organs for the purpose of trade, or any other similar
practices resulting in forced extortion, regardless of such persons consent.
If the victim of trafficking is a minor or child (i.e.: under 18 years) there is no need to consider
the issue of consent or deceit: anyone procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or

sending to, detaining or confining, harbouring, or receiving a child for the purpose of exploitation
is guilty of trafficking in persons.
(Sections 4 and 6)

As previously discussed; the singling out of prostitution as if it were in itself a form of sexual
exploitation and a distinct type of trafficking causes confusion and conflation of sex work and
human trafficking. This conflation of the two leads to many of the abuses and human rights
violations we uncovered in our research.
The broad definition of exploitation in the Act which includes anyone seeking benefits from
prostitution with or without consent of the person is also problematic. Seeking benefits could
implicate a wide range of persons in and outside of the sex industry in addition to the traffickers,
exploitative employers and corrupt authorities it is aimed at.
41

For example: Entertainment place owners and support staff e.g. those who clean, cook, or provide
transport. It could also include customers and sex workers families who receive benefits, in cash
or kind. Many NGO, UN agencies and the government also clearly benefit from prostitution via job
opportunities, funding and other economic gains.
This generic definition of trafficking within the Act does not take into account how we sex workers
would define exploitation of our labour, but rather this has been left to the subjective judgment of
others.
The Act also does not allow for the reality of how people are routinely moving and finding
employment in Thailand. There is also wide misunderstanding about the role of smuggling,
including within the anti-trafficking movement. In smuggling, movement is often paid for, it may
be expensive and opportunistic, but does not result in ongoing exploitation. Millions of migrants
from neighboring countries commonly pay fees for brokers who can assist them in their travel and
in finding work in Thailand. This may indeed involve smuggling, yet is often referred to as
interchangeable with human trafficking by authorities and media simply because there has been
movement and an exchange of money. This second conflation, between smuggled and trafficked,
creates a situation where nearly all migrant sex workers could be labelled as trafficked persons
despite their statements to the contrary.
Further confusion occurs concerning the salary advances or loans taken out by migrants coming to
Thailand. These loans are commonly viewed by migrant sex workers as reasonable, useful and
they are generally able to be paid back within a few months of work. However under the Act this
exchange of money can be construed as a payment to family for the womans consent.
The issue of force is key to the crime of human trafficking. While the Act does not define forced
labour, unlike the broad subjective seeking benefits from prostitution - several useful
international definitions of forced labour do exist:

Physical or sexual violence; restriction of movement; debt bondage; withholding or refusing to

pay wages; retaining passports or ID documents and threat of denunciation to authorities 59
Debt bondage is also defined as referring to a system by which workers are kept in bondage by
making it impossible for them to pay off their real, imposed or imagined debt.60
If these definitions were adopted or similarly specific and measurable definitions were in put in
place for sex work then much of the confusion and ensuing human rights abuses against migrant
sex workers would be reduced.
However currently prosecution of trafficking for exploitation of prostitution under the Act requires
that there is evidence of breaches in the three key areas i.e. proof of movement by deception or
force; proof of coercion or force (non consent) and proof of others seeking benefits from
prostitution, except for minors or children where proof of deceit, force or coercion is unnecessary.
From ILO Guidelines on Human Trafficking and Forced Labor Exploitation: Forced labor is further
defined in UDHR, Art 4 / ICCPR Art 8 / ICESCR Art 10/ CEDAW Art 6/ ICRMW Art 11 / ECHR Art 4/ ILO
Convention 29 and 105
60 RIGHT FACT SHEET and defined in Article 1 (a) of the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the
Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Practices similar to Slavery.
59

42

However, as the large majority of women and minors apprehended in Entertainment Places deny
they are trafficked and do not wish to pursue any legal action, anti-trafficking agencies, both state
and non-state have a significant problem. In response, agencies have developed a range of
practices for their evidence collection. Not all of these practices are ethical or even legal, such as
entrapment mentioned previously. However the Act itself gives wide powers to State officials to
collect evidence. Police have the extended powers to enter and investigate any place they believe
is involved in trafficking without the need for a warrant (Section 27.4). The Act also enables
police to detain people against their will (for periods of 24 hours to 7 days in shelters or other
secure venues) in order that authorities can assess whether they are trafficked persons or not
(Section 29).
When women suspected of being minors give their age as over 18 years, as is common, the
agency involved must then provide the court with some proof of age to refute their testimony.
This has led to mandatory age testing conducted by state authorities without informed consent.
(These tests themselves have no scientific credibility as discussed in following chapters).
Anti-trafficking agencies place themselves in the bizarre situation of having to commit
acts of violence and human rights abuses on the women and girls they rescue in order
to try and prove a crime has occurred, despite the denial and lack of cooperation from
the alleged victims.

Protections under the Prevention and Suppression of Human

Trafficking Act
The Act provides a range of protections and rights for trafficked persons including:

Accommodation in government approved shelters, food, medical care, rehabilitation

(physical and mental), education, vocational training. In the provision of these
entitlements human rights principles including the opinion of the person, must be taken
into account seriously (Section 29, 33).
Legal aid, timely legal process and free legal representation in a court of law to
prosecute traffickers; (Section 31, 34)
Compensation from the trafficker for damages as a result of trafficking (Section 33, 34,
35, 37)
Right to temporary stay and work in Thailand while awaiting outcomes of the
prosecution (Section 37)
Privacy: identifying photos or information are not to be circulated via media or other
channels (Section 52)
Safe and timely return home to families and communities , both in Thailand and to
other source countries (Section 33,36,38, 39, 44)

43

Penalties under the Act: Section 6, Section 52-56

The penalties are aimed at anyone who assists in the trafficking process and benefits from the
exploitation of trafficked persons.

Trafficking children up to 15 years old: 8-15 years prison / 160-300,000 baht (USD
5000-10,000) fine
Trafficking minors 15-17 years: 6-12 years prison and 120-140,000 baht (USD 40004500) fine
Trafficking adults 18 years and over: 4-19 years prison and 80-200,000 baht (USD
2500-6500).

The severity of the penalty is also dependent on the status of the trafficker with state officials or
those involved in organized criminal groups receiving the highest penalties. Any three people who,
as a group, benefit from prostitution is defined as an organized criminal group e.g. a manager;
cashier and motorcycle transport boy can be labelled as an organized crime gang. While it looks
impressive on paper for law enforcement to have busted up organized crime rings, on the ground
it is obvious they are neither a gang, well-connected or even very well organized.
The Suppression and Prevention of Prostitution Act imposes far heavier penalties for
forced prostitution which is defined to include confinement, bodily harm, threats,
violence, or deprivation of liberty. Extreme incidences of such crimes against women
or children can result in life imprisonment and even the death penalty (Section 12).

Protections under International Anti-trafficking Commitments

In addition to protections in the national law, the Thai government also has obligations as a
signatory to the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime. Despite the fact that the Thai government has not yet ratified this UN
Trafficking Protocol, the State is obligated as a signatory, to refrain from acts that would defeat
the objectives or undermine this treaty,61 and should act with its signified intention to adhere to all
the protections within the treaty. The protection and assistance outlined in the UN Protocol
Section 2 Articles 6-8 are for the most part mirrored in the Thai Suppression and Prevention of
Human Trafficking Act.
In addition the Thai government has ratified most of the international human rights treaties that
are incorporated into the United Nations Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human
Rights and Human Trafficking. These international Guidelines provide important standards on
which to base national anti-trafficking practice and include core principles that prioritize the
obligation of the State to place the human rights of trafficked persons at the centre of all antitrafficking measures and to ensure that anti-trafficking measures do no harm i.e. do not violate
the human rights of others (migrants, refugees, etc).

AIM for Human Rights, Fact Sheet 7: Human Rights Standards for Preventing and Combating
Trafficking and the protection of the rights of trafficked persons.
61

44

CHAPTER 4: GOVERNMENT ANTI-TRAFFICKING POLICY

45

National Policy and Structure

In order to implement the provisions in the Act, the Thai government has developed a
comprehensive structure which includes a National Action Plan implemented via approximately 14
different government departments. There are also a number of cross-border agreements for
cooperation on trafficking issues with neighboring countries.
The first National Action Plan was developed in 1996. The current plan will cover 2011-2016.
Contrary to all evidence to the contrary the current plan still identifies cross border trafficking for
sexual purposes as the primary trafficking trend in Thailand,62 and targets women who are
trafficked into Thailand as well as Thai women who are trafficked overseas.
The policy includes 7 key operational plans based on: prevention; assistance and protection;
prosecution and suppression; return and reintegration; monitoring and evaluation; administration
and management; and international cooperation.
A number of committees have been established to oversee anti-trafficking activities in Thailand
with representatives from government and NGO, at international, national and regional levels.
Anti-trafficking policy is overseen by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons (ATP) Committee, chaired by
the Prime Minister (Section 15). There are also committees tasked with response and prevention
activities for Thai trafficked persons overseas. These are based in Thai foreign missions abroad,
and include members from the level of attach, consul, ambassador, plus representatives from
government, NGO and Thai communities overseas.
At the national level the committee of the National Operation Centre on Human Trafficking
(NOCHT) plays a national coordination role and includes government departmental heads,
representatives from NGO, and international organizations. At the provincial level the Provincial
Operation Centres on Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking (POCHT), are chaired by
provincial governors, with representatives from provincial level police, social welfare and other
state agencies, plus NGO, civil society and local businesses who work on anti-trafficking activities
in their local area.
The Act also requires the establishment of an Anti-trafficking Fund managed by the Ministry of
Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) (Section 42). The fund is made up of money
from government and international NGO sources and can be used to provide support, protection
and assistance to trafficked persons in Thailand or Thai people overseas. The Fund can also be
accessed for prevention or suppression campaigns (Section 42-51).
The Act has mandatory annual reporting requirements for government departments on antitrafficking activities, including the number and outcomes of trafficking interventions (Section 40),
and monitoring and evaluation of the Fund (Section 49). The main government agencies involved
in administration and implementation of anti-trafficking activities are outlined below.

Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, National Policy Strategies and Measures to
Prevent and Suppress Trafficking in persons (2011-2016)

62

46

y Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS)

The MSDS is the lead government agency for counter-trafficking activities in Thailand,
responsible for coordinating the work of other agencies and providing support for trafficked
persons. It is responsible for the production of the annual reports and evaluations.
The MSDHS manages nine state run Protection and Occupational Development Centres
providing support services and vocational training for men, women, minors and children who
are either affected by trafficking, sex workers under sentence, or people with social or family
problems. The MSDHS also oversees another 76 shelters across Thailand, some of which are
administered by state authorities while others are run by non government organizations.
y Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under the Ministry of Justice (MOJ)
The DSI is responsible for investigation of human trafficking cases and pursuing those deemed
as special cases. The DSI has a special division of police targeted to pursue this area (below)
y Royal Thai Police Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTD)
THE AHTD was established in 2009 as a specialist division within the DSI, with the mandate to
investigate trafficking offences. Provincial level police still follow up the less complex
trafficking cases while the AHTD takes charge of the bigger cases. The AHTD also coordinates
information and responses in all trafficking cases and works with NGO, the MSDHS, local and
provincial police. The AHTD consists of seven divisions the Directors Division and six
specialist units that are based in the following designated provinces in Thailand.

AHTD
AHTD
AHTD
AHTD
AHTD
AHTD

1
2
3
4
5
6

Bangkok,
Ayutthaya
Khon Kaen
Chiang Mai
Nakhon Pathom
Songkhla

y The Office of the Attorney General (OAG)

The OAG is an independent government agency responsible for prosecuting human trafficking
cases. The Center Against International Human Trafficking (CAHT) located within the Attorney
Generals office has eight full-time attorneys devoted to coordinating the prosecution of all
trafficking cases in Thailand. They also have an informal network of more than 180 prosecutors
who aim to share information on trafficking cases. The OAG also trains prosecutors nationwide
in the use of the Act.

Provincial Memorandums of Understanding (MOU)

The national response to trafficking has also included a series of provincial agreements or
memorandum of understanding (MOU) developed since 2003, to oversee the anti-trafficking
response between the 76 provinces of Thailand. These include:
1. National Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Operational Procedures for Concerned
Agencies in Trafficking in Women and Children (1999)
2. MOU on Common Operational Guidelines for Government Agencies, B.E. 2546 (2003)
3. MOU on Operational Guidelines for NGO Engaged in Addressing Trafficking in Children and
Women, B.E. 2546 (2003)
47

4. MOU on Operations between State Agencies and NGO, B.E. 2546 (2003)
5. MOU on Common Guidelines of Practices for Agencies in the Nine Northern Province, B.E.
2546 (2003)
6. MOU on Common Guidelines of Practices for Agencies in the 19 North East Province,
B.E.2549 (2006)
7. MOU on Common Guidelines of Practices for Agencies in the Eastern Province, B.E. 2549
(2006)
8. MOU on Operational Procedures for Concerned Agencies in Prevention, Suppression, and
Solution for Human Trafficking Problem in 17 Northern Provinces, Thailand B.E. 2550
(2007)
9. MOU on Common Guidelines of Practices for Agencies in the 8 South Eastern Provinces,
B.E. 2550 (2007)
10. MOU On Operational Procedures for Concerned Agencies in Human Trafficking in 6
Southwestern Provinces, Thailand B.E. 2550 (2007)
11. MOU on Common Guidelines of Practices for Agencies in the 9 Nine Lower Central
Provinces, B.E. 2554 (2008)
The MOU developed in the year 2003 provide operational guidelines for anti- trafficking activities,
based on the previous Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act of 1997. They cover a
wide range of activities including identifying target groups or trafficked individuals with explicit
focus on women, minors or children found to be in the sex trade or exported as prostitutes. The
guidelines outline the roles and responsibilities of government social welfare staff, police, NGO,
shelter staff and embassies. They cover procedures such as fact-finding, assessment and support
and the deportation process for migrants, and offer important protections such as the requirement
for a translator when interviewing trafficked persons.63 These MOU endorse the practice of
medical tests by state medical authorities, including physical and dental examinations, to
determine the age of people who have no ID documents, or in cases when officials suspect the ID
documents to be false, or are incomplete.64
The four MOU developed in 2006 -2007 formalize the operations of provincial anti-trafficking
activities under the Provincial Operation Centers on Prevention and Suppression of Human
Trafficking (POCHT). The POCHT is mandated to form multidisciplinary teams whose aim is to
rescue trafficked persons.
All of the MOU have similar provisions for these teams which include: an explicit target on rescuing
women and children in the sex industry; operational guidelines for the teams to plan and execute
raids; restrictions on photos and sharing identifying information about trafficked persons;
procedures to identify trafficked persons with the help of official investigators, social workers and
psychiatrists; and a mandate to follow up support and legal cases.
The MOU are all based on the 1997 law except for the latest MOU for the lower central provinces
which is based on the 2008 Act. The 2007 and 2008 MOU include mention of men, reflecting
recent expanding of the anti-trafficking focus. The latest MOU also has additions that are relevant
Operational Guidelines for NGO Engaged in Addressing Trafficking in Children &Women, B.E.
2546 (2003) Section 5
64 MOU on Common Operational Guidelines for Government Agencies, B.E. 2546 (2003) Sections:
4.4, 4.5.5.5,6.4,6.5
63

48

to the current Act including: protection of internationally recognized rights of the child, right to
confidential interview techniques, and additional duties assigned to the POCHT to provide support
for trafficked persons to stay and work temporarily in Thailand. This includes assistance to find a
job and secure a work permit. The MOU however fails to document the process for people to apply
for and obtain compensation as is their right under the Act. All of the MOU include reference to
fundamental human rights principles for the protection of trafficked persons.

Regional and Bilateral MOU

The Thai government has signed a number of bilateral and regional agreements to combat
trafficking since 2002. In 2004 the Thai government joined the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial
Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) alongside the five other Greater Mekong States: Cambodia,
China, Lao PDR, Burma and Vietnam. This resulted in an MOU between the countries known as
the 2004 COMMIT MOU against Trafficking in Persons.
The COMMIT MOU is based on international standards, uses the UN Trafficking Protocol definition,
and emphasizes a person centred approach to trafficking prevention. COMMIT however also
highlights the need for effective migration processes, labour laws and monitoring of labour
recruitment processes for all countries in the region.
The COMMIT structure includes a national COMMIT Taskforce made up of Thai government
officials from police, justice, social welfare, and womens affairs. This taskforce has the mandate to
develop the national anti-trafficking work plan for Thailand, as well as help develop sub-regional
plans of action (SPA). Currently the SPA III: 2011-2013 are underway.
The COMMIT taskforce works in collaboration with other taskforces from the Mekong countries
and the process is supported by a wide range of partners including UN agencies, NGO, intergovernmental organizations, donor organizations, and academia. The UN Interagency Project on
Human Trafficking (UNIAP) is the Secretariat to the COMMIT Process which covers regional antitrafficking activities in the area of: policy and cooperation, prevention, support and repatriation,
legal frameworks, data collection, monitoring and evaluation.
Bilateral MOU targeting trafficking have also been signed by Thailand, Laos, Burma, Vietnam and
Cambodia over the last seven years. The definition of trafficking in the MOU is based on the UN
Trafficking Protocol and all MOU specifically discuss exploitation in prostitution as if it were a form
of trafficking. These MOU provide standard protections for trafficked persons including: access to
legal representation, shelter, protection, vocational training, health treatment, safe repatriation,
right to compensation and freedom from prosecution for immigration offences. They also outline
official deportation, cooperation and data sharing processes between states.
In addition to the COMMIT process the Thai government has signed the ASEAN Declaration
against Trafficking emphasizing a commitment to develop formalized migration processes within
ASEAN; to uphold human rights protections for trafficked persons; and to prosecute traffickers.
Bilateral and regional anti-trafficking agreements signed by the Thai government:
1. MOU between Thailand and Cambodia on Bilateral Cooperation for Eliminating
Trafficking in Children and Women and Assisting Victims of Trafficking 2003
49

2. ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children

DARE
3. The MOU on Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons in the Greater Mekong SubRegion, 2004
4. MOU between Thailand and Lao PDR on Cooperation to Combat Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, 2005
5. MOU between Thailand and Vietnam on Bilateral Cooperation for Eliminating
Trafficking in Children and Women and Assisting Victims of Trafficking 2008
6. MOU between Thailand and Myanmar on Cooperation to Combat Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children 2009

50

CHAPTER 5: POLICY AND PRACTICE - MIND THE GAP

51

When good policy becomes bad practice

We found that the Thai Governments comprehensive national and regional policy and guidelines
concerning approaches to address human trafficking are in line with the Suppression and
Prevention of Human Trafficking Act. However in reality there is a huge gap between policy and
practice.
Whats what? Accountability
There is no central common monitoring or reporting system used by anti-trafficking NGO or
government departments in Thailand. A number of government departments collect and keep
information about human trafficking but each uses a different system and collects different types
of information.
Despite being required under the Act to produce yearly reports and comprehensive monitoring of
the state activities and the anti-trafficking fund, the Ministry of Social Development and Human
Security (MSDHS) has to date produced only one national annual report on anti-trafficking
activities in year 2009.
Anti-trafficking NGO appear to use their own individual data reporting systems to monitor and
evaluate their own activities and these are not routinely available for public scrutiny.
Many NGO and government representatives interviewed for our research were able to discuss one
or two individual examples of trafficking and interventions, however were reluctant or unable to
give any specific data on the numbers of persons assisted nor measure the extent of the
trafficking problem in general.

Everyone says we had one case or we had two cases. Often it turns out to be the
same story told by different organizations so four organizations are all talking about
we had one case
Lek, research team leader, sex worker, Chiang Mai
Even given the lack of credible evidence, generally the anti-trafficking NGO we talked with were
confident that human trafficking is a major issue of concern in Thailand. Most expressed
frustration that addressing the issue was often hindered by an ineffective police response, a slow
prosecution process and a lack of understanding by state officials of the Act, including the victim
identification process. The Act itself was felt to be comprehensive but the enforcement
inadequate.
There are several areas and border towns often labelled by agencies as Hot Spots of human
trafficking. However, police and government officials in a number of these alleged hot spots
reported that there was either no trafficking occurring or only one or two instances of trafficking
ever found in their area. Our research team received a number of provincial and regional level
reports from the MSDHS and attended a number of state sponsored anti-trafficking meetings held
in 2011.65 From these sources it appeared that there was much confusion regarding the Act and
its definitions amongst state welfare, immigration and police officials. A common
65

See Appendix for list of reports and meetings attended

52

misunderstanding appeared to be the confusion between undocumented migrant workers and

trafficked persons, or smuggling and trafficking.

Nobody understands trafficking - so we cant tell what is trafficking and what is not.
For example: if a Laos person comes into Ubon looking for work and then goes to other
provinces and they agree to the wage they get, there is not any force used, including
both women and men over 18, or under 18 years is this trafficking or not?
Comments from Provincial level MSDHS Report

There is no trafficking in Mukdaharn - no trafficking cases have been found here it

is a transit point people come here from Laos and pass through here on their way
elsewhere to other places. They come the normal illegal way without documents
they are difficult to identify because they pretend to be Thai.
Comments from Provincial level MSDHS Report
Over the last five years, there have been a range of training programs, resource guides and
information developed to assist police, immigration officials and NGO to find and identify persons
trafficked for exploitation in prostitution.
There have been no targeted publications or trainings given to sex workers, sex worker
organizations, Entertainment Place owners, sex worker employers or support staff.
Police respondents noted that despite the fact that they had received training on the Act, there are
still some areas that are difficult to understand. In general though the police were positive about
the Act and its protections for trafficked persons, however they found that the implementation
process and paperwork is complicated and creates an increased work load.
The core group of 36 sex worker leaders who studied the Act had little trouble
understanding its scope, content and provisions. It is not a particularly lengthy or
complicated law in itself.
We propose that the difficulty that police and others have in understanding and
enforcing the Act, is when it is incorrectly applied to people who staunchly deny they
have been trafficked and insist they are over 18 years old.
None of the entertainment industry employers we spoke with had ever seen the Act, even those
who had been convicted of trafficking had little knowledge of it.
When analysing the Act sex workers working on the project were very critical that the provisions
made for education and training of trafficked persons required compulsory stay in shelters and
that the final outcome for all trafficked persons was deportation.

Why do women have to be trafficked and locked up to access education and training.
Why not provide it anyway?
Nong, research partner, sex worker leader, Mae Sot
53

Who? Identification of persons being trafficked and assisted

The types of trafficking and the number of persons who have been assisted under the Act is
impossible to determine because as mentioned earlier the national data is inconsistent, published
rarely and difficult to access. The data that is available does not include sufficient information to
determine clearly the numbers or demographics of trafficked persons who have been officially
assisted in Thailand each year.
Data on arrest and prosecution outcomes is easier to come by, however these figures do not
reflect the actual numbers of trafficked persons involved.
When collating these findings with the opinions of other stakeholders and the little reliable data we
were able to access the following snapshot of human trafficking interventions since the enactment
of the Act in 2008 emerges:66
2008 -2011 Trafficked persons assisted:
There have been between 363 and 530 persons recorded as trafficked and receiving
assistance in state supported shelters each year. However each person is re-counted every
year as long as they are still receiving assistance, meaning real totals are lower again still.
The numbers include men, women, minors and children trafficked into Thailand to work in
various industries. People mostly came from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, with smaller
numbers from Vietnam and China.
There have been between 309 and 443 Thai people each year who have been returned to
Thailand after being trafficked overseas. Once again they are counted again every year
that they receive assistance. They also includes men, women and children trafficked into in
various industries. No data is provided on gender, yet figures are said to include mainly
adult women trafficked into the sex industry in Singapore, Bahrain, UAE, Malaysia, Taiwan,
and Japan.
Incidence and Arrests
THAILAND DATA 2008 - 2009:67
A total of 221 traffickers were arrested for their involvement in the 42 cases of trafficking
identified in the first year of the Act.
Of those arrested, 120 (54%) were charged with involvement in 20 (47%) incidents of
trafficking for exploitation of prostitution identified in the year. The remainder were
arrested for trafficking for other types of forced labour (30%) or forced begging. (12%)
In the following year 2009 authorities almost doubled the number of trafficking incidences
66
67

US Trafficking in Persons reports 2008 to 2011

MSDHS 2009 Report on the Situation, Prevention, Suppression of Trafficking in Persons, NOCHT

54

identified. In all 97 cases of trafficking were now identified, with 58 (59%) being trafficking for
exploitation of prostitution.
Since the Act was implemented in June 2008 till June 201168 there have been 253 actual
convictions with 159 (67%) of successful convictions being for trafficking for exploitation of
prostitution. There is no data provided on the length of sentences that traffickers received. Two
of the people convicted of trafficking for exploitation of prostitution interviewed in our research
however told us they received between 2-3 years in prison for their offences.
TYPE OF TRAFFICKING
PROSECUTIONS

2008

2009

2010

2011

TOTAL

Exploitation of Prostitution

19

56

58

26

159
(67%)

Labour

13

27

10

56

Begging

16

Sexual Exploitation

Organ

Pornography

Slavery

Extortion

TOTAL

48

101

72

32

253

(DATA from AHTD Police, Bangkok: From 5th June 2008 to June 2011)
During 2010 the Attorney Generals Office estimated that they had 79 reports of human trafficking.
From January 2010 until March 2011 the Court had ruled on 18 of these cases, dismissed 5 cases,
and were continuing to investigate and interview witnesses in the remaining 56 cases as of August
2011.69
Given the anti-trafficking movements primary focus is on the sex industry and the size
of our migrant workforce we found that the above data fully supports our anecdotal
evidence from sex workers and employers, that trafficking into the sex industry in
Thailand is the exception rather than the rule. We find the picture also shows that
trafficking for exploitation of prostitution is more likely to be investigated, identified,
arrests made and convictions upheld.

68
69

Correspondence Report from Bangkok AHTD police data2011

Correspondence from Attorney General Office, Thailand, 2011

55

It was pointed out to us by NGO and police that it was difficult to identify and prosecute cases of
forced labour. Reasons they gave for this include: the absence of a definition of forced labour
within the Act, the lack of access to factories and other workplaces, the political sensitivity of the
migrant labour issue in Thailand and the difficulty of proving force, coercion and exploitation in a
labour context.

Our workplaces are wide open every night with fairy lights to show the way! Of
Oa, research partner, Empower Chiang Mai
course its easier to visit us
Many NGO note that the trend of concentrating on trafficking for exploitation in prostitution to the
exclusion of other perhaps more common forms of trafficking is beginning to change. There has
been a move to include concerns for men trafficked, particularly those being exploited within the
Thai fishing industry. There is also a slow shift towards addressing trafficking and exploitation of
migrants working in factories, construction and other migrant labour intensive industries in
Thailand.

We dont want the police involved in workplaces. We dont want the police carrying
out raids as we see happen for the sex industry. Exploitation and forced labour in any
industry, including the sex industry is primarily a labour issue that needs to be solved
using labour mechanisms. We only wish that even a fraction of the money and
resources spent on anti-trafficking could have been channelled into existing
mechanisms like, Labour Inspection teams.
Jackie Pollock, Director, MAP Foundation
How? The Process
Generally police investigations begin with a report of suspected trafficking to a designated hotline
or other contacts. Reports come from various sources e.g. NGO, the general public, customers in
the sex industry, and from people who seek help themselves or their friends and family. Billboards
and posters, albeit strangely often only in English language, are displayed encouraging reporting.
Some NGO do their own searching by sending their volunteers to karaoke bars and massage
parlours to find trafficked women and girls.
Of course this all results in the police getting a large share of malicious, false or mistaken reports.
Police say that most of their anti-trafficking work, and most of the reports they receive are related
to minors, girls 15 - 18 years old, who are said to be working in karaoke bars in forced
prostitution. However reporting is frequently inaccurate, for example police in the north of
Thailand estimate that only 1 in 10 reports of trafficking for exploitation of prostitution they
receive turn out to be true.70
Police also pointed out another reason why data available is so contradictory. Those who report
trafficking cases often confuse undocumented migration or smuggling with trafficking. The public
or NGO may initially report an incidence of suspected human trafficking involving large numbers of
people however after proper investigation there is often a much smaller number or no actual
70

Interview with police from Anti Human Trafficking Division 4 Chiang Mai, July 2011

56

trafficked persons, arrests or prosecutions.71

Anti-trafficking organizations claim that the mismatch between the numbers of first reports of
trafficking and the actual arrests is more a problem of the lack of training, information and follow
up from police and prosecutors in Thailand.
This disconnect between agencies is fuelled by the lack of clear definition of exploitation of
prostitution in the Act and the resistance from migrant sex workers and minors to being defined as
trafficked persons.
In order for an arrest for trafficking to proceed there needs to be both adequate evidence and
reliable testimony from those affected. Both police and NGO reported that it is difficult to obtain
testimony from women or girls who do not identify themselves as trafficked; were not looking for
help; do not want to, or simply cannot afford to be involved in lengthy legal cases, but would
rather move on to new work or just return home.
In the face of all evidence to the contrary many anti-trafficking NGO continue to assert that there
is still a large number of minors and children being trafficked into the Thai sex industry.
They claim to consistently see girls, particularly Laos girls between the ages of 14-16 years being
trafficked into forced into prostitution in Thailand. However what they see is not reflected at all in
the combined knowledge of the sex worker community, anti-trafficking police, government
shelters or the courts.
We found that many anti-trafficking NGO have few connections and little experience with the sex
worker community. They struggle to understand our work and do not manage to differentiate
between minors and adults, preferring to see us all as girls and victims. Their confusion leaves
no space for us to be independent working women and can lead them to apply a very broad
interpretation of trafficking under the Act.

Firstly some girls are just automatically victims of trafficking because their age is
below 18; Secondly, some girls come to the process by deceit and luring but not that
much; Thirdly - some have no choice in their life, they have debts and most have
come here to work it is the lack of information that they are given that is the
problem most of them are unwilling to do sex work at first but we think they
become victims because they dont have any other choices
Coordinator TRAFCORD, Chiang Mai

I did so many jobs before sex work. I was exploited in every one of them. Sex work
gives me the most independence, freedom and the best conditions. Its the same for
all my friends. We are grateful and thank you for your concern, but please dont rescue
Feedback from senior AHT police at Anti-trafficking Rapid Report and Response Meeting,
Pattaya, July 2011
71

57

me
Pim, research partner, sex worker from Burma, Chiang Mai

Why? Prosecution and Suppression the criminal justice approach

The use of raids, rescue, arrests and prosecution of traffickers has been the major strategy used
to target trafficking for exploitation of prostitution in Thailand.
As previously noted in Chapter 2 raids on entertainment places are carried out for a variety of
purposes and are fairly common. Most migrant sex workers joining our research had experienced
raids and arrests by police, while working in Thailand.
There is no data publicly available on the actual number of raids specifically targeting trafficking.
In our research two out of nine towns/cities visited had experienced anti-trafficking raids in 2011.
A search of online media reports of anti-trafficking raids on the sex industry in Thailand showed
that over the last three years (June 2008-June 2010) there have been a total of 32 raids reported
in the English language online media at least 10 a year. All except one of the reported raids
were in provinces in the Central South of Thailand, with the majority of raids occurring in areas
with a well known tourism industry or a high population of migrant workers. The raids are mostly
made on entertainment places such as karaoke, bars and restaurants; and some raids on massage
parlors, hotel rooms, and houses.
In total 389 women were reported in the English language media to have been apprehended by
police in these raids with 48 trafficked persons identified, either with or without their cooperation
a ratio of about 1 trafficked person identified for every 8 women arrested.
NGO are also involved in the raids and see them as a useful way to be involved from the initial
point of rescue, to support trafficked persons and to ensure that there is enough evidence to
prosecute traffickers to stop them from trafficking others.72
As sex workers, we know raids to be violent, terrifying events that violate our safety, security and
liberty leading to detention and often deportation.
Generally specialist anti-trafficking (AHTD) police lead the raid and rescue operations, local police
may or may not have a role depending on how well they are trusted by AHTD police. The AHTD
police often work with anti-trafficking groups to investigate venues where they suspect trafficking
is occurring. The police go undercover and look for three main things:

First we check the faces of the women to see who looks young, then we check to see
if there is an agent around and lastly we check to see if there is sex being sold
Police, Chiang Mai Division 4 AHTD
72

Interview with Coordinator TRAFCORD , Chiang Mai

58

In fact we believe in all entertainment places in Thailand, depending on ones agenda, it would be
relatively easy to find young looking women, support staff who could be called an agent and the
offer of sexual services, yet there may be absolutely no trafficking for the exploitation of
prostitution.
However, if all three factors are present the multi-disciplinary team (police, NGO, state welfare
department) will meet together for a planning session they call the War Room to organize a raid.
If there is a need to gather more evidence the police may use the process of entrapment. This
entails police and/or volunteers, posing as customers and attempting to pay for sexual services
with minors or adult women who are suspected of being trafficked. They aim to collect evidence
such as: payment chips, money transfers, condoms, and receipts, to be used in the prosecution of
trafficking cases.
We believe that most business premises, not only entertainment businesses will have things like
pay slips, condoms, receipts and money transfers without any trafficking being involved.
The element of surprise and storming the venue to apprehend the people there is customary. In
this process police and NGO will also collect evidence, confiscating mobile phones, bags. They also
take photos of those apprehended, both suspected traffickers, women and minors women and
also of the venue. These photos and details of the raid often appear in the media, in direct
contradiction of the Act Section 56 Article 3.
Women are then generally taken to the police station for questioning to determine if they are
trafficked.
A leading anti-trafficking NGO73 estimates that on most raids, an average of 3-5 victims are
rescued for every 10-20 women who are working there voluntarily in sex work - a ratio of 1 to 4,
which is a higher estimate than the ratio of 1:8 as evident in the media reports. In quite a few of
the raids mentioned in media and by NGO, it was found that the women who were initially
identified as being trafficked, had by the time of the raid, escaped or left the venue or their own
volition, leaving no one being willing to submit to being rescued.74
In fact we found that most women who are in exploitative working environments within the sex
industry, generally find ways to escape or change their conditions enlisting the help of other
workers, customers, or in some cases by re-negotiation of their debts and working conditions with
employers or venue owners. Given the employers close relationship with corrupt authorities, our
lack of documents, the criminalization of our work, and our inevitable detention and deportation
required by law, sex workers do not consider approaching any official channels for help.
Age Assessment
For everyone, minors and children trafficked into any situation are the persons of most concern.
This is also true for people trafficked for exploitation of prostitution. Most anti-trafficking NGOs,
police and officials said they focused on removing minors and children from the sex industry.
Actually the Act also ensures that prosecuting for offences where minors or children are trafficked
73
74

Interview with Coordinator TRAFCORD , Chiang Mai

Reports in Online Media 2008-2011

59

for exploitation of prostitution is much simpler than for adults or other occupations. Where the
person is a minor or a child, police and prosecutors no longer have to prove force or even need
the person to admit to being trafficked. They are only required to show proof of the person being
under 18 years age and the charge of trafficking can follow automatically.
However there remains a problem when people suspected of being trafficked minors identify
themselves as willing adult workers.
This has created the situation where women and girls apprehended in raid and rescue operations
are forced to undergo medical testing in an effort to determine their biological age. The methods
currently used involve dental exam and bone x-rays.

Identifying the ages of trafficked persons is very important at the prosecution level as
the penalties for traffickers of children between 15-18 years are higher than for adults
and so in these cases police and prosecutors want to be able to push for higher
penalties for the traffickers.
Program Director, IOM, Bangkok
Once the raid and identification process is completed, the police remain involved only to the extent
where more evidence is required. Otherwise the case gets passed over to the Office of the
Attorney General and the public prosecutor to follow up. Our research found that delays in the
completion of court cases have ranged from 1 month to 12 months and counting. During this time
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both those classified as trafficked persons and migrant sex workers are held in mandatory
detention in state or NGO shelters. (See section below)

Assistance and Protection

All minors found in entertainment place raids and all trafficked adults are automatically sent to
womens shelters or government run Protection and Occupational Development Centers (PODC).
Here they are entitled to support services under the Act including: education, training, health care,
psycho-social rehabilitation and the right to stay in Thailand temporarily. Adults also have the
right to work in Thailand temporarily. In the research it was also found that adult sex workers
who were not trafficked, but were required to be witnesses in anti-trafficking prosecutions, were
also sent to shelters (see section below). It is not possible to determine the actual number of
women or minors currently being held in shelters in Thailand. Data from shelters is either
incomplete or unavailable for public access despite several formal requests from our research
team. NGO estimate that victims of trafficking generally stay in shelters for a period of 6-9
months awaiting court cases and receiving support services. That may be true as an average
range but our research found that periods of detention of 18 months to 2 years were also not
uncommon.
Shelter Conditions
Sex workers working on our research project that had either visited or been detained in
government or womens shelters identified a number of issues of concern. The major issue is the
involuntary nature of detainment both trafficked persons and non trafficked sex workers are
detained, against their will, and forced to undergo occupational training and rehabilitation therapy.

I was held in the shelter for two years before they let me go
Mai, research partner, Tai Yai sex worker, Mae Sai
The Act gives the responsibility and power to detain women is to the state Ministry of Social
Development and Human Security. Even though the Act expressly asserts that the opinion of the
trafficked person should be sought we could find no evidence of any process for this or any
incidence of this being carried out. Indeed, policy provides the power for police to forcibly return
women if they manage to escape from the shelter. Shelter staff at the main government shelter
near Bangkok, explained their policy in this way:

The women here who are over 18 are all here voluntarily but they cannot just leave
of their own accord as we are responsible for their safety and protection so we have to
check out where they are going, when and who with
Baan Kredtrakarn staff

I was there for nearly two years and I never heard of any one going out...only some
Bim, Laos sex worker, Ubon Thani
escaped but I dont know how
Minors who are in the shelter have no right to leave until they reach 18 years of age, but even
61

then they are detained until their family members or guardians are found and approved of. Still
their release is contingent upon the opinion or assessment by shelter staff and state welfare
officials. This practice is intended to fulfill State responsibility to protect people from further
exploitation and to ensure that they are released into supported, safe and secure environments
with their families and communities. However it becomes problematic when the rights and
opinions of the women and minors are ignored.
The main government shelter Baan Kredtrakarn is located on an island in the middle of the Chao
Payoe river outside of Bangkok in Nontaburi. Originally a leper colony, it has been used for more
than 50 years to rehabilitate prostitutes and more recently also supports trafficked women and
girls.
In our community its simply called Ban Kred. Its infamous and has been for decades. Sex workers
joke about it but we are really scared of being sent to Ban Kred mainly because of its reputation
as a prison for prostitutes.
Nowadays it is widely promoted by the government and others as a model for assisting trafficked
women and girls in Thailand.
Whilst staying in the shelters, women are often prohibited entirely from contacting family, friends
or outside agencies particularly if they are waiting to testify in a court case. This is justified again
as a protective measure, especially for those whose family members or friends may be suspected
of being part of the trafficking.

Sometimes it takes months of being isolated from the outside to convince these girls
how bad their parents are.
Psychologist Baan Kredtrakarn
In practice however this means that womens phones are confiscated and their letters and phone
calls are monitored by shelter staff.
Migrants whose family communicate in a language other than Thai are not allowed any contact as
there is no one able to monitor or censor communications other than in Thai language.
This leaves them totally isolated from their families and communities and allows no recourse or
access to justice if they are mistreated in the shelter. In this regard they are treated more like
criminals rather than victims.

I was in detention in the police cells once and we could use the phone whenever we
wanted as long as we had 10 baht Mai, research partner, Tai Yai sex worker, Mae Sai
Baan Kredtrakarn has a system of punishments if women and children misbehave including things
like: scrubbing the bathroom floors, not being allowed to have treats, and not being allowed to
see visitors.
Seeing family is a reward we can take away if they break the rules this makes them

feel very bad because their families pay a lot of money to come and see them so this
is the most effective punishment for us
Baan Kredtrakarn psychologist
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Also in Baan Kredtrakarn it appeared that migrant women and children were discriminated against
in a number of ways. All women and children in the shelter, have access to study Thai Non formal
education (equivalent to Thai Primary and High school), unless their IQ is deemed too low in
which case they are offered only gender biased vocational training. This includes weaving,
hairdressing, making plastic baskets and handicrafts, fruit carving, cooking, and foot massage.
Women do not receive any formal certificates for their vocational training however as it is seen as
a rehabilitation program not a true occupational training.
In this context migrant women who spoke Thai with an accent or had limited Thai language skills;
or those who had been denied their right to education in their home countries and were not
literate in any language have been frequently judged as of low intelligence. After over a year in
the shelter they leave still without any education, marketable skills or formal qualifications. This
did little to support them to reintegrate back into society or find new work opportunities as is the
aim of the support program.

I was dropped off here in Mae Sai (on the Thai Burma border) with a bag of cloth
dolls to make and sell. No one wanted to buy them. I went back to my old boss and
luckily he gave me my job back in the karaoke bar. I learned Thai with Empower in
the daytime for about three months I can read the Thai newspaper now and will enroll
in the school next term. What a waste of two years of my life
Mai, research partner, Tai Yai sex worker, Mae Sai
In theory all women are eligible for a daily living allowance which is managed by shelter
administration staff. However in Baan Kredtrakarn the staff told us that only Thai women were
able to open a bank account which meant, in their minds, that migrant women were not able to
receive this money. They also felt that the womens home countries should be the ones to pay
though there was no talk of any process to make this a reality. They also restricted family support
payments to Thai citizens for similar reasons.
However shelters and department staff in other provinces had found ways to ensure migrants
received at least a portion of the financial support available to Thai citizens.
Translation and Communication
In Baan Kredtrakarn and other shelters, there were concerns raised in the research, about the lack
of translators available to women. Translation is rarely available in shelters, and on the occasions
it was available it was frequently of poor quality. This issue however seems to occur not only in
shelters, but also in various stages of the legal process, including in court cases, in police
interviews, and in mandatory health testing at hospitals. It appears that the use of translators for
communication with migrant women, who are plaintiffs or witnesses in trafficking cases, is
sporadic and relies on volunteer translators or sometimes the women or minors who are involved
in the process are themselves used as translators for other women.
One of the reasons for this shortage and lack of standard training is that under current migrant
worker policy translator is not recognized as an occupation available for migrants to do. This
means that departments and NGO cannot hire translators or even have them volunteer without
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breaching regulations. The Action Network for Migrants, Raks Thai, MAP Foundation and Empower
and other organizations have been advocating for the government to recognize translator as a
category for migrant registration, especially for translation in health and legal settings.

Witnesses
Our research found that in some shelters sex workers are not being held for the purposes of
rehabilitation or recovery from trafficking, but rather they are detained as witnesses in trafficking
cases. Again it is not possible to determine how many women are currently being held as
witnesses in Thailand however this process is fraught with abuses. The women held as witnesses
face the same conditions as trafficked persons including forced detention in the shelter, isolation
from family and community, and discrimination either as migrant women and/or sex workers. In at
least one instance (outlined in section below) this situation has sled to difficulties within the
shelter. Women being held as witnesses do not want to stay in the shelter and so quite rightly
protest by withdrawing their cooperation with shelter staff and refusing to take part in vocational
training. This has caused difficulties for shelter staff, who see their role as supporting women who
want to be helped, not to detain women against their will.

I am a social worker not a prison warden. I want to help people not be involved in
locking them up.
Staff at a shelter in Thailand who asked not to be identified
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It appears shelters are commonly used for detainment purposes despite the fact that it is illegal,
violates the human rights of the women being held and causes great distress for the women and
for shelter staff.

Right to Work
Under the Act, adult trafficked persons staying in shelters have the right to temporary work
opportunities if they are required to stay in Thailand awaiting legal or repatriation procedures.
In our research however it was found that this right is not being extended to women. In 2011, for
the first time in Thailand, nine men who had been trafficked into the fisheries industry who were
staying in a shelter in the south of Thailand were permitted the opportunity to work. The men
were allowed out of the shelter to do daily labouring work, were paid 200 baht a day (above
minimum wage), and returned to the shelter at night.75 One man was allowed to live outside the
shelter with his wife whilst he awaited the chance to testify in court. Another managed to save
70,000 Baht (130USD) during his time. This situation however is vastly different for women in
shelters.
None of the women are allowed to leave the shelter to work or take part in any activity.

In Thailand men who are victims of trafficking and staying in shelters can go out and
get work while they wait for their cases but we cannot let these women out. These
women are weaker and more vulnerable than men to being tricked again so instead
they are able to stay inside and we bring the work to them or they can make
handicrafts.
Psychologist, Baan Kredtrakarn
Women at Baan Kredtrakarn as in many other shelters are obliged to work making dolls and
handicraft items to be sold in the shelter store that is also behind the helter walls on the island.
They are not paid for their labour when making these products, they do not have the option of
setting prices, or choosing where to sell their products, and receive only 70% of sale price if the
product sells - with the shelter keeping the rest for the cost of the tutor and materials. If your
products dont sell you are never compensated for your time or labour, even though the work is
not an optional activity. Products in the shop ranged from 25 baht to 300 baht (less than USD1 to
USD10)
This does not satisfy womens right to work under the Act. It is clear discrimination based on
gender. It is especially cruel for us as we are largely the main family providers. We know our
families are suffering terribly because of our detention and inability to earn.
These problems in shelters in Thailand have been highlighted consistently by NGO, researchers
and even those in the anti-trafficking movement, as issues that need priority resolution. The latest
US TIP report summarizes the issues still occurring in 2011:

There were regular reports during the year of foreign trafficking victims who fled
75

International Organization for Migration, (IOM), Interview, Bangkok, March 2011

65

shelters, likely due to slow legal and repatriation processes, the inability to earn
income during trial proceedings, language barriers, and distrust of government
officials. There were reported instances in which victims opted not to seek designation
as trafficking victims due to systemic disincentives, such as long stays in shelters
during lengthy repatriation and court processes.
US TIP Thailand Country Report 2011

For those who do not accept our work or misunderstand the modern context of sex
work in Thailand they may believe that anything is better than where we were when
they found us. Some on the outside they may think sitting around in a shelter sewing ,
getting free food and board is much better than working every night in a brothel.
Maybe they think we have nothing better to do with our time. So somehow we need to
show them that in a brothel we had our freedom, we were earning good money for our
families, we were not a burden on Thailand, we even had fun. We need to show them
that our time, families, freedom and independence is just as precious as theirs. How
can we show them?
From discussion by research team
Compensation
Trafficked persons in Thailand are eligible for compensation either via criminal proceedings for the
crime of trafficking and/or via Labour Court for exploitation. It seems however that woman
trafficked for exploitation of prostitution rarely receive any compensation or have access to either
process. Like everyone else if we are trafficked we have the right under the Act for the public
prosecutor to make a claim for criminal damages to be awarded and to be paid out of the assets
of the trafficker.
The Act also allows the government to confiscate assets of convicted traffickers and add them to
the National anti-trafficking fund to be used to assist people affected by trafficking or other antitrafficking activities. In the financial year of 2010, seven million Baht (230,000 USD) worth of
assets were seized.
National data on trafficking compensation claims is difficult to access. There have been
compensation claims awarded in the past for forced labour such as migrant workers trafficked into
the Thai fisheries sector, and there is anecdotal evidence that increased compensation claims for
people affected by trafficking are being made to the Thai Courts over the last year.76
During the research we were only able to find one anecdotal report where compensation was
awarded to two minors who were trafficked for exploitation of prostitution. NGO and government
officials generally had not heard of any compensation claims being awarded for people trafficked
into the sex industry. Certainly there were no successful trafficking compensation claims reported
in 2010 for people trafficked for exploitation of prostitution, which is of real concern considering
our over-representation in trafficking arrests and prosecutions in Thailand.
Making a compensation claim is a difficult and lengthy process. However the Act gives the MSDHS
SIREN 2010, The Criminal Justice Response to Human Trafficking, Strategic Information Response
Network, Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons (ARTIP) Project, AUSAID and UNIAP

76

66

the obligation to support people affected by trafficking to make compensation claims via the legal
process. The law mandates the public prosecutor or inquiry official must inform the person of
their right to compensation and the prosecutor is to represent them in court.
Each claim must be approved by the sitting judge. The amount of compensation awarded is
dependent on the seriousness of the crime and the assets of the trafficker.
This entire process may take more than a year to complete not withstanding delays in court
proceedings. Indeed feedback from the Office of Attorney Generals in Thailand shows that over 15
months, only 23 compensation for trafficking cases were completed (less than 2 per month), by a
team of eight full time attorneys.77 As there is no accessible data available on compensation
outcomes, it is difficult to know who did or did not receive compensation.
The relative absence of claims leads us to believe it is unlikely that the process is happening in a
routine manner for all trafficked persons in Thailand. The compensation process requires further
investigation and follow-up within the Ministry of Justice.
Recently in November 2011, three minors deported after 8 months detention in a shelter were
given a single payment of 4,000 Baht each (130 USD) by a leading anti-trafficking group. Prior to
being apprehended they were employed as waitresses and singers in a Karaoke bar earning 4,000
Baht a month salary plus tips, generally taking home 5-6,000 Baht a month. Their earnings would
have been at a minimum 40,000 Baht for the time they were detainedten times more than they
were given by way of compensation or perhaps as an incentive not to return to Thailand.

They gave us 4,000 Baht each and told me I could contact them if I want to start
Amee, research partner, Akkha, from Shan State, Burma
sewing at home.
In contrast, Thai people returning from being trafficked overseas usually receive compensation
from destination country governments of approximately 1000 USD which is separate from any
legal compensation awarded by overseas courts and is not dependent on their testimony.
Even so the feeling that people who have been trafficked are somehow deficient lingers. This
grant is managed by an international NGO and the Thai MSDHS and can be used for activities such
as education, health costs or business development in Thailand. It cannot be used freely and is
conditional e.g. cannot be used to pay off migration debts and only a small amount can be used
for basic necessities.
Deportation is Inevitable
The lengthy detention of people in shelters in Thailand is also due to the delays in the deportation
process. Under the Act and in most anti-trafficking discussions they refer to this as repatriation
(going home) but migrant sex workers experience it and refer to is as deportation (being sent
home) as there is no voluntary element involved. Out of respect for the truth of lived experience
we call it deportation in our research.
On paper deportation of persons affected by trafficking appears relatively straightforward and
77

Data from Office of Attorney Generals, Centre for Anti Human Trafficking, July 2011

67

comprehensive.
Yet, despite the plethora of bilateral agreements, MOU, and training sessions provided for state
officials and NGO; the deportation process between Thailand and its neighboring counties seems
fraught with difficulty.
Deportation of trafficked persons is a government to government process facilitated by NGO based
in Thailand and neighboring countries. Our research was limited to exploring and describing the
deportation process for minors classified as being trafficked for exploitation of prostitution. We did
not discover whether the same process happens for adults or for all industries. Certainly the men
rescued from trafficking for exploitation in fisheries did not undergo the same process and
delays.78
First people are interviewed about their home circumstances by immigration and welfare officials
from Thailand and authorities from the home country, generally Embassy staff. Officials from their
home country, sometimes assisted by NGO begin tracing the family based on the details they have
been given. When the family is located they are assessed supposedly for their preparedness to
accept the trafficked minor back and their ability to protect them from future exploitation.
After a successful contact and assessment the person is transported to the Thai border crossing.
They are handed over to officials on the other side. Sometimes they are them detained again by
their own government before being sent home or reunited with their families.
For Thai people returning from overseas, or those that have been trafficked within Thailand, NGO
and state welfare officials provide conditional support and follow up for people and their families
sometimes for periods of up to 3 years. The support they are offered includes counselling,
conditional social, educational and occupational support. Although application process is very
bureaucratic people are also eligible for financial assistance often given as equipment rather than
cash by NGO to generate an income. e.g.: women are given sewing machines to set up sewing
shops.
Anti-trafficking NGO and Thai authorities both attest to the problems of long delays in the formal
government to government deportation process for people from countries bordering Thailand.
In Burma there are multiple causes of these chronic delays. Many people from Burma have
migrated to escape persecution by the military regime and come from ethnic states where there is
ongoing civil war, where rape is used as a weapon of war, making women and girls particularly
vulnerable.
We have not been able to find any systematic protections within the deportation system to protect
people who may be at risk of further persecution from Burmese authorities or other armed groups
upon their return home.
Indeed in 2011, it was alleged that DKBA, one of the armed groups attached to the junta in Burma
was involved in extorting large sums of money and/or re-trafficking people being deported to their
area back across the border into Thailand.79 In addition, sex workers from Burma can all attest to
78
79

Discussion with Jackie Pollock Director MAP December 2011

USTIP 2011 Thailand Country report

68

the insulting, judgmental and often vindictive attitude of Burmese state officials towards women
who are deported after being classified as having been trafficked into the Thai sex industry.
There are also delays because the basic infrastructure in Burma, especially in the ethnic areas has
been neglected for decades. Street names, house numbers and even entire townships can be
known by many names and no official records exist. In addition those who have had experience
with Burmese authorities are very wary of informing them of where they really live.

Even when checking addresses for nationality verification process the officials would
come to the house just to see how much money we had, to get an idea what our
lifestyle was like so they knew how much money they could demand from us in taxes.
Maybe they will do the same thing or something worse if we have been trafficked
Nuan, research partner, Tai Yai sex worker, Chiang Mai
When migrant sex workers who are a part of Empower return home even temporarily, to China,
Laos or Burma they frequently keep in contact with us via phone calls, face book, or via our
extensive grapevine.
In stark contrast when people are deported following the official anti -trafficking process, once
they are returned there is little or no real follow up and the anti-trafficking NGO admit they are not
re-contacted by anybody. We learned that NGO and government in Thailand face huge obstacles
in follow up or even arranging joint meetings to coordinate the follow up process.
In Burma, all communications and plans must be approved by the military regime central
administration. Permission is often refused or so conditional it makes meeting pointless. One
International NGO told us their Thai centre has never been able to meet, even unofficially for
dinner on either side of the border, with its staff based on the Burma side. In addition travel is
restricted within Burma. This means that in reality it is impossible for NGO or state officials in
Thailand to know whether people they have deported are supported effectively or even safe in
Burma.
In Laos and China there is a scarcity of NGO generally and no coordinated follow up to date.
Women and girls returned to Laos must be deported to the capital city where they are detained
for a further 12 months before arrangements to go home are put in place. These issues were also
highlighted in the recent 2011 US TIP report.
Its ironic that by the time they reach home, trafficked persons and sex workers
affected by trafficking have often spent longer in detention than those prosecuted
with trafficking spend in jail.
Funding is available from anti-trafficking NGO to support those deported to Burma, Laos and
Cambodia however in reality it is often not accessible. NGO told us that this is because women do
not have access to bank accounts in Thailand or their home countries, and are not able to carry
cash on their return journey home, as it is routinely confiscated by corrupt state officials in
Thailand or in the home countries.
However migrant workers, including migrant women from Burma routinely send large remittances
69

home. If trusted to manage the money themselves we are sure migrant women and girls can find
a way to transfer it safely to where they choose. Concerns about the security of money should not
be reason to deny women access to compensation.
Both NGO and state officials acknowledge that many of those deported across the border to Laos,
Burma and Cambodia, simply turn around and come back to Thailand. We found this is the
natural consequence of applying anti- trafficking strategies that do not distinguish clearly between
migrant sex worker, waitress, migrant worker, smuggling, loan, debt bondage, sex work and
trafficking. In addition the current strategies at no point address the causes of trafficking or the
needs of people who are trafficked.

We came to build a new life for the family not to be sent home empty handed and
ashamed. If something bad happens to us we want to find a new place to work with a
better boss.
Dang Moo, research partner, Burmese migrant sex worker, Mae Sot
After being kept so long I needed to go home and show my family I was alright then I
came straight back to Thailand. Bim, research partner, Laos sex worker, Udon Thani
Some NGO noted that the training and skills offered to trafficked persons in Thailand are of limited
use where there is no opportunity for work in their home countries due to lack of economic
development.80 While there is no way to monitor the number of people who return to Thailand,
anecdotal evidence suggest that most people return to work in Thailand within a year of being
rescued and deported.

Anti-trafficking NGO and state officials are quick to point to poverty and
unemployment within neighboring countries as a major cause of trafficking. 81
However our research shows that while poverty and unemployment are major reasons
for migration, it is the lack of access to travel documents and immigration restrictions
combined with poor enforcement of labour standards and the outdated criminalization
of sex work, that create the space for human trafficking.

Prevention stopping trafficking through education and awareness-raising

Trafficking prevention activities in Thailand are reported to have included awareness raising
campaigns, training, public forums, publication of resources in migrant languages and programs
targeting people or groups identified as having a high risk of being trafficked.
The government reported that throughout 2010 and early 2011, it reached more than 3,000
people who they call high-risk groups and approximately 2,000 employers to raise awareness on
trafficking.
In the same period Empower, with far fewer resources reached approx 30,000 sex workers,
including migrant sex workers, in various sectors of the sex industry.
80
81

World Vision interview, Chiang Mai, June 2011

Laos and Thai Government Anti-Trafficking meeting, Mukdahan, June 2011

70

Recently in 2011 sex workers in Chiang Mai were invited, via Empower to attend an NGO run
training on trafficking. It was one day of lectures to an audience of 100 participants; the large
majority of the audience were young men. This was the first and only education we have heard of
purported to be for the sex industry.
At the beginning of our research none of the migrant sex workers in our initial workshops had
heard of the word or the concept of human trafficking and no one knew that the Act existed.
Most women did however understand the concept of tuk lork (i.e. being tricked), but as noted in
Chapter 1: even this was an old story not a common issue that women saw or experienced within
their work in the sex industry today.
The lack of awareness of the trafficking law amongst sex workers points to the failure of national
trafficking prevention programs in Thailand, in actually reaching those who have are promoted as
being at high risk of trafficking.
Entertainment place owners and employers within the sex industry also have little understanding
or information about trafficking. Most owners had heard of the concept of human trafficking either through the TV, the police or via friends but did not necessarily identify it as having
anything to do with them or their businesses. Some saw it primarily something connected with
migrant women not having ID cards.
Overwhelmingly those that knew there was an anti-trafficking law saw it as just another
opportunity for corrupt police to extort bribes from them. Those employing migrant women had
all experienced demands for increased payments to corrupt police since the law was implemented.
Given that our employers and managers are the primary decision makers concerning hiring and
working conditions it would be useful to implement education campaigns, including highlighting
the penalties for trafficking, with the positive aim of reducing exploitation and improving working
conditions within the industry.
Our industry is quite open so it is relatively easy to reach both sex workers and employers with
appropriately designed prevention and education campaigns. However, trafficking prevention
activities to address trafficking for exploitation in prostitution appear to be focused on programs
run by NGO in poorer provinces and communities to provide anti-prostitution warning messages,
educational opportunities and occupational training programs for women and girls. Its
commendable that many women and girls can access their right to education via these programs,
and build up their skill base and confidence. However it is disappointing that these activities
cannot be provided for their own sake, rather than simply to prevent trafficking.
Furthermore it is astounding to note that despite years of funding and resources spent on national
prevention and awareness raising campaigns run by more than 60 NGO and numerous
government departments women who work in the sex industry in Thailand still have limited
knowledge of the issue of trafficking prevention and protection.

Funding Show me the money

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There is a lack of transparency in government spending on anti-trafficking activities in Thailand.

Requests from the research team for information on state expenditure on trafficking activities met
with no success. There is no publicly released reporting on the management or expenditure of the
Trafficking Fund despite the mandate provided for this within the Act. The information below is
summarized from the minimal amount of data available to the general public.
News reports show that in 2005 when the anti-trafficking fund was first set up, an initial budget of
500 million baht (estimated as 12.5 million USD) was allocated by the Thaksin government.82
Three years later in 2007 however, the US TIP report claimed that in practice only 75 million
(USD2.5 million) of this was ever allocated for expenditure to assist people affected by trafficking
and to support anti-trafficking projects. Since then spending appears to have decreased, with Thai
government budget briefs83 listing the Fund for Preventing and Suppressing Human Trafficking as
a revolving fund since 2009.
Allocations in the budget briefs show that in 2009 the fund was allocated 10 million baht (USD312,
000), in 2010 it received no allocation, and in 2011 it received 20 million baht (USD625, 000).
These figures however provide no evidence of actual government expenditure on anti-trafficking
activities.
In 2010, the Abhisit government stated that during the past two years, the Thai Government had
allocated a budget to the Anti-Trafficking Fund comprising of 8.5 million baht (USD265,625) to
help 498 affected persons, while another 56 million baht (USD 1.7 million) was used to support
103 projects carried out by 61 organizations. The budget allocation presumably included the 7
million confiscated from convicted traffickers.84 This means that on average 17,000 baht
(USD530) was spent on each person affected by trafficking during 2009-2010.
The US TIP reported that in 2010 the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs spent 5.9 million baht (USD
185,000) on trafficking protection and prevention activities including youth, government and NGO
awareness and information campaigns. The 2011 TIP report noted that the Thai government
spent 6 million baht (USD200, 000) from its fund to assist persons affected by trafficking and
finance anti-trafficking activities which was reportedly only a small portion of the governments
overall fund to assist trafficked persons.
It is impossible to ascertain from these figures the Thai governments funding commitment to antitrafficking, its priorities or effectiveness in fund management overall. It appears that on an annual
basis expenditure in 2009 and 2010 has been approximately 30 million baht a year, most of which
is allocated to organizations and agencies to run training and information campaigns for the
perplexed police etc, leaving comparatively minimal amounts allocated to assisting persons
affected by trafficking.
Thailand has a low score on the global Corruption Perceptions Index as 3.5 out of 10.85 While
Article: Anti-trafficking Center established: 500 Million Baht injected." Khao Sod Newspaper, 29
October 2005.
83 Bureau of the Budget, Thailand Budget in Brief for years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011;
84 Article: Thailands Commitment to Anti-Human Trafficking (24/09/2010)
85 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) scores countries on a scale of zero
82

72

Thailand recently signed the UN Convention against Corruption in 2011, corruption amongst state
authorities within the anti-trafficking sector has been an issue.
There is a long history of human trafficking by state officials dating back to the end of WWII. This
has pervaded many levels, from local immigration officers who extort bribes from migrant workers
and agents, to provincial government councils who have stakes in businesses which rely on
migrant labour, and in particular within the Royal Thai Police departments, from local level police
to central division police working in trafficking hot spot areas.86 As recently as January 2011,
three senior high -level police officers, working in the Anti Human Trafficking Division 3, were
transferred to inactive posts, pending investigation for corruption and bribe taking. To date
however while the Act provides heavy penalties for state officials who are complicit in trafficking
there have been no prosecutions of state officials. Ensuring public access to transparent
comprehensive financial reporting on the Anti-trafficking Fund would go a long way to restoring
confidence in the committee.
The issue of human trafficking is the focus for global action. Many organizations both registered
and unregistered also have access to large amounts of funding from international donor agencies,
UN and foreign government aid agencies.
The modern style of aide and development must include some representation by and
accountability to the people targeted or affected by the programs. Donors of Empower routinely
require us to show sex worker involvement in the design, implementation and evaluation of our
work. The same requirements are made for groups working on environment, migration,
indigenous peoples, HIV, drug use, gender and many other issues.
However groups working on human trafficking seem totally divorced from and unaccountable to
the communities they affect particularly the sex worker community and migrant work groups.
Complaints procedures are non existent. There is a serious lack of external monitoring of their
practices or outcomes for those they purport to assist.
We cannot imagine how abolitionist organizations can ever effectively identify and respond to
people trafficked for exploitation in prostitution when they see all prostitution as exploitation?
We are also concerned about how organizations can possibly balance positive relationships with
sex worker groups in order to better understand and respond, when they have to fulfil the USAID
requirement to actively oppose the very reforms we need to make to reduce exploitation in our
industry.
The US State Department (USAID) funded five Thai-based anti-trafficking NGO in the financial
year of 2009 -2010. Amounts ranged from 2.5 million baht (USD85, 000) to 22.5 million baht
(USD750, 000) each, for 1-2 year programs.
For these organizations it will clearly be a dilemma to find ways to work with us that dont
endanger their funding.
In this climate of mismanagement, conflicting agendas and the lack of effective monitoring of
to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption and 10, low levels.
86

USTIP 2011 Thailand Country Report

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state and non-state financial expenditure it is little wonder that anti-trafficking activities continue
to be misdirected. The complete absence of any impact evaluation of the anti-trafficking sectors
performance and the lack of accountability to affected groups is unacceptable especially given the
large amount of funding and resources focused on this area and the sub-standard practices that
have been identified within our research.

HIT AND RUN: True stories of Raids and Rescues

The enforcement of the Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act BE 2551 (2008) has
led to arbitrary protracted detention of migrant sex workers and multiple violations of their
fundamental human rights. Even those people classified as being trafficked for exploitation of
prostitution are also routinely denied their basic human rights as well as specific rights under the
Act itself. In the following section, we describe two situations that occurred during our research.
This is followed in the next chapter by our analysis of the human rights impact contrasted with the
States obligation for remedy.

RAID AND RESCUE 1 - M Karaoke Chiang Mai

On February 14th Valentines Day night we visited karaoke bars saying Happy Valentines, giving
out small gifts and catching up. There were a good number of customers; the women we met
were busy and happy.
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On the 16th of February 14 staff were working in M Karaoke bar in Chiang Mai. They were all
ethnically Akkha, all but one of them from Burma. Three teenage Akkha boys were also working
there that night at their usual job, taking women on their motorbike to meet with customers.
For the previous 2-3 nights a group of Thai customers had come into the bar asking specifically for
the youngest women and offering almost twice the normal price to spend time together. In fact
three of the workers were between 17 and 18 years old. At least one of them was only working as
a waitress as she hadnt decided whether to do sex work or if she was ready. She felt no pressure
to do otherwise until these men started showing up.
So on the 16th February around 11 pm when one of them showed up yet again and requested six
of the youngest women be sent to a nearby short time hotel she and the other two decided to go
along. Instead of paying the women which was the custom the men insisted on handing the
money directly to one of the Akkha boys - 500 Baht each totalling 3,000 Baht (100 USD.)
They all left for the hotel in a minivan. At the hotel, one of the women got a phone call from a
regular customer, a policeman. He warned her that the situation was a set-up and that the
customers were in fact undercover police. She ran through the hotel corridor banging on the
doors to try and warn her friends, and then escaped by jumping from the first floor balcony. The
other women were not able to escape and were temporarily detained in locked bathrooms by the
police. They had their bags and phones taken off them and were then taken to the police station.
Meanwhile at the karaoke bar at 12.30am, 50 uniformed armed police coordinated by the
Bangkok Counter Human Trafficking Unit (CTU), raided the bar, running in the doors to cut off the
escape and physically apprehend the eight women working there. There were also NGO staff,
government welfare officers, immigration officials and people taking photos. The police searched
the bar confiscating the womens bags, telephones, clothes and makeup.
Police also searched the womens accommodation nearby, upturning the whole room looking for
drugs or detained women which they did not find. The three young Akkha men were arrested and
eight women apprehended. They were loaded onto the police trucks and taken to the police
station in Chiang Mai.
No one at any stage told the women why they were apprehended, or they had the right to contact
family or support persons, or that they could request independent legal assistance.
Interviews began around 1am. Women apprehended in the bar and at the hotel were all
interviewed in the police station by police, NGO and welfare officials until 3am. Despite the fact
the women were from non-Thai speaking backgrounds from Burma, no translator was made
available at any point.
We thought we were arrested for not having ID cards and we tried to understand
what their questions meant and what we should say.
One of the women had proof of Thai citizenship. She was fined 200 baht for associating for the
purpose of prostitution and released. She notified the womens families the next day. It would be
weeks before the families were notified by officials.
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Finally the rest were given statements written in Thai to put their thumbprint on. None of them
could read Thai and did not have the statement translated verbally to them.
Photos of the bar, the young men handcuffed and the women at the police station were published
by different online media and newspaper agencies the following day. These reports claimed 14
children had been rescued from prostitution. They published the name and address of the bar
and the names of the three young men as an alleged traffickers and an organized crime gang.
Around 8am on the 17th February the women were taken to a hospital, where they underwent
internal vaginal examinations and blood tests, including HIV tests with no translation provided
and without informed consent. None were given any results from these tests.
Over the next few days, the 13 women were detained in a social welfare home outside of Chiang
Mai city. All 13 had staunchly denied they had been trafficked and all claimed to be over 18 years
old. Accordingly they were forced to have dental examinations, with four women also having bone
x-rays in an attempt to prove they were minors. The women had no phones, no contact with
family or friends, were not allowed to leave and were interviewed by NGO staff, again all with no
translation provided.
We didnt know where we were. It was a big concrete building and we were kept two
to a room with bars on the windows. We guessed we would be sent to immigration
soon. We still thought it was all about having no ID card
Meanwhile, within three days the karaoke bar had re-opened, the young men who were arrested
had been bailed out of jail by the bar owner, and the other women who worked at the Karaoke
started to return to the area to work. They were however extremely worried they were
traumatized from the raid, did not understand what was happening and had spent two days in
hiding as they were too scared to stay at their homes. They were also frantically worried about
their friends as they had no contact with any of them.
Five days after the raid, the 13 women in custody were split into two groups. It is not known
whether those involved realised they were separating a pair of sisters in this process. In any case,
it would be five weeks before they saw each other again.
Officials said tests had shown three of the women to be under 18 years old. They were identified
as trafficked persons in accordance with the Act. These three were sent to a government shelter
330kms south east of Chiang Mai in Phitsanalouk. They had no contact with anyone except for
shelter staff, anti-trafficking NGO workers and state officials. Their families and friends were
frantic with worry over their welfare but had no way to contact the young women.
The remaining nine women were found to be over 18 years old, and although they were not
trafficked, it was decided by officials that they would be held as witnesses for the prosecutions
trafficking case. These women were sent to the Chiang Mai city police cells.
We asked police if they could have a lawyer but the police said they didnt need one
as they werent victims of a crime or defendants they were witnesses. We then
asked if they were witnesses could they be released. The police reply was no theyre
illegal migrants. We asked if they were illegal migrants why werent they being
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deported. No they cant be deported theyre witnesses. We asked the anti-trafficking

NGO about them but they said they only looked after the victims. Later we asked
police if the women would be compensated according to the Witness Protection Act
2003. They reassured us that they would but in the end the women were awarded 200
Baht a day as stated in the Witness Protection Act but then charged 200 Baht a day to
cover their food and other costs
Oa, research partner, Chiang Mai
Police cells are only set up for temporary custody, usually not exceeding 10 days. Their cell was
separate from male prisoners and had its own toilet, but the women had to get their friends to
bring in extra clothes (after a week already in their work clothes), and all of their other belongings
were confiscated. They had limited contact with their friends or family for which they had to pay
police to use the phone. They also had to pay for extra food to be bought in. Explanations were
not given to the women about the proceedings, their rights, or the process they were involved in.
They assumed their three friends had been released.
Two weeks after the raid the nine women were sent to the immigration detention centre for
processing and then put into a van to go to the border town of Mae Sai where their family were
waiting for them to be released. However when the women reached Mae Sai the police received a
phone call and the van was turned around and the women driven for 5 hours, all the way back to
the Chiang Mai cells without even so much as seeing their families.
The court case finally began March 22nd in Chiang Mai, a month after the initial raid. The nine
women witnesses were taken to testify in court on the first two days. They had not been briefed
by police or lawyers. In all five men were on trial, the three young motorcycle drivers caught
during the raid, and two other men allegedly the Karaoke manager and the owner. In court the
witnesses were called one at a time to the stand to testify. The questioning focused on whether
the witnesses knew the alleged traffickers, what their conditions of work were and the ages of
women at the workplace. All of the women said that they were not exploited or forced into sex
work and the alleged traffickers had different roles in supporting them in their work such as with
transport, food, clients etc. They said they did not know how old anyone was at their workplace as
this was not talked about and most of them just used nicknames and did not know many personal
details about each other.
The court was a difficult and threatening environment with students walking in and out of the
room, and the prosecution used an aggressive approach to interrogate the women witnesses on
the stand. The language used was academic and legalistic Thai and two of the women struggled
to understand anything, replying "I don't know" to nearly every question. In this situation I dont
know would have meant I dont understand what you are asking. None of the women were able
to read Thai, but all were asked to verify written statements in court. None of the women had any
translation provided or offered at any stage from the time of the raid up to and during the court
despite the fact they were all from Burma. We were told it was because they didnt ask for any.
The testimony of the three younger women was taken in the days following the witness testimony.
They were supported by NGO legal staff and were able to give evidence via video link from a
separate room in the public court. The questioning focused on their ages and their work in the
karaoke bar. The court was told that the age of the young women taken from bone x-ray was
77

estimated to be between 14-16 years old. The 3 young women refuted this and said they were at
least 17 years they testified that although they did not have papers to confirm their ages, their
mothers had told them they were 17 years old.
All three young women said they made the decision themselves to come to Thailand and work in
karaoke. One got a job in this particular bar because her sister was working there, so she went
and had a look for herself and then applied for a job; no-one asked about her age when she was
applying so she didnt think about it. Another said she came on a bus with others from Burma
who were looking for work. She borrowed money from her mother to travel because she didnt
want to be in debt. When she started work at the Karaoke no-one asked about her age and she
did not know that she had to be 18 years old to legally work there. The third woman said her
friend was working at the karaoke bar, so she also applied for a job there and was able to borrow
some money from her friend and share her room while she got started. Of the three 17 year olds
one is the sole provider for her family and supports them with her income including paying for
the medical costs of her father who is sick. The other two are not the family provider and their
families are not relying on them one of them came on an adventure for herself and the other
young woman came looking for work.
Under the Entertainment Place Act BE 2509 the employer could be prosecuted for employing
minors. He could also have been charged under the Suppression and Prevention of Prostitution
ACT BE 2539 and received heavier punishment than under the anti-trafficking Act for exploiting
minors if any of the three were providing sexual services as a part of their employment. The three
minors would not be charged with any offences under the Acts and still be offered rehabilitation
and support before deportation. We were not able to establish why the prosecution decided to lay
charges of human trafficking instead.
In terms of labour compensation - the bar owner said in court that he had paid them all correctly
except for the day of the raid and he said that he would be happy to pay them their money owed
from that day as well. The money that was found on the premises on the night of the raid as
reported in the media was about 3000 baht (USD100); this was the marked bills used by the
police themselves.
After testifying at the court case the women witnesses spent yet another night in the immigration
detention centre and then were taken to the Thai Burma border where they were deported back
across the Mae Sai bridge. Most of their belongings were returned to them by police however two
mobile phones and some cash money that the women had at the time of the raid were not
returned. In total the women had been detained for 38 days (31 in police cells, 6 in shelters and 1
in Immigration Detention). This prolonged detention resulted in most of the women incurring a
debt. With the main family provider locked up and unable to work, families were forced to borrow
money to survive. Most women were released to find they each owed up to 10,000 baht
(USD300). In addition some women went on to borrow money so that they could return to
Thailand in order to get back to work. Most women returned to Chiang Mai to work within 3
months following the raid.
Before being arrested I was not in debt, working happily and free to move around the
city. Now I have a debt. Im scared most of the time and its not safe to move around.
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How can they call this help?

Nok, Akkha sex worker, Burma

In all, nine women had lost 6 weeks of earnings, were not given any compensation or witness
support payments by the state, were made to pay for phone calls and food whilst in jail and were
fined 200 Baht for associating for the purpose of prostitution and further fines for immigration
offences.
The younger women were sent back to the shelter after their court case testimony in March 2011,
to await the family tracing process so that they could be deported back to Burma. They had their
mobile phones confiscated so could not speak with their families or friends over this time.
Empower received a number of confused, distressed phone calls from friends and family members
of the young women including parents, sisters and grandmothers all seeking information on their
whereabouts and situation.
Despite the fact their families had been in contact with Empower since the date of the raid and
had made repeated requests to the anti-trafficking NGO and shelter staff to contact their
daughters, it took another 8 months for families to be officially traced, approved and the young
women deported. During this time all the young women turned 18 years but were still detained
against their will and treated as minors.
In late October they were sent to the Thai border town of Mae Sai and handed over to Burmese
authorities. In Burma they were held in detention for an extra week until finally being reunited
with their families after being detained for 9 months. The women received 4,000 baht (USD133)
each from the anti-trafficking NGO involved a token amount in comparison to the 40,000 baht
minimum they would have earned in the same period.
The outcomes of the court case and sentencing of the traffickers was held in July 2011 Empower
was unable to access official court records to find out about the sentences and findings of the
court.
All three women plan to return to Thailand to work in karaoke bars.
RAID AND RESCUE 2- MAE SOT
On March 16th 2011, on a Wednesday night, a group of 17 migrant women from Burma were
working at a brothel in the Thai - Burma border town, Mae Sot. Once again at around 11pm at
night a large group of armed uniform police, immigration and staff from an anti-trafficking NGO
burst in and arrested all the women.

79

The raid resulted from an anonymous tip from a woman over the phone that young girls were
trafficked into the brothel.
In all 17 migrant women were apprehended in the police raid. All were taken to the police station
in the middle of the night where they were questioned by police, NGO volunteers and social
welfare officials. The women were from Burma, with limited Thai language skills, and had trouble
understanding the questions, which were poorly translated by an untrained NGO staff.
The translator was saying all the wrong things and the police wrote them down. I
said the translator was wrong but no one seemed to be interested. Pi Nong from
Empower told them (NGO staff) as well but nothing changed
Dork Mai, migrant sex worker Burma Mae Sot

The volunteer used to translate for police at Mae Sot police station that night has since contacted
Empower research team to apologize.
Im really sorry about what happened to those women. I said I couldnt translate but
they (the NGO) talked me into it. I thought it wasnt serious, that they would be let go.
Im sorry
Once again none of the women were properly informed as to why they were apprehended or of
their rights in the police station. Far from being allowed to have a support person sit in on
interviews Empower Mae Sot Coordinator who was at the police station was asked to leave the
premises by NGO staff.
Women are not given the freedom to choose a legal advocate but one is provided without choice
automatically by the anti-trafficking NGO in cooperation with the Public Prosecutor.
Ten of the women who were documented were not trafficked and clearly over 18 years were
80

charged with associating for prostitution and immigration offences. They spent 48 hours in police
custody, went to court and were fined 850 baht and deported across the bridge to Burma being
charged for various services adding a further 1,500 to their costs -about a weeks earnings.
The remaining seven women gave their age as over 18 years old or over, stated they migrated
independently and were voluntarily doing sex work. It is not clear to the women whether these
details were translated correctly but in any case they did not have any ID documents and their
statements were disbelieved by both the anti-trafficking NGO plus /minus police.
In the early hours of the morning all of the seven women were driven 5 hours to be detained in
the shelter in Phitsanalouk. Where they were going or why was not explained for women to
understand. They underwent mandatory internal vaginal examinations, and blood tests with no
information or consent. They did not understand why these tests were done. Their confidentiality
was also breached when Empower was spontaneously told of some of their results.
In order to dispute their stated ages dental examinations and bone x-rays were carried out. As a
result two of the women were judged as being minors -15 and 16 years old, and therefore
classified as trafficked for exploitation in prostitution. Both women refuted the age estimate and
label of trafficked. They restated their ages as 18 and 20 years old.
When the family was told by Empower about the age test results, they were outraged.
I gave birth to her - I know how hold she is said the mother of one of those alleged
to be underage.
She said that her daughter was over 18 years old but did not have any birth papers or ID papers,
as these were lost in floods some years ago. However she did have evidence of her daughters age
on her house registration back in Burma. She made a plan to return to Burma to get these papers
for Empower to give to her daughter.
The remaining five women were judged to be over 18 years old, and although they were not
trafficked, it was decided by officials that they would be held as witnesses for the trafficking
prosecution. They were not supplied with independent legal assistance and no one involved takes
the responsibility of ensuring their rights are protected.
While at the shelter the women were not allowed any contact with their families or friends in
Thailand or Burma who were extremely worried about them. One of the women had gone to work
that night leaving her two young children with her mentally unstable mother. She was extremely
worried about her kids and her mother. Others were concerned for elderly grandparents usually in
their care. When we tried to deliver a letter from their families we were told any communication
had to be in Thai only as it was monitored and no translation was available. Despite two requests
from the Empower Foundation to meet with the women, the women were barred from all outside
contact until after the court case. The women therefore had no contact with anyone except the
anti-trafficking NGO staff and government officials.
No official statements were taken from the women for the first 3 weeks of their detention in the
shelter.
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In April, Police and officials from Burma and Thailand, interviewed the women via speaker phone,
using translators. Once again the translators had trouble making things clear and understandable
for the women.
During this interview the women requested to leave the shelter after already being detained for
two months waiting for the court case. They were told by shelter staff that they were not allowed
to do so. Frustrated and angry they quite rightly went on strike in the shelter refusing to
participate in any of the vocational activities and staying in their rooms.
The court case was held in Bangkok and delayed at least four times. Initially no alleged trafficker
could be found.
At the first court session it was observed that there were no official translators instead it
appeared that one of the women judged as being just 16 years old and allegedly a trafficked
person was translating for the prosecutor and other women on the stand. She stated her age as
twenty in the other young woman supposed to be 15 years gave her age as 18 years.
At the second session there was a court appointed translator but the woman on the stand
complained repeatedly about the translation until the judge had no choice but to adjourn until a
replacement could be found. The third session was a disaster for the prosecution as the women
strongly contradicted the statements police had written out for them in Mae Sot the night of the
raid. The court was again adjourned and the prosecutor angrily scolded the women telling them
they must agree with the original statements.
In August 2011, after six months of detention in the shelter, Empower was requested to assist in
locating the family of one of the women witnesses. She was nearly 8 months pregnant. The
shelter and anti-trafficking NGO staff wanted to locate a responsible family member for the woman
to be released into their custody immediately after giving her testimony in the court case. They
were anxious that she should give birth outside of the shelter and outside of Thailand. However
even though she was clearly an adult, a mother of two and expecting her third child they would
not release her without a guardian. Empower was again refused permission to talk with the
woman to determine her wishes. Given the lack of health care available in Burma many migrant
woman prefer to give birth in Thailand, in some instances opting to give birth in jail or other
institution to guarantee the baby is delivered safely with vaccinations etc available.
We had assumed that the NGO or shelter staff had already made contact with family. Now we
realised this was not the case and had Empower not been in contact, even after six months they
would have had no idea where their daughters were taken, why and what circumstances they
were living in.
Empower made a written formal request for permission to visit with the women in August 2011.
In September 2011, Empower was again contacted by family members of two of the women
detained in the shelter.
The mother was greatly distressed and said she had been contacted by phone by Burmese
authorities who threatened her that her daughter would never be released. The mother was also
82

concerned that her daughter and others in the shelter had vowed to kill themselves if not
released. Empower also spoke with the mother of the pregnant woman who was detained in the
shelter. The mother was grandma to two young children of her daughter and although she had
been caring for them whilst her daughter was detained, she was unable to support tall their basic
costs e.g. education. She was also extremely worried about her daughters health and well being
in the shelter.
In the closing days of October, Empower was finally given permission to talk to the women. Huge
amounts of home cooking was prepared by their families to be taken to them. During a visit to the
shelter we met with all 7 of the women. A Burmese sex worker joined the team to translate as
there was still no translator available in the shelter. The women had many concerns to share with
Empower but were also scared and cautious as they had been told by staff that they were not to
complain or say anything bad about the shelter. However the women managed to let us know of
the following issues;
y
y
y
y
y

court was postponed again until February 2012 due to Bangkok floods
The pregnant woman had been denied regular antenatal checkups and not given vital mineral
and vitamin supplements
She is Muslim but no dietary arrangements were made so she often ate just plain rice or
nothing at all
She had not been able to practice any other Islamic religious practices during her time in the
shelter
The other women complained of poor health treatment, being refused visits to see the doctor
and dentist.

Our brothel owner takes better care of our health than they do here. In the brothel I

could go to the doctor or my employer would fetch medicines for us if we asked

y

the poor quality of the food in the shelter

The breakfast - rice porridge - is the grade of rice that you would usually feed to the

pigs in Burma.
All of the women were desperate to leave, however two of them were still waiting to testify in the
court case, another two who were alleged minors and trafficked persons were awaiting family
tracing and deportation and 3 refused to leave their friends there until they could all get out
together.
The women had serious concerns regarding the court proceedings. One of the alleged minors
again asserted that she was actually 20 years old not 16 and instructed Empower to help her
family find proof of age from Burma so that she could prove her real age.
They said that the signed statements read out in court did not match what they told the police in
the original interview.
In August a man was arrested and charged with:
o
o

Running a place of prostitution

Harbouring illegal aliens
83

o
o
o

Bribing police
Trafficking fro exploitation of prostitution
Smuggling

The women said the prosecutor was pressuring them to identify this man as one who brought
them to Thailand and forced them to work in his brothel. The women refused to do this as they
stated they came independently, were not forced to work and in any case did not recognize this
man as their employer or the owner of the brothel. The owner/employer had walked away from
the brothel during the raid after being mistaken for a customer.
In November 2011 one of the womens father made an expensive and difficult trip to Rangoon
returning with a copy of his daughters birth certificate and other documents were located by the
second family. Documents show one of the women is indeed 20 years old as she told everyone,
not 16 years as claimed. The second, though 17 and 9 months on the night of the raid was indeed
18 years old the first time she was asked in court and well over the 15 years she was judged to
be.

In early 2012, at the time of writing and release of this report all of the seven women remained
in detention in the womens shelter meaning more than 10 months with continued restriction on
contact with family, friends and organizations outside of the shelter. Their family members
remained frustrated, worried and unable to contact them and the court case had yet to be
finalized.
The raid and rescue approach may have jailed five or six men for 2-3 years for employing or
exploiting minors and may have removed 4 minors from the sex industry while they waited for
their 18th birthday, however the actions have also resulted in multiple human rights violations of
the 4 minors involved, plus for an additional 17 women and their families.
Empowers attempts to promote the human rights of those affected by the anti-trafficking actions
were severely hampered due to the alleged need for protection and confidentiality of the evidence
(testimonies). Empower maintained communication and gained information from informal
discussions with Anti-trafficking NGO staff, shelter staff, police and lawyers involved. We also
received direct testimony from the sex workers and their families who were caught up in this
process and also by talking with those being prosecuted.
The narratives provide an account of how anti-trafficking activities play out on the ground. We find
the many similarities between the two incidences point to what must be standard practice rather
than coincidence.

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We conclude that it is very likely that many other women have suffered similar human
rights abuses in the name of the Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act.
If the Anti-trafficking Police and Trafcord are correct in their estimates, then at least
1,500 non-trafficked migrant sex workers have had their rights abused in a similar
fashion over the past 3 years.

CHAPTER 6: SPECIFIC VIOLATIONS INCURRED

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This Chapter provides an examination of the human rights that we found to be violated in the
implementation of the Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act BE 2551 (2008).
Rights violations have been perpetrated by both state and non-state actors against minors and
women who are found to be trafficked for exploitation of prostitution, as well as adult sex workers,
from Thailand and neighboring countries.
We measured the impact by analysing our lived experience in comparison with the fundamental
rights that individuals have within national criminal, human rights and constitutional law in
Thailand, and the rights enshrined in regional and international treaties that have been signed and
ratified by the Thai Government. Specific treaties and clauses that the Thai government has
ratified are outlined in Chapter 2 and are referred to in the Chapter below.
There is also specific reference to the clauses within each law that have found to have been
violated by anti-trafficking practice.
The research has found that at least twelve fundamental human rights have been regularly
violated in the process of implementing the Act over the past three years. While our work as sex
workers at times may be in breach of the Suppression and Prevention of Prostitution Act 2539 and
some of us also in breach of the Immigration Act we are nevertheless entitled to recognition of our
basic human rights and protection of these under Thai and international law.
Furthermore, it is recognized internationally that anti-trafficking law, policy and practice should
adhere to core human rights principles and at the very least, do no harm to those affected by
trafficking or anti-trafficking interventions.87 Despite this requirement our research has found that

87

Aim for Human Rights 2010 The RighT Guide,

86

the implementation of a total of ten sections of the Act, have had a negative human rights impact
on sex workers. In addition, some of the human rights protections and entitlements that are
provided within the Act itself are not being met by either state or NGO representatives who are
failing to adhere to the Act. Other elements of anti-trafficking practice in Thailand are also in
breach of national laws, such as the Thai Witness Protection Act 2003 and other protections under
the Thai Penal Code.

Violations of Human Rights Treaties

Definitions in the Law
CRIMINALIZING SEX WORKERS, THEIR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
AT LAW Section 4- 6 DEFINITIONS:
Section 4 EXPLOITATION - seeking benefits from prostitution,
Section 6 TRAFFICKING - use of threat or force, abuse of power, giving money, - to get
persons consent for purpose of exploiting the person
Section 4/6/7 TRAFFICKER - anyone who helps in the trafficking process for the
purpose of exploitation
The definitions within the Act provide a very broad mandate which effectively targets those who
work in, or are associated with the Thai sex industry to be either potential trafficked persons or
traffickers. The fact that the term prostitution is used to denote a distinct form of trafficking
separate from forced labour and sexual slavery - means that in practice the legislation unfairly
targets those in the Thai sex industry. Using the word prostitution puts the focus on the activity of
prostitution as being the problem rather than the focus on whether women are forced or coerced
and exploited.
This discriminates against adult sex workers who are satisfied with their working conditions and do
not consider themselves exploited. It also hinders any further action on tackling real issues of
exploitation and sub standard working conditions within the sex industry as a whole.
The Acts definition of exploitation includes seeking benefits from prostitution. This vague
definition implicates most of those connected to the sex industry including entertainment venue
owners, waitresses, cooks, cleaners, dancers, NGOs, landlords, as well as families, friends,
customers and colleagues of sex workers. The definition of movement in the Act also implicates
anyone who assists in the transport of sex workers, including taxi or motorcycle drivers, travel
agents, informal brokers, family or friends.
The impact of these broad definitions mean that sex workers, their friends, families and
communities have been disproportionately targeted for anti-trafficking interventions - far more
than workers and communities in other industries. Moreover the sex worker community is
primarily targeted using punitive criminal justice strategies rather than education and awareness

http://www.humanrightsimpact.org/trafficking
87

strategies. This has the effect of further stigmatizing sex workers and their families, and pushing
sex work underground as those in the industry seek to avoid police or NGO contact, tend to
withhold information and find more covert ways to move, manage finances and work. The
definition also unfairly discriminates against and potentially criminalizes families of sex workers
who receive benefits from the remittances of sex workers, to pay for basic necessities such as
housing, health care and education.
The Act and the Suppression and Prevention of Prostitution law effectively act together to create
a negative impact on the sex industry as a whole, which increases the potential for human rights
violations. In failing to recognize and define sex work as legitimate work that is clearly different
and distinct from trafficking, a punitive criminal justice approach results. This approach means
that sex workers, employers and others are less able to report or offer assistance to trafficked
persons for fear of being implicated in prostitution and/or trafficking offences themselves.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Non Discrimination, Equality and Equal Protection
under the Law / Right to Work: Free Choice of Employment

Prosecution and Suppression

POLICE ENTRAPMENT
AT LAW Section 27.4: Police can enter dwellings to seize evidence of trafficking in
persons
Entrapment is used by police and NGO investigators in Thailand to gain evidence for the
prosecution of traffickers. Entrapment is the act of inducing a person to commit a crime that they
otherwise wouldn't have considered. In Thailand this practice entails police posing as customers
seeking to buy sexual services from minors, i.e.: specifically requesting young girls under 18 years.
In the research, the use of entrapment has resulted in at least two incidents of minors being
falsely accused of working in the sex industry. In one incident it resulted in a 17 year old girl
being coerced by undercover police to enter into a sex work agreement for the first time in her
life, prompted by their request for sex with under-age girls. In another incident a 17 year old girl
was apprehended as a trafficked person on her first night of work in a karaoke bar as a waitress,
not a sex worker. Both of these girls were entrapped by police and falsely identified as being
trafficked on the basis of their age and the fact that they were working in a venue where sex
workers are also employed. Neither of them were engaged with sex work; and they did not want
to be assisted by the government welfare department nor rescued from their working or living
situation. The practice of entrapment to collect evidence of trafficking not only leads to spurious
and inaccurate evidence, it also promotes the sexual exploitation of minors, and is an assault on
the human dignity of young women working in the entertainment industry in Thailand. The Thai
National Human Rights Commission in 2003 recognized that police entrapment in Thailand often
leads to serious human rights violations against women in the sex industry and recommended it
should only be used under a clear and precise system that prevents human rights abuses. Instead
however, the use of entrapment by police and NGO conducting anti-trafficking investigations
appears to be a routine practice that continues unmonitored and with negative consequences for
88

sex workers and young women in the entertainment industry.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Life, Liberty &Security of the Person: right to be
treated with humanity respect

POLICE RAIDS AND RESCUES:

AT LAW Section 27 Anti-Trafficking Raids Police can enter dwellings without a warrant
to discover and rescue a trafficked person and to seize evidence of trafficking in
persons
In anti-trafficking raids in Thailand women are experiencing a range of human rights violations.
Both trafficked persons and sex workers are subject to operations where large numbers of armed
police raid an entertainment place, chase and apprehend women who attempt to run away in fear
and confusion. Some women have been physically hurt in police raids while trying to escape. The
police are not obligated to use a warrant under the Act. They routinely search all women who are
apprehended at the venue and confiscate their handbags and mobile phones to be used as
evidence for possible trafficking prosecution.
AT LAW Section 29 Custody: Suspected victims can be held in custody for 24, hours,
and then the Court can grant permission to extend to 7 days
All women who are apprehended in a raid are taken by police to the local police station where
they are questioned by NGO workers and police offices, to ascertain whether they are trafficked
persons. This can take several hours of questioning. Women who have been caught up in raids
say they were not told the reasons for the questioning and at no stage were informed of their
rights under the Thai Constitution and within the Thai criminal justice system, as plaintiffs,
suspects or witnesses in alleged crimes. These rights include: their right to know what they have
been charged with; right to call a trusted person or family member; right to legal representation;
to speak to a lawyer in private; and the right for a trusted person or lawyer to sit in on all
interviews with police. In fact some of the women were given a printed statement of these rights
by police to sign at the time of questioning, however because the statement was in Thai language
and there was no effective translator, the women did not understand their entitlements. It appears
that translators are not routinely provided for migrant women in this questioning process. Migrant
women and illiterate women have been forced to put their thumb print as a signature to legal
documents which they do not understand provided by police at the police station. They have also
been forced to put their thumb print to documents which apparently provide a list of their
belongings that have been confiscated by police which they cannot read or understand due to
language and literacy issues. This violates their entitlements under the Thai Constitution, Thai
criminal justice system and under international human rights law.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the Person: right to
be informed of reasons for arrest and charges against a person in language they
understand; right to be treated with humanity and respect
89

MEDIA VIOLATION OF PRIVACY:

AT Law Section 56 Privacy and Media: Cannot take, circulate or publish a picture of a
trafficked person that might lead their identification at any time. Cannot disseminate
or publish information disclosing the history, place of work, home, or education of the
trafficked person
During raids on the venue, and at the police station, photographers often take photos of the
venue, the alleged traffickers and the women working there. These photos along with information
on the raid venue and charges against traffickers are then often shared with media outlets who
publish media reports on the raids in TV, print and online. The media reports often include photos
of the women in the raid with black strips across their eyes (supposedly as an attempt to maintain
the confidentiality), or pictures of the women trying to hide their faces behind papers, clothes, etc.
News agencies commonly publish photos, names and addresses of the workplace, which
compromises the privacy of women who are apprehended or rescued in these raids. This is in
violation of protections under the Act itself which make it illegal to publish any identifying
information on victims of trafficking.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Privacy and Family Life, Reputation and Honor
Raids also have a negative impact on the wider community, including women and men who work
at the entertainment venue, but are not apprehended in the raid because they were not at work at
the time of the raid. This includes sex workers, and other staff such as cleaners, cooks, singers,
waitresses etc. Most of these people also experience fear, trauma and confusion, and are refused
access to contact any of their friends or family members who may have been apprehended in the
raid. They have no knowledge as to the reason for the raid and invariably lose wage payments
and in some cases lose their entire job, due to the closure of venues following the raid.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Family Life; (regular contact with family), Right
to Just and Favorable Conditions of Work

MANDATORY MEDICAL TESTING:

AT Law Section 33 Assistance: The MSDHS must provide assistance to trafficked
persons, including medical treatment undertaken with the opinion of the trafficked
person sought and providing that human dignity and the differences in sex, age,
nationality race and culture of the trafficked person be taken into account.
Women who are apprehended in raids have been forced to undergo mandatory medical tests with
no information provided to them as to why the tests are required, and no opportunity to refuse
these testing procedures. Migrant women in particular have limited understanding as to the
reasons for the testing as no translator is being provided to explain this procedure. The tests are
being conducted on women who are suspected to have been trafficked and/or under 18 years of
age, and also on adult women who assert that they are not trafficked persons. The tests include
blood tests, and internal vaginal examinations. Mandatory blood tests and vaginal examinations
90

without informed consent are only enforceable under Thai national security laws or if ordered by
the court for specific purpose. However in the anti-trafficking scenario, it is questionable as to why
the tests are even occurring. The women are not routinely given the results of the tests at any
time following the test procedure, and it is unclear who else has access to their test results and
what purpose they are being used for.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the Person: right to
be treated with humanity and respect / Right to Health: including right for control
over ones health and body; right to confidentiality and informed consent to health
treatment, right of complaint and redress

VICTIM IDENTIFICATION AND AGE TESTING

AT Law Section 4 Definitions: Child means any person under eighteen years of age.
Section 33 Assistance: The MSDHS must provide assistance to trafficked persons,
including medical treatment undertaken with the opinion of the trafficked person
sought and providing that human dignity and the differences in sex, age, nationality
race and culture of the trafficked person be taken into account.
The large majority of women and minors apprehended in raids fiercely deny that they are
trafficked and give their age as over18 years. In order to justify the raid NGO and police are
anxious to prove otherwise. So all undocumented women who are suspected of being trafficked
persons and minors (i.e. under 18 years) are forced to undergo forensic tests including bone xrays and dental examinations in an effort to determine their age.
While the use of bone and dental examinations is not included under the Act, it is covered
extensively in provincial level MOU on anti-trafficking activities in Thailand. All of the MOU also
emphasise the need to respect the fundamental human rights of trafficked persons which
includes the right to informed consent in medical treatment. The Act also notes that medical
treatment for trafficked persons must be undertaken considering the opinion and human dignity of
the trafficked person, which in these circumstances is not occurring.
The use of dental and bone examinations to determine the age of victims of trafficking is
questionable in terms of both human rights and credible medical practice. This process of age
assessment is recommended under international Anti-Trafficking Guidelines88 which requires that
assessment of alleged victims should be undertaken by trained and qualified individuals who
should consider the following:
-

the verification of the victims age should be take into account:

the physical appearance of the victim and his/her psychological maturity,
documentation,
checking with embassies and other relevant authorities,

OHCCR Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking; and
UNICEF Guidelines for the Protection of the Rights of Child Victims of Trafficking
88

91

consensual medical examination and opinion

the victims statements

In Thailand however it appears that the victims consent and statements are not routinely
considered in this process and there is a strong reliance on forensic bone and dental examinations
as the primary means to determine the age of young women who are apprehended in raids. This
approach is clearly outlined in the 2003 Anti-trafficking MOU for Government Agencies in Thailand:

In the case where the foreign children or women assert that they are over 18 years of age
without any proof of ID documents; or there is reasonable doubt that their ID documents are
false, modified, or not the ones issued to them; and there is reasonable doubt that the children or
women are not over 18 years old, either the investigating officers or the officials of the
Department of Social Development and Welfare shall arrange medical examinations of the children
or women in question by way of dental or other physical check-ups, to rule if in the transnational
cases the girls or women are 18 years old or younger.
This process is problematic as the use of bone and dental testing is an unreliable measure to
determine the specific age of persons between 16-20 years old. In the US and Europe, forensic
bone and dental tests are never used as stand-alone age assessment tools as it is recognized that
they can be incorrect by a period of up to 5 years.89 In addition, standard bone x-ray procedures
are inappropriate to assess the age of young migrant women from Asia, as the age baseline used
within these tests is based on American children in the 1940s. It has been proven that significant
variations in bone age will occur due to factors such as race, ethnicity, socio-economic and
nutritional status.90 Given the unreliability and inconclusiveness of forensic testing procedures, it is
now recognized that accurate age assessment must include additional processes such as longer
periods of in-depth observations and input from experts from the same culture and background as
those being assessed.91 This however is not the process that is followed in Thailand anti-trafficking
procedures, where forensic tests are used as the primary evidence for proof of age, in legal
proceedings which contest the statements of women who expressly state that they are consensual
adult sex workers.
The age assessment procedure relies heavily upon the principle within both international and
national anti-trafficking guidelines, of presumption of age and victim status.92 This principle
espouses that in cases where the age of the victim is uncertain but there are reasons to believe
that they may be under 18 years they should be presumed to be a child victim and therefore
eligible to protection and support according to legal protections for the minors. While this principle
is intended to be a protection measure for young trafficked persons in the circumstance facing
undocumented sex workers in Thailand, it is in fact being used to violate their human rights. In
this instance the Act is being used as a tool to contradict the stated evidence and opinion of young
women who are working in the entertainment industry, and essentially force them to accept a
The Health of Refugee Children Guidelines for Pediatricians, Royal College of Pediatricians,
1999
90 Bassed R, (2011) Bone of Contention, Monash University
91 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement MOU 2004
92 OHCCR Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking;
Principle 10.2; THAILAND: MOU on Common Operational Guidelines for Government Agencies, B.E.
2546 (2003) Sections: 4.4, 4.5.5.5,6.4,6.5
89

92

false identity as a victim of trafficking. This practice violates the core principle of rights-based
support for victims, which is central to the entire anti-trafficking approach. It also violates the
rights of women who do not wish to be assisted and at the very least it is a misdirected waste of
resources and intervention efforts in trying to help women who do not need help.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the Person: right to
be treated with humanity and respect / Right to Health: including right for control
over ones health and body; right to confidentiality and informed consent to health
treatment, right of complaint and redress

ARBITRARY DETENTION OF SEX WORKERS AS WITNESSES

AT Law Section 27: Police can summon any person to give statements or evidence of
trafficking;
Section 31: The court shall hear the statement of witnesses promptly
Section 237 bis paragraph 3 and 4, Criminal Procedure Code shall apply: Witness
testimony can be taken promptly and used instead of witness physical presence at the
trail.
Police are using the law to compel migrant sex workers who are apprehended in anti-trafficking
raids, to testify as witnesses in anti-trafficking prosecutions. Although the Act does give the police
the power to compel witnesses, it also requires the prosecutor to take the witness testimony
promptly. In reality however state officials are not adhering to the law and instead are holding
migrant sex workers, against their will, in arbitrary detention in jail cells or shelters for weeks,
months even a year. Arbitrarily detaining these women is failing to offer them their legal and basic
human rights entitlements. There are two legal options that could be extended to migrant sex
workers in these circumstances. The first is outlined in the Act, which has reference to a clause in
the Penal Code, enabling the Court to record witness testimony promptly - prior to the full
prosecution hearing - and use this testimony in lieu of the witness attending the court case in
person. The second option is for the migrant sex workers to be held as voluntary witnesses under
the Witness Protection Act 2003. The Witness Protection Act mandates that in a criminal case, a
witness has the right to protection, proper treatment and necessary and appropriate remuneration
from the State as provided by law.93 Under this law witnesses are entitled to safe accommodation
(outside of a jail cell), daily living allowance, legal advocacy and support, training, education and
protection.
Currently none of the women have had the Witness Protection Act applied and have no channels
to seek redress for this injustice. While trafficked persons have an appointed lawyer via the public
prosecutor, and in some cases also have a legal advocate provided by an NGO, the women that
are held as witnesses have no access to any independent legal advice or representation.

93

Prathan Watanavanich 2006, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand

93

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the Person: right to
be informed of reasons for arrest and charges in a language they understand;
protection against arbitrary detention, right to file a complaint for arbitrary detention
Right to Non Discrimination and Equal Protection by the Law: discriminatory
treatment of migrant sex workers / Right to Freedom of Movement: right to leave any
country / Right to Family Life: regular contact with family / Right to Fair Trial: within
a reasonable time frame / Right for redress of legal violations

PROSECUTIONS
Both the young women classified as trafficked and the women witnesses are not given adequate
information on the proceedings, expectations and timing of the court case, no effective translators
and are either not allowed to choose their own legal advocate if classified as trafficked or not
given any legal representation at all if a witness.
Women who are illiterate are routinely required to put their thumb print on legal documents
related to the court case that they do not understand.
Women are often instructed or coerced to identify strangers or others as being involved in moving
them or exploiting them even when they are clear that they do not know the defendant or that the
person was never involved in such activities.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Non Discrimination and Equal Protection by the
Law / Right to Fair Trial

Assistance and Support

WOMEN ARE FORCIBLY DETAINED IN SHELTERS
AT Law Section 33 Assistance: The MSDHS must provide assistance to trafficked
persons, including food, shelter, training, legal support, etc - undertaken with the
opinion of the trafficked person sought and providing that human dignity and the
differences in sex, age, nationality race and culture of the trafficked person be taken
into account.
Women who are classified as trafficked persons and also witnesses are held against their will in
government and non-government shelters for periods of up to two years. The opinion of either
group has never been sought or respected. Women are not consulted about their detention and
have no choice about which shelter they go to and cannot leave once they are there. There is no
independent complaints mechanism accessible to women in the shelters.
They have their phones confiscated and are unable to contact family, friends or outside agencies
until such time as the court case is completed which can take over a year.
94

Women all report instances of discrimination and racism by shelter staff either because of being a
migrant and /or a sex worker. The only religion adhered to in the shelters is Buddhism. Christian
and Muslim women who have been detained as witnesses in shelters have not been able to
practice their religions. Muslim woman do not have access to halal food or opportunity to observe
Islamic religious practices. Women have been denied appropriate health care at shelters including
dental and maternity health care services.
Migrant women who stayed in shelters have had extremely limited access to translators, and those
that did have access had difficulties understanding the translation. This issue however seems to
occur not only in shelters, but also in various stages of the legal process, including in court cases,
in interviews for identification, and in mandatory health testing at hospitals.
Compared to Thai women in shelters migrant sex workers are less likely to receive formal
educational opportunities and more likely to receive occupational training that is gender biased
and not formally recognized.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the Person:
protection against arbitrary detention, right to file a complaint for arbitrary detention
Right to Non Discrimination and Equal Protection by the Law: discriminatory
treatment of migrant sex workers / Right to Freedom of Movement: right to leave any
country
Right to Family Life: regular contact with family / Right to Freedom of Religion
/Rights for Redress of legal violations

GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN THE RIGHT TO TEMPORARY WORK

AT Law Section 37 Work: Trafficked persons have the right to temporary work in
Thailand, while waiting for court outcomes and repatriation.
Trafficked women are discriminated against on the basis of gender. They are offered limited
opportunities for earning an income compared with trafficked men.
Women are restricted to working within shelter grounds allegedly because they are more
vulnerable to being exploited if allowed outside the shelters to work. Women are offered
temporary piecework making handicrafts to be sold at local shelter stores. They are not paid for
their labour and only earn money when their products are sold. Men on the other hand are able
to seek work outside shelters, earning at least the daily minimum wage. This double standard
discriminates against women, and is especially cruel for women who are responsible for supporting
families and children in their home communities prior to being detained in the shelter.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Right to Free Choice of Employment and to Just and
Favourable Conditions of Work/ Right to Non Discrimination

95

COMPENSATION FOR VICTIMS

AT Law Section 33-35 Compensation: Prosecutor must inform the trafficked person of
their right to compensation and make a claim during criminal proceedings in the Court.
Compensation claims for women classified as having been trafficked for exploitation of prostitution
are not routinely lodged. Compensation is more likely to be awarded to people trafficked for labour
exploitation. Women are not given to understand their right to compensation or the process with
which to claim it. Claims for compensation can take up to a year to execute, at which time
migrant women may already have been deported to their home countries.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: Access to Justice and Effective Remedy /Right for redress
of legal violations
Deportation
AT Law Section 38 Reparation: Officials shall undertake to return trafficked persons to
their countries of origin without delay.
It takes between 8 months and 2 years for women to be deported to their home country, even
those which are neighboring countries to Thailand.
Migrant women cannot routinely be guaranteed effective follow up or support, due to problems in
cross border collaboration between states and NGO. This is of major concern for women from
Burma where there are inadequate protection guarantees for migrant women who are deported to
areas where there is known to be military conflict, persecution of ethnic women by the state
military, and punitive attitudes of Burmese government officials towards women who have been
involved in the sex industry.
Migrant women who are trafficked persons do not routinely receive financial compensation to set
up businesses or investments in their home communities because NGO and welfare staffs
concerns over bank accounts and safety of the money. Thai women are more likely to receive
follow up support and compensation than migrant women affected by trafficking.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED:Right to Justice and Access to Effective Remedy:
compensation / Right for Redress of legal violations / Right to Non Discrimination /
Right to Non Refoulement
Prevention
Sex workers and others in the entertainment industry have limited knowledge of their rights and
responsibilities under the Act as there have been no effective awareness raising campaigns for this
allegedly high risk group. In fact sex workers are more likely to be targeted by state and non
state punitive suppression strategies rather than capacity building and educational programs. No
consultations have ever been undertaken with sex workers to seek their input, assistance,
knowledge and experience in designing and implementing trafficking intervention and prevention
strategies within their own industry. Instead sex workers are humiliated, raided, detained and
punished, all in the guise of trafficking prevention.
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HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED: The Right to Participation: access to information

TABLE OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: Our research has found consistent violation of the
following fundamental human rights of Thai and Migrant women in Thailand, under the guise of
anti-trafficking practice. The Thai Government is obligated to protect these rights under various
international treaties that it is a signatory to as highlighted below.

RIGHTS AND PRINCIPLES VIOLATED

TREATY OBLIGATION S OF THE THAI

GOVERNMENT

Right to Non Discrimination, Equality

before the Law and Equal Protection by the
Law

UDHR 2, 6, 7 & 8; ICCPR 2(1), 14, 16 & 26;ICESCR

2(2) & 3; CEDAW 1 & 2; CERD 1 & 5; ICRMW 1 &
24; ECHR 14

Right to Justice/ Access to Effective

Remedy

UDHR 6, 7, 10, 11, CEDAW General

Recommendation 26

Right to Participation/ Access to

Information

ICCCPR 25, CEDAW General Recommendation 26

Right to Gender Equality

UDHR 2, 6, 7 & 8; ICCPR 2(1), 14, 16 & 26;ICESCR

2(2) & 3; CEDAW 1 & 2; CERD 1 & 5

Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the

Person

UDHR 3 & 9; ICCPR 6 & 9; ICERD 5; CRC 6; CRC

37

Right to Freedom of Movement

UDHR 13; ICCPR 12; CEDAW 15(4)

Right to Privacy and Family Life, Reputation

and Honor

UDHR 12 & 16; ICCPR 17 & 23; ICESCR 10; CRC 9,

10 & 20

Right to Property

UDHR 17

Right to Non-Refoulement

UDHR 14; CAT 3

Right to a Fair Trial

UDHR 6, 7, 10 & 11

Right to Free Choice of Employment/ Just

and Favorable Conditions of Work

UDHR 23, 24 & 25; ICESCR 6 & 7;

Right to Health

UDHR 25; ICESCR 12; ICERD 5; CEDAW 14; CRC

24, 25 & 39

Right to Freedom of Religion

UDHR ICCPR; ECHR 9

97

As well as the above noted human rights violations, the research has found that Thai government
officials and non-state actors involved in anti-trafficking responses in Thailand are in some
instances also violating national law including some of the protections and provisions within the
Anti-Trafficking law itself. There is also evidence that anti-trafficking practice in Thailand is in
contradiction to a number of regional treaties that have been signed by the Thai government, and
also violate international anti-trafficking law and guidelines. These are outlined below.

Violation of Thai National Law and Policy:

Suppression and Prevention of Human Trafficking Act BE 2551

Must take testimony of witness promptly; Section 31

Prompt victim testimony and court hearings, Section 31
Victim right to compensation, Section 34-35
Right for safe repatriation without delay; Sections 33,34,35,36, 37, 39
Victim right to privacy; Section 53
Victim assistance must adhere to human dignity and opinion of trafficked persons;
Section 31, 53

Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2550 (2007)

All Persons are Equal before the law; Section 4, 30

Right to Live and Work Free of Discrimination; Section 34,40,49,51
Right to Access to Justice; proper treatment in administration of justice; Section 39
Right to Remedy through the Court for Violations of Constitution; Section 27
Right and Liberty to Observe Religious Principles and Practices; Section 37
Right to Family Life, Dignity, Reputation and Privacy; Section 35
Right to be Informed of Evidence, Legal Assistance; Section 40

Thai Human Rights Commission Recommendation on Human Rights and Entrapment, 2003
Thai Penal Code

Right to access to justice: lawyer,

Redress or complaint against illegal detention
Arbitrary Detention
Informed consent for medical procedures

Thai Witness Protection Act, B.E.2546 (2003)

Support and protection for witnesses Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 15 and 16

National Operational Guidelines for NGO Engaged in Addressing Trafficking in Children and
Women, B.E. 2546

Foreign victims of trafficking right to translators, Section 5

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Regional Agreements Violated

COMMIT MOU on Cooperation of Trafficking in Persons in the Greater Mekong Sub region

Victim right to translators; Section 2.10

Victim right to receive legal information; Section 10
Promoting gender sensitivity in trafficking interventions; Section 15
Victim right to safe return and cross border follow up; Section 20, 21

ASEAN Declaration against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children

Safeguard victim human rights and dignity; Article 6

ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in the ASEAN Region

Remove discrimination against women/support economic empowerment; Section 5

International Ant-trafficking Standards Violated

UN Trafficking Protocol 2002

Anti-trafficking measure should not adversely affect the human rights of persons;
Article 14.1
Principle of Non-Discrimination; Article 14.2
Assistance provided to victims in a language they understand; Article 6.2
The privacy of trafficked persons is protected; Article 6.1
Victims have right to legal assistance in a language they understand; Article 6.2
Right to compensation for victims: Article 6.6,

UNOHCR 2010 Recommended Principles and Guidelines of Human Rights and Human Trafficking:

Anti-trafficking measure should not adversely affect the human rights of persons;
Principle 3.1
Vulnerable groups have the right to receive information to enable them to seek
assistance; Principle 4
The privacy of trafficked persons is protected; Guideline 6.6,
Non Coercion of care and support; victims should not be subjected to mandatory
medical testing; Guideline 6.2
Victims have right to legal assistance in a language they understand; Guidelines 3.1,
3.8 & 6.5
Routine detention of victims or suspected victims in public or private shelters violates
international law; restrictive measures must conform to the principle of proportionality;
Guidelines 3.3 & 7.4
99

Right to compensation for victims; Guidelines 17.4 &17.5

Safe repatriation of trafficked persons and family UN Trafficking Protocol 8.1 & 8.2, UN
HCHR Guidelines 6.7
Principle of Non Refoulement: States prohibited from returning person to county where
they will be subject to persecution or abuse; Guidelines 6.7

Our findings call for a sincere and urgent response from the Thai Government and
others involved. It is unconscionable to allow these abuses to continue in the name of
responding to human trafficking or to satisfy a foreign governments agenda. The Thai
Government has a clear and compelling duty to end all harmful interventions and
provide legal remedy to those affected by such violations according to domestic and
international law e.g. as mandated within the ICCPR article 2.3, the CERD Article 6 and
the and UDHR Article 8.

100

Appendix: CONSULTATION LIST

Summary of Stakeholders and Contacts interviewed for the Research:
Research Partners/sex workers: 170
Sex Workers from Thailand, Burma, Laos, and China. Working in different sectors of the
industry in 9 provinces in Thailand (Samut Sakhon, Nonthaburi, Ubon Ratchathani, Udon
Thani, Mukdahan, Chiang Mai, Mae Sot, Mae Sai, Chongmek)
Research Leaders/sex worker leaders: 36
Sex Workers from Thailand, Burma and Laos. Working in different sectors and with Empower
11 provinces in Thailand (Krabi, Phuket, Samut Sakhon, Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Ubon
Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Mukdahan, Chiang Mai, Mae Sot and Mae Sai
Entertainment Place Owners: 9
3 in the North East / 5 Mae Sot / 1 Chiang Mai
People on trial for or previously convicted of trafficking: 5
3 employees at a karaoke bar, 1 bar owner, 1 gardener
Department of Social Development and Human Security: 10 meetings
Womens shelters: 4 shelter staff (Baan Kredtrakarn, Baan Song Khawe)
Provincial Offices : 6 meetings / reports from provincial level officials (Ubon, Udon, Mukdahan,
Pattaya, Chonburi, Samut Sakhon)
Police: 23
15 provincial Anti Human Trafficking Department Police: Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Payao,
Bangkok
8 local police: Chiang Mai, Mae Sot, Pattaya
NGO: 15
2 international / regional anti-trafficking NGO (UNIAP, GAATW)
8 Thai NGO with anti-trafficking programs (Trafcord, World Vision, IOM, Foundation For
Women, ADRA, Daughters Education project, Thai Development Foundation, LPN )
5 local NG0 (MAP Foundation, SHARE, Grass Roots Human Rights Foundation, Foundation for
AIDS Rights, Rak Thai)
Meeting: NGO and Police-Anti-Trafficking R3 Rapid Report and Response Meeting, Pattaya,
July 2011

101

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A report by Empower Chiang Mai on the human rights violations women are
subjected to when "rescued" by anti-trafficking groups who employ methods
using deception, force and coercion
June 2003
"Anti-trafficking measures shall not adversely affect the human rights and
dignity of persons in particular the rights of those who have been
trafficked and of migrants, internally displaced persons refugees and
asylum seekers."
The Primacy of Human Rights; Number 3, Pinciples and Guidelines on
Human Rights and Human Trafficking. Report of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights to the Economic and Social Council
Empower Foundation is a Thai organization since 1985. Empower promotes
opportunities for women workers in the entertainment industry. Empower strives to
promote these opportunities and rights to all women workers regardless of their country
of origin.
Far from being a "bold new method" as being proclaimed, Empower Chiang Mai has
been dealing with the issue of "raids and rescues" of women working in brothels for the
past 11 years.
Empower abhors the trafficking of any persons; forced labor including forced sex work;
and the sexual abuse of children, whether for commercial exploitation or not.
Over the past three years there has been an increased international and national focus
on the situation of women who have been trafficked.
However, the focus on trafficking in persons has meant many groups with little or no
experience on the issues of migration, labor, sex work or women's rights have been
created to take advantage of the large sums of money available to support antitrafficking activities. Their inexperience and lack of contact with the sex worker
community has meant they are unable or unwilling to differentiate between women who
have been trafficked and migrant workers. They also show a great deal of trouble
differentiating between women and girls, often applying identical standards and solutions
for both. It is obviously inappropriate to treat a girl as an adult and just as obviously
inappropriate to treat an adult as a child.
Empower has monitored the methods and results of these group's activities and we are
very alarmed at the increasing violations and inhumane treatment women are subjected
to by unworkable and unethical methods.
Empower has used the most recent experience of "rescue" to further highlight our
concerns.

Rescue by Trafcord with the support of the International Justice Mission, Chiang
Mai, Thailand, 2nd May 2003
Prior to the 2nd of May women from a brothel called Baan Rom Yen had been studying
Thai daily with Empower, joining our outside activities e.g. attending a workshop on
migrant's rights, going to swimming lessons, going to a local water fall. Women also had
access to the public health weekly and were provided with safe sex equipment and skills
by Empower. None of these women had talked about being trafficked and when they
discussed their work, plans and dreams none showed any need or wish for outside
rescue.
On the 1st of May three of the women collected their savings from the owner and
contacted a van in order to take them home to Burma on Friday 2nd of May. One of these
three went with a customer on the 1st of May and didn't come back. Her friends and
employer were worried for her. The other women postponed their trip home in order to
wait for her.
At 11 pm May 2nd women heard people yelling "police". Those that could get away did
and the others were "caught". Everyone, including the brothel owner saw the missing
woman in the police car, saw her name on the arrest warrant and assumed that she had
gone to the police.
"Ensuring that trafficked persons are effectively protected from harm,
threats or intimidation by traffickers and associated persons, To this end
there should be no public exposure of the identity of trafficking victims
and their privacy should be protected and respected."
Guideline Six (6), Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human
Rights and Human Trafficking, Report of the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights to the Economic and Social Council
Journalists and photographers also accompanied the police and "rescue team". Photos
of the women were taken without their consent and appeared in the local papers and TV
the next day.
"States should protect the privacy of identity of victims of trafficking in
persons, inter alia, by making proceedings confidential."
Article 6, UN Protocol to Suppress, Prevent and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementary to The UN
Convention On Transnational Organized Crime 2000
Women who were "rescued" understood they had been arrested. They had their
belongings taken from them.
"No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of her property"
Article 17(2), Universal Declaration of Human Rights
They were separated from each other. They were unable to contact friends, family or
Empower.

"No one shall be subjected to arbitrarily interference her privacy, family

home or correspondence."
Article 12, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In all 28 women were "rescued". Some of the women were not employees of that brothel
but were simply visiting friends when they were "rescued". Women were transported by
Trafcord and the police against their will to a Public Welfare Boys Home. Nineteen
women were locked inside and have remained there for the past 31 days. We have no
information on the whereabouts or situation of the other ten women.
"Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be
subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of her
liberty except in such grounds and in accordance with such procedures
as established by law"
Article 9 (1), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
"Women suspected of being trafficked must not be detained for longer
than 10 days."
Article 10, Measures of Prevention and Suppression of the Trafficking
in Woman and Children Act 1997 (Thailand)
As soon as they had their mobile phones returned women contacted Empower. They are
only permitted to use their phones for a short time each evening and must hide in the
bathroom to take calls outside that time. They report that they have been subjected to
continual interrogation and coercion by Trafcord. Women understand that if they
continue to maintain that they want to remain in Thailand and return to work that they will
be held in the Public Welfare Boys Home or similar institution until they recant. Similarly
they understand that refusing to be witnesses against their "traffickers" will further delay
their release.
"Migrant workers and their families shall have the right security and liberty
of person. They shall be entitled to effective protection by the state
against violence, physical injury threats and intimidation whether by public
officials private individuals groups or institutions."
Article 16, International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant
Workers and Members and of Their Families
"States shall ensure that trafficked persons are protected from further
exploitation and harm and have access to adequate physical and
psychological. Such protection and care shall not be made conditional on
the capacity or willingness of people to cooperate in legal proceedings."
Protection and Assistance Principle 8, Recommended Principles and
Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking. Report of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Economic and Social
Council
Five days after the "rescue" four women who had escaped the rescue team came to
Empower Chiang Mai. They were still shaken and very worried about their friends and
their own safety. They were shocked to hear that the raid had not been about arresting
women but rather in order to 'rescue" those women who were victims of trafficking.

Each of the women were emphatic that all the workers were well informed before
coming, had made satisfactory salary arrangements with the employer, had the freedom
to leave and all were 19 years and over.
One woman who has a 50,000 baht advance from the owner had traveled home twice in
the past two months to visit family etc. Although she had borrowed the money as an
advance against her wages she felt no fear or threat. She and the others were all
supported by the management to refuse customers, attend to health care, access safe
working equipment, education and training. They were receiving an average of 600 Baht
a day (the minimum wage in Chiang Mai Thailand is 133 Baht a day) They now find
themselves unable to work.
"States will ensure the rights of women to protection and working
conditions as well as the right to choose a profession."
Article 11 c & f, Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of
Discrimination against Women
"Everyone has the right to work to free choice of employment to just and
favorable conditions of work and protection against unemployment."
Article 23 (1 ), Universal Declaration of Human Rights
They had fled the brothel leaving their possessions and savings behind. The brothel was
now locked and they were unable to regain their goods.
"No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of her property."
Article 17(2), Universal Declaration of Human Rights
These women have nowhere to stay, no money and therefore are unable to access
basic needs including medical care and education.
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well beingh of herself and her family including food, clothing housing and
medical care and necessary social services and the right to secure in the
event of unemployment, sickness disability widowhood old age or other
lack of livelihood in circumstance beyond her control."
Article 25 (1), Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Many of the women come from Shan State in Burma. In an area where systematic rape,
forced labor, food shortages and a multitude of other human rights abuses have been
well documented. (One of the most telling and relevant reports "License to Rape"
released just last year) There is no real process whereby people fleeing the situation can
claim refugee status in Thailand. After "rescue" their situation will be made known to
Burmese authorities, local village officials and family members. Under these
circumstances a safe and beneficial return home is impossible.
"Repatriation of victims of trafficking: When a State Party returns a victim
of trafficking in persons to a State Party of which that person is a national
or had the right to permanent residence, such return shall be with due
regard for the safety of that person and shall preferably be voluntary."
Article 8, UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in

Persons, Especially women and Children, Supplementary to The United

Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime UN 2000
On May 16th we found we were no longer able to contact the women by phone. On May
26th we called the Public Welfare staff where nineteen women were being held. The
majority of women have been transferred to a rehabilitation center in central Thailand
and the other seven will be sent to the same institution for an indefinite period. They are
homesick, worried and furious and in the meantime their families are left without financial
support. All the women being held plan to return to work as soon as possible after their
inevitable deportation. This will of course result in them paying yet another transport fee
and facing more risks, including the risk of being "rescued" again.
Traffickers and many anti-trafficking groups employ very similar methods to achieve their
goals. Both groups deceive women, transport them against their will, detain them, and
put them in dangerous situations.
Recommendations
On the 12th of May Empower held a meeting on trafficking and anti-trafficking responses
with 64 female entertainment workers from 3 major centers in Thailand. The large
majority of the group was women from Burma, some of who had at some time been
"victims of trafficking" and all of who had at one stage or other enlisted help to migrate
for work in Thailand.
They were unanimous in their recommendations that:
1. No person should be trafficked, or forced to work in work they have not chosen to
do and that no child under the age of 18 years should be abused sexually either
commercially or domestically.
2. Methods to combat trafficking must be revised and solutions found that do not
violate the rights of workers but support true victims of trafficking.
3. The rights of adult trafficked victims as workers must be acknowledged. We
should receive recognition of our work and compensation, so we are not
financially worse off after our "rescue".
4. All women affected by trafficking or anti-trafficking measures must receive
adequate compensation and if we are victims of trafficking we be given full
support to seek asylum and/or residency with the right to work included.
5. The primary goal of prosecuting traffickers must be altered to a primary goal of
assisting trafficked women and children. We propose that if trafficked women and
children (whether trafficked or not) are continually rescued and assisted, the use
of trafficked women and children will become unprofitable and entertainment
places will only wish to employ those women who are over 18 years, informed
and willing to work.
6. Understand that all women, who are unable to access travel documents and
need or wish to migrate, must secure the assistance of an agent or broker. If our
situation as refugees from Burma is not recognized we must secure work for the
survival of our families and ourselves. While we are willing to work our illegal
status leaves us with no recourse against exploitation by agents or employers
regardless of the work we do. Anti-trafficking groups must work toward improving

the human rights situation in Burma, securing the ability for women to travel
independently, and fully supporting the recognition of our refugee status.
7. Currently women who work in entertainment places have their own methods of
assisting trafficked women, those being forced to work, and those under 18
years. Anti-trafficking dialogue and groups have yet to consider us as antitrafficking workers and human rights defenders even though the numbers of
women and children we assist far out way the handful women and children
serviced by the recognized anti-trafficking groups. Instead we are ourselves
caught up in the "rescues and repatriation". The latest stance from the USA
government calling us "inappropriate partners" is just the latest example among
many of the way we are ignored and our expertise sidelined.
Empower appeals to anti-trafficking campaigners, funding bodies and policy makers to
urgently and very carefully consider these recommendations and ensure that they
protect the rights of the women they propose to assist.

Running from the Rescuers: New U.S. Crusades

Against Sex Trafficking and the Rhetoric of Abolition
GRETCHEN SODERLUND
This article analyzes recent developments in U.S. anti-sex trafficking
rhetoric and practices. In particular, it traces how pre-9/11 abolitionist
legal frameworks have been redeployed in the context of regime change
from the Clinton to Bush administrations. In the current political context, combating the traffic in women has become a common denominator
political issue, uniting people across the political and religious spectrum
against a seemingly indisputable act of oppression and exploitation.
However, this essay argues that feminists should be the fi rst to interrogate and critique the premises underlying many claims about global
sex trafficking, as well as recent U.S.-based efforts to rescue prostitutes.
It places the current raid-and-rehabilitation method of curbing sex trafficking within the broader context of Bush administration and conservative religious approaches to dealing with gender and sexuality on the
international scene.
Keywords: sex trafficking / social movements / prostitution / journalism /
violence against women / evangelism
Our job under this statute is to end trafficking. If America fails to take the
lead in rescuing the victims, theres no other nation that will.
John R. Miller, Director of the State Departments Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (quoted in Morse 2003)
[Sex trafficking] just jumped off the pages of the newspaper.
Richard Cizik, National Association of Evangelicals
(quoted in Shapiro 2004)

Two years ago an undercover team comprised of an MSNBC Dateline

producer and a sex-trafficking investigator scouted the streets of Phnom
Penh, Cambodia, for evidence of child prostitution. After inquiring among
locals and an unwitting American doctor who thought he had met a kindred sex tourist, a Cambodian boy finally led them to an impoverished
area just outside Phnom Penh where they found a rickety house teeming
with children. When one small girl offered them oral sex for 30 U.S. dollars, it became apparent that what appeared to be an extended family or
some kind of makeshift orphanage was in fact a brothel. The team had
learned earlier that police receive kickbacks from brothel managers in
return for not interfering with the sex rackets operating in and around
the city. One police officer even guaranteed to protect the investigators2005 NWSA Journal, Vol. 17 No. 3 (Fall)

Running from the Rescuers

65

turned-sex predators from arrest for 150 dollars. In light of widespread

corruption among the police, the undercover team enlisted Gary Haugen
of International Justice Mission (IJM), a Christian human rights group, to
help them free the young girls being sold for sex in this brothel.
With the consent of the Cambodian government, MSNBC and IJM put
together a self-styled American posse to fill the vacuum left by local law
enforcement. In their role as surrogate police, the group conducted a dramatic raid on the house. Guns were drawn, sirens blared, children wailed,
and panicked men and women ran in every direction. The IJM investigator
rounded up as many children as possible in the midst of the ensuing chaos.
A listless crowd assembled outside the house, watching as the drama
spilled onto the street. Raids were conducted throughout Svay Pak that
day, leading to the capture of 37 women and girls, the arrest of madams
and pimps, and the barricading of many of the shantytowns brothels. At
the days end, the women and children under the investigators charge
were taken to a safe house. They would be tabulated and referred to as
37 victims rescued in subsequent International Justice Mission (IJM)
accounts of the raid (IJM 2004). The whole event was documented by a
hidden digital camera and brought to U.S. television audiences in a January 2004 Dateline episode called Children for Sale. Over the last year,
this MSNBC/IJM tape has been widely cited as proof of an insidious global
sex trade that often preys on small children. It serves by extension as an
implicit endorsement of the tactics used by newfangled abolitionists in
their quest to free the worlds sex slaves.

Running from Rescue

In the current context, no practice or set of relationships is referred to
more often as slavery than that of sex trafficking. It is commonplace to
hear trafficking referred to as modern day slavery or virtual sexual
slavery by activists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and journalists. Like Progressive era anti-prostitution social reform movements,
early 21st century anti-trafficking movements draw on the rhetoric of abolition to underscore the urgency of their cause. Central to such rhetoric is
the construction of captivity and freedom as diametrically opposed states
of existence. Yet in current sites and practices of abolitionist intervention
the line between rescuers and captors has become increasingly blurry.
While the stories abolitionists tell about their interventions tend to focus
on the moment of the raid and the successful delivery of the rescued slaves
to safe houses, events that occur in the aftermath of raids often belie the
claim that all of the rescued women are sex slaves held captive and against
their will in brothels. Reports from sex worker rights organizations and
testimonials from individuals who manage shelters suggest that rescue

66

Gretchen Soderlund

escapes are exceedingly common throughout India and Southeast Asia.

It appears that while some women use brothel raids and closures as an
opportunity to leave the sex industry, others perceive the rehabilitation
process itself as a punitive form of imprisonment thereby complicating
the captivity/freedom binary asserted by abolitionists.
Journalist Maggie Joness interviews with safe house managers indicate
that shelter escapes are commonplace in areas where anti-trafficking
groups are currently targeting their efforts (2003). The manager of the
Phnom Penh home that took in the 37 prostitutes after the Datelineinitiated raids reported to Jones that at least 40 percent of the women and
girls taken to his shelter escape and return to work in Svay Paks brothels.
Indeed, six of the teens taken by MSNBC/IJM had run away from the home
within a week of the televised busts. When Phil Marshall of the United
Nations Project on Human Trafficking in Southeast Asias Mekong Region
was asked by Jones what he thought of current rehabilitation strategies,
he said he had never seen an issue where there is less interest in hearing
from those who are most affected by it (Jones 2003,1). In 2003, Empower,1
a sex workers advocacy program, issued a report documenting a brothel
raid in Chiang Mai, Thailand conducted by International Justice Mission
in which several of the 28 arrested (or rescued, in abolitionist parlance)
Burmese women escaped from a local institution in the first 24 hours.
According to Empower, the raidconducted ostensibly for humanitarian
purposestook on many of the same features as a criminal arrest:
As soon as they had their mobile phones returned [the] women contacted
Empower. They are only permitted to use their phones for a short time each
evening and must hide in the bathroom to take calls outside that time. They
report that they have been subjected to continual interrogation and coercion
by Trafcord [an anti-trafficking NGO formed in 2002 with U.S. fi nancial support]. Women understand that if they continue to maintain that they want to
remain in Thailand and return to work that they will be held in the Public
Welfare Boys Home or [a] similar institution until they recant. Similarly, they
understand that refusing to be witnesses against their traffickers will further
delay their release. (Empower 2003)

By the end of the month, more than half of the women had escaped from
the shelter. What does it mean that so-called sex slaves often thwart
rescue attempts? Is it intellectually and ethically responsible to call every
instance of a practice slavery when many women involved demonstratively reject the process of protection and rehabilitation, and when they
escape from supposed rescuers who aim to force them out of a life of
prostitution (captivity) and into a life of factory work or employment
in the low-paying service sector (freedom)?
This article analyzes recent developments in U.S. anti-sex trafficking
rhetoric and practices. It traces how legal frameworks to combat trafficking

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have been redeployed in the context of regime change from the Clinton
to Bush administrations. At the time of writing, the United States is
fighting two concurrent wars: one a declared war in Afghanistan against
the Taliban and the other an illegitimate occupation of Iraq committed
under false pretenses. In such a context, combating the traffic in women
has become a common denominator political issue, uniting people across
the political and religious spectrum against a seemingly indisputable act
of oppression and exploitation. It is commonly assumed that only the
most callous would criticize efforts to free the worlds sex slaves from
the clutches of organized and brutal trafficking networks. Yet I hope to
demonstrate here that those who seek a more humane and equitable world
should in fact be the first to interrogate and critique the premises underlying many claims about global sex trafficking, as well as the U.S.-based
efforts to free sex slaves justified by these claims.
This analysis focuses on one increasingly influential node within a
complex and diverse transnational movement characterized by activism
and policy creation at every level. While its scope is limited to the U.S.
context, anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution campaigns are by no means
unique to this country. Like other social movements, efforts to regulate
commercial sex possess different histories, meanings, and political agendas that are linked to the distinct national and local contexts in which
they emerged (Gerull and Halstead 1992; Kuo 2002; Outshoorn 2004;
Pearson 2002), even as current policy implementation on the national
level is often deeply informed by and becomes the object of transnational
debates and global activism (Bernstein 2005/in press; Gal 2003; Keck and
Sikkink 1998; Kempadoo and Doezema 1998).
The United Nations (UN) is the largest global regulatory institution
to declare global sex trafficking a violation of womens human rights.
However, in the last three years the United States has positioned itself
as an equally significant force in the anti-trafficking arena. Combating
sex slavery has become a key Bush administration priority and its most
championed humanitarian cause. The Department of Justice under John
Ashcroft has spent an average of 100 million dollars a year to fight trafficking domestically and internationally, a sum that overshadows any
other individual nations contributions to similar efforts.2 The current
administrations attempt to assert global moral leadership on this issue
by staging interventions in any country it deems weak on trafficking sets
it apart from other countries. In what follows I explore the genesis and
hidden political dimensions of current U.S.-based anti-sex trafficking initiatives. I trace the process through which sex trafficking came to occupy
its current position in the Bush administrations pantheon of international
causes by examining how social movements and protectionist media discourses have produced sex slavery as an object worthy of governmental
intervention.

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The Return of Raid and Rehabilitation

Scenes of Anglo men raiding brothels in Cambodia, India, Thailand, and
other developing nations have become increasingly common since faithbased human rights groups applied pressure on the Bush administration
to more vigorously enforce the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act
(TVPA). Passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton, this
Act was the product of a tenuous alliance between evangelical Christian
groups and contemporary secular feminist anti-trafficking crusaders.
Religious conservatives, particularly evangelical Christians, had seized
on the issue of sex slavery in the late 1990s in a self-conscious effort
to expand their base and political power through the vehicle of human
rights (Hertzke 2004; Shapiro 2004). They were joined by such feminist
organizations as Equality Now and the Protection Project which aligned
themselves with the faith-based groups in the name of saving the worlds
women. Laura Lederer, editor of the famous Take Back the Night (1980)
collection and a current State Department appointee, functioned as a
major link between feminists and evangelical organizations. In defense of
this alliance, Lederer stated that religious organizations had introduced
a fresh perspective and biblical mandate to the womens movement.
Womens groups dont understand that the partnership on this issue
has strengthened them, because they would not be getting attention
internationally otherwise (quoted in Crago 2003).
Measures that couple Christian-based forms of rehabilitation with
traditional law-enforcement-style brothel raids have emerged as the dominant institutional means through which U.S. organizations now interface
with sex workers domestically and internationally. Efforts along these
lines have been enabled and amply rewarded by the Bush administration
in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, in part because the feminized war against
trafficking functions to give a human face to the war against terrorism
while bolstering Bushs popularity among his base by offering their organizations lucrative opportunities to spread their variant of Christianity
internationally. Indeed, in the last three years, groups affiliated with this
coalition have ascended to the top of the anti-trafficking milieu, gained
control of most federal anti-trafficking funds, and become the most prominent media and policy spokespeople on the topic. In light of this reallocation of resources and shifting discourse about trafficking, it appears
that organizations critical of state-sanctioned law-and-order campaigns
against commercial sex workers are emerging as the losers in the battle to
define such phenomena as trafficking and prostitution and to implement
programs that they feel best respond to both domestic and migrating sex
workers needs. How did we arrive at this point? How did a faith-based
and feminist coalition succeed in mobilizing governmental and public

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support for a U.S.-led international campaign against sex trafficking? How

have discourses about the traffic in women, which for many of us are a
phenomenon we only know of secondhand, circulated in the context of
U.S.-based institutions? What role did journalism and news media play in
the proliferation of these discourses?
At various historical moments, victims of sex trafficking have commanded sufficient public attention that key state institutions have mobilized resources on their behalf. The most recent period of intensified
attention to international sex-trafficking began in the mid-1980s and
became visible in two interconnected arenas: in a broad-based campaign
to introduce womens sexual and reproductive rights into traditional
human rights doctrine and in media attention to the plight of sex trafficking victims. Activist and journalistic discourses have influenced each
others way of understanding and making claims about sex trafficking.
The strategies womens human rights advocates used to advance their
agenda resonated with a set of conventionalized journalistic images and
associations that gathered around the traffic in women as early as the
1880s. The convergence of these two discourses played a role in galvanizing legislative and public support for government-sponsored campaigns
to end global sex slavery.
At the intersection of gender, human rights, and foreign policy, no pre9/11 issue was as prominent or contentious as sex trafficking. The issue
became a priority of the United Nations in the 1990s when a diverse set
of activists organized to bring gender and sexuality into the purview of
traditional human rights doctrine (Bunch 1990; Wijers and Lap-Chew
1997; Pearson 2002; Singh 2003). This coalition was characterized by
a unity of purpose over bringing concerns specific to womenincluding abuses not directly attributable to state actors like domestic violenceinto the broader fold of human rights (Keck and Sikkink 1998).
The womens rights campaign ultimately coalesced around the notion of
violence against women, concentrating particularly on abuses suffered by
third-world women. For some advocates, the adoption of violence against
women as the focal point of the campaign derived from a deep-seated
conviction that womens exposure to multiple forms of physical harm
was the most pressing problem for human rights in the late twentieth
century. For others, violence against women appeared as the most exigent approach toward gaining recognition from international bodies. In
her analysis of the 1990s movement, Alice Miller explains that sexual
violence was effective in this cause because it seemed to provide a means
to make the gender-specific content of the violence visible to key human
rights bodies and actors (2004, 18). Activist strategies centered around
the victim subjectoften embodied in personal testimonials from the
most abject sufferersare not only more likely to draw governmental
and media attention to a cause, but also serve as a point of commonality

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from which women of different cultural and social contexts can speak
(Kapur 2002).
Violence against women dominated the campaign for womens rights
at such international conferences as the 1993 Vienna World Conference
on Human Rights and the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women. Within
this already narrowed focus, sex trafficking and prostitution surfaced as
the most egregious form of violence against women imaginable, and thus
trafficking emerged as the centerpiece of the campaign. However, despite
its high profile, sex trafficking proved to be a highly controversial issue
among feminists and human rights activists. If debates surrounding
pornography exposed significant political fault lines among feminists in
the 1980s, controversies over sex trafficking served that function in the
1990s. Many activists utilizing a violence-against-women framework in
their campaign for womens rights were uncomfortable about the framing
of sex slavery as the lynchpin of womens oppression. Activists who saw
campaigns against sex trafficking as a step on the path toward eradicating all forms of sexual commerce clashed with those who viewed forced
trafficking as an exploitative practice that could encompass but was
ultimately distinct from the commercial sex act itself.
As the trafficking debates raged, the two sides further developed
their positions on the issue. While the former perspective adhered to a
strict abolitionist model considering all prostitution sex slavery and
thus by definition violence against women, the latter camp could itself
be divided into those who believed forced sex trafficking was a worthy
object of political intervention and those who felt intensive campaigns
against trafficking necessarily undermined efforts to secure sex worker
rights (Doezema 1998; Kempadoo and Doezema 1998). Groups like Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) argued that trafficking was
a unique and particularly abhorrent sexual violation of mainly female
victims (CATW-Asia Pacific 1996; Barry 1979; Raymond and Hughes
2001). Other groups, particularly the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) and the Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP)
argued that the phenomenon rested along a continuum of forced migrant
labor (Kapur 2003; Kempadoo and Doezema 1998; Saunders and Soderlund
2003; Ulcarer 1999; Wijers and Lap-Chew 1997). For some activists the
trafficking of women into the sex industry is morally wrong and exploitative because of its association with commercial sex, while for others
forced prostitution is inseparable from global inequities of capital and
labor that leave women in the global economy with few viable options
aside from sweatshop labor or the typically more lucrative sex industry
work. From this latter perspective, an obsessive focus on sex trafficking
ultimately distracts from drawing connections between gendered poverty and forced prostitution and presumes a moralistic approach that is
unlikely to consider poverty, hunger, and low wages as equally pressing

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forms of violence against women. Subtle differences in the defi nition

of trafficking, its causes, and effects, lead to decidedly different institutional responses to these phenomena, as exemplified by recent policy
developments in Sweden and the Netherlands that have reshaped the
social organization of prostitution in these countries. However, Elizabeth
Bernsteins analysis of Sweden and the Netherlands divergent regulatory
approaches to commercial sex suggests that both policiescriminalization and legalizationhave strikingly similar effects on migrating sex
workers (2005/in press).
Increased attention to trafficking in the news media may provide a clue
to the puzzle as to why, of the many shapes gendered violence may take,
sex trafficking topped the list in human rights and formal governmental
discourse. By the late 1980s, stories about Latin American and Asian
women illegally trafficked into Western Europe to work in brothels began
to proliferate in the U.S. news media. The collapse of communism in Eastern Bloc countries intensified the focus on trafficking as stories of Eastern
Europeans sold into prostitution in Western Europe, the United States,
and parts of the Middle East circulated widely. It is likely such stories
reflected a visible increase in the number of women migrating to work in
distant sectors of the sex industry, although as Kamala Kempadoo points
out, globalization in the sex trade is by no means a new phenomenon
(2003). While the early stories focused on the movement of women from
one country to another for the purposes of prostitution, in recent years
trafficking stories have increasingly focused on the rural-to-urban movement of Asian women and girls allegedly lured, coerced, or kidnapped by
traffickers and forced into prostitution. The focus also has shifted to the
trafficking of foreign women and children into the United States. Whether
or not stories of modern-day sexual slavery represented a real increase
in the traffic in women, they also constituted prurient and cautionary
tales of women unmoored from family contexts. As such, these stories
are frequently selected by journalists because of their sensationalistic
qualities rather than their status as exemplary stories of women in the
global economy.

The Campaign for Womens Human Rights

Despite the resilience of the sex-slavery framework, narratives that resist
and complicate the basic trafficking story emerged in the second half
of the twentieth century. The most vocal challenges to the underlying
assumptions of trafficking discourse were usually tied to autonomous
sex worker rights movements, which were gaining institutional traction in the United States in the 1990s in part through their work to curb
the spread of HIV/AIDS among certain at-risk sex worker populations

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(Saunders 2004). Such groups emphasized harm reduction as opposed to

abolition and developed around the goals of unionizing prostitutes, supplying commercial sex workers with condoms, instructing them in safe
sex, providing HIV counseling and legal services, and working to end
police harassment, brutality, and extortion through the decriminalization of the trade (Overs and Longo 1997). Underlying such efforts was an
understanding of commercial sex and sex work that avoided victimization
frameworks, which so often wrest autonomy from women and places it in
the hands of states configured as masculine protectors.
In 1998 the UN and the United States appeared to be on the verge of
taking formal positions on trafficking after nearly a decade of anti-trafficking activism, media reports, and womens human rights campaigns
had put the issue on the international and domestic policy agendas. Up to
this point, the crusade against sex trafficking within the larger womens
human rights movement had largely been spearheaded by a collection of
feminist organizations, most notably the Coalition Against Trafficking
in Women (CATW) whose call to create trafficking laws broad enough
to encompass all acts of prostitution incited the debates between antitrafficking feminists and sex workers rights proponents. These oftenfractious interchanges generated competing claims about the nature
of the sexual contract, where (and in whom) power resides in the commercial sex exchange, and what the appropriate regulatory response is to
prostitution.
In light of recent developments in combating trafficking, the 1990s
trafficking debates, carried out in secular academic and policy contexts,
almost seem quaint, to lift an adjective from Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales (2002). The faith-based/feminist coalition that coalesced around
trafficking in the late 1990s managed to bypass traditional anti-trafficking groups, including longstanding organizations like CATW. Current
anti-trafficking discourse and initiatives carry few traces of the trafficking debates or their key institutional players. Such new social actors as
Linda Smith of Shared Hope International, Gary Haugen of International
Justice Mission, and Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves have entered the
scene. Prostitutes rights and harm reduction advocates are routinely
described and dismissed as the pro-prostitution mafia (Morse 2003) or
the pro-prostitution lobby (Hertzke 2004) and described as champions
of teaching child prostitutes to use condoms. The hegemony of this new
anti-trafficking coalition did not arise in a vacuum: to some degree antitrafficking feminists discursive victories in the 1990s paved the way for
the ascendancy of this neoabolitionist movement.

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The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000

Intensified concern around sex trafficking in the 1990s led to the creation
of two U.S. bills to combat the problem. While the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act (TVPA) focused primarily on sex trafficking with a few
gestures toward other forms of forced labor, a second bill sponsored by
Senator Paul Wellstone and favored by the Clinton administration understood sex trafficking as one of many forms of coerced labor (Committee
on Foreign Relations 2000). The Wellstone-sponsored bill included provisions to prosecute forced labor in all its guises, stressing that involuntary
servitude was not exclusive to segments of the sex industry but was also
liable to occur in the agricultural, domestic labor, garment, food service,
and many other industries. Sex worker rights groups and members of
Clintons State Department largely supported this bill, which conceived
of prostitution as a form of labor whose characteristics were linked to the
conditions under which it was performed. Thus the relative autonomy or
dependency of the worker was an important gauge in assessing whether
a particular incident constituted voluntary migration, a form of debtbondage, or outright slavery.
An alternative bill was drafted by Republican Congressman Chris
Smith with considerable input from Laura Lederer of the Protection Project
and Gary Haugen of the Christian-based International Justice Mission.3
The abolitionist feminists and religious activists who supported this bill
conducted a forceful lobbying campaign against Wellstones proposed legislation, claiming its focus on a range of labor issues would distract from
combating sex slavery. The anti-Wellstone campaign included threatening
to publicly label the Clinton administration pro-prostitution (perhaps
a potent move in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal) should the
bill be signed into law. Ultimately the Republican-sponsored Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was passed despite State Department
opposition.
The TVPA, which is Provision A of the larger Victims of Trafficking
and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, created the Office to Monitor and
Combat Trafficking in Persons within the State Department to oversee
its enforcement. The Act contains provisions to protect victims of trafficking from criminal charges while strengthening domestic laws against
trafficking by trying perpetrators as rapists. It provides a mandate to set
aside funds for the rehabilitation of victims by providing proper shelters,
education programs, and a few financial grants to victims for starting
small businesses. The Act also sets international standards to which
governments must comply in order to continue receiving nonhumanitarian aid from the United States. In this latter effort, it establishes a

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three-tier system that ranks nations according to their efforts in fighting

trafficking.
The TVPA and another legislative document also adopted in 2000, the
United Nations Optional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, together determine
anti-trafficking policy on an international scale. Reflecting the fractious
context in which they were conceived, both documents offer multiple
definitions of trafficking. In some instances, the term refers to all forms
of forced labor. At other points it is a synonym for the exploitation of all
women and girls in systems of prostitution. The TVPA offers no category
for unforced prostitution, while the UN Protocol is the more liberal document and vacillates between referring to all commercial sex exchanges as
forced and making distinctions between voluntary and involuntary prostitution. The UN Protocols inconsistent definition of trafficking suggests
that the views of groups arguing against a monolithic understanding of
trafficking as prostitution were also registered, albeit indirectly.
In the last instance, however, both documents constituted a decided
victory for neoabolitionist forces. Both label the objects of anti-trafficking
interventions sex slaves, a term that functions to obliterate distinctions between involuntary and voluntary sex work. Such language was
bolstered by the violence-against-women campaign as well as print and
broadcast media exposs featuring sordid stories of global trafficking networks and the women and children ensnared in their web. In this context,
sex worker rights advocates were cast as supporters of child prostitution
and the institutional relationships government agencies like the State
Department had established with groups supporting harm reduction and
decriminalization were threatened with public exposure as supporting
child molesters and their advocates.
It appeared that scandal generating as an activist strategy would be
put to rest when George W. Bush took office. The faith-based coalition
against trafficking strongly believed Bushs moral convictions and bornagain background would lead him to more vigorously enforce the TVPA
and prosecute prostitution rings. Much to the abolitionists chagrin, the
Act got lost in the transfer of power and the State Department initially
dragged its heels on its enforcement. Furthermore, many of the same
institutional relationships the State Department had established under
Clinton were maintained in the first year of Bushs presidency. In 2002,
the groups behind the TVPA mobilized their constituencies to pressure
the Bush administration to change its handling of the Act. In a threatened
reinstatement of the shaming tactic used during the Clinton era, Michael
Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a key figure in
establishing the coalition that got the TVPA signed into law, wrote to a
fellow advocate that he did not believe the Bush administration would
like to see itself as the subject of television exposs alleging that its State

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Department supports programs teaching seven-year-old girls how to get

their customers to use condoms and to use techniques that make sexual
penetration less painful (Hertzke 2004, 331).
During this episode, the coalition lobbied to have former U.S. representative John Miller appointed as director of the U.S. State Departments
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. While Bushs chief
strategist Karl Rove initially balked at this ideain large part because
Miller had been an avid supporter of McCains bid for the presidencyhe
eventually conceded and recommended placing Miller in the post to much
fanfare among other conservatives and many feminists. As Ann Morse
reported in the evangelical publication World Magazine:
Mr. Millers fansincluding Vice President Dick Cheney and Congressman
Tom Delay, Henry Hyde, Frank Wolf, and Chris Smithbelieve he has the
guts to take on what Miriam Bell, national director of public policy at the
Wilberforce Forum calls the pro-prostitution mafiapeople who are, antislavery activists charge, deliberately subverting the mandate of the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act. (2003)

The War Against Trafficking

It is a truism that the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center
and Pentagon radically reshaped the cultural and political landscape in
the United States and abroad. Seemingly overnight, the concerns and
priorities of the earlier periodthe deepening of trade relations with
Mexico, the prosecution of freewheeling executives at Enron, and the
giddy projections in government and academia about the triumph of globalizationseemed to disappear along with the Twin Towers. From the
vantage point of the womens rights movement it seemed plausible that
the global realignments wrought by 9/11 would displace concern about sex
trafficking that had been mounting throughout the 1990s. Depending on
where one stood in the 1990s trafficking debates, this potential displacement of sex trafficking from the governmental agenda was construed as
cause for relief or grave concern. From the immediate post-9/11 vantage
point, some critics of anti-trafficking legislation adopted in 2000 suggested that traffickingwith its emphasis on the unsanctioned movement
of peoplemight mesh with pervasive fears of terrorism and become a
powerful tool with which to curb immigration, while anti-trafficking lobbyists suggested that it would be a grave mistake if wartime led the Bush
administration to forget the scourge of trafficking.
Attention to sex trafficking has neither disappeared nor have its laws
simply become instrumental mechanisms through which the administration can hold back immigration. Under considerable pressure from
its faith-based constituency, the Bush administration has taken up the

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anti-trafficking cause as a key humanitarian initiative in the post-9/11

period. Spurred on by Millers office, the TVPA became one of Attorney
General John Ashcrofts most heavily enforced legislative acts. In 2003,
Ashcroft allocated 91 million dollars in appropriations for anti-trafficking
initiatives while awarding million-dollar grants to evangelical groups like
Shared Hope International and International Justice Mission (Report to
Congress 2004). The State Department now produces an annual Trafficking in Persons Report that monitors the progress of the United States
and other countries in breaking up trafficking rings, arresting their
ringleaders, and rescuing their victims.
Like the war on terrorism, what abolitionists have called the global
War Against Trafficking is decidedly U.S. directed.4 The United States
is also using its status as a superpower and major donor nation to force
other countries to allow its citizens to raid brothels and send prostitutes
into rehabilitation programs as well as to create domestic legislation that
further criminalizes sex trafficking (and by extension other forms of prostitution). A centerpiece of the TVPA is its provision to rank nations according to their status as importers or exporters of trafficking victims and
announce these rankings in an annual Victims of Violence and Trafficking
in Persons Act of 2000 (TIPS Report). Tier 3 countries are deemed to have
the worst trafficking track records; Tier 2 are borderline cases; and Tier 1
nations are seen to have complied with the U.S. governments anti-trafficking recommendations. From the vantage point of many abolitionists, the
TIPS Report constitutes an example of the United States exerting moral
leadership in the world. However, there is a strong correlation between the
Bush administrations larger foreign policy goalsthat have little to do
with moralityand its willingness to place countries on Tier 3 status.
The 2004 TIPS Report accords Tier 3 status to ten nations, three of
which are perceived political threats to the United States: Cuba, North
Korea, and Venezuela. In 2002 the United States was embarrassingly
exposed supporting a coup against Venezuelas democratically elected
leader, Hugo Chvez. Chvez, a notorious populist and critic of U.S.
imperialism, is president of the fourth-largest oil-producing country
in the world. At a time when the fate of Middle Eastern oil reserves is
unclear, the Bush administration was hoping opponents of Chvez would
install a leader with friendlier attitudes toward the United States (Harvey
2003). When Chvez handily survived a referendum in August 2004, the
United States retaliated by pulling support for $250 million in loans
that Venezuela had requested from international finance institutions.
Venezuelas record on trafficking in women and children was cited as
the reason for this diplomatic maneuver. The countrys absence from the
2003 TIPS Report and incredulous statements from international human
rights observers signaled to Venezuela and other Latin American nations
that the United States was using anti-trafficking laws to gain leverage in

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this oil-rich region (Shifter 2004, A19). This case suggests that the tools
anti-trafficking laws put at the administrations disposal can be used to
further other geopolitical ends and are inseparable from the larger arena
of international politics. Indeed, in recent years the TVPA has been used
to justify both continued economic sanctions in Cuba and the continued
freeze on diplomatic relations in North Korea.

When the President Speaks, the Media Parrot

President Bush also went on to generate much publicity for anti-trafficking crusades in the last years of his first term. Oft cited in news reports
is his 23 September 2003, annual Address to the United Nations. Well
aware that his international audience was deeply suspicious of his handling of Iraq, Bush devoted the last third of his 18-minute speech to global
sex trafficking, which he described as a clear-cut violation of moral law.
In moving effortlessly from the war on terrorism to the evils of global
sex trafficking, he took strides to symbolically link his nation to the
broader moral agenda embodied by the new War Against Trafficking.
Bush claimed the United States was supporting, and even spearheading,
many global initiatives to combat the traffic in women. Each year, he
stated, an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought, sold,
or forced across the worlds borders. . . . The victims of the sex trade see
little of life before they see the very worst of life (2003). His oratory was
laden with nineteenth- and early twentieth-century anti-prostitution
rhetoric, describing sex trafficking as a spreading but hidden evil, an
underground of brutality and lonely fear, and a special evil (2003). An
amplified mood of public sentimentality on the part of U.S. audiences in
the post-9/11 era guaranteed the domestic success of this rhetoric. Bushs
public speeches on trafficking had widespread reverberations in the journalistic field. The tone and substance of his UN speech was subsequently
adopted by a cadre of male journalists in high-profile and controversial
New York Times and New York Times Magazine exposs on sex slavery
in the United States and Cambodia (Kristof 2004; Landesman 2004).
Bushs rhetoric drew on historically and institutionally embedded ways
of telling stories about trafficking. Indeed, if news reports and policy
documents are any indication, there appear to be few ways to talk about
sex trafficking that do not include dramatic readings of the captivity
narratives well-rehearsed scripts: the prison-like brothel, the lured or
deceived female victim, and her heroic rescuers. These features not only
become ritually invoked and necessary aspects of such narratives by
indexing sex slavery, but they also define the rhetorical limits of what can
be said about the phenomenon on a popular level. If prisons are physical
structures meant to keep evil away from good, then melodramatic sex

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trafficking captivity narratives that equate brothels with prisons invert

this symbolic order by representing good locked away in an evil world.
Such narratives necessitate the introduction of a third party that not only
witnesses but takes decisive action to end the sex slaves suffering and
restore moral order to the world.
Such rhetoric characterized the September 2004, colloquium at the
Chicago Cultural Center titled For Sale or Rentthe Captive Daughters
of the Ukraine. This public forum featured Melanne Verveer, chair of
Vital Voices; Amy Heyden, coordinator of the Global Human Trafficking
Prevention Program; and Victor Malarek, a zealous Canadian investigative reporter and author of The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex
Trade (2004b). Malareks fire-and-brimstone oratory was straight out of
earlier eras (indeed, had he not lambasted UN peacekeepers as rapists
and traffickers and derided the internet as the steamiest whorehouse
on the planet [2004a] one might have guessed he had traveled, via time
machine, to the colloquium from the late nineteenth century). The panelists collectively affirmed that although numbers were hard to come by,
sex trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world and the most
egregious human rights violation imaginable (2004a). Trafficking constitutes a modern-day slave trade of epic proportions that is not unique to
one country but in fact spans the globe. It is an unimaginable nightmare
for its desperate victims who in Malareks words are sold like cattle and
then discarded like used dishrags (2004a).
Consider also the case of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristofs
series on buying the freedom of two young sex slaves in Poipet, Cambodia,
that originally ran in January and February 2004, and which he revisited in January 2005. In the original three-part series, Kristof describes
purchasing two Cambodian teens from brothels and returning them to
their families, all the while casting the journalist as swashbuckling hero,
castigating feminists, and lavishing praise on the Bush administration
for its actions on behalf of women. A year later Kristof visits the slaves
whose freedom he allegedly secured and finds that one of them had
returned to Poipet and her old brothel. Rather than altering his paradigm
regarding prostitution, he rationalizes Srey Moms return to the brothel
by appealing to her drug addiction, her eerily close relationship with
the brothel owner, and her low self-esteem. In this anniversary column,
Kristof writes: Aid groups find it unnerving that they liberate teenagers
from the bleak back rooms of a brothel, take them to a nice shelterand
then at night the kids sometimes climb over the walls and run back to
the brothel. Kristof goes on to state: It would be a tidier world if slaves
always sought freedom. But prostitutes often are shattered and stigmatized, and sometimes they feel that the only place they can hold their head
high is in the brothel (2005, A15). Rather than questioning the efficacy
of abolitionist strategies, he ends his story by affirming anti-prostitution

Running from the Rescuers

79

campaigns: this 21st century version of slavery has not only grown in
recent years but is especially diabolicalit poisons its victims, like Srey
Mom, so that eventually chains are often redundant (2005, A15). The
false consciousness thesis, which has stalked sex workers since they
became configured as victims (as opposed to public nuisances), continues
to be evoked with equal enthusiasm today as a paradigm-saving technique, one that encourages activists to dodge potential pitfalls in their
own interventionist strategies.

Enforcing Procreative Sex

When liberals and some radical feminists laud the administration for its
handling of the sex-trafficking issue they engage in a dubious act of legislative formalism that fails to recognize the overall context in which antitrafficking efforts occur. If we cannot isolate the TIPS Report from larger
geopolitical interests, we similarly cannot bracket the administrations
efforts to abolish prostitution from its broader campaigns against womens
reproductive rights. The Bush administrations fight against global sex
trafficking conveniently dovetails with its quest to dismantle public
health efforts that support womens reproductive rights and champion
condom use as a viable means to control pregnancy and the spread of HIV/
AIDS (Saunders 2004). Efforts to curb prostitution in the name of rescuing
sex slaves are deeply intertwined with attempts by the Bush administration and its faith-based constituency to police nonprocreative sex on a
global level. This stance betrays a deep moral aversion to womens engagement in nonreproductive, family-based sexuality, leading Alice Miller to
ask: How do we ensure that our interventions focused on stopping harm
against women do not unknowingly reinscribe and reinforce the idea that
the most important thing about a woman is her sexual integrity (formerly
known as her chastity) (2004, 39).
During the 1990s, sex worker rights groups promoting harm-reduction
strategies were actively working in conjunction with AIDS/HIV outreach
programs globally and domestically to deliver legal, medical, and other
services to sex workers. Although the TVPA constituted a symbolic threat
to groups working with sex workers, there were no provisions within the
legislation itself that actively prohibited harm-reduction activities. This
has not gone unnoticed by the Bush administration, which has since 2001
created new policies and legislation to stem the (very small) flow of federal
funds that were channeled toward international sex worker advocacy. Its
reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy (also known as the 2001 Global
Gag Rule), which bans NGOs from receiving federal funding if they provide abortions, discuss abortions with their clients, or advocate changing
a nations abortion laws, provided the template for two subsequent policies

80

Gretchen Soderlund

that have curtailed all funds to nonabolitionist groups that interface with
sex workers.
In 2003, as part of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act Reauthorization Act, the administration announced that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) would stop funding any group perceived
as encouraging sex work. The new policy stated that groups advocating
prostitution as an employment choice or which advocate or support the
legalization of prostitution are not appropriate partners for USAID antitrafficking grants or contracts (Hill 2003). This rule meant that nonabolitionist groups doing AIDS/HIV outreach or offering other harm-reduction
services to sex workers were no longer eligible for funds from USAID.
Among the international programs partially funded by the United States
was a sex workers literacy class run by Thailands Empower, a group that
since 1985 has advocated for the rights of women in the entertainment
industry in that country.
Policies surrounding the Global Gag Rule led many activists to worry
that sex worker empowerment projects operating in conjunction with
AIDS outreach programs would be next in line to be axed. Indeed, in
2003 the Bush administration passed a Global AIDS bill that prohibits
international agencies from receiving funds unless they explicitly sign
an oath that they do not support or condone prostitution in its many
manifestations and that no funds will be going toward harm prevention
among sex workers (Saunders 2004). In a Seattle Times editorial titled
Fight AIDS, Of Course, But Also Fight Prostitution, TVPA enforcer
John Miller states
the worldwide fights against AIDS and slavery are both worthwhile, uphill
battles. However, well intentioned people seeking to limit the spread of AIDS
in at-risk populations, especially in the commercial sex industry, often ignore
a larger challenge: helping to free the slaves of that industry. (2004)

He goes on to warn that groups distributing condoms to sex workers run

the risk of being judged the same way as some of their 19th century predecessors: health reformers who sought to improve health conditions for
slaves on ships while ignoring the slave trade (2004).
In light of widespread brothel escapes and other thwarted attempts at
rescue, it seems particularly cynical that the Bush administration, under
guidance from its faith-based constituents, has cut off all U.S.-funded
condom distribution and harm-reduction programs for active sex workers,
all the while stating that death from HIV/AIDS is a primary hazard of the
trade. In neoabolitionist theory, all prostitutes are innocent victims who
will naturally accept aid groups attempts at rescue and rehabilitation,
which sometimes include furnishing women with sewing machines or
proselytizing to them about Jesus. In neoabolitionist practice, however,
as in earlier Christian-based attempts to rehabilitate fallen women, pity

Running from the Rescuers

81

and assistance extend only to those sex workers who are repentant and
can be held accountable for their sins. By offering this dubious yet morally rigorous aid to sex workers, abolitionists can comfort themselves
that they were not responsible for any deleterious effects caused by their
elimination of harm-reduction programs. The abolitionist logic seems to
run: We did offer them a way out, after all.

The Politics of Rescue

Global sex trafficking, conveyed through a Manichean lens, has become
a nonpartisan issue in part because the demarcation between victims and
villains seems clear and the offense ghastly, particularly when perpetrated
on the young. Yet innocence carries a particularly heavy burden in the
realm of sexuality. In the United States it has been a consistent trope in
journalistic accounts of sexual crimes and, in the case of rape, prostitution, gay hate crimes, and AIDS/HIV, a criterion for public sympathy
(Benedict 1992; Miller and Vance 2004). But it is a nearly impossible standard against which to hold living, breathing human beings, except perhaps
children. Indeed, in their pamphlets and on their websites, neoabolitionist
organizations tend to emphasize those raids that involved the rescue of
children. President Bush has remarked that the victims of the sex trade
see little of life before they see the very worst of life (2003) and many
anti-trafficking activists see it as their calling to restore childhoods to
young children exploited by sex traders. Linda Smith, a former Republican
congresswoman who now directs Shared Hope International, created a
humanitarian spectacle in 2001 when she took one rescued Indian girl to
Disney World. But in more than a few cases, innocence is an adult fantasy,
a fictive state of being projected onto women and youth by 21st century,
anti-trafficking crusaders.
Setting aside the politics of taking girls to undisclosed locations for
rehabilitation and likely proselytizing, if rescuing children from brothels
was abolitionists only focus, their agenda might appear less worrisome.
But clearly the agenda of U.S. organizations stretches beyond ending the
exploitation of children and ventures into legislating against nonprocreative sex and using law enforcement strategies to combat all forms of
sex work in the name of protecting women. The federal government has
furnished these groups with enough resources to ensure that they will
become a significant presence in sex workers lives. These faith-based
human rights organizations treat prostitution as an issue of conscience
and morality rather than of income possibilities and labor, a stance that
emphasizes protection over autonomy and empowerment. Gary Haugen
of IJM puts it succinctly: trafficking is not a poverty issue, its a law
enforcement issue (Landesman 2004, 30).

82

Gretchen Soderlund

Too often Western feminists have participated in producing the victim

subjects that state actors step in to protect through the deployment of
military, legal, or law enforcement strategies. Victim discourse has been
implicated in the creation of feminists sometimes patronizing attitude toward nonWestern women onto whom victim status is projected
(Mohanty 1991). Such a dynamic encourages some feminists in the
international arena to propose strategies which are reminiscent of imperial interventions into the lives of the native subject and which represent
the Eastern woman as a victim of a backward and uncivilized culture
(Kapur 2002, 6). Drawing on the case of Nepalwhich has recently criminalized the movement outside the country of women under 30 without
a husband or male-guardians permission as a means of combating traffickingKapur suggests that solutions in the realm of law enforcement
are an essential component of such logic: The construction of women
exclusively through the lens of violence has triggered a spate of domestic
and international reforms focused on the criminal law, which are used to
justify state restrictions on womens rightsfor the protection of women
(2002, 6). As we have seen in the case of Western-sponsored brothel raids,
the United States is using the protection of women as a rationale to import
its law enforcement tactics and project its power internationally, while
conveniently merging these interests with a crackdown on the sexuality
and rights of women.
The emphasis on victimization in the West is historically linked to
the exigencies of activist publicity around race and gender issues in the
context of a masculinist state that exalted and protected only those victims whose innocenceand distance from state-based oppressioncould
be established or asserted in sympathetic terms. At some historical
moments these representations of innocent victims dovetail with the territorial interests of political actors, ushering in what Iris Marion Young
has recently referred to as a security regime (2003), in which the state
takes on the seemingly benevolent role of protector. Focusing primarily on abuses like violence against women and organizing around them
as though they were the only distinctly gendered form of human rights
violation, ultimately casts women as victims in need of protection from
harm rather than as subjects deserving of positive rights. Emphasizing
the most abject victims, while often an important and efficacious activist
strategy, runs the risk of mobilizing media and governmental institutions
in protectionist scenarios that overshadow demands for other forms of
social and economic rights (and, in this case, the creation of laws that do
not construe sex as inherently dangerous for women).
This is not to say that states have no duty to protect their citizens from
harm and provide other basic forms of security. However, in the security
regimes to which Young (2003) refers, protection is offered selectively and
at a cost: it only stretches to those deemed innocent, while it persecutes,

Running from the Rescuers

83

criminalizes, or ignores those who are seen as complicit in their victimization. Not only are security regimes in the business of offering an illusory form of security to particular subjects, but they often engage in the
production and provocation of their own enemies to justify their actions.
This security is underwritten by a disavowal of autonomy or agency in
favor of a childlike dependency on typically masculine protectors. As
Young emphasizes, such dependent citizenship confers few privileges
other than offering shelter from a scary, threat-filled outside world.

Rejecting Rescue, Reconsidering Liberation

Feminists should seek to understand the effects of anti-trafficking legislation within the broader context of Bush administration and conservative
religious approaches to dealing with gender and sexuality on the international scene. It is only when considered alongside the Mexico City
Policy (the Global Gag Rule) and the Global AIDS Bill that the material
effects of anti-trafficking legislation become apparent. While the Bush
administrations sponsorship of the War Against Trafficking functions
to give a feminized, human face to the War on Terrorism, the politically
motivated Trafficking in Persons Report rankings suggest that even this
example of national moral leadership is implicated in the strategic geopolitics of oil procurement and strategic power projection. On the level of
strategic intervention, it appears we may be witnessing the introduction
of U.S. policing efforts in poor countries using humanitarianism as both
a motivating force and rationale. Indeed, anti-trafficking initiatives have
historically played a key role in expanding the federal governments legal
reach (Langum 1994; Soderlund 2002).
The current security regime tends to exalt those victims who can talk
back only with difficulty: Iraqi and Afghan women, the unborn, the brain
dead, and so-called sex slaves. As largely silent victims, they are neither in
a position to make public claims about changing the social system nor to
stipulate the conditions under which they might feel free or secure. In the
case of trafficking victims, freedom is configured as an escape from the
bleak back rooms of a brothel and into a ready-made outside world where
former sex-slaves can return to sometimes oppressive family structures,
work in factories, or serve as nannies and maids for the global bourgeoisie
(Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2002). Freedom, as either utopian quest or
bedrock of democratic thought, has apparently been downgraded to the
ability to engage in wage labor. It seems to me that rather than participating in conservative projects that criminalize either indigenous or migrant
prostitution or remove existing medical and legal support, feminists
should be working toward creating conditions where all women and men
can envision and ultimately participate in their own liberation.

84

Gretchen Soderlund

Gretchen Soderlund is Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of

Communication and Society and Lecturer in Sociology at the University
of Chicago. Send correspondence to soderlun@uchicago.edu.

Acknowledgment
The author thanks Carrie Rentschler, Carol Stabile, Dan McGee, and her
anonymous reviewers for their assistance with this article.

Notes
1. Empower states that its members abhor the trafficking of any persons; forced
labor including forced sex work; and the sexual abuse of children, whether for
commercial exploitation or not yet it also lambastes groups that have little
or no experience on issues of migration, labor, sex worker or womens rights
and have been created to take advantage of the large sums of money available
to support anti-trafficking activities (1).
2. The federal government allocated 91 million dollars to the Department of
Justice to fund its anti-trafficking efforts in FY 2003, a figure that increased to
120 million dollars in FY 2004 (see its Report to Congress, May 1, 2004).
3. For a detailed account of the coalition building that went into passing this
Act, see Allen Hertzke (2004). A problem with his account, however, is that he
adopts the language and perspective of his objects of study, using their rhetoric to account for the opposition to the TVPA in the Clinton administration
and effectively writing sex worker rights proponents out of the debate. In this
sense, he contributes to the extensive retelling of the history of the trafficking
debates that is currently underway.
4. Linda Smith considers her group, Shared Hope International, the founder and
leader of the War Against Trafficking Alliance (WATA).

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8/7/2015

Cambodian Program Sends Sex Workers to Sweatshops

Camodian Reintegration Program Send Sex

Worker to Sweathop
Michael Kouraa (http://www.triplepundit.com/author/michael-kouraa/) on Wedneda, Oct 22nd, 2014
234

(http://www.linkedin.com/hare
(http://www.faceook.
(http://twitter.
mini=true&url=http%3A%2F%2
u=http%3A%2F%2Fww
text=Camodian

(http://outu.e/nXh1XtL2o)In cae ou till werent ure how ou felt aout laor practice in Camodia growing apparel
manufacturing ector, mae thi will help get ou off the fence. According to a hort video (http://www.vice.com/vicenew/the-high-cot-of-cheap-clothe-198) poted VIC New lat week, female ex worker arreted in Camodia are eing
forced into jo in the countr infamoul inhumane (http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/09/hm-other-commit-living-wagecamodia-wake-new-protet/) garment indutr. If thi i true, what to make of it?
The VIC documentar
Here how the claim arie in VIC The High Cot of Cheap Clothe (http://www.vice.com/vice-new/the-high-cot-of-cheapclothe-198) mini-documentar, in which VIC founder, Surooh Alvi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surooh_Alvi), travel to
Camodia capital to invetigate what i happening to thoe wept up in the countr trafficking crackdown. The video open
with Alvi reminding u that, although Camodia i one of the capital of the ex tourim indutr, the countr ha een cracking
down on the ex trade ince 2008 when, at the uppoed ehet of the U.S., the government initiated an aggreive antitrafficking and protitution campaign.
Alvi invetigation take him firt to a ride along with the anti-trafficking unit of the Minitr of the Interior, which quickl turn
into the raid of a uilding allegedl houing ex trafficker. The raid lead to a few ver oung-looking women (girl?) eing
handcuffed. Over cream and much cring, we are hown a tin room, arel illuminated a creep, red light. On the floor are a
few mattree and a roll of toilet paper. Thi i aout a dark a it get, Alvi a.
After the girl have een rounded up, Alvi turn to one of the cop and ak, Where will ou take the girl? The cop repond that
the will firt e rought to the anti-trafficking department, then on to the unfortunatel named
(http://new.google.com/newpaper?nid=1955&dat=19790201&id=tfUhAAAAIAJ&jid=c6IFAAAAIAJ&pg=6137,282842) reeducation training department.
And now we have arrived at what Alvi tell u i the crux of Camodia anti-trafficking program.
According to Alvi, arreted ex worker are given a inar, perhap even Sophie-like choice: keep their freedom and accept
training for a new career; or, remain in cutod indefinitel and e uject to aue and hakedown corrupt police.
Unurpriingl, virtuall all of thoe arreted accept the training; according to VIC, Camodia government claim to have
recued and re-trained thouand of women.
Yet, we are told that man of thee women did not want recuing, at leat if recuing mean eing forced into a Camodian
weathop. Alvi interview one oung woman who, after eing arreted the anti-trafficking quad, wa releaed into the
cutod of a local (unnamed) NGO, which he wa told would prepare her for a new career. She decrie the NGO training
http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/10/cambodian-reintegration-program-sends-sex-workers-sweatshops/

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8/7/2015

Cambodian Program Sends Sex Workers to Sweatshops

facilit a prion-like a place in which he wa locked without an option of leaving. She wa never compenated for her time in
the training program. VIC claim to have poken to everal other women, all of whom told imilar torie.
I VIC claim legit?
A Kafkaeque a it ound, there i little reaon to dout that women arreted in Camodia for ex-trafficking (or even jut
protitution) are forced the government to train for work in Camodian weathop. After all, in recent ear Camodia retail
apparel indutr ha exploded (http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/09/hm-other-commit-living-wage-camodia-wake-newprotet/), thank primaril to the availailit of cheap laor (http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/09/hm-other-commit-livingwage-camodia-wake-new-protet/) o, of coure the enterpriing Camodian government upplement the garment
indutr workforce rounding up protitute and victim of ex-trafficking and getting NGO to train them for work in the
factorie. Yet, I till found the claim urpriing, and when I tried to confirm it, I found onl olique or tangential reference to the
polic. If it i indeed true, it eem like prett ignificant reporting VIC that appear to have gone motl unnoticed.
A tor reported Al Jazeera earlier thi ear (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/feature/2014/06/how-ad-ex-traffickingcamodia-201468124236117557.html) eem to confirm VIC claim. In 2011, three Camodian women were purportedl
recued from a ex-trafficking operation and taken to a helter run Camodian NGO, AFSIP (http://www.afeip.org/), which
pride itelf on helping ex-trafficking victim recover from trauma while learning new trade uch a ewing. ut the women
claimed that the hadnt actuall een trafficked. Intead, the aid the were willing ex worker, rounded up off the treet
during a police raid and ent to AFSIP, where the were held againt their will for month. In other word, exactl what
happened to the women interviewed VIC.
It difficult to trace, ut the Camodian government current re-education training program eem to e an outgrowth of the
work done the Anti Trafficking and Reintegration Office (ATRO) of the Minitr of Social Affair, Veteran and Youth
Rehailitation. The ATRO wa et up in 2006, in repone to concern that women and children picked up in raid on rothel
were, a UNICF put it in a 2009 report (http://www.unicef.org/evaldataae/file/Camodia_2009-002__ATRO_Report_Revied_Octoer_2009.pdf), not eing returned to their home in a tematic and upportive wa and thu
were le likel to remain uccefull in their own familie and communitie. In other word, there wa a high degree of
recidivim among former ex worker, o the government created the ATRO and charged it with fixing the prolem.
Yet, in that 2009 aement (http://www.unicef.org/evaldataae/file/Camodia_2009-002__ATRO_Report_Revied_Octoer_2009.pdf), UNICF found that the ATRO wa failing to provide an kind of tematic upport
or follow-up. Intead, the ATRO relied on NGO to pick up the lack, man of which ought to help victim reintegrate
teaching them kill that would allow them to work in the garment ector. A UNICF pointed out
(http://www.unicef.org/evaldataae/file/Camodia_2009-002_-_ATRO_Report_Revied_Octoer_2009.pdf), thee ervice
do not necearil meet the need of client for example, vocational training in tailoring ma not provide an adequate income
for a oung woman. UNICF concluded (http://www.unicef.org/evaldataae/file/Camodia_2009-002__ATRO_Report_Revied_Octoer_2009.pdf) that Camodia availale [ocial] ervice are limited in cope and act on a
reponive ai ince a tem for ocial welfare which recognie the threat and put in place meaure to mitigate them ha
not et een developed.
Wh thi i prolematic
If real, Camodia trafficking-to-weathop program i highl prolematic. For one, if the women eing forced into thee training
program are indeed victim of ex-trafficking, the have uffered greatl and need help. The need couneling and health care
and acce to mental health ervice. The need upport.
Thi i epeciall the cae ecaue mot Camodian trafficking victim are children
(http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/camodia-ongoing-human-trafficking-prolem/); man are girl from poor familie
(http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/camodia-ongoing-human-trafficking-prolem/), tricked into working a protitute or old
to rothel their parent to pa off det, and ome arent even Camodian, ut come from
(http://www.tate.gov/document/organization/226845.pdf) the urrounding countrie uch a Thailand and Vietnam. Forcing
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Cambodian Program Sends Sex Workers to Sweatshops

them into the highl treful and unhealth environment of the apparel factor i preciel the oppoite of what the need. A
the U.S. State Department pointed out in it 2014 Trafficking in Peron (http://www.tate.gov/j/tip/rl/tiprpt/2014/?
utm_ource=NW+RSOURC%3A+Trafficking+in+Peron+Report+2014&utm_campaign=2014.07.16+NW+RSOURC%3A+Trafficki
report, a [l]ack of availale long-term care, including mental health ervice, made victim, particularl child ex trafficking
victim, highl vulnerale to re-trafficking.
The flip ide, highlighted Al Jazeera in it AFSIP article (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/feature/2014/06/how-ad-extrafficking-camodia-201468124236117557.html), i that, if thee women are not actuall trafficking victim ut intead are
willing ex worker, rounding them up and forcing them into re-education training program can e economicall devatating
and counterproductive. VIC reporting ack thi up, noting that man of the o-called reintegrated women end up
moonlighting a protitute anwa ecaue the need the mone.
There are plent of other prolem with thi program: The arreted women are deprived of their liert without anthing
reemling due proce; it create the potential for the emergence of two clae of garment worker; factor management can
keep wage artificiall low threatening to end worker ack into police detention; and o on.
According to the State Department (http://www.tate.gov/document/organization/226845.pdf), though human-trafficking
continue to preent a major prolem in Camodia, the government proecuted and convicted fewer trafficking offender and
identified fewer victim than it did in the previou ear. Perhap it ecaue the government i puhing the victim into prionlike training center meant to prepare them for low-wage career in a crucial Camodian indutr.
Image credit: VIC creenhot (http://www.vice.com/vice-new/the-high-cot-of-cheap-clothe-198)

Trained a a lawer, I now focu on legal uine development, corporate ocial reponiilit (CSR), and uine &
human right. M pat experience include work on complex commercial litigation, international human right
advocac, education polic, pro ono legal repreentation, and anali of CSR challenge in oth the private and pulic
ector.
FOLLOW MICHAL KOURAAS @MKOURAA (HTTP://TWITTR.COM/MKOURAA)

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Special Report: Money and Lies in AntiHuman Trafficking NGOs

Tuesday, 27 January 2015 11:26

ByAnneElizabethMoore(/author/itemlist/user/45499),Truthout|NewsAnalysis

(Image:JaredRodriguez/Truthout(http://www.flickr.com/photos/truthout))

HelpTruthoutkeeppublishingstorieslikethis:Theycan'tbefoundincorporatemedia!Makea
taxdeductibledonationtoday.(http://truthout.org/members/donate)
The United States' beloved - albeit disgraced - anti-trafficking advocate Somaly Mam
(http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/marketpiece-theater) has been waging a slow but steady
return to glory since a Newsweek cover story in May 2014 led to her ousting from the Cambodian
foundation that bore her name. The allegations in the article were not new; they'd been reported
and corroborated in bits and pieces for years. The magazine simply pointed out that Mam's
personal narrative as a survivor of sex trafficking and the similar stories that emerged from both
clients and staff at the non-governmental organization (NGO) she founded to assist survivors of
sex trafficking, were often unverifiable, if not outright lies.
Panic ensued. Mam had helped establish, for US audiences, key plot points in the narrative of
trafficking and its future eradication. Her story is that she was forced into labor early in life by
someone she called "Grandfather," who then sold off her virginity and forced her into a child
marriage. Later she says she was sold to a brothel where she watched several contemporaries die
in violence. Childhood friends and even family members couldn't verify Mam's recollection of
events for Newsweek, but Mam has suggested that her story is typical of trafficking victims.

Mam has also cultivated a massive global network of anti-trafficking NGOs, funders and
supporters, who have based their missions, donations and often life's work on her emotional but fabricated - tale. Some distanced themselves from the Cambodian activist last spring,
including her long-time supporter at The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof
(http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/07/when-sources-may-have-lied/?_r=0), while
others suggested that even if untrue, Mam's stories were told in support of a worthy cause and
were therefore true enough.
Few countered Newsweek's report, however, until
DespiteSomalyMam's
Marie Claire mounted a defensive strike in September
2014, with a new interview with Mam, in which she
continuedvagaries,
sought to debunk the allegations against her. The piece
insinuations,
also functioned as a PR platform for the announcement
mischaracterizationsand of the New Somaly Mam Foundation, a mild rebrand of
the original Somaly Mam Foundation (SMF), from
outrightlies,hercareer
the figurehead had been forced to resign before
asspokespersonforthe which
the organization folded. SMF was the primary funder
AmericanRescue
for AFESIP, the NGO Mam founded to offer services to
Industryseemspoisedfor trafficked victims. In December, the Phnom Penh Post
reported
afullrecovery.
(http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/somalymam-foundation-20) that AFESIP will merge with the new foundation and the Cambodia Daily
added (https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-hand-donations-to-somaly-mams-ngo75074/) that a recent funding push has proven surprisingly successful among government
officials who had publicly forbidden Mam from heading another NGO in the country after the
Newsweek story broke, but later reversed their decision.
To date, none of the investigations that suggest Mam had willfully invented facts have been
properly explained away or refuted (http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/americas-favorite-antitrafficker/). In fact, although the Marie Claire article was touted by two different PR teams
suggesting it would serve as the first of many truth-revealing chats with the self-proclaimed
former sex slave, many reporters never received responses to interview requests. One of the few
interviews Mam did do, with Global Dispatches reporter Mark Goldberg
(http://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/somaly-mam-in-her-own-words/), didn't go well.
Mam told Goldberg repeatedly that she wasn't bothered by the allegations against her, yet as
development reporter Tom Murphy pointed out on Twitter
(https://twitter.com/viewfromthecave), she was actively participating in the PR push to "correct"
them. Even worse, Mam misrepresented the clientele of AFESIP, claiming vaguely that "most of
the girls are from trafficking." In fact, an independent audit (http://projectfutures.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/09/AFESIP-Process-Eval_Climate-Survey-Report_FINAL.pdf) of the
NGO in January 2014 found that only 49 percent of the 674 women and girls in residence

between 2008 and 2012 could be considered "trafficked" under any definition of the term. Many
were consensual adult sex workers; others were simply deemed "at risk" of trafficking (a
description the report does not distinguish from other women living in poverty.)
Today, despite Mam's continued vagaries, insinuations, mischaracterizations and outright lies,
her career as spokesperson for the American Rescue Industry seems poised for a full recovery.
Many may balk at the idea that her falsehoods will still generate millions, hundreds of millions or
even billions of dollars in donations toward murky ends. Some will write it off as Standard
International Aid Procedure.
Others, however, know that in the world of anti-trafficking organizations, money and lies are
deeply - perhaps inextricably - tied. The false claims, forwarded as fact, are big. So is the money
that's spent and received in the service of those claims - more than half a billion dollars in recent
years. That we know of.
SheddingLightandCastingShadows
Considering their common mythical enemy - the nameless and faceless men portrayed in TV
dramas who trade in nubile human girl stock - one would hope anti-trafficking organizations
would unite in an effort to be less shady. With names reliant on metaphors of recovery, light and
sanctuary, anti-trafficking groups project an image of transparency. Yet these groups have shown
a remarkable lack of fiscal accountability and organizational consistency, often even eschewing
an open acknowledgement of board members, professional affiliates and funding relationships.
The problems with this evasion go beyond ethical considerations: A certain level of budgetary
disclosure, for example, is a legal requirement for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations. Yet antitrafficking groups fold, move, restructure and reappear under new names with alarming
frequency, making them almost as difficult to track as their supposed foes.
To begin connecting the dots in this ever-shifting
matrix, Truthout looked at 50 of the most prominent
Theintentionhereisto
domestic groups founded or organized to limit or
lookatthelevelof
eradicate human trafficking, or to assist trafficking
transparencyemployed
victims. This includes organizations that do not use the
andtheoftenoutsized
term "trafficking" in mission statements, but either
designate human trafficking as a major issue area or
claimsthese
work in a related area (such as violence against
organizationsmake
women), have a consistent history of trafficking focused
projects and are regularly designated as anti-trafficking regardingtheirimpact.
focused by other anti-trafficking organizations. Budgets
of multi-issue organizations were considered as a whole, on the presumption that such
organizations operate intersectionally. All organizations included were mentioned in news media
or conversations with media professionals or concerned activists at least twice during this
reporters' six-month study, except in cases in which the organization changed names, when the
founder's name or previous organization had appeared at least twice. Not included are one-off

anti-trafficking campaigns or projects of organizations that do not deal primarily with trafficking
issues. The intention here is to look at the level of transparency employed and the often outsized
claims these organizations make regarding their impact.
The 50 organizations were located throughout the United States. California, Arizona,
Washington, DC, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, New York and Washington State were each
healthily represented on the list; single organizations were also located in Colorado, Connecticut,
Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee and Virginia. (No South Dakota
organizations appear on this list, although one exists
(http://www.befree58.org/#!who_we_are/c1enr); it should be noted that despite its lack of
prominent anti-trafficking organizations, that state leads the nation
(http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/s-d-leads-nation-with-most-lifeterms-for-trafficking/article_66bcdb24-313f-5957-bf8e-070a1d7e252f.html) in life sentences for
traffickers.)
In recent years, trafficking has become a major domestic concern. The United Nation's
International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates, worldwide, a forced labor population
(http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm) of 21 million people - 11.4
million women and girls and 9.4 million men and boys - 4.5 million of which, or 21 percent, they
suggest are victims of forced sexual exploitation. These are not hard numbers; they are estimates.
But they are the bedrock on which the global anti-trafficking movement is set.
Each of the 50 prominent anti-trafficking organizations discussed below focuses primarily on
female victims of forced sexual exploitation - no more, in other words, than a slim fifth of what
the ILO suggests is a global labor crisis. This distinctly salacious myopia has been noted by
groups such as the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, which point out that many
organizations foster moralizing legislation that downplays the human rights of sex workers and
immigrants. One organization addressed below, the Polaris Project, would seem to justify the
narrow focus on the sex trade, claiming to have received calls to the hotline of their National
Human Trafficking Resource Center (http://www.traffickingresourcecenter.org/states) reporting
2,740 cases of sex trafficking in 2013, compared to 634 reporting labor trafficking. Yet since
Polaris and many other organizations are heavily invested in "raising awareness" of the potential
for human trafficking in what may well be benign or legal situations, there's no telling how
accurate their findings are.

Humantraf ickingisthe
"recruitment,
transportation,transfer,
harbouringorreceiptof
persons,bymeansofthe
threatoruseofforceor

Despite the apparent confusion, human trafficking is

quite clearly defined, at least by the United Nations
(https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/humantrafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html). It is the
"recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of
force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud,
of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of

otherformsofcoercion,
ofabduction,offraud,of
deception,oftheabuseof
powerorofapositionof
vulnerabilityorofthe
givingorreceivingof
paymentsorbene itsto
achievetheconsentofa
personhavingcontrol
overanotherperson,for
thepurposeof
exploitation."

vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments

or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having
control over another person, for the purpose of
exploitation." It is distinct from debt bondage, forced
labor and modern slavery, and the ILO is careful to
warn against (http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forcedlabour/news/WCMS_237569/lang-en/index.htm)slippage between these terms. However,
most organizations in this study use these terms
interchangeably, even occasionally substituting
"trafficking" with "sexual exploitation," "prostitution,"
"porn" or similar terms. It would be difficult to charge
that such confusion is always a deliberate act of
deception, but if we consider the comparative
implications of actual trafficking and legal pornography
(say, Playgirl - legal porn so mild this reporter might
share it with her grandmother), we can see that the lack
of clarity most organizations create serves to clump a wide range of very different activities
together, many of which may raise moral questions but do not raise legal ones.
As we will see, many organizations that focus on "raising awareness of trafficking" aren't
providing factual information at all. In fact, given their frequently narrow interpretation of
"human trafficking," as a synonym for "female sex slavery," and given the wide range of
organizations spread across the United States, the anti-trafficking movement seems primarily
intent on raising a moral panic. This may be a good way to push through conservative and, to
some, oppressive legislation, as some have suggested. But leading a moral crusade is definitely
lucrative.
TransparencyandPostRecessionFunds
In all, 50 of the most prominent anti-trafficking organizations in the United States are estimated
to share around $686 million - an amount that would place them approximately 184th on the
UN's ranking of nations by GDP (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnllist.asp), right above
Samoa. And that, as we will see, could be a very low estimate.
The organizations included three types of anti-trafficking groups: standard not-for-profits, in
which organizations have 501(c)(3) status and are tax-exempt, or work under tax-exempt
umbrella organizations; faith-based organizations (those affiliated with churches may have taxexempt 501(c)(3) status, but are not required to file annual returns
(http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Churches-&-Religious-Organizations/FilingRequirements)); and public-private partnerships. The former two may also have nongovernmental organization (NGO) status if they operate internationally; a public-private
partnership may consider itself an organization and use the language of nonprofits to describe its

mission, vision and service, but may not have tax-exempt status (a fact which is supposed to be
disclosed if the organization is soliciting donations). Tax-exempt organizations that are affiliated
with public-private partnerships are bound by financial disclosure laws.
Of the 50 organizations tallied, three were public-private partnerships and the rest were not-forprofit organizations. Many stated they were faith-based, but only some claimed church
affiliation. Only 33 of the 47 nonprofits - 70 percent - made their financial information publicly
available, whether on an organizational website, upon direct contact with the organization or
through Guidestar.com, an online charity rating service that offers direct links to IRS 990 forms.
(Several organizations announced on websites that they would provide financial data via email,
but only three organizations responded to this reporter's requests ranging in dates from July
2014 to January 2015. Additionally, two groups' annual budgets were estimated based on the
finances of affiliated organizations.)
In sum, nine organizations failed to disclose any fiscal
information whatsoever, including two of the three
public-private partnerships and several organizations
that may be affiliated with religious institutions. If the
remaining organizations earn less than $50,000 per
year, they are not subject to the same public disclosure
laws. Otherwise, the IRS is fairly clear
(http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/ExemptOrganization-Public-Disclosure-and-AvailabilityRequirements): "Tax-exempt organizations must make
annual returns and exemption applications filed with
the IRS available for public inspection and copying
upon request."

TheUSantitraf icking
movementseemstobe
oneofthefewreliable
growthareasinthe
UnitedStates'post
recessioneconomy
besideslowwageservice
work.

Not included, therefore, are accurate annual incomes for the Abolish Slavery Coalition (an
affiliate of Passport 2 Freedom), Bishop Outreach, Called2Rescue, Escape to Peace, Made in a
Free World, No More, Red Light Rebellion, Streetlight USA and the Defender Foundation. (This
last organization has a compelling membership-based financial model
(http://defenderrescue.org/shield-teams/), in which volunteers conduct rescues following
receipt of a $100 application and $480 membership fee, but an initial email bounced back).
Additionally, the financial information for the Half the Sky Movement is based exclusively on its
affiliated 501(c)(3) organization, which took in $2.2 million through grants and donations in
2012. This, however, does not include book sales, screening revenues and author appearance fees
that Kristof and co-author Sheryl WuDunn took in during that and subsequent years, so the
financial totals that follow are certainly low estimates.
Of the 50 anti-trafficking organizations examined, a total of 19 disclosed recent annual budgets of
$1 million or more, most in 2012 or 2013. (Only the Association for the Recovery of Children's
financial data is from earlier - 2007 - and was extremely difficult to track down.) Many

organizations pulled in more; in fact, the total combined earnings from those 19 organizations
were more than $677.5 million. The remaining organizations that made financial data available,
combined, took in more than $8 million. Presuming that each of the nine organizations that
make no financial disclosures earn less than $50,000 per year - say, $40,000 (and only two
disclosing organizations made under this amount, so this seems low but plausible) - we can add
another $360,000 to this total. (This number is certainly an underestimate, as many of the nonreporting organizations have more than one employee, so likely pull in more than $50,000 per
year; surely, the three public-private partnerships have larger annual budgets.) This suggests the
approximate annual income of $686 million split among the 50 groups.
It may not seem like much, for 50 organizations spread across a giant country, working on what
may be one of the most pressing human rights issues of our day. Yet $686 million breaks down to
about $13.7 million per group, per year - money most organizations of any size would be thrilled
to get their hands on. And this amount doesn't include federal funds spent to fight human
trafficking, rumored to be between $1.2 and $1.5 billion per year.
Considering that most of the groups were founded after Somaly Mam began appearing regularly
in US media between 2006 and 2008, it's notable that the US anti-trafficking movement seems
to be one of the few reliable growth areas in the United States' post-recession economy besides
low-wage service work.
HardNumbersandMalleableData
Numbers throughout the murky world of human trafficking are notoriously hard to verify. How
many traffickers? Uncountable! How many victims? So many! How old are they? Too young!
How much money changes hands? Zillions upon gajillions of dollars, daily! "Scarily lucrative,"
Time (http://time.com/105360/inside-the-scarily-lucrative-business-model-of-humantrafficking/) declared it in a May 2014 headline. Sound unbelievable? It is, and aid groups will
claim it's because the unvarnished truth of human slavery is incomprehensible to most living
Americans today.
Many of the most frequently cited statements are easily disputed, if factual at all. Demand
Abolition, a part of the $4.4-million Hunt Alternatives group of nonprofits based in
Massachusetts, calls a section of its homepage, "Know The Facts." "Zero men should be
purchasing sex," says one (actually an opinion), and similarly, "Prostitution is not a victimless
crime."

"Prostituted"individuals
isantitraf ickingcodefor
consensualsexworkers,
ilteredthrougha
de initionoftraf icking

Another reads, "About 10 percent of men in the US buy

sex from prostituted or trafficked individuals." The
statistic is difficult to verify, since few reliable studies
have ever been done on consumers of commercial sex fewer can be done now, as "end demand" campaigns
and anti-trafficking legislation make customers less
willing to come forward. One study in the International

thatde inesallsexual
laborasnecessarily
forced.

Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative

Criminology suggests
(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/sphci032513.php) that only 1 percent of men in the US
purchase sex in a year, but that 14 percent of the male
population have done so over the course of their lives. More dubious is whether they did so from
trafficked persons, as such studies have never been conducted, or from "prostituted" individuals.
This last phrase is anti-trafficking code for consensual sex workers, filtered through a definition
of trafficking that defines all sexual labor as necessarily forced.
"The average age a girl enters prostitution in the US is 13," reads another of Demand Abolition's
facts. Scholar and activist Emi Koyama (http://eminism.org/index.html) has pointed out the
logical fallacy in this statement, on her blog and in independently published works, where she
has also tracked the gender and age of folks caught in the FBI's Operation Cross Country raids.
When The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/is-one-of-the-mostcited-statistics-about-sex-work-wrong/379662/) investigated, Koyama noted that most of the
young people detained in raids are 16 or 17. "There are rarely any under the age 13," she said.
"For the average age to be around 13, there needs to be many more 5-12 year olds that are forced
into prostitution than are empirically plausible."
The DC-based Polaris Project, with a $7.3 million budget, is slightly more careful to word
unverified statements, but rarely offers any corroboration. "In street-based sex trafficking,
victims are often expected to earn a nightly quota," one reads
(http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking-in-the-us), "ranging from
$500 to $1,000 or more, which is confiscated by the pimp. Women in brothels disguised as
massage businesses typically live on-site where they are coerced into providing commercial sex to
6 to 10 men a day, 7 days a week." The uses of "often" and "typical" are cues that the numbers are
shady, but the only resource cited on the page is Polaris' own National Human Trafficking
Resource Center, which makes no claims regarding sex work earnings or numbers of clients. The
"nightly quota" may have come from The Urban Institute
(http://datatools.urban.org/features/theHustle/index.html), which notes that 18 percent of the
pimps they spoke to in major US cities set quotas between $400 and $1,000 per night. But most
of the pimps they spoke to didn't set quotas and sex workers often distinguish certain pimps from
traffickers in the first place. A 2011 study
(http://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/girls-do-what-they-have-to-do-to-survive-astudy-of-resilience-and-resistance.pdf) by the Young Women's Empowerment Project (YWEP)
found that, of 205 interviews with sex workers in the street economy, fewer than 7 percent of
their experiences were with pimps; even fewer report having been trafficked.
Reliable studies on the wages or labor practices of street-based sex workers and massage parlor
employees in the United States are hard to come by, although writer and researcher Brooke
Magnanti debunked similar numbers tossed around the UK recently for The Baffler
(http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/zombie-statistics-on-sex-work). In 2014, the Office for

National Statistics in London announced plans to add

estimates of earnings by sex workers of 10 billion
Of205interviewswith
pounds to its GDP, a number it appeared to have
sexworkersinthestreet
arrived at by multiplying a single nonprofit's estimate
economy,fewerthan7
of the number of sex workers in the country by an
percentoftheir
online escort website's listed prices, which would not
incorporate, say, the lower earnings of street workers or experienceswerewith
dancers. On top of which, the wages appear to be
pimps;evenfewerreport
multiplied by a very high 25-client-per-week estimate,
which Magnanti, a former escort, calls "eye-watering." havingbeentraf icked.
(Polaris' above suggestion that massage parlor workers
see 42 to 70 clients per week could be similarly side-eyed.)
As for the full scale of the problem at hand, the California-based group Not For Sale, with a $3.5
million budget, claims that "there are more than 30 million people around the world affected by
slavery - more than at any point in history," a figure that comes from the Global Slavery Index
(GSI), but doesn't stand up to basic logic. GSI has since upgraded their estimate to 35.8 million
(http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/#overview) slaves, although both OpenDemocracy
(https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/ronald-weitzer/miscounting-humantrafficking-and-slavery) and The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/globaldevelopment/poverty-matters/2014/nov/28/global-slavery-index-walk-free-human-traffickinganne-gallagher) challenge the methodology behind the index. (The latter suggests that
extrapolating a tiny amount of available data across hundreds of nations - GSI's basic
methodology - "verges on the ludicrous.") The phrase "affected by" seems intended to soften the
hardness of the dubious number, yet the statement is still difficult to defend.
Aiming to address the question of scope, the "Awareness" section of the Defender Foundation's
website asserts, "Human Trafficking is the 2nd largest criminal enterprise in the world. . . . It is
growing so fast, it is quickly heading to the number one spot." The ILO
(http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_243201/lang-en/index.htm) does suggest that forced labor generates $150 billion annually and adds that $99
billion of that may come from commercial sexual exploitation. But to label this as anything other
than an estimate is unfounded. Magnanti's takedown of wage estimates of sex workers in the UK
should indicate how difficult it is to reliably predict criminalized economies, but the drug trade,
the illegal arms trade and the trade in counterfeit goods have all, in recent years
(http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/biggest-illegal-businesses-business-crime.html), been
thought to pull in more than $150 billion.

There'salsonoreal
evidencethathuman
traf ickingisgrowing.

There's also no real evidence that human trafficking is

growing - by law enforcement logic, in fact, the means
by which perpetrators are being investigated and
prosecuted are actually advancing. Even GSI admits
that rising numbers don't seem to point to rising

numbers of slaves. Instead, the website states

(http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/#overview), "the increase [from 30 million to 35.8
million] is due to the improved accuracy and precision of our measures and that we are
uncovering modern slavery where it was not seen before."
Yet challenging faulty data in a field that offers great economic incentive to exaggerate truth gets
to be like a rousing game of Whac-a-Mole. Organizations habitually link to or cite other groups'
dubious lists of facts (the $48 million International Justice Mission in DC and $235,000
Colorado-based Truckers Against Trafficking, for example, both attribute statistics to the Polaris
Project), or recycle the same disproven or vague statistics without citation. Ronald Weitzer, in
the May 2014 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
(http://ann.sagepub.com/content/653/1/6.full#ref-28), states the matter cleanly: "None of the
trafficking claims - huge magnitude, growing problem, ranking among criminal enterprises, most
prevalent type - have been substantiated. It is impossible to satisfactorily count (or even
estimate) the number of persons involved in or the magnitude of profits within an illicit,
clandestine, underground economy at the macro level - nationally or internationally."
Indeed, there is no agreed-upon manner by which to describe the problem. Victim tallies seem
simplest and the US Department of State in 2003 began requiring foreign governments to report
identified victims, criminal prosecutions, convictions and new policies to ensure increased
protections under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The 2014 Trafficking
in Persons Report (http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/226647.htm) (TIPR) lists 9,460
prosecutions (only 1,199 of which were labor trafficking cases); 5,766 convictions (470 labor
trafficking cases); 44,758 identified victims (10,603 labor trafficking cases); and 58 new laws
passed - nearly triple the previous year's new legislation. Those are international numbers and
only from friendly nations, but it's useful to compare approximately 45,000 identified trafficked
persons around the world to the ILO's estimates of 21 million people living in forced labor:
Already the numbers don't track.
To illustrate the domestic scope of the problem, the
2006 TIPR
"Noneofthetraf icking
(http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/) is often claimshugemagnitude,
cited: The State Department estimated that between
growingproblem,ranking
14,500 and 17,500 individuals are trafficked into the
amongcriminal
United States each year. However, this was later
thought to be too high and only accounted for
enterprises,most
immigrant populations. More recently, the TIPR has
prevalenttypehave
taken to logging data from the three main agencies that
beensubstantiated."
investigate federal trafficking offenses: the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the Department of
Homeland Security's US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security
Investigations (ICE HSI); and the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS)
Human Trafficking Unit. In 2013, these agencies - plus the Department of Defense, which

opened nine cases involving military personnel - investigated a potential 1,937 cases
(http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/226849.pdf) of human trafficking and an
additional 100 cases were prosecuted at the state level. (A frequently cited statistic, from Polaris'
National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline, suggests
(http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking-in-the-us) significantly higher
numbers of sex trafficking cases for that same year - 3,609. However, because these are referred
to law enforcement officials for investigation, they would be included in the above official tallies.)
Given the $686 million anti-trafficking budget shared by 50 of the most prominent organizations
(which doesn't count federal costs), this breaks down to an average budget of $343,000 per case certainly enough to secure each victim a safe place to live for at least a year. Yet a 2013 report
(http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/ResearchReports/NSRHVST_101813.pdf) found only
682 beds available, nationwide, to victims of trafficking, with another 354 more planned for
2014.
ASurplusofVictims
Yet funding for anti-trafficking groups isn't the only disproportionate side of the equation.
Judging by all credible estimates, claims made by anti-trafficking organizations about how many
trafficked persons they serve are out of proportion with the actual number of people in the world
considered to be trafficked by official sources.
Of the 19 anti-trafficking organizations earning more than $1 million annually, 11 claim to rescue
victims from situations of trafficking, or in the parlance of nonprofits, offer direct client exit-care
services. Occasionally this is coded as, "assist[ing] trafficked persons," "outreach," "intervention,"
or "eradicating" or "combating" slavery, or may be included in the emerging (and slightly less
abrasive) notion of "restoring victims" - possibly "to justice." (Although few organizations
describe their own work in such violent terms, media tend to refer to "rescue operations" from
situations of sexual exploitation as "brothel raids," both of which remove women, with varying
degrees of consent, from situations deemed exploitive by the organization and which occasionally
end with the incarceration of supposed victims.)

Allinall,theimpact
numberspresentedby
antitraf icking
organizationstheir
justi icationforexistence
and,ofcourse,funding
aresimplyabsurd.

In other words, 60 percent of our top-funded antitrafficking organizations claim to actively remove
people from trafficking situations, a percentage that,
from what this reporter can see, appears to hold true
for organizations earning less than $1 million as well.
Eight of the top-earning organizations that claim to
offer rescue services reported numbers in annual or
impact reports; one organization that makes no such
claims also reported having assisted a certain number
of persons in leaving trafficking situations.

More than half of top-earning anti-trafficking organizations claim to rescue victims; two-thirds of
them report numbers of victims "rescued." Most focus primarily on sex trafficking. (Groups like
International Justice Mission, which works around a variety of issues including all forms of
trafficking, lists having assisted 2,266 persons from labor trafficking and 239 persons from sex
trafficking in its most recent annual report; Truthout considered only the latter figure.)
Slightly less than half of the top-earning anti-trafficking organizations in the United States claim
to have saved 8,676 total individuals from sex trafficking: in other words, over four times as
many victims as there were potential cases of both labor and sex trafficking investigated in the
United States, at federal and state levels, in 2013. That's slightly more than 1,084 trafficked
persons saved per top-earning organization, which we could use to estimate that 11 organizations
might claim to save nearly 12,000 persons from sex trafficking, primarily in the United States, or
speculate from there that the approximately 20 organizations that also conduct rescues but have
smaller budgets freed perhaps 250 from sex slavery in 2014, to arrive at a wild, two-ballparksaway guess that the 50 most prominent anti-trafficking organizations in the United States could
conceivably claim, in a year, to release nearly 17,000 individuals from sex trafficking. This figure
represents about half the number of sex-trafficking cases the State Department suggests may
have occurred, through the entire world, in 2014.
This purely speculative exercise only provides a glimpse of how outsized the claims made by antitrafficking organizations are. Some of this can certainly be accounted for by human error, the
overly optimistic language of annual reports or the inclusion of a group's overseas efforts (few,
indeed, made national distinctions in client tallies). The overlarge figure isn't explained by the
same clients accessing multiple services, however, as the organizations are spread throughout the
United States.
All in all, the impact numbers presented by anti-trafficking organizations - their justification for
existence and, of course, funding - are simply absurd.
Somaly'sLegacy
"When you work in this world, you know fabricated stories are used by everyone to get funding,"
Pierre Legros told the GlobalPost (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asiapacific/cambodia/140926/cambodia-somaly-mam-Pierre-legros) in October. A co-founder of
AFESIP in 1995 alongside then-wife Somaly Mam, he left the organization in 2004. A French
national, he and Mam subsequently divorced.
When he speaks of Mam's fall from grace, however, Legros doesn't place the blame solely on the
former partner with whom he has a famously acrimonious relationship. Media, he said, were
"very pushy and wanted to show extraordinary stories." The organization was lucky to have a
"beautiful, sexy, charismatic and determined" spokesperson on hand.
"Every NGO dreams of having its Somaly and every media wants her on camera," he said.
AFESIP "soon became very much high profile and we welcomed a lot of journalists. They all
wanted to make something sexy, to draw attention and mark everyone's mind."

But, as we've seen play out on a larger scale among US

anti-trafficking organizations, the downside of the
media focus on sex is that they tended to miss the point
- sometimes even overlooking the safety of the
supposed victims. "A lot of false stories came out, based
on misunderstandings or the will to report about
something extraordinary," he said. "Faces were shown,
testimonies were wrong. The media just betrayed us for
sensationalism and efficiency of information."

Sexualharassment,abuse
andfraudatanti
traf ickingorganizations
arenotexclusiveto
Cambodia.

Indeed, Legros charges that in the wake of the Newsweek story, media continued to focus on
Mam, as opposed to any of the larger issues in the world of anti-trafficking NGOs that had
emerged.
One lingering concern is of fiscal malpractice
(http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2013/11/10/527e836563fd3deb3d8b4578.html) at AFESIP:
things like duplicate invoices and confusing budgets. Another, however, is worse for an
organization claiming to save women from commercial sexual exploitation. A 2013 report in El
Mundo (http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2013/11/10/527e836563fd3deb3d8b4578.html)
reported sexual harassment and abuse by two former AFESIP employees, allegedly documented
in a private investigation.
"They are responsible for forcing the residents working in the center to have sex," according to
the document, El Mundo reported. Spanish officials are also quoted saying that they threatened
to withhold funding unless Mam addressed the allegations; they claim Mam responded by
characterizing the situation as a misunderstanding and noting her close relationship with the
Queen.

In2012,researchersat
YWEPfoundsexworkers
experiencednearlyas
manyincidentsof
institutionalizedviolence
frompoliceastheydid
fromworkersatcare
facilitiesseventimesas
many,bytheway,asthey
experiencedfrompimps.

Yet sexual harassment, abuse and fraud at antitrafficking organizations are not exclusive to Cambodia.
Dan Benedict of Defender Foundation was revealed by
the Florida Times-Union
(http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2010-1201/story/mans-criminal-past-raises-questionsnortheast-florida-charity-work) to have a history in
weapons stockpiling, former ties to a white supremacy
group and a felony child abuse conviction. An
organization that did not appear in Truthout's study,
the Rescue Children from Human Trafficking
Foundation

(http://www.rescuechildrenfromtrafficking.com/help.htm) in California, was discovered in July

2014 to be headed by Lady Katerine Nastopka

(http://www.10news.com/news/investigations/team-10-questions-woman-formerly-known-ascountess-about-fundraising-money-071714), formerly known as Lady Catarina Toumei
(http://observer.com/2011/03/the-ersatz-aristocrats-the-undoing-of-lady-catarina-toumei/), a
con artist who claimed to be a member of the Guggenheim family and European royalty before
she was forced to defend to a San Diego news crew that her organization had helped two girls
escape trafficking. Even a former acting director at the US Department of Health and Human
Services was convicted (http://www.fbi.gov/omaha/press-releases/2014/former-acting-hhscyber-security-director-convicted-of-engaging-in-child-pornography-enterprise) on child
pornography charges in August 2014.
Many key figures in anti-trafficking organizations come directly from law enforcement, a field
known to harbor sexual abusers (http://prospect.org/article/cops-gone-wild) and perpetrators of
violence against women (http://www.thenation.com/blog/181365/police-violence-we-arenttalking-about). In 2012, researchers at YWEP found sex workers experienced nearly as many
incidents of institutionalized violence (http://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/badencounter-line-report-2012.pdf) from police as they did from workers at care facilities - seven
times as many, by the way, as they experienced from pimps.
However, those realities are rarely acknowledged on a broad scale and least of all by the
organizations themselves. When it comes to the anti-trafficking movement in the United States,
the terms of engagement seem to mandate a degree of dishonesty about the scope of the problem,
as well as a lack of transparency about the money at stake. Those who are genuinely concerned
about human trafficking, forced labor and sexual exploitation, it seems, may not be able to
address these issues until they have quelled the rising moral panic surrounding the mythology of
sex trafficking in the United States.
Copyright,Truthout.Maynotbereprintedwithoutpermission(mailto:editor@truthout.org).

ANNE ELIZABETH MOORE (/AUTHOR/ITEMLIST/USER/45499)

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a cultural critic and author of several award-winning, best-selling nonfiction
books includingUnmarketable(The New Press) andCambodian Grrrl(Cantankerous Titles).She has held
Fulbright scholarships and was a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow. Her work has appeared
inThe Baffler,Al Jazeera, Salon,The Onion,Talking Points Memo,Wilson Quarterly,Tin House,and in
international art exhibitions including the Whitney Biennial and solo shows at the MCA Chicago. She has
appeared on CNN, NPR, and in The New York Times, among others, and currently lives in Chicago.
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Elizabeth Bernstein

Militarized Humanitarianism Meets Carceral Feminism:

The Politics of Sex, Rights, and Freedom in
Contemporary Antitrafcking Campaigns

New York City winter in the nal weeks of 2008,

two very different cinematic events focused on the politics of gender,
sexuality, and human rights stood out for their symmetry. The rst
event, a benet screening of Call and Response (2008), a just-released
rockumentary about human trafcking made by the Christian rockmusician-cum-lmmaker Justin Dillon, showed at a hip downtown cinema
to a packed and enthusiastic mixed-gender audience of young, predominantly white and Korean evangelical Christians. The second event, a public screening of the lm Very Young Girls (2008), a sober documentary
about feminist activist Rachel Lloyd and her Harlem-based nonprot organization for teenaged girls in street prostitution, was populated primarily
by secular, middle-aged professional women with a long-standing commitment to the abolition of the sex trade. Despite the obvious demographic contrasts between the participants and the different constellations
of secular and religious values that they harbor, more striking still was the
common political foundation that the two groups have come to share.
Over the past decade, mounting public and political attention has been
directed toward the trafc in women as a dangerous manifestation of
global gender inequalities. Media accounts have similarly rehearsed stories
uring a blustery

I would like to thank Jennifer Nina, Meryl Lodge, and Suzanna Dennison for their
research assistance on this project, as well as the three anonymous reviewers of this piece
who shared their insightful commentary. I am grateful to Kate Bedford and Shirin Rai for
the editorial guidance that they provided, and to Kerwin Kaye, Kelly Moore, Sealing Cheng,
and Janet Jakobsen for their conceptual feedback. This article also beneted from the engagement of audiences at Northwestern Universitys Department of Sociology, UCLAs
Center for Research on Women, and Columbia Universitys Department of Sociomedical
Sciences, and from the participants in the interdisciplinary trafcking working group that
convened at the American University School of Law on February 19, 2009. I am especially
grateful to the antitrafcking activists who shared their perspectives with me, including those
with whom I disagree.
[Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2010, vol. 36, no. 1]
2010 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0097-9740/2010/3601-0003$10.00

46

Bernstein

of the abduction, transport, and forced sexual labor of women and girls
whose poverty and desperation render them amenable to easy victimization in rst- and third-world cities (see, e.g., Kristof 2004; Landesman
2004; Lopez 2006). Meanwhile, a remarkably diverse group of social
activists and policy makersa coalition composed of abolitionist feminists,
evangelical Christians, and both conservative and liberal government ofcialshave put forth an array of new legislation at the local, national,
and transnational levels.1 Despite renowned disagreements around the
politics of sex and gender, these groups have come together to advocate
for harsher criminal and economic penalties against trafckers, prostitutes
customers, and nations deemed to be taking insufcient steps to stem the
ow of trafcked women.2
The key constituencies in the U.S. coalition of antitrafcking activists
routinely insist that the commitments that unite them are both bipartisan
and apoliticala claim that is on one level difcult to dispute, since, as
religious studies scholar Yvonne Zimmerman has noted, no one could
plausibly claim to be for sex trafcking (Zimmerman 2008, 83).3 In a
different ideological register, the political scientist Allen D. Hertzke has
celebrated the humanitarian agenda that has linked left and right, secular
and Christian around this issue, going so far as to hail the wide-sweeping
antitrafcking coalition as one of the most signicant human rights movements of our time (2004, 6). Despite the eager embrace of the antitrafcking movement by activists occupying a wide spectrum of political
positionsone that extends from radical feminist groups like the Coalition
against Trafcking in Women and Equality Now to such well-established
1

The term abolitionism was used in the late nineteenth century to describe North
American and European feminist efforts to eliminate prostitution. It has been reclaimed by
those sectors of the contemporary feminist movement that share the conviction that prostitution constitutes a harm tantamount to slavery that nation-states should work to extinguish.
Although the discourse of trafcking is transnational in both genesis and scope, the present
essay focuses on the contemporary antitrafcking movement in the United States. As such,
I employ the common U.S. distinction between conservatives and liberals, where the
latter is understood to represent the center-left range of the political spectrum.
2
See, most recently, the William Wilberforce Trafcking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008 (HR 7311); see also the Trafcking Victims Protection Act
(TVPA) of 2000 (Public Law 106-386) and the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafcking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing
the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (resolution 55/25, November 15,
2000).
3
Sex workers rights organizations have objected to the prevailing rubric of sex trafcking, arguing against the analytic separation of trafcking for prostitution from trafcking
for other forms of labor.

S I G N S

Autumn 2010

47

Christian-right organizations as Focus on the Familyin this essay I shall

argue that what has served to unite this coalition of strange bedfellows is
not simply a humanitarian concern with individuals trapped in modernday slavery, as commentators such as Hertzke have maintained, nor activists underlying commitment to traditional ideals of gender and sexuality, as various left-leaning and critical feminist commentators have
offered (e.g., Saunders 2005; Berman 2006; Weitzer 2007). Instead, this
article seeks to demonstrate the extent to which evangelical and feminist
antitrafcking activism has been fueled by a shared commitment to carceral
paradigms of social, and in particular gender, justice (what I here develop
as carceral feminism) and to militarized humanitarianism as the preeminent mode of engagement by the state. I draw upon my ongoing
ethnographic and policy research with feminist and evangelical antitrafcking movement leaders in the United States to argue that the alliance
that has been so efcacious in framing contemporary antitrafcking politics is the product of two historically unique and intersecting trends: a
rightward shift on the part of many mainstream feminists and other secular
liberals away from a redistributive model of justice and toward a politics
of incarceration, coincident with a leftward sweep on the part of many
younger evangelicals away from the isolationist issues of abortion and gay
marriage and toward a globally oriented social justice theology.4
In an earlier article (Bernstein 2007a), I sketched these trends in terms
of the two groups shared commitment to neoliberal (i.e., market-based
and punitive as opposed to redistributive) solutions to contemporary social
problems, with trafcking or so-called modern-day slavery representing
the antithesis of low-wage work in the purportedly free market. In the
present essay, I draw upon my ethnographic data to trace developing points
of intersection on two key political frontscarceral feminism and militarized humanitarianismelaborating on the distinctive sexual and gender
politics that undergird each of these modes of activist intervention.
4
In contrast to the numerous analyses of U.S. antitrafcking policy that derive solely
from a review of textual materials, my research melds an analysis of policy documents and
published writings with a multisited ethnographic approach focused on state- as well as
activist-sponsored policy meetings, conferences, and strategy sessions. Between 2005 and
2009, I attended seventy-two events with feminist and/or conservative Christian antitrafcking activists and conducted twenty-eight in-depth, face-to-face interviews with antitrafcking movement leaders. This research is also informed by a decade of ethnographic investigation with sex workers (Bernstein 2007b), which demonstrated that the rubric of
trafcking is inadequate to describe sex workers highly diverse experiences under conditions
of late capitalism, consistent with a growing body of anthropological and sociological inquiry
(see, e.g., Kempadoo 2005; Agustn 2007; Cheng 2010).

48

Bernstein

A genealogy of sex trafcking

I arrive late and breathless to the Call and Response screening, where
I am struck by the crowd of several hundred that has spilled out
onto the streetsthe number of people is remarkable considering
that this is an evangelical Christian human rights event in the heart
of New York City, that its 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, and that
the lm has already been showing for several weeks. The young and
fashionable attendees are brimming with excitement. I have barely
enough time to make my way through the lobby to investigate the
row of tables packed with NGO yers, posters, and other merchandise when I observe a black-clad young woman with a tiny gold
cross around her neck who is explaining her organizations marketbased solutions to sexual slavery to a ring of eager listeners.
The lm begins with sinister and grainy footage of young girls
in Cambodian brothels, footage that the lm leaves unattributed but
which I recognize from a previous TV special. Following a clip of
several school-aged children negotiating with a white Western client
to exchange money for sex, the lm cuts abruptly to performance
footage of a Christian rock band whose members strum their guitars
intently in urgent lament. This hip, fashionable version of Christianity merges so seamlessly with popular culture and with secular
humanitarian impulses that the muted evangelical Christian perspective may not be apparent to secular viewers.
The next segment of the lm features a number of antitrafcking
experts, including the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof
as well as various movie stars who have recently taken an interest in
the issue, like Ashley Judd and Julia Ormond. Even the philosophy
professor and public intellectual Cornel West makes an incongruous
appearance, discussing the history of race-based, chattel slavery in
the United States. The lm moves back and forth impressionistically
between images of black bodies being whipped and close-ups of the
faces of white Christian rock musicians whose eyes tear up when
they recount the ravages of sexual slavery that they have heard about
from others or in some cases witnessed. These scenes dissolve into
footage of scantily clad women in the windows of Dutch and then
geographically unspecied brothels until the camera nally settles
upon a young Asian woman who declares to ominous sounding
music and to audible gasps from the audience that she has slept with
over 1,000 men. I havent been to school so I cant add it up,
she offers meekly. This protagonist is the rst of several to offer the

S I G N S

Autumn 2010

49

audience a decontexualized and sensationalistic focus upon trafcking-as-rape and sacriced virginity. Despite Kristofs insistence in the
lm that the exchange of sex for money per se is not what is most
salient about trafcking, but rather the presence of force and brutality, here it is mundane prostitution scenarios from points around
the globe that serve as the rallying cry for action. (From my eld
notes, New York, January 7, 2009)
As commentators such as legal scholar Jennifer Chacon (2006) have noted,
trafcking as dened in current federal law and in international protocols
could conceivably encompass sweatshop labor, agricultural work, or even
corporate crime, but it has been the far less common instances of sexually
trafcked women and girls that have stimulated the most concern by
conservative Christians, prominent feminist activists, and the press.5 Members of these groups themselves acknowledge (sometimes with frustration)
that a focus on sexual violation, rather than the structural preconditions
of exploited labor more generally, has been crucial to transforming what
had previously been of concern to only a small group of committed activists into a legal framework with powerful material and symbolic effects.
As Brian McLaren, a progressive evangelical author and activist, observed
to me during an interview, Its disturbing that nonprots can raise money
to ght sex trafcking in Cambodia but its much harder to raise awareness
about bad trade policies in the U.S. that keep Cambodia poor so that it
needs sex trafcking.6
Various commentators have noted the similarities between the moral
panic surrounding sex trafcking as modern-day slavery in the current
moment and the white slavery scare in the postbellum years of the nineteenth century (Saunders 2005; Soderlund 2005; Agustn 2007). While
this earlier wave of concern engaged a similar coalition of new abolitionist feminists and evangelical Christians, prior to the Progressive Era
the goal of eradicating prostitution had not seemed particularly urgent to
either group. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, as

In the TVPA of 2000, trafcking is dened as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force,
fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt
bondage, or slavery. In the 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafcking
in Persons, trafcking is understood to include the exploitation of the prostitution of
others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
6
Brian McLaren, telephone interview, November 10, 2008. Transcript on le with the
author.

50

Bernstein

tensions mounted over migration, urbanization, and the social changes

being wrought by industrial capitalism, narratives of the trafc in women
and girls for sexual slavery abounded. Although empirical investigations
would eventually reveal the white slavery narrative to be largely without
factual base (the evidence suggested that large numbers of women were
not in fact forced into prostitution, other than by economic conditions),
antiwhite slave crusaders were nevertheless successful in spurring the
passage of a series of red-light abatement acts, as well as the federal MannElkins White Slavery Act, which brought the nations rst era of widescale, commercialized prostitution to a close.7
During the past decade, the term trafcking has once again been
made synonymous with not only forced but also voluntary prostitution,
while an earlier wave of political struggles for both sex workers and migrants rights has been eclipsed (see, e.g., Kempadoo and Doezema 1998;
Chapkis 2005; Agustn 2007). According to observers both laudatory and
critical, this displacement has been facilitated by the embrace of human
rights discourses by abolitionist feminists, who have effectively neutralized
domains of political struggle around questions of labor, migration, and
sexual freedom via the tropes of prostitution as gender violence and sexual
slavery. From the perspective of abolitionist feminist antitrafcking organizations, the shift to the human rights eld in the mid-1990s was
crucial to relocating a set of internecine political debates among feminists
about the meaning of prostitution and pornography (one that had divided
the U.S. feminist movement throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, and
in which the nonabolitionist factions were emerging triumphant) to a
humanitarian terrain in which the abolitionist constituency was more likely
to prevail.8
A simultaneous and similarly profound shift occurred during the same
years within the U.S. evangelical movement. If in the early 1990s most
evangelicals had little to do with the human rights eld, by 1996 a greater
reliance on NGOs by the United Nations, coupled with an awareness of
the increasingly global spread of evangelical Christianity, would encourage
many newly formed evangelical NGOs to enter the international political
fray. Doris Buss and Didi Herman (2003) attribute this to the proliferation
of UN-hosted conferences in the 1990s, which facilitated the expansion

The 1910 Mann Act (chap. 395, 36 Stat. 825) prohibited the interstate trafc in women
for immoral purposes. It later became notorious for its use in prosecuting instances of
interracial sex (Langum 1994).
8
Jessica Neuwirth, personal interview, New York, December 3, 2008. Transcript on le
with the author.

S I G N S

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and further institutionalization of NGO involvement in international law

and policy making. In combination with U.S. evangelicals growing interest in the issues of international religious freedom and the persecution
of Christians, this shift served to propel new sets of religious actors into
the trafcking debates and to make religious voices more prominent in
the human rights eld (Hertzke 2004).
Evangelical advocacy around human trafcking would receive another
burst of energy after George W. Bushs administration expanded upon
President Clintons charitable choice initiative to allow avowedly faithbased organizations to become eligible for federal funding. Since 2001,
the year that President Bush established the Ofce of Faith Based Initiatives, evangelical Christian groups have secured a growing proportion of
federal monies for both international and domestic antitrafcking work
as well as funds for the prevention of HIV/AIDS (Mink 2001; Butler
2006).
In a recent essay, the sociologist Ron Weitzer has described feminist
and conservative Christian campaigns against sex trafcking in the United
States as a moral crusade akin to previous social mobilizations against
alcohol consumption and pornography. Weitzer demonstrates that although the campaigns empirical claims about the extent of sex trafcking
into the United States and its more general relationship to prostitution
are awed, they have nonetheless been successfully institutionalized in a
growing number of NGOs and in ofcial state policy (Weitzer 2007).
While Weitzers argument is an important one and dovetails with various
critical feminist perspectives on the issue (see, e.g., Saunders 2005; Berman
2006), his account stops short of looking at other sociologically signicant
links between the two unlikely new-abolitionist constituenciesspecically, that which has united the two groups around a punitive and far from
historically inevitable paradigm of state engagement, both domestically
and internationally. While the sexual loyalty oath insisting that antitrafcking groups explicitly denounce prostitution has been amply criticized by various left-leaning commentators, the carceral loyalty oath that
implicitly undergirds such politics has gone largely unchallenged. In what
follows, I describe how a sexual politics that is intricately intertwined with
broader agendas of criminalization and incarceration has shaped the framing of trafcking for both conservative Christians and mainstream feminists, helping to align the issue with state interests and to catapult it to
its recent position of political and cultural prominence. I begin by tracing
the contours of what I term carceral feminism, providing a closer examination of those sectors of the contemporary feminist movement that
have embraced the antitrafcking cause.

52

Bernstein

The sexual politics of carceral feminism

Ive spent about 17 years working on this issuemost of that time

I was on the losing side, as those who supported sex worker rights
won almost every political battle. . . . Those were the depressing
years. . . . Now the truth about prostitution/sex trafcking is
emerging and agencies are responding as never before. I think more
pimps and trafckers have been arrested in the last year than in the
whole previous decade. (Donna Hughes, antitrafcking activist and
University of Rhode Island professor of womens studies, in an interview in the National Review Online [Lopez 2006])
Trafcking is like domestic violence. The only thing that prevents
recurrence is fear of arrest. (Dorchen Leidholt, feminist activist from
the Coalition against the Trafc in Women, speaking at the United
Nations Commission on the Status of Women, March 2, 2007)
What do we want? A strong trafcking law! When do we want it?
Now! (Call and response cry at National Organization for Women
rally for a New York State law that would increase criminal penalties
against prostitutes customers, New York, February 1, 2007)
For grassroots feminists of the early second wave who were interested in
criticizing mainstream economic and familial institutions and in advocating
on behalf of womens reproductive rights, it would perhaps have been a
strange specter to imagine that a generation hence, pioneers of the early
womens movement such as Laura Lederer (author of the classic volume
Take Back the Night and a founder of the antirape movement), Dorchen
Leidholdt (a prominent feminist lawyer for victims of domestic violence),
and Donna Hughes (Carlson Endowed Chair in Womens Studies at the
University of Rhode Island) would nd themselves one bright July morning as the featured speakers at a panel sponsored by the neoconservative
Washington, DC, think tank the Hudson Institute, titled The Prots of
Pimping: Abolishing Sex Trafcking in the United States.9 Sharing the
stage with them were inuential Hudson Institute fellows such as Michael
Horowitz (a veteran of the Reagan Administration and a prominent architect of the contemporary antitrafcking movement), U.S. Ambassador
Mark Lagon (a former aide to the ve-term far-right Republican senator
from North Carolina, Jesse Helms, and the director of the Trafcking in
Persons Ofce at the U.S. Department of State), and Bonni Stachowiak

The event took place on July 10, 2008.

S I G N S

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53

(professor of business administration at the evangelical Christian Vanguard

University). As the all-white array of panelists spoke to the audience about
the urgent need to root out inner-city street pimps and pimp culture,
to stigmatize the patrons of prostitutes, and to promote healthy families
domestically and globally, the audience, comprising representatives from
assorted right-wing organizations including the Heritage Foundation, the
American Enterprise Institute, and Feminists for Life, erupted into frequent applause.
Of course, for those familiar with the evolution of what Janet Halley
has termed governance feminism (in which feminism moves off the streets
and into the state; Halley 2006, 20), as well as the historical precedent
of the white slavery panic, the inclusion of prominent feminist activists at
the Hudson Institute event might come as somewhat less of a surprise.
In addition to the echoes of white slavery, there are also important historical resonances between the current U.S. antitrafcking campaign and
the Meese Commission antipornography hearings that took place during
the 1980s, in which conservative Christians and secular feminists such as
Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin similarly joined forces for the
sake of sexual reform (see, e.g., Duggan and Hunter 1995; Vance 1997).
As Judith Walkowitz (1983) and Wendy Brown (1995) have previously
observed, the feminist embrace of state-anchored sexual moralism is particularly apt to resurface during periods of right-wing ascendancy like the
Reagan and Bush years, when opportunities for more substantive political
and economic change are elusive. While a resurgent feminist-conservative
alliance was actively fostered by the George W. Bush White Houseboth
rhetorically, as in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and through the
cultivation of explicit political ties, as in the appointment of renowned
feminist activist Lederer as Senior Director for Global Projects on Trafcking in Persons at the U.S. Department of Statevarious feminists
would go on to actively and publicly embrace Bush Administration initiatives.10 Notably, in a February 2004 article in the Washington Post cowritten by iconic second-wave feminist Phyllis Chesler and womens studies professor/antitrafcking activist Hughes, the authors provided a
vigorous defense not only of the Bush Administrations antitrafcking
policies but also of its military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq,

10

A gure previously associated with the secular feminist mainstream, Lederers career
has taken her from Take Back the Night activism to the antipornography movement to
campaigns against sex trafcking. Given her recent narration of her conversion to evangelical
Christianity (Courtney 2008), as well as her staunch advocacy of Bush Administration policies,
it seems unlikely that she would still choose to identify in left-liberal terms.

54

Bernstein

declaring that contemporary conservatives and faith-based organizations

had become more reliable advocates of democracy and womens rights
across the globe than the liberal left had ever been (Chesler and Hughes
2004).11
While the embrace of discourses of criminalization, democracy building,
naming and shaming, and family values by a new crop of avowedly conservative feminists is certainly signicant, noteworthy too is the extent to
which feminists who identify as secular liberals have found themselves in
easy agreement with much of this agenda and have thus been ready and
eager partners to conservative-feminist antitrafcking campaigns. While
commentators such as Wendy Chapkis (2005), Kamala Kempadoo (2005),
and Miriam Ticktin (2008) have previously pointed to a collusion between
mainstream feminism and state agendas of border control in contemporary
antitrafcking campaigns (where feminist activism unwittingly supports
the deportation of migrant sex workers under the guise of securing their
protection), my ethnographic eldwork extends this insight, revealing carceral politics and a securitized state apparatus to be antitrafcking feminists preferred political remedies.
Liberal feminists embrace of carceral politics, and the articulation of
these politics through a particular set of ideals around gender and sexuality,
was made evident at the meetings of the antitrafcking caucuses of the
National Organization of WomenNYC (NOW-NYC) and the AAUW
that I attended over a six-month period between 2007 and 2008. Angela
Lee, from the New York Asian Womens Center, was the nal speaker at
a 2007 NOW-NYC rally on behalf of a trafcking bill that would increase
the possible penalties against prostitutes customers from ninety days to
a year in prison.12 An impeccably dressed woman in her mid-forties, she
made no mention of the role played by global poverty in the dynamics
of trafcking and prostitution but had a great deal to say about the sexual
integrity of families. This is a family issue, she declared outright, especially as Chinese New Year approaches and there are so many victims
families who wont be able to celebrate. In this formulation, Lee located
sexual menace squarely outside the home, despite a previously hegemonic
feminist contention that homes and families are the most dangerous places

11
In addition to serving as the Elinor M. Carlson endowed Chair of Womens Studies
at the University of Rhode Island, Hughes is a regular contributor to the right-wing magazine
the National Review. Both Hughes and Chesler were participants in the 2007 right-wing,
anti-Islam campaign on U.S. college campuses called Islamofacism awareness week.
12
The bill passed with broad support from New York feminist organizations on June 6,
2007.

S I G N S

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55

for women to be.13 Lee went on to link the dangers faced by trafcking
victims to New York States lack of success in imposing a law that would
provide severe enough criminal penalties for trafckers and pimps, declaring with great emotion that We need to punish the trafckers and
to set the victims free!14
At a March 2, 2007, discussion focused on ending demand for sex
trafcking at the Commission on the Status of Women meetings at the
United Nations, the link between sexual and carceral politics was even
more powerfully revealed. At this meeting dedicated to problematizing
mens demand for the services of sex workers, the panelists used the
occasion to showcase how the carceral state could be effectively harnessed
to achieve amatively coupled, heterosexual, nuclear families. The opening
speaker from the Coalition Against Trafcking in Women (CATW) explicitly hailed the ve white, middle-class men in the room as exemplars
of a new model of enlightened masculinity and urged the audience members to to bring their husbands, sons, and brothers to future meetings.
The model of prostitution and trafcking that the CATW panelists invoked
bore little if any connection to structural or economic factors, rendering
prostitution wholly attributable to the actions of a small subset of bad
men: husbands within the family who might seek the sexual services of
women outside of it, or bad men outside the family who might entice
women and girls within it to leave.15 Although the CATW regards itself
as a progressive feminist organization, members displayed surprisingly little
hesitation in their appeals to a punitive state apparatus. Nor did they
demonstrate much awareness of the political-economic underpinnings of
the singular form of heterofamilial intimacy that they advocated (see, e.g.,
Bernstein 2007b; Padilla et al. 2007).
At a legislative level, the liberal feminist position on trafcking is most
clearly articulated by U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democratic
congresswoman from New York previously known for her advocacy
around issues such as the gendered wage gap and womens reproductive
health. Maloney has taken a leading role in the contemporary feminist
campaign against sex trafcking, sponsoring legislation to target the clients
of sex workers and to collapse any distinction between forced and vol-

13
This, in addition to ample feminist research that notes that women and girls often
enter into prostitution at their families behest, so as to better provide for their parents and
children; see, e.g., Montgomery (2001), Agustn (2007), and Bernstein (2007b).
14
The rally took place on February 1, 2007.
15
Laura Mara Agustn (2007) has described the anxieties that circulate around trafcking
in terms of displaced concerns about women leaving home for sex.

56

Bernstein

untary prostitution in federal antitrafcking law.16 She has also worked

closely with feminist groups like the National Organization for Women
and Equality Now, as well as with the Hudson Institutes Horowitz and
conservative Christian constituencies such as Evangelicals for Social Action. In a chapter of her recent book, tellingly titled The Pretty Woman
Myth (thus making plain that the only form of trafcking that concerns
her is heterosexual prostitution; Maloney 2008), two things are particularly noteworthy. The rst aspect of Maloneys discussion to note is the
moral elevation of the heterosexual nuclear family in the pathways toward
female sexual slavery she wrenchingly describes. Although Maloney mentions incest suffered by girl children within the family as a common pathway into prostitution, in this analysis incest does not in and of itself amount
to the human rights violation of sexual slavery, a term she reserves for
extrafamilial forms of violence. A second key element in Maloneys book
is the extent to which carceral politics and gender politics are mutually
implied. By way of her conclusion to The Pretty Woman Myth, Maloney
insists that the best means to ght slavery is through the arrest and incarceration of prostitutes johns and pimps, together with more vigilant
protection of children.
The above examples highlight an important alliance between feminism
and the carceral state, one that extends beyond recent feminist partnerships
with the religious right wing. In her recent book tracing the coemergence
of second-wave feminist attention to sexual violence and neoliberal agendas of incarceration, Kristin Bumiller (2008) has similarly demonstrated
the ways in which a myopic feminist focus on the criminalization of rape
and domestic violence during the 1990s contrasted with grassroots and
early second-wave feminist concerns about womens social and economic
empowerment. Arguing that the neoliberal carceral imperative has had a
devastating impact on the ways that feminist engagement with sexual
violence has been framed, Bumiller demonstrates that the reciprocal is
also true: once feminism became fatally inected by neoliberal strategies
of social control, it could serve as an effective inspiration for broader
campaigns for criminalization.17 Bumiller observes that by the early 2000s,
the neoliberal sexual violence agenda of feminism was increasingly being
exported as part of U.S. human rights policy, solidifying the carceral im-

16

Maloneys version of the bill, HR 3887, did not ultimately pass.

See also Marie Gottschalk (2006), who traces the evolution of the antirape and battered
womens movements in the United States in terms of the shift from the Fordist welfare state
to the neoliberal carceral state as the enforcement apparatus for feminist goals.
17

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57

perative within feminism domestically and spreading the paradigm of feminism-as-crime-control across the globe (see also Grewal 2005).
The evidence indeed suggests that U.S. antitrafcking campaigns have
been far more successful at criminalizing marginalized populations, enforcing border control, and measuring other countries compliance with
human rights standards based on the curtailment of prostitution than they
have been at issuing any concrete benets to victims (Chapkis 2005;
Chuang 2006; Shah 2008). As Bumiller argues, this is not just a question
of unintended consequences but rather has transpired as a result of
feminists directly joining forces with a neoliberal project of social control
(2008, 15). This is true both within the United States, where pimps can
now be given ninety-nine-year prison sentences as sex trafckers and sex
workers are increasingly arrested and deported for the sake of their protection (see Bernstein 2007a, 2007b), as well as elsewhere around the
globe, where the U.S. tier-ranking of other countries has led to the tightening of borders internationally and to the passage of punitive antiprostitution policies in numerous countries (Sharma 2005; Shah 2008; Cheng
2010).
Most recently, with gathering feminist attention to domestic forms
of trafcking (which lms like Very Young Girls have sought to ignite),
it has become clear that the shift from local forms of sexual violence to
the international eld back to a concern with policing U.S. inner cities
(this time, under the guise of protecting womens human rights) has
provided critical circuitry for the carceral feminist agenda. According to
U.S. Attorney Pamela Chen (2007), a full half of federal trafcking cases
currently concern underage women in inner-city street prostitution.18 Enforcement-wise, this has resulted in an unprecedented police crackdown
on people of color who are involved in the street-based sexual economy
including pimps, clients, and sex workers alike (Bernstein 2007a).
The carceral feminist commitment to heteronormative family values,
crime control, and the putative rescue and restoration of victims (or what
Janet Jakobsen has alliteratively glossed as marriage, militarism and markets; 2008) and the broad social appeal of this agenda is powerfully
illustrated by the recent lm Very Young Girls. The lm has been shown
18
Some commentators have speculated that the shift from an international to a domestic
focus in U.S. antitrafcking policy has occurred because the U.S. government has consistently
failed to identify the overwhelming numbers of transborder victims that it previously claimed
existed (see, e.g., Brennan 2008). Since the passage of the 2000 TVPA, the government has
downgraded its estimates of U.S. transborder victims, from 50,000 to 14,50017,000 people
per year (U.S. GAO 2006). In cases of domestic trafcking, the force requirement is waived
if the women in question are underage.

58

Bernstein

not only in diverse feminist venues but also at the U.S. State Department,
at various evangelical megachurches, and at the conservative Christian
Kings College. Under the rubric of portraying domestic trafcking, the
lm seeks to garner sympathy for young African American women who
nd themselves trapped in the street-level sexual economy. By framing
the women as very young girls (in the promotional poster for the lm,
the seated protagonist depicted is so small that her feet dangle from the
chair) and as the innocent victims of sexual abuse (a category that has
historically been reserved for white and non-sex-working victims), the lm
can convincingly present its perspective as antiracist and progressive. Yet
the young womens innocence in the lm is achieved at the cost of completely demonizing the young African American men who prot from
their earnings and who are presented as irredeemably criminal and subhuman. The lm relentlessly strips away the humanity of young African
American men in the street economy along with the complex tangle of
factors beyond prostitution (including racism and poverty) that shape the
girls lives. At one screening of the lm that I attended at a white-shoe
law rm in New York, following the lm some audience members called
for the pimps not only to be locked away indenitely but to be physically
assaulted. In Very Young Girls as in carceral feminism more generally, a
vision of social justice as criminal justice, and of punitive systems of control
as the best motivational deterrents for mens bad behavior, serves as a
crucial point of connection with state actors, evangelicals, and others who
have embraced the antitrafcking cause.

Our God of [criminal] Justice: Militarizing humanitarianism in new

evangelical antitrafcking campaigns

Citychurch [a pseudonym] is a Christian megachurch in Manhattan

that I have attended occasionally since beginning this project, a
church that several young evangelicals in the antitrafcking movement have recommended to me highly. Tonight I am at an event
sponsored by the womens ministry, a discussion with faith-based
movement leaders that is dedicated to the issue of sex trafcking.
Our meeting takes place at the churchs midtown headquarters,
where some eighty-ve young women have gathered.
The session begins with a brief collective prayer led by a young
white woman who addresses her entreaty to our God of Justice
as we bow our heads solemnly. She beckons Him to allow His spirit
to move tonights speakers in sharing what He is doing to bring

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about justice in the world. The panel moderator approaches the

podium next: she is an exuberant young woman who describes how
she has dedicated her life to helping the broken and the hurting.
She explains that her own activism around trafcking was initially
inspired by Marias story, that of a virgin who left her hometown
in Mexico only to nd herself in a brothel. Although it remains
unclear how she rst learned about Maria, and the story itself is
short on specics, her eyes well up as she speaks to us, as do those
of many other women who are gathered in the room.
The rst panelist is a thin, white bespectacled woman in her midthirties who runs a New York organization for women coming out
of sexual slavery. Recently, her group has begun a collaboration
with the New York Asian Womens Center, a Christian-secular alliance that works to the benet of both groups: the fact that her
own organizations funding comes from the Church means that they
are not beholden to government guidelines in order to identify victims. This allows them to work with people they know have been
trafcked even if the women in question refuse to admit it. Members of the organization locate victims by stationing themselves in
Queens and Manhattan community courts and approaching women
who have pled guilty to prostitution charges after their brothels have
been raided. She explains that by them pleading guilty, theyre court
mandated to receive services from us which at least gives us some
opportunity to gain their trust.
[. . .]
The last speaker is a young woman from the International Justice
Mission, the largest and most established evangelical antitrafcking
organization in the United States, with operations in fourteen countries. She begins her presentation by declaring her joy at being a
part of this global transformation of the Church. She applauds
the new work that churches are doing to ght injustice, urging those
in the audience to reconsider Psalm 10. Listen to this description
of an oppressor, she offers, before pausing briey for dramatic effect: He lies in wait near the villages. From ambush he murders
the innocent. Watching in secret for his victims, he lies in wait like
a lion in cover. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the
helpless and drags them off in his net. (From my eld notes, New
York, March 17, 2009)
Among many left-leaning secular critics of contemporary antitrafcking
campaigns, old stereotypes persist about the underlying cultural politics

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Bernstein

and broader social interests that have resonated with contemporary evangelical Christians, a group that is frequently assumed to be one and the
same with the antipornography, antiabortion, and antigay rights activists
of generations past. Although avowedly Christian-right groups such as
Concerned Women for America and the Salvation Army have also been
active participants in the contemporary antitrafcking crusade, my research in justice-oriented churches such as Citychurch, at prayer gatherings for trafcking victims, and at evangelical antitrafcking conferences
and lm screenings suggests that such groups do not represent the preponderance of evangelical Christian grassroots activity.
Instead, a new group of young, highly educated, and relatively afuent
evangelicals who often describe themselves as members of the justice
generation have pursued some of the most active and passionate campaigning around sexual slavery and human trafcking. In contrast to their
Christian-right predecessors, the young evangelicals who have pioneered
Christian engagement in the contemporary antitrafcking movement not
only embrace the languages of womens rights and social justice but have
also taken deliberate steps to distinguish their work from the sexual politics
of other conservative Christians. Although many of these evangelicals
remain opposed to both gay marriage and abortion, they do not grant
these issues the same political priority as their more conservative peers.
Instead, young evangelicals have argued that the best way to forge an
effective politics is to move away from hot-button controversies around
gender and sexuality and to focus their attention on what they understand
to be uncontroversial and consensus-building issues such as global warming, human trafcking, and HIV/AIDS.
Yet the new-evangelical pursuit of social justice that has spawned the
antitrafcking movement remains wedded to a particular constellation of
sexual and gender politics, one that, while sharing key points of continuity
with their Christian-right brethren, is in equally important ways quite
distinct. At a basic level, new evangelicals embrace of human trafcking
as a focus of concern must be situated as a culturally modernizing project
rather than a traditionalizing one. Under the guise of moral condemnation
and prostitutes rescue, women in particular are granted new opportunities
to participate in sexually explicit culture, international travel, and the previously forbidden corners of urban space. Moreover, contemporary evangelical antitrafcking activists hew closely to a liberal-feminist vision of
egalitarian heterosexual marriage and professional-sphere equality in which

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heterosexual prostitution, as for many middle-class secular liberals, represents the antithesis of both these political aims.19
Despite the genuinely modernizing aspects of new-evangelical sexual
politics, a recent spate of celebratory declarations in the press about the
fatal fracture of the U.S. evangelical movement (e.g., Kirkpatrick 2007;
Wicker 2008) may also be overstated, since there remain several elements
that continue to connect the various developing factions. Although new
evangelicals do care less about culture-war battles than they do about humanitarian issues and global social justice, in their vision social justice equates
directly with criminal justice, and, as I shall demonstrate below, to the extent
that economic issues are considered causal factors in human suffering, the
solutions that new evangelicals forge are imagined in neoliberal, consumerfriendly terms.20 In this way, new evangelicals remain beholden to an underlying carceral politics that serves to link them not just to those sectors
of the contemporary feminist movement that have themselves veered rightward in recent decades but also to the entire right-wing spectrum of criminal
justiceoriented social and economic conservatives.
A stark example of the neoliberal criminal justice agenda that undergirds
new-evangelical humanitarian interventions is the International Justice
Mission (IJM), which has been at the forefront of the media-friendly
militarized humanitarianism that has characterized the faith-based response to human trafcking since the late 1990s.21 In the rescue-andrestore model of activism that IJM has promulgated, male employees of
the organization go undercover as potential clients to investigate brothels
around the globe, partnering with local law enforcement (as well as mainstream press outlets) in order to rescue underage and allegedly coerced
brothel occupants and to deliver them to rehabilitation facilities. Gary
Haugen, IJMs founder and chief executive, provides the justication for

19
While not necessarily identifying themselves as feminists, most of the new evangelical
antitrafcking activists that I interviewed rejected the old evangelical idea of male headship
in the family while supporting womens leadership roles professionally and in the church.
20
Shane Claiborne and Brian McLaren, popular gures on the progressive evangelical
speaker circuit, constitute important exceptions to this trend in highlighting the politicaleconomic underpinnings of injustice. Their sexual politics do not range far beyond heteronormative liberal feminism, however.
21
Inderpal Grewal has used the term military humanitarianism to describe the Bush
Administrations policy of using womens human rights to justify U.S. military interventions
in Afghanistan and elsewhere (2005, 132). I use militarized humanitarianism in a more
expansive sense, one that includes not only state-sanctioned military interventions but also
activists own application of carceral politics to the global stage.

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Bernstein

these techniques in his recent book, Just Courage (2008), arguing that
the epic struggle of good versus evil necessitates the choice between being
safe or brave (111). Haugens muscular vision of social justice activism
explicitly identies human trafcking as an issue that can redirect lives
accustomed to suburban safety toward action and adventure: We fret
over what might happen to our stuff, our reputation, our standing. . . .
All the things we value were never meant to be safeguarded. They were
meant to be put at risk and spent (107).
Although IJMs operations have attracted some controversy, the undercover and mass-media-oriented model of activism that IJM propounds
has become the emulated standard for evangelical Christian and secular
feminist organizations alike.22 The liberal feminist organization Equality
Now, for example, has recently enlisted male volunteers to go undercover
to nd trafckers and to work with local law enforcement to bring them
to trial (Aita 2007). Notably, IJMs tactics have been hailed both by the
Bush Administration and, more recently, by secular humanitarians in the
Obama Administration such as Samantha Power. As Power notes in her
recent interview with Haugen for the liberal-leaning New Yorker magazine, Haugen believes that the biggest problem on earth is not too little
democracy, or too much poverty . . . but, rather, an absence of proper
law enforcement (Power 2009, 52). Through IJMs rescue missions, men
are coaxed into participating in womens and other humanitarian issues
by being granted the role of heroic crime ghters and saviors. Unlike in
other Christian mens groups, however, here it is not headship in the
domestic enclave of the nuclear family that draws men in but rather the
assumption of a leadership role in and against a problem that is global in
scope and that requires transnational actors to combat.23
But more than a newly transnationalized middle-class masculinity is at
stake here, particularly since the majority of the organizations grassroots
activistsas in antitrafcking campaigns in generalare middle-class
young women. In contrast to a previous generation of evangelical Christian activist groups that avowedly embraced sexual and gender traditionalism for Western women, IJMs members make frequent reference to the
backward traditionalism of third-world cultures as one of the primary
22
Controversies arose in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where rescued women used bedsheets to escape through the windows and climb to the ground in order to run back to the
brothels from which they had been liberated, and also in India, where a local sex workers
organization threw rocks at IJM staff members (see Soderlund 2005; Power 2009).
23
Haugens perspective is also in line with that of male secular liberals such as Nicholas
Kristof (2004) and Siddharth Kara (2009) who have recently fashioned themselves as the
rescuers and saviors of trafcked women.

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63

causes of sex trafcking, a framework that helps them to dene and reinforce their own perceived freedom and autonomy as Western women.
In this regard, they follow what Inderpal Grewal (2005, 142) has identied
as the contemporary feminist model of human rights activism, produced
by subjects who imagine themselves more ethical and free than their sisters in the developing world.
The embrace of the third-world trafcking victim as a modern cause
thus offers these young evangelical women a means to engage directly in
a sex-saturated culture without becoming contaminated by it; it provides an opportunity to commune with third-world bad girls while
remaining rst-world good girls. Whether by directly entering the thirdworld brothel or by viewing highly sexualized media portrayals, the issue
of trafcking permits a sexualized frame to exist without threatening these
womens own moral status or social position. One twenty-three-year-old
evangelical antitrafcking activist whom I encountered at the Call and
Response screening bluntly reected upon the Christian concern with trafcking in terms of the issues sexiness, noting that Nightline does
specials on it . . . it would be hard to do a Nightline special on abortion.24
Evangelical antitrafcking efforts thus extend activist trends that have
also become increasingly prevalent elsewhere, embodying a form of political engagement that is consumer- and media-friendly and saturated in
the tropes and imagery of the sexual culture it overtly opposesa feminine, consumptive counterpart to the masculine politics of militaristic
rescue. A recent photograph from a special issue of the magazine Christianity Today on sex trafcking titled The Business of Rescue makes
this dynamic quite clear. The image depicts a smiling young activist from
a Christian human rights group who is ministering to a sex worker in a
Thai brothel (see g. 1). Although the magazines evangelical readership
would be likely to interpret the womans happy affect as evidence of
Christs love (see Wilkins 2008), young missionaries brothel visits are
also situated within the contemporary practices of consumer-humanitarianism, in which touristic adventures in exotic settings serve to reinforce
Westerners sense of freedom and good times.25
Although consumer-friendly politics have become a stock feature of

24

Field notes, January 7, 2009, on le with the author.

Practices of humanitarian tourism reach their pinnacle in the social justice reality
tours that both evangelical and secular groups now sponsor, including a sex trafcking tour
of Cambodian red-light districts that is jointly sponsored by the evangelical Not for Sale
Campaign and the secular-progressive organization Global Exchange (see http://www
.globalexchange.org/tours/974.html.pf ).
25

64

Bernstein

Photograph of an evangelical red light rescue that originally appeared in Christianity Today. The original subtitle reads Shes Got a Friend: Rachel Theisen, right, a
volunteer with Just Food, Inc., with Apple, a prostitute and manager of a bar in Chiang
Mai, Thailand. The bar girls look forward to the twice-weekly visits to speak to women who
care about them. 2007, Jimi Allen Productions. Reprinted with permission. Color version
available as an online enhancement.

Figure 1

many forms of contemporary social justice activism, they occupy an especially prominent place in evangelical antitrafcking campaigns in which
new abolitionists are frequently summoned to make purchases that will
contribute to faith-based organizations (as in the ironically titled Not for
Sale Freedom Store; see http://www.notforsalecampaign.org) or by purchasing items that women who have purportedly been freed from sexual
slavery have crafted. For contemporary evangelicals, the purchase of consumer goods in the name of ghting trafcking serves a dual purpose in
solidifying the distinction between freedom and slavery: on the one hand,
freedom resides in Western consumers ability to purchase the trinkets
and baubles that trafcking victims produce; on the other hand, it
pertains to the practice that new evangelicals call business as mission,
in which former slaves are brought into free labor by producing
commodities for Western consumers. Ultimately, business as mission can
be seen as a global-capitalist refashioning of the nineteenth-century evangelical practice of rescuing women from prostitution by bringing them
into domestic labor or teaching them to sew (see Agustn 2007).
The smiling photograph from Christianity Today and the idea of business as mission forge a dramatic contrast with the work of sociologist

S I G N S

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65

Elena Shih (2009), who has done ethnographic research with several different evangelical Christian rescue projects in Thailand and China. She
has found that nearly all the victims who are employed as jewelry makers
by the rescue projects are adult women who had previously chosen sex
work as their highest paying option, but who, after accumulating some
savings, elect to engage in evangelical Christian prayer work and jewelrymaking instead.26 After signing on to the jewelry-making projects, they
soon discover that their lives will henceforth be micromanaged by their
missionary employers, that they will no longer be free to visit family and
friends in the red-light districts, and that their pay will be docked for
missing daily prayer sessions, for being minutes late to work, or for minor
behavioral infractions. Many come to question whether their current lives
really offer them more freedom than they had before.

Conclusion: Carceral politics as gender justice?

The human rights model in its global manifestation is a pseudocriminalized system of surveillance and sanctions. At its most extreme
. . . human rights policy can be used to justify military intervention.
. . . Thus, it becomes imperative to ask in both a local and global
contexthow do policies designed to protect women serve to
reproduce violence? (Kristin Bumiller 2008, 136)
Save us from our saviors. Were tired of being saved. (Slogan of
VAMP, a sex workers collective in India)27
Although sexual intersections are crucial to cementing the coalition between feminists and Christians that has given rise to the antitrafcking
movement, I have sought to show in this article that they are not the only
points of contact that are vital to understanding how this coalition of
strange bedfellows was enabled: these intersections must also be situated
in terms of a series of broader political and cultural realignments that have
occurred during a period in which the consumer and the carceral are
increasingly seen as the preeminent vehicles for social justice. These shared
political commitments serve not only to link contemporary feminists and
evangelicals to each other but also to join both constituencies to a broad
spectrum of secular and religious conservatives.

26
As Shih (2009) notes, many of the women who participate in the rehabilitation
projects are non-Christians who regard their daily prayer sessions as part of their new jobs.
27
Seshu and Bandhopadhyay (2009, 14).

66

Bernstein

There is a large body of critical feminist literature documenting the

ways in which Western feminist forays into the international human rights
terrain are inseparable from neocolonial state interests.28 But this analysis
points to the ways in which neocolonial humanitarian interventions have
also been used as a staging ground for the resolution of internecine conicts within both Western feminism and evangelical Christian circles. As
this article has shown, two different shifts in feminist and conservative
Christian sexual politics have made the contemporary campaign against
sex trafcking possible: the feminist shift from a focus on bad men inside
the home to bad men outside the home, and the shift of a new generation
of evangelical Christians from a focus on sexually improper women (as
prior concerns with abortion suggest) to a focus on sexually dangerous
men. What has also been revealed here is the way both groups are turning
away from direct engagement with the gender politics of the family and
toward a focus on gender and sexual violence in the public sphere. It has
been through these shifts that both groups have come to foster an alliance
with neoliberal consumer politics and a militarized state apparatus that
utilizes claims of a particular white, middle-class model of Western gender
and sexual superiority in achieving its goals.
Although the cultural and political dynamics that I have described here
reached their fruition during the years of the George W. Bush Administration and the ascendance of the religious right, a more progressive Obama era does not necessarily portend a dramatic change of course. While
some secular liberals have celebrated the fact that U.S. antitrafcking
policy will no longer be used as a proxy for religious-right and radical
feminist concerns about sex (see, e.g., Skinner 2009), as I have sought
to demonstrate through my discussion, liberals and conservatives
have tended to agree on the underlying carceral politics that have dened
the issue of trafcking from the outset (with debates revolving around
the narrow question of whether severe criminal penalties should extend
beyond sex trafcking to other forms of trafcking as well).29 The hesitancy
that a number of sex workers rights advocates initially voiced when the
UN Protocol against Trafcking in Persons was rst negotiated as a crime
control protocol (see, e.g., Global Rights 2002) has all but vanished from
the realm of acceptable political discourse. Meanwhile, the neoliberal car-

28

Prominent examples include Mohanty (2003), Grewal (2005), and Sharma (2005).
The appointment of former federal prosecutor Lou de Baca (who has promised to
direct his prosecutorial eye toward labor trafcking as well as sex trafcking cases) as U.S.
Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafcking in Persons was thus much heralded by the
liberal wing of the antitrafcking movement.
29

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67

ceral strategies that this article has described are also becoming common
in countries where the religious right holds little inuence but where the
welfare state is under siege (see, e.g., Sudbury 2005; Ticktin 2008).
What may, however, be most signicant to the contemporary political
landscape around the issue of human trafcking are the possible transformations to neoliberalism itself during an era of economic crisis and the
ensuing nancial strains that are likely to be placed upon the carceral state
(see, e.g., Peters 2009; Steinhauer 2009). Can feminist and new-evangelical carceral politics persist amid rising calls, including from elements
of the right (Jacobsen 2005; Liptak 2009), for the downsizing of prisons?
One possibility is that as attention continues to shift to so-called domestic
forms of trafcking, calls for incarceration may eventually give way to
more cost-effective demands for reeducation programs for some offenders
and compulsory services for trafcking victims (as feminist and evangelical
treatment programs for former prostitutes demonstrate). In terms of
the international eld, it is possible that contemporary antitrafcking campaigns may eventually give way to a focus on other consensus-building
humanitarian issues involving violence against women, as we have already
seen with rising feminist and evangelical attention to issues such as stula,
and rape in Congo and Sudan (Grady 2009; Herbert 2009; Hopewell
2009). But whether or not the trafcking issue remains a unifying focus
for contemporary feminist and evangelical social activism, the general political trend toward the reliance on humanitarian NGOs and the causes
that they expose seems clear. In the neoliberal context of a devolving state
apparatus, practices of governance increasingly rely on a coalition of state
and nonstate actors rather than on the state itself. The symbolic and
material allegiances that these groups have with the state (via both carceral
politics and funding) ensures that only those humanitarian issues that
advance a larger set of geopolitical interests (be it border control, waging
war, or policing the domestic underclass) are likely to gain traction in the
broader public sphere.
Departments of Womens Studies and Sociology
Barnard College, Columbia University

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No more TIPs please

Empower reflections on TIP report 2014
The American government enjoys the role of headmaster giving grades to
children. The American Headmaster has had 13 years to help Thailand
improve situation of human trafficking but the latest report card shows the
problem is the same - but we are now are getting worse grades than
when we began in 2001.
The American government may blame the student but wiser teachers may see that the
TIP system does not work and has failed all workers and migrants in Thailand.
In the first TIP report card back in 2001 Thailand received a Grade 2 meaning could
do better. Then in 2010, after eight years of cooperation with the USA trafficking
agenda and lots of money spent Thailand was unchanged so dropped to a Grade 2.5.
Now in 2014, millions of dollars and another four years of following USA policy and it
seems things are still unchanged and Thailand received a Grade 3 from the
Headmaster.
America maybe needs to consider if you do something the exact same way every year
for 13 years and things stay the same or get worse - maybe it to time to change to a
new school of thought?
The International Labor Organization (ILO) new strategic plan (2015 -2020) has shifted
their focus towards promoting decent work for all, especially ending forced labor and
unacceptable working conditions for everyone, not just trafficking victims. The ILO,
which has no particular country bias, is much better placed to be monitor and guide
international labor standards than a single country like America.
The TIP process and anti- trafficking law harms poor people.
A Grade 3 means the USA can stop or reduce aid and trade with Thailand e.g. stop
buying from the Thai seafood industry who exports 30% of their products. We have not
heard of any strategy or plan to assist workers who lose their livelihoods from such
actions. Perhaps we will have to stop, eating MacDonalds/ KFC and stop drinking Coke
etc. and use that money to eat more seafood to keep people employed?
Trafficking is loosely defined as being involved in the movement of people in order to
benefit from the exploitation of their labor including exploiting labor in prostitution.

In practice for the past 13 years enforcement of anti-trafficking laws has been limited to
conducting raids and apprehending migrant workers in seafood, factories and
entertainment places.
Migrant workers are people who need to work to support themselves and their family.
The implementation of anti- trafficking laws in effect makes providing for the family a
criminal activity under the law and according to bilateral agreements with the USA.
America prides itself on being the leader of human rights yet it just reports the same
thing over and over every year for 13 years. Labor standards and quality of life for
migrant workers has not been improved by American anti- trafficking policy. Actually we
see the opposite in that under Thai labor law workers, skilled or unskilled, can come
together to address issues of unfair wages, dangerous work practices and working
conditions. The anti trafficking law is an obstacle to this process as migrant workers
who complain face the threat of rescue and deportation as trafficking victims.
The budget spent on anti-trafficking is substantial to say the least. For example in 2005
the American government awarded $USD 95 million (2,850,000,000 THB) to 266 antitrafficking projects, including 7 in Thailand. The spending has increased since then, yet
all this money has not resulted in a better human rights or labor conditions for working
people.
Life and travel has become harder, more dangerous and more expensive.

Thai people wanting to work overseas had to pay much higher fees. Many had to
borrow money from loan sharks to meet the new costs

In April 2008 54 people suffocated and died. They were migrant men and
women trying to travel undetected in an unventilated container truck in Ranong
Thailand.

Migrants found they need to be assisted by someone in authority or someone

with influence to move and find work. This need was quickly exploited by corrupt
people strengthening the culture of corruption and exploitation.

In 2012 Empower released a report outlining the negative impacts of antitrafficking law and practice on the lives of migrant sex workers and their families.
It is an in-depth community research report based on real lived experiences and
provides details and examples of wide spread abuses and neglect under the law

Hit & Run Report www.empowerfoundation.org

The American anti-trafficking money is attractive. The police already know the
entertainment industry. They use entrapment which is an abuse in itself
according to the National Human Rights Commission. Still the push and pull of
American policy ensures police will pretend to be an ordinary customer, even
using our service first -until its time to make arrests. Under Thai law having sex
by deception is defined as rape. In practice enforcing the anti-trafficking law can
make rape part of police work.

Initially the American anti-trafficking agenda was used against people crossing borders
and women working in the entertainment industry. Migrant sex workers were labeled as
victims, disease spreaders, drug traffickers and criminals.
Actually for decades there have been big headlines with photos of raids; men in uniform
are pointing and standing over women who are crouching covering their faces or with
their eyes blacked out. It is the iconic image that went with every story about the crime
of prostitution.
After 2001 the same image became the stock photo for stories about trafficking law.
The headline changed but the image was still the same. The headline changed but the
situation of human rights and labor rights in the entertainment industry is still the same.
Will the image of trafficking in Thailand become photos of Cambodian seafarers or
Burmese women peeling shrimp? Will they use this image for another 10 years only to
find that the situation of human rights and labor rights in the seafood industry is still
the same?
Protection or persecution under the law?
Last year 2013 Empower ran a project supported by the US Embassy in Thailand to
train sex workers in human rights and paralegal skills.
This project taught us that even if we are suspected of breaking the law or are
witnesses to a crime we have many rights under other laws. For example we must have
a translator, can contact our family or trusted person, we must be given a lawyer and
have our basic needs for food, clothing and health care while in custody.
We learned there are protections and punishments under each law and the overall
principle is that if someone is not guilty they must be released; if they are guilty
punished only according to law, and must be given their full rights and protections in
either case.

However the experience of migrants under the anti-trafficking practices is not one of
protection and assistance according to the law. Under anti-trafficking framework
migrants have been frequently kept in custody longer than is prescribed under any law.
Frequently there is no translation. It is common practice to use unscientific methods to
establish someones age as a minor such as examining their teeth and/or bone xray.
The process is an abuse of human dignity and body integrity while the inaccurate
2

results lead to further abuses and prolonged custody . Witnesses are kept in custody
and not cared for or compensated as they should be under the Witness Protection Act.
We learned that the under the Thai Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2008 there
are many protections and assistance measures. However there has been no full report
ever made on how these obligations were met or full disclosure of budget and spending
by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
The American government does not seem concerned with peoples rights under the law
only peoples wrongs. Perhaps they just dont care about people but just want to catch
victims to use as evidence against criminals?
The USA likes to be the leader of human rights, promoting equality and justice - but
actions such as the TIP process and their anti-trafficking agenda undermines all their
fine words. All people need to be able to work in safe fair conditions. Human rights
need at the center of improving workplaces and labor rights for all workers, including
sex workers, rather than the failed focus of the American anti- trafficking agenda.

Empower Foundation
57/60 Tiwanon Rd
Nontaburi 11000
Thailand
Tel +6625268311
Email: badgirls@empowerfoundation.org

Hit & Run Executive Summary pge 5 www.empowerfoundation.org

The Bangkok Call for Justice for Women Migrant Workers

Partners in Change, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) November
6-8, 2002, Bangkok
The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) along with several of its network
members recent held a 3-day event on 6-8 November, 2002 in Bangkok. This event,
Partners in Change, brought together a number of people from across Asia who have
been working from their specific locations to articulate and affirm the human rights
framework. This was a unique gathering in that many of our participants belong to the so
called 'marginalised groups' trafficked women, domestic workers and sex workers.
However, all of them have rejected 'permanent victimhood', organised themselves,
questioned the attitude of mainstream society and policy makers towards them, and
claimed their rights as human beings. Partners in Change celebrated and analysed
those courageous efforts, and discussed future collaborative strategies.
At this conference the following statement was formulated:
The Bangkok Call for Justice for Women Migrant Workers
We, women migrant workers, are a group of individuals and organizations who have
experienced the systematic violation of our civil rights and personal dreams by various
forces of power and privilege.
We are migrant workers in the informal sectors, human rights activists, migrant rights
NGOs and supporters of migrant workers' rights.
During our recent gathering in Bangkok, from 06 to 08 November 2002, we identified the
following issues, as being barriers to our community.

Macro migration policies and structural institutions that are prejudicial and antipoor.
Lack of sustainable regular labour opportunities and social benefits in countries
of origin
Exploitation by sending and receiving states, recruiters and employers, that deny
migration benefits to women
Lack of enforceable civil rights in countries of origin and destination
Lucrative profit of foreign revenue by the sending county through
institutionalisation and systemic labour export policy
Institutional and cultural obsessions regarding the control of women's mobility
Migration decisions imposed on women by others
Restrictions on the freedom of movement of women migrant workers by country
of origin
Anti-trafficking campaigns that promote fear of migration
Discriminatory and prejudicial practices that infantilise or demonize migrant
women
Xenophobia/terrorism that presumes that we are an economic or security threat
Using fear of HIV as an anti-migration message
Trafficking and sex work stigma that is attached to all women migrant workers

Therefore we demand:

That the state respect, promote, ensure and fulfill our rights as human beings
and as migrant workers
Our inclusion in any stakeholder group that impacts on our lives, so our voices
might be heard and consulted before policy is developed and implemented

We also resolve:

To develop the capacity to resist the violence of state and non-state agents who
seek to exploit us, who violate our human/civil rights, who ignore our voices and
seek to perpetuate our invisibility.

We declare that through our own empowerment, we will gain freedom from state and
societal oppression and bring about social justice, economic progress and peace!

What's the Price of Workers' Lives in

Cambodia?
Friday, 17 January 2014 00:00

ByAnneElizabethMoore(/author/itemlist/user/45499),Truthout|Report

GarmentworkersatFreedomPark.(Photo:AnneElizabethMoore)

By now you've heard that military police in Cambodia killed five garment workers demanding a
living wage of $160 per month in the early days of 2014, but only some of this is true.
Here's a slightly more accurate version: On Tuesday, December 24, during a period of nationwide
political unrest, the Cambodian government announced a raise of $15 to garment workers'
monthly minimum wage of $80, for a new total of $95 per month, to start in April, 2014.
Workers responded the next day by walking off jobs and demanding the current wage be
doubled, for a new monthly wage of $160.

The next few days saw the largest demonstrations in the country's history. Tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands - gathered. Protesters were holding demonstrations all over the
city: stopping work, blocking roads, holding rallies. The mood of these events was primarily
jubilant, although there was a dark side. Numbers of demonstrators continued to swell.
On January 3, in one of Cambodia's several special economic zones, protesters gathered around 9
AM. At that time, as striking worker Kha Sei recalls, "The workers, who work with the garments,
they stop working and they have the marching and dancing." He's a young man in a bright red Tshirt, and he is livid. "Then the police come by truck and take out the guns and then fight the
dancers."
Hundreds of military police lined up along Veng Sreng street, where Kha Sei and I are standing.
He mimics their actions and points to the sky. Helicopters, still a rare sight in the developing
nation, had buzzed overhead that day. Standard AK-47s - common enough since the Khmer
Rouge days only 35 years go - mixed in with newer Norinco Type 97A assault rifles. The MPs
wore shiny new riot gear. The crowd threw rocks and sticks; the police fired warning shots over
the heads of protesters. The crowd responded with crude Molotov cocktails. Police answered with
live rounds, killing at least five, injuring more than 40 and arresting 23. Kha Sei watched a
coworker die, then another striker was hit. The young man (who would not give his family name)
helped carry one gunshot victim to a nearby medical clinic. For a short time, it was war, waged
upon and by folks who still remember the trauma of the Khmer Rouge.
What you've been told is that this is about the struggle for living wages in the garment factories.
It's not. In fact, the needs of garment workers have barely been addressed, their bodies put to
service toward a larger political agenda. Meanwhile, their struggles are only some among many
in rapidly changing Cambodia.
Rainsy'sBidforPower
That's the day Sam Rainsy returned to Cambodia after four years in France. It had been his
second self-imposed exile since being elected to the National Assembly in 1998; the first was
undertaken to avoid serving time over specious defamation charges he faced after accusing the
ruling party of corruption. In 2009, he'd been accused of racial incitement and destruction of
property after leading a protest at the border with Vietnam. A mid-July pardon from King
Norodom Sihanomi allowed his return to the country in advance of the general elections,
although his July 22 application to stand as leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party
(CNRP) was rejected. His request to be reinstated to the National Assembly, dominated by the
Cambodia People's Party (CPP), also was denied.
The CPP, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, claimed victory in the July 28 general elections, with
68 parliamentary seats out of 123. (The CPP's 2008 win had secured 90 of 123 seats.) Few
expressed surprise; Cambodia had been ruled by Hun Sen for nearly 30 years and, prior to that,
the leader had been involved in every ruling body in the country's history, including the Khmer
Rouge. Still, corruption runs rampant in Cambodian politics and many did express concern.

Election observers noted inconsistencies; the victory, they suggested, may have been ill-won. No
official population measurement system exists in Cambodia, so polls were all estimates, and
individual voters were untracked across precincts. That votes were cast under alternative names
seems possible; cast votes were marked with indelible ink, a donation from the Indian Embassy
that is easily removed with lime juice.
Key to election-result skepticism was the overwhelming support for the CNRP cause shown by
garment workers. A campaign promise to raise their minimum wage to $150 had proven
compelling, and the vast majority of the country's 400,000 garment workers were believed to
have cast votes for the opposition. Although garment workers make up less than 3 percent of the
country's population, their incomes directly support a full 20 percent of its residents, and their
labor facilitates the third-largest industry in Cambodia (also keeping the second-largest,
agriculture, afloat on their wages). They are, in other words, influential. (The CNRP pledge in
March had an immediate effect, prompting the government to raise the minimum wage from $61
to $75.) The CNRP began to question the victory the day after the elections, calling for
independent investigations into widespread voting fraud. On July 31, Rainsy announced that the
CNRP won a majority of the National Assembly, with 63 seats, leaving eight seats in dispute,
although little evidence was offered. Human Rights Watch released a statement alleging voter
fraud by the CPP. When Hun Sen dismissed the dispute and vowed to lead the new government
on August 2, Rainsy requested the United Nations step in to resolve the deadlock and, a week
later, threatened nationwide protests. Hun Sen deployed troops and armored personnel carriers
in Phnom Penh in response. "We are not afraid," Rainsy answered August 7, warning of mass
demonstrations.
Preliminary official results declared Hun Sen the re-elected leader August 24. Rainsy appealed to
King Sihanomi and, on September 7, launched peaceful mass rallies in Phnom Penh in
preparation for the final official election results. These arrived September 8, when election
authorities confirmed Hun Sen's victory. CNRP rejected the count as fraudulent, and King
Sihanomi invited Hun Sen and Rainsy to negotiate September 14. These negotiations ended with
no resolution.
On September 15, an estimated 20,000 opposition supporters gathered in Phnom Penh. Razorwire barricades near CNRP headquarters were set up; a man intending to remove them was shot
in the head; several more were injured. The CNRP claimed the dead man was not a protestor but
an angry local seeking access to his home. The next day, CNRP protesters gathered in Freedom
Park, a protest zone established in 2010 with a complicated system of permits and limits to
numbers of attendees and usage hours. Despite evacuation demands, protestors - many from the
provinces - set up camp in the park. Hun Sen and Rainsy met for further negotiations with
Sihanomi, and agreed to heed the king's call to end violence, to set up a mechanism to bring
about election reform in the future and to continue negotiations.

A three-day CNRP rally to protest Hun Sen's leadership of the country, October 23 through 25,
ended peacefully, but a November 12 strike at the SL Garment factory turned violent, as a street
vendor was killed by police. Between 600 and 700 workers at the factory were fired illegally.
The CNRP planned a protest to coincide with UN Human Rights Day, December 10, and by the
next week, protests were being held daily. The CNRP rallying cry, Choh Chenh Tov Euy - Hun
Sen Must Go - caught on at this time. Rainsy, CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha and the CNRP's
head of public affairs, the human and women's rights leader Mu Sochua, began a garmentworker outreach campaign in late December to pool support: Mu visited workers in Kampong
Chhnang, and Rainsy visited the Svay Rieng Special Economic Zone and the Sabrina Garment
Factory in Kampong Speu. "We would like to call on workers nationwide to support each other
and hold a strike as long as their salary has not been increased to $160," Rainsy told striking
workers.
While opposition support grew, the ruling party became increasingly hostile toward
demonstrators: monks in protest of government inaction of a stolen Buddhist relic were harassed
or beaten. Strikes continued around the country, a union effort to increase pressure on the
government. Not just garment workers: teachers, government employees and others walked off
jobs demanding higher wages. People in Cambodia expressed open, daily shock that the
demonstrations were allowed to go on at all. The Garment Manufacturing Association of
Cambodia (GMAC) spokesperson hinted darkly that the government should step in and squelch
the demonstrations, refusing to take the $160 request seriously. December 29 - thanks in large
part to the flanks of garment workers convinced to join CNRP rallies by the call for the $160
monthly wage - saw the largest public demonstration in Cambodian history. The gatherings were
peaceful, even joyous, but laced with something darker. A seemingly innocuous CNRP call for
immigration reform had an ugly underbelly: blatant anti-Vietnamese discrimination coinciding
with lootings and vandalism at Vietnamese-owned stores and oft-heard cries of "Yuon," a Khmer
term for the Vietnamese that often is used pejoratively.
The Ministry of Labour announced a new minimum wage on January 1: $100 per month.
Demonstrations continued.
On January 3, at least five garment workers were shot at the Canadia Industrial Park off of Route
2 on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. And on January 4, hired thugs cleared out Freedom Park,
beating demonstrators mercilessly, while helicopters hovered. Rainsy and Sokha were asked to
appear in court nine days later to respond to allegations that they had incited striking garment
workers to commit crimes and create social unrest. Riot cops casually dotted the city; a ban on
public gatherings of more than ten people was enacted.
But here's the game changer: On January 5, the Phnom Penh Post reported, CPP and CNRP
officials held secret meetings even as they publicly claimed to call off negotiations. Sources said
representatives were negotiating a constitutional amendment, the establishment of a new

parliamentary commission and a division of the current commission chairs equally between the
two parties, the creation of a joint committee on electoral reform, and a television license for the
CNRP.
Garment workers didn't make the cut. In fact, no one had mentioned the $160 monthly wage for
days.

RainsyandSokhaatlargesteverdemonstration.(Photo:AnneElizabethMoore)

"We'reNotScaredofDying"
While Rainsy's support for garment workers seemed strong in December, it has not been
consistent over the years. He worked early on to help establish the Free Trade Union (FTU)
alongside Vichea Chea, the beloved garment labor organizer and FTU president murdered in
2004. Yet Rainsy's periods of exile put him out of reach for several years, and his political
machinations certainly took precedence over workers' concerns in general and wage issues in
particular after his return to the country.

Some charged his outreach to workers was a late-coming and transparent ploy. Siphan Phayhe,
spokesman for Council of Ministers, told the PhnomPenhPost that the CNRP "is trying
everything to get rid of the prime minister. Wages should be separate. [The garment workers]
are not politically oriented - they're just striking for better salary."
Vannath Chea, an independent political analyst, agreed, calling the conflation of issues a "very
risky game." Indeed, Sophy, an early-20s worker at a Canadia Industrial Park factory who
preferred to withhold her last name, told me flat out on January 6 that she didn't back the CNRP.
We were standing at the site where five of her co-workers had been killed by police. "I'll be with
you and protect you all," Rainsy had told workers just a few days before. Echoing the theme, Kem
Sokha had some words for the CPP in front of crowds at Freedom Park: "Don't think that we are
afraid. We're not scared of dying, but of losing our nation."
"I don't care about [them]," Sophy said. She was worn out and hungry. She couldn't afford
cooking gas, rice, or shampoo, she told me. "I just need a higher salary." I asked if she wanted
$160 per month, the figure the CNRP urged she and her fellow strikers demand.
"No," she said.
"Then what did you want?"
"Only $100."
"But the government offered $100, two days before people died here. Why did you still strike?"
"Not until February. January is better," she said, stoically. Twenty more dollars, a month earlier
than originally offered. I wondered if anyone had brought it to the negotiating table.
TheLivingWage
On December 25, Kem Sokha announced in Freedom Park that an official CNRP campaign to
help workers secure a $160 monthly minimum wage would begin the next day. Rainsy repeated
the refrain immediately. "I call on all of you to keep struggling until your demands for a $160
minimum wage are met," he told crowds on December 26. The call swelled his numbers, but the
math remained fuzzy: Many presumed the number to refer to a living wage, but impartial living
wage estimates - which the Cambodia Institute of Development Study (CIDS) defines as "a wage
that provides for decent living for a worker and his/her dependents, within regulated working
hours (not including overtime) from one income source, and should allow for some savings" hadn't been tallied since 2009.
Cambodia doesn't provide official cost-of-living estimates, but if you are meticulous about saving
receipts and have spent enough time in a place, such increases are possible to estimate. By crossreferencing my own cost increases in Phnom Penh between 2009 and today with relevant
numbers from Numbeo, which collects user-submitted data on costs of living around the world
(the site is English-language-only, catering to English-speaking ex-pats), I estimate, for Western
foreigners in Phnom Penh, an increase of about 124.5 percent over the past five years. Actual
costs are likely to change per individual - corruption, in fact, guarantees that they will - but I

assume a similar cost inflation might hit garment workers during that same time period. (Actual
costs differ significantly: In 2009 I paid $13 per night, or $390 per month, for a room in the city
center, and garment workers I spoke to in the south side of Phnom Penh paid $10, split between
two people, for rent in a single room. Today I might pay around $20 per night for similar
lodging, or $600 per month, whereas garment workers I spoke to in the Canadia Industrial Park
split $15 per month rent between the two of them. Other costs, however, appear to have risen less
rapidly.) CIDS' February 2009 report, based on actual costs accrued by a survey of 353 garment
workers, calculates both a minimum living wage, in which the garment worker is presumed to be
contributing equally to household expenses with another income-earner, and a maximum living
wage, in which the garment workers is the sole income earner in the household. CIDS calculated
the 2009 minimum living wage at $90 and the maximum at $120. Applying the 124.5% increase
puts the current minimum living wage at $112.50 and the maximum living wage at $149.40. (The
latter figure is in line with a 2013 report from Behind the Label activists and the Community
Legal Education Center called "Shop 'til They Drop." It suggests a living wage of $150 per person
nearly half the $294 per month wage suggested by the Asian Floor Wage Alliance - in an
argument largely based on nutritional needs of workers.) But even rounding this up to $113 and
$150 doesn't get us a living wage estimate of $160.

Demandsfor$160permonthappearedthroughout.(Photo:AnneElizabethMoore)

"AProblemofaLackofPolicy"
Sopheap Chek, the program director for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) has
been watching recent events closely. "You have to come up with the data, come up with a reason
why $160 now," she said. She's an articulate young woman with an easy command of English
perfected during an early embrace of blogging, which she took up even before electricity and
Internet access were reliable in the rebuilding nation. "There is a problem of a lack of policy," she
says. Several CCHR programs track labor abuses in the garment industry and gender-based
discrimination generally. "It is a real question: At what point did you come up with $160? And
even once it had been said, there was no statement about why that rate."
The first time my research uncovered mention of the $160 wage was December 16, when a
working group of GMAC members, labor leaders, and government officials announced three
possible plans for raising wages in the industry. One of several paths to a $160 wage by 2018 was
set to be announced the following week, according to the PhnomPenhPost: incremental raises of
$16 per year, or an immediate raise to $160 - presumably with no more raises to come during
that period. The president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers' Democratic Union,
Ath Thorn, a working group member, told the Post he'd demanded an immediate raise to $154
per month. The CNRP campaign for $160 - presented by politicians, with no policy reasoning or
economist input, as Chek opines - came a week and a half later.
NotGarmentWorkersOnly
The number matters. Not just because at least five people were killed over it. In Cambodia wages
are low - most are lower than that. High school teachers, for example, make between $85 and
$100 per month before bribes (most charge students a certain amount of money per day to
attend school, as government wages frequently come late; they also are striking for higher wages
of $250 per month) and elementary teachers $50 to $70 before bribes. Laborers at a local private
university bring home $60 per month, as do grocery store clerks. Food vendors tell me they make
around 10,000 riel per day - close to $2.50, or on a good day closer to $5 (but those are rare), or
between $75 and $150 at the outside per month. Hostess bars typically pay women between $50
and $60 per month, before their cut of tips and "lady drinks" - beverages purchased by
customers that give them $1 or $2 profit. A local NGO that serves sex workers tells me that those
who cater to international clientele can make $20 per night; those who work with Khmer clients
make $2 per night, or $60 per month. (The NGO aims to pay them "competitive rates" while they
offer training in the skills necessary to leave the sex industry but admits they fall short. This
leaves women who choose to leave sex work under their guidance in the awkward position of
bringing in some of the lowest wages in the country, with little to offset the poverty besides a
potential sense of moral superiority and a regular job outside the garment industry.) Tuk-tuk
drivers generally make $100 to, sometimes, $250 per month, but this work is not only informal
and unpredictable, it is not often available to women. Other jobs certainly are not; most banks,
stores and firms prefer male workers. Even foreign NGOs operating in Cambodia have fired
women when they became pregnant.

"Why is it just garment worker? Why isn't it teacher? The teacher earn a bachelor degree, and
they get [an] even lower [salary] than garment factory worker?" Chek asks. When I ask another
friend what she thinks about strikers demanding $160 per month, she rolls her eyes. "Why they
don't talk about a national minimum wage," she spits. She's what we call in the States a
knowledge worker - someone engaged in public education and information dissemination but
who doesn't work in a classroom. The place she works put the kibosh on public participation in
political demonstrations even before the violence broke out; I'm not going to name her here.
What she asked me next echoed Chek's query: Why should garment workers be paid almost three
times their peers? Certainly wages should not be distributed along a scale of moral
appropriateness, whereby knowledge workers are paid more than mere emotional or physical
laborers, and certainly not one determined by an American sensibility. But higher education is
expensive in the country. Other questions are raised: What does it imply that already the wages
of factory workers who create products largely for American consumption remain the best hope
of economic security for women besides marrying a high-ranking and corrupt government
official?
Put another way, one reason that the wage situation for garment workers is atrocious is because
it is one of very few sustainable employment options for women, exclusively in that it comes
closest to paying a living wage on a predictable basis. In truth, raising income in other industries
would also benefit the garment workers, in that they would have greater opportunities to not do
garment work. Granted, the garment industry is the only one we really have any responsibility
for, in the US, as its primary end users. But activists' blind advocacy for a raise in pay that
appears randomly selected to advance a political war is fallacy.

Ashutteredfactoryawaitsthereturnofstrikers.(Photo:AnneElizabethMoore)

ABetterResult
"Garment workers had been paid $45 in 2000, and then in 2006, it just jumped to $50. Then it
increased many times in 2013. Why? There should be a clear study on this figure, and then put a
5 percent increase for inflation per year, or similar," Sopheap Chek argues. "If we have discussed
properly, we can convince more. We can bring about a better result."
CCHR has been following the demonstrations carefully, and not just from the standpoint of
human rights observers. Her boss, CCHR President Virak Ou, has been under fire lately for
publicly condemning statements made by the opposition party.
It started December 10, International Human Rights Day, when Rainsy suggested Hun Sen was
"weaker than a woman," and referred again to Vietnamese people as "yuon." Ou signed a
statement on behalf of CCHR requesting an explanation and reminding the CNRP of previously
stated commitments to support gender diversity and to oppose violence, racism and xenophobia.
CCHR has been under fire since, with death threats and name calling - pointedly, Ou has
repeatedly been called "yuon," although he is not Vietnamese. One poster commented on his
Facebook page, "Must Go Ou Virak," a reference to the popular chant to oust Hun Sen. Defenders

seem to paint the chastisement as a condemnation of opposition to the ruling party in toto, as
opposed to a principled stand against biased language. It frustrates Chek and her co-workers,
and not just because they've been under fire, too: she's watched some civil society organizations
fail to call the CNRP out on human rights violations. The casual denigration of women and fearmongering language around the Vietnamese both had perceptible effects on the demonstrations,
from the looting of stores owned by Vietnamese immigrants to the enlistment of garment
workers as political allies when needed, with no continued advocacy for their demands beyond
that point to date. It may be politics as usual in Cambodia, but Cambodia is changing. "[We
created a] moment where civil society is rising up," Chek says. Her voice is filled with emotion.
"We should maintain that moment. But when we do something wrong, that moment that opened
can be [destroyed]. That's what happened. We pushed the government into a corner, and the
government just crashed back."
"The world that we have tried so hard to achieve since 1997 ... " She lets the date hang in the air.
The last time political clashes in the emerging democracy became this heated, tens of people
were killed as the two major political parties vied for power. Hun Sen's CPP emerged victorious,
but deaths and disappearances continued for months, largely uninvestigated, even after the 1998
general election.
"It's very fragile," she finishes.
WhenThere'sNothingLefttoFear
When the clash started at Canadia Industrial Park on January 3, there was panic. Kha Sei grows
visibly agitated as he tells me about it. "When the police shoot the people, one guy died over
there," he points to a spot a few feet away. "He's still alive? The police shoot more."
A man was badly injured not far from where Kha Sei stood, but they were across the street from
the Ekreach Medical Clinic. He and two friends rushed the injured man into the clinic while the
shootings continued. "But," Kha Sei says, "the owner of the hospital didn't take care."
"He refused to help?" I asked. "Why?
The look the young man gave me in return was cold. "He was scared about the government," he
said. "So we do this." He turns and waves to the clinic we are standing in front of. It has been
destroyed.

Trashedhospitalinterior.(Photo:AnneElizabethMoore)

When the man Kha Sei and his friends were carrying was refused medical help, he died. The
small group of men took their revenge on the facility, first chasing out a woman who had just
given birth then smashing everything in sight. They tore doors from hinges, broke windows,
stripped open record books and shattered equipment, cabinets and an X-Ray machine everything. The vice director of the clinic, Dr. Lim Mesa, says the men did $230,000 damage. It's
hard to blame the doctor for refusing to help - the government at that moment wasn't an abstract
fear. It was real, and it was killing people, not 30 feet away. But it's also impossible not to
understand these young men's rage.
Three days later, the men are still there, on guard. Kha Sei and his friends stand in front of the
clinic they destroyed as a reminder: you cannot fear the government forever.
This was never about political power to them. It was, and still is, about a fragile hope to survive.
Copyright,Truthout.Maynotbereprintedwithoutpermission(mailto:editor@truthout.org).

ANNE ELIZABETH MOORE (/AUTHOR/ITEMLIST/USER/45499)

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a cultural critic and author of several award-winning, best-selling nonfiction
books includingUnmarketable(The New Press) andCambodian Grrrl(Cantankerous Titles).She has held
Fulbright scholarships and was a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow. Her work has appeared
inThe Baffler,Al Jazeera, Salon,The Onion,Talking Points Memo,Wilson Quarterly,Tin House,and in
international art exhibitions including the Whitney Biennial and solo shows at the MCA Chicago. She has
appeared on CNN, NPR, and in The New York Times, among others, and currently lives in Chicago.
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Cambodia

Off the Streets

Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses
against Sex Workers in Cambodia

H U M A N
R I G H T S
W A T C H

Off the Streets

Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses
against Sex Workers in Cambodia

Copyright 2010 Human Rights Watch

All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 1-56432-661-6
Cover design by Rafael Jimenez
Human Rights Watch
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New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
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Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791
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Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800
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Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333
hrwdc@hrw.org
Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org

July 2010

1-56432-661-6

Off the Streets

Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia
Maps.................................................................................................................................. 1
I. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 4
Key Recommendations .................................................................................................. 11
II. Methodology ................................................................................................................ 12
III. Sex Work in Cambodia ..................................................................................................14
Numbers and Origins ..................................................................................................... 14
Civil Society Involvement with Sex Workers ................................................................... 18
Sex Work under Current Cambodian Law ....................................................................... 18
Guidelines and Explanatory Notes to Interpret 2008 Law .............................................. 23
A Long History of Crackdowns against Sex Workers ...................................................... 24
IV. Abuses against Sex Workers ....................................................................................... 31
Street Harassment and Abuses..................................................................................... 32
Abuses during Arrest and in Police Custody .................................................................. 34
Detention, Bribes, and Harassment at the Municipal Social Affairs Office ..................... 42
Abuses at Government Social Affairs Centers ................................................................45
NGO Shelters and Arbitrary Detention ............................................................................ 51
V. International Law ......................................................................................................... 53
VI. Impunity and Inaction Perpetuate Abuses .................................................................... 57
Failure to Investigate and Prosecute Abuses .................................................................. 57
US Pressure to Address Trafficking Makes a Bad Situation Worse ................................. 60
VII. Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 64
To the Government of Cambodia: ................................................................................. 64
To the Ministry of Interior: ............................................................................................. 64
To the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation: ........................... 65
To the Phnom Penh Municipality: ................................................................................. 66

To the National Assembly of Cambodia: ....................................................................... 66

To United Nations Agencies and Concerned Donor Governments Including the US, EU,
Japan, and Australia: .................................................................................................... 66
To the US Government: ................................................................................................. 67
To NGOs Assisting Victims of Trafficking and Sex Workers: ........................................... 67
Appendix: Letters Sent to the Government of Cambodia .................................................... 68
Letter to Ministry of Interior: Sent April 19, 2010 ........................................................... 68
Letter to Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation: Sent April 19,
2010 ..............................................................................................................................72
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 76

Maps

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Map of Phnom Penh

Park
0

0.5

1 km

Phnom Penh
International
Airport

Prey Speu
Social Affairs Center
2010 Giulio Frigieri /Human Rights Watch

Mekong
River

CHROY CHANGVAR
PENINSULA

Toul Kork District

Police Station
Tonle Sap
River

Boeng Kak
Lake
Wat
Phnom
Railway
Station

Old
Market
Wat Phnom Commune
Police Station
New
Market

Daun Penh District

Police Station

Phnom Penh Municipal Police

Commissariat's Central
Office Against Crime

Olympic
Stadium

Office of Phnom Penh Municipal

Social Affairs, Veterans, and
Youth Rehabilitation

Royal
Palace

Independence
Monument

Tonle Bassac Commune

Police Station

KOH PICH
ISLAND

Bassac River

I. Summary
After questioning us, the police pushed me into a room where there was a
folding bedit is for detaining criminal suspects. I was raped by five police
officers on the first night and by six other police officers on the second night.
They beat me while raping me because I protested.
Female sex worker describing her treatment after being arrested with other
sex workers near Independence Monument park in Phnom Penh

Three police officers beat me up seriously One of the police officers pointed
his gun at my head and pulled the trigger, but the bullet did not fire. They
kicked my neck, my waist and hit me on my head and body with a broom
stick. It lasted about half an hour.
Transgender woman sex worker at a Phnom Penh police station

Two days after my arrival, I was caught when I tried to escape. Five guards
beat me up. When I used my arms to shield my face and head from their
blows, they beat my arms. The guard threatened to slit our throats if we tried
to escape a second time, and said our bodies would be cremated there.
Female sex worker detained at the Prey Speu Social Affairs center, near
Phnom Penh.
In Cambodia, those tasked with upholding the law are often those who inflict some of the
worst abuse. Sex workers in particular know this to be true. Women and girls involved in sex
work face beatings, rape, sexual harassment, extortion, arbitrary arrest and detention,
forced labor, and other cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of police, public park
security guards, government officials, and those working in the centers and offices run by
the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSAVY).
Sex workers told Human Rights Watch that police officers beat them with their fists, sticks,
wooden handles, and batons that administer electric shocks. Police officers also threatened
sex workers with guns. In several instances, police officers raped sex workers while they
were in police detention. Some sex workers described being detained in Social Affairs
centers under horrific conditions, with restricted freedom of movement, experiencing or
witnessing beatings or rapes, and inadequate food and medical care.

Off the Streets

Violence and most other abuses perpetrated by police appeared to be worse in Phnom Penh
than in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap, the other provinces where Human
Rights Watch conducted research. Police officers in stations in the districts of Daun Penh
and Chamkar Mon in Phnom Penh were particularly abusive. These stations have the most
interaction with sex workers because they are located close to the public parks frequented
by many sex workers.
Police extortion and demands for bribes were common in all provinces where Human Rights
Watch conducted research. Police officers sometimes forced sex workers to pay a sum of
money, or in the worst cases, forced sex workers to have sex with them in exchange for
being released. Sex workers told Human Rights Watch that police took their money and other
valuables. Every sex worker that we spoke to, including children involved in such work, had
paid bribes to the police at some point.
In Phnom Penh, police are not the only security force abusing sex workers. Sex workers also
reported to Human Rights Watch incidents of violence involving municipal security guards at
public parks. In November 2009, Nika described a recent beating by security guardswho
are employees of the Phnom Penh Municipalityat the park near the Old Market in Phnom
Penh. She said:
First one guard came and kicked me then three other guards came. Two
guards held my arms while the other two beat me. They slapped me in the
face. They seemed a bit drunk. They beat me with bamboo sticks and their
radio on my head and all over. They ripped my clothes. The police came by,
but they didnt do anything, the guards continued to beat me for almost half
an hour. Many people saw but everyone was too scared to intervene. The
head of the security told the other guard if they see me there again, they
should beat me to death.
Some of the incidents of violence, illegal arrest and detention perpetrated against sex
workers are opportunistic. Working on the streets and in parks, sex workers are easy prey for
police and park guards who know they will never be held accountable for the abuses they
commit. Other abuses commonly occur in periodic crackdowns and raids by police and
district authorities, at times targeting sex workers specifically, and other times targeting sex
workers amongst other groups of marginalized people visible on the streets.
Sex workers face numerous dangers in the course of their daily work such as violence, rape,
robbery, sexual harassment, and other abuses committed by clients, other individuals and

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

state actors. This report only looks at the specific situation of abuses by police, municipal
park guards and employees at government-run Social Affairs centers.
The authorities do not generally make distinctions between adults who are trafficked and
those who voluntarily engage in sex work. They send all sex workers, including victims of
trafficking and children, to the Municipal Office of the MOSAVY, who then refer them to
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or government Social Affairs centers (administered
by the MOSAVY). Only the specialized anti-trafficking police distinguish victims of trafficking
and children from voluntary sex workers, and send trafficked women and children to specific
anti-trafficking shelters. However, according to sex workers, even members of the antitrafficking specialist unit in Phnom Penh have been involved in trying to extort money from
sex workers. Most of the street sweeps are conducted by commune, district or municipal
regular public order police.
Abuses at Social Affairs Centers
The police or municipal MOSAVY officials often send sex workers and others caught up in
raids to government Social Affairs centers or to shelters run by NGOs. In 2008, local human
rights groups and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights
(OHCHR) documented abuses and conditions in two government Social Affairs centers, Koh
Kor (or Koh Rumdoul) and Prey Speu, including suspicious deaths, rape, torture, beatings,
and illegal restrictions on freedom of movement.
The centers are effectively squalid jails. In June 2008, the government released all the
detainees from the Koh Kor facility, located on an island that was a former Khmer Rouge
detention facility. Currently, that center is inactive, and not receiving any detainees,
although one or two center staff persons remain living there.
Sex workers, beggars, drug users, street children, and homeless people held at Prey Speu
have reported how staff members at Prey Speu have beaten, raped and mistreated
detainees, including children. Sex workers detained in Prey Speu as recently as June 2010
were locked in their rooms, and only able to leave their rooms to bathe twice a day in dirty
pond water or, accompanied by a guard, to go to the toilet. The center has inadequate
facilities, poorly trained staff, and no rehabilitation program.
Bopha has been arrested several times. She described to Human Rights Watch one incident
in 2008 where district police arrested her. When she refused to give them money, they threw
her in a truck belonging to MOSAVY and sent her to Prey Speu. She said:

Off the Streets

My nine days in the Prey Speu center were worse than living in hell. Upon
arrival, the guard hit me twice on my buttocks with a wooden stick the food
was awful the drinking water came from a pond a basket in the room
served as a toilet... One night the guard came to have sex with two beautiful
women next to me in the room. These women were released the next day I
am HIV positive but I had missed my ARVs [anti-retrovirals] for those days.
As a result of persistent advocacy by sex worker and human rights groups about abusive
conditions in the Prey Speu center, in July 2009 MOSAVY announced that it would no longer
send sex workers there.1 Instead, sex workers picked up by the police were to be sent to
NGOs offering support services.
However, Human Rights Watch has learned that at least 20 sex workers have been detained
at Prey Speu since July 2009. While this does reflect a reduction in the number of sex
workers detained there since 2008, given the difficulties in accessing the center this number
should be considered an absolute minimum. And while sex workers have been sent to NGOs
as a result of pressure by sex worker groups, others including the homeless have continued
to be sent to Prey Speu. Sex workers detained at Prey Speu in June 2010 told Human Rights
Watch that Social Affairs center staff warned them that they would be detained up to three
months in Prey Speu should they be arrested and sent to the Social Affairs office a second
time.
Human Rights Watch is concerned that Prey Speu remains open. Given the lack of political
commitment by the Cambodian government to address the serious abuses against residents
of these facilities, Human Rights Watch believes that both centers at Koh Kor and Prey Speu
should be permanently closed.
The NGOs running shelters that accept sex workers referred by MOSAVY have varying
standards and operational procedures, but conditions are well above those in the
government Social Affairs centers. Most do not detain adults, but offer services and choices
on a consensual basis.
However, in 2009, some sex workers told Human Rights Watch that two NGO shelters had
arbitrarily detained them for periods of several days to several weeks. Two HIV-positive sex
workers also reported that one of the NGOs had denied their request to have antiretroviral
1

Yun Samean and Bethany Lindsay, Rights Group Accuses Govt of Punishing Phnom Penhs Poor,Cambodia Daily, July 27,
2009.

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

(ARV) medicine. The NGOs in question denied that anyone was held against their will, while
also arguing that they needed sufficient time to counsel the women and girls in order to
convince them to stay. NGOs, of course, have no legal right to hold any person against their
will, and even holding someone for a period of hours or days constitutes unlawful
deprivation of liberty. The NGOs in question have since informed Human Rights Watch that
they have changed their policy and no longer detain any individuals, even for brief periods.
No new cases of NGO detention have been reported to Human Rights Watch in 2010.

Periodic Sweeps and Crackdowns

While crackdowns against sex workers by police and other authorities garnered significant
media attention in 2008 and 2009, such crackdowns have gone on for many years.
Numerous justifications have been given for these periodic sweeps.
One reason given by local authorities is in order to clean the streets and maintain social
order. Sex workers as well as homeless people, street children, beggars, and people who
use drugs on the streets of Phnom Penh, are rounded up and detained in operations
authorized by the governor and vice-governor of Phnom Penh.
Municipal authorities have also publicly stated that sex workers are arrested and detained in
order to prevent the spread of HIV. For example, a few days ahead of the annual Cambodian
Water Festival on October 29, 2009, Sok Penhvuth, the deputy governor of Daun Penh
district, justified the arrest of 17 sex workers sent to the Office of Municipal Affairs by saying,
We dont want to see the boat racers bring diseases such as HIV/AIDS back to their wives.
We want to protect the men in case they get caught up in the festivities and forget about
health and safety. Street sweeps and raids on entertainment venues tend to increase
around high-profile regional or international events in Phnom Penh and important public
holidays such as the Khmer New Year (mid-April) and Water Festival (late October early
November).
Another reason is the sporadic interest of the authorities in combating prostitution and vice,
often driven by donor interests and the conflation of trafficking with sex work.

Conflating Trafficking with Sex Work

Human trafficking of women and girls into sex work is a problem in Cambodia, fuelled by
corruption and a lack of political will to prosecute traffickers. Despite government and
nongovernmental efforts to raise awareness and protect victims of trafficking, women and
girls still continue to be trafficked within Cambodia.

Off the Streets

Counter-trafficking efforts have had both positive and negative consequences. Some
government initiatives have focused on trafficking and sex work together, and sought to
eliminate sex work as a means of combating trafficking. In 2007, the Ministry of Interior led a
campaign against trafficking and sex work in which it called on police to crack down on
entertainment venues where women and children were selling sex. Police and other officials
in Phnom Penh conducted large scale sweeps of sex workers from the streets and parks of
Phnom Penh. The police also closed down many brothels across the country.
In February 2008, Cambodia passed the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and
Sexual Exploitation, with urging from foreign donors, especially the US. The then-Bush
administration of the United States had pushed Cambodia to adopt a comprehensive antitrafficking law, through the US State Departments annual assessment of trafficking in
Cambodia.
The anti-trafficking law has had some positive aspects in seeking to criminalize specific acts
in line with international standards, including forced sex work and other forms of forced
labor. However, aspects of the law criminalizing sex work have had a more negative effect,
facilitating police harassment, violence and extortion of bribes from sex workers, trafficked
persons and children in sex work. Criminal provisions on soliciting by adult sex workers,
and an over-broad definition of procurement to cover activities assisting or protecting the
prostitution of others as well as acts hindering the act of prevention, assistance or reeducation of sex workers risk criminalizing the legitimate exercise of fundamental rights,
such as advocacy on the parts of sex workers or outreach activities.
These additional offenses on the books provided added justification for more intense
sweeps throughout 2008 and 2009. However, despite a focus on anti-trafficking efforts, in
none of the cases of arrest investigated by Human Rights Watch was any attempt made by
police to distinguish between women and girls who were voluntarily engaged in sex work
and those who were victims of trafficking. Sex workers were simply detained by police, sent
to the municipal MOSAVY office and eventually transferred either to NGOs or Prey Speu.
Before the 2008 law was passed, police who arrested sex workers could not charge them
with soliciting as it was not an offense. Cambodias earlier anti-trafficking law, the 1996 Law
on Suppression of Kidnapping, Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Beings, criminalized
third-party involvement in prostitution such as pimping and opening a place for committing
debauchery or obscene acts.

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Since the 2008 law came into effect, police officers regularly threaten to invoke the
soliciting provision as a means of extorting money from sex workers, telling them that if
they fail to pay they can go to jail or be forcibly sent to a government shelter because their
work is illegal. In practice, there is little evidence that the law is actually enforced as
intended, or that prosecutions are pursued. Instead, the law seems to be used mainly as a
convenient excuse by police to rationalize further illegal actions against sex workers.
In 2008, HIV/AIDS activists, health workers and sex worker groups have all raised concerns
about increased abuses by authorities, and their difficulty in accessing sex workersmany
of whom were driven underground because they feared arrest.
To address the concerns of sex workers and activists about abuses, including those resulting
from the new law, in November 2008 the governments High-level Inter-agency AntiTrafficking Task Force issued Guidelines on Implementation of the Law on Trafficking and
Sexual Exploitation. According to these guidelines, the rights of victims of trafficking and
sex workers are to be respected. The guidelines state that sex workers are to be regarded as
victims of procurement for prostitution. Prostitution is not a crime; thus individual
prostitutes are not punished as offenders under the new legislation.
While these efforts are positive in providing some direction on how the law should be
implemented, the guidelines skirt the issue of the soliciting provision and as always,
implementation remains a problem. Explanatory notes on the 2008 law are also in the
process of development.
The US is one of Cambodias largest bilateral donors and a major supporter of anti-trafficking
efforts. Under the previous Bush administration, the US bears some responsibility for
supporting and pushing for enforcement of laws criminalizing sex work without adequately
considering the local contextone in which police have long committed abuses against sex
workers with impunity.
Cambodia is plagued by not only by widespread abuses committed by officials, but impunity
for perpetrators. To date, not a single police officer, security guard, government official or
employee at MOSAVY shelters has been held accountable for crimes committed against sex
workers. Widespread abuses of power and impunity lead victims, including sex workers who
have been abused by the police or other authorities, to be either too afraid or to have too
little faith in the criminal justice system to file criminal complaints. This impunity is common
in Cambodia, yet it has to be broken for the rule of law to ever take hold.

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10

Against this background, Cambodia should also review its laws and policies regarding
trafficking and sex work. Rather than protecting victims of crimes such as trafficking and
forced prostitution, these laws and policies are often taken advantage of by abusive officials.

Key Recommendations
Human Rights Watch recommends to the Cambodian government:

Stop the arbitrary arrest and detention of sex workersincluding women, men,
children, and transgendervictims of trafficking, and others including people who
use drugs, homeless people, beggars, street children and mentally ill people.
Establish a special commission to conduct independent, thorough investigations
into all acts of violence and extortion by law enforcement officials, park officials, and
staff or volunteers in Social Affairs centers. The commission should be established
promptly, have the power to subpoena witnesses and produce a public report. It
should be empowered to make recommendations for criminal investigations to
ensure perpetrators are brought to justice for their crimes.
Permanently close Prey Speu and Koh Kor and other Social Affairs centers where
people are detained in violation of international and national law.
Until the pervasive problem of police abuse of sex workers is tackled, suspend the
provision on soliciting in the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual
Exploitation. The provision gives police more leverage to extort money and commit
violent acts against sex workers and has facilitated abuses.
Consult with sex worker groups in order to jointly develop programs and services
that can empower sex workers and accurately reflect their needs. Areas include legal
assistance, health care, child care, and vocational training if identified by sex
workers as relevant.

11

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

II. Methodology
This report is based on research conducted in Cambodia between July 2009 and April 2010.
Detailed interviews were conducted in Khmer language with sex workers in Phnom Penh,
and in the provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap. We met with 94 sex
workers, aged between 16 and 45 years, in the streets, parks, brothels, and rented rooms
where they live, and in the offices of NGOs working with sex workers. This includes seven
male-to-female transgender sex workers. The rest of the interviewees were female. No
attempt was made to interview male sex workers because preliminary interviews with sex
workers and human rights groups indicated that male sex workers were not picked up in the
sweeps and raids that were the focus of this report.
At least five interviewees were children.2 Three told Human Rights Watch they were 18, but
proved to be 16 or 17 when their documents were seen. Because we were unable to verify the
documents of all sex workers whom we interviewed, it is possible that other interviewees
were also children, but represented themselves as being older due to fear of being sent to a
childrens home. At least six of the adults interviewed were children when they entered sex
work; at least one interviewee was as young as 13. Sex work is one of the worst forms of
child labor, and therefore prohibited for minors.
Of the 94 sex workers we met, we conducted detailed individual interviews with 51 and held
more informal conversations and group discussions with 43 sex workers.
In Phnom Penh, we conducted detailed individual interviews with 38 sex workers, including
four transgender women. We held group discussions with two groups of sex workers and bar
hostesses referred to an NGO shelter from the Office of Municipal Social Affairs,3 as well as
members of sex worker associations, and other NGOs supporting the rights of sex workers.
In the provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap, Human Rights Watch
conducted 13 detailed individual interviews and held conversations with dozens of sex
workers in the parks and in the streets.
2

In this report, the words girl and child are used to refer to anyone under the age of 18. The Convention on the Rights of
the Child states: For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human below the age of eighteen years
unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered
into force September 2, 1990, acceded to by Cambodia October 15, 1992.

The women were working as hostesses in a bar an arrested during a raid of the bar by the anti-trafficking police. They were
sent to the Office of Phnom Penh Municipal Social Affairs and the next day to an NGO shelter.

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12

Human Rights Watch also interviewed representatives from the United Nations, donors and
NGOs working on sex work, trafficking and human rights, including those running shelters.
The names and identifying details of those with whom we met have been withheld to protect
their safety. We use pseudonyms throughout for all sex workers mentioned in the report. All
those interviewed were informed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature, and
the ways in which the information would be used. All interviewees provided oral consent to
be interviewed. All were told that they could decline to answer questions or could end the
interview at any time.
Other sources we consulted included Cambodian government documents, laws, and policies,
NGO reports, news articles from Cambodian and international media, and interview
transcripts from Cambodian human rights organizations.
This research focused specifically on abuses committed by police, public park security
guards and staff associated with the centers and offices of the Ministry of Social Affairs. It is
beyond the scope of this report to consider trafficking, violence, and other abuses that sex
workers face at the hands of clients or others; nor did we specifically research the
governments compliance with its responsibility to protect children from prostitution and to
identify, remove, and provide appropriate assistance to children involved in sex work.
Human Rights Watch sought the perspective of the Cambodian government in a letter sent to
the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth
Rehabilitation on April 19, requesting information and to solicit a response to the violations
we had documented. This letter is attached in the Appendix. At this writing, Human Rights
Watch had received no response.

13

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

III. Sex Work in Cambodia

Numbers and Origins
Exchanging sex for money has gone on for decades in Cambodia. In the repressive Khmer
Rouge period from 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge practically eliminated sex work. At that time,
the Khmer Rouge was attempting by force to create an agrarian societykilling elites,
intellectuals, and anyone suspected of free market activities. Some 1.5 million Cambodians
were murdered. Any acts deemed immoral (khos selthor) including prostitution, premarital
sex, sex between same sex couples, and adultery were punishable by death.
During the Peoples Republic of Kampuchea period (1979-1989), when Cambodia was
occupied by Vietnamese troops, sex work was strictly controlled. The authorities routinely
arrested and detained sex workers, sending them to the former Khmer Rouge detention
facility on Koh Kor island in Koh Kor village, Kandal province. Since 1981, the facility has
been administered by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation
(MOSAVY). As recently as 2008, the ministry was using the facility to detain sex workers (see
subheading Abuses at Government Social Affairs Centers under section IV).
With the arrival of tens of thousands of peacekeeping personnel in 1992 as part of the
United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), sex work became more visible,
with red light districts opening in different parts of Phnom Penh and the provinces, and
demand for sexual services from both local and foreign men. The clients of sex workers in
Cambodia are primarily Cambodian men.
Sex workers working in brothels are generally referred to as direct sex workers in
Cambodia. A brothel is usually a small house employing 1-20 sex workers. It is often run by a
manager, also known as a madam (if female). Some sex workers are employed directly by
the manager while others simply rent a room in a brothel to conduct sex work. Many brothels
have a sign saying massage and/or coining.4
Indirect sex workers work in massage parlors (which offer both regular and sexual
massage services), karaoke bars, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. These venues usually
employ women who may be taken off the premises by customers for a fee. Sex usually takes

Coining is an alternative medicine treatment common in Southeast Asia like massage, which consists of rubbing heated oil
on the skin, most commonly the chest, back, or shoulders, and then vigorously rubbing a coin over the area.

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14

place somewhere else, often in a hotel. In rural areas, karaoke bars are often faades for
brothels and they may have rooms at the back of the business, functioning similarly to a
brothel. Sex workers also work in the street or public parks, either independently or
sometimes for a manager. Hostesses, masseuses, or beer promoters5 may also engage in
sex work from time to time.6
There are no exact figures on the number of sex workers in Cambodia. Making such
estimates is difficult, especially since many aspects of sex work are illegal. Some figures
have gained credence through continued use though the methodology by which they were
obtained has never been clarified.7 An academic study by Thomas Steinfatt funded by USAID
in 2003one of the few studies using statistical estimations based on actual counts
concluded there are about 20,829 direct and indirect female sex workers in Cambodia, with
5,250 in Phnom Penh.8 Of this number, the majority are over 18 years of age.9 A 2006 report
by the Ministry of Health says there are 6,000 direct female sex workers and 26,000 indirect
female sex workers.10 Many sex workers are ethnic Vietnamese.11 In addition, there are maleto-female transgender sex workers and male sex workers, but exact figures are not available.
While some women enter sex work voluntarily, others are trafficked or coerced. Steinfatt
estimates that of a sample of 20,829 female sex workers, 2,488 women and children are
trafficked for sex work in Cambodia, or approximately 12 percent. This is similar to a 2006
study conducted by White, Sidedine, and Mealea amongst 250 brothel based sex workers

In Cambodia, beer promoters, commonly known as beer promotion girls are employed by beer companies to serve beer in
karaoke venues, restaurants and bars.
6

UNESCO (Bangkok), Jan W.de Lind van Wijgaarden, The organization of sex work in contemporary Cambodia: Implications
for HIV prevention and care, 2002, http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:zjw6_ZDdVsJ:www2.unescobkk.org/hivaids/fulltextdb/aspUploadFiles/Sex%2520work%2520paper%2520organization%2520
and%2520AIDS.doc+different+types+of+sex+work+%22Cambodia%22&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk (accessed April 11, 2010). Sex
work in Cambodia organizes in different ways: brothel based sex workers, Karaoke-based sex workers, street walkers, Freelance opportunistic sex workers, direct, and indirect sex workers.
7

Steinfatt, T. Measuring the number of Trafficked Women and Children in Cambodia: A Direct Observation Field Study,
sponsored by USAID, Phnom Penh, October 6, 2003, p.2. http://slate.msn.com/Features/pdf/Trfciiif.pdf (accessed April 11,
2010). This study refers to the frequently quoted figure of 80,000 100,000 sex workers in Cambodia in various NGO reports
as questionable because of a lack of information about how this number was calculated.
8

Ibid., p.25.

Ibid., the study notes that of a sample of 5,317 sex workers, 198 were below the age of 18 or 3.4 percent.

10

Ministry of Health, Cambodian National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Report of a
Consensus Workshop, HIV Estimates and Projections for Cambodia 2006 -2012, June 25-29, 2007,
http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2008/Cambodia_hiv_estimation_report_2006_en.pdf (accessed April 11, 2010).
11

Steinfatt, Measuring the number of Trafficked Women and Children in Cambodia: A Direct Observation Field Study,
October 6, 2003.

15

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

(all female), which found that 14 percent were trafficked, whereas 86 percent chose sex work
on their own.12
People engage in sex work for a variety of reasons that are not unique to Cambodia. One
primary reason is economic. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in South East Asia,
ranking 87 among 135 countries on the UNs Human Poverty Index, well below Burma at 77.13
In Cambodia, 40 percent of the population earns less than $1.25 a day.14 The net enrollment
ratio for girls in secondary school is 28 out of every 100 girls of secondary school age. In the
current economic climate, women face even more limited employment opportunities and sex
work may seem an attractive economic option.
According to a 2004 Asia Development Bank report, gender inequalities are endemic in
Cambodias labor markets. Traditional attitudes towards girls education and appropriate
occupations for women and men have shaped existing inequalities and continue to
perpetuate disparities in employment.15 The report confirms that most employed women in
Cambodia work in the garment or informal sector.16 While a textile and garment factory
worker will earn between $45 to $8017 per month, a sex worker can earn a monthly income
ranging from $90 to $160.18 Among those interviewed by Human Rights Watch, many entered
sex work as a result of economic pressures (often arising from health problems of family
members or landlessness) and a lack of other opportunities for education and employment.
A number of women who were initially trafficked into sex work escaped that exploitative
situation, and then continue to engage in sex work voluntarily. Some of these women are
now active members of the sex workers rights movement in Cambodia. Stigma and
discrimination against sex workers in Cambodian society, combined with a lack of viable

12

Joanna White, Lim Sidedine, and Ke Kantha Mealea, The Situation of Female Sex Workers and Entertainment Workers in
Cambodia: Findings of a Quantitative Study, (Phnom Penh: Center for Advanced Study), 2006.
13

UNDP, Human Development Report 2009: Cambodia, 2009,

http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_KHM.html (accessed June 16, 2010).

14

UNDP, Human Development Report 2009, http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_EN_Complete.pdf, (accessed July 7,

2010).
15

UNIFEM, the World Bank, ADB, UNDP and DFID/UK, in cooperation with the Cambodian Ministry of Womens and Veterans
Affairs, A Fair Share for Women: Cambodia Gender Assessment, April 2004, p.6.,
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Country-Gender-Assessments/cga-cam.pdf (accessed April 11, 2010).

16

Ibid.

17

Cambodia Institute of Development Study, Living Wage Survey for Cambodias Garment Industry, February 2009,
http://www.fes.or.id/fes/download/Survey_Result_Cambodia.pdf (accessed April 11, 2010).

18

Cambodian Alliance for Combating HIV AIDS, results of action research entitled Policies Environment regarding Universal
Access and the right to work of entertainment workers/sex workers, released in July 2009; p. 9.

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16

economic alternatives, means sex workers and victims of trafficking often feel they have few
options but to continue this work. As Makara, age 22, told Human Rights Watch:
I was sold to a brothel in Phnom Penh for $500 in 2001 [when she was age
14]. When I left the brothel I did not see myself fit for any other alternative job.
My family is so poor that I could not depend on them, so I became a
prostitute since then. The money I earn from sex work is to feed myself, my
child and my husband who is a junk scavenger.19
None of the transgender women interviewed by Human Rights Watch had been trafficked.
But all of them described a combination of poverty and discrimination on the basis of their
gender identity and gender expression as a reason for entering sex work. As Srey Keo told
Human Rights Watch:
I left home due to discrimination against me by my parents because of my
transgender nature. I became a sex worker after I left home and followed my
friends to earn my living through sex.20

19

Human Rights Watch interview with Makara, 22, Phnom Penh, August 6, 2009.

20

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Keo, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

17

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Civil Society Involvement with Sex Workers

In Cambodia, a large number of nongovernmental organizations work on issues
affecting women and children. Some of these organizations focus on assisting victims
of trafficking and other forms of violence against women, some focus on specifically
children or womens rights, and a few focus specifically on supporting the rights of sex
workers. NGOs providing shelter services to victims of violence play a vital role in
providing much-needed services, particularly in a country like Cambodia, where
government services are inadequate or virtually non-existent. NGO-run shelters have
made a positive contribution by helping victims of abuses overcome trauma and learn
new skills, and by assisting police and courts to prosecute traffickers and abusers.
However, there are questions over whether NGOs always respect the human rights of
those they are seeking to protect. For instance, some NGO shelters have had longstanding policies (until recently) which forced trafficking victims and sex workers to stay
in shelters against their will.
In addition to NGOs that focus on trafficking and protecting women from violence, since
1998 several membership organizations have been set up by and for sex workers,
initially with support from other NGOs. These organizations play a vital role in
representing the interests of sex workers, providing advice and support to their
members, HIV outreach, and advocating on behalf of sex workers with the government,
other NGOs, and multilateral institutions. The largest, Womens Network for Unity, was
formed in 2000 and has at least 5,000 members in 13 provinces in Cambodia. Others
include the Cambodian Prostitutes Union and the Network Men Women Development
Cambodia (CNMWD) which focuses on transgender sex workers.

Sex Work under Current Cambodian Law

Article 46 of the 1993 Cambodian Constitution states, The commerce of human beings,
exploitation by prostitution and obscenity which affects the reputation of women shall be
prohibited. Currently, many acts connected to sex work are illegal in Cambodia under a law
passed in 2008 covering trafficking and sex work. For instance, soliciting and any acts by
third parties assisting in the prostitution of others are crimes.

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18

Until recently, Cambodias legal framework was based largely on the law drafted by the
United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).21 The 1992 UNTAC law
criminalized third party involvement in child prostitution, but had no provision criminalizing
any aspect of adult sex work.22
The UNTAC law was supplemented by additional laws in 1996 and 2008 that criminalized
additional aspects of sex work. The Law on the Suppression of Kidnapping, Trafficking and
Exploitation of Human Beings adopted in 1996 in addition to criminalizing trafficking of
women and children for prostitution, also criminalized third party involvement in prostitution,
such as pimping and debaucheryestablishing a place to commit debauchery or obscene
acts.23 These two offenses in the 1996 law provided a legal basis for police to raid brothels
or other entertainment establishments where sex work was likely taking place. Debauchery
is not defined in the law and the offense is not revised in the 2008 law. In October 2008, the
UNTAC law was replaced by the new Penal Code.24

21

UNTAC was established in Cambodia in 1992 to ensure implementation of the Agreements on a Comprehensive Political
Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict, signed in Paris on 23 October 1991. Amongst other issues, UNTACs mandate included
responsibility for human rights and the maintenance of law and order.

22

Article 42 (3) UNTAC law states Any person who procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, or sexually
exploits a minor, even with the consent of that minor, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of two to six years.

23

Kingdom of Cambodia, Royal Degree No. 0296/01, The Law on the Suppression of Kidnapping, Trafficking and Exploitation
of Human Beings, Adopted by the National Assembly on January 16, 1996; Law on the Suppression of the Kidnapping and
Trafficking of Human Persons and Exploitation of Human Persons 1996, art. 4. A pimp is anyone who supports or protects the
prostitution of others with knowledge before the assistance or support of the prostitution; who regularly shares in the
proceeds derived from prostitution; who solicits clients for him/her or them for the purpose of prostitution; in whatever form;
or trains or coaxes, by whatever means, a male or female to engage in prostitution or acts as a middleman, in whatever form,
establishing contacts between male/female prostitutes and the brothel-keeper or the provider of profit for the prostitution of
other persons; or allows a make or females to live at his/her house or any other place for the purpose of engaging him/her in
prostitution for his/her profit; Law on the Suppression of the Kidnapping and Trafficking of Human Persons and Exploitation of
Human Persons 1996, article 7, states, Any person who opens a place for committing debauchery or obscene acts shall be
punished by imprisonment from one (1) to five (5) years and by a fine of five million (5,000,000) riel to thirty million
(30,000,000) riel. In the case of repeated offenses, the above punishment terms shall be doubled.Article 8 states Any
person who commits acts of debauchery involving a minor below 15 years old, even if there is consent from the concerned
minor, or even if the person has bought such minor from someone else or from a pimp, shall be punished by ten (10) to twenty
(20) years in prison. In case of repeat offenses, the maximum punishment term shall be applied. And the court may, in
addition to the above principal punishment, apply a sub-punishment by restriction of civil rights and by the non-authorization
of residence.
25

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, The Kingdom of Cambodia, No. 140 c.l., February 15, 2008,
art. 50. states that the Law on Suppression of the Kidnapping and Trafficking of Human Persons and Exploitation of Human
Persons, which was promulgated by Royal Kram No:cs/rkm/0296/01 shall be repealed by this law. This law shall prevail if a
provision of any other law is in contradiction with the provisions of this law. (Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and
Sexual Exploitation 2008).

19

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

In February 2008, the Cambodian government adopted the Law on Suppression of Human
Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, which had the effect of repealing the 1996 law.25 On sex
work, it criminalized third party involvement in sex work, child prostitution, and soliciting.
According to its drafters, this law aimed to bring Cambodia in line with several treaties,
namely the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Sale of
Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, which was ratified by Cambodia in May
2002, and also the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
(hereafter Palermo Protocol), which Cambodia ratified in 2006.
In the foreword to the 2008 law, the minister of justice stated that the new law was needed
since the 1996 law had a lot of gaps and was not effectively enforced.26 The Ministry of
Justice in collaboration with the Japanese Institute for Legal Development and with financial
support from UNICEF Cambodia, re-drafted the new Law on Suppression of Human
Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.27
The 2008 law adopts the Palermo Protocols definition of trafficking, giving law enforcement
officials additional grounds to arrest and convict traffickers. The 2008 law breaks down the
individual elements of the act of trafficking in the Palermo Protocol, making each wrongful
element a crime such as unlawful removal,28 unlawful removal of a minor,29 unlawful removal
with purpose,30 the act of buying, selling or exchanging a human being,31 transportation

25

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, The Kingdom of Cambodia, No. 140 c.l., February 15, 2008,
art. 50. states that the Law on Suppression of the Kidnapping and Trafficking of Human Persons and Exploitation of Human
Persons, which was promulgated by Royal Kram No:cs/rkm/0296/01 shall be repealed by this law. This law shall prevail if a
provision of any other law is in contradiction with the provisions of this law. (Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and
Sexual Exploitation 2008).

26

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, foreword by His Excellency Ang Vongvathana,
Minister of Justice, Phnom Penh, February 27, 2008.

28

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 8 defines unlawful removal as 1) to remove a
person from his/her current place of residence to a place under the actors or third persons control by means of force, threat,
deception, abuse of power, or enticement, or 2) without legal authorities or any other justification to do so, take a minor or a
person under general custody or curatorship or legal custody away from the legal custody of the parents, caretaker or
guardian.

28

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 8 defines unlawful removal as 1) to remove a
person from his/her current place of residence to a place under the actors or third persons control by means of force, threat,
deception, abuse of power, or enticement, or 2) without legal authorities or any other justification to do so, take a minor or a
person under general custody or curatorship or legal custody away from the legal custody of the parents, caretaker or
guardian.

29

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 9 defines unlawful removal of a minor as
removing, a minor or a person under general custody or curatorship or legal custody.
30

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 10 defines unlawful removal with purpose as
doing so for the purpose of profit making, sexual aggression, production of pornography, marriage against the will of the
victim, adoption or any type of exploitation. The terms any form of exploitation includes the exploitation of the prostitution

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20

with purpose,32 cross-border transportation,33 abduction, detention or confinement.34 It is

therefore up to police, prosecutors and judges to determine the most appropriate offenses
with which to charge traffickers.35
The 2008 law also covers offences relating to prostitution and child prostitution.36
Prostitution is defined as having sexual intercourse with an unspecified person or other
sexual conduct of all kinds in exchange for anything of value.37 Child prostitution is defined
as the offence of having sexual intercourse or other sexual conduct of all kinds between a
minorunder 18 years of ageand another person in exchange for anything of value.38 The
provisions on sex work and child prostitution expand the scope of the criminal acts covered
under the 1996 law. Under the 1996 law, pimping and debauchery were criminal offenses,
with stricter penalties for debauchery involving a child under the age of 15. New offenses in
the 2008 law include obscenity, pornography, purchasing child sex, providing premises for
prostitution, and procuring prostitution.39

of others, pornography, commercial sex act, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, debt bondage,
involuntary servitude, child labor or the removal of organs.
31

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 13 defines the act of selling, buying or
exchanging a human being as unlawfully delivering the control over a person to another, or to unlawfully receive the control
over a person from another, in exchange for anything of value including any services and human beings.
32

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 17 defines transportation with purpose as
transporting another person knowing that he or she has been unlawfully removed, recruited, sold, bought, exchanged or
transported for the purpose of profit making, sexual aggression, production of pornography, marriage against will of the
victim, adoption, or any form of exploitation.

33

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 18 defines cross-border transportation as a
person who transports (brings) another person to outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia knowing that he or she has been
unlawfully removed, recruited, sold, bought, exchanged or transported.

34

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 21 defines abduction (arrest), detention or
confinement, as a person, who without legal authority, arrests, detains or confines another person.
35

Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol defines trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or
receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the
abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a
person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. Consent to the intended exploitation is irrelevant where any of the
means such as deception, coercion etc. are used. When it comes to children, however, it is irrelevant whether there was any
form of coercion or deception used, and simply the recruitment or movement of a child into a situation of exploitation is
enough to constitute trafficking.

36

Chapter IV of the Act, Articles 23 37 set out the various offences proscribed under this heading.

37

Article 23.

38

Penal Code, art. 23.

39

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, see arts. 23-41.

21

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

The 2008 law does not criminalize clients of adult sex workers. However, it does call for the
punishment of anyone who engages in child prostitution, including clients, but not the
child.40
The 2008 law criminalizes adult sex workers who solicit in public. Under article 24, a person
who willingly and publicly solicits another for the purpose of prostituting himself or herself
shall be punished with imprisonment for 1 to 6 days and a fine of 3,000 to 10,000 riel (about
$0.75 to $2.50). The law exempts children under the age of 18 from being charged with
soliciting.
The 2008 law also criminalizes procurement for prostitution, which is generally considered
to be facilitating or providing a person for sexual services. Article 25 defines the act of
procuring as follows: drawing a financial profit from the prostitution of others; assisting or
protecting the prostitution of others; recruiting, inducing or training a person with a view to
practice prostitution; or exercising pressure upon a person to become a prostitute.
Article 25 defines procurement in such a broad way so that it includes not only receiving
financial profit from prostitution but also any activity assisting or protecting the prostitution
of others.41 What this means is that anyone deemed to be assisting prostitution, such as a
moto taxi driver or a sex workers outreach worker distributing condoms could be liable for
prosecution. The broad scope of this provision risks criminalizing the legitimate exercise of
fundamental rights, such as advocacy on the part of sex workers.
In addition, article 25 (3) defines procurement as including any act that might be construed
as hindering the act of prevention, assistance or reeducation undertaken either by a public
agency or by a competent private organization for the benefit of persons engaging in
prostitution or being in danger of prostitution.42 The overly-broad scope of the offence of
procurement means that peer educators, or family and friends of sex workers who try to
intervene in police raids are potentially liable for punishment. Human Rights Watch heard
40

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 23.

41

Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 2008, art. 25 states the act of procuring prostitution
shall mean 1) drawing a financial profit from the prostitution of others, 2) assisting or protecting the prostitution of others, 3)
recruiting, including or training a person with a view to practice prostitution, 4) exercising pressure upon a person to become
a prostitute. The following acts shall be deemed equivalent to the act of procuring prostitution: 1) serving as an intermediary
between one person who engages in prostitution and a person who exploits or remunerates the prostitution of others; 2)
facilitating or covering up resources knowing that such resources were obtained from a procurement; 3) hindering the act of
prevention, assistance or re-education undertaken either by a public agency or by a competent private organization for the
benefit of persons engaging in prostitution or being in danger of prostitution.
42

Penal Code, art. 25 (3). According to article 25, this offence is deemed the equivalent to the act of procurement of
prostitution and shall be punished, pursuant to article 26, by imprisonment for 2 to 5 years.

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22

reports from some NGOs that police are using this provision as an excuse to threaten and
obstruct efforts by outreach workers.43 This provision is so vague in its potential application
that it violates the principles of legal certainty and foreseeability, which require that criminal
laws be sufficiently narrowly and precisely drawn to target specific behavior. This is what
required by article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which
requires that all crimes be adequately detailed in law.44
Throughout 2008 HIV/AIDS activists, health workers, and sex worker groups voiced concerns
about increased abuses by authorities, and their difficulty in accessing sex workersmany
of whom were driven underground because they feared arrest. Raids and brothel closures
meant many sex workers moved from working in brothels to working on the streets or in
entertainment venues such as bars, karaoke, or massage parlors. This makes it more
difficult for outreach workers to contact sex workers.
In Phnom Penh, Family Health International, an international NGO focused on public health
and development that works in Cambodia reported that their ability to conduct outreach
amongst brothel-based sex workers dropped from 96 percent in October-December 2007, to
84 percent from January-March 2008, and amongst freelance sex workers from 90 percent
to 80 percent.45 They also noted a small increase in the number of freelance sex workers
over the same period.46 Some sex workers told Human Rights Watch that they stopped
carrying condoms as anyone found with them were subjected to be arrested.47

Guidelines and Explanatory Notes to Interpret 2008 Law

In an effort to alleviate some of the concerns raised by civil society groups about increased
abuses against sex workers by various authorities, in November 2008, the Inter-ministerial
Task Force to Fight Human Trafficking, Smuggling, Exploitation and Sexual Exploitation of
Women and Children issued the Guidelines on the Implementation of the Law on
Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. While the guidelines are
potentially a useful tool in operationalizing the law for authorities at all levels, they have no

43

Human Rights Watch interview with LICADHO, July 21, 2009; CPU on July 23 2009; CNMWD on July 25 2009, Phnom Penh.

44

ICCPR, art.15 and see Manfred Nowak, UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary, 2nd rev. ed,. (Kehl am
Rhein: Engel, 2005), p.361.
45

Family Health International, Trafficking law and its effect to ESWs, Entertainment Service Worker and Client Program,

April 22, 2008.

46

The report by FHI does not define freelance, but in this context it is likely to mean those who do not work in brothels.

47

Sou Sotheavy, director of Network Men Women Development Cambodia, Phnom Penh, July 25, 2009.

23

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

legal force. And as of April 2010, it seemed that many government officials, police, and even
some NGOs were not aware of the existence of the guidelines.
The guidelines clearly state that the rights of victims of trafficking and sex workers are to be
respected. Sex workers are regarded as victims of procurement for prostitution. Prostitution
is not a crime; thus individual prostitutes are not punished as offenders under the new
legislation.
The guidelines state that raids are only to be carried out after preliminary investigations
have been conducted and evidence collected, and that search and seizure of evidence
should be conducted in adherence with the guidelines. Any property seized belonging to
victims of trafficking or sex workers must be returned to them.
The guidelines also stipulate that actions by the authorities should only be undertaken in
the following instances: where there is a complaint from people in the neighborhood about
prostitution activities, a complaint from a victim that has been forced into prostitution, if
there is child prostitution and if prostitution leads to public disorder and insecurity.48
The guidelines also cover treatment of trafficked victims and sex workers, stating that they
should be interviewed without delay or detention. Children are to be sent to the MOSAVY
office while adults are only to be sent to that office if they consent, otherwise they are free
to return to their homes.
Going beyond the guidelines, the Ministry of Justice, with support from UNICEF, is currently
drafting explanatory notes on each article of the law in order to aid interpretation and
implementation. For instance, the explanatory notes provide details on what is and is not
considered soliciting under Article 24 of the law, and more guidance regarding procurement
under Article 25 (3). However, given that the explanatory notes are not legally enforceable,
they are unlikely to provide sufficient protection regarding these provisions in the law.

A Long History of Crackdowns against Sex Workers

Police arrests, harassment, and abuses against sex workers in Cambodia have taken place
for decades. In many instances these crackdowns are undertaken by local authorities, but
they have also been ordered by the highest levels of the Cambodian government. Such

48

Guidelines on the Implementation of the Law on Suppression on Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, Unofficial
translation by UNIAP.

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24

crackdowns have been routinely criticized by local and international human rights and
HIV/AIDS organizations.49
According to media sources, in 1994, a year after the UN-backed general elections, police
arrested an unknown number of sex workers and fined hundreds of brothel owners in a
crackdown against sex work in Phnom Penh. The brothel owners were never prosecuted or
permanently closed down. The Phnom Penh anti-prostitution unit of the police explained
that they had been instructed to arrest all sex workers, educate them, and release them
within 48 hours. The chief of the unit told the media, I think it has not been a 100 percent
success, but at least our police stopped prostitutes sitting or roving on [red light district]
Toul Kork streets, damaging the capital's beauty and culture. And some prostitutes realized
that to be a prostitute is not good.50
In November 1997, police launched another crackdown on brothels, rounding up more than
500 sex workers by January 1998. Sex workers and NGOs supporting women and children
reported police brutality against sex workers during the crackdown.51
On several occasions directives to close down red-light districts have been issued by the
prime minister himself. In late 2001, for example, Hun Sen personally issued a decree
ordering the closure of brothels following a spate of late-night shootings in the capital. The
US State Department noted in its 2002 report on human rights practices in Cambodia: In
December [2001] the Government began a general crackdown on prostitution, which has
made prostitutes even more vulnerable to intimidation, violence, theft, rape, and disease.52

49

Reports of other crackdowns on sex workers since 1994 include: Indochina Digest, August 9, 1995; Thomas Hammarberg,
Report to UN General Assembly, September 17, 1998; Chris Seper, "Police Sweeps Help Clean Up Child Prostitution,"
Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 1998; Debra Boyce, Together, Sex Workers Speak With Louder Voice, Inter Press
Service, June 17, 1999; Cambodian Prostitutes Union and Cambodian Womens Development Association, Survey on Police
Human Rights Violation of Sex Workers in Toul Kork, August/September 2002; Kathy Marks, Cambodian police close dozens
of child-sex brothels, The Independent, January 25, 2003; Police shut massage parlour in latest crackdown, June 26, 2005,
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36323 (accessed June 2, 2010).
49

US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Cambodia Country Report on Human Rights
Practices 2001, March 4, 2002.
50

Mang Channo, Moves afoot to legalise prostitution, Phnom Penh Post, January 27, 1995.

51

Chris Seper, Police Sweeps Help Clean Up Child Prostitution: Cambodia allows sex trade, but now takes aim at those
forcing girls into the practice, Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 1998.

52

US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Cambodia Country Report on Human Rights
Practices 2001, March 4, 2002.

25

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

A more recent wave of brothel closures occurred in late 2007, after the Ministry of Interior
launched a campaign against trafficking, smuggling, exploitation and sex work in July.53 The
plan empowered judicial and anti-trafficking police at the municipal and provincial levels to
take various measures against entertainment venues to prevent trafficking and sex work. As
part of the campaign, police in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey closed down notorious
brothel areas in both provinces in late 2007 and early 2008. In Banteay Meanchey the
crackdown kicked off on January 17, 2008, when more than five truck loads of policemen
descended on red light districts. They arrested sex workers and brothel owners and ordered
the closure of all brothels in Sereysophorn and in Monkulborei districts. The sex workers
were detained for up to two days for questioning and then allowed to go back to their home
villages or to NGO-run shelters, after first being warned they would be arrested if they
returned to the red light districts.54
Abuses against sex workers drew media attention in early 2008, after passage of a new law
against trafficking and sexual exploitation spurred protests by sex worker advocacy groups.
Conflation of trafficking and sex work, and an eagerness to please US officials and funders
led to a wave of arrests and brothel raids, with Maj. Gen. Bith Kimhong, director of the
Ministry of Interiors anti-trafficking department stating in December 2008:
The raids on brothels and street walkers proved a commitment by the
government to end sex trafficking The new law is one of several moves by
the Cambodian government over the past year to show that it is cracking
down on sexual exploitation.55
Kimhong dismissed reports that the laws passage had led to any abuses because
he said he had not received any complaints from victims.56 However, even the US
government recognized that the raids did not have the effect of identifying and
assisting victims of trafficking.57
53

Campaigning Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, Smuggling, Exploitation, and Women and Children Sexual Exploitation,
Ministry of Interior, Royal Government of Cambodia, No. 012 Ph.K, signed in Phnom Penh, July 17, 2007.
54

Human Rights Watch interviews with seven freelance sex workers and karaoke girls in Battambang provincial town, July 30,
2009; Human Rights Watch interviews with staff from Adhoc and Cambodian Women Association for Peace and Development,
Battambang, July 29, 2009.
55

Cambodia faces problems enforced new sex trafficking law, Agence France-Presse, December 25, 2008.

56

Ibid.

57

The United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 - Cambodia, June 16, 2009, notes that with regard

to Cambodia:
Because the new law covers a wide range of offenses, not all government officials have appeared to distinguish

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26

In 2009, police and local authorities continued the arrests of sex workers working on the
streets and in public parks during sporadic nighttime sweeps and round-ups. In Phnom Penh,
these sweeps occur especially in the streets and parks around Wat Phnom, Old Market (Phsa
Chas) in Daun Penh district, Independence Monument (or Vimean Ekareach), in Chamkar
Mon district, Toul Kork district, 7 Makara district, and Russey Keo district.
Sweep and roundups are cyclical events intensifying at the time of major events in the city,
such as public holidays, diplomatic visits, or high-profile international events. Sex workers
are rounded up, held for a few days at the municipal Social Affairs office and then often
released after such events pass. Sex workers may be caught up in broader street sweeps
affecting the homeless, street children, beggars and people who use drugs as well.
Some of the arrests occur with no legal basis whatsoever. Several sex workers told Human
Rights Watch how police arrested them simply in order to rob or extort money from them,
rape them or to get them to clean the toilet or the office in the police station.
Street sweeps of Phnom Penh parks and streets are carried out on grounds of maintaining
public order and security, on the orders of the district chief, the municipal or provincial
governor, or the Ministry of Interior.58 These sweeps are conducted by district police officers,
rather than by anti-trafficking police.
A letter from the Ministry of Interior to the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense
of Human Rights (LICADHO) in September 2008 stated that sweeps are carried out in the
name of public order:

between the laws articles on trafficking offenses and non-trafficking crimes such as prostitution, pornography, and
child sex abuse. As a result, law enforcement has focused on prostitution-related crimes, and many police, courts, and
other government officials appear to believe that enforcing all prostitution articles of the law contributes to efforts to
combat trafficking.
Following the passage of the law, Cambodian police conducted numerous raids on brothels, and detained a
large number of women in prostitution, while failing to arrest, investigate or charge any large number of
persons for human trafficking offenses. Moreover, the detained females in prostitution may have included
some trafficking victims, though police made few attempts to identify, assist, or protect them.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4a4214c82d.html, (accessed June 16, 2010).
58

The chief or governor leads a so-called special taskforce (Knak Banhchea ka Ekpheap) dealing with public order and
security in their territory.

27

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Sex workers create public disorder and damage the dignity and morality of
the Cambodian society. Some sex workers trickily attract pedestrians and
take their property. Under the direction of Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuk
Tema and to comply with the principal of Phnom Penh Municipality Special
Taskforce, therefore Daun Penh district authorities found and collected sex
workers, homeless people, beggars and drug users who always sleep in the
gardens, roads and yards, affecting social security and public orderIt is a
role and task of Daun Penh district office to maintain public order by
collecting sex workers, homeless people, beggars and drug users.59
This view was confirmed in a government comment in August 2009 to an OHCHR report:
Phnom Penh Municipal Police have begun to round up prostitutes, beggars,
street children, glue sniffers/drug addicts, disabled persons, and other
vagrants with the purpose to beautify the city so as to attract national and
international tourists to visit and enjoy Phnom Penh, and to keep public
order, which is part of economic development through the promotion of
tourism; and the street vagrants are also human resources for the
agricultural sector, and they should be encouraged and pushed to return
home to their provinces or municipalities to do their farming.60
Mann Chhoeun, former deputy governor of Phnom Penh Municipality, told journalists during
a July 2009 crackdown that homeless people and sex workers tarnish Phnom Penhs
image.61 Another official, Daun Penh district deputy governor, Sok Penhvuth, told the Phnom
Penh Post that every district in the capital had received orders to round up street people at
that time, with sweeps taking place about twice a week. Daun Penh district is the tourist,
political and economic heart of the city, he said. In order to keep the city cleanwe have
to take action until there are no more street people.62
In May 2009, police detained sex workers, people who use drugs and others in Daun Penh
district in a street clearing campaign ahead of the ASEAN-European Union Ministerial
59

Letter, no. 1219 sor.chor.nor, September 25, 2008 to LICADHO. regarding the results of the government investigation into
reported abuses committed at MOSAVY rehabilitation centers.

60

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Cambodia Country Office With comments by the Royal Government of
Cambodia, Annual Report 2008-9, Report January 2008-June 2009, para 29, page 44.

61

Yun Samean and Bethany Lindsay, Rights Group Accuses Govt of Punishing Phnom Penhs Poor, Cambodia Daily, July 27,
2009.
62

Vong Sokheng and Sebastian Strangio, Detentions decried as appalling, Phnom Penh Post, July 27, 2009.

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28

Meeting in Phnom Penh. Sok Sambath, Daun Penh district governor cited a need to install
complete social order ahead of the ASEAN-European Union Ministerial Meeting in Phnom
Penh, saying that the authorities will continue clearing the streets of sex workers and
suspected drug users, We must respond to the [municipal] desire to bring about social
order, he said of the operation. We will continue to sweep the drug users and sex workers
that line the streets and the river bank at night.63
For months in 2009, driven by local government orders, authorities intensified sweeps at the
public park and streets near Wat Phnom in central Daun Penh district. For instance,
according to a Daun Penh district official, on November 23, 2009 mixed forces64 from Daun
Penh district carried out a sweep under the direct orders of the Phnom Penh Municipal
governor and Daun Penh district governor.65 The official told the press, The goal is to stop
the anarchic situation created by sex workers soliciting clients, which harms Cambodias
national traditions and creates social and public disorder.66
Municipal authorities have also publicly stated that sex workers in particular are singled out
for arrest and detention in order to prevent the spread of HIV. For instance, according to
media reports, police arrested 17 sex workers in the lead up to the November 2009 water
festival in Phnom Penh (which involves thousands of people travelling from rural areas to
Phnom Penh to watch and participate in boat races). Rationalizing the sweeps, Sok
Penhvuth, deputy governor of Daun Penh district told journalists, We dont want to see the
boat racers bring diseases such as HIV/AIDS back to their wives. We want to protect the men
in case they get caught up in the festivities and forget about health and safety.67
On March 4, 2010, Prime Minister Hun Sen once again called for police to step up their
activities against trafficking and gambling, saying I would like that the year 2010 is the year
to take measures to fight against human trafficking and all forms of illegal gambling.68 He
also directly addressed allegations of misconduct by senior officials in their efforts against

63

Chhorn Chansy and Simon Marks, Authorities Continue Sweep for Undesirables, Cambodia Daily, May 23-24, 2009.

64

Involving district police, district officials, commune chiefs and police officers and under the leadership of the district
governor.

65

Rasmey, Daun Penh district authority arrested 19 female sex workers in the round up around Wat Phnom, Kampuchea

Thmey Daily, November 25, 2009.

66

Ibid.

67

Mom Kunthear, City police arrest 17 suspected prostitutes, Phnom Penh Post, October 30, 2009.

68

Vong Sokheng and Khouth Sophak Chakrya, Hun Sen tells officials not to meddle with vice crackdown, The Phnom Penh
Post, March 5, 2010, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010030533129/National-news/hun-sen-tells-officials-notto-meddle-with-vice-crackdown.html (accessed April 11, 2010).

29

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

trafficking and gambling stating, I am regretful of the misconduct of some leaders who have
interfered with the court and law enforcement officials The culture of impunity is not
acceptable. However he failed to address abuses by rank and file police. As a result of Hun
Sens call, police arrested and detained many sex workers, sending them to the municipal
Social Affairs office and then to various NGOs.

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IV. Abuses against Sex Workers

Sex workers working in the parks and on the streets of Phnom Penh report they face a wide
range of abuses at the hands of the authorities. These include arbitrary detention, violation
of due process rights, beatings, physical violence, rape, sexual harassment, forced labor,
extortion, confiscation of their belongings, and other ill-treatment. Perpetrators are police
officers, municipal park guards, district security guards, and staff and guards at Social
Affairs offices and centers. In the provincial towns of Battambang and Sisophon in Banteay
Meanchey, and Siem Reap, Human Rights Watch found widespread police extortion but
fewer incidents of police violence and arbitrary detention than in Phnom Penh. Abuses in
Phnom Penh are longstanding, as is the pattern of impunity which allows them to continue.
A 2002 study by the Cambodian Prostitutes Union found that 72 percent of a sample of 50
sex workers surveyed in the Toul Kork and Russey Keo areas of Phnom Penh had faced some
human rights violations by police, and all had witnessed such violations.69
During sweeps, some police officers rob or extort money from sex workers, beat and sexually
assault them. In government centers where sex workers are arbitrarily detained, guards have
raped and beaten them.
Those involved in sex work voluntarily, victims of trafficking, and children in sex work all face
police abuses. None of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that police asked
them any questions to determine whether they might be victims of trafficking, or whether
they are underage. Sex work is classified as one of the worst forms of child labor, and no one
under 18 should be permitted to be engaged in such work. Under international law,
governments have a duty to identify victims of trafficking and children involved in the worst
forms of child labor and refer them to appropriate services.70
Police in Cambodia operate at commune, district, and municipal or provincial levels. The
specialized Department Against Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection operates at the
municipal level. This department regularly conducts investigations into trafficking and raids
on establishments like brothels and massage parlors. However, the police charged with
conducting street sweeps against sex workers, homeless people, drug-users and street

69

Cambodian Prostitutes Union and Cambodian Womens Development Association, Survey on Police Human Rights

Violations of Sex workers in Toul Kouk, Phnom Penh, 2002, p.3-4.

70

Article 7 of ILO convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.

31

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

children are usually public order police operating at the municipal, district, and commune
levels.

Street Harassment and Abuses

The main problem for me is police harassment. Police officers have been
chasing and arresting the sex workers at the park almost every single night
The most brutal police officers from Wat Phnom commune police. They are
widely known among the sex worker as most violent and brutal. Sometimes,
the police officers shoot from a sling shot to disperse us when they find
several of us gathering at one spot. I am very scared about police beating me
up, so I stay alert all the time at the park. I run hard to escape from the police
when they come.
Makara, interviewed in August 2009 in Phnom Penh.
Sex workers play a cat and mouse game with police, security guards, and public park
security guards in order to avoid arrest, beatings, and extortion. Kolab, a 29-year-old streetbased sex worker in Toul Kork district said:
The police say that we are like chickens running here and there when they
chase us from the street. When I see the police from Toul Kork coming, I walk
to the other side of the road, which is covered by a different police district.
Then when I see the police from Russey Keo district coming, I run to the Toul
Kork side of the street. This way, I escape arrest. The police from Toul Kork
come to arrest us, while the police from Russey Keo come to beat us up.71
Officers from Wat Phnom commune police use crude slingshots firing rocks to chase sex
workers away from the park. Minea explained, The small rock from the slingshot hit me on
my shoulder five months ago while I was at the park near the Old Market. After several days
the bruises disappeared after I applied balm oil on them.72 Chantou, describing an incident
in July 2009 said, A ball from a slingshot of the police hit my arm two weeks ago. It was
painful.73

71

Human Rights Watch interview with Kolab, Phnom Penh, August 6, 2009.

72

Human Rights Watch interview with Minea, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

73

Human Rights Watch interview with Chanthou, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

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Police sometimes force sex workers to perform sexual or degrading acts with their clients as
a show. In April 2008, Dara, Any, and Srey Na witnessed four armed police officers force
another sex worker and her client to perform sexual intercourse at gun point at the park near
the Old Market. Following the incident, the police freed them.74
Some sex workers say that security guards in public parks, who work under the authority of
the Phnom Penh Municipality are more violent than police officers.75 Nika, age 28, said she
was talking on the phone at 11:30 p.m. in October 2009 when several uniformed park
security guards beat her because she was too slow to follow their orders to move to the dark
area of the park. She said:
First one guard came and kicked me and said Why? Then three other
guards came. Two guards held my arms while the other two beat me. They
slapped me in the face. They seemed a bit drunk. They beat me with bamboo
sticks and their radio on my head and all over. They ripped my clothes. The
police came by, but they didnt do anything, the guards continued to beat me
for almost half an hour. Many people saw but everyone was too scared to
intervene. The head of the security told the other guard if they see me there
again, they should beat me to death.76
Both police and park guards commonly threaten and intimidate sex workers. They threaten
them with further violence if they dare to come back to the park or the street again, or if they
are caught engaging in sex work. Transgender women also face threats on account of their
gender identity and gender expression. A male-to-female transgender sex worker said:
Sometimes the police say, A-khtoey [a disparaging word for a transgender
person] you fuck up the ass. You have HIV/AIDS and you infect other people.
You deserve to be shot.77

74

Human Rights Watch interview with Any, Srey Na, and Dara, Phnom Penh, July 26, 2009.

75

Human Rights Watch interview with Nika, Srey Na, Dara, and Dyna, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

76

Human Rights Watch interview with Nika, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

77

Human Rights Watch interview with Neary, Phnom Penh, August 8, 2009.

33

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Abuses during Arrest and in Police Custody

The prosecution, arrest, or detention of any person shall not be done except
in accordance with the law.
Article 38, Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, September 21, 1993.
Cambodias Criminal Procedure Law provides that a person may be arrested without a
warrant during or immediately after the commission of a crime.78 However, though
solicitation is illegal as described above, it is not illegal to be a sex worker in Cambodia, and
ones status as a sex worker is not a ground for arrest. Nonetheless sex workers face the risk
of unlawful or arbitrary arrest every day. Few, if any sex workers that are arrested are ever
charged with any prostitution-related offense.
A person who is remanded in custody shall be immediately informed of the reasons for such
a decision.79 Under Cambodia law, the maximum duration of any police custody is 48
hours.80 Criminal suspects are only entitled to meet with a lawyer or another person 24 hours
after they have been taken into police custody.81
Under Cambodias new Penal Code, someone who illegally arrests or detains someone may
be subject to imprisonment of up to 10 years if the detention lasts more than a month; 3 to 5
years if the detention lasts less than one month; and 1 to 3 years if the detention lasts less
than 48 hours.82 If the unlawful detention involves the use of torture or cruelty, the
punishment increases to 15-30 years.83
The arrests of sex workers are often illegal and arbitrary. Sex workers interviewed by Human
Rights Watch said that they are rarely told why they are being detained and whether they
have been charged with any offence. Sex workers are often scared to ask questions. Kanha,
was amongst a group of five sex workers Human Rights Watch met immediately after the
Municipal Social Affairs Office released them in August 2009. She said:

78

Code of Criminal Procedure, 2007, art. 87.

79

Code of Criminal Procedure, 2007, art. 97.

80

Code of Criminal Procedure, art. 96. Judicial police officers may also remand in custody individuals who may provide them
with relevant facts if the following provisions are fulfilled: an individual who may provide information refuses to do so, and a
written authorization to keep the person in custody has been obtained from a prosecutor.
81

Code of Criminal Procedure, 2007, art. 98.

82

Penal Code, art. 253.

83

Penal Code, art. 254.

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34

We are afraid and worried when police arrest us, so we do not dare to ask the
police officer any question why we got arrested. We know that if we ask more
or speak too much we got beaten up or got slapped more. At the park, the
police told us that if we are prostitutes we get arrested.84
Another sex worker, Nita, 18-years-old, arrested from the park by Tonle Basak commune
police around July 2009, told Human Rights Watch: When I arrived at the police station, I
verbally protested to the police officer, asking why I am arrested and taken here. The
policeman, without telling me a reason, slapped me five times.85
Police sometimes inform sex workers during arrest that prostitution itself is illegal, even
though soliciting is the only crime sex workers may have committed that could be used to
justify their arrest. But police rarely if ever charge sex workers for solicitation.86
None of the sex workers we spoke with who had been detained or arrested was aware of any
formal charges having been lodged against them. Each of them had been detained an
average of two times.
While some sex workers are held at the police station and released without facing any
paperwork or charges, in other cases, sex workers told Human Rights Watch that police had
recorded their personal details and ordered them to put their thumbprint on statements
written by the police. Sex workers said police recorded their personal details (name, age,
date of birth, where they are from, parents name) and photographed them. It is possible
police may have written down something else about the reason for the arrest before asking
sex workers to thumbprint it, but they said were never told what was written there exactly.
Many sex workers do not know what they are signing, and say they are not told why they are
being detained or what offence they have supposedly committed. They have no access to
legal counsel nor to anyone else who might represent their interests, and no opportunity to
challenge their arrest and detention.
Violence, sometimes severe, usually accompanies arrests. Sex workers told Human Rights
Watch how police detained them using excessive force by beating and kicking them,
84

Human Rights Watch interview with Kanha, Phnom Penh, August 13, 2009.

85

Human Rights Watch interview with Nita, Phnom Penh, September 14, 2009.

86

Human Rights Watch requested information on the number of people charged with soliciting in a letter to the deputy prime
minister and minister of interior sent on April 19,2010 (see Appendix), however the minister failed to respond.

35

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

slapping them in the face, hitting them with sticks, guns, or radios, or dragging them by their
arms or their hair onto motorbikes. Uniformed district security guards and public park
guards also beat sex workers before handing them over to police or letting them go.87
Leakhena, age 35, arrested in August 2009 in Wat Phnom park, described her arrest by a
police officer. She recalled:
Around midnight, a policeman drove his motorbike into the park to chase the
sex workers away. He caught me, grabbed me by my hair, and dragged me
onto his motorbike. He accused me of trying to escape arrest and took me to
Wat Phnom police station.88
Police beat sex workers with their fists or sticks, shock them with electric shock batons, and
kick and slap those who resist arrest. Harsher treatment is inflicted on those caught while
trying to escape from the police, including using their guns to intimidate sex workers. Malis
described an incident in May 2009 when police in Daun Penh district used electric shock
batons against other sex workers:
I saw two police officers on a motorbike trying to shock sex workers about
three months ago. I also saw police officers using electric batons against sex
workers during Khmer New Year this year [April 2009].89
One sex worker interviewed by Human Rights Watch said her arm has not been fully
functional since the police shocked her with an electric baton during her arrest more than
five years ago in Toul Kork district.90
Those who are HIV positive may be subject to particularly vehement humiliation and
violence. For instance, Neary, a male-to-female transgender sex worker arrested in April
2009 from the park near the Old Market said, When I told the police that I am living with
AIDS and I need to take ARVs, the police beat me more and accused me of going around
infecting other people.91

87

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Keo, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

88

Human Rights Watch interview with Leakhena, Phnom Penh, August 6, 2009.

89
90
91

Human Rights Watch interview with Malis, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Da, Phnom Penh, August 24, 2009.

Human Rights Watch interview with Sopheavy, Phnom Penh, August 8, 2009.

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36

Children, especially 16- or 17-year-old sex workers, are also amongst those picked up in the
sweeps, and who also face abuse. However, instead of assisting children picked up to
transit out of prostitution, police generally mete out the same sort of abusive treatment as
they do toward adults.
Nita, age 17, told Human Rights Watch about her arrest by Tonle Basak commune police in
July 2009:
At the park, uniformed police officers from Tonle Basak commune forced me
and two friends into their car. When we arrived at the police station, I
protested to police there about the arrest. A police officer slapped me five
times. When the policeman ordered me and the others to go upstairs I was a
bit slow, so he hit me on the head with his radio.92
Police beat, kick, or slap detainees, especially those who do not follow police orders or are
slow to respond to questions. Sex workers said the police at the Wat Phnom commune in
Daun Penh district are commonly violent. Neary, a male-to-female transgender sex worker
arrested in April 2009 described being tortured by these police:
Three police officers beat me up seriously at Wat Phnom commune police
station after I was taken from the park. One of the police officers pointed his
gun at my head and pulled the trigger, but the bullet did not fire. They kicked
my neck, my waist, and hit my head and my body with a broom stick. It lasted
about half an hour. I begged them not to beat me. The police officers were
cruel and they did not tell me any reason why they did this to me.93
Cambodias Penal Code prohibits torture as an offence punishable by seven to twenty years
imprisonment, with lengthier terms for aggravated circumstances or if the torture was
committed by a public official.94
Sex workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that police raped them and some
witnessed police raping other sex workers. One sex worker told how she was gang raped by
police in detention in September 2007:
92

Human Rights Watch interview with Nita, Phnom Penh, September 14, 2009.

93

Human Rights Watch interview with Neary, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

94

Penal Code, arts. 210, 212, and 213. The Code has already been adopted but only part 1 is in force. The remainder of the
articles will enter into force one year after its adoption.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Five plain-clothed police took me from the Independence Monument Park

with my two friends to the police station near Doeum Kor Market (Phnom
Penh Municipal Police Commissariats Central Office Against Crime). At the
police station, four police officers questioned us. Then they pushed me into a
room where there was a folding bedit is for detaining criminal suspects. I
was raped by five police officers on the first night and by six other police
officers on the second night. They beat me while raping me because I
protested.95
Police sometimes rape sex workers in exchange for their release, particularly if they do not
have any money and are considered attractive. Chantha, who was arrested in July 2009 from
the park near Independence Monument, said that the police demanded sex with her in
exchange for her release or she would be sent to a NGO shelter. She refused the demand,
and when the police officer went to ask other officers to buy condoms, she managed to
escape.96
Other studies provide further evidence that police violence is widespread. A 2006 USAIDfunded study carried out by foreign academics together with local sex worker organizations
reported that approximately half of 1000 female and male-to-female transgender sex
workers surveyed in Phnom Penh reported being beaten by police. One-third reported being
gang raped by police.97 The study notes, Police represent the sex workers greatest threat,
not only because many harass, beat, rape, and steal from them, but also because they do
not protect them from attacks perpetrated by others.98 A 2002 study by the Cambodian
Prostitutes Union found that human rights violations by police included beatings, rape,
arbitrary arrest and detention, being forced to clean toilets, give massages and give money
to the police.99
Lous in Khmer means paying a bribe. Sex workers described how police demanded a lous
in return for releasing them from police custody. If they do not pay the bribe, police will send
them to the custody of MOSAVY or one of the NGOs. Every sex worker interviewed by Human
Rights Watch, including the children, had to pay a lous to the police on at least one occasion,
95

Human Rights Watch interview with Linda, Phnom Penh, September 14, 2009.

96

Human Rights Watch interview with Chantha, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

97

Jenkins, Carol, CPU, WNU, and Sainsbury, C., Violence and Exposure to HIV Among Sex Workers in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, prepared for USAID, March 2006, http://www.hivpolicy.org/Library/HPP001702.pdf, (accessed July 7, 2010), p.5.

98

Jenkins, p.17.

99

Cambodian Prostitutes Union and Cambodian Womens Development Association, Survey on Police Human Rights

Violations of Sex workers in Toul Kouk, Phnom Penh, 2002, p.3-4.

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38

the majority more than once. Sex workers either pay it directly, or friends, relatives or their
employer comes to the police station and pays it to secure their release. The price ranges
from US$10 to $200.100 Other detainees, such as people who use drugs, also face this
treatment by police.101 A transgender woman described an incident in late 2007 where police
from the Daun Penh district police station arrested her:
I told them I didnt have $50 but they didnt believe me. They put me in a cell.
It was hot, dark, and hard to breathe. I had no water. I had to stay there for
five days. In the daytime theyd make me clean the office and the toilet but
then put me back in that cell. Finally I agreed to pay them $50.102
Twenty-year-old Tola described her first arrest in July 2009:
At the [Daun Penh district] police station, police asked us if I have a me-ka
[manager]. Police allowed me and other sex workers to call our me-kas to
come pay the lous in exchange for our release. Fifteen out of twenty [sex
workers] were released after their managers came to pay the police. The rest
of us were kept at the police station for three days before being sent to the
Social Affairs office and then an NGO shelter.
The next month, police arrested Tola again and this time police detained her at the police
station for one night before sending her to the Social Affairs Office and then an NGO shelter
because she had no money to pay the police. She said:
The head of the police station asked us if we found someone to pay the lous
for our release. He said that if we pay him $50 each, we will be freed. We told
him that we dont have any money. Because we didnt have any money, the
police contacted the Social Affairs officer to come to get us.103
Four other sex workers corroborated Tolas story when interviewed at the office of an NGO.

100

Every sex worker interviewed told Human Rights Watch told of paying bribes within this price range.

101

Human Rights Watch, Skin on the Cable: The Illegal Arrest, Arbitrary Detention and Torture of People Who Use Drugs in
Cambodia, January 25, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/01/25/skin-cable-0.
102

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Mom, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

103

Human Rights Watch interview with Tola, Phnom Penh, August 13, 2009.

39

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Sex workers in Siem Reap also said they paid bribes to police for release. In August 2009 a
22-year-old sex worker spent two days in police custody after the police raided the bar where
she worked in Siem Reap town. My parents paid a police officer $50 when I was in the
custody of the provincial police, she said.104
In another August 2009 raid on a foreign-owned bar, hostesses alleged that the Phnom Penh
Anti-Human Trafficking Police stole money and tried to collect bribes. The hostesses claimed
the entire bar staff was detained and sent to the municipal Social Affairs office, even though
none of them were sex workers, nor were they dancing naked, as alleged by the police.
One hostess, Serey, said:
Around 8:00 pm, two plain clothes police officers came drinking at the bar.
The hostesses were in sexy dresses but no one was naked, and some of us
were dancing to Khmer songs. Around 9 p.m., a large group of mixed
authorities arrived, including the commune chiefs from Sangkat Phsa Kandal
and Sangkat Phsa Chas, district officials from three or four districts and
police officers. They came inside the bar, took our photograph, and told us to
stay still and not to move. They said we were dancing naked and called us
prostitutes. Some police officers opened the cash drawer and searched our
wallets and attempted to take the money, but stopped after their commander
told them to stop. Some of us lost some money.
According to Serey, all of the women including the cashier, cleaner, cook, bartender,
waitresses, hostesses, and security guard were sent directly to the municipal office of Social
Affairs. She explained:
As many of us kept arguing with the police about the fact that we are not
prostitutes, the police officer said that if we are good people we should not
have been in the police car. When we were in the car, the police said that if
we wanted to be free, we need to pay them $200 each and get a relative to
come secure our release.
Police arresting sex workers often steal personal belongings, such as money, mobile phones,
and jewelry. The vast majority of sex workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch had cash
or items stolen. Because stealing by police is so common, sex workers try to hide their
money. But police, often male, do invasive cavity searches to search them thoroughly,

104

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Mey, Siem Reap province, August 21, 2009.

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40

including their underwear. Police give various reasons for taking sex workers personal
property, such as saying the belongings will be returned once they leave police custody,105 or
that the money they steal is to pay for the petrol in their motorbikes which they use to chase
and arrest sex workers every day.106 In no case documented by Human Rights Watch, did sex
workers report that police returned money or goods to their lawful owner.
A common degrading treatment by police is forcing sex workers to clean the toilet at police
stations in Phnom Penh, especially at Wat Phnom and Tonle Basak stations.107 For example,
a male-to-female transgender sex worker picked up in October 2008 twice said Wat Phnom
police forced her to clean the toilet.108 Sometimes, police officers force sex workers to
choose between being sent to a Social Affairs center (where they know they will be detained),
giving the officer a massage, or cleaning the toilet. For instance, Nimol, arrested in late 2007
with ten other sex workers by Tonle Basak commune police said:
Three other sex workers and I had no money to pay the police. Seven other
sex workers paid the police and left the station. We begged the police to free
us. The police asked me to clean the toilet and the others to massage them.
Then the police freed us.109
Police ask sex workers to massage them or dance for them. Sometimes they ask them to
have sex with them (as mentioned above under rape). Chanthou, arrested in late 2007 said:
A police officer at Wat Phnom commune police station put me in a room after
I cleaned the office and the toilet. The policeman played music and ordered
me to dance. He watched me dance, at the same time beating me with a stick
on my shoulder and my head.110

105

Human Rights Watch interview with Linda, Phnom Penh, September 14, 2009.

106

Human Rights Watch interview with Makara, Phnom Penh, August 6, 2009.

107

See for instance Human Rights Watch interview with Kanha, Phnom Penh, August 13, 2009; and Human Rights Watch
interview with Dara, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

108

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Mom, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

109

Human Rights Watch interview with Nimol, Phnom Penh, August 14, 2009. Nimol said this was a genuine massage not a
sexual massage.
110

Human Rights Watch interview with Chanthou, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

41

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Sex workers also describe how police parade them in front of film crews and cameras
without their consent. Srey Keo, a male-to-female transgender sex worker picked up in
August 2009 and held at Wat Phnom police station said:
Police kept me locked in the toilet from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. and when I got out,
they exposed me to TV cameras and journalists. There were about 25 of us
[transgender and non-transgender sex workers] there. We were then all sent
to the Social Affairs office.111
Dara and Any, arrested in July 2009, said:
As we walked out of the door of [Wat Phnom commune] police station [in
Daun Penh district], several journalists were waiting and took our photograph.
Our photo appeared in the press a day or so later. We felt so ashamed.112

Detention, Bribes, and Harassment at the Municipal Social Affairs Office

In the provinces, police generally release sex workers straight into the custody of NGOs.
Sometimes, staff from MOSAVY interview sex workers at the police station but no sex worker
interviewed by Human Rights Watch had been placed in the custody of MOSAVY.
In Phnom Penh, however, degrading treatment of sex workers continues after police transfer
them to the custody of the Municipal Social Affairs office in Phnom Penh. In January 2010,
the Municipal Social Affairs Departments deputy director of social health said that it had
registered 469 sex workers in 2009, up from 415 in 2008.113
Many sex workers detained in Phnom Penh told Human Rights Watch how they are kept in a
smelly and dirty room at the Municipal Social Affairs Office, located on Street 163 near
Mohamontrei Pagoda. They are held together with other detainees including beggars,
homeless people, street children, and people who use drugs. While the office is not an
official detention facility, women, children, and transgender women are detained in the
same room for periods ranging from several hours to two days before being released or

111

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Keo, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009. Human Rights Watch has collected various
local press articles which publish the photographs of sex workers together with the articles on their arrests. For instance: Koh
Santepheap Daily, dated July 21, 2009 and Rasmei Kampuche Daily Newspaper, July 22, 2009.
112

Human Rights Watch interview with Dara and Any, Phnom Penh, July 26, 2009.

113

Mom Kunthear and Tep Nimol, Sex worker arrests on the rise, Phnom Penh Post, January 22, 2010.

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transferred to an NGO, or to the Prey Speu Social Affairs center on the outskirts of Phnom
Penh.114
In Phnom Penh, the municipal Social Affairs office generally will not release sex workers
delivered to them by police unless an NGO offering support services is willing to take
custody of them (regardless of age), by signing a form for their release at the municipal
office.115 As far as adult sex workers are concerned, this practice of requiring NGOs to sign for
sex workers has no legal basis. Since the sex workers detained at the office have, most
probably, not been charged with any offense, the adults should be free to leave the
municipal Social Affairs office whenever they wish, and should not be required to be signed
over to the custody of NGOs. The standards are somewhat different for children, whose
release could be either into the care of a guardian or a suitable organization that protects
children.
Since May 2010, the staff at the Phnom Penh Municipal Social Affairs Office has asked sex
workers to sign an agreement before they are released into the custody of NGOs. Most sex
workers agree to sign the agreement because they are scared and want to get out of the
custody of the authorities. A copy of one of these agreements obtained by Human Rights
Watch states:
I pledge before the Phnom Penh Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and
Youth Rehabilitation that in the future I will stop carrying out indecent acts
that affect morality, tradition, and public order; and ensure that I will not
commit such act a second time; and when the Phnom Penh Ministry of Social
Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation refers me to an NGO to receive
services, I will put all my effort into improving myself to be a good citizen
living in society as others do.
If I commit such acts in the future, I take full responsibility before the law and
the Phnom Penh Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth
Rehabilitation.116
114

Prior to July 2008, detainees at Social Affairs were also sent to the Koh Kor Social Affairs center but this center is not
actively receiving any persons at present.
115

These NGOs include Cambodian Womens Crisis Center, Womens Network for Unity, Acting for Women in Distressing
Situations (AFESIP), the Cambodian Center for the Protection of Childrens Rights (CCPCR), World Hope International,
Healthcare Center for Children (HCC) and Hagar. According to our interviews, transgender sex workers picked up in sweeps are
directed to their own network, and rarely end up in NGO shelters.

116

A full copy of the agreement in Khmer is on file with Human Rights Watch.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

It is doubtful that this agreement is accorded any weight under Cambodian law, and it would
fail any test under international law. The fact that sex workers have no meaningful
alternative but to sign the agreement further undermines any weight it may have. Rather, as
a pre-requisite to release from unlawful detention, it simply constitutes another form of
unlawful interference with the right to liberty and security.
Sex workers are again subject to violent abuse at the Municipal Social Affairs Office. Several
of those who have been detained there tell of one employee, a male amputee, who is
particularly abusive, beating detainees and sexually harassing them. Srey Pha, detained
overnight in the office in late 2007, said:
An amputee man and two other men came into the room where we were held
at night to search people for money. I saw staff taking many peoples money
from them...I didnt have any money. The amputee man beat some people.
They made some men take off their clothes The women were also searched
by those male officersI heard from several friends that the amputee man
took women outside [the office] to have sex and then allowed them to go
free.117
Botum, arrested in June 2008, said:
In June 2008, Chamkar Mon police arrested me and my friends and I was
taken to the Social Affairs Office near Mohamontrei Pagoda, where I was kept
overnight. A staff member who is missing an arm came to the room at night
to tell us not to make noise and to remove any [personal] items we had. The
amputee man ordered his staff to search everyone for money. He hit me with
his belt two times after he searched me and found some drugs. During the
search, I saw him order a male detainee to take his clothes off in front of
everyone.
Another sex worker who has been detained several times at the Social Affairs Office in
Phnom Penh described an incident in July 2009:
The amputee man came into the room and told us we would be sent to an
NGO, there was no other choice. He then looked for any beautiful womenhe

117

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Pha, Phnom Penh, August 14, 2009.

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told one if she wanted to leave, she should come out and massage him. She
went with him and didnt come back.118
Others, including homeless people arrested in street sweeps, have also reported to local
human rights workers how a male amputee working there used violence against detainees.119
Sex workers also told Human Rights Watch that officials at the Social Affairs office ask them
for money in exchange for their release or in order to transfer them to a nearby NGO-run
shelter which is easier to leave from.120 Thida, a 29-year-old sex worker, described her
detention at the Social Affairs Office in mid-2009:
A female staff member asked us if we had money or someone to come pay
the lous. I got my former landlord to come pay her $20. She freed me from
the office without sending me to any NGO run shelter.121

Abuses at Government Social Affairs Centers122

Following detention at police stations and the municipal Social Affairs office in Phnom Penh,
sex workers are either transferred to the custody of NGOs or to the Phnom Penh Municipal
Social Affairs Centercommonly called Prey Speu.123 In recent years, when public pressure
alleging abuses in government centers has mounted, the government has responded by
releasing sex workers detained in centers such Prey Speu or transferring them to NGOs.124 For
a period of time, from July 2009 until about May 2010, few sex workers were detained at Prey
Speu and most went to NGOs.125
The governments position has been that people stay at Prey Speu on a voluntarily basis,
quoting an August 2008 directive by the minister of social affairs forbidding involuntary

118

Human Rights Watch interview with Dara, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

119

Human Rights Watch interview with Licadho, Phnom Penh, November 2, 2009.

120
121

Human Rights Watch interview with Thida, Phnom Penh, August 24, 2009.

Human Rights Watch interview with Thida, Phnom Penh, August 24, 2009.

122

In other provinces, there are additional government Social Affairs centers, however, none of those interviewed by Human
Rights Watch were sent to these centers. Instead, police sent sex workers to NGO-run shelters.

123

Prey Speu is located near Prey Speu village, Chaom Chao commune, Dangkor district of Phnom Penh.

124

For instance, as a result of the concerns raised by local human rights groups and OHCHR, in late June 2008, MOSAVY
released detainees at Koh Kor and Prey Speu.

125

When LICADHO and OHCHR visited in October 2009 in order to secure the release of around 40 detainees, at least one sex
worker was among them. Interview with LICADHO, Phnom Penh, November 3, 2009.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

detention at their Social Affairs centers.126 However, Human Rights Watch has received
information that between July 2009 and June 2010 at least 20 sex workers were detained
against their will at Prey Speu for periods of time ranging from a few days to a month.127 Eight
of these sex workers were held there in May and June 2010. Although this is a significant
decrease in the number of sex workers detained there since 2008, the decrease is largely
due to ongoing advocacy efforts by sex worker groups and the fact that there are several
NGOs willing to receive sex workers from MOSAVY. Others groups vulnerable to arbitrary
detention but that have less advocacy support, such as the homeless, continue to be held at
Prey Speu. Sex workers detained at Prey Speu in June 2010 told Human Rights Watch that
Social Affairs center staff warned them that they could be detained for up to three months in
Prey Speu if they were arrested again and sent to the municipal Social Affairs office a second
time.128 This threat, combined with the fact that at least eight people were involuntarily
detained in May and June 2010, undermine the plausibility of government claims that
confinement in Prey Speu is purely voluntary.
The fact that individuals are involuntarily detained at Social Affairs centers without due
process renders the detentions arbitrary and illegal under international law. Those held in
the centers, whether sex workers or others, go through no legal process before being sent to
the centers. There is no clear legal basis on which they are transferred and then detained at
the centers. At no stage during their detention do detainees have access to legal
representation. There is no judicial review of their detention nor is there an opportunity for
detainees to appeal their detention. Illegal detention or unlawful deprivation of liberty is a
crime in Cambodia, whether committed by state or non-state actors.129
Up until July 2008, another government Social Affairs Center, Koh Kor (also known as
Koh Rumdoul), was also used to detain sex workers, homeless people, beggars, and
people who use drugs. Koh Kor, located on an island in Saang district of Kandal
province, is currently inactive, though one or two staff remain living there so it has
not completely closed.
126

Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation/ National Committee for Resolving Vagabonds Problems,
Instruction on policies for resolving vagabonds problems, Phnom Penh, August 8, 2008, para 6(2). See Ministry of Interior
letter to Dr. Kek Galabru, the President, Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), no.
1219 sor.chor.nor, September 25, 2008.

127

Human Rights Watch was provided information and access to credible records by a reliable source. The identity of the
source is confidential.

128

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Tha, Srey Tho, and Srey Thea, Phnom Penh, June, 2010 [exact date withheld].

129

Penal Code, art. 254.

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Persistent allegations of abuses at Prey Speu and Koh Kor centers make it crucial that they
both be closed permanently. Human rights organizations have documented and reported
serious abuses in both centers.130 LICADHOs 2009 submission to the UN Human Rights
Council's Universal Periodic Review process describes the human rights abuses committed
at these two centers:
Conditions at both [Prey Speu and Koh Kor] centers were abysmaleven
worse than exist in Cambodian prisonsand included gross overcrowding
and lack of adequate food, clean drinking water, and medical care. In June
2008, LICADHO gained access to the Koh Kor center, despite efforts to
prevent this by staff there, and photographed hungry men, women, and
children detained in padlocked rooms.
At Prey Speu center, detainees were routinely subjected to sadistic violence.
Guards raped female prisoners and severely beat detainees who tried to
escape or complained about conditions, according to former detainees
interviewed by LICADHO. At least three detainees, possibly more, were
beaten to death by guards at Prey Speu during 2006-2008, and five others
reportedly committed suicide, according to LICADHO investigations.131
Human Rights Watchs interviews with sex workers detained in Prey Speu and Koh Kor
confirm the abuses and inhumane conditions documented by LICADHO and other human
rights organizations. Human Rights Watchs January 2010 report, Skin on the Cable, also
documented rapes of female detainees (sex workers and non-sex workers) inside Prey
Speu.132 Sex workers told Human Rights Watch how they experienced and witnessed rape,
beatings and sexual harassment in Prey Speu and Koh Kor. Srey Pha, age 27, described her
experience at Prey Speu in June 2008:

130

See LICADHO letter dated June 18, 2008 to HE Sar Kheng, deputy prime minister, chairman of High Level Working Group
Against Trafficking in Persons and to HE You Ay, secretary of state of the Ministry of Womens Affairs and Chairwoman of
National Taskforce Against Trafficking in Persons and LICADHO letter dated October 28, 2008, to HE Sar Kheng, deputy prime
minister, chairman of High Level Working Group Against Trafficking in Persons and to HE Ith Som Heng, minister of social
affairs, veterans, and youth rehabilitation on Abuses at Prey Sepu and Koh Kor Social Affairs Centers.

131

LICADHO letter dated June 18, 2008, to HE Sar Kheng, deputy prime minister, chairman of High Level Working Group Against
Trafficking in Persons and to HE You Ay, secretary of state of the ministry of womens affairs and chairwoman of National
Taskforce Against Trafficking in Persons. LICADHO letter dated October 28, 2008, to HE Sar Kheng, deputy prime minister,
chairman of High Level Working Group Against Trafficking in Persons and to HE Ith Som Heng, minister of social affairs,
veterans and youth rehabilitation on Abuses at Prey Sepu and Koh Kor Social Affairs Centers.
132

Human Rights Watch, Skin on the Cable, pp.42-43.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

I spent two days in Prey Speu detention. It was like hell. I was among 30
people in one locked room of men, women, and children. No toilet in the
room, but two buckets served as toilet for all of us to share. There were blood
stains all over the walls. I could not sleep at night as I was so scared and
worried. I received little food to eat in two meals per dayrice with Prahok
(fermented fish paste) and some tamarind. No plate or spoon, I had to eat
from a plastic bag. At night, the guard seriously beat up a man who tried to
escape.
Detainees at Koh Kor had similar experiences. Botum, age 26, described her detention at
Koh Kor in June 2008:
It was difficult in Koh Kor because I received very little food to eatI was put
in the same room with around 40 people who were old, young, women, men,
beggars, mentally-ill people. The toilet was in the room. We were told that we
would be in Koh Kor from one year to three years. When I heard this, I cried
every day and felt that I want to die.133
Sex workers described how guards beat and kicked them and others who did not follow their
orders, and how those who tried to escape would be beaten with particular severity. One sex
worker said she was kicked by the guard when he opened the door.134 Chantou, detained in
June 2008 in Prey Speu center for one month told Human Rights Watch:
A guard ordered me to go collect water. I didnt feel well, so I refused his
order. He beat me two times on my waist with a wooden handle Another
time, a guard hit me severely on my shoulder with a big wooden handle after
they caught my husband135 and me trying to escape. My right hand became
weak after the beating.136
Guards were known to threaten to kill people to prevent them from escaping, and one
woman miscarried as a result of beatings. Malis, a 28-year-old detained in Prey Speu in
November 2007 said:

133

Human Rights Watch interview with Botum, Phnom Penh, August 14, 2009.

134

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Ta, Phnom Penh, August 14, 2009.

135

Both husband and wife were arrested during a street sweep (they were sleeping on the street) and sent to Prey Speu.

136

Human Rights Watch interview with Chanthou, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

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I was kicked three times by a guard who is the son of the key keeper at the
center after I refused his order to clear the grass. I told him that I cant do the
work as I had morning sickness from my pregnancy. I was three months
pregnant. Since then I had pain in my abdomen and I miscarried when I
returned home after a weeks detention in Prey Speu.137
Detainees told Human Rights Watch that guards raped women in the presence of other
detainees in Prey Speu center. One sex worker detained there in early 2008 said that three
guards came inside the room at night to rape two women sleeping near her. The two women
left the next day.138 At both centers, guards would ask women to have sex with them in
exchange for their release. A 28-year-old sex worker detained in November 2007 in Prey
Speu center said:
The guard approached me and asked me to have sex with him and other four
guards. He pointed to the four guards and said that if I agreed to have sex
with all of them they will free me from the center. I told them I was sick, so
they did not force me.139
Children have been among those detained in Prey Speu and Koh Kor.140 As mentioned above,
children should never be detained solely based on their involvement in sex work, and
should instead be offered appropriate child protection and assistance to transition out of
such work, such as to the custody of a respected NGO that offers child-friendly services in
line with international standards.
Human Rights Watch believes that from time to time people are still effectively detained at
Prey Speu against their will and unable to leave. During an October 2009 visit to Prey Speu
by LICADHO and OHCHR, officials from MOSAVY refused to release detainees unless a
relative or an NGO representative vouched for their release from the center. If there was no
relative or NGO to take custody of them, then they remained in the center for an unspecified

137

Human Rights Watch interview with Malis, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

138

Human Rights Watch interview with Bopha, Phnom Penh, August 6, 2009. Guards raping and then releasing attractive
women is also documented in: Human Rights Watch, Skin on the Cable, pp. 43.

139

Human Rights Watch interview with Malis, Phnom Penh, August 7, 2009.

140

LICADHO letter dated June 18, 2008 to HE Sar Kheng, deputy prime minister, chairman of High Level Working Group Against
Trafficking in Persons and to HE You Ay, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Womens Affairs and Chairwoman of National
Taskforce Against Trafficking in Persons.

49

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

period.141 Similarly, three sex workers detained in Prey Speu in June 2010 were only released
upon organizations vouching for them and requesting MOSAVY for their release.142
Srey Thea, 22-years-old, was detained in Prey Speu in June 2010. She said officials at the
municipal MOSAVY office gave her the choice of being sent to an NGO or to Prey Speu but
there was no choice to go home. Srey Thea elected to go to Prey Speu and according to her
description, those detained involuntarily at Prey Speu were housed separately from others
who volunteer to stay at the center:
At Prey Speu, we were put in a room together with many women. It was
crowded and we have to sleep all over the room, almost having no space to
move. We had no spare clothes and the center did not provide us with any,
so we were wearing the same clothes for those days. The room was not
locked, but there were guards in front of the room all the time. If we wanted
to use the toilet, we had to ask the guards permission. The guard followed
us to the toilet so we didnt escape. The center provides three meals per
day Food is inadequatePeople in my room complained about being
hungry as there is not enough food to eat. I saw at least one time a young
guard beat the hand of an old woman while she was eating.
Women in my room were allowed to leave the room twice per day at 9 a.m.
and 2 p.m. to take a bath. As I and others in the room did not consent to stay
at the center we had to take a bath at the pond. The water at the pond
seemed not clean and it gave me a rash. But those who volunteer to stay in
the center are allowed to take a bath from running water and are kept in a
separate building.143
LICADHO has reported that people are threatened with violence if they attempt to leave Prey
Speu, and that while they are nominally offered a choice to remain voluntarily upon their
arrival at the center, it is not a meaningful choice. Once they arrive, they have no real ability
to leave since guards are constantly monitoring their movements.
Human Rights Watch attempted to visit Prey Speu on November 5, 2009, however the gates
were locked and guards denied access. The guard told Human Rights Watch that prior
141

Human Rights Watch interview with LICADHO, Phnom Penh, November 3, 2009.

142

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Tha, Srey Tho, and Srey Thea, Phnom Penh, June 2010 [exact date withheld].

143

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Thea, Phnom Penh, June 2010 [exact date withheld].

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permission from the Municipal Social Affairs office is required to visit the center. Human
Rights Watch requested permission to visit the center in a letter to MOSAVY dated April 19,
2010.However, the government failed to respond.

NGO Shelters and Arbitrary Detention

After processing at the Municipal Social Affairs office, sex workers that are not sent to Prey
Speu are sent to NGOs that provide services to sex workers such as counseling, and
vocational training. In some cases shelter is offered, though it is not always clear that it is
done on a consensual basis. In July and August 2009, sex workers reported to Human Rights
Watch that two NGO-run shelters had kept adult sex workers against their will for periods of
time ranging from several hours to a few days.144 One shelter had forced the women to stay in
locked rooms.145 The other has a high wall around the compound, and although the gate is
not always locked, shelter staff told the sex workers to stay and they complied, despite
wanting to leave.146
In addition, sex workers told Human Rights Watch that one of the NGOs did not make
arrangements to enable HIV positive sex workers who were detained in its center access
antiretroviral (ARV) medicine. At least two sex workers who were on ARV medicine, but who
did not have their drugs with them at the time of the arrest by the authorities, were sent to
the center in July 2009. They each missed three days worth of medicine as they were unable
to access any ARVs at the centre. One of them said they had requested a family member to
bring the ARV medicine but the staff did not allow them to contact the family member.
Shelter staff released them only after several organizations intervened with the NGO.147
A 2007 agreement between some NGOs that provide housing or services to victims of
trafficking, and some government entities attempted to address this issue by outlining basic
standards of shelters and rights of clients, including an obligation to secure victim consent

144

Human Rights Watch interviews with A Ny, July 26, 2007;Dara, July 26, 2009; Kolab, August 6, 2009; Mala, August 7, 2009;
Tola, August 13, 2009; and Thida, August 24, 2009.

145

Human Rights Watch interviews with A Ny, July 26, 2007;Dara, July 26, 2009; Kolab, August 6, 2009; Tola, August 13, 2009.

146

Human Rights Watch interviews with Kolab, August 6, 2009; Mala, August 7, 2009; and Thida, August 24, 2009.

147

Human Rights Watch interview with Any and Dara, Phnom Penh July 26, 2009. See also Licadho media statement
Punishing the poor: more arrest of street people, July 26, 2009, http://www.licadhocambodia.org/pressrelease.php?perm=212&pagenb=0&filter=2009, (accessed July 4, 2010). The NGO in question denied that
such an incident had occurred.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

to remain in a shelter and to allow victims to leave.148 However, not all organizations signed
the agreement and in any case, it is not legally binding.
When interviewed by Human Rights Watch in November 2009, the staff of the two NGOs
acknowledged that in the past, staff had sometimes pressured sex workers to stay at the
center for a few days in order to counsel them and keep them safe, while encouraging them
to take advantage of skills training and other programs offered by the centers. While this
may be well-intentioned, if in practice the women wish to leave, but are not free to do so, it
amounts to unlawful deprivation of liberty.
While the two NGOs may have effectively prohibited sex workers from leaving their centers
on certain occasions in the past, the NGOs stated that their current policy is not to detain
anyone and people are free to leave at any time. Human rights groups and sex worker groups
confirmed that the practices had changed over time.
One of the organizations caters to abused children, but will accept adult sex workers sent to
them by MOSAVY, because they have nowhere to go.149 Licadho has reported that when 12
adult sex workers were detained at the center in July 2009, the staff kept them in a locked
room only allowing them out for mealtimes in order to prevent them from running away.150 In
addition to issues raised about practices that amount to unlawful deprivation of liberty,
sending adult sex workers to an NGO run shelter for abused children presents problems in
any case because both groups have distinct needs for different kinds of support.

148

Government of Cambodia Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation, and Ministry of
Health, Agreement on Guidelines for Practices and Cooperation Between the Relevant Government Institutions and Victim
Support Agencies in Cases of Human Trafficking, February 6, 2007,
http://www.humantrafficking.org/uploads/updates/Guidelines_for_Victims_Support_Agencies.pdf, (accessed June 16, 2010).

150

Human Rights Watch interview with Any and Dara, Phnom Penh July 26, 2009. See also Licadho media statement
Punishing the poor: more arrest of street people, July 26, 2009, http://www.licadhocambodia.org/pressrelease.php?perm=212&pagenb=0&filter=2009, (accessed July 4, 2010).
150

Human Rights Watch interview with Any and Dara, Phnom Penh July 26, 2009. See also Licadho media statement
Punishing the poor: more arrest of street people, July 26, 2009, http://www.licadhocambodia.org/pressrelease.php?perm=212&pagenb=0&filter=2009, (accessed July 4, 2010).

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V. International Law
Cambodia is party to the major international human rights treaties, including the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),151 the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),152 the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture),153 the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).154
As such Cambodia has an obligation under international law to protect the rights of sex
workers and prevent violations against them, including taking steps to eliminate human
trafficking, and all appropriate measures to prevent sexual exploitation of children. Of most
relevance to sex workers are the rights not to be arbitrarily arrested or detained, nor to be
subject to torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as the rights to due
process and to health.
Article 9 of the ICCPR guarantees that:
Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to
arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds
and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.
Upon arrest everyone shall be informed, at the time of their arrest, of the reasons for his
arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him.
Any person detained on grounds that are not in accordance with the law is detained
arbitrarily and therefore unlawfully. Detention can also amount to arbitrary detention, even if
it is authorized by law, if it includes elements of inappropriateness, injustice, lack of

151

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.
GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976.

152

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A
(XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force January 3, 1976.

153

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture),
adopted December 10, 1984, G.A. res. 39/46, annex, 39 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 51) at 197, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1984), entered
into force June 26, 1987.
154

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted December 18, 1979, G.A. res.
34/180, entered into force September 3, 1981.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

predictability and due process of law.155 The UN Human Rights Committee has determined
that legally authorized detention must be reasonable, necessary and proportionate taking
into account the specific circumstances of a case.156
In a study of international legal standards on detaining victims of trafficking, Gallagher and
Pearson provide some guidance on specific circumstances in which detention in shelters is
likely to be arbitrary and unlawful. This is in cases where domestic law does not provide for
such detention or if the detention is imposed contrary to law; detention is provided for or
imposed in a discriminatory manner; detention is imposed for a prolonged, unspecified or
indefinite period; detention is unjust, unpredictable, or disproportionate; or detention is not
subject to judicial or administrative review that confirms its legality and continued necessity
under the circumstances, with the possibility for release where no grounds for its
continuation exist.157
International law requires states to ensure that necessary procedural guarantees are in place
to identify and respond to situations of unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Detainees
must have a right to challenge their detention in a court.158
In all situations where people are deprived of their liberty, the ICCPR states that they should
still be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human
person.159 The ICCPR also prohibits torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.160 Rape and sexual assault in detention is considered torture.161
155

See, Communication No. 458/1991, A. W. Mukong v. Cameroon (Views adopted on 21 July 1994), in U.N. doc. GAOR, A/49/40
(vol. II), p. 181, para. 9.8.
156

Van Alphen v. The Netherlands, Communication No. 305/1988, adopted 15 Aug. 1990, U.N. GAOR, Hum. Rts. Comm., 39th
Sess., 5.8, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/39/D/305/1988 (1990); A v. Australia, Communication No. 560/1993, adopted 30 Apr. 1997,
U.N. GAOR, Hum. Rts. Comm., 59th Sess., 9.2, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/59/D/560/1993 (1997).
157

Gallagher, A. and Pearson, E. The High Cost of Freedom: A Legal and Policy Analysis of Shelter Detention for Victims of
Trafficking, Human Rights Quarterly, Feburary 2010, p. 95.
158

Under Article 9 of the ICCPR, Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take
proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his
release if the detention is not lawful. Additionally, [a]nyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall
have an enforceable right to compensation.

159

ICCPR, art. 10.

160

ICCPR, art. 7.

161

The UN special rapporteur on torture has stated that [r]ape and other forms of sexual assault in detention are a particularly
despicable violation of the inherent dignity and right to physical integrity of every human being; and accordingly constitute an
act of torture. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Summary Record of the 21st meeting, U.N. ESCOR, Commn Hum.
Rts, 48th Sess., 35, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1992/SR.21 (1992). International tribunals and other bodies have established that
rape is covered by international prohibitions on torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. See, for example, Aydin v.
Turkey, Eur. Ct. of H.R., Judgment of 25 September 1997, paras. 62-88; Prosecutor v. Furundija, ICTY, Case No. IT-95-17/1-T,
Judgment of 10 December 1998, paras. 163-86.

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Under the ICCPR, states must provide adequate medical care during detention.162 The UNs
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners further clarify that detainees are
entitled to see a medical officer for their physical and mental health needs.163 This should
include access to medicines necessary for their survival, such as ARVs.
The need to detain children separately from adults is recognized in the CRC, and the specific
circumstances of children is addressed in the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles

Deprived of their Liberty.164

The actions of police and other government officials routinely violate these basic rights
which Cambodia is legally bound to uphold. For instance, arresting adult sex workers in
brothels or on the streets only to transfer them to shelters from which they cannot freely
leave, yet for which there is no lawful basis to detain them, violates their right to liberty and
security.165
International treaties on slavery, slavery-like practices, and human trafficking also call upon
countries to define specific acts involving forced sex work as crimes and take appropriate
steps to address these situations, including protecting the rights of victims of these
crimes.166 Cambodia has ratified the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children,167 and the Supplementary Convention
on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices.168 International
law does not prescribe any particular legal framework for the regulation of sex work.

162

Pinto v. Trinidad and Tobago (Communication No. 232/1987) Report of the Human Rights Committee, vol. 2, U.N. Doc
A/45/40, p. 69.

163

United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, (Standard Minimum Rules), adopted by the First
United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by
the Economic and Social Council by its resolution 663 C (XXIV) of July 31, 1957, and 2076 (LXII) of May 13, 1977, para 26.

164

CRC, art. 37.

165

ICCPR, art. 12 (1) states that, Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to
liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.
166

E.g. Trafficking Protocol, Convention of Abolition of Slavery, Convention on Abolition of Slavery-like Practices.

167

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol), adopted November 15, 2000, G.A. Res.
55/25, annex II, 55U.N. GAOR Supp. (No.49) at 60, U.N. Doc. A/45/49 (Vol.I) (2001), entered December 25, 2003, ratified by
Cambodia on July 2, 2007.

168

UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to
Slavery, adopted September 7, 1956, 226 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force April 30, 1957, adopted by the United Nations
Conference of Plenipotentiaries on a Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions
and Practices Similar to Slavery. The Conference was convened pursuant to resolution 608 (XXI) of April 30, 1956 of the
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and met at the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva from
August 13 to September 4, 1956. Treaty Series, vol. 226, p. 3.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

However, it is always incumbent upon states, whatever legal framework is adopted, to

respect the fundamental rights of individuals engaged in sex work, whether voluntarily or not.
International law is clear with regards the prohibition on the involvement of childrenthat is
all those under 18in sex work. Cambodia has ratified the CRC and its Optional Protocol on
the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, and ILO Convention Number
182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. Under these treaties, states are obliged to protect
children from economic exploitation, sexual exploitation, and any work that is likely to be
hazardous or harmful to a childs health or physical, mental, or social development.169 The
use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution is considered a worst form of child
labor, for which states shall design and implement action programs to eliminate as a
priority.170 States are also required to criminalize offering, obtaining, procuring or providing
a child for use in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration.171
Importantly, states must take all feasible measures to ensure that all children who have
been involved in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration receive
all appropriate assistanceincluding their full social reintegration and their full physical
and psychological recovery.172 Such assistance should include the necessary and
appropriate direct assistance for the removal of children from such work and ensuring
access to free basic education, and, wherever possible and appropriate, vocational training,
for all children removed from the worst forms of child labor.173 In Cambodia, given police
indifference to the age or status of those sex workers they detain documented in this report,
children who have become involved in sex work do not enjoy the special protection to which
they are entitled.174

169

CRC arts. 32(1) and 34.

170

ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child
Labour (Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention), adopted June 17, 1999, 38 I.L.M. 1207 (entered into force November 19,
2000), ratified by Cambodia March 14, 2006, arts. 3(b) and 6(1).
171

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography, (Optional Protocol CRC SC), adopted May 25, 2000, G.A. Res. 54/263, Annex II, 54 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 6,
U.N. Doc. A/54/49, Vol.III (2000), entered into force January 18, 2002, ratified by Cambodia May 30, 2002, arts. 2(b) and
3(1)(b).

172

Ibid, art. 9(3).

173

ILO Convention 182, arts. 7(2)(b) and (c).

174

Likewise regarding both adults and children, under Article 6 of the Palermo Protocol, States should endeavor to provide
victims of trafficking with housing, medical care, legal assistance, education/training and employment opportunities, access
to information about their rights and interpreters as necessary. The OHCHRs Recommended Principles and Guidelines on
Human Rights and Human Trafficking call on states, in cooperation with nongovernmental organizations, to ensure that safe
and adequate shelter, which is not detention, is made available to victims of trafficking, OHCHR, The Recommended Principles
and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, E/2002/68/Add.1, Guideline 6(1).

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VI. Impunity and Inaction Perpetuate Abuses

The failure to investigate and prosecute these abuses allows police and other state officials
to prey on sex workers without fear of punishment. NGOs, international organizations, and
others have repeatedly brought these failings to the attention of the Cambodian government.
One outcome was the issuance of guidelines to the 2008 law intended to prevent the worst
abuses. However, continuing government inaction has left the guidelines to languish with
little positive effect. Foreign assistance intended to help combat abuses has not yielded
progress.

Failure to Investigate and Prosecute Abuses

Under Cambodian and international law, Cambodian authorities are obligated to prevent
abusive behavior by police and other officials, and to investigate, prosecute, and provide
effective remedies when violations occur.175
The abuses documented in this report are not new. Local human rights and sex worker
groups have raised these issues before. But there continues to be impunity for abuses
committed against sex workers, the homeless, street children, and people who use drugs.
Past reports of abuse in Prey Speu and of police violence against sex workers have failed to
lead to credible investigations into allegations of abuse.
Despite unlawful arrest, detention, and violence, none of the sex workers interviewed by
Human Rights Watch had ever filed formal complaints about their treatment with judicial,
police, or other government authorities. Some of these sex workers did report their cases to
local sex worker and human rights groups who documented cases and have tried to
collectively and publicly denounce the violence. But competent authorities have often failed
to investigate these cases. Many others were fearful about reprisals; others simply had no
faith in a system marked by corruption, discrimination, and impunity. As one sex worker,
Srey Na, put it:

175

Cambodia has recognized and abides by the principles of international conventions as set in article 31 of the Cambodian
Constitution. Article 38 of Cambodias constitution prohibits coercion, physical ill-treatment, or any other mistreatment that
imposes additional punishment on a detainee or prisoner. Under article 39, the constitution guarantees the right of
Cambodian citizens to denounce, make complaints, or file claims against any breach of law by state and social organs or by
members of such organs committed during the course of their duties.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

They [police] can frame any charge against us and we have no power to
challenge their treatment. We suffer a lot and are hurt by police.176
Nika, who was beaten up by park guards in October 2009, wanted to file a complaint and
even had photographs of the incident. She decided against it after being advised that police
would require statements by other witnesses. She said:
It is hard to get anyone to be my witnesses because everyone is afraid and
concerned about their own security. Many motorcycle taxi drivers and plenty
of sex workers witnessed the attack, but they are afraid to help me. They are
at the park everyday to earn their living, so they will never do anything
against those with authority over the park. They will not come forward to be
my witnesses.177
NGOs offering shelter to victims of sexual violence also acknowledge that police abuse is a
problem, but they have little power to combat it.178 An NGO that did not want to be named
said they did not raise complaints with police when some women and girls coming to their
shelter were raped by police, saying:
We need to cooperate with the authorities for a continued working
relationship and so that at least some traffickers will be arrested. In any case,
police deny that they extort money or steal when everyone knows they do
it.179
Police officials routinely deny that police beat or otherwise mistreat sex workers during
arrests and crackdowns. For example in December 2009, Phnom Penh Municipal Police Chief
Touch Naruth told the press that police have neither beaten nor arrested sex workers, while
continuing to assert that prostitution is contrary to Cambodian culture.180
In June 2008, Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak, the Interior Ministry's spokesman dismissed claims
that police committed violence against sex workers and said none were mistreated in

176

Human Rights Watch interview with Srey Na, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

177

Human Rights Watch interview with Nika, Phnom Penh, November 6, 2009.

178

Human Rights Watch interview with CCPCR and AFESIP representative, Phnom Penh, November 5, 2009.

179

Interview [name withheld], Phnom Penh, November 2009.

180

Kuch Naren, 300 Sex Workers To Call for End to Police Abuse, Cambodia Daily, Wednesday December 16, 2009.

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crackdowns. He defended cracking down on sex workers, by calling sex work unacceptable
in Cambodia.181
Police have refused to formally accept and register complaints about abuses and the
Ministry of Interior and MOSAVY have conducted merely superficial investigations denying
the abuses took place.182
In June 2008, LICADHO raised concern about abuses at Prey Speu and Koh Kor in a letter to
Sar Kheng, the deputy prime minister and chairman of High Level Working Group Against
Trafficking in Persons and to You Ay, secretary of state of the Ministry of Womens Affairs and
Following this pattern of denial, the response from the Ministry of Interior and MOSAVY to
local human rights groups raising concerns about abuses at the Social Affairs centers shows
no willingness to seriously investigate these abuses. The Ministry of Interior responded to
LICADHOs allegations by letter, denying that anyone was unlawfully detained at Prey Speu:
Prey Social Affairs Center is an open center and people stay in the center on a voluntarily
basis. It particularly saves those who live in the street by giving them food, medical care and
training them to be able to earn a living in their communities.183 The letter also stated, The
center does not have security guards but the manager has chosen those who wanted to stay
in the center for long time in order to be guardians of the center.184 The letter failed to
address at all the allegations of abuse committed by staff and guards at the center, whether
they are employed or working there on a voluntary basis.
OHCHR conducted its own investigations into abuses in the Social Affairs centers but the
complete results of these investigations (submitted to the government in early 2009) have
never been made public. Since 2009 OHCHR has conducted regular unannounced visits to
Preu Speu. An OHCHR official explained that its approach has been to first prioritize direct,
confidential advocacy with the government, and while implementation was problematic, that
the MOSAVY August 2008 directive requesting authorities not to detain people in Social
Affairs centers was a step in the right direction.185
181

Sopheng Cheang, AP, Cambodian Prostitutes Protest Police Crackdown, June 4, 2008,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-04-622462536_x.htm, (accessed July 6, 2010).
182

Letter from H.E. Khieu Sopheak, general secretary, the Ministry of Interior (number 1219 Sar. Cho. Nor), to Mrs. Pung Chhiv
Guek, president of LICADHO, September 25, 2008, Statement of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth
Rehabilitation, Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation, November 4, 2008.

183

Ministry of Interior letter to Dr. Kek Galabru, the President, Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human
Rights (LICADHO), no. 1219 sor.chor.nor, September 25, 2008.

184

Ministry of Interior letter to Dr. Kek Galabru, the President, Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human
Rights (LICADHO), no. 1219 sor.chor.nor, September 25, 2008.

185

Email communication received from OHCHR, July 6, 2010.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

US Pressure to Address Trafficking Makes a Bad Situation Worse

The US is one of Cambodias largest bilateral donors, and a major donor supporting antitrafficking efforts in Cambodia. Under the Bush administration, the US government
maintained that in order to combat trafficking, countries should take steps against
prostitution. National Security Presidential Directive 22 stated that, Our policy is based on
an abolitionist approach to trafficking. In this regard, the United States government
opposes prostitution and any related activities including pimping, pandering, and/or
maintaining brothels as contributing to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons.186
Since 2003, US legislation dealing with HIV/AIDS and human trafficking has required
recipients of international anti-AIDS funding to have a policy opposing prostitution and sex
trafficking as a condition of receiving funding.187 The legislation bars the use of funds, to
promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution.188 This provision
was retained when the law was reauthorized in 2008 and remains in force. In May 2010, the
US government issued implementing regulations that largely mirror those imposed by the
Bush Administration.189
This anti-prostitution stance combined with the impact of the annual US State Departments
Trafficking in Persons report seemed to show US support for the Cambodian governments
efforts to criminalize voluntary sex work. Since 2001, the Trafficking in Persons report has
ranked countries according to their efforts to address human trafficking. If a country is
ranked as Tier 3 (lowest ranking) this may result in withholding of non-humanitarian and
non-trade related assistance.190 Many countries, including Cambodia, take seriously the

186

Combating Trafficking in Persons, National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD-22, (The White House, Washington),
December 16, 2002, http://www.combat-trafficking.army.mil/documents/policy/NSPD-22.pdf, (accessed June 16, 2010).

187

The legislation is the United States Leadership Against Global HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, P.L. 108-25,
(S. 250, H.R. 1298), commonly known as PEPFAR. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act was also amended in 2003 to include
the limitations on spending (Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003).

188

In its Bilateral Assistance Provisions, this law includes limits on spending of funds appropriated under the Act:
LIMITATION.(g)(e) No funds made available to carry out this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, may be used to
promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking. Nothing in the preceding sentence shall be
construed to preclude the provision to individuals of palliative care, treatment, or post-exposure pharmaceutical prophylaxis,
and necessary pharmaceuticals and commodities, including test kits, condoms, and, when proven effective, microbicides.(f)
LIMITATION.No funds made available to carry out this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, may be used to provide
assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.

189

45 CFR PART 89, http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-8378.pdf, (accessed July 7, 2010). The regulation requires
that as a condition of receiving funding, recipients must agree that they are opposed to the practices of prostitution and sex
trafficking because of the psychological and physical risks they pose for men, women and children.

190

Over time, the reports have improved in content and coverage and now generally cover trafficking in all forms. However,
the use of tiers in the TIP report for certain countries has been widely criticized for its political implications, with countries
that are enemies of the US often listed in Tier 3, while those with good relations listed in Tier 1. The complete tier rankings are

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annual TIP rankings, their effect on a countrys reputation, and the threat of sanctions that
may come from a Tier 3 rating.
In 2008, the TIP report moved Cambodia up to Tier 2 from the Tier 2 Watch List in recognition
of the passage of Cambodias 2008 law. Various organizations including Human Rights
Watch drew the State Departments attention to the fact that this improvement was awarded
despite the abuses faced by sex workers. In 2009, the TIP report again downgraded
Cambodia to the Tier 2 Watchlist, in part because of the harmful impact of police
crackdowns and the inordinate government focus on enforcing the prostitution-related
provisions of the 2008 law, rather than those related to trafficking.191
Through the auspices of USAID, the US government agreed to provide Cambodia with $7.3
million to combat human trafficking between August 2006 and September 2011. According
to the MOU between USAID and the Cambodian government, the aim of the assistance is to
help Cambodia protect victims of trafficking, increase prosecutions of human traffickers,
coordinate targeted prevention and awareness-raising activities and assist with the
reintegration of trafficking victims into Cambodian society.192
It is noteworthy that the July 2007 Campaigning Plan to Combat Human Trafficking,
Smuggling, Exploitation, and Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children, enacted by the
Ministry of Interior states as one of its three goals, to implement the 2006 MOU
[Memorandum of Understanding] between the Cambodian government and USAID on
implementing an anti-trafficking program.193 The plan authorizes suppression of venues for
carrying out sex work and was a major causal factor for brothel raids and street sweeps in
late 2007.194
While there is no language concerning criminalizing sex work as a means to combat
trafficking in the MOU, US policy on sex work under the Bush administration was quite clear.

Tier 1 (best), Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List, Tier 3 (worst). See Chuang, J., The United States As Global Sheriff: Using Unilateral
Sanctions To Combat Human Trafficking, Michigan Journal of International Law Vol. 27, 437 at p. 486-487.
191

United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 - Cambodia, June 16, 2009,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4a4214c82d.html, (accessed June 16, 2010).

192

Office of the Inspector General, Audit of USAID/Cambodias Counter Trafficking in Persons Project, Audit Report No. 9-00010-002-P, December 10, 2009, http://www.usaid.gov/oig/public/fy10rpts/9-000-10-002-p.pdf, (accessed July 7, 2010), p.4.

193

Campaigning Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, Smuggling, Exploitation, and Women and Children Sexual Exploitation,
Ministry of Interior, Royal Government of Cambodia, No. 012 Ph.K, signed in Phnom Penh, July 17, 2007.
194

See Cambodian Alliance for Combating HIV/AIDS (CACHA), http://www.actionaid.org/cambodia/index.aspx?PageID=3176,

(accessed July 8, 2010); Licadho, http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/articles/20080702/79/index.html, (accessed July 8,
2010).

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

In supporting these efforts in Cambodia, the US failed to consider the context of a police
force long known for its problems with corruption and for committing abuses against sex
workers with impunity, when it pushed for the 2008 law.195
Technical assistance USAID currently provides to Cambodia for trafficking attempts to
address abuses by police. The USAIDs audit report notes that funding is being used:
To increase the capacity of law enforcement to protect the human rights of
trafficked and exploited persons. The project has been instrumental in
developing training for law enforcement officials on the Law on Suppression
of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, adopted by the Royal
Government of Cambodia in February 2008. Official explanatory notes
explaining the new law have been drafted and are due for release in 2009. To
further enhance the projects capacity-building efforts, a training module on
conducting raids and rescues without violating the rights of victims was
developed and implemented for both police officers and social service
providers.196
However, despite these well-intentioned efforts at training, abuses continue. According to
sex workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, even the police in specialized antitrafficking units that have received human rights training have been implicated in trying to
bribe sex workers. The donor community has made longstanding efforts to train the
Cambodian police force on human rights.197 Policing and police reform was one of the seven
elements of UNTACs mandate in Cambodia (1992-1993).198 But the reality is that unless and

195

Jenkins, Carol, CPU, WNU, and Sainsbury, C., Violence and Exposure to HIV Among Sex Workers in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, prepared for USAID, March 2006, http://www.hivpolicy.org/Library/HPP001702.pdf, (accessed July 7, 2010).

196

USAID, Audit of USAID/Cambodias Counter Trafficking in Persons Project, Audit Report No. 9-000-10-002, December 10,
2009, http://www.usaid.gov/oig/public/fy10rpts/9-000-10-002-p.pdf (accessed April 11, 2010).
197

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodias mandate since 1993 has been training institutions
responsible for the administration of justice. The office developed a human rights trainings manual and conducted trainings
between 1995 and 2002, when responsibility was handed to the Ministries of Defense and the Interior and to NGOs. See
Secretary General, Advisory Services And Technical Cooperation In The Field Of Human Rights: Role and achievements of the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in assisting the Government and people of Cambodia in the
promotion and protection of human rights, UN Doc E/CN.4/2003/113 9 January 2003. These trainings were extensive,
however; in the second half of 2001 alone, the OHCHR reported that its trainers had trained 2,155 police in 14 provinces. See
the OHCHR Cambodia Annual Report for 2001, http://cambodia.ohchr.org/WebDOCs/DocReports/3-SG-RAreports/A_HRC_CMB27122001E.pdf, (accessed July 7, 2010). Projects funded by the US, Danish, and Australian governments
have all provided extensive police training on human rights in Cambodia.
198

According to UN Security Council Resolution 745 (1992), http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/011/04/IMG/NR001104.pdf?OpenElement, (accessed July7, 2010). The mission
included 3,600 UN civilian police to train and supervise Cambodian police, including on democratic policing, human rights
and crime prevention. By the end of its mandate, UNTAC had trained 9,000 police. See Wilton Park, International Post-

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until police officers are prosecuted for offenses, and there is a strong message that abuses
against sex workers will not be tolerated, human rights training will be of limited effect.

Conflict Policing Operations: Enhancing Co-Ordination and Effectiveness, Report of the Conference, 26 30 January 2004,
http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/documents/conferences/WPS04-3/pdfs/WPS04-3.pdf, (accessed July 6, 2010).

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

VII. Recommendations
To the Government of Cambodia:

Establish a special commission to conduct independent and thorough investigations

into all acts of violence and extortion by law enforcement officials, park officials, and
staff or volunteers in Social Affairs centers. The commission should be composed of
competent and respected representatives of government including the Ministry of
Interior, Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation, and Social
Affairs, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations including human rights groups
and sex worker groups. It should be established promptly, have the power to call
witnesses and produce a public report. It should be empowered to make
recommendations for criminal investigations to ensure perpetrators are brought to
justice for their crimes.

To the Ministry of Interior:

Respect the rights of sex workers, in particular the rights to bodily integrity, liberty
and security, due process, and non-discrimination and to be protected from all forms
of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment including all forms of
sexual violence.
Stop the arbitrary arrest and detention of sex workersincluding women, men,
children, and transgender sex workersvictims of trafficking, and others including
drugs users, homeless people, beggars, street children, and mentally ill people.
Investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of human rights abuses against sex
workers, including by police and government officials.
Publicly acknowledge and condemn abuses by police and Social Affairs center staff
against sex workers.
Immediately disseminate widely and instruct all law enforcement officers, in
particular the local police at the commune, district and municipal and provincial
levels, and local officials at the commune, district, municipal, and provincial levels,
to adhere to the 2008 guidelines on the implementation of the Law on Suppression
of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.
In consultation with community groups, sex worker groups, human rights groups,
anti-trafficking groups, health groups, and UN agencies conduct a review of the 2008
law on trafficking and sexual exploitation and the impacts of its provisions on sex
work before implementing those provisions dealing with sex work.

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Remind non-police personnel such as park security guards and district security
guards that they do not enjoy powers of arrest and advise them that if they are
responsible for any unlawful deprivation of liberty that they will be prosecuted under
the law.
Increase the number of female law enforcement officers trained in handling
situations involving gender-based violence and, ensure that female officers are
tasked with handling female and transgender sex work cases. At a minimum,
increase female police officers at the police stations in Toul Kork, Chamkamon, and
Daun Penh where many abuses are reported. Train these officers to interview sex
workers to determine if they are victims of trafficking or physical abuse and to abide
by human rights standards in dealing with adults and children in sex work. Also train
them on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, including
transgender identity.
Instruct law enforcement officials that they can only detain adult sex workers if they
have committed an actual offence under the law and they intend to promptly charge
and prosecute them for such an offence. If adult sex workers are transferred to NGOs,
this should be on a strictly voluntary basis and to NGOs that provide appropriate
services and housing.
Instruct law enforcement officials to transfer children and victims of trafficking to
appropriate NGOs that will protect them in line with international standards.
Instruct law enforcement officials that children engaged in sex work should never be
treated as offenders and should not be detained solely on that basis.
In the case of adults or children, where there are indications that the individual may
have been trafficked, refer the person immediately to a NGO that provides assistance
to victims of trafficking and whose services are in line with international standards.
Formulate and enforce a policy for nongovernmental organizations that assist sex
workers requiring that all services, including transport and shelter, be provided on a
voluntary, consensual basis. Take action against organizations that in practice
coerce individuals to remain in shelters against their will.

To the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation:

Permanently close Prey Speu and Koh Kor and all other Social Affairs centers, where
people have been detained in violation of international and national law.
Suspend staff against whom credible allegations of abuse have been made, whilst
the allegations are investigated.
Publicly acknowledge and condemn abuses by police and Social Affairs center staff
against sex workers and call for their investigation.

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Consult with sex worker groups in order to jointly develop programs and services
that can empower sex workers and accurately reflect their needs. Areas include legal
assistance, health care, child care, or vocational training if identified by sex workers
as relevant.

To the Phnom Penh Municipality:

Stop the arbitrary arrest and detention of sex workersincluding women, men,
children, and transgender sex workersvictims of trafficking, and others including
drugs users, homeless people, beggars, street children, and mentally ill people.
Publicly acknowledge and condemn abuses by police and Social Affairs center staff
against sex workers and call for their investigation.
Widely disseminate and instruct all local officials at the commune, district,
municipal, and provincial level, to enforce the Guidelines on the Implementation of
the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.

To the National Assembly of Cambodia:

Publicly acknowledge and condemn abuses by police and Social Affairs center staff
against sex workers and call for their investigation.
Establish an independent body to receive complaints of torture, cruel, inhumane and
degrading treatment, and other abuses committed by law enforcement officers and
staff at Social Affairs centers.
Until the pervasive problem of police abuse of sex workers is tackled, suspend
article 24 on soliciting in the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual
Exploitation. The provision gives police more leverage to extort money and commit
violent acts against sex workers and has facilitated abuses.
Repeal the overly-vague article 25(3) of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking
and Sexual Exploitation, which makes acts deemed to be hindering acts of
prevention, assistance or re-education of sex workers equivalent to procurement of
prostitution.

To United Nations Agencies and Concerned Donor Governments Including the

US, EU, Japan, and Australia:

Request the permanent closure of Koh Kor and Prey Speu and other Social Affairs
centers, where people have been detained in violation of international and national
law.

Off the Streets

66

Request the government of Cambodia to promptly and independently investigate all

allegations of abuses against sex workers by police and Social Affairs center staff.
Review all funding, programming, and activities directed to assisting Cambodias
Ministry of Social Affairs to ensure no funding is supporting policies or programs that
violate international human rights law, such as the prohibitions on arbitrary arrest,
detention, torture and inhuman or degrading treatment of sex workers.
Review all funding, programming, and activities designed to assist Cambodias
police and Ministry of Social Affairs until there is a full independent investigation
into allegations of abuses and prosecutions of those found responsible, and the
centers of Prey Speu and Koh Kor are permanently closed.
Actively encourage the Cambodian government to adopt and put into practice
services and programs for sex workers on a voluntary basis with the participation of
sex workers groups.
Support local human rights groups and sex workers groups that are assisting sex
workers on a voluntary, participatory basis.
Only support civil society groups running shelters that meet international standards.
UNOHCHR should conduct independent, impartial investigations into acts of
violence and extortion by security forces and park officials and make their findings
public.

To the US Government:

In addition to advocating for the recommendations above, recognize the vulnerable

status of sex workers and ensure that they are not further penalized as a result of US
policies.
Recognize the impact of the annual Trafficking in Persons report on other countries,
and acknowledge and address the harm that can be done through misguided antitrafficking campaigns, by documenting the impact on victims of trafficking, sex
workers and other marginalized groups, such as undocumented migrants.

To NGOs Assisting Victims of Trafficking and Sex Workers:

Comply fully with international human rights standards on the treatment of victims of
trafficking and sexual exploitation. In particular ensure all policies on admission and
release from shelters are based on full respect for the rights to liberty and security,
freedom of movement, autonomy and privacy, non-discrimination and the
prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment. Commit to this policy in writing.

67

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
Tel:
212-290-4700
Fax:
212-736-1300

Appendix: Letters Sent to the Government of Cambodia

Letter to Ministry of Interior: Sent April 19, 2010

ASIA DIVISION
Brad Adams, Executive Director
Elaine Pearson, Deputy Director
Phil Robertson, Deputy Director
Sophie Richardson, Advocacy Director
Kanae Doi, Tokyo Director
Nicholas Bequelin, Senior Researcher
Sara Colm, Senior Researcher
Meenakshi Ganguly, Senior Researcher
Ali Dayan Hasan, Senior Researcher
Sunai Phasuk, Senior Researcher
Mickey Spiegel, Senior Researcher
Phelim Kine, Researcher
David Mathieson, Researcher
Rachel Reid, Researcher
Kay Seok, Researcher
Andrea Cottom, Senior Associate
Pema Abrahams, Associate
Diana Parker, Associate
Riyo Yoshioka, Associate

ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Chair
Orville Schell, Vice Chair
Maureen Aung-Thwin
Edward J. Baker
Harry Barnes
Robert L. Bernstein
Jagdish Bhagwati
Jerome Cohen
John Despres
Clarence Dias
Mallika Dutt
Merle Goldman
Jonathan Hecht
Paul Hoffman
Sharon Hom
Rounaq Jahan
Perry Link
Andrew J. Nathan
Yuri Orlov
Bruce Rabb
Balakrishnan Rajagopal
Victoria Riskin
Barnett Rubin
James Scott
Frances Seymour
Barbara Shailor
Steven Shapiro
Eric Stover
Ko-Yung Tung

Human Rights Watch

April 19, 2010

H.E. Sar Kheng
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior
Chair of the Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons, Human Smuggling,
Human Exploitation and Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children
No. 275 Norodom Blvd.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Via facsimile: +(855) 23-721-905

Via E-Mail: info@interior.gov.kh, moi@interior.gov.kh
Re: Treatment of sex workers
Dear Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng,
Human Rights Watch is an international nongovernmental organization that
monitors violations of human rights by states and non-state actors in more
than 80 countries around the world.
Human Rights Watch is preparing a report regarding the treatment of
women and children in sex work in Cambodia. Our report explores street
sweeps, violence and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary arrest and detention
of sex workers.
We are writing to ensure that our report properly reflects the views, policies,
and practices of the Cambodia government regarding the treatment of
women and children in sex work and government efforts to counter
trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director

Michele Alexander, Development & Outreach Director
Carroll Bogert, Associate Director
Emma Daly, Communications Director
Barbara Guglielmo, Finance & Administration Director
Peggy Hicks, Global Advocacy Director
Iain Levine, Program Director

Human Rights Watch is committed to producing material that is wellinformed and objective. We hope you or your staff will respond to the

Andrew Mawson, Deputy Program Director

Suzanne Nossel, Chief Operating Officer
Dinah PoKempner, General Counsel
James Ross, Legal & Policy Director
Joe Saunders, Deputy Program Director
Jane Olson, Chair, Board of Directors

Off the Streets

68

BERLIN BRUSSELS CHICAGO GENEVA JOHANNESBURG- LONDON LOS ANGELES MOSCOW

NEW YORK PARIS

SAN FRANCISCO - TOKYO TORONTO WASHINGTON

attached questions so that your views are accurately reflected in our reporting. In order for
us to take your answers into account in our forthcoming report, we would appreciate a
written response by May 17, 2010.
Please do not hesitate to include any other materials, statistics, and reports about
government actions regarding treatment of women and children in sex work, efforts to
prosecute trafficking and sexual exploitation under the 2008 law, and efforts to train police
or punish police and government officials for malfeasance.
We would also like to request official permission to visit the government Social Affairs center
at Prey Speu. We look forward to strengthening our dialogue with the Cambodia government.
Thank you for your time in addressing these urgent matters.
Sincerely,

Brad Adams
Executive Director
Asia Division
CC:
H.E. Ith Sam Heng
Minister of Social Affairs, Labor, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation
No 788B, Monivong Blvd.,
Phnom Penh
Cambodia
Fax: +85523726086
Email: mosalvy@cambodia.gov.kh
H.E. Kep Chuktema
Governor of Phnom Penh
No 69, Preah Monivong
12201 Phnom Penh
Cambodia
Fax: +855 23 722 054
Email: phnompenh@phnompenh.gov.kh

69

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Questions:
1. Human Rights Watch understands that sex workers, people who use illegal drugs,
homeless people, beggars, street children and mentally ill are frequently arrested in Phnom
Penh.
Please provide us with the following information for 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 to date:

In Phnom Penh, the number of arrests made each year for each of the following
categories: sex workers, people who use drugs, homeless people, beggars,
street children and mentally ill people, total children, total adults. If you cannot
provide such data, please explain why not.
The laws or policies that authorize the police and other authorities to carry out
these arrests.

2. How many alleged sex workers have been arrested, charged, and convicted each year
since 2008 for soliciting under Article 24 of the 2008 Law on Trafficking and Sexual
Exploitation?
3. How many people have been charged, prosecuted, and convicted of various offenses
under the 2008 law on suppression on human trafficking and sexual exploitation? Please
provide information on the specific charges (which articles of the law) and the range of
sentences.
4. Please describe the process from when a sex worker is arrested to their eventual release
or subsequent referral to a government Social Affairs center or an NGO. What are the
differences in procedure between adults and children? Is there any attempt to determine if a
sex worker may be a victim of trafficking? What are the different steps taken for victims of
trafficking?
5. What is the legal basis for detaining sex workers in police custody and/or the municipal
Social Affairs office or centers? Please specify the provision(s) under Cambodian law and
what legal authority authorizes this detention.
6. Who has the authority to release a detained sex worker from a police station, or from a
government Social Affairs office or center, and what are the considerations in deciding to
transfer a sex worker from the Social Affairs office to an NGO? Does it differ for adults and
children?

Off the Streets

70

7. How many complaints of assault, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, extortion,
and other abuse against sex workers have been lodged since 2007? How have these
complaints been dealt with? What punishments or sanctions have actually been taken
against those found responsible? Please provide details.
8. Human Rights Watch understands that the government is drafting explanatory notes on
the implementation of the law on suppression of human trafficking and sexual exploitation
with support from UNICEF. What is the status of these explanatory notes, and when will they
be approved? What will be the government strategy to implement the guidelines?
9. Please describe what training has been conducted for law enforcement officials on
trafficking, child prostitution, and protecting human rights? In particular, what training has
been conducted on implementing the 2008 law on suppression of human trafficking and
sexual exploitation? How many trainings have been conducted, and who are the
beneficiaries? Are police at all levelsprovincial/municipal, district/khan, and communal
targets of such training? What are the indicators to measure the effectiveness of such
trainings?

71

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
Tel:
212-290-4700
Fax:
212-736-1300

Letter to Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans,

and Youth Rehabilitation: Sent April 19, 2010
April 19, 2010

ASIA DIVISION
Brad Adams, Executive Director
Elaine Pearson, Deputy Director
Phil Robertson, Deputy Director
Sophie Richardson, Advocacy Director
Kanae Doi, Tokyo Director
Nicholas Bequelin, Senior Researcher
Sara Colm, Senior Researcher
Meenakshi Ganguly, Senior Researcher
Ali Dayan Hasan, Senior Researcher
Sunai Phasuk, Senior Researcher
Mickey Spiegel, Senior Researcher
Phelim Kine, Researcher
David Mathieson, Researcher
Rachel Reid, Researcher
Kay Seok, Researcher
Andrea Cottom, Senior Associate
Pema Abrahams, Associate
Diana Parker, Associate
Riyo Yoshioka, Associate

ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Chair
Orville Schell, Vice Chair
Maureen Aung-Thwin
Edward J. Baker
Harry Barnes
Robert L. Bernstein
Jagdish Bhagwati
Jerome Cohen
John Despres
Clarence Dias
Mallika Dutt
Merle Goldman
Jonathan Hecht
Paul Hoffman
Sharon Hom
Rounaq Jahan
Perry Link
Andrew J. Nathan
Yuri Orlov
Bruce Rabb
Balakrishnan Rajagopal
Victoria Riskin
Barnett Rubin
James Scott
Frances Seymour
Barbara Shailor
Steven Shapiro
Eric Stover
Ko-Yung Tung

Human Rights Watch

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director
Michele Alexander, Development & Outreach Director
Carroll Bogert, Associate Director
Emma Daly, Communications Director
Barbara Guglielmo, Finance & Administration Director
Peggy Hicks, Global Advocacy Director

H.E. Ith Sam Heng

Minister of Social Affairs, Labor, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation
No 788B, Monivong Blvd.
Phnom Penh
Cambodia

Via facsimile: +855-2372-6086

Via email: mosalvy@cambodia.gov.kh
Re: Treatment of sex workers
Dear Minister Ith Sam Heng,
Human Rights Watch is an international nongovernmental organization that
monitors violations of human rights by states and non-state actors in more
than 80 countries around the world.
Human Rights Watch is preparing a report regarding the treatment of
women and children in sex work in Cambodia. Our report explores street
sweeps, violence and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary arrest and detention
of sex workers.
We are writing to ensure that our report properly reflects the views, policies,
and practices of the Cambodia government regarding the treatment of
women and children in sex work and government efforts to counter
trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Human Rights Watch is committed to producing material that is wellinformed and objective. We hope you or your staff will respond to the
attached questions so that your views are accurately reflected in our
reporting. In order for us to take your answers into account in our

Iain Levine, Program Director

Andrew Mawson, Deputy Program Director
Suzanne Nossel, Chief Operating Officer
Dinah PoKempner, General Counsel
James Ross, Legal & Policy Director
Joe Saunders, Deputy Program Director
Jane Olson, Chair, Board of Directors

Off the Streets

72

BERLIN BRUSSELS CHICAGO GENEVA JOHANNESBURG- LONDON LOS ANGELES MOSCOW

NEW YORK PARIS

SAN FRANCISCO - TOKYO TORONTO WASHINGTON

forthcoming report, we would appreciate a written response by May 17, 2010.

Please do not hesitate to include any other materials, statistics, and government actions
regarding treatment of women and children in sex work.
We would also like to request official permission to visit the government Social Affairs center
at Prey Speu. We look forward to strengthening our dialogue with the Cambodia government.
We look forward to strengthening our dialogue with the Cambodia government.
Thank you for your time in addressing these urgent matters.
Sincerely,

Brad Adams
Executive Director
Asia Division

CC:
H.E. Sar Kheng
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior
Chair of the Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons, Human Smuggling, Human
Exploitation and Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children
No. 275 Norodom Blvd.
Phnom Penh
Cambodia
H.E. Kep Chuktema
Governor of Phnom Penh
No 69, Preah Monivong
12201 Phnom Penh
Cambodia
Fax: +855 23 722 054
Email: phnompenh@phnompenh.gov.kh

73

Human Rights Watch | July 2010

Questions:
1. Human Rights Watch understands that sex workers, people who use illegal drugs,
homeless people, beggars, street children and mentally ill are frequently arrested in Phnom
Penh.
Please provide us with the following information from 2007 to the present:

In Phnom Penh, the number of sex workers referred to the municipal Social Affairs
office, sent to government Social Affairs centers, referred to NGOs and those
released each year. Please specify the total number of children in each data set. If
you cannot provide such data, please explain why not.
The law or policy that authorizes the police and other authorities to carry out these
arrests.

2. Please describe the process from when a sex worker is arrested to their eventual release
or subsequent referral to a government Social Affairs center or an NGO. What are the
differences in procedure between adults and children? Is there any attempt to determine if a
sex worker may be a victim of trafficking? What are the different steps taken for a victim of
trafficking?
3. What is the legal basis for detaining sex workers in municipal Social Affairs office or
centers? Please specify the provision(s) under Cambodian law and what legal authority
authorizes this detention.
4. Who has the authority to release a detained sex worker from a government Social Affairs
office or center, and what are the considerations in deciding to transfer a sex worker from
the municipal Social Affairs office to an NGO? Is this different for adults and children? Is this
different for victims of trafficking?
5. What are the reasons for releasing adult sex workers into the custody of NGOs?
6. How many complaints of assault, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention of sex workers are you
aware of in the municipal Social Affairs office and government Social Affairs centers? How
have these complaints been dealt with? What punishments or sanctions have actually been
taken against those found responsible? Please provide details of all cases in which action
has been taken.

Off the Streets

74

7. What training have officials at the municipal Social Affairs office and government Social
Affairs centers had? How many trainings have been conducted, and who are the
beneficiaries? What are the indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of such trainings?
8. Government officials have made many public statements saying that interventions are
required to re-educate sex workers and provide them with vocational training to change
their job. What government programs exist regarding re-education and vocational training
and where are these centers located? How many centers are equipped to provide the
program? Do the programs work in consultation with local sex worker groups and are they
provided on a voluntary basis?

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Human Rights Watch | July 2010

VIII. Acknowledgements
This report was edited by Elaine Pearson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human
Rights Watch; Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division; and Sara Colm, senior
researcher in the Asia division. Aisling Reidy, senior legal advisor and Joseph Saunders,
deputy director in the Program office, completed legal and programmatic review respectively.
Editing was also done by Cassandra Cavanaugh, consultant to the Program office at Human
Rights Watch.
Specialist review was done by Bede Sheppard, researcher in the childrens rights division;
Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the womens rights division; Marianne Mollman, advocacy
director in the womens rights division; Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the womens rights
division; and Dipika Nath, researcher in the LGBT program.
Human Rights Watch also thanks Eleanor Taylor-Nicholson, summer fellow with the Asia
division who provided research assistance, and Jason Barber who completed an external
review, as well as other external reviewers who provided comments on the draft.
Production assistance was provided by Pema Abrahams, associate in the Asia division of
Human Rights Watch; Grace Choi, publications director; Fitzroy Hepkins, production
manager; and Anna Lopriore, photo editor; and Giulio Frigieri for creating the maps.

Off the Streets

76

H UMA N R I G H TS WATCH
350 Fifth Avenue, 34 th Floor
New York, NY 10118-3299

H U M A N

www.hrw.org

W A T C H

Off the Streets

Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia
In Cambodia, those tasked with upholding the law often inflict some of the worst abuses. Sex workers in particular
know this to be true. Women and girls involved in sex work face beatings, rape, sexual harassment, extortion,
arbitrary arrest and detention, and other abuses from officials charged with enforcing the law. The perpetrators
include police, public park security guards, and officials working in centers and offices run by the Ministry of
Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSAVY).
Off the Streets, documents the abuses based on interviews with more than 50 sex workers and group
discussions with dozens more. Sex workers told Human Rights Watch that police officers beat them with their
fists, sticks, wooden handles, and batons that administer electric shocks. Police officers also threatened sex
workers with guns. In several instances, police officers raped sex workers while they were in police detention.
Some sex workers described being detained in government centers under horrific conditions, with restricted
freedom of movement, experiencing or witnessing beatings or rapes, and with inadequate food and medical care.
Crimes by officials against sex workers are almost never prosecuted.
The report also analyzes the impact of a 2008 Cambodian law on trafficking and sexual exploitation. While the
new law has some useful provisions on trafficking, it criminalizes solicitation by sex workers in ways that open
the door to continuing police abuse against such individuals.
Human Rights Watch urges the Cambodian government to end impunity by holding the perpetrators of these
abuses accountable, and to shut down Social Affairs centers where many of the abuses take place. Donors and
UN agencies should use their influence when engaging with the Cambodian government to ensure that this
happens.

Cambodian sex workers stage a protest

against a police crackdown on prostitution.
Sex workers report that police physically
and sexually abuse them in custody.
2008 AP Photo

R I G H T S

Survey on Police Human Rights Violations of Sex Workers in Toul Kork Serey
Phal Cambodian Womens Development Association (CWDA)
Content
I. Introduction
II. Methodology
III. Background
IV. RESULTS
1. Demographic Analysis
2. Police Human Rights Violations
3. Attitudes of Police and Local Authorities
4. Working Conditions
V. Analysis: Impact of attitudes on human rights violations of sex workers
VI. Conclusion
VII. Recommendations
I. Introduction
This study was undertaken to investigate, and raise the local authorities and the
governments awareness to the current situation of police violations of sex
workers human rights in the Toul Kork area. The purpose of this study is to
identify possible reasons for such terrible violations occurring against sex
workers, and to understand the detrimental effect this has on their lives. Also,
and most importantly, identify how local authorities and the government can help
to protect sex workers human rights.
The survey first briefly investigates why women work as sex workers and
what factors have forced them into this line of work and given them such
few choices. The survey then explores the extent, and nature, of police
violations towards sex workers, and whether the violators have been
brought to justice. A possible reason for these human rights violations is
examined. One major factor explored is the attitude of the police and
local authorities towards sex workers; this includes whether sex workers
would feel secure in reporting human rights violations to the local
authorities, and why they think their human rights are not respected by
the police. Sex workers were also asked how they would like the government
and local authorities to protect them from police violations. Finally, the
study investigates what effect societies negative attitude has on sex
workers lives. This includes whether sex workers have received human
rights violations from clients and, if they are a managerial girl, their
owners. Also examined is how the behavior of the police effects their
work.

II. Methodology
This report is based on the results of 50 surveys administered between the 15
August and the 30 August in Toul Kork and Russey Keo by face-to-face
interviews conducted by active members of the Cambodian Prostitution Union
(CPU). It is planned that over 100 surveys will be administered, but due to the
urgency of the situation, it is necessary to report the results of 50 surveys
immediately.
Interviews were conducted in a relatively informal manner. This had the
advantage of allowing interviewers to ask respondents to clarify confused
responses, and explain reasons for the answers. The disadvantage of this
method was in maintaining consistency in interview questions from case to case.
The majority of respondents were independent or free girls. It could be argued
that our findings are only representative of a particular group of prostitutes, rather
than the majority. There is no evidence, however, to suggest that managerial
sex workers are more protected from human rights abuses than free girls, or
that free girls are under a greater risk of human rights abuses. In fact, it is quite
the opposite.
While the sample group is relatively small, it does highlight the main issues, and
provides disturbing results that require immediate attention and action from the
authorities, and government.
II. Background
The red light district of Toul Kork, in Phnom Penh is where approximately 300
sex workers primarily operate. They work in this area either within managed
brothels, or independently.
There recently has been an increased crack down on prostitution in the
area by police, which is ordered by local authorities for the purpose of
controlling social order. Under Article 7, of the law on Suppression of
the Kidnapping and Trafficking/Sales of Human Persons, and Exploitation of
Human Persons, the ownership, and operation of brothels are cited as
illegal, however, there is no Cambodian law prohibiting prostitution. In
implementing this law, it is not the brothel owners or clients who are
arrested, but it is the sex workers who are systematically blamed,
targeted and incarcerated. Furthermore, during the arrests, and sex
workers general day-to-day work, there are reports of sex workers human rights
being continuously violated by the police, clients and owners.
They are severely harassed by the police, and are constantly in fear of being
arrested; they spend much of their time hiding and running from the police, rather
than being able to earn a living. There are also reports that many sex workers
are subjected to beatings, extortion, and rape by police officers. The violators of
these crimes are rarely brought to justice, or even charged.
At the moment, there is no law protecting sex workers basic human rights
or a designated area where a sex worker can operate freely, and safely. In

fact, quite the opposite is happening. In trying to eradicate sex work,

the protection of prostitutes human rights is further threatened. They
can be forced to start operating in unsafe environments, such as parks, where it
is difficult for their rights to be monitored and protected.
Furthermore, sex workers should have the right to choose their livelihood, or
should be presented with more choices to provide for their families. It is against
the spirit of the law, and Cambodian culture, that one group is left outside of the
protection of the law.
Practical attitudes reflect the stigmatized role of the sex worker in
society. They are seen as criminals. Sex workers are highly discriminated
against in Cambodia, and these attitudes place them in a vulnerable
position, where their rights are easily abused. Trying to eradicate sex
work is not possible unless there is a change in Cambodian men sexual
behavior, and society attitudes. As a result, there is a desperate and urgent need
to recognize, and protect sex workers rights.
III.RESULTS
1. Demographic Analysis
The majority of surveys were administered to sex workers in Khan Toul
Kork and Khan Russey Keo in Phnom Penh. 84 per cent of respondents
were Cambodian, and primarily came to Phnom Penh from Kampong Cham
and Prey Veng. 16 per cent of respondents were of Vietnamese origin. The
majority of those surveyed were between the age of twenty and thirty (see
table 1.1), and 88 per cent of respondents work independently, or as a free
girl. Those surveyed who claimed to have a degree of literacy were divided
into three groups. 16 respondents had some level of reading ability, but
were unable to write. 3 respondents could write, but could not read, and
only 6 sex workers were able to both read and write. 50 per cent of sex
workers surveyed were illiterate. Furthermore, 70 percent of respondents
were married, however, it was difficult to distinguish between those who had
a boyfriend and considered themselves married, and those who were
actually married. A majority of these women had at least one child.
The length of time that those surveyed have operated as a sex worker in
Phnom Penh is outlined in table 1.2. 70 per cent of respondents had no
other form of income outside of sex work. Furthermore, of the 30 per cent
that had another job, the main occupations included a bargirl, sales girl or
massage girl. The majority of those surveyed became a sex worker
because they were poor and could not find alternative forms of work; they
had limited occupational choices. Included in this category are those who
were forced out of their homes due to violence, or they were abandoned by
their husbands. 24 per cent of respondents were sold into prostitution.
Table 1.1 & Table 1.2
[*Unfortunately these tables cannot be reproduced in text postings. Please
contact the author directly to receive this Mod *]

2. Human Rights Violations by Police

Sex workers surveyed were asked if they had ever experienced a human rights
violation from the police, and if not, if they know a sex worker who had
experienced such a violation. They were also questioned as to the nature of the
violation, to explain what exactly happened to them, and how often the violations
occur.
72 per cent of respondents said they had experienced a human rights
violation from the police. 28 per cent explained that they had not
directly experienced a violation from the police, however, all of the
respondents in this category stated that they had witnessed human rights
violation by a police officer towards a sex worker. Of the 50 sex workers
surveyed, there was no one that had not directly experienced a violation, or had
not seen the police violate a sex workers human rights. 34 sex workers surveyed
stated that they had experienced, or witnessed police violations on a weekly
basis; 16 respondents said that violations occur monthly. Also, 92 per cent of sex
workers surveyed commented that they had recently noticed an increase in
human rights violations by the police. It was difficult to ascertain how long they
thought the increase in violations had been occurring, but many commented that
they had noticed an increase in police abuses over the past couple of weeks.
The majority of those that had not noticed an increase in police violations worked
outside Toul Kork; they operate from parks and guesthouses.
Respondents who had directly experienced a violation from the police were
asked to explain what happened to them, and the nature of theviolation.
All of the sex workers in this category stated that the police for no
other reason than that they work as a sex worker had arrested them. It was
typically stated that the police forced their way into the brothel, or
rented room where the sex worker operates, and that they were violently
taken to the police station. During police arrests, many respondents
stated that they were beaten with sticks, their hair was pulled to force
them onto motto taxis, and there were also reports of sex workers being
beaten to the head, in many instances by the policemans gun. One women
explained that during her arrest, the policeman in question threatened her
by placing his gun to her head. Furthermore, 4 sex workers surveyed
stated that during their arrest, they were forced by the police to have sex. When
respondents were asked to explain how their human rights were violated while
they were detained in the police station, some sex workers commented that they
had been locked in a room, not given food, and forced to do domestic chores,
such as, washing the floors and toilets. There were also reports of sex workers
being forced to give massages to policemen.
Almost half of the respondents commented that the police have exposed them to
extortion; their security was threatened if they did not give the police money. It
was found that this occurs both during arrests and on a day-to-day basis. There
are consistent reports that sex workers are required to give a percentage of their

weekly earnings to a policeman to deter being arrested and harassed. The

majority of respondents stated that the police ask for between US$10-20 from
sex workers to not be arrested.
The majority of respondents surveyed stated that they have been blamed for
their occupation, or intimidated by the police. This includes being shouted at,
scolded, and continuously watched, and harassed by the police. Sex workers
freedom of movement is violated on a regular basis 9 respondents commented
that they have had sex with a policeman for no money.
Respondents were questioned as to whether they reported the police
violation to anyone. These findings are slightly ambiguous because both
respondents that had directly experienced a human rights violation, and
those that had only seen a violation, were asked this question. 26 per
cent of respondents said that they had reported the police violation. Of
these sex workers, the majority reported the violation to the Cambodian
Prostitution Union (CPU), however, when questioned as to what happened to
their complaint, they indicated that they were to scared to take their
complaint any higher, or file a complaint to the court. Two respondents
stated that they resolved their dispute with the police by reporting the
violation to their owner. They indicated that the owner resolved the
dispute by giving the police money. It was found that 74 per cent of those
surveyed did not report the police violation; this group of respondents was asked
to explain why. A prevalent response to this question was that they were afraid or
felt threatened. 8 respondents commented that they felt helpless, and that they
did not know who to report the violation to;and 4 sex workers stated that if they
had reported the violation they would not be able to work, and they can not afford
to stop working.
88 per cent of respondents said that if they were arrested or injured by
the police, they would not report the violation to other policemen, or to
the local authorities; this included the village, commune or district
chief. The respondents were asked to explain why. The general attitude
among sex workers was that the police and local authorities do not pay
attention, or care what happens to them, so why should they report the
violation. Respondents also commented that the authorities and the police
cooperate together, and that there was no distinction between the two
institutions. Furthermore, respondents also stated that they were afraid
to go to the police because of their low social status as a sex worker,
and there lack or recognition by the police. For example, one woman
stated: Police hate sex workers; Im afraid if I go to police, the
police will do same thing to me because I am a sex worker.
80 per cent of respondents said that they felt threatened by the police. Many
sex workers surveyed stated that they were afraid of police violence, and that
they would be arrested, and consequently, would not be able to work. Some
respondents explained that they were scared that the police would publicly

expose their identity by calling a television crew, or a newspaper to take their

picture. Sex workers interviewed were found to be generally angry at the police
harassment, abuse and human rights violations towards sex workers.
3. Attitudes of Police and Local Authorities
In order to understand the reasons for police violations toward sex
workers, the attitudes of the police and local authorities was
investigated as one possible explanation. Respondents were questioned as to
whether they thought the police have the correct attitude towards them, and why
they thought the police violated their human rights. Furthermore, they were asked
to comment on the attitude of the local authorities, and explain if, and how, they
would like the local authorities, and the government to protect them.
100 per cent of those surveyed stated that they believed the police had a bad
attitude toward sex workers. Respondents indicated four major reasons why they
thought the police violated their human rights; this included a police attitude that
sex workers were illegal, and against Khmer culture; that the police hold the
power, and sex workers are vulnerable and easy targets for abuse; that the
police are corrupt and want money from sex workers; and a majority of sex
workers surveyed stated that this is the police role. Many respondents stated
more than one of these categories to explain reasons why they thought the police
had a bad attitude towards sex workers.
In respect of the local authorities, 100 per cent of respondents claimed that they
do not believe the local authorities support them. A typical attitude amongst sex
workers surveyed was that the local authorities do not recognize sex workers
human rights, that they are viewed by the local authorities as a group of women
who transmit the AIDS disease, and are looked down on as social outcasts. It
was also commonly stated that the local authorities do not support sex workers in
allowing them to make money. In general, respondents indicated that they did not
feel protected, or supported by the authorities, and that they believed the
authorities had a negative attitude toward sex workers.
100 per cent of sex workers surveyed claimed that they require the
assistance of the local authorities and the government to protect them
from police human rights violations. All of those responding to this
question, gave a variety of reasons of how they would like to be supported by
these institutions; there were, however, some common themes. Most
respondents explained that they wanted law to be enforced that protected their
human rights, and that pressure should be placed on the police to stop the
arrests. Also, commonly stated was that the government should recognize the
work performed by sex workers, and allocate a place in which sex workers are
able to operate safely, and legally. One women represented the majority
response in saying: Sex workers have same right as other people, even though
(we are) looked down on by society for destroying culture. Many sex workers
have surveyed also wanted the police to be held accountable for their actions.
For example, respondents explained that they would like to see the police
respect sex workers human rights, and those policemen that violated them to be

punished. Also, many claimed that the government and local authorities should
put more pressure on the police, and owners to stop corruption and the
exploitation of sex workers.
In summary, all of those responding to these questions wanted the
government and local authorities to take action to protect sex workers
human rights from police human rights violations.
4. Working Conditions
To examine the working conditions of sex workers, respondents were asked if
they had experienced a human rights violation from their owner, or a client.
However, as only 6 women surveyed were managerial girls, the findings raises
some concerning issues, and an insight into the problem of human rights
violations by owners, rather than extensive findings. Of the 6 managerial girls
surveyed, half claimed to have experienced a human rights violation from an
owner. These violations included: no money for their work, that they were beaten,
forced to work long hours, and it was also claimed that they were not allowed to
leave the brothel; they had no freedom. Disturbingly, one woman explained that
she had been tortured by receiving electric shocks from the owner.
50 per cent of respondents claimed to have been violated by a client. Most
violations by a client took the form of threatening, and scolding, the sex worker.
For example, women surveyed explained that some clients would shoot a gun to
threaten them, and would search their room for money, or something of value, to
steal. Some sex workers claimed that they have had money or valuables stolen
from their room by clients. Respondents also claimed that clients threatened to
burn their room. 50 percent of those respondents that stated that they had
received a human rights violation from a client claimed that they were not paid for
their services; they had sex for no money. It was also found that some clients
would not agree to wear a condom, and that the sex worker was powerless to
force him to. 60 per cent of sex workers stated that violations from clients
occurred every month, and 20 per cent claimed they would occur every week.
Finally, 100 percent of sex workers surveyed claimed that the behavior of the
police affected their working conditions. For example, respondents stated that
they had little time to make money because they were continuously hiding, and
trying to escape, from the police. Consequently, many sex workers explained that
they had less food for themselves and their families, and were more open to
illnesses and sickness.
Furthermore, some women claimed that the police arrests forced them to borrow
money, and placed them in debt.
IV.Analysis: Impact of attitudes on human rights violations of sex
workers.
It is evident from the findings that the abuse of sex workers human rights by the
police is extensive. Why do the police violate sex workers human rights? The
simplest answer to this question is because they can.

However, human rights abuses occur not just because the police are
powerful. They occur because society holds negative, discriminative
attitudes towards sex workers. This places them in vulnerable, powerless
positions, which denies them of the protection of their rights. For
example, the findings illustrate that a majority of respondents believed
that the police violated their human rights because they were against
Khmer culture. Other reasons were cited, such as corruption, but
corruption is only one type of human rights abuse exercised against sex workers,
and prevalent throughout Cambodia; the important question is: why are sex
workers targeted in such an extensive way by the police?
The findings illustrate that sex workers human rights are further
weakened by the attitude of the local authorities. 88 per cent of
respondents explained that they would not report a violation to other
policemen, or the local authorities. It was found that the disregard the
local authorities have for them is one of the main reasons they would not
report a violation. Also, to reinforce this point, a majority of sex
workers surveyed claimed that they do not feel supported by the local
authorities because the authorities look down on them, and treat them as social
outcasts. Evidently, sex workers are not only placed in abusive positions, but
they have no avenue in which to protect their human rights. This is primarily due
to the stigmatized role sex workers have amongst the police and local authorities.
A negative attitude towards sex workers is not only reserved for the
police and local authorities; it is prevalent throughout society. For
example, 50 percent of sex workers have received human rights abuses from a
client, or from their owner, and for many, on a regular basis. Clients and owners
would not abuse sex workers human rights if they did not hold derogative
attitudes towards them, and did not think they could get away with it.
What are the effects on society of sex workers human rights not being
protected? Many of the women surveyed have dependents, and children to
support. These people will be directly affected by the continuous arrests,and
abuse of sex workers. Also, at the moment, sex workers are powerless. If sex
workers had rights, and were protected by the law, they would be able to refuse
clients, and have the power to protect themselves against STDs and HIV/AIDs. If
this occurs, then those infected with HIV infections would decrease, and women
would feel safer in society.
V. Conclusion
It is evident from these findings that the police continuously subjects
sex workers to human rights violations. These violations take the form of
arrests, harassment, beatings, extortion and rape. The results in this
report indicate that the negative attitudes of the police, local
authorities and society at large, is one factor that places women in a
vulnerable situation, and allows human rights abuses of sex workers to occur,
and to be ignored.

As the findings in this report are the result of a small sample, they primarily raise
some key issues to be investigated further. Importantly, there is a need to
investigate why there are negative attitudes towards sex workers in society; what
sexual codes, and values in society produce negative attitudes towards a
particular group of women? It is clear from these findings, however, that
immediate attention, and action is required to change attitudes in society, starting
with the police and local authorities, and to protect sex workers human rights.
VI.

Recommendations

CWDA recommends:

Steps should be taken to end the police arrests, harassment and

violence of sex workers in Toul Kork.

Proper training be given to police officers on human rights,

especially womens rights.

That brothel owners, and clients be arrested and persecuted for

human rights violations of sex workers.

Disciplinary and/or criminal proceedings against officials, including police,

who use their authority improperly and violate sex workers human rights

Full recognition of sex workers right

Steps should be taken by the government and local authorities to ensure

education, and training for men on womens rights, and the importance of
an equitable society.

The inclusion of an Article to provide protection to victims of

human rights violations in The Trafficking Law.

Serey Phal
Cambodian Womens Development Association (CWDA)
E-mail: cwda@bigpond.com.kh

---

Action against police violation of human rights in Hong Kong

Zi Teng
On Wednesday the 15 of June the Hong Kong public saw flashed across the Chinese
language press, and on the 16 of June the SCMP, photos of a group of " 40 mainland
women suspected of prostitution" rounded up , interned in a crowded (14 square
metre) "cage", in much the same way as animals would be. This was in public view
and for a period of 13 hours as reported in the article. The photos in both presses
depict the women lying on the bare ground, without visible toilet facilities, privacy or
food while male polices officers stand by. The image is poignant being one of
powerlessness, vulnerability and visible shame, and voyeurism.
It is often said that the success of a nation should be measured in its treatment of it
poor and disadvantaged people. Sex worker occupy some of the most marginalized
positions in Hong Kong society, as women, migrants, low paid workers, with poor
education, commonly as illegal workers, and politically powerless. Surely, as
members of a civilized society, the Hong Kong public should be alarmed at this
situation. It is a great indictment of contemporary Hong Kong that such a visible
violation of human rights can take place today.
Sex work has an enduring place in history and global distribution, sex work is
notable for the diversity with which different societies react to its presence. In Hong
Kong sex work is not illegal but in the case of these women they were suspected of
being in breach of conditions of stay. In Hong Kong, many sex workers are from
Mainland China, impoverished backgrounds and are disadvantaged in nearly all
sectors of their lives. They also face a diverse array of occupational hazards. These
include sexually transmitted infections, physical violence from their clients and
pimps, psychological disorders, and a life style associated with substance abuse.
Despite all this sex workers are real people. They feel the same embarrassment,
experience stigmatization, face real illnesses and experience real pain from
circumstances often forced on them. Remember their occupation only exists as a
response to a local market of desire. Action for REACH OUT ( AFRO), a Hong Kong
based NGO with a twelve-year history of working with sex workers on the streets
and in night clubs of Hong Kong, calls for the Hong Kong public as well as other
concern organisations to take a stance on this gross violation of human rights and
dignity. In an advanced and so-called civilized society sex workers must be accorded
the same respect afforded to all members of the community.
Please Let EVERYONE know
Nancy Leung
Action for REACH OUT

Action against police violation of human rights in Hong Kong

Zi Teng (Sex workers concern group in HK) initiates a One-Person-Letter Action. This
action is intended to fight against police's inhumane treatment towards the people
who are suspected for violating the Migration Ordinance. (Sex workers or suspected
sex workers) Please forward this email to the Security Bureau (sbenq@sb.gov.hk), to
express our discontent over police's disrespect for basic human right. Your action is
highly appreciated.
Please contact us by ziteng@hkstar.com if you need further information or have any
comment.
Strongly object to the violation of human rights by the Hong Kong Police
Force
As an international city, Hong Kong claims herself as a place of practicing the rule of
law and respecting human rights. Nevertheless, our Police Force has committed such
a shameful act, badly treating arrested people suspicious of working in Hong Kong
without permits. The incident has become a shame for Hong Kong people and an
international scandal in human rights overnight.
Three days ago, The Police Force launched its large-scale enforcement. They
arrested a group of people suspicious of illegally working as sex workers, and treated
them with torture. They retained over 80 people in a tiny iron cage of 200 square

metre. There was plenty of rubbish and leftovers inside the cage. The people there
had to suffer from the heat emitted from air-conditioners nearby and the severe
sunshine for thirteen hours, allowing other people to watch them and take pictures.
The incident is only tip of an iceberg. Zi Teng has received a lot of complaints from
Mainlanders against the abuse of power by the Police Force. In its enforcement
against the sex industry, all girls wearing sexy clothes would be arrested and
afterwards be beaten, imposed with faked evidences and forced to sign the
statement under threat. Once admitting their act of providing sex services, those
girls would be repatriated. If denying the charge, the girls would be detained for four
months to await court hearings and lose their freedom. The innocents have already
been penalized. In the course of enforcement against this group of migrant workers
who suffer from social discrimination, the Police officers will even take the chance to
force the sex workers to provide sex services without paying the money just like
raping them. For migrants, all complaint mechanisms are ineffective.
The above is the behaviour of a totalitarian state adopted to deal with her people.
The Hong Kong Police Force use the same kind of violent acts and spiritual torturing
to treat people suspicious of being illegal workers. Even people convicted of
crimes should receive the basic human right protection. What is ironic is that the
Police Force has exercised such torture without court ruling against people from
outside Hong Kong who have limited knowledge of local laws and legal procedures.
We have justifications to believe that the Police Force, using such inhuman way to
force people to admit the criminal charges, has seriously affected the rule of law in
Hong Kong.
Zi Teng condemned the way that the Police Force arrested people found staying in
Hong Kong illegally. Zi Teng strongly urges:

1. the Police Force to apologise;

2. the Police Force to disclose its legal procedures and guidelines on
handling the arrest of people found illegally staying in Hong
Kong;
3. the Security Bureau to set up an independent mechanism as an
appropriate channel for migrants to lodge their complaints with a
view to rescuing the reputation of Hong Kong as a place of
respecting human rights and the rule of law;
4. immediately stop all kinds of abuse of power by the Police Force.
Initiated by Zi Teng (ziteng@hkstar.com)
Signature:
Organisation (if appropriate):

H U M A N
R I G H T S
W A T C H

SWEPT AWAY
Abuses Against Sex Workers in China

Swept Away
Abuses against Sex Workers in China

Copyright 2013 Human Rights Watch

All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-62313-0091
Cover design by Rafael Jimenez

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the
world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political
freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to
justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.
We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and
respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international
community to support the cause of human rights for all.
Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries,
and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg,
London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto,
Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich.
For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org

MAY 2013

978-1-62313-0091

Swept Away
Abuses Against Sex Workers in China
Map of China ..................................................................................................................... iii
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1
Key Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 5
Methodology...................................................................................................................... 6
I. Background ..................................................................................................................... 9
Venues for Sex Work ............................................................................................................... 10
Factors Leading to Sex Work ................................................................................................... 11
Sex Work Under Current Chinese Law ...................................................................................... 14

II. Police Abuse of Sex Workers......................................................................................... 23

Beatings, Ill-Treatment, and Torture in Custody .......................................................................24
Violence at the Time of Arrest.................................................................................................. 25
Arbitrary Arrest and Detention ................................................................................................. 27
Other Violations .................................................................................................................... 29
Barriers to Justice after Client or Police Abuse .........................................................................32
Police Abuse as a Violation of Domestic Laws, Regulations, and Policies ................................. 35
Police Abuse as a Violation of International Law...................................................................... 37

III. Abusive Public Health Practices Against Sex Workers .................................................. 39

Forced and Coercive Testing of Sex Workers, Violations of Privacy Rights................................ 40
Allegations of CDC Personnel Mistreatment of Sex Workers .....................................................44
Health Abuses and International Law ...................................................................................... 45

IV. Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 48

To the State Council ............................................................................................................... 48
To the National Peoples Congress ......................................................................................... 48
To the Ministry of Public Security ........................................................................................... 48
To the Ministry of Health and the Center for Disease Control ................................................... 49
To Foreign Governments and the United Nations .................................................................... 49

Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................51

Map of China

Summary
Prostitutes, as we have been calling them, should be termed waylaid women
from now on. We ought to show respect to this special group of people.
Liu Shaowu, head of the Public Order Management Bureau, Public
Security Ministry, December 2010

Once when I was soliciting on the street, the police just came and started
beating me up. There were five or six of them, they just beat me to a pulp.
Xiao Jing, a sex worker interviewed in Beijing, 2011

The Chinese Center for Disease Control tested me last year. But they never
told me the results. I hope I dont have AIDS.
Interview with Zhangping, a sex worker interviewed in Beijing, 2009
The momentous economic and social change in China in recent decades has been
accompanied by a sharp increase in inequality and in the numbers of women in sex work.
The United Nations, citing Chinese police sources, estimates that four to six million adult
women currently engage in sex work. Although sex work is illegal in China, it is ubiquitous,
present not only in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, but also in
smaller cities and towns down to the smallest townships in remote rural areas. Sex
workers typically work from karaoke bars, hotels, massage parlors, and hair salons, as well
as in public parks and streets.
Under Chinese law, all aspects of sex workincluding solicitation, sale, and purchase of
sexare illegal. Chinese law treats most sex work-related offences as administrative
violations, punishable by fines and short periods of police custody or administrative
detention rather than criminal penalties. Nonetheless, for repeat offenders it allows for
administrative detention of up to two years. In line with its prohibitionist public stance, the
government periodically carries out vigorous nationwide crackdown campaigns called
saohuang dafei (literally, sweep away the yellow [i.e. prostitution and pornography]
and strike down the illegal [seize and destroy pornographic materials]).

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Women engaging in sex work are victims of a wide range of police abuses; this report
documents arbitrary arrests and detentions, physical violence, and other ill-treatment of
sex workers in Beijing, and discusses the national legal framework that facilitates these
abuses. Women interviewed for this report told Human Rights Watch of arbitrary fines, of
possession of condoms used as evidence against them, of being detained following sex
with undercover police officers, and of having almost no hope of winning remedies for
rights violations by clients, bosses, or state agents. Sex workers also face high risks of
sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
While many of these practices violate Chinese law as well as international human rights
law, the government is doing far too little to bring an end to the abuses or to ensure that
women in sex work have access to health services. The women we spoke with reported
abuse by public health agencies, especially local offices of Chinas Center for Disease
Control (CDC). These abuses included forced or coercive HIV testing, privacy infringements,
disclosure of HIV test results to third parties, and mistreatment by health officials, all of
which violate the right to health as defined under Chinese and international law.
Research for this report included more than 140 interviews with sex workers, clients, police,
public health officials, academic specialists, and members of international and domestic
nongovernmental organizations between 2008 and 2012. At the heart of the research were
interviews with 75 women sex workers in Beijing, including 20 detailed interviews with
women between the ages of 20 and 63. Because the information about uncorrected
abuses in the nations capitalwhere in theory law enforcement should be strongest
track with the findings of interviews from other parts of the country, Human Rights Watch
believes similar problems exist nationwide.
In our interviews, we focused on the womens interactions with police and public health
agencies, two institutions with which they have frequent, direct contact. It does not
attempt to analyze the actions of all agencies relevant to regulation of prostitution, such as
those providing social services or child protection, those addressing trafficking, and those
that run Custody and Education centers for women. Nor does this report attempt to
comprehensively analyze Chinas response to trafficking in persons.
*

SWEPT AWAY

Officially considered as one of the six evils of societyalong with gambling, superstition,
drug trafficking, pornography, and trafficking of women and childrenprostitution is
labeled by the Chinese government as an ugly social phenomenon that goes against
socialist spiritual civilization. Even though in practice Chinese authorities effectively
tolerate prostitution and entertainment venues that offer prostitution services, these
campaigns mobilize large numbers of law enforcement agents across the country and
typically last between several weeks and a few months. In 2012 Beijing authorities
initiated two campaigns, one lasting from April 20 to May 30, and another ahead of the 18th
Party Congress in October and November. In the course of these campaigns, police
repeatedly raided entertainment venues, hair salons, massage parlors, and other places
where sex work occurs. They forced some venues to close, and detained large numbers of
women suspected of being sex workers.
These highly publicized crackdowns generate a climate conducive to increased incidences
of police brutality and other abuses of sex workers. Because police crackdowns drive the
trade further underground, they effectively increase the vulnerability of women who
engage in sex work to police and client abuse. They also induce some sex workers to
engage in higher risk sexual behavior. Many sex workers, for instance, say they avoid
carrying condoms during campaigns to minimize the risk of arrest. Moreover, activists told
Human Rights Watch that women detained in these sweeps are rarely referred by law
enforcement officials to services they may need or want, such as social services, health
care, or employment or training resources.
The Chinese government, which in 2003 belatedly but comprehensively began addressing
the HIV/AIDS crisis, has focused many of its HIV testing and educational programs on
people who engage in sex work; official data suggest that the rate of HIV infection among
sex workers nationwide ranges from 3 to 10 percent. Some of these efforts, however, entail
coercive testing and violations of privacy rights. The Chinese government justifies these
practices in the name of public health, but international experience has demonstrated that
for HIV to be successfully curbed, populations such as sex workers must be able to obtain
confidential health care without fear of harassment or discrimination.
Although sex work is illegal in China, people who engage in sex work are entitled to the
same rights and freedoms as other people, including the rights to equality and nondiscrimination, privacy, security of person, freedom from arbitrary detention, equality
3

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

before the law, due process of law, health, and, importantly, the right to a remedy when
the abovementioned rights are violated.
The imposition of punitive penalties for voluntary, consensual sexual relations amongst
adults violates a number of internationally recognized human rights, including the rights to
personal autonomy and privacy. Human Rights Watch takes the position that this also
holds true with respect to voluntary adult commercial sex work, and that respecting
consenting adults autonomy to choose to engage in voluntary sex work is consistent with
respect for their human rights. Criminalization of sex work also creates barriers for those
engaged in sex work to exercise basic rights such as availing themselves of government
protection from violence, access to justice for abuses, access to essential health services
as an element of the right to health, and other available services. Failure to uphold the
rights of the millions of women who voluntarily engage in sex work leaves them subject to
discrimination, abuse, exploitation, and undercuts public health policies.
Human Rights Watch believes the Chinese government should take immediate steps to
protect the human rights of all people who engage in sex work. It should repeal the host of
laws and regulations that are repressive and misused by the police, and end the practice
of indiscriminate law enforcement sweeps. The government should also lift its sharp
restrictions on the ability of civil society organizationsincluding sex worker
organizationsto register and carry out their activities freely within the boundaries of the
law. Finally, it should commit to international standards on HIV/AIDS testing, particularly
with respect to privacy and informed consent.

SWEPT AWAY

Key Recommendations

Enact legislation to remove criminal and administrative sanctions against voluntary,

consensual adult sex work and related offenses, such as solicitation.

End periodic mobilization campaigns to sweep away prostitution and

pornography (saohuang dafei) that have generated widespread and severe
abuses against women engaging in sex work.

Publicly commit to strict nationwide enforcement of provisions that prohibit

arbitrary arrests and detentions, police brutality, coerced confessions, and torture,
and ensure swift prosecution of police officers who violate these provisions.

Immediately end mandatory HIV/AIDS testing of sex workers, require informed

consent prior to testing, inform anyone tested for HIV of the results, make
appropriate counseling available before and after the test, and implement testing
programs that conform with international standards.

Initiate consultations with sex workers and relevant nongovernmental

organizations to consider other legislative reforms to better protect the rights of
sex workers.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Methodology
The scope of this study is necessarily limited by research constraints in China. The country
remains closed to official and open research by international human rights organizations,
and the Chinese government strictly limits the activities of civil society and
nongovernmental organizations on a variety of subjects, particularly those related to
human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch focused its investigation on adult women who engage in sex work on
the streets, in public places such as parks, and in small brothels that masquerade as
massage parlors and hair salons, primarily in Beijing. These women are vulnerable to
violence, abuse, and public health risks. They have limited protection from abusive police
and clients because they tend to work alone or in the vicinity of only a few other sex workers.
They tend to have little knowledge of their legal rights and strategies to protect their health.
This subset of the sex worker population has previously been often overlooked in research
on sex work in China, which tends to focus on women working as hostesses in karaoke
venues (yule changsuo), as they are generally easier for researchers to access.
Research for this report included more than 140 interviews with sex workers, clients, police,
public health officials, academic specialists, and members of international and domestic
nongovernmental organizations between 2008 and 2012. At the heart of the research were
interviews with 75 women sex workers in Beijing, including 20 detailed interviews with
women between the ages of 20 and 63. All of those 20 detailed interviews were conducted
in the homes of two women engaging in sex work: a small rented room and a makeshift
shack in a back alley. Human Rights Watch also carried out two focus group discussions,
one with a group of six women who solicit clients in public spaces, and one with a group of
five women who work in hair salons and massage parlors. All of the sex workers we spoke
with said they had voluntarily chosen sex work, though many had few job options and
could earn significantly more money in sex work than in other jobs. None were currently in
a situation that qualifies as trafficking.
The names and identifying details of those with whom we met have been withheld to
protect their safety. All names of sex workers used in the report are pseudonyms. All those

SWEPT AWAY

we interviewed were informed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature, and the
ways in which the information would be used. All interviewees provided verbal consent to
be interviewed. All were informed that they could decline to answer questions or could end
the interview at any time. In some cases, interviewees who traveled to attend interviews
were reimbursed up to 100 yuan (US$15) for public transport and meal costs.
None of the interviewees were minors when this research was conducted. At least four
had experienced commercial sexual exploitation when they were children, at ages 15 and
16. At least two of the interviewees had originally been trafficked into forced prostitution;
at the time of our research, they had escaped their traffickers, and said they were selling
sex voluntarily. In assessing the voluntariness of womens decision to engage in sex
work, Human Rights Watch applied the elements of the definition of trafficking set forth
in the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children.
Ten of the sex workers we spoke with solicited customers in public spaces. Eight of them
worked in small brothels that were disguised as hair salons and massage parlors. Two of
them worked in small karaoke venues but had previously worked in public parks.
Secondary sources we consulted include Chinese government documents, laws, and
policies; reports from domestic NGOs, international NGOs, and international organizations;
interviews with members of domestic nongovernmental organizations, international
nongovernmental organizations, foreign governments, and international organizations
working on issues pertaining to sex work, public health, trafficking, and human rights;
news articles from Chinese and international media; and writings by Chinese and foreign
academic experts on prostitution.
Male and transgender sex workers are also vulnerable to abuse, but due to research
limitations this report does not address their situation.
This report also does not address Chinese government responses to children (those under
18) in situations of commercial sexual exploitation. The approaches appropriate to
children, who in no way can be considered to be voluntarily engaging in sex work and in
most cases should be considered trafficking victims, differ from those that should be
applied to adults.
7

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

The report also does not attempt to analyze the Chinese governments overall response to
trafficking in persons, although it includes some references to legal standards and
protections applicable both to individuals engaging in sex work and to trafficking victims.

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I. Background
While prostitution decreased significantly in the years following the establishment of the
Peoples Republic of China in 1949, it reemerged with the economic liberalization reforms
that began in 1978.1 It first reappeared in the large coastal cities, and is now widespread in
urban and rural areas throughout China.2
There are no exact figures on the number of people who engage in sex work in China.3
Estimates of the number of women sex workers from the past decade range from one
million to ten million.4 The United Nations Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, citing
Chinese Public Security sources, estimated that there were four to six million sex workers
in 2000.5 In 2010 the official China Daily cited estimates ranging from three to ten million.6
Others have used figures in police reports on anti-prostitution campaigns to estimate citylevel rates, calculating that in 2000 Beijing had between 200,000 and 300,000 sex
workers.7 While many of these sources do not distinguish between numbers of women and

1 When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949, it was intent on eliminating prostitution. Selling sex for
money was considered a capitalist phenomenon incompatible with the basic tenets of communist ideology. The CCP
embarked on an aggressive campaign to rid the country of prostitution by shutting down brothels, and sending sex workers
and clients to re-education centers. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, officials declared that prostitution had been
eradicated from society. See Gail Hershatter, Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-century
Shanghai (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997); Christian Henriot, Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai: A Social
History 1849-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
2 Joan Kaufman, Arthur Kleinman, and Tony Saich, AIDS and Social Policy in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center

Publications, 2006), http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ihsg/publications/pdf/AIDSinChina.pdf, pp. 50-51.

3 Chinese official documents in English language generally refer to sex work as prostitution, and to the purchase of sexual

services as visiting prostitutes, in line with the Chinese terms used in law, maiyin piaochang (). The term sex
work (xing gongzuo, ), preferred by Chinese sex workers advocates, is of recent introduction.
4 Yan Hong and Xiaoming Li, Behavioral Studies of Female Sex Workers in China: A Literature Review and Recommendation for

Future Research, AIDS & Behavior, vol. 12(4) (2007), p. 623; Daniel Bell, Sexual development, Guardian, January 28, 2007,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jan/28/sexualdevelopment (accessed January 22, 2012); Suiming Pan,
William Parish, and AL Wang, Chinese Peoples Sexual Relationships and Sexual Behavior (Zhongguoren de Xing Guanxi yu Xing
Xingwei) China Sex Studies, vol. 5 (2000); Joan Kaufman and Jing Jun, China and AIDSThe time to act is now, Science, vol.
296 (2002), p. 2239; UNAIDS Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, HIV/AIDS: Chinas Titanic Peril, 2001 Update of the AIDS
situation and Needs Assessment Report, 2002, www.hivpolicy.org/Library/HPP000056.pdf (accessed January 23, 2012); and
Zhong Wei, A Close Look at Chinas Sex Industry, Lianhe Zaobao (:,), Oct. 2, 2000.
5 UNAIDS Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, HIV/AIDS: Chinas Titanic Peril, 2001 Update of the AIDS situation and Needs

Assessment Report, 2002, www.hivpolicy.org/Library/HPP000056.pdf (accessed January 23, 2012).

6 Debate: Prostitution, China Daily, May 31, 2010, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-

05/31/content_9909738.htm (accessed March 22, 2012)

7 Zhong Wei, A Close Look at Chinas Sex Industry; and UNAIDS Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, HIV/AIDS: Chinas

Titanic Peril, 2001 Update of the AIDS situation and Needs Assessment Report, 2002,
www.hivpolicy.org/Library/HPP000056.pdf (accessed January 23, 2012).

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

men, or adults and children engaged in sex work or in situations of commercial sexual
exploitation, adult women appear to constitute the overwhelming majority of sex workers.

Venues for Sex Work

Sex work occurs in many different venues in China.8 While reported rates per service varied
30-fold in our research, there were some correlations between the rate and the type of
venue, as noted below.
Sex work takes place in massage parlors, hair salons, and bathhouses and saunas. These
venues sometimes signal the availability of prostitution with actual red lights visible from
the street. Eight of the women we interviewed work in such places. Some of these venues
offer the advertised services, such as massages and haircuts, as well as prostitution, but
the client must specifically ask for special services (teshu fuwu.) Other such venues only
offer sexual services. Participants in our focus groups said 120 yuan (US$18) was an
average price per sexual service for such venues.
Women also solicit clients in public places such as streets and parks. In such cases, the
sex act might take place in a secluded place outdoors but, more often, those involved go
to the sex workers or clients home, or rent a hotel room.9 Participants in our focus groups
said that 100 yuan (US$15) per sexual service was the norm for workers in streets and
parks10 Others noted that such workers can earn as little as 5 yuan (75 cents) per sexual
service,11 and one 63-year-old Beijing interviewee who solicits in parks told us she earned
30 yuan (US$4.5) per service.12
Entertainment establishments such as karaoke venues and nightclubs also serve as venues
for sex work. Hostesses who work in such locations are expected to entertain clients, and
talk, drink, and dance with them. For this reason, they are called three accompaniments
ladies (sanpei xiaojie). Some of these women also sell sex to clients. Human Rights Watch
interviewed two karaoke venue sex workers. They reported earnings of 100 to 500 yuan

8 Elaine Jeffreys, China, Sex and Prostitution (London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), p. 168.
9 Human Rights Watch first focus group, Beijing, 2011.
10 Ibid.
11 Human Rights Watch second focus group, Beijing, 2011.
12 Human Rights Watch interview with Hong Jie, Beijing, 2011.

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10

(US$15 to 75) per sexual service. Sex rarely occurs in the actual entertainment venue. Instead,
they usually go to the clients home, the sex workers home, or a hotel.13
Other venues for sex work include hotels14 or private locations arranged through the Internet.15
Venues in which sex work takes place are typically run by managers (laoban), who are
responsible for the overall business, such as food, drink, and music in karaoke bars.
Madams (mami) work in these venues, and are responsible for all aspects of business that
pertains to sex workers. They arrange transactions with clients, and usually receive a 10 to
30 percent commission.16 Women who sell sex in public spaces often also work for
madams or pimps. Some women work independently.

Factors Leading to Sex Work

Domestic surveys show that a majority of Chinese women engaged in sex work are
migrants from rural areas or small cities who have not completed high school.17
Women engaged in sex work told Human Rights Watch that a number of factors contributed to
their decision to enter into sex work. Their accounts echo findings by other researchers on sex
work by women in China. The factors include poverty, lack of economic and educational
opportunities for women (especially in the countryside), job loss, and divorce or separation.18
13 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiao Xiao and Xiao Yue, Beijing, 2011.
14 Sex workers who solicit clients in hotels call hotel rooms directly, and ask hotel guests whether they want a massage or

any special services, or work from the hotels entertainment facilities (typically karaoke venues and bars). Hotels in China
frequently allow such practices.
15 So-called elite sex workers act as escorts and second wives (baoernai) for wealthy government officials and

businessmen who are often already married. These men might provide them with housing and a living allowance. University
students have become involved in these types of prostitution. Some women can earn the equivalent of thousands of dollars,
as well as lavish gifts and career advancing favors. Human Rights Watch did not interview any women who work as escorts or
second wives for this report. Suowei Xiao, The Second-Wife Phenomenon and the Relational Construction of Class-Coded
Masculinities in Contemporary China, Men and Masculinities, vol. 14(5) (2011); Human Rights Watch interview with public
health expert Beijing, 2011; Tom Doctoroff, Second Wives and Chinas Booming Luxury Market, Huffington Post, February 17,
2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-doctoroff/second-wives-and-chinas-b_b_824380.html (accessed February 22,
2012); and Human Rights Watch interview with Shushu, Beijing, 2009.
16 Human Rights Watch first and second focus groups, Beijing, 2011.
17 Hong and Li, Behavioral Studies of Female Sex Workers in China, AIDS & Behavior (2009), p. 631; Vincent E. Gil et al.,

Prostitutes, prostitution and STD HIV transmission in mainland China, Social Science & Medicine, vol. 42 (1) (1996), p. 141;
World Health Organization (WHO), Sex Work in Asia, 2001,
http://www.wpro.who.int/themes_focuses/theme1/focus4/pub_doc. asp (accessed June 1, 2011);
Asian Development Bank, Peoples Republic of China: country gender assessment, 2006,
http://www.adb.org/documents/peoples-republic-china-country-gender-assessment (accessed February 23, 2012); United
Nations Development Program, Human Development Report, 2008,

11

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

While not all sex workers face the constrained choices presented by these circumstances,
none of the women interviewed by Human Rights Watch had other employment options that
would provide earnings close to the earnings they anticipated in sex work. Lili, a widow who
left her job selling clothes in her hometown in Henan to enter prostitution in Beijing, cited
her ability to support her family as the main reason for selling sex services:
I earn a few thousand yuan a month, which is enough to support my family. It
is much more than I could earn working in an office or doing manual labor.19
Xiao Li, who left her 13-year-old daughter with her parents in rural Hubei to work in Beijing,
explained that her income was considerably higher as a sex worker than what she
previously earned farming:
My income now [as a sex worker] is a couple thousand yuan a month, which
is about four times more than I used to earn.20
Several interviewees said they entered the sex trade after losing financial support from
their husbands. Both Mimi and Amei started selling sex after getting divorced.21

http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/national/asiathepacific/china/name,3421,en.html (accessed February 23, 2012); World

Bank, China: Country Gender Review, 2002, www.ctc-health.org.cn/file/2009090201.pdf (accessed March 5, 2012); and
Human Rights Watch interview with sex worker, Beijing, 2011.
18 Human Rights Watch interview with Lingling, Beijing, 2011; Zhang Ye, Hope for Migrant Women Workers, China Business

Review, April 26, 2002, http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/0205/ye.html (accessed February 23, 2012); Susan J.
Rogers et al., Reaching and Identifying the STD/HIV Risk of Sex Workers in Beijing, AIDS Education and Prevention, vol.
14(3) (2002), p. 217.
19 Human Rights Watch interview with Lili, Beijing, 2011.
20 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiao Li, Beijing, 2011.
21 Human Rights Watch interview with Mimi and Amei,

SWEPT AWAY

Beijing, 2011.

12

Gender Inequality and Prostitution in China

Gender inequality is recognized the world over as an important reason that women
engage in sex work and have little protection against abuse. In 2000, 11.3 percent
of Chinas rural population lived on less than US$1 per day, and Chinese
researchers and scholars have underscored the feminization of poverty in China.22
In addition, significant gender disparities exist in education. In the poorest regions,
women are twice as likely as men to be functionally illiterate.23 In 2000, 6.42
million women over the age of six had never been to school2.5 times more than
men. Only one-third of college-educated individuals in China are female.24
Furthermore, unemployment disproportionately affects women, who are also less
likely to be re-hired.25 In the late 1990s, over 12 million workers at state-owned
enterprises were laid off (xiagang). Many sex workers over the age of 40 are part of
the generation of xiagang workers who turned to prostitution after losing their jobs.
This was the case for Lingling, an older sex worker from the northeastern city of
Harbin whom Human Rights Watch interviewed.26
Non-prostitution job opportunities for women living in poverty include employment in
factories, restaurants, retail, and domestic service. The average monthly salary of a
migrant woman in the southern province of Guangdong who is not selling sex is 300
to 500 yuan (US$45 to 75).27 As a sex worker, she might earn 4000 yuan (US$600).28

22 Asian Development Bank, Peoples Republic of China: country gender assessment,

http://www.adb.org/documents/peoples-republic-china-country-gender-assessment, p.2; United Nations Development
Program, Human Development Report, 2008,
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/national/asiathepacific/china/name,3421,en.html (accessed February 23, 2012); World
Bank, China: Country Gender Review, 2002, www.ctc-health.org.cn/file/2009090201.pdf (accessed March 5, 2012).
23 United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report,

http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/national/asiathepacific/china/name,3421,en.html, p. 101.
24 Asian Development Bank, Peoples Republic of China: country gender assessment,

http://www.adb.org/documents/peoples-republic-china-country-gender-assessment, p.25.
25 Ibid, p. 11.
26 Human Rights Watch interview with Lingling, Beijing, 2011.
27 Zhang Ye, Hope for Migrant Women Workers, China Business Review, April 26, 2002,

http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/0205/ye.html (accessed February 23, 2012).

28 Susan J. Rogers et al., Reaching and Identifying the STD/HIV Risk of Sex Workers in Beijing, AIDS Education and

Prevention, vol. 14(3) (2002), p. 217.

13

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Sex Work Under Current Chinese Law

Under Chinese law, all aspects of sex workincluding solicitation, sale, and purchase of
sexare illegal. Most sex work-related offences are deemed administrative rather than
criminal offenses under domestic law, and most are punished through the imposition of
fines and short periods of police custody or administrative detention. The law nonetheless
allows for long administrative detention sentences of up to two years for repeat offenders.
Meager due process protections exist on paper but are largely absent in practice in Chinas
administrative detention systems, leading to frequent arbitrary detention.
Administrative penalties are set out by the Security Administrative Punishment Law, the 1991
decision on the Strict Prohibition Against Prostitution and Whoring, and a host of
complementary regulations. Criminal penalties can apply to sex work-related offenses, but
usually apply to third-party involvement, such as organizing the prostitution of others.
Trafficking in persons is a criminal offense. These laws and regulations apply across China.
By law detaining a person for prostitution-related offenses requires evidence that sexual
services were provided in exchange for money or property.29 In practice, however, police
frequently detain sex workers with little or no evidence, and have extensive powers to take
suspects into custody for periods ranging from several days to several months.
While those suspected of engaging in sex work are not entitled to a state-appointed lawyer
under Chinese administrative law. In theory they may also contact a lawyer if they believe
their rights have been violated through, for example, a forced confession, or physical or
sexual assault. None of the arbitrarily detained sex workers that Human Rights Watch
interviewed had been offered the opportunity to seek legal counsel. Limited legal
awareness also plays a role. A Chinese lawyer with experience on issues pertaining to sex
workers rights told Human Rights Watch:

29 Public Security Administration Punishments Law of the People's Republic of China (), Standing

Committee of the National People's Congress, August 28, 2005; Decision of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples
Congress on Strict Prohibition Against Prostitution and Whoring (), Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress, September 4, 1991. All provinces have adopted these regulations with minimal variations. See,
for instance Guizhou Province Regulations on the Prohibition of Prostitution (), Guizhou Province
Peoples Congress, 2004, art. 2; Hunan Province Regulations on the Prohibition of Prostitution (), Hunan
Province Peoples Congress, 1990, art. 3; and Heilongjiang Province Regulations on the Prohibition of Prostitution (
), Heilongjiang Province Peoples Congress, 1996, art. 2.

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14

They are very surprised when they hear about their legal rights. They dont
have any legal knowledge. They dont know that lawyers can protect them.30
Sex workers face one of four levels of administrative punishment that can be imposed
entirely at the discretion of the police without court proceedings:31
1. Five days of administrative detention, or a fine of up to 500 yuan (US$75) if the
circumstances are judged minor.32
2. Ten to 15 days of administrative detention, and/or a fine of up to 5,000 yuan
(US$750) in ordinary cases.33
3. An educational coercive administrative measure of six months to two years of
detention in a Custody and Education (shourong jiaoyu) facility.34
4. A sentence to Re-education Through Labor (RTL) (laodong jiaoyang) for up to two
years (limited to repeat offenders).35

Fines
Only a small proportion of women suspected of involvement in sex work are actually
incarcerated for prostitution.36 Most are first detained, either on site or at the police
station (paichusuo), often on grounds of solicitation, fined, and then released.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the fines help supplement the operational
costs of local law enforcement.37
These fines are generally not recorded as part of the prostitution case data published in
official annual statistical yearbooks, making it impossible to know how many such fines

30 Human Rights Watch interview with sex worker rights lawyer, Beijing, 2008.
31 Fu and Choy, Administrative Detention of Prostitutes: The Legal Aspects, in Gender Policy and HIV in China, (Deventer:

Springer Netherlands, 2009), p. 191.

32 Public Security Administrative Punishment Law (), 2006, art. 66.
33 Ibid. The law does not define what ordinary cases are.
34 Decision of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress on Strict Prohibition Against Prostitution and

Whoring (), Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress, 1991, Section 4.
35 Ibid.
36 Human Rights Watch interview with a mainland legal scholar, Hong Kong, October 2011.
37 Sarah Biddulph, Legal Reform and Administrative Detention Powers in China (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,

2008), p. 175.

15

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

are imposed each year. The Ministry of Public Security warns local police against
substituting fines for detention.38 However, the practice is widespread.39
Fines for prostitution are an important source of extra-budgetary revenue for local law
enforcement.40 Local police at times have fixed quotas for the amount of money they are
expected to collect through fines, even though the Ministry of Public Security prohibits
such targets.41 Discretion over the imposition of fines on sex workers also provides
opportunities for corruption, as described by many sex workers interviewed by Human
Rights Watch and detailed below.

Administrative Detention
Due process protections are virtually absent from the administrative detention systems in
which prostitution offenders are held.42 As noted above, defendants are not entitled to a
lawyer, and a sentence to administrative detention is not decided by a court but by a
committee headed by the police. There are no meaningful procedures to appeal or seek
remedies for procedural violations.
As a result, both the Custody and Education system, which is administered by the Ministry
of Public Security, and Re-education Through Labor (RTL), which is administered by the
Ministry of Justice, constitute forms of arbitrary detention under international law since
they allow individuals to be deprived of their liberty without due process of law.43 Past
research conducted on these institutions has documented widespread abuses, including
arbitrary detention, forced labor, and physical and psychological abuse.44
38 Ibid, p. 174.
39 Ibid, pp. 174-175; and Fu and Choy, Administrative Detention of Prostitutes, p. 198.
40 Ibid, p. 198;

Hualing Fu and P Choy, Policing for Profit: Fiscal Crisis and Institutionalized Corruption of Chinese Police, in

Policing, Security and Corruption (USA: Office of International Criminal Justice, 2004), pp. 537552; Elaine Jeffreys, China,
Sex and Prostitution, p. 107.
41 Biddulph, Legal Reform and Administrative Detention Powers in China, p. 175.
42

See, e.g., UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mission to China, December
29, 2004, E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.4, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/42d66e570.html (accessed February 29, 2012).
43 Ibid. The government announced in January 2013 that it intended to reform and possibly stop using the RTL system in

2013, but without specifying whether it would be replaced with a new system of administrative detention or not. Nicholas
Bequelin (Human Rights Watch), Re-education Revisited, commentary, The International Herald Tribune, January 30, 2013,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/30/china-re-education-revisited (accessed April 2, 2013).
44 Human Rights Watch, China - Where Darkness Knows No Limits, January 7, 2010,

http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/01/07/where-darkness-knows-no-limits-0; Human Rights Watch, China - An Alleyway

in Hell, November 12, 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/11/12/alleyway-hell-0; and Human Rights Watch, ChinaAn Unbreakable Cycle, December 9, 2008, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/12/09/unbreakable-cycle-0.

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16

The government does not disclose information on the number of individuals held in
Custody and Education centers, and the exact number of centers is unclear.45 In 2000, 183
such facilities existed, holding 18,000 inmates.46
The Custody and Education system is supposed to provide sex workers and clients with
educational support, including literacy and vocational training; health monitoring, with
testing and treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs); and work experience.47
Previous research shows that, in practice, this system of incarceration largely fails to
achieve its purported rehabilitative mandate, with forced labor by inmates taking
precedence over the other stated goals.48
RTL is only imposed on sex workers who are repeat offenders. Since 1999 sex workers are
increasingly sent to Custody and Education institutions instead of RTL.49 In January 2013
Chinese media reported that the government intended to stop using the RTL system by
the end of the year.50 However, there has been no such announcement for Custody and
Education or forced drug detoxification centers, and the government may be considering
setting up another system of administrative detention in place of RTL, rather than
abolishing the system outright.51
In the Chinese legal system, individuals suspected of administrative offences enjoy far
fewer procedural protections than do suspects in the criminal system. On paper, those
charged with crimes are entitled to access to a lawyer within 48 hours of detention, among

45 Biddulph, Legal Reform and Administrative Detention Powers in China, p. 165, citing Zhan Wei, Research Report on Chinas

System of Detention for Education of Prostitutes and Clients of Prostitutes (), in

To Refrain from the Restrictions on Personal Freedom () (Beijiing: Beijing Law Press, 2005), p. 451.
46 Custody and Education Centers nationwide hold 18,000 prostitution offenders as of the first half of the year (
1.8 ), Legal Daily (), November 1, 2010, (On file with Human Rights Watch).
47 Fu and Choy, Administrative Detention of Prostitutes, p. 196.
48 Flora Sapio, Prostitution and Migration in

China: From Rehabilitation to Retribution, Deportees, Exilees, Refugees, No. 17,

(November 2011), p. 96, www.unive.it/media/allegato/dep/n17-2011/7_Sapio.pdf (accessed February 29, 2012). See also
Joseph D Tucker and Xin Ren, Sex Worker Incarceration in the Peoples Republic of China, Sexually Transmitted Infections,
vol. 84 (1) (February 2008). One sex worker told Human Rights Watch that she had been incarcerated in a Custody and
Education institution but was not given any educational training. She was simply tested for STDs and forced to do manual
labor. Human Rights Watch interview with Xiaohong, Beijing, 2011.
49 Fu Hualing, Re-Education through Labour in Historical Perspective, The China Quarterly, vol. 184 (December 1, 2005), p. 824.
50 Andrew Jacob, China Says It Will Overhaul Sprawling System of Re-education Through Labor, New York Times, January 7, 2013,

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/world/asia/china-says-it-will-overhaul-re-education-system.html (accessed April 2, 2013).

51 End

of forced labour hailed, but some fear it may return in another form, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong),
January 9, 2013.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

other defense rights, and are tried and sentenced by a court composed of a three-judge
bench rather than police. In practice, however, the procedural rights of criminal suspects
are also routinely violated and ignored by the judicial system.52

Anti-Prostitution Mobilization Campaigns

Enforcement of anti-prostitution statutes is at its most stringent during periodic public
campaigns against crime in general, or prostitution and pornography in particular. During
these campaigns, sex workers are most at risk of abuses such as police brutality and
arbitrary detention.53 These campaigns are often held simultaneously, with the sweep
away component one aspect of a larger strike hard campaign.

Sweep Away Campaigns

A defining feature of Chinas approach to prostitution are periodic sweep away (saohuang

dafei) anti-prostitution campaigns. These campaigns typically last between several weeks
and a few months. During such periods, police repeatedly raid entertainment venues, hair
salons, massage parlors, and other spaces where sex work occurs, force venues to close, and
detain large numbers of women suspected of being sex workers.54
One such campaign, conducted in Beijing from April 20 to May 30, 2012, resulted in the
closing of 48 entertainment venues, according to the Beijing Municipal Public Security
Bureau.55 In a second campaign, launched on June 26, the Beijing police raided 180
entertainment venues and detained 660 suspects in a twoweek period.56

52 On

this point see Mike McConville (ed.), Criminal Justice in China (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011);
Human Rights Watch, China - Walking on Thin Ice, April 29, 2008, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/04/28/walkingthin-ice.
China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum, Research on the Impact of 2010 Crackdown on Sex Work and HIV
Interventions in China (:2010 ), January 2010,
http://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2012/01/the-impact-of-2010-crackdown-on-sex-work-and-hiv-interventions-in-china.html
(accessed January 21, 2013).
53

54 For updated details about the campaigns, see the website of the Peoples Republic of China, National Sweep Away
[Pornography and Prostitution] and Strike Down Illegal Publications (), www.shdf.gov.cn (accessed January
21, 2013).
55 Crackdown on venues suspected of prostitution, China Daily, June 13, 2012, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/201206/13/content_15497944.htm (accessed January 21, 2013)

Prostitution crackdown, Global Times, July 13, 2012, http://english.people.com.cn/90882/7874597.html (accessed

January 21, 2013)

56

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18

Strike Hard Campaigns

In addition to sweep away drives, Chinese law enforcement agencies periodically carry
out massive drives against crime, called strike hard (yanda) campaigns. At various times,
sex workers have been among the targets of these campaigns, including in 1983, 1986,
1987, 1989, 1991-1993, 1996, 2000, and 2009-2010.57 Sex workers are particularly
vulnerable to detention and abuse during such concentrated campaigns.
Sex worker organizations have reported a general increase in the focus on the antiprostitution component of the strike hard campaigns in recent years, culminating in an
exceptionally intense crackdown in cities throughout China in 2010.58 The 2010 crackdown
started in Beijing in April, with public raids on four elite karaoke venues, and gradually
spread throughout the country.59 Sex workers in cities throughout China reported
increased detention and fines.60 The 2010 crackdown was accompanied by the physical
destruction of many venues in which prostitution was thought to take place.61 Sex workers
said they were beaten, blackmailed, and harassed during the 2010 crackdown.62 Some
said that, during the crackdowns, they stopped carrying or using condoms for fear that the
police would use their possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution.63

Shame Parades
Police sometimes parade suspected sex workers through city streets in shame parades
designed to educate the public. Although the practice has now been banned by the
government, several shame parades were given media coverage during the 2010 campaign.64

57

Biddulph, Legal Reform and Administrative Detention Powers in China, pp. 157-164.

58

Ibid., p. 10.

59 China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum, Research on the Impact of 2010 Crackdown on Sex Work and HIV

Interventions in China (:2010 ), January 2010, p.5,

http://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2012/01/the-impact-of-2010-crackdown-on-sex-work-and-hiv-interventions-in-china.html
(accessed January 21, 2013).
60 Ibid., p. 15.
61 Ibid., p. 15.
62 Ibid., p. 21.
63 Ibid., p. 23.
64 In July, in Dongguan (Guangdong province) sex workers were handcuffed, tied up with a rope, and dragged around the street for

public humiliation. Police officers took photos, and posted them online. Also in July, in Wuhan, the local police posted notices
throughout the city with the names of sex workers and clients who had been arrested for prostitution. In September, in Hangzhou,
a local police station sent letters to the families of women in the neighborhood who were suspected of being involved in
prostitution, informing them of this possibility. They did so unbeknownst to the women. See Tan Zhi Hong, Controversy over
police from Dongguan, Guangdong parading prostitutes through the streets on a leash (),
Hongwang, July 18, 2010, http://china.rednet.cn/c/2010/07/18/2011536.htm (accessed February 29, 2012); Wang Xinzi, Wuhan

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Such public shaming events resulted in significant public outcry. Through internet posts
and blogs, citizens expressed support for the women and criticized the police.65 Following
these reactions, the Ministry of Public Security issued a notice in July 2010 that called for
an end to shame parades in anti-prostitution crackdowns.66 Similar notices had been
issued several times previously.67 No sex worker shame parades have been reported in
state media since July 2010, although the public shaming of individuals suspected of other
offenses has occurred. Absent efforts to prosecute those who oversee public shaming
efforts, it is possible they will occur again in the future.

Grassroots Organizations Supporting Sex Workers

There are currently about a dozen grassroots organizations in China that focus on issues
pertaining to sex workers. Some of them are mainly service providers concentrating on
health issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention. Others carry out rights awareness programs
within sex worker communities and promote activities in support of the legalization of
prostitution. Some of these groups have organized to create a forum whose mission is to
support the development of its members, [and] to improve the occupational health
environment of sex workers so that sex workers can live and work in an environment free
from discrimination with equal right to development.68 Among other activities, this forum

police post official notices on the street revealing the names of individuals who engage in prostitution (
), Changjiang Shangbao, July 17, 2010, http://news.163.com/10/0717/02/6BOU3MNS00011229.html
(accessed February 29, 2012); and Li Yunfang, A police station in Hangzhou cracks down on prostitution by notifying families of
women who work in hair salons (""), Sichuan Online, September 6, 2010,
http://news.163.com/10/0906/06/6FSKSU6O00011229.html (accessed February 29, 2012).
65 Andrew Jacobs, China Pushes to End Public Shaming, New York Times, July 27, 2010,

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/world/asia/28china.html?_r=2&ref=global-home (accessed March 5, 2012).

66 Flora Sapio, Perp Parades, post to Forgotten Archipelagoes (blog), July 26, 2010,

http://florasapio.blogspot.com/2010/07/perpparades.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FOTlS+%28Forgotten+Ar
chipelagoes%29 (accessed February 29, 2012); Li Hong Xun, The Ministry of Public Security Issues a Notice Criticizing
Shame Parades of Individuals who Engage in Prostitution (), Dahewang, July 26,
2010, http://news.china.com/zh_cn/domestic/945/20100726/16042470.html (accessed February 29, 2012); and Andrew
Jacobs, China Seeks End to Public Shaming of Suspects, New York Times, July 27, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/world/asia/28china.html?_r=2&ref=global-home (accessed February 29, 2010).
67 Flora Sapio, Perp Parades, post to Forgotten Archipelagoes (blog), July 26, 2010,

http://florasapio.blogspot.com/2010/07/perpparades.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FOTlS+%28Forgotten+Ar
chipelagoes%29 (accessed February 29, 2012).
68 China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum, Research on the Impact of 2010 Crackdown on Sex Work and HIV

Interventions in China (:2010 ), January 2010, p. 5,

http://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2012/01/the-impact-of-2010-crackdown-on-sex-work-and-hiv-interventions-in-china.html
(accessed January 21, 2013).

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collaborated to produce a report on the effects of the 2010 crackdown on the provision of
health services to people who engage in sex work.69
Individual activists have also played a critical role in raising awareness about
discrimination and violence against sex workers. Writer and activist Ye Haiyan, who blogs
under the name Hooligan Sparrow, first began to raise such concerns in 2005, and has
since documented police abuse of sex workers and the detrimental public health effects of
possession of condoms being used as evidence of prostitution.70
In December 2012 a coalition of Chinese sex worker organizations took the unprecedented
step of publicly circulating a petition calling for an end to violence against sex workers.
The letter decried the lack of protection of personal safety for female, male, and
transgender sex workers, citing 218 documented incidents, including eight in which sex
workers were killed. The letter also mentioned that sex workers are often reluctant to use
the law to protect their rights because they are often detained for illegal actions.71
These groups face challenging working conditions.72 While Chinese civil society
organizations generally encounter significant state-level resistance and harassment, sex
worker organizations are in a particularly tenuous situation because they work with a
population the government primarily sees through a law enforcement perspective. The
China Grassroots Womens Rights Center in Wuhan, founded by Ye Haiyan, has been the
target of police raids in response to Yes activism.73 One prominent grassroots organization
had to shut down in 2011 after harassment by local officials left staff feeling it was unsafe
for them to carry out their work.74

69 Ibid.
70 Global Voices, China: Prostituting to Defend Sex Workers Rights, January 15, 2012,

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/01/15/china-prostituting-to-defend-sex-workers-rights/ (accessed January 30, 2012).

71 Beijing Zuoyou Center Joint letter on ending violence against sex workers (:

), December 17, 2012 (on file with Human Rights Watch).

72 China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum, Research on the Impact of 2010 Crackdown on Sex Work and HIV

Interventions in China (:2010 ), January 2010,

http://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2012/01/the-impact-of-2010-crackdown-on-sex-work-and-hiv-interventions-in-china.html, p. 5.
73 Old Profession, New Debate, Economist, Oct 27, 2012 http://www.economist.com/news/china/21...565275-one-

woman%E2%80%99s-controversial-campaign-legalise-prostitution-old-profession-new-debate (accessed January 20, 2013).

74 Human Rights Watch interview with a sex worker group organizer, Beijing, 2011.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Peer educators for some sex worker NGOs report that the 2010 crackdown had a negative
effect on their work. They found that [p]revious prevention patterns are gone, and its
more difficult for sex work peer educators to find target groups, which will decrease the
health services provided.75

75 China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum, Research on the Impact of 2010 Crackdown on Sex Work and HIV

Interventions in China (:2010 ), January 2010,

http://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2012/01/the-impact-of-2010-crackdown-on-sex-work-and-hiv-interventions-in-china.html
(accessed February 28, 2012).

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II. Police Abuse of Sex Workers

I was beaten until I turned black and blue, because I wouldnt admit to
prostitution.
Xiao Yue, interviewed in Beijing, 2011

In 2000, law enforcement agencies launched a campaign to strengthen

control and management of recreational and entertainment facilities, and
combat the vice of prostitution, during which 38,000 cases of prostitution,
involving 73,000 individuals, were investigated and dealt with.
Official Chinese report to the UN Committee for the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women, 200476
Sex workers report a wide range of abuses at the hands of the police. These range from
arbitrary arrests and detention to physical violence, ill-treatment, violation of due process
rights, use of condoms as evidence of prostitution, and discrimination by law enforcement
officials when sex workers try to report crimes or abuse.
In researching this report, we focused on police abuse of women engaging in sex work in
Beijing. Although many of the women we interviewed could not specify which police
units were involved, the law enforcement officers most often involved in enforcing
criminal and administrative laws on prostitution in Beijing are from the local Public
Security Bureau (PSB). PSB regulations explicitly prohibit police from beating, insulting,
using disproportionate force, fining arbitrarily, or confiscating property from suspects
and members of the public.77

76 Government of the Peoples Republic of China, Combined fifth and sixth periodic report of States Parties to the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW /C/CHN/5-6, June 10, 2004.
77 Public Security Organs People's Police Discipline Regulations (: ), State Council of the

Peoples Republic of China, April 10, 2010, effective June 1, 2010, http://edu.sina.com.cn/official/2010-0507/1153245435.shtml (accessed April 16, 2013).

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Beatings, Ill-Treatment, and Torture in Custody

Police violence against sex workers is often most serious at the initial detention stage,
when the police seek to have suspects confess to engaging in prostitution. Confessions
relieve police officers from the more onerous task of finding and presenting conclusive
evidence of prostitution. The coerced confessions serve as the basis for deciding the
administrative punishment that will be imposed by the police or, in some cases, by the
police-run Re-Education Through Labor committee. This problem is not unique to cases
involving sex work.78
Several women interviewed by HRW said that when police arrested them, they beat them to
coerce confessions. Experts on sex work and police practices in China say this is a
common occurrence.79
Xiao Yue, a laid-off worker from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, told us she
was assaulted in police custody in Beijing in 2009 for refusing to admit she was
engaging in sex work:
I was beaten until I turned black and blue, because I wouldnt admit to
prostitution. They kept yelling at me, Fuck you! Just admit it!80
Some of the abuses meted out to sex workers in police custody constitute torture under
domestic law. According to Mimi, who said she was assaulted by police along with two
colleagues Yuanyuan and Shishi:
They attached us to trees, threw freezing cold water on us, and then
proceeded to beat us.81
Xiaohuang says she was beaten by police in Beijing:
78 Human Rights Watch, Walking on Thin Ice.
79 Lijia Zhang, In China, sex workers' lack of legal protection fans police abuse, South China Morning Post, December 14,

2012, http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1104637/china-sex-workers-lack-legal-protection-fanspolice-abuse (accessed April 18, 2013).

80 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiao Yue, Beijing, 2011.
81 Human Rights Watch interview with Mimi, Beijing 2011. Torture while in police custody is widely reported in China. See, for
example, Human Rights Watch, Where Darkness Knows No Limits; Human Rights Watch, An Unbreakable Cycle; and Human
Rights Watch, An Alleyway in Hell.

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The first time I was arrested, they had no proof of prostitution. The police
interrogated me, and threatened me. They used verbal abuse and violent
methods to make me confess. I refused to, regardless of how hard they
beat me. They finally let me go.82
Yingying, a 42-year-old from Chongqing, recounted:
The police will sometimes extort confessions out of you. Theyll beat and
insult sex workers, and extort confessions out of you. If you cant endure
the process, then you just give up and admit [it].83
Xiao Li, from rural Hubei, told Human Rights Watch that admitting to sex work under duress
also entails risks:
After you are arrested and taken to the police station, they need to get you
to admit [to prostitution]. They look for evidence. If you dont admit, theyll
beat you. But if you can bear the beating, usually theyll detain you for 24
hours and then let you go. But if you admit to prostitution when they beat
you, [you might] be sent to Re-education Through Labor for six months.84
Experiences of manifestly unlawful abuses while in police custody, as well as the trauma
that often results from such episodes, constitute a powerful deterrent for sex workers to
turn to other police to report these or other crimes. None of the women we interviewed
said they had lodged a complaint or filed criminal charges against police who had
abused them.

Violence at the Time of Arrest

Although the worst abuses documented by Human Rights Watch took place while women
were in custody, several interviewees also said they experienced police brutality while
being arrested. Mimi, who has been soliciting sex in a park in Beijing since she divorced
her husband in 2000, told Human Rights Watch that a police officer hit her head against
82 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiao Huang, Beijing, 2009.
83 Human Rights Watch interview with Yingying, Beijing, 2009.
84 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiao Li, Beijing 2011.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

the wall while he was arresting her: The police ran after me, grabbed me, and smashed
my head into the wall.85
Neighborhood level police sometimes employ auxiliaries (zhian lianfang), who are not
generally trained or monitored, and who have a reputation for brutality among sex workers.86
Auxiliaries are contractors who are not officially part of the police force but assist police
officers in their missions.87 Several women interviewed by Human Rights Watch said
auxiliaries beat them during arrests for suspected prostitution. Xiao Mei told of having been
beaten by police auxiliaries in Beijing in 2010 under the watch of police officers:

Last year when I was soliciting on the street, the police just came and
started beating me. They made the assistant police beat me. There were
five or six of them; they just beat me to a pulp.88
Meimei, a young woman from Hebei who solicits in a public park in Beijing, also told
Human Rights Watch that she had been beaten by an auxiliary acting on the orders of a
police officer:
Once in 2005, I had already settled on a price with a client. But I had a feeling
that someone was following us from behind, so to be safe, I told the client
that I wasnt willing to do it. I got arrested anyway. The police officer said the
client had solicited me, and wanted me to admit it. Because I didnt admit it,
the assistant police beat me, and as he was beating me he said there was a
reason he was beating me, I was a whore. The police officer stood by the side
and watched. He pretended that he didnt know what was going on. That is
the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me in my life.89

85 Human Rights Watch interview with Mimi, Beijing, 2011.

86 Human Rights Watch interview with staff member of domestic civil society organization, Beijing, 2011.
87 Regulations on the Duties and responsibilities of Auxiliaries (:

), General Affairs Department of Beijing Municipality, May 20, 1985, http://code.fabao365.com/law_462409.html

(accessed April 2, 2013). See also Flora Sapio, Sovereign Power and the Law in China: Zones of Exception in the Criminal
Justice System (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 139-174.
88 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiaomei, Beijing, 2009.
89 Human Rights Watch interview with Meimei, Beijing, 2011.

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Arbitrary Arrest and Detention

Women engaged in sex work interviewed by Human Rights Watch described severe
procedural irregularities in the arrest process. Interviewees reported that police rarely told
sex workers why they were being detained or whether they were charged with an offense.
Caihong, for example, said:
I was once arrested when I was just in the venue. I wasnt doing anything.
When I was arrested, I dont know what reason they gave to detain me. They
didnt say.90
Zhanghua, who had just arrived in Beijing a month prior to her arrest and was working in
a hair salon but had not yet become involved in the sex trade, told Human Rights Watch
that she was falsely accused of selling sex and that the police forced her to confess:

They told me it was fine, all I needed to do was sign my name and they
would release me after four or five days. They deceived me into signing.
That is really morally reprehensible. Instead, I was locked up in Custody
and Education center for six months.91
In some cases, sex workers are released after detention at the police station, oftentimes
after paying a fine or a bribe:
I was once arrested and had to pay a 3,000 yuan (US$485) bribe to be let
go. I know it was a bribe because the police didnt give me a voucher
receipt. I know they should give one because I attended a NGO training.
Thats how I learned that they were not following the right procedures. 92
She said the police did not return the money to her once she was released.

90 Human Rights Watch interview with Caihong, Beijing, 2009.

91 Human Rights Watch interview with Zhanghua, Beijing, 2009.
92 Human Rights Watch interview with Meimei, Beijing, 2011.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Sex workers also run the risk of being arrested and detained as retribution against
managers of entertainment venues who have displeased local power holders. Tingting,
a 31-year-old karaoke hostess in Beijing, described one such incident:
When I was working at [a previous entertainment venue], they [the police]
told us we were arrested because our boss offended someone. That was
the first time I was arrested. They just kept us for a couple hours and
released us.93
Zhanghua, who worked in a massage parlor that also provides sexual services, said the
police were predisposed to trust false statements from clients:
One client came to our massage parlor to get a regular foot massage. He left
after a few minutes, because he thought the price of the foot massage was
not appropriate. A few minutes later, the police came and arrested us for
prostitution. They said the man had said we offered him sexual services.
But we had not. I felt so wronged. Those police officers will do whatever it
takes to get the results they want.94
One woman told Human Rights Watch that it was illegal for police to arrest clients:
The police dont have the right to interrogate clients, they are only allowed
to interrogate sex workers. If they are good clients, theyll say the girl is a
friend of theirs and that there isnt a problem. If its a bad client, then the
girl will get into trouble.95

In fact, by law, clients as well as sex workers are liable for legal penalties and, particularly
during anti-prostitution drives, some clients are fined or administratively detained.

93 Human Rights Watch interview with Tingting, Beijing, 2009.

94 Human Rights Watch interview with Zhanghua, Beijing, 2009.
95 Human Rights Watch interview with Caihong, Beijing, 2009.

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Other Violations
Use of Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution
As mentioned above, administrative punishments for prostitution in China, including
fines and fixed-term detention, require evidence that sexual services were provided in
exchange for money or property.96 Despite regulations specifically forbidding the practice,
sex workers told Human Rights Watch that on occasion police in Beijing used mere
possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution.97 This practice deters sex workers
from carrying condoms, putting them at increased risk of HIV.98 One woman told Human
Rights Watch:
In the police stationthey will look to see if you have condoms, and will ask
you why. The law says it is not a problem [to carry condoms], but the police
act differently.99
Several women engaged in sex work reported that police interrogated them about why
they had condoms without any evidence of prostitution. Shushu, for example, said that
when police in Beijing questioned her they asked her about condoms she had in her
possession:

They saw my condoms, and asked how many I use every day, how many
men do I have sex with.100

96 Guizhou Province Regulations on the Prohibition of Prostitution (), Guizhou Province Peoples

Congress, 2004, art. 2; Hunan Province Regulations on the Prohibition of Prostitution (), Hunan
Province Peoples Congress, 1990, art. 3; Heilongjiang Province Regulations on the Prohibition of Prostitution (
), Heilongjiang Province Peoples Congress, 1996, art. 2.
97 Notice on Principles for Propaganda and Education Concerning AIDS Prevention (
), January 8, 1998, http://www.law-lib.com/law/law_view.asp?id=98186 (accessed February 29, 2012). This Notice is jointly
issued by the Central Committee of the Chinese Community Party and nine other government departments, including the Ministry
of Public Security and the Health Ministry. It reads: it is necessary to refrain from using condoms as evidence of prostitution.
98 Joseph Lau et al., A Study on Female Sex Workers in Southern China (Shenzhen): HIV-related Knowledge, Condom Use and STD
History, AIDS Care, vol. 14, no. 2 (April 2002), pp. 219233; Guomei Xia and Xiushi Yang, Risky Sexual Behavior Among Female
Entertainment Workers in China: Implications for HIV/STD Prevention Intervention, AIDS Education and Prevention: Official
Publication of the International Society for AIDS Education, vol. 17, no. 2 (April 2005), pp. 143156; Joseph D. Tucker and Xin Ren,
Sex Worker Incarceration in the Peoples Republic of China, Sexually Transmitted Infections, vol. 84, no.1, (February 2008); Scott
Burris and Guomei Xia, The Risk Environment For Commercial Sex Work In China: Considering the Role of Law and Law
Enforcement Practices, in Gender Policy and HIV in China, (Deventer: Springer Netherlands, 2009); Kenneth C. Land, ed., The
Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, (Deventer: Springer Netherlands, 2009).
99

Human Rights Watch interview with Zhangping, Beijing, 2009.

100 Human Rights Watch interview with Shushu, Beijing, 2009.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

In addition, police reports of sex worker detentions, as recounted in Chinese media,

frequently note the number of condoms found at the scene.101 For example, a Hainan
news outlet in 2009 reported on the police gathering condoms to use as evidence at the
scene of a prostitution arrest.102 Similar cases have been reported elsewhere.103

Entrapment, Bribes, and Police Solicitations for Sex

Law enforcement agents sometimes extort sex from sex workers. Several interviewees
reported having police officers as clients who do not pay for sexual services, allegedly
in exchange for protection for the venue. Jia Yue, who works in a massage parlor in
Beijing, said:
One local police officer here said that if we had sex with him, he would
protect us. Police wont pay in those cases. If they want sex, theyll get sex
from us. But when we asked for his help once, he didnt help. The police
really dont care about sex workers.104
Jingying, a 23-year-old from Sichuan who works in Beijing, said police had also extorted
sex from her, and she felt it was futile to report this to the police:

At first, I didnt know he was a police officer. After three hours, he refused
to pay. The boss told me to let it go because he was a cop. I felt really
wronged, but didnt get any money. You cant report that kind of thing to the
police. Lots of them come here.105

101 Womens Health Center (), unpublished document, 2009 (on file with Human Rights Watch). Beijing
Aizhixing, Report on Ten Media Outlets Violating the Principles for Propagating Education about HIV/AIDS Prevention,
Suspected of Reporting about Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution ( 10
), 2010.
102 Yang Zhen Dong, Haikou Police Crackdown On Prostitution (), Hainan, August 4, 2009

http://news.hainan.net/newshtml08/2009w7r27/539353f0.htm (accessed March 23, 2011).

103 Womens Health Center (), unpublished document, 2009 (on file with Human Rights Watch). Beijing

Aizhixing, Report on Ten Media Outlets Violating the Principles for Propagating Education about HIV/AIDS Prevention,
Suspected of Reporting about Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution ( 10
), 2010.
104 Human Rights Watch interview with Jia Yue, Beijing, 2009.
105 Human Rights Watch interview with Jingying, Beijing, 2009.

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Xiao Yue, who started selling sex in Beijing after being laid off from her factory job in
Heilongjiang, reported a police officer posing as a client, having sex with her, and then
arresting her. After arresting her, the undercover police officer allegedly said to her:

We can solicit sex wherever we want, whenever we want. After were done,
we still have our job to do, we will still crack down on prostitution.106

Jianmei, a 22-year-old from Sichuan working in a massage parlor in Beijing, told Human
Rights Watch that police entrapped her and other sex workers in order to extort money:

The police are really unfair. In this neighborhood, when there are
crackdowns and they want to earn more money, they arrange to have a
client come into our venue and ask for sexual services. Once the services
have started, the client calls the police, who arrest us both. They then fine
the sex worker, and split the money with the client.107
Sex workers are sometimes victims of police retribution if they refuse their sexual advances:

One off-duty police officer solicited me one night. He was really drunk, and
very rude. I had to hit him with my purse and run away from him. He and
some other police officers arrested me the next day and detained me
overnightIts because I hit him.108
Women in sex work also said that at times police officers extort bribes from clients in
facilities they raid:
Police once busted usthree men and two girls. They came in with a gun.
The guys just handed over 30 or 40,000 yuan (US$4,500-6,000) and they
left. The police then took us in to the station.109

106 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiao Yue, Beijing, 2011.
107 Human Rights Watch interview with Jianmei, Beijing, 2009.
108 Human Rights Watch interview with Jingan, Beijing, 2009.
109 Human Rights Watch interview with Lili, Beijing, 2011.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Xiao Mei, who had been arrested five times in 2008-2009 by the police in Beijing,
described how police used their knowledge of her past arrests to extort money from her:
Last time I was arrested, I was just standing on the street doing nothing
wrong. The police took me in, and put a lot of pressure on me. They forced
me to admit that I had engaged in prostitution. I paid a 3,000 yuan fine
(US$485) and they let me go after 24 hours.110

Barriers to Justice after Client or Police Abuse

Women engaging in sex work face significant barriers to justice after abuse by police,
clients, or managers. All women engaged in sex work interviewed by Human Rights Watch
said that they felt it was futile to report crimes committed against them to law enforcement
officers. They said they believed the police would refuse to investigate complaints if police
suspected the women were engaged in prostitution, would not undertake serious
investigations of fellow police officers, or might even detain the women themselves if they
exposed that they were victims in the course of engaging in sex work. The few sex workers
who had reported crimes said the police did not pursue the cases. Domestic Chinese
NGOs have reported similar findings.111
Xiaohuang, from rural northwestern China, told Human Rights Watch that Beijing police
refused to accept her complaint when she tried to report that someone had drugged her by
spiking her drink in a bar:

I was working in an entertainment venue, and left to go to the bathroom. I

think the client spiked my drink then [] I passed out. I dont remember
what happened afterwards, I only woke up the next day feeling horrible. I
went to the police but when I told them where I worked, they told me to
leave and that I deserved it.112

110 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiaomei, Beijing, 2009.

111 Beijing Aizhixing,

Report on Sex Work and Sex Worker Health and Human Rights 2008-2009 (
20082009), July 2009, p. 4.

112 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiaohuang, Beijing, 2009.

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Juanxiu, a 42-year-old from Zhejiang province who worked in a foot massage parlor in
Beijing, reported similar lack of police response when she was robbed:
Once three men came into our venue. They noticed my purse hanging by
the door. When they left, they just took it away with them. I reported it to
the police. But they werent going to make a concerted effort to find itThe
police wont take us seriously.113
Xiaoyue, who has been selling sex for 17 years to pay for her sons education, told Human
Rights Watch that she had been raped by a client, but that when she reported it to the
police, she felt like they did not take her claim seriously:
It had no effect, and I felt like I could not voice my grievance.114
One woman said she was convinced that filing a criminal complaint after she was robbed
led to many subsequent detentions for prostitution. Xiaojing said:

I was once robbed at knifepoint by a clientI decided to follow the rules

like a normal person [i.e., a non-sex worker], and reported the crime to the
police. But the case was never solved, there was no outcome After that, I
was arrested for prostitution many times by the police, they identified me
as a sex worker because I had reported the robbery.115
Another said:
Ive encountered clients who have stolen my cell phone, or who havent
paid me. Ive dealt with it on my own, or have asked friends to help. I dont
seek out the police. Other sex workers I know who have encountered such
problems also just deal with it on their own.116

113 Human Rights Watch interview with Juanxiu, Beijing, 2009.

114 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiaoyue, Beijing, 2011.
115 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiaomei, Beijing, 2009.
116 Human Rights Watch interview with Xiaoli, Beijing, 2011.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

Mimi, a farmer in Henan prior to moving to Beijing and entering the sex trade, told Human
Rights Watch:
My friend got her bag stolen by a client, who also beat and wounded her. She
eventually reported it to the police, but they refused to handle the case.117

Mimi said that her friends experience made it unlikely she would report anything the next
time she was a victim of crime. Some sex workers do not contact police even when they are
victims of serious physical and sexual violence, including rape:

Ive been raped several times. But because I am a sex worker, and selling
sex is a violation of the law, I could be arrested. So I have never been
willing to report to the police. I just have to grin and bear it.118
Lingxue, who recounted having been raped, said that she had not contacted the police:
I went to a hotel with one client, and when I arrived, three of his friends
were also there. They raped me all night. I wasnt willing to report to the
police. I just cried for weeks. My friends told me to report it.119

Similarly, Lili said:

If I experience client violence, Ill try to talk him out of it. If it is really
unbearable, Ill just leave without getting paid. In any case, I would never
report to the police.120

Some women engaged in sex work told Human Rights Watch that they had not reported
crimes committed against fellow sex workers, also out of fear or a sense of futility.
Manqing said she once saw a woman who was taken away unconscious by the client who
had beaten her at their workplace in Beijing:

117 Human Rights Watch interview with Mimi, Beijing, 2011.

118 Human Rights Watch interview with Lijia, Beijing, 2009.
119 Human Rights Watch interview with Lingxue, Beijing, 2009.
120 Human Rights Watch interview with Lili, Beijing, 2011.

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Once a client started kicking and beating a girl who worked in our venue. He
beat her unconscious. Then, he took her away in his car. We didnt call the
police because we didnt want to encounter any trouble. I dont know what
happened to her that night, but she eventually came back to work.121

Even women who had previously been victims of trafficking told Human Rights Watch that,
at the time, they did not dare seek police assistance. Mengfei, trafficked into forced
prostitution at age 15, said that even though the police came to the venue where she was
working, she was too afraid to approach them:

I met a woman who said she would help me find a job and feed me. When she
told me she would pay me 2,000 yuan (US$324) to host clients in a karaoke
bar, I wanted to run away. But I couldnt escape. Then, she and her boyfriend
told me that I would have to sell sex. I hid in a room and cried, and when they
found me, they beat me and broke my nose. Then they forced me to workThe
police once came to the karaoke bar, but I was too scared to ask for help.122

The failure of law enforcement to respond appropriately when crimes against sex workers
are brought to their attention leads to severe under-reporting of such crimes. It also
contributes to the perception that crimes against sex workers are less serious and less
worthy of investigation than crimes against people who do not engage in prostitution.

Police Abuse as a Violation of Domestic Laws, Regulations, and Policies

Many of the abuses described above are clear-cut violations of existing Chinese law.
Arbitrary sentencing to detention violates the Regulations on the Procedures for Handling
Administrative Cases by Public Security organs. These regulations require that at least two
officers investigate an unlawful act, and that they show official identification.123 The
suspect is to be summoned to the police station and interviewed.124 A permanent written

121 Human Rights Watch interview with Manqing, Beijing, 2009.

122 Human Rights Watch interview with Mengfei, Beijing, 2009.
123 Biddulph, Legal Reform and Administrative Detention Powers in China, p. 171.
124 Ibid.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

record of the interview must be made and approved by the suspect.125 A written decision
must provide evidence, and reasons and legal basis for the decision.126 The suspect must
be informed of their right to appeal the decision, and must be able to appeal without fear
of being penalized even more harshly.127
Physical abuse and torture of sex workers by police, and police sex with a sex worker prior to
arrest, are violations of the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, the Peoples Police
Law of the Peoples Republic of China, and the Prison Law of the Peoples Republic of China.
Article 38 of the Constitution guarantees the personal dignity of citizens. According to
the Police Law, law enforcement agents must exercise their functions and powers
respectively in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative rules
and regulations.128 They may not inflict bodily punishment on detainees.129 The Prison Law
prohibits guards from violating the personal safety of detainees, using torture or corporal
punishment, beating or conniving with others to beat a prisoner, or humiliating the human
dignity of a prisoner.130
The use of condoms as evidence of prostitution is a violation of the 1998 Notice on
Principles for Propaganda and Education Concerning AIDS Prevention, which instructs
police to refrain from using condoms as evidence of prostitution.131
The National Human Rights Action Plan of the Chinese government denounces corporal
punishment, abuses, insult of detainees or extraction of confessions by torture.132 It
further requires police and prison authorities to undertake effective measures to prohibit
abuse and insult of detainees.133
125 Ibid.
126 Ibid., p. 172.
127 Ibid.
128 Peoples Police law of the Peoples Republic of China (), February 28, 1995, effective on
February 28, 1995, art. 105.
129 Ibid, art. 22(4).
130 Peoples Prison law (), adopted on December 29, 1994, art. 7, 3, 5, 14(4). Reeducation Through

Labor, and Custody and Education regimes also prohibit mistreatment of inmates.
131 Notice on Principles for Propaganda and Education Concerning AIDS Prevention (

), January 8, 1998, http://www.law-lib.com/law/law_view.asp?id=98186 (accessed February 29, 2012).

132 National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2008-2010), April 13, 2009, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-

04/13/content_11177126_1.htm (accessed February 29, 2012).

133 Ibid.

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In failing to take crimes against sex workers seriously, the police are violating the Police
Law, which obligates them to prevent, stop and investigate illegal and criminal
activities.134 Police who fail to do so are guilty of dereliction of duty and liable to
administrative sanctions and possible criminal prosecution.135
Chinese activists have argued that public shaming is also a violation of the Chinese
Constitution, which guarantees that [t]he personal dignity of citizens of the Peoples
Republic of China is inviolable. Insult, libel, false accusation, or false incrimination
directed against citizens by any means is prohibited.136

Police Abuse as a Violation of International Law

Arbitrary arrest and detention of sex workers is a violation of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Although China has not ratified the ICCPR, it is a signatory,
and should thus abstain from taking steps that contravene that Covenant.137 The ICCPR
stipulates that [e]veryone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be
subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on
such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.138 At the
time of their arrest, everyone shall be informedof the reasons for his arrest and shall be
promptly informed of any charges against him.139 Any person detained on grounds that
are not in accordance with the law is detained arbitrarily and therefore unlawfully.
Detention is also considered arbitrary, even if authorized by law, if it includes elements of
inappropriateness, injustice, lack of predictability and due process of law.140

134 Peoples Police law of the Peoples Republic of China (), February 28, 1995, art. 6(1).
135 Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Administrative Penalty (), adopted on March 17, 1996, effective

October 1, 1996, art. 62.

136 Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, December 4, 1982, article 38; Wang Yi, Do Prostitutes Deserve the Right

of Dignity?, WomenWatch, January 10, 2007, http://www.womenwatch-china.org/en/newsdetail.aspx?id=1688 (accessed

February 29, 2012).
137 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.

GAOR Supp. (no. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), entered into force Mar. 23, 1976, signed by China on October 5, 1998;
Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1155, p. 331, entered into force on January 27,
1980, art. 18, requires signatories to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of the treaty.
138 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), art.9, 1.
139 Ibid., art.9, 2.
140See Communication No. 458/1991, A. W. Mukong v. Cameroon (Views adopted on 21 July 1994), U.N. doc. GAOR, A/49/40

(vol. II), p. 181, para. 9.8.

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Physical beatings and public shaming of sex workers constitute torture or cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment under international law, as well as violations of the right to physical
integrity guaranteed under article 9 of the ICCPR. China is a party to the U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.141 Article 1
defines torture as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes asintimidating or coercing him when
such pain or suffering is inflicted byor with the consent or acquiescence of a public official
or other person acting in an official capacity.142
Under its obligation as a party to the U.N. Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), China has agreed to pursue by all appropriate means
and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women.143 The U.N.
Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a committee of
experts that monitor states parties implementation of CEDAW, has clarified that the antidiscrimination provisions of CEDAW apply to gender-based violence, defined as violence that
is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately.
It includes acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts,
coercion and other deprivations of liberty. Police violence disproportionately directed at
women suspected of engaging in sex work constitutes a form of gender-based discrimination.
Article 6 of CEDAW requires that states take measures to suppress all forms of trafficking in
women and exploitation of the prostitution of women. The CEDAW Committee has
emphasized that: Poverty and unemployment force many women, including young girls,
into prostitution. Prostitutes are especially vulnerable to violence because their status,
which may be unlawful, tends to marginalize them. They need the equal protection of laws
against rape and other forms of violence.144

141 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,

Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted December 10, 1984,

G.A. res 39/46, annex, 39 U.N GAOR Supp. (No. 51) at 197, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1984), entered into force June 26, 1987, ratified
by China on October 4, 1988.
142 Ibid; Article 16 also calls on state parties of the Convention to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of
cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article I, when such acts are
committed by orwith the consentof a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
143 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),

adopted December 18, 1979, G.A.

res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No.46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force September 3, 1981, ratified by China
on November 4, 1980, art. 2.

144 UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 19, Violence Against

Women, A/47/38, para. 14.

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III. Abusive Public Health Practices Against Sex Workers

[The ministries] are committed to protecting these women's rights to health,
their reputation and privacy.
China Daily editorial, December 15, 2010

The CDC tested me last year. But they never told me the results. I hope
I dont have AIDS.
Zhangping, a sex worker interviewed in Beijing
Sex workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they faced mistreatment by
public health workers in Beijing. They described practices that violate their rights to health
and privacy, including forced HIV/AIDS testing, which remains legal under Chinese law;
violations of privacy and patient confidentiality; disclosure of HIV/AIDS test results to third
parties; disclosure of test results to patients without provision of appropriate health
services; lack of access to personal medical records; and mistreatment by health officials
in charge of testing and providing health services to sex workers. These violations occur in
implementation of government policies designed to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS policies
that specifically identify sex workers as a high risk group.
In some instances, these abuses drive sex workers away from public health agencies,
especially when the latter work closely with law enforcement agencies. The situation is
compounded by government restrictions on sex worker NGOs, making it less likely that
HIV/AIDS education and other programming will reach the least accessible segments of
the sex worker population.
These practices directly undermine Chinas public health objectives of reducing the burden
of HIV/AIDS within communities of sex workers, and successfully reducing HIV/AIDS in the
population at large.
For HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections to be successfully reduced in China,
marginalized populations such as sex workers must be able to obtain HIV information,
prevention, and health care without fear of mistreatment or discrimination.

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This section describes the experiences of women engaged in sex work who have come into
contact with public health authorities in Beijing, especially the local offices of the Chinese
Center for Disease Control (CDC). Beijing health authorities apply national health policies,
and the findings are thus likely to be relevant beyond Beijing.

Forced and Coercive Testing of Sex Workers, Violations of Privacy Rights

Reflecting increased public concern about privacy, the Ministry of Health has issued policy
statements calling on the CDC to strictly guard secrecy for [AIDS] sufferers, and for
healthcare workers not to release medical information to third parties. The State Council has
issued a comment forbidding the publication or transmission of information, including names
and addresses, of HIV/AIDS patients. Yet public health authorities such as the Ministry of
Health and CDC are still allowed under Chinese law to carry out HIV testing without prior
consent of the tested, and are not obliged to disclose the test results to those tested.
National law and local regulations permit mandatory HIV/AIDS testing of sex workers.145 In
Beijing, the main agencies that carry out testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases are local offices of the CDC. Beijing regulations also allow the police to require
that sex workers get tested, and do not require their consent.
Internationally, the 3Csconfidential, counseling, and consent advocated since the
HIV test became available in 1985, continue to be the basic principles guiding HIV testing
for individuals. Such testing of individuals must be confidential, accompanied by
counseling, and conducted only with informed consent, meaning that testing should be
both informed and voluntary. Mandatory HIV testing violates fundamental rights to the
security of the person, and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,
both protected by international treaties to which China is a party.

145 These include: Certain Number of Regulations on AIDS supervision and management (),

January 14, 1988, art. 5 and 8 ; Regulations for Dalian city AIDS supervision and management (),
January 1, 2000, art.7; Regulations for Beijing city Government AIDS supervision and management (
), Bejing City Government, January 1, 1999, art. 8; Shanghai city methods of AIDS prevention (
), Shangai City Government, December 30, 1998, art. 15; and Regulations for Sichuan province prevention and control of
STDs and AIDS (), Sichuan Provincial Government, January 1 2003, art.1, 2, 16, and 17.

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Several interviewees told Human Rights Watch of having been forcibly tested by CDC or
detention center staff, either in detention centers or while working in venues monitored
by the CDC.146
Shushu, for example, said she had been tested without consent after she was brought to a
clinic by Beijing police:
When I was arrested, they brought me to the detention center, but first they
took me to the health clinic next door to get an AIDS test and a pregnancy
test. You have to do the tests.147
Lanying, a 25-year-old from Guizhou province, told of being tested by a person she
believed was a public health official in the venue where she worked in Beijing:
Once when I was at the venue someone came to do testing. The boss [of the
venue] told us to do it so we all did it. Most sex workers just do what the
boss tells them to do. I dont know what would have happened if we didnt
want to do the testThey said it was to test if we have AIDSI dont
remember if they came back to tell us the results.148
The coercive and forced testing of sex workers has been documented in several studies by
the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, a civil society group.149 The institute has repeatedly raised
concern about national and local regulations that permit forced testing of sex workers.
One Chinese CDC employee in Beijing and two foreign public health experts working for
foreign governments who have direct experience in the matter told us of HIV testing practices
that do not appear to involve informed consent.150 According to the Chinese CDC employee:

146 Under the authority of the Ministry of Health, the CDC carries out programs to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted
diseases, and HIV/AIDS in particular, within sex worker populations. Local CDCs must implement a national surveillance system
that carries out blood tests in order to monitor rates of HIV/AIDS within sex worker populations. They are also responsible for
conducting HIV/AIDS outreach education activities amongst sex workers, see Kaufman et. al., AIDS and Social Policy in China.
147 Human Rights Watch interview with Shushu, Beijing, 2009.
148 Human Rights Watch interview with Lanying, Beijing, 2009.
149 Beijing Aizhixing Institute, 2006 Report on AIDS Laws and Human Rights (2006

), 2007;
Beijing Aizhixing Institute, 2008 Report on Attitudes, Protection of Rights and Interests, and Needs of Beijing Female Sex
Workers (08 , ), 2008.

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The local CDC develops relationships with brothel managers to do blood

tests. They cultivate relationships with the managers, who then tell their
girls to participate.151
This practice can be problematic because sex workers are under the authority of their
managers, and cannot easily opt out of testing. According to sex workers who participated
in the focus groups that Human Rights Watch conducted, they fear retribution, such as
beatings or losing their job, if they do not obey manager instructions.152
A staff member of a sex worker nongovernmental organization explained how some of the
testing occurs: Once the CDC has established a relationship with the manager, they go to
the venue and test everyone.153
The representatives of international organizations that collaborate with the Ministry of
Health and the CDC expressed concern to Human Rights Watch about the voluntariness of
HIV testing of sex workers. One staff member rejected the term forced testing but said
that the practices were coercive:
It isnt totally forced testing. But there is coercion.154
Many of the sex workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch were hesitant to get tested
for HIV/AIDS because they feared the results would be disclosed without their consent.
They fear repercussions if they test positive, such as social ostracism and unwanted state
intervention in their lives.155 One Chinese civil society activist told Human Rights Watch
that CDC employees violated sex worker privacy and patient rights when conducting HIV
testing. In some cases, test results are disclosed to third parties. Venue managers, for
instance, are sometimes given access to test results. One CDC official explained:

150 Human Rights Watch interview with China Center for Disease Control, Beijing, 2011; Human Rights Watch interview with
civil society public health organization, Beijing, 2011; and Human Rights Watch interview with international public health
organization, Beijing, 2011.
151 Human Rights Watch interview with China Center for Disease Control, Beijing, 2011.
152 Human Rights Watch first and second focus groups, Beijing, 2011.
153 Human Rights Watch interview with domestic civil society organization, Beijing, 2011.
154 Human Rights Watch interview with international public health organization, Beijing, 2011.
155 Yan Hong and Xiaoming Li, Behavioral Studies of Female Sex Workers in China: A Literature Review and Recommendation

for Future Research, AIDS & Behavior, vol. 12(4) (2007), p. 632.

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When we collaborate with managers [who give health workers access to sex
workers], they say that we have to give them the test results.156
One civil society representative described to Human Rights Watch having observed CDC
officials in Beijing displaying test results publicly:

I accompanied several sex workers to get tested. We waited for the results,
and when they came, they just put them out on a table for everyone to see.
And two of them tested positive.157

The CDC does not systematically report test results to sex workers. If HIV/AIDS results are
positive, they will contact them to draw blood again and get a second test. However,
reporting of negative results occurs inconsistently, creating confusion amongst sex
workers.158 Zhangping, who engages in sex work in Beijing, told Human Rights Watch:
The CDC tested me last year. But they never told me the results. I hope I dont
have AIDS.159
Human Rights Watch also spoke with a CDC employee who said that they sometimes draw
blood without telling sex workers that they are testing them for HIV/AIDS.160 A public
health academic familiar with CDC outreach also said CDC staff members sometimes tell
women working in entertainment venues that they are drawing blood as part of a general
physical exam, without providing details on the types of tests they will conduct.161
These practices are clearly at odds with the CDCs own mission statements, which
provides that it must provide HIV/AIDS counseling and treatment for sex workers, a
process in which individuals make an informed decision about undergoing an HIV test

156 Human Rights Watch interview with China Center for Disease Control, Beijing, 2011.
157 Human Rights Watch interview with civil society public health organization, Beijing, 2011.
158 Human Rights Watch interview with international public health organization, Beijing, 2011.
159 Human Rights Watch interview with Zhangping, Beijing, 2009.
160 Human Rights Watch interview with China Center for Disease Control, Beijing, 2011.
161 Human Rights Watch interview, Beijing, December 2011.

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after receiving adequate counseling with all aspects of the individual session and
results being kept strictly confidential.162

Eliminating Anonymous HIV Tests

In February 2012 a domestic debate emerged at the occasion of a push for the
elimination of anonymous HIV testing. The local congress in Guangxi province, which
has one of the highest HIV rates in the country, proposed legislation requiring that
individuals getting an HIV test provide their real name.163 The proposal aims to facilitate
contact between health officials and individuals who test positive for HIV.164 The director
of the China CDC, Wang Yu, has spoken out in support of the proposal.165 Some Chinese
civil society activists and researchers have spoken out against this proposal, suggesting
that it would reduce the number of people willing to get tested.166

Allegations of CDC Personnel Mistreatment of Sex Workers

Sex workers have also reported poor treatment by staff at some government run health
clinics in Beijing where they can get an HIV/AIDS test.
One interviewee told Human Rights Watch:
I dont go to those [government-run] clinics anymore. They were really
disdainful of me when I went last time. Also, I was scared they would report
me to the police. I was embarrassed to ask them any questions.167

162 United Nations Technical Working Group on MSM, Enabling effective voluntary counseling and testing for men who have sex

with men: Increasing the role of community based organizations in scaling up VCT services for MSM in China, October 2008,
http://www.undp.org.cn/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&catid=18&topic=7&sid=4379&mode=threa
d&order=0&thold=0 (accessed March 2, 2012).
163 Laurie Burkitt, Controversy over China Push to Eliminate Anonymous HIV Tests, post to China Real Time Report (blog),

Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2012, http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/02/14/controversy-over-china-push-toeliminate-anonymous-hiv-tests/ (accessed March 6, 2012).
164 CDC responds concerns over real-name HIV tests, Xinhua, February 13, 2012,

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-02/13/content_14595275.htm (accessed March 6, 2012).

165 Beijing hints at real-name registration for HIV testing, Want China Times, February 11, 2012,

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1103&MainCatID=11&id=20120211000061 (accessed March 6, 2012).

166 Lawyers, Activists Decry Plans for Real-Name Registration in HIV Testing, CaixinOnline, June 3, 2012,

http://english.caixin.com/2012-03-06/100364767.html (accessed April 14, 2013).

167 Human Rights Watch interview with Jingying, Beijing, 2009.

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Chinese NGOs working with sex workers are uniformly critical of the attitude of CDC staff in
Beijing towards sex workers. According to one staff member:

Sex workers feel uncomfortable when they go to the clinic, because CDC
staff will give them dirty looks. It is an attitude problem at the CDC.168
One member of an international NGO familiar with CDC sex worker outreach programs
described the attitude of CDC personnel, which the individual had directly observed. In
this individuals view, the CDCs treatment of sex workers is driving them away from
needed services:

The CDC needs to provide sex-worker-friendly services. The clinics

discriminate against sex workers, and are judgmental. I have heard that sex
workers have gone to the clinic, whose staff knows they are sex workers,
looks down on them, and treats them poorly. Because the clinics are not
open and friendly, sex workers do not want to go there.169
Domestic activists charge that the mistreatment that sex workers experience in interactions
with health workers amounts to a violation of the personal dignity of citizens of the Peoples
Republic of China, guaranteed under article 38 of the Chinese Constitution and the
provisions contained in the 1992 Law on the Protection of Womens Rights and Interests.170

Health Abuses and International Law

China is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR).171 Article 12 calls upon state parties to recognize the right of everyone to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and to
create conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in

168 Human Rights Watch interview with a public health civil society organization, Beijing, 2011.
169 Human Rights Watch with an international public health organization, Beijing, 2011.
170 Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, December 4, 1982, article 38; Law of the People's Republic of China on the

Protection of Women's Rights and Interests (), October 1, 1992.

171 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A

(XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1996), entered into force January 3, 1976, ratified by China on
March 27, 2001.

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the event of sickness.172 Article 2 stipulates that states must take steps, individually
and through international assistance and cooperationwith a view to achieving
progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant.173
CEDAW also provides in article 12 that States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order
to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services.
General Comment 14 of the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides
a framework for understanding the right to health. It specifies that this is a right to a system
of health protection which provides equality of opportunity for people to enjoy the highest
attainable level of health.174 It proscribes any discrimination in access to health care and
underlying determinants of health.175 The CEDAW Committees General Recommendation 24
on the right to health also calls on states to give special attention to the health needs and
rights of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, such as women in prostitution. 176
International law also prohibits non-consensual medical procedures. The ICESCRs General
Comment 14 declares that the right to health includes the right to be free from
interference, such as the right to be free fromnon-consensual medical treatment.177 The
CEDAW Committees General Recommendation 24 provides that states should Require all
health services to be consistent with the human rights of women, including the rights to
autonomy, privacy, confidentiality, informed consent and choice.178
The U.N. HIV/AIDS and Human Rights International Guidelines specify that public health
legislation should ensure that HIV testing of individuals should only be performed with
the specific informed consent of that individual.179 These guidelines also explicitly

172 ICCPR, article 12.

173 ICESCR, article 2.
174 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14, The Right to the Highest Attainable
Standard of Health, E/C.12/2000/4 (2000) para. 8.
175 Ibid.
176 UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No. 24, The Right to Health,
A/54/38/Rev.1 (1999), para. 6.
177 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14, para. 8.
178 UN

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No. 24, The Right to Health,
A/54/38/Rev.1 (1999), para. 31 (e).

179 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14, para. 8.

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reject all forms of mandatory and compulsory HIV testing, and make plain that HIV
testing should be voluntary.180
The coerced testing and discrimination reported above violate these international laws
and principles. Such behavior conflicts with the article 12 stipulation to create conditions
that assure to all medical service.181
Mandatory HIV testing violates fundamental rights to the security of the person182 and the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health183 protected by international
treaties to which China is a party.

180 UNHCR and UNAIDS, International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, 2006 Consolidated Version, para. 20(b).
181 ICESCR.
182 Everyone has the right to liberty and security of the person, ICCPR, art. 9(1).
183 The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable

standard of physical and mental health, ICESCR, art. 12.

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IV. Recommendations
To the State Council:

Publicly and unambiguously acknowledge and condemn abuses by police against

sex workers.

Publicly commit to strict nationwide enforcement of provisions that prohibit

arbitrary arrests and detentions, police brutality, coerced confessions, and torture,
and ensure swift prosecution of police officers who violate these provisions.

To the National Peoples Congress:

Enact legislation to remove criminal and administrative sanctions against voluntary,

consensual adult sex work and related offenses, such as solicitation.

Initiate consultations with sex workers and relevant nongovernmental

organizations to consider other legislative reforms to better protect the rights of
sex workers.

Enact reforms to ensure enhanced oversight of the police and appropriate

disciplining of offenders.

To the Ministry of Public Security:

Ensure that crimes against sex workers are properly investigated, and actively
encourage reporting of crimes against sex workers.

End periodic mobilization campaigns to sweep away prostitution and

pornography (saohuang dafei) that have generated widespread and severe
abuses against women engaging in sex work.

In collaboration with civil society organizations working on the rights of sex

workers, carry out police awareness trainings to encourage appropriate treatment
of sex workers.

Initiate a public education campaign promoting the legal rights of sex workers, the
illegality of police and public health abuse against them, and the due process
rights of all suspects under Chinese law and international instruments.

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Law enforcement agencies should immediately cease official interference with, or

police harassment of nongovernmental organizations promoting and protecting the
rights of sex workers.

Prohibit police from using the possession of condoms as grounds for arresting,
questioning, or detaining persons suspected of sex work, or as evidence to support
prosecution of prostitution and related offenses. Issue a directive to all officers
emphasizing the public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention, and
sexual and reproductive health. Ensure that officers are regularly trained on this
protocol and held accountable for any transgressions.

To the Ministry of Health and the Center for Disease Control:

Immediately end mandatory HIV/AIDS testing of sex workers, require informed

consent prior to testing, inform anyone tested for HIV of the results, make
appropriate counseling available before and after the test, and implement testing
programs that conform with international standards.

Publicly acknowledge and condemn abuses by public health officials against sex
workers.

When there are credible allegations implicating government employees in abuse of

sex workers, suspend the employees pending investigation of the allegations.

Provide training to Chinese Center for Disease Control HIV/AIDS treatment site staff
on confidentiality, stigma and discrimination, and related subjects. Retrain or
discharge staff who discriminate or behave inappropriately towards sex workers.

Expand access to voluntary, affordable, community-based health care for sex workers.

Give a greater role to civil society organizations in conducting HIV/AIDS testing,

outreach, and education of sex workers, as such organizations frequently develop
relationships of trust in local sex worker communities.

To Foreign Governments and the United Nations:

Express concern to the central government and relevant agencies about abuses
against sex workers, and the impunity enjoyed by police and public health officials.

Encourage the Chinese government to fully abolish the RTL and Custody and
Education systems in which sex workers and others are arbitrarily detained, and

49

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

discourage replacing these systems with any forms of trial and detention that fall
short of international standards.

Urge the Chinese government to promptly and independently investigate all

allegations of abuses against sex workers by police and public health agency staff.

Actively encourage the Chinese government to adopt and put into practice services
and programs for sex workers on a voluntary basis with the participation of sex
worker groups.

Support local human rights groups and sex worker groups that are assisting sex
workers on a voluntary, participatory basis.

Actively support the creation of civil society organizations that address the needs
of sex workers throughout the country, and provide ongoing support for existing
organizations.

SWEPT AWAY

50

Acknowledgments
This report was reviewed and edited by Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher, Sophie
Richardson, China director, Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director, Liesl Gerntholtz,
Womens Rights Division director, Janet Walsh, Womens Rights Division deputy director,
Joe Amon, Health and Human Rights Division director, Aisling Reidy, senior legal advisor,
and Joseph Saunders, deputy program director.
Production assistance was provided by Shaivalini Parmar, associate in the Asia division,
Grace Choi, publications director, Kathy Mills, publications specialist, and Ivy Shen,
multimedia production assistant.
Human Rights Watch is grateful to the sex workers and other experts whom we interviewed
for this report and who assisted us in our investigations.

51

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013

SWEPT AWAY
Abuses Against Sex Workers in China
Against a background of rapid economic and social change, it is estimated that anywhere between one and ten
million Chinese women have turned to sex work as a way to earn a living.
Swept Away documents police abuses against women who engage in sex work in Beijing, including arbitrary
arrests and fines, beatings and physical assaults, and torture to elicit confessions. Because of these abuses by
law enforcement, sex workers are unwilling and afraid to turn to the police when they are victims of crimes and
other abuses at the hands of private individuals.
The report also describes human rights violations by public health agencies against sex workers, especially
local offices of Chinas Center for Disease Control (CDC), such as coercive HIV testing, privacy infringements,
disclosure of HIV test results to third parties, and mistreatment by health officials.
Chinese authorities generally use administrative rather than criminal law in policing sex work, yet this can
include punishments including fines and up to two years in detention without a trial. Human Rights Watch calls
on Chinese authorities instead to protect women in sex work from abuses, ensure their access to health
services, end periodic clean-up campaigns that lead to increased abuses against them, and remove criminal
and administrative sanctions for consensual adult sex work. Authorities should also end harassment of
nongovernmental organizations that provide assistance to sex workers.

hrw.org

(above) Chinese police officers stand next

to suspected sex workers during a raid in
Chongqing, China, on July 22, 2010.
2010 AP Images
(front cover) Two women sit near the
window of a massage salon on a street in
the city of Weifang in Shandong Province
on April 20, 2011.
2011 Reuters/David Gray

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

"Custody and Education":

Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China
December 2013
Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Laws Cited in Chinese and English

Abbreviations Used

Executive Summary

7
9

Recommendations

I
II

Research Methodology

11

Sex Work in China

13
13
14
15

A General Survey of Sex Work

Sex Work Under the Law
Sex Work and HIV/AIDS

III Research Findings

What is Custody & Education?
Human Rights Violations
Excessive Use of Force by Police
Inside Custody and Education Centers

IV Legal Analysis

18
18
20
20
25

Conflict between C&E and International and Domestic Law

C&Es Violation of Due Process
Arbitrary Targeting and Disproportionate Penalties

35
35
38
40

Conclusion and Recommendations

42

Acknowledgements

44

Annex 1: Measure on the Custody and Education of Prostitutes

and their Clients

45

About Asia Catalyst

48

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Laws Cited in Chinese and English

Chinese Communist Party Center Committee, Resolution Concerning Some Major

Issues in Comprehensively Deepening Reform

Criminal Law of The Peoples Republic of China

Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China

Decision of the Standing Committee of the NCP on Strictly Prohibiting Prostitution

and the Visiting of Prostitutes

Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security

Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Penalties for Administrative Penalty

Legislation Law of the Peoples Republic of China

Measure on the Custody and Education of Prostitutes and their Clients

Measures for Graded Evaluation of Custody and Education Centers

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Measures for Management of Custody & Education Centers

Procedural Provisions for the Handling of Administrative Cases by Public Security

Organs

Public Security Regulation on Handling of Re-education Through Labor Cases

Peoples Police Law of the Peoples Republic of China

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

General Comment 14: The right to the highest attainable standard of health

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Abbreviations Used

C&E

Custody & Education

CPPCC

Chinese Peoples Political Consultation Conference

RTL

Re-education Through Labor

NPC

National Peoples Congress

PLWHA

People Living With HIV/AIDS

PRC

Peoples Republic of China

The Measure

The Measure on the Custody and Education of Prostitutes

and their Clients

The Decision

The Decision of the Standing Committee of the NCP on

Strictly Prohibiting Prostitution and the Visiting of Prostitutes

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Executive Summary
I think its all for money. Any talk of remolding or ideological education
is bogus. Its just a way of extorting money in the name of the
government and the law enforcement organs.
Yi, a sex worker

In recent years, China has placed an extraordinary emphasis on legal reform and has
achieved some impressive advances in this area. During 2012 and 2013, several high profile
legal cases led to heated public discussions about the continued existence and possible
abolition of the Re-education Through Labor (RTL) system.1 In effect since the 1950s as a
form of administrative punishment, RTL had fallen into disrepute as the result of its long and
notorious history of arbitrary arrest, lack of judicial process, forced labor, and infringement
of human rights.
On November 15, 2013, the Chinese government announced that it would abolish the Reeducation Through Labor System [sic], perfect the laws for punishment and correction of
unlawful and criminal acts, and strengthen the community correction system.2 However,
largely unknown to the general public, similar administrative penalties remain in effect,
including the Custody & Education (C&E) system targeting commercial sex workers and their
clients. The Chinese government continues to remain silent over the C&E system and little
has been written about the impact it has on sex workers or its basis in Chinese law.
Sex workers in China encounter severe prejudice and bias, and have very few channels or
opportunities to have their voices heard. Their situation remains largely unknown to the
general public. For this reason, while the abuses of the RTL system have spurred animated
public debate, few know that sex workers are routinely subjected to an almost identical
system called Custody and Education. In the name of education and rescue, large
numbers of sex workers and their clients are detained for periods of six months to two years
without any form of judicial oversight and, while in custody, they are subjected to forced
labor and compulsory testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
This report examines the C&E system. Over the course of Asia Catalyst's research into the
system, we found serious conflict between the C&E system and international human rights

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

law. As a coercive administrative education measure that deprives citizens of their personal
liberty for extended periods of time, C&E also has an extremely fragile legal foundation
in Chinese law, given that the main documents on which it is based are not laws but
regulations. Individuals detained under the C&E system are denied a fair trial and lack all
essential procedural rights such as the right to a defense and a hearing. This report analyzes
Chinas relevant laws and policies, as well as documentary data from inside and outside of
China.
Asia Catalyst research also found that Chinas public security organs are in full control of
C&E-related investigations, as well as judgment, appeal, and the management of C&E
centers. The regulations governing C&E are vague and deficient, granting the police
enormous power over personal freedom. The authority of the public security organs in
implementing C&E lacks independent oversight, and detainees have no effective recourse to
appeal.
Asia Catalyst conducted 31 interviews in two cities in China along with two partner
organizations. Interviewees included 30 female sex workers who experienced police
detention, and a law enforcement officer. The women we interviewed told us that arrest3
by police is routinely accompanied by physical abuse and photographic documentation.
Some sex workers, in attempts to evade C&E, feel compelled to pay large bribes to the
arresting officers to avoid detention. The C&E center emphasizes profits over rehabilitation.
Detainees of C&E centers are required to engage in long hours of uncompensated labor,
and have few opportunities for skill training and education. Detainees are forced to
undergo physical examinations and STD testing without their informed consent or effective
counseling; they are not told the results of the tests. Detainees are obliged to pay the costs
of their incarceration, and the excessive charges levied for living expenses only increases the
financial burden on lower-tier sex workers who work hard to support themselves and their
families.
The educational objective of C&E has been distorted into a profit-making mechanism.
Detainees are not given the opportunity to learn labor skills that might change their fates
and typically spend their day doing manual labor that generates profit for the C&E centers.
All of the sex workers we interviewed returned to the sex trade immediately after release
from C&E.
The harsh punishment China metes out to sex workers fails to eradicate or decrease the
number of persons engaged in this trade, while further infringing on their human rights.
There is no evidence that C&E centers are conducive to the health or medical treatment of
3

In this report, we use the word arrest to refer to the initial act of the apprehension of a sex worker or her client by a state
agent. It is important to note, however, that as a matter of Chinese law, sex workers are rarely "arrested" (
)as the term
is defined and explained in the PRC Criminal Procedure Law, because sex workers and their clients are subject to administrative
punishments, and thus their cases are generally not handled through the criminal justice process.

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

detainees, nor do they provide effective care or protection.4

The International Community has reached consensus that punitive laws and their
implementation have a negative impact on the health and situation of sex workers, and a
number of international organizations have called for countries to remove the punitive laws
that target sex workers and related parties. For example, The Global Commission on HIV
and the Law found that punitive laws, discriminatory and brutal policing, as well as denial
of access to justice for people with and at risk of acquiring HIV are fueling the epidemic.5
The Commission has called for countries to reform their approach towards sex work. Rather
than punishing consenting adults involved in sex work, countries must ensure safe working
conditions and offer sex workers and their clients access to effective HIV and health services
and commodities.6
In its guidelines on what constitutes effective HIV programming in the context of sex
work, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that all countries work toward
decriminalization of sex work and elimination of the unjust application of non-criminal laws
and regulations against sex workers.7 Furthermore, twelve UN organizations have called on
all countries to immediately close down compulsory rehabilitation centers for sex workers.8
Recommendations
Asia Catalyst echoes the recommendations made by UN agencies and international
organizations, and urges the Chinese government to:
Enact a moratorium halting any further admission of sex workers into C&E centers;
Close down all C&E centers for sex workers and their clients without delay and
release the individuals detained;
Remove laws and regulations that prohibit consenting and voluntary adults to buy or
sell sex; stop campaigns that periodically crack down on sex work;

UNAIDS et al, Joint Statement: Compulsory Drug Detention and Rehabilitation Centers, March 9, 2012, http://www.unodc.
org/southeastasiaandpacific/en/2012/03/detention-centres/story.html, http://www.unaids.org.cn/cn/index/Document_view.
asp?id=583.
5
Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Risks, Rights and Health, July 2012, http://www.hivlawcommission.org/resources/
report/FinalReport-Risks,Rights&Health-EN.pdf.
6
Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Risks, Rights and Health, July 2012, http://www.hivlawcommission.org/resources/
report/FinalReport-Risks,Rights&Health-EN.pdf.
7
World Health Organization, Prevention and Treatment of HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections for Sex Workers in
Low- and Middle-income Countries: Recommendations for a Public Health Approach, December 2012, http://apps.who.int/
iris/bitstream/10665/77745/1/9789241504744_eng.pdf.
8
UNAIDS et al., Joint Statement: Compulsory Drug Detention and Rehabilitation Ccenters, March 9, 2012, http://www.unodc.
org/southeastasiaandpacific/en/2012/03/detention-centres/story.html.

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Provide sex workers and their clients with voluntary quality and evidence-informed
health care, including prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and opportunistic
infections, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as social, legal and
education services; support community-based organizations with funding and technical
support to enable their involvement in this process;
Stop police abuse and extortion against sex workers, provide law enforcement
officers with human rights training in the appropriate treatment of sex
workers; investigate and punish abusive and otherwise improper treatment of sex
workers.

10

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Research Methodology

Asia Catalyst and two partner organizations carried out a survey in two cities in northern
China from the end of 2012 to July 2013. The survey consisted of 31 interviews, 30 of which
were with female sex workers, among whom 24 who had undergone C&E for six months to
one year; the remaining interview was with a Chinese law enforcement officer.
The interviews were all carried out with the verbal informed consent of the interviewees;
in accordance with their wishes, their real names have been concealed in order to protect
their privacy and safety, and all of the names used in this report are pseudonyms. All of the
interviewed sex workers were from lower-tier establishments such as hair salons, massage
parlors, saunas, and other such small-scale providers of sexual services. Some offered their
sexual services in the streets. The interviewees came from many different localities, but
most originated from rural areas. Their ages ranged from 19 to 50 years old.
The interviews were open-ended and were conducted at venues chosen by the interviewees.
Most interviews were carried out at the sex workers place of employment and others, at
the interviewees request, were carried out in the relative confidentiality of hotel rooms. A
portion of the interviews were conducted in the offices of our partner organizations. One
interview was conducted with a sex worker inside a C&E center.
Given the severe social bias sex workers face in China, and their routine harassment by
police and local gangs, it was extremely challenging to gain the trust of sex workers and
encourage them to describe their experiences of arrest and detention. Asia Catalyst
partners with community-based service organizations that have long served sex worker
communities, building up good relationships through the provision of health care. This was a
crucial component in our success in making contact with sex workers. Even so, the interview
process was difficult and laborious. Given their lack of rights awareness and the secrecy in
which they are forced to operate, sex workers do not like to talk about their experiences
in general or their stories from detention. For this reason, Asia Catalyst worked with its
partners to organize workshops aimed at empowering sex workers, informing them of their
rights and helping them understand the laws and regulations that apply to them. The stable
community foundation and empowerment activities helped us win their trust.
While Asia Catalyst was conducting this research, local governments were in the process of
carrying out vice raids in two cities, and five core volunteers of our partner organizations
were arrested and sent to C&E. 9

In China, the public security organs regularly launch campaigns that carry out sudden inspections and raids of entertainment
venues.

11

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

The C&E system only targets female sex workers and their clients, male sex workers were
not prevalent at the time when the system was developed. The scope of this report is
confined to the marginalization of female sex workers, and due to limited resources and
manpower, our study does not include interviews with detained male clients.

12

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

II

Sex Work in China

A General Survey of Sex Work

In China, sex work is illegal, and subjected to social bias and public censure. Even so, sex
work is prevalent. Sex workers work throughout Chinas large and small cities and its rural
areas, from high-class entertainment venues to roadside hair salons and pedicure shops,
and even in streets and parks. In 2009, it was estimated that there were 2.68 million female
sex workers and 26.5 million clients of female sex workers in China. 10
Most lower-tier female sex workers are from the countryside or impoverished regions; they
are typically poorly educated and lack the capacity to find stable work. With aspirations of
improving their lives, they leave their home villages for the economically developed urban
areas. Chinas rapid economic development has driven many young workers to cities; in
2012, China had 262.61 million migrant workers, 62 percent of whom were working away
from their places of origin.11 This population both demands and supplies a flourishing sex
industry.
The development of Chinas sex industry is inseparable from the countrys recent history of
economic reforms. In the process of economic liberalization, major cities showed a massive
shift of rural laborers toward non-agricultural industries in the early 1990s. Although some
women were able to find work in the service industries or manufacturing, a considerable
number moved into the sex trade. The decline in rural enterprise employment is contrasted
by the sharp increase in sex workers detentions during the same period, which could
indicate that the number of people involved in sex work has increased.12 Social inequality
is another reason for the emergence of the sex industry. Compared with urban women,
women in rural areas have fewer years of schooling and are more likely to encounter bias
when looking for work. Over the course of Chinas impressive economic development, rural
women have become increasingly marginalized and relegated to societys lowest stratum.
Lacking better options, they turn to sex work.13

10
HIV and AIDS Data Hub for Asia-Pacific, China Country Reviews, March 2011, http://aidsdatahub.org/dmdocuments/
China_Country_Review_2011_HIV_and_AIDS_Data_Hub_for_Asia_Pacific.pdf (accessed November 15, 2013).
11
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the Peoples Republic of China, Human Resources and Social Security
Development Bulletin of 2012 [2012
], http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/
SYrlzyhshbzb/dongtaixinwen/shizhengyaowen/201305/t20130528_103939.htm (accessed November 20, 2013).
12
Yu Dongbao, Edmund Settle, Ruotao Wang, and Lenore Manderson, Decriminalizing Sex Work: Implications for HIV
Prevention and Control in China, in Gender Policy and HIV in China: Catalyzing Policy Change (The Spring Series on
Demographic Methods and Population Analysis), ed. Joseph Tucker and D.L. Poston (Springer Science+Business Media, 2009),
201-215.
13
Ibid .

13

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Sex Work Under the Law

In China, sex work is considered immoral and a violation of traditional values and ethics.
For this reason, Chinese law and policies focus on prohibition and cracking down on sex
work rather than providing a framework to ensure the health and safety of sex work as a
profession.
Under Chinese domestic law, those who engage in sex work or who patronize sex workers
are subject to administrative penalties. According to the Law on Penalties for Administration
of Public Security, sex workers and their clients can be detained by police for ten to 15 days
and/or fined up to 5,000 yuan (US $834). In less serious cases, the maximum detention is
five days and the maximum fine is 500 yuan (US $84). Seducing, sheltering, or introducing
another person to prostitution is also subject to detention and/or fines.14
In 1991, the National Peoples Congress (NPC) Standing Committee passed the Decision of
the Standing Committee of the NCP on Strictly Prohibiting Prostitution and the Visiting of
Prostitutes (the Decision), which reaffirmed the previous administrative regulations. It
further authorized public security organs to force sex workers and their clients to assemble
for compulsive education in law and morality and participation in productive labor in order
to rid them of their vice, otherwise known as Custody & Education (C&E) for a term of six
months to two years.15 Recidivists are subject to up to four years of Re-education Through
Labor (RTL) and a fine of up to 5,000 yuan (US $834).16 In 2013, the Chinese government
announced the suspension of RTL, but policies governing C&E remain in effect.17
Organizing or forcing others to engage in sex work is subject to even harsher penalties.
According to the Criminal Law of The Peoples Republic of China, arranging for or forcing
another person to engage in sex work can result in imprisonment for five to ten years and
incur a fine. Serious cases can result in life imprisonment or the death penalty, as well as the
confiscation of property.18
Additionally, public security organs regularly launch vice sweeps or strike hard
campaigns in which they carry out sudden inspections and raids of entertainment venues
and other areas or localities frequented by sex workers. Typically, police close down the
entertainment venue and the sex workers and their clients are arrested. On August 15,

14

Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress, Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security [
], March 1, 2006, Articles 66 and 67.
15
Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress, Decision of the Standing Committee of the NCP on Strictly Prohibiting
Prostitution and the Visiting of Prostitutes [
], September 4, 1991, Article 4.
16
Ibid.
17
Chinese Communist Party Center Committee, Resolution Concerning Some Major Issues in Comprehensively Deepening
Reform[
], passed at the 18th Congress Third Plenary Meeting, November
15th, 2013.
18
Criminal Law of The Peoples Republic of China [
], passed in 1979, amended in 2011, Article 358.

14

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

2013, in one district of Chongqing, police launched a raid involving more than 1,000 police
officers and 110 police vehicles on the districts hostels, saunas, hair salons, and bars.19
Low-tier sex workers are the most likely to be targeted in these law enforcement operations.
A 2008 survey of 348 female sex workers in Beijing found that 62 percent of street-based
sex workers had been arrested, and that their risk of arrest was two to four times greater
than those who worked within establishments. 20 Although the law provides for equal
punishment of sex workers and clients, the survey showed that female sex workers are
more likely to be arrested than their clients.21 These law enforcement exercises are driven
by political considerations, to protect social order, particularly around major public or
political events such as the National Peoples Congress (NPC) and Chinese Peoples Political
Consultation Conference (CPPCC) sessions and the Olympics. They are also income-driven:
the profits generated from fines on sex workers and their clients have become an important
supplementary source for public security budgets. 22
Sex Work and HIV/AIDS
At the end of 2011, it was estimated that 780,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS
(PLWHA) in China. Heterosexual intercourse is the main channel for the transmission of HIV/
AIDS, accounting for 46.5 percent of all PLWHA. Sex workers are one of the key affected
populations.23 The HIV prevalence among sex workers increased from 0.02 percent in 1996
to 0.6 percent in 2011,24 with higher prevalence in the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, and
Guizhou, as well as the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Guangxi.25
Sex workers at starred hotels or high-class entertainment venues tend to be better
educated, and their clients are usually wealthy businessmen or officials, so the rate of
condom use is quite high in this group. Sex workers at lower tier establishments such as
dance halls, pedicure salons, and hair salons, as well as those who work in the streets,
are typically overseen by madams or pimps. They have little control over their work. Sex

19

Yang Yanyu. 1,000 Chongqing Police Crack Down on Massage Parlors [

], Chinanews.com, August 16, 2013, http://www.chinanews.com/tp/hd2011/2013/08-16/236033.shtml (accessed October 5,
2013).
20
Yi Huso, Joanne E. Mantell, Rongrong Wu, Zhao Lu, Jing Zeng, and Yunhai Wan, A Profile of HIV Risk Factors in the Context
of Sex Work Environments among Migrant Female Sex Workers in Beijing, Psychology, Health, and Medicine 15, no. 2 (March
2010): 172-187.
21
UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Center, Legal Environments, Human Rights and HIV Responses among Sex Workers in Asia and
the Pacific, Consultation Draft: East Asia Sub-region, August 2011.
22
Fu Hualing and D.W. Choy, Administrative Detention of Prostitutes, in Gender Policy and HIV in China: Catalyzing Policy
Change (The Spring Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis), ed. Joseph Tucker and D.L. Poston (Springer
Science+Business Media, 2009), 189-198.
23
Ministry of Health of the Peoples Republic of China, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organization, 2011 Estimates for the
HIV/AIDS Epidemic in China, November 2011, http://www.unaids.org.cn/pics/20130521161757.pdf.
24
UNAIDS, 2005 Update on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Response in China, 2006; Xiang Shen Chen, Yue-Ping Yin, Ning Jiang,
Was the HIV Infection Burden in Female Sex Workers in China Overestimated? The Lancet Infectious Diseases 13, no. 1 (January
2013): 13.
25
2011 Estimates for the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in China.

15

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

workers in lower tier establishments tend to regard the use of condoms as a disincentive to
clients.26 The managers of these establishments generally have a negative attitude toward
condom use and education regarding sexually transmitted diseases. They worry that if
sex workers demand the use of condoms, clients will be scared off and business will be
affected.27
Overall, the rate of condom use among sex workers is fairly low. In 2011, it was estimated
that 60 percent of sex workers were unable to maintain consistent condom use with every
sexual act.28 Law enforcement actions targeting sex work often hampers the development
of HIV/AIDS-prevention work among this group.29 Sex workers report that police use the
possession of condoms as evidence against them, and as a result, they avoid carrying
condoms to minimize the risk of arrest.30 The risk of being arrested and taken into custody
pushes sex workers even further underground, and makes them even more unwilling to
obtain HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and services. Studies show that police vice raids
cause sex workers to operate more covertly, so that grassroots organizations have difficulty
locating their target groups for HIV/AIDS prevention work, while sex workers, fearing that
the possession of condoms will be regarded as evidence of prostitution, are less willing to
use them.31
The conflict between the work of public security organs and health departments was
highlighted in the 12th Five Year Action Plan of China HIV/AIDS Control, Prevention and
Treatment. This action plan set the following objective: To raise the level of effective
intervention among highly at-risk groups to a rate of 90 percent or higher, and to increase
the rate of informed HIV/AIDS testing to 70 percent or higher." At the same time, however,
this plan requires that public security departments continue attacking prostitution and
public lewdness and other such unlawful and criminal acts. 32
Studies indicate that incarcerated sex workers have even more difficulty obtaining AIDSrelated services, as shown in the 2010 study below: 33

26

Yi, Mantell, et al, 172-187.

HIV and AIDS Data Hub, Sex Work & HIV China, August 2010, http://www.aidsdatahub.org/sites/default/files/documents/
sex_work_hiv_china.pdf.
28
UNAIDS, HIV in China, Facts and Figures, http://www.unaids.org.cn/en/index/page.asp?id=197&class=2&classname=China
+Epidemic+% 26+Response.
29
Yi, Mantell, et al, 172-187.
30
Human Rights Watch, Swept Away: Abuses Against Sex Workers in China, (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013), http://
www.hrw.org/reports/2013/05/14/swept-away-0.
31
China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum, Research on the Impact of 2010 Crackdown on Sex Work and HIV
Interventions in China, December 2011, http://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2012/01/the-impact-of-2010-crackdown-on-sex-workand-hiv-interventions-in-china.html.
32
PRC State Council Secretariat, 12th Five Year Action Plan of China HIV/AIDS Control, Prevention and Treatment [
], January 13, 2012, http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2012-02/29/content_2079097.htm.
33
Joseph Tucker, Xin Ren, and Flora Sapio, Incarcerated Sex Workers and HIV Prevention in China: Social Suffering and Social
Justice Countermeasures, Social Science and Medicine 70 (2010): 121-129.
27

16

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Variable
HIV test accessibility

Chinese sex workers outside of

detention centers
Voluntary testing at free voluntary
counseling and testing centers

HIV anti-retroviral therapy Free through government programs

accessibility
HIV prevention access

Chinese sex workers while at

detention centers
Mandatory testing, patients may not get
results
Dependent on detention center and sex
worker/guard relationships

Easily available through periodic public Once per year, depending on detention
health campaigns
centers relations with STI/HIV clinic

The Global Commission on HIV and the Law states that the legal environment can play a
powerful role in the well being of people living with HIV/AIDS and those vulnerable to HIV.
Good laws, fully resourced and rigorously enforced, can widen access to prevention and
health care services, improve the quality of treatment, enhance social support for people
affected by the epidemic, protect human rights that are vital to survival and save the public
money. 34

34

Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Risks, Rights and Health, July 2012, http://www.hivlawcommission.org/resources/
report/FinalReport-Risks,Rights&Health-EN.pdf.

17

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

III

Research Findings

What is Custody & Education?

Custody and Education (C&E) is a compulsory administrative education and detention
measure targeting sex workers and their clients. The 1991 Decision, mentioned above,
stipulates that public security organs may compel sex workers and their clients to assemble
for compulsive education in law and morality and participation in productive labor in
order to rid them of their vice for a term of six months to two years. Specific measures are
stipulated by the State Council.35 In 1993, the State Council promulgated the Measure on
the Custody and Education of Prostitutes and their Clients (the Measure), which became
the legal basis for this system.
In addition to the administrative penalties stipulated in the Law on Penalties for
Administration of Public Security, this system authorizes public security organs to sentence
sex workers and clients whose offenses do not qualify them for Re-education Through Labor
to custodial sentences ranging from six months to two years. Sex workers are marked in
state discourse as contaminated, and requiring rescue, discipline, and control.36 The primary
stated purpose of C&E is education and behavioral correction: 1) educating incarcerated
individuals according to the principle of education, persuasion, and rescue, 2) organizing
their participation in labor, and 3) carrying out the testing and treatment of sexually
transmitted diseases.37
The idea of the C&E system is rooted in the early days when the Peoples Republic of China
(PRC) was established. After its founding in 1949, the PRC made serious and reportedly
successful efforts at eradicating sex work. All brothels were closed and sex workers were put
into female rehabilitation and treatment centers.38 State propaganda highlighted the role
of these facilities in reeducating, training and nurturing women to be self-sufficient new
citizens.39
The economic liberalization launched by Reform and Opening40 created conditions for the
35
Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress of the PRC, Decision of the Standing Committee of the NCP on Strictly
Prohibiting Prostitution and the Visiting of Prostitutes [
], September 4, 1991.
36
Susanne Y.P. Choi, State Control, Female Prostitution and HIV Prevention in China, The China Quarterly 205 (March 2011):
96-114.
37
State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, Measure on the Custody and Education of Prostitutes and their Clients [
], September 4, 1993, articles 2 and 7.
38
HIV and AIDS Data Hub, Sex work & HIV China, August 2010.
39
Choi, 96-114.
40
After the Peoples Republic of China was founded in 1949, the Chinese government carried out a system of planned economy,
and targets and quotas for various spheres of economic development were all set by the special planning committees of
the state. The system limited the development of the economy and sapped its vitality andat the end of the 1970s, Chinas
leaders made a decision to reform Chinas economic system, introducing capitalist market principles. The first stage of the
reform in the late 1970s and early 1980s, involved the decollectivization of agriculture, the opening up of the country to
foreign investment, and permission for entrepreneurs to start-up businesses. The second stage of the reform, in the late
1980s and 1990s, involved the privatization and contracting out of much state-owned industry and the lifting of price controls,
protectionist policies, and regulations.

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"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

reestablishment of a flourishing sex industry. In the early 1980s, cities such as Shanghai and
Wuhan had established C&E centers for the purpose of STD treatment and education of
workers and clients of the sex industry. C&E centers were considered an effective measure
for suppressing and eradicating prostitution, and public security departments required all
localities to actively establish C&E centers for prostitutes and their clients. 41
C&E work is carried out and overseen by the Ministry of Public Security which proposes,
plans, manages, and budgets the establishment of C&E centers.42 Some C&E centers are
established within Re-education Through Labor centers.43 Men and women are detained in
separate quarters inside C&E centers.44 Sex workers we interviewed said the C&E centers in
which they were held had some 1,000 detainees.45 According to an official at the Liaoning
Province Public Security Bureau, some public security bureaus must meet a quota for the
number of people held in C&E centers, which gives rise to sting operations and other
improper law enforcement methods.46
The Chinese government does not publish regular updates on the number of people held
in C&E centers, but, as of 2002, some 200 C&E centers for sex worker and their clients had
been established throughout China, and 28,000 people were held in C&E that year. A total
of more than 300,000 people were held in C&E from 1987 to 2000,47 but the number of
people in C&E has steadily decreased in recent years, resulting in the closure of some C&E
centers.48
A 2007 survey conducted in a C&E center in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, found that
among 369 detained women, 62 percent came from impoverished regions, 55 percent
had annual household incomes of less than 1,200 yuan (approximately US $196), and 69.1
percent were engaged in the sex trade due to financial hardship. These women typically
worked in lower-tier establishments such as hair salons, dance halls, or pedicure salons.
They were poorly educated, most of them illiterate or with no more than a primary school
41

Ministry of Public Security, Minutes of Forum on Further Crack Down and Prohibit Prostitution, [
], June 2, 1988.
42
The Measure, articles 3-4.
43
Ministry of Public Security, Minutes of Forum on Further Crack Down and Prohibit Prostitution [
], states: Wherever there is free space in a Re-education Through Labor [sic]
center, initiative must be taken to consult the judicial department to make full use of the existing venue to open a Custody &
Education center, where the judicial department will be responsible for managing education, with the cooperation of public
security, civil administration, health, Womens Federation, and other departments.
44
Ministry of Public Security, Measure for Management of Custody and Education Centers, promulgated April 24, 2000, Article
19.
45
Interview with Fang, May 12, 2013; interview with Lian, May 26, 2013; interview with Lu, June 18, 2013; interview with Xiao
Cao, July 6, 2013; interview with Xiaohong, October 10, 2013.
46
Gao Fan, Liaoning Specified 14 Categories of Prostitution that do not send to Custody and Education
], Xinhua News Agency, November 4, 2006, http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2006-11/14/
content_5328884.htm (accessed October 7, 2013).
47
Xing Jing, The Procedure of Custody and EducationFrom the Perspective of Due Process [
]. Zhengzhou University, April 2010.
48
Zhan Wei, A Study on Chinas Custody and Education System for Prostitutes [
], in To Refrain From The Restrictions of Personal Freedom [

], ed. Guo Jianan and Zheng Xiaze, (Beijing: Law Press China, 2005), 416-466.

19

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

education.49
The Public Security Ministry in 2000 tabled the Measures for Management of Custody &
Education Centers, which outlines the conditions that C&E centers must meet. These include
the deployment of female police officers, the provision of educational opportunities, and
the provision of testing and treatment for STDs.50 In addition, the Public Security Ministry
in the same year issued the Measures for Graded Evaluation of Custody and Education
Centers, which evaluated C&E centers into Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, and substandard
facilities. 51
Human Rights Violations
Our research focused on police treatment of sex workers during the arrest and investigation
stage; and the detainees treatment and experiences in the C&E center. We found that sex
workers reported a range of abuses by the police, including taking photographs as evidence,
physical violence to intimidate them into admitting and signing the interview record, as well
as police extortion of bribes from sex workers.
Life in the C&E center is also not easy for sex workers. Detainees spend most of their time
doing manual labor that generates profit for the center but not for themselves; the limited
education provided in the center becomes a superficial formality because of the time
demands of labor- and profit-oriented activities. It is rarely for detainees to acquire skills
that they can use to support themselves following release. Additionally, detainees have to
pay for their stay in the center, as well as medical examinations and treatment. The center
imposes strict rules for detainees who are not even prisoners. Some interviewees report
that they were sickened because of the strict rules on toilets. They also face restrictions on
external communications.
Excessive Use of Force by Police

Several men ganged up on beating me. Some hit my head, some my

body, and some pulled my hair. One yelled, Fuck you, you shameless
thing! They beat me for at least ten minutes.
Hong, April 20, 2013
Sex workers encounter all types of improper behavior from law enforcement officers. Our
interviews found that police officers forcibly photographed sex workers and their clients as
49
Yao Shuijuan, An Analysis of the Factors of Entering Prostitution, Health Knowledge, Behavior Characteristics and Sexual
Health Education Among Prostitution [
], in 2007 Zhejiang
Province STD&HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Academic Annual Conference [
], 2007.
50
Ministry of Public Security, Measure for Management of Custody and Education Centers [
],
promulgated April 24, 2000, articles 12, 34, 35 and 43.
51
Ministry of Public Security, Measure on Graded Evaluation of Custody and Education Centers [
],
2000.

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"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

evidence, as well as physically and verbally abusing them.

Taking Photographs as Evidence

Chinese law does not expressly stipulate what is allowable as evidence of sex work.
However, in order to constitute the administrative offense of prostitution, two factors must
be present: the occurrence of sexual relations, and a financial transaction. Because of the
difficulty in obtaining evidence, it is hard to prove both factors in the same instance, so
police officers often use different means to obtain evidence. Our research found that police
officers forcibly photographed sex workers and their clients for the purpose of evidence, in
disregard of their dignity and privacy.
Lin, employed at a pedicure salon, was serving a customer when the police burst in:
Four people rushed in and lifted up my skirt to take a picture. I twisted away with all
my strength, but in the end Im just a weak woman, and finally they tore off all my
clothes. I was totally naked, not wearing a stitch, when they took the pictures. 52
Hong likewise had her pants forcibly removed before she was photographed:
The police kicked the door in and I quickly pulled my pants on, but my client didnt
have time. Several men came in, and only the last one was wearing a police uniform.
The men in plain clothes came over and pulled my pants off so I was completely
exposed, then they took pictures.53
Forty-seven-year-old Lingling, from the northeast, recalls:
When the police came in they pulled off the clients pants and saw he was still wearing
a condom. The police tore my clothes to expose my breasts and then photographed
me with the client.54
Stripping off a persons clothing and photographing them to secure evidence violated basic
human dignity. Article 38 of the Constitution of the PRC states that the personal dignity
of citizens of the Peoples Republic of China is inviolable.55 In fact, the photographs that
police take only prove that sexual relations have occurred and are not proof of a financial
exchange, and therefore cannot establish a crime of prostitution for punishment. Even more
important is the fact that police investigation to secure evidence must be reasonable and
lawful. Article 37 of the Procedural Provisions for the Handling of Administrative Cases by
52

Interview with Lin, January 22, 2013.

Interview with Hong, April 20, 2013.
Interview with Lingling, March 16, 2013.
55
Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, Article 38.
53
54

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"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Public Security Organs stipulates: When conducting investigation on administrative cases,

the collective of evidence should be lawful, timely, objectives and comprehensive, and
should be reviewed and verified.56

Violent Treatment at the Investigation Stage

After being removed from the scene, sex workers and their clients are taken to a dispatch
office or police station for interrogation and investigation. Sex workers we interviewed said
that police officers used violence to force them to admit to prostitution. Unable to bear the
pain of beating, these women were compelled to confess.
Thirty-seven-year-old Lian, a native of Guizhou, was taken to the local police station after
accepting a client for a fee of 70 yuan (US $11)late one night:
They took me to another room, where there was a bunk bed, and they handcuffed me
to the frame of the upper bunk. The tall, fat policeman who had arrested me smacked
my face with a flip-flop to make me confess. I still refused to talk. Then he poured
mustard oil into my nose, and he punched my stomach with a very large, thick book...
After beating me for a while, they left, but they came back a short time later to beat
me, and they did this over and over again for a very long time. I really couldnt bear it
and even longed for death; finally I confessed.57
After Xiao Cao was taken to the dispatch station, four police officers struck her with electric
prods when she refused to confess to prostitution:
Four policemen took me to a room with a bed in it, and they pushed me onto the bed
and used an electric prod this long [gesturing to indicate a length of 20-30 cm] to shock
me on my hands, neck, thighs, and armpits. The pain was unbearable, as if I were
being stuck with needles all over. I cried out for help, and they covered my mouth so I
couldnt shout... They grabbed the electric prod, and it was making this buzzing sound,
and they brought it close to my face. That was the pain I feared most, and that they
would disfigure my face, so I confessed. 58
Violence occurs not only at the interrogation stage; some interviewees said that police
officers used violence and beating to force them to sign the record of interview. Yan, from
Jiangxi, was arrested when a client turned her in. The police arrived at her workplace two
days later and took her to the dispatch station:

56

Procedural Provisions for the Handling of Administrative Cases by Public Security Organs, Article 37.
Interview with Lian, May 26, 2013.
58
Interview with Xiao Cao, July 6, 2013.
57

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"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

The police read out the record of interview to me; it was about prostitution. Since
they hadnt arrested me in the act [at a vice den], I said I didnt do it. Two policemen
beat me, smashed my head against the wall and kicked me to force me to sign it. I
said I wouldnt sign it, so the two grabbed my hand and made me sign. I intentionally
grabbed the pen and tore the paper with it, and for doing that I was viciously beaten.59
This police violence against sex workers clearly violates relevant domestic law. Article 24 of
the Procedural Provisions for the Handling of Administrative Cases by Public Security Organs
stipulates: Extortion of a confession by torture or collecting evidence by threat, deceit, or
other unlawful means is strictly prohibited.60 Statements or pleas collected from a suspect
through the extortion of confession by torture or other unlawful means, or statements
collected from a victim or testimony from other witnesses obtained through violence,
threat, or other unlawful means, also cannot be used as the basis for a judgment.61 Article
22 of the PRC Peoples Police Law stipulates that the police may not extort confession by
torture or subject offenders to corporal punishment or maltreatment; they may not beat a
person or instigate another to do so. 62
Police violence against sex workers also violates international norms. Article 5 of The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: No one shall be subjected to torture or
to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 63 China in 1988 acceded to
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment. This convention defines torture as "any act inflicted by or at the instigation of
or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official
capacity by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally
inflicted on a person for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession or for other
reasons."64 The violent extortion of confessions from sex workers by police constitutes
torture. The Convention also obligates State parties to adopt effective legislative,
administrative, judicial, or other measures to prevent torture being committed anywhere
under its jurisdiction.65

59

Interview with Yan, November 7, 2012.

Procedural Provisions for the Handling of Administrative Cases by Public Security Organs, Article 24.
61
Ibid.
62
National Peoples Congress, Peoples Police Law of the Peoples Republic of China
], adopted at
the 12th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National Peoples Congress on February 28, 1995, and promulgated
by Order No. 40 of the President of the Peoples Republic of China on February 28, 1995.
63
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5.
64
United Nations General Assembly, The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/39/46) on 10 December 1984, and came into force on
June 26, 1987, Article 1.
65
United Nations General Assembly, The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, Article 2, Paragraph 1.
60

23

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Extortion and Corruption

C&E is an excessive penalty for such a minor offense as the provision of sexual services. The
majority of sex workers are working without the knowledge of their families, and they are
deeply concerned that being arrested and put into custody will expose this fact. Some sex
workers are single mothers of small children, and when they are locked up, their children
are left with no one to care for them.
Public security organs have considerable discretion over what form of administrative
punishment to impose. They often take advantage of sex workers unwillingness to be taken
into custody to extort bribes from them. The law stipulates that the police can impose fines
of up to 5,000 yuan (US $833) on sex workers.66 Our study found, however, that sex workers
pay even larger amounts to the police and intermediaries.
Sex workers we interviewed said that as soon as they were arrested, action had to be taken
before the local dispatch station referred the case to the next higher level for examination;
once the case was referred to a higher level, it would be very difficult to reverse a decision
for custody. Forty-six-year-old Niu, from Jilin, said:
After the police arrested me, my friend quickly use connections to find out which
police station Id been taken to, and paid the station chief 30,000 yuan (US $4918). Im
lucky for my friends prompt action. If theyd already sent the file up, all would have
been lost, and no amount of money would have kept me from being put into custody.67
Sex workers at the bottom rung of society always need to use various connections to
locate the person who can solve their problem. A complex web of interests binds the
public security apparatus to the sex trade, and sex workers are the lowest and most heavily
exploited element in this web. They not only have to pay bribes to the police, but also have
to cover the costs of intermediaries. Xiao Yang, from Sichuan, was arrested once a few years
ago, so when she was arrested again this year, she worried she would be sent to C&E:
When the police began interrogating me, they said my boss had found someone, and if
I quickly confessed and paid up after giving a statement, Id be released. That night they
said theyd let me off for 15,000 yuan, but at that time my boss couldnt round up so
much money. By the next day, the police were demanding 30,000. My boss borrowed
45,000 yuan (US $7,377) from someone from my home village and several colleagues,
paying the police 30,000 yuan (US $4,918) and giving the other 15,000 yuan (US $2,459)
to the intermediary.68

66

Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security, Article 66.

Interview with Niu, September 23, 2013.
68
Interview with Xiao Yang, March 25, 2013.
67

24

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

These extortionate bribes impose a heavy economic burden on sex workers and their
families. Sometimes the entire family has to be mobilized to raise the required amount.
After Lingling was arrested, her husband and daughter went around to everyone they knew
and finally paid 70,000 yuan (US $11,475) to have her released:
Id saved up more than 30,000 yuan (US $4,918) and planned to send it home for my
son to pay off a loan shark, but now I had to spend it all. Then my son had to borrow
another 10,000 yuan (US $1,639), and my daughter put in 20,000 (US $3,278) and my
brother 10,000 (US $1,639) so I could finally pull together 70,000 yuan. 69
The experience of being arrested also inflicts psychological damage on sex workers. Lingling
described her feelings after being released:
After I got out, whenever I was walking around and saw a policeman, my legs would go
weak. When I got home and my husband wanted to do that with me, I didnt let him
because I was afraid the police would come and arrest me. Sometimes Id just rather
be dead thinking about this humiliating incident makes life seem meaningless.70
Inside Custody and Education Centers

The center I was in took on all kinds of jobs: wrapping disposable

chopsticks, peeling garlic for dumpling shops, cutting rubber strips to
mend tires... What kind of custody and education is this? Its nothing
but forced labor.
Yi, January 15, 2013
Forced Labor
In the late 1970s, China embarked on reforms of economic liberalization. Economic
liberalization resulted in the decentralization of government, which was accompanied by the
de-funding of local governments. Funding for public security and the related administrative
apparatus declined, and the government budget was inadequate to cover outlay. For this
reason, these organs were forced to identify external sources of funding.71 This change
affected the operation of C&E centers directly managed by the public security organs, and
distorted the purpose of C&E.
The 'Measure' requires persons held under C&E to take part in productive labor. The income
obtained from that labor is used to improve the living conditions of detainees and the C&E
69

Interview with Lingling, March 16, 2013.

Ibid.
71
Fu Hualing et al, Administrative Detention of Prostitutes.
70

25

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

facilities.72
Interviewees said that almost all their time in the C&E centers was taken up with labor, and
that even after completing their work assignments, they often had to put in overtime.
Twenty-three-year-old Fang, from Guizhou, said she was held in C&E for half a year:
One month [after being sent to C&E], I was sent down every day to labor. It was folding
paper bags used to wipe dogs bottoms I heard it was for export to Japan. There were
50 to a packet, and every day I had to fold 1,250 little paper bags and 1,300 large paper
bags. If you didnt meet the quota, you had points docked, and docking points meant
being held for several days longer.73
Xiao Lans job was making cloth toys:
We were all making cloth toys horses, tigers, whatever. Id get up every morning at
6 oclock, eat at 7, then go to work until 11, take a noon rest, then start up again at
2 oclock, and then again at night from 7 to 11 oclock. We had to work nights, too,
because there was always work to get done. An order would arrive requiring so many
items to be completed in a few days, and we had to get them done. I worked nine
hours each day. 74
Detainees are not paid any kind of wages for their labor in the C&E center. Article 13 of the
Measure stipulates: Persons held in custody who engage in productive labor may be paid a
working wage according to the provisions.75 The sex workers we interviewed said they were
never paid any kind of wages. The C&E encouraged them to work hard by offering early
release in return.
Lian, from Guizhou, said:
We werent paid for our work, but if you work more, you could deduct a few days. I
worked hard in hopes of getting out early. In the end I worked off three days. 76
Yi said that C&E center staff exaggerated the amount of time that would be deducted from
custody in order to get her to work harder:
They didnt give me any wages. At the outset, the corrections staff said whoever
worked hardest would get out a month early, so I killed myself cutting [rubber strips]. I
72

The Measure, Article 13.

Interview with Fang, May 12, 2013.
74
Interview with Xiao Lan, December 26, 2012.
75
The Measure, Article 13.
76
Interview with Lian, May 26, 2013.
73

26

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

cut more than anyone else, but when I asked her about it, I knew Id been cheated. She
said there was no way I could get out a month early, but she gave me six days. I have
no idea how they calculated how many days to deduct.77
The work carried out by detainees was all for jobs undertaken by the C&E centers. The C&E
centers handed their assignments directly to the detainees and used detainees labor to
create income for the centers. Haige, the law enforcement officer, said:
There are profit markets inside the C&E centers also. The work carried out by people
sent to the centers is accepted from outside by the C&E center management. One
hundred percent is kept by the C&E center, and the workers dont get a cent.78
Forced labor without pay violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Covenant stipulates that no one should be forced or coerced into working. The use of
penal labor in custody as a punishment for a crime requires a proper judgment from the
courts. 79
According to the UNs Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, work
assigned in prison should maintain or increase the prisoners ability to earn an honest
living after release. It further states, The interests of the prisoners and of their vocational
training... must not be subordinated to the purpose of making a financial profit from an
industry in the institution, and that [t]here shall be a system of equitable remuneration
of the work of prisoners.80 While detainees in C&E centers are not actually prisoners, since
they were never sentenced by a court, the standards in C&E centers are harsher than in
prisons.

Inadequate Education in the C&E Centers

One of the main stated objectives of C&E is to provide detainees with education to eliminate
illiteracy and provide technical training so that they can master a skill to support themselves
following release. Asia Catalyst found that the C&E centers do carry out some efforts to
provide education to detainees, including literacy and STD&HIV knowledge. However,
given the emphasis on labor and profit in C&E centers, education has become a burden for
detainees and often a mere formality.
From Asia Catalyst's research, it became apparent that when detainees first enter a C&E
center, the emphasis is on making them obey and follow the rules; they are required
77

Interview with Yi, January 15, 2013.

Interview with Haige, May 30, 2013.
79
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 8, Paragraph 3.
80
United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners, adopted and approved by the Economic and Social Council by resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of July
31,1957, and 2076 (LXII) of May 13, 1977.
78

27

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

to memorize the Behavior Rules for Custody and Education Centers as one of their main
tasks. Under some circumstances, this is supplemented with the much harsher practice of
benching to make stubborn detainees more compliant.
The first time she was arrested, Lin was sent to C&E for half a year. She says:
The first month at the C&E center, I had to memorize the rules [Behavior Rules for
Custody and Education Centers]. While memorizing I had to sit on small plastic
bench about 20-30 cm high. I had to sit with my back straight and without slouching
or extending my legs it was terrible. At first, sitting like that was very painful, but
eventually my buttocks developed dark calluses, and it didnt hurt any more. 81
Yan came from Jiangxi with her two children. She said:
When I entered into the C&E center, the first two weeks was education time. We had
to wake up at dawn every day, eat breakfast, and then write out the thirty-three rules
[from the Behavior Rules for Custody and Education Centers] one by one. The ones
who knew how to write had to teach the ones who didnt know, two people to a group.
I didnt know how to write, but I learned to write the rules very well, page after page in
a notebook. We sat on the bench. Then a noon meal, a break, and then back to writing
in the afternoon. 82
In addition, the C&E center will invite teachers to give classes to detainees on legal issues
relating to sex work, and on STDs and HIV/AIDS.
Meizi said:
When I first went in, I had to memorize the thirty-three rules. Then someone came
from a university to give lectures, forty-five minutes each time, seven or eight times.
It was all about laws relating to prostitution, STDs, the Marriage Law, stuff like thatI
dont remember. 83
Xiao Lan said:
When I first went in, I had to go to classes for a week. They were all taught by a
policeman from the center. He didnt give us a textbook but issued notebooks to us,
and we had to write down whatever he said. He talked about AIDS, health, and the law.
He taught us we couldnt do that [sex work] and had to turn ourselves around, because
this work was dangerous and could lead to us getting raped or murdered. He didnt tell
81
82
83

28

Interview with Lin, January 22, 2013.

Interview with Yan, November 7, 2012.
Interview with Meizi, July 6, 2013.

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

us everything about the law, but talked about the thirty-three rules, which were related
to this [sex work], and we had to memorize them. 84
According to the Measures for Management of Custody & Education Centers, C&E centers
under certain conditions can organize vocational training for detainees.85 But this training is
often just to satisfy inspections by supervisors. Yan said:
We only had training classes when leaders were making inspections. We learned all
kinds of things, computer and so on. I learned to read because Im illiterate. Without
inspections by leaders, we wouldnt have had those classes.86
Interviewees felt that the results of their education in the C&E centers were very limited.
After half a year in a C&E center, Xiao Lan said, I felt it was useless locking us up. The
classes about AIDS were very useful and helped us understand what kind of disease it was,
but everything else I forgotI just worked.87
Although the Chinese government has been cracking down on sex work, the number of sex
workers continues to rise.88 C&E has not met the expectations of policymakers in reducing
the number of sex workers. Detainees also have no way of receiving effective vocational
training. Given that detainees are required to cover their own living expenses in custody,
its hard to imagine that this kind of education can be effective. All of the sex workers we
interviewed returned to the sex industry as soon as they left the C&E center. As Hong from
Sichuan put it: I feel we were taken into custody just for the money. Whats this about
educating us to correct our view of life? How many come out and dont go right back to
work? If we dont do this, how can we make a living? 89

Charging Fees in C&E Centers

Unlike other forms of custody such as RTL, detention centers, and prisons, living expenses
inside C&E centers have to be covered by the detainees themselves. The 'Measure'
stipulates: The living expenses of individuals being held in Custody & Education are
generally charged to the inmate or the inmates family.90 In cases of genuine hardship, the
C&E center may petition the local department of finance to resolve it. The merchandise
pricing departments of public security bureaus set the standard rates and charges in
accordance with local standards.91
84

Interview with Xiao Lan, December 26, 2012.

Measures for Management of Custody & Education Centers, Article 36.
86
Interview with Yan, November 7, 2012.
87
Interview with Xiao Lan, December 26, 2012.
88
Yi, Mantell, et al.
89
Interview with Hong, April 20, 2013.
90
The Measure, Article 14.
91
The Measure, Article 39.
85

29

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Our study reflects the charging practices in some localities. Interviewees said that when
first admitted to a C&E center, they were required to pay 1,900 yuan (US $311 USD), which
included monthly living expenses of 200 yuan (US $33) (for six months it is 1200 yuan(US
$197)and an additional 700 yuan (US $115) for bedding, uniforms, a washbasin, and other
daily articles they were required to purchase.92
Before paying this money, detainees are still kept and fed at the C&E center, but their
treatment is different. Given that most sex workers conceal their work from their families,
and arrests occur without warning, most are not carrying the necessary funds at the time of
their arrest. They are therefore obliged to borrow from friends or employers after arriving
at the C&E center. Some interviewees described the hardship encountered before this
payment can be made.
One interviewee nicknamed Henan Sister said: People who couldnt pay 1,900 yuan (US
$311) were only given steamed buns to eat, while those who paid up got buns and rice.
Everyone got vegetables, but others got meat or an egg while I didnt.93 She had an even
more discomforting experience:
Id just joined a group [work team] for a couple of days when my time came
[menstruation]. I didnt have money for sanitary pads, because the 200-plus yuan (US
$33) I had on me when I was arrested wasnt enough for the first payment. You have
to pay 1,900 yuan (US $311) the first time, and if you dont have that, you cant buy
things. I was panicking, so I did some work for other sisters, massaging their legs and
so on, so they would give me a packet of sanitary pads.94
The money paid to the C&E center is to cover basic living expenses while the purchase of
other necessary items or better food requires more money. The endless stream of detainees
into C&E centers becomes a consumer market. Interviewees told us that the items they
purchased inside the C&E centers cost several times more than what they would pay
outside. Interviewees said that half a year in C&E typically cost them 5,000) to 10,000 yuan
((US $820 to $1639).
Hong said:
Its expensive insidea bottle of detergent costs 10 yuan (US $1.60), when its only
around 3 yuan (US $0.5) outside. Whenever I bought things, I had to spend 300 or 500
yuan (US $50-$82). By the time I got out, Id spent the full 6,000 yuan (US $984) my
friends had loaned me. If you dont pay up when you come in, you have to come up

92

Interview with Fang, May 12, 2013.

Interview with Henan Sister, May 30, 2013.
94
Interview with Henan Sister, May 30, 2013.
93

30

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

with the money before youre released. 95

Xiao Lan spent even more in the C&E center:
You have to pay for everything inside, and things cost triple what they do outside. You
have to be rich to be in prison; otherwise you cant afford to be there. Your family has
to come up with the money. I spent more than 10,000 yuan (US $1639) in half a year. 96
Part of the reason why C&E centers make detainees work and charge them for their living
expenses and medical examinations and treatment (discussed below)is that the centers
themselves arent guaranteed adequate funding for their operations. Many C&E centers
operate on very tight budgets or without adequate material resources. Since many
detainees are themselves impoverished, they cant pay for their own upkeep, and the C&E
center is obliged to bear their costs. In 2004, one Shanghai C&E center was more than
80,000 yuan (US $13,115) in arrears for medical and living expenses.97

Medical Examinations and Treatment

The C&E system requires detainees to undergo compulsory testing and treatment for
sexually-transmitted diseases. Article 10 of the 'Measure' stipulates that testing and
treatment for sexually transmitted diseases shall be carried out. The cost of testing and
treatment for sexually transmitted diseases will generally be covered by detainees or their
families.98 The 'Measure' does not require detainees informed consent, and detainees have
no right to refuse testing or treatment.
Interviewees said their informed consent was not obtained for these tests, and they were
not told the results. Detainees found to have STDs were simply isolated from the others for
treatment.
Xiao Lan said:
I was given an exam in the detention center and in the C&E center. I had to pay more
than 500 yuan. They took blood samples and tested for syphilis and so on. There was
no counseling and they didnt give us an examination report. The ones found to be sick
had their names called and were all held in one building. Those whose names werent
called werent sick.99

95

Interview with Hong, April 20, 2013.

Interview with Xiao Lan, December 26, 2012.
97
Zhan Wei.
98
The Measure, Article 10.
99
Interview with Xiao Lan, December 26, 2012.
96

31

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Xiao Cao said:

Later they tested for STDs, but they didnt say which one, just that it was for STDs. They
took blood samples, checked you down there, took urine samples, thats all. The ones
who tested positive were all put in one room. The testing fee was something like 170
yuan (US $29). 100
Detainees have to cover the full cost of medical examinations and treatment. Lian tested
positive for an STD while at a C&E center:
I tested positive for gonorrhea. They gave me two injections and I took medicine for a
week. Later I found out the cost of the testing and treatment was deducted from my
funds, a total of more than 500 yuan (US $82). 101
The compulsory testing and treatment carried out in C&E centers violates detainees
right to health. The United Nations General Comment No. 14 on the right to the highest
attainable standard of health points out: The right to health contains both freedoms and
entitlements. The freedoms include the right to control ones health and body... and the
right to be free from interference, such as the right to be free from torture, non-consensual
medical treatment and experimentation. 102
Non-consensual testing and treatment also violates internationally accepted principles on
medical examinations. UNAIDS and the World Health Organization hold that confidentiality,
counseling, and informed consent are the fundamental principles of testing for HIV/
AIDS. These principles require that the person undergoing examination and testing must
understand the process and clearly express consent to undergo it. The examination should
be confidential and accompanied by appropriate pre- and post-examination counseling.
WHO and UNAIDS do not support carrying out mandatory or compulsory examination and
testing for STDs on public health grounds. 103
The lack of a counseling process and not being notified of the testing results is not
conducive to an understanding of ones illness or personal condition. Before examination
and testing are carried out, a detainees informed consent should be obtained, and s/he
should be told the results. Regardless of the results, detainees should be provided with
effective counseling.

100

Interview with Xiao Cao, July 6, 2013.

Interview with Lian, May 26, 2013.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 14 on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of
Health (E/C.12/2000/4) UN Doc. HRI\GEN\1\Rev.7(2004). Paragraph 8, http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/ %28symbol %29/
E.C.12.2000.4.En?OpenDocument.
103
World Health Organization and UNAIDS, Statement on HIV Testing and Counseling, November 28, 2012, http://www.who.
int/hiv/events/2012/world_aids_day/hiv_testing_counselling/en/index.html.
101
102

32

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Toilet Privileges, Letters and Visits

In the C&E centers, sex workers rest, labor, and education are strictly managed, along
with a basic human physiological need, using the restroom. Interviewees said they were
given restroom access only at fixed times. The greatest hardship was a prohibition against
defecation at night; many suffered medical disorders as a result. Meizi, who raised her
children alone after her husband left, told Asia Catalyst:
[In the C&E center,] we could only go to the toilet at certain times: from 6:30 to 7:00
in the morning, at 11:30 in the morning, and at 5:30 in the evening. Any other time,
we had to ask permission, and that would depend on the section heads mood. If she
was in a good mood, shed let you go, but if she was in a bad mood, you had to hold it.
We werent allowed to defecate at night, because the toilet was outside and the cells
were locked at night, and we were just given two basins to use in the cell. I eventually
developed cystitis. 104
Lu worried about needing the restroom at night, so she didnt dare eat too much: I ate very
little at noon and in the evening, because we couldnt use the toilet at night.105
Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: No one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.106 Persons
detained in C&E are not criminals, and such strictly controlled access to the toilet is not
consistent with C&E being an administrative compulsory education measure. Restrictions
that cause illness among detainees violate the purpose of C&E.
Persons held in C&E are allowed to communicate with the outside world by telephone,
visits, and letters, but they also face restrictions. Detainees are allowed to telephone family
members or friends at set times. Some interviewees said that they were only allowed to
speak Mandarin when making phone calls. This is a challenge to some women from remote
rural areas who have come to the cities to work.
Fang, from Guizhou, said:
After one month I was allowed to telephone my family. The guard told us each person
was allowed only three minutes, and we could only use Mandarin so the guard could
understand what we were saying. I was careless and out of habit I spoke to my husband
in our native dialect, and the guard disconnected the phone. 107

104

Interview with Meizi, July 6, 2013.

Interview with Lu, June 18, 2013.
106
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
107
Interview with Fang, May 12, 2013.
105

Article 7.

33

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Detainees are allowed to receive letters from outside, but our interviewees said they had no
real privacy. Hong said:
If a letter came from home, we had to read it in the presence of a guard, and the letter
wasnt in an envelope it had already been opened. When we finished reading, we
had to give it back to the guard and couldnt keep it with us. We werent allowed to
write back. 108
In addition, some C&E centers charge visitors a fee. When a staff member of our partner
organization went to a C&E center to visit an interviewee during the survey period, after
being granted permission to enter the reception room, she was required to pay 200 yuan (US
$33). No one told her what the 200 yuan was for, and she was not given a receipt. When she
visited the detainee, the C&E center gave her some fruit and a drink, but the value of these
items was not even close to 200 yuan.

108

34

Interview with Hong, April 20, 2013.

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

IV

Legal Analysis

Conflict between C&E and International and Domestic Law

Under the C&E system, sex workers and their clients are arrested and then taken into
custody for periods exceeding six months without recourse to the courts. As a form
of administrative detention, individuals held in the C&E system are not entitled to the
protections for criminal suspects guaranteed in the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law.109 Their
personal freedom is restrained without due process, which constitutes arbitrary detention
and a violation of their right to a fair trial.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a backbone document of international
customary human rights law, includes human rights protections in the case of detention and
arrest. Article 9 states: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10 states: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an
independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of
any criminal charge against him. 110
Furthermore, the People's Republic of China (PRC) became a signatory to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1998, and is making preparatory steps for its
ratification.111 As a signatory, China is required to refrain from acts which would defeat the
object of purpose of the treaty.112 Article 9 of the Convention stipulates the following:
Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to
arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such
grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law. 113
Article 14 stipulates the following:
All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any
criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone
shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial
109
United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Report of the Mission to China (E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.4), December
29, 2004.
110
United Nations General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III),
December 10, 1948, articles 9-10.
111
United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Report of the Mission to China (E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.4), December
29, 2004. .
112
Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol.1155, p.331, entered into force on January 27,
1980, Article 18.
113
United Nations General Assembly, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted and opened for signature,
ratification and accession by General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI) on December 16, 1966, entry into force March 23,
1976, Article 9.

35

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

tribunal established by law. 114

This kind of arbitrary deprivation of personal liberty also violates the Constitution of the
Peoples Republic of China. Article 37 of the Constitution states the following:
The freedom of the person of citizens of the Peoples Republic of China is inviolable.
No citizen may be arrested except with the approval or by decision of a peoples
procuratorate115 or by decision of a peoples court, and arrests must be made by a
public security organ. Unlawful deprivation or restriction of citizens freedom of the
person by detention or other means is prohibited; and unlawful search of the person
of citizens is prohibited.116
C&E is decided and carried out by public security organs without the intervention of
the procuratorates or courts. This is in clear violation of the letter and spirit of the PRC
Constitution.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention noted in its 2005 report on its
mission to China: There exists no genuine right to challenge administrative detention. []
As far as minor administrative offences are concerned, it [the Working Group] recommends
that all conduct subject to sanction be described in great detail, and that all persons
deprived of their liberty on account of administrative offences be guaranteed a public and
adversarial trial.117
The Working Group report also stressed that the fact that China classified RTL as an
administrative penalty does not affect its responsibility to ensure due process: International
law provisions and standards referred to above require that everyone deprived of his/
her liberty should be given an opportunity to contest before a court the lawfulness of the
detention. The fact that the legal system of China classifies re-education through labor
[sic] as an administrative deprivation of liberty as opposed to judicial deprivation of liberty
governed by criminal law, does not affect Chinas obligation to ensure judicial control over
this form of deprivation of liberty. 118

114

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 14.

The peoples procuratorates in China are state organs of legal supervision. Their organization corresponds to that of the
peoples courts. The peoples procuratorates have the right to exercise procuratorial authority. They exercise this authority over
cases endangering state and public security, damaging economic order and infringing citizens' personal and democratic rights,
and other important criminal cases; examine cases scheduled for investigation by the public security agencies, decide on
whether a suspect should be arrested or not, and whether a case should be prosecuted or exempt from prosecution; institute
and support public prosecution in criminal cases; and oversee the activities of public security agencies, people's courts,
prisons, houses of detention and reform-through-labor institutions.
116
Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, adopted on December 4, 1982, Article 37.
117
United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Report of the Mission to China (E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.4), December
29, 2004. .
118
Ibid.
115

36

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

One serious problem with the C&E system is that it lacks a solid legal foundation. In China,
the National Peoples Congress and its Standing Committee exercise the legislative power
of the State.119 Article 8 of the 2000 Law on Legislation stipulates that mandatory measures
and penalties that deprive citizens of their political rights or restrict the freedom of their
person must be governed by law.120 Article 9 of the Law on Legislation goes a step further
by stipulating that the National Peoples Congress or its Standing Committee may authorize
the State Council to formulate some administrative regulations, but it excludes delegating
authority for compulsory measures and penalties that deprive citizens of their political
rights or restrict the freedom of their persons. 121 Article 9 of the Law of the Peoples
Republic of China on Administrative Penalty, promulgated in 1996, likewise stipulates,
Administrative penalties that restrict the freedom of the person shall only be created by
law.122 Compulsory measures and punishments that restrict citizens personal freedom
can therefore only be enacted into law by the National Peoples Congress and its Standing
Committee.
Do the documents that define the C&E system qualify as laws? The 1991 Decision by the
Standing Committee of the NPC was the first to propose the C&E system, and it confers
authority on the State Council to establish concrete measures for C&E. The State Council
promulgated the related 'Measure' in 1993. In the 'Decision', the Standing clearly violates
the Law on Legislation by authorizing the State Council to issue the 'Measure' on C&E, which
restricts citizens freedom for up to two years. As the 'Measure' is a type of State Council
regulation it is therefore different from national laws that are formulated and passed by the
National Peoples Congress or its Standing Committee.
In addition, the 'Measure' prescribes C&E as an interim measure between a public order
penalty and RTL.123 As the Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security has
removed RTL for sex workers and their clients and the Chinese government has already
announced it will abolish RTL, we cannot ignore the existence of other measures such as
C&E and allow their continued application.

119

Legislation Law of the Peoples Republic of China[

], adopted at the Third Session of the Ninth
National Peoples Congress on March 15, 2000, Article 7.
Ibid., Article 8.
121
Ibid., Article 9.
122
National Peoples Congress, Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Penalties for Administrative Penalty [
], adopted at the Fourth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress on March 17, 1996, and promulgated by
Order No. 63 of the President of the People's Republic of China on March 17, 1996, Article 9.
123
The original text states that with regards to sex worker and their clients, apart from the penalties stipulated under Article
30 of the Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Penalties for Administration of Public Security, where Re-education
Through Labor is not warranted, the public security organ may decide to impose Custody & Education. The 2011 State Council
Resolution Regarding Scrapping and Amending a Portion of Administrative Regulations amended this to read apart from the
penalties stipulated under Article 66 of the Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Penalties for Administration of Public
Security (emphasis added).
120

37

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

C&Es Violation of Due Process

In Article 9 of the 'Measure', the approval procedures for C&E are quite vague, but it makes
clear that public security organs possess all decision-making power regarding C&E. Article 8
of the Measure stipulates the following regarding the process of C&E:
The implementation of Custody & Education toward sex workers and their clients is decided
by public security organs at the county level or above. The county-level public security
organ that decides to implement Custody & Education must fill out a Custody & Education
Decision form. A copy of the Custody & Education Decision form must be provided to the
individual who is taken into Custody & Education, and within 15 days of the date of the
Decision, notification must be provided to the individuals family, work unit, and local public
security dispatch office. 124
In this process, there is no external oversight , nor is there a requirement to submit an
application for review and approval by a judicial organ. Whereas the constitution and the
criminal justice system in China provide the basis for a public trial, judicial process, and a
right to appeal, administrative detention has no parallel system of checks and balances. 125
According to Haige, the law enforcement officer we interviewed, the actual implementation
of the C&E process in his city follows these steps:
1). The Public Security Bureau (PSB) office that handles the investigation of cases sends
the individuals case files to the legal division of the PSB at a superior level.
2). The legal division of the PSB approves the decision of 14-day administrative
detention and C&E.
3). If the legal division of the PSB decides not to impose C&E, the Public Security
Bureau office that handles the investigation of cases has to submit the case to the legal
division of the Public Security Bureau Public Security Management Corps, which then
hands down a decision on whether or not to impose a C&E sentence. 126
The public security organs are also responsible for examining and verifying applications
for reconsideration of C&E cases. Article 20 of the 'Measure' stipulates that if a person
is dissatisfied with a decision to be placed under C&E, s/he may, in accordance with the
Regulations on Administrative Reconsideration, appeal for review by the next higher level of
public security organ. In other words, the same body is responsible for issuing the decision,
the examination carried out by the public security apparatus, and the reconsideration
124
125
126

38

The Measure, Article 8.

Tucker, Xin and Sapio.
Interview with Haige, May 30, 2013.

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

process.
According to Haige, applications in his city for administrative redress by persons in C&E are
categorically refused.127 None of the sex workers we interviewed had applied for a review
of their case; one person summarized the general feeling by stating: Whats the point of
applying for a review when theres no chance of success?128
The decision for early release or extension of a C&E sentence is also made by the public
security apparatus. According to Articles 17 and 18 of the Measure, abbreviation or
extension of a term in C&E requires the C&E center to obtain permission from the public
security organ that issued the original decision. 129
It is clear that the detainee is deprived of all basic procedural rights, including the right to
plead not guilty, the right to make a statement, the right to an effective hearing, the right
to defense, and an open decision process.130 The Procedural Provisions for the Handling
of Administrative Cases by Public Security Organs, issued in 2012, includes C&E within the
scope of administrative cases, but the stipulations regarding hearings have not been applied
to C&E.131 By way of contrast, the suspended RTL system had a stipulation on hearings that
guaranteed the defendants right to know the facts of the case and to plead his/her case.132
Furthermore, C&E centers are operated and managed by the Ministry of Public Security.
According to the 'Measures,' the establishment of C&E centers is proposed by local
public security organs based on the operational needs for C&E, and is approved by
the corresponding local government office. The management of the C&E center is the
responsibility of the public security bureau that established it. 133
This shows that under the C&E system, public security bureaus not only investigate the case
and make the decision for C&E, but also have full control over the review process and are
responsible for managing the C&E centers. As the controlling body, the public security organ
merges the four functions of decision, execution, supervision, and arbitration into one.134
Given the lack of judicial intervention and external supervision, abuse of power and corrupt
127

Interview with Haige, May 30, 2013.

Interview with Yi, January 15, 2012.
129
The Measure, articles 17-18.
130
Hu Renbin, Crisis of LegitimacyA Legal Analysis of the Custody and Education System [
]., Hangzhou Shifan Xueyuan Xuebao (Yixue Ban) 3 (2006).
131
Ministry of Public Security, Procedural Provisions for the Handling of Administrative Cases by Public Security Organs [
], adopted at the ministers executive meeting of the Ministry of Public Security on December 3,
2012, entered into force on January 1, 2013. Article 99 states that the suspected law offender should be informed of his right
to demand a hearing before a decision is made to impose the following administrative penalties: 1) ordering suspension of
business; 2) revoking a permit or license; 3) a relatively large fine; 4) other circumstances under which laws, regulations, and
rules stipulate that the suspected law offender may demand a hearing. C&E is not included among the listed? circumstances.
132
Ministry of Public Security, Public Security Regulation on Handling of Re-education Through Labor Cases [
April 12, 2002, Notice No. (2002) 21, Chapter 4.
133
The Measure, Article 4.
134
Xing Jing.
128

39

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

practices are inevitable.

Personal liberty is a basic human right. State organs wishing to restrict or deprive someones
personal freedom must abide by proper and reasonable procedural requirements. This
is the general practice of all countries governed by rule of law.135 Sex workers and their
clients should enjoy the same rights as all other people, and the forms and procedures of
punishment must conform to the principles of rule of law.
Arbitrary Targeting and Disproportionate Penalties
The designation of targets of C&E in existing legislation is very vague, and the power to
decide on taking someone into custody is given entirely to the public security organs.
The 'Decision' proposes penalties under the Law on Penalties for Administration of Public
Security (public security penalties), with C&E and RTL to be used as the penalties to be
imposed on sex workers and their clients, and explicitly states that RTL is to be used to
punish recidivists. The 'Measure' goes a step further in categorizing C&E as an interim
measure between public security penalties and RTL. But neither document explains whether
it is necessary to first impose a public security penalty before imposing C&E, or under what
circumstances a public security penalty should be imposed as opposed to C&E. 136
In actual practice, these decisions are always made by the police; their execution is
arbitrary and lacks set standards. One of the sex workers we interviewed said that she had
been placed under public security detention several years earlier, and when subsequently
arrested again, was sent to C&E; others spoke of being sent to C&E on their first arrest.
Some public security organs impose fines as a substitute for C&E, or impose C&E only on
those who lack the money to pay a fine.137 The Shanghai Public Security Bureau in 2004
issued a new regulation stating that sex workers or clients arrested for the first time should
generally be detained and fined, and that only those found to have STDs or who are being
arrested for a second time should be sent to C&E.138 The vagueness and arbitrariness of the
provisions could result in the loss of six months to two years of a persons life and personal
freedom, while also damaging the rigor and dignity of the law.
In addition, as a measure for penalizing minor unlawful acts, C&E is excessively harsh.
Depriving a person of her personal freedom in C&E is harsher than some punishments
for criminal behavior under the Criminal Law such as fines, confiscation of property, or
deprivation of political rights.139 In addition, C&E is much harsher than some sentences that
135

Hu Renbin.
Xing Jing.
137
Xing Jing.
138
Zhan Wei.
139
Criminal Law, chapters 6-8, amended 2011.
136

40

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

deprive individuals of their freedom under Criminal Law, among them, terms of control and
surveillance from three months to two years and short detention from one month to six
months; and fixed terms of imprisonment.140
As previously mentioned, sex workers and their clients are subjected to fines and short-term
detention, according to the Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security, and the
public security penalties do not include C&E.
C&E is a penalty in addition to public security penalties. The public security organs often first
impose a public security penalty on sex workers, and then impose C&E as well. All of the sex
workers we interviewed said that after being detained for ten days or more, they were then
sent to C&E. Under the Criminal Law, when passing a judgment of a fixed custodial sentence,
time spent in pre-trial detention is counted as time served.141 Regarding those held in C&E,
however, time spent in public security detention is not subtracted from their term in C&E.
Article 52 of the Measures for Management of Custody & Education Centers stipulates: After
a person in C&E has been held in public security detention for the same act, and a decision
is made to place that person in C&E, the time spent in public security detention shall not
be deducted from the term in C&E.142 That is to say, a person is punished twice for a single
unlawful act, which only increases the harshness of the penalty under C&E.
The original intention of C&E was to penalize unlawful behavior that did not reach the
level of a criminal offense but, in fact, it has become a penalty even harsher than criminal
penalties, and violates the basic legal principle of proportionality.

140
141
142

Criminal Law, chapters 2-4.

Criminal Law, Article 47.
Measures for Management of Custody & Education Centers, Article 57.

41

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Conclusion and Recommendations

In 2012, twelve UN organizations issued a joint statement calling on all nations to

immediately close down compulsory drug rehabilitation and health centers for drug users
and sex workers. The statement pointed out that such compulsory drug rehab and health
centers often lack legal procedures, and detainees routinely encounter violence and forced
labor, extremely limited medical treatment, and other actions that violate their human
rights. There is no evidence showing that these centers contribute to the cure or recovery of
detainees, and these centers do not provide effective care or protection.143
This description fits C&E centers in China. Under the C&E system, police arbitrarily arrest
sex workers and their clients, and arrested persons have little opportunity to challenge the
arrest, either before or after being taken into custody. In the C&E centers, medical exams
and treatment are imposed on an involuntary basis in violation of detainees right to health.
In the C&E centers, detainees are required to engage in forced labor, usually without any
form of payment. Detainees also need to pay for their stay in the center. According to
international law, persons taken into custody should undergo proper procedures and a court
judgment before they are subjected to penal labor, and this cannot be carried out by an
administrative or law enforcement organ.144
The stated purpose of C&E is to provide vocational training and moral education that helps
detainees change their behavior. Throughout the world, there is no evidence showing that
the incarceration effectively prevents women detained for sex work from returning to this
occupation; nor is detention an effective means of helping them find another means of
livelihood.145
C&E undermines the effectiveness of Chinas efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
In China, at least half of all people living with HIV/AIDS are ignorant of their condition.146 For
this reason, China has focused on expanding testing in its efforts against HIV/AIDS. However,
the risk of being incarcerated and punished drives sex workers even further underground,
where it is difficult for them to obtain services related to HIV/AIDS.
The Chinese government has already decided to abolish RTL, which shows the governments
143

UNAIDS et al, Joint Statement: Compulsory Drug Detention and Rehabilitation Centres, March 8, 2012, http://www.unaids.
org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2012/march/20120308adetentioncenters/ (accessed October 21, 2013).
144
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 8.
145
United Nations in Viet Nam, Position on Administrative Detention for Sex Workers and People Who Use Drugs, August
2011, http://www.unaids.org.vn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=574%3Anew-un-position-paper-onadministrative-detention-for-sex-workers-and-people-who-use-drugs&catid=47%3Apress-releases&Itemid=168&lang=en.
146
UNAIDS, Confidentiality Key to Expanding HIV testing in China, April 13, 2012, http://www.unaids.org.cn/cn/index/topic.
asp?id=830&classname=Statements%20and%20Updates&class=2 (accessed September 20, 2012).

42

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

commitment to protect citizens human rights and that it is able to do so. It is time for the
Chinese government to review all the systems similar to RTL and take action to ensure legal
rights and equality for its people, no matter which groups in society they belong to.
The neighboring country of Vietnam, which is heavily influenced by China, at one time also
had many such forced detention centers targeting sex workers and drug users. In 2011,
Vietnam had 183 such centers, holding 46,000 detainees.147 These centers were denounced
by international organizations for lacking proper procedures while limiting personal freedom
for extended periods, forcing people to undergo drug rehabilitation and limited treatment
for HIV/AIDS, and imposing forced labor.148 In October 2012, Vietnams National Assembly
passed a new administrative penalty law that terminated the incarceration of sex workers,
and guaranteed persons undergoing compulsory drug rehabilitation the right to a court
hearing and legal representation.149 China would do well to examine Vietnam's example.
Asia Catalyst echoes the recommendations made by UN agencies and international
organizations, and urges the Chinese government to:
Enact a moratorium halting any further admission of sex workers into C&E centers;
Close down all C&E centers for sex workers and their clients without delay and
release the individuals detained;
Remove laws and regulations that prohibit consenting and voluntary adults to buy or
sell sex; stop campaigns that periodically crack down on sex work;
Provide sex workers and their clients with voluntary quality and evidence-informed
health care, including prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and opportunistic
infections, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as social, legal and
education services; support community-based organizations with funding and technical
support to enable their involvement in this process;
Stop police abuse and extortion against sex workers, provide law enforcement
officers with human rights training in the appropriate treatment of sex
workers; investigate and punish abusive and otherwise improper treatment of sex
workers.

147
Anand Grover, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Hghest Attainable
Standard of Physical and Mental Health, Mission to Viet Nam (A/HRC/20/15/Add.2), 4 June 2012, para. 47.
148
Ibid.; United Nations in Viet Nam, Position on Administrative Detention for Sex Workers and People Who Use Drugs, August
2011.
149
UNAIDS, Alternative Action on Compulsory Detention: Innovative Responses in Asia, October 5, 2012, http://www.unaids.
org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2012/october/20121005detentioncenters/ (accessed September 20, 2012

43

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Acknowledgements
This report was researched and written by Asia Catalyst staff but would not have
been possible without the invaluable assistance of our partner organizations and
the courage of the women who shared their knowledge, expertise and testimonies
with us. Asia Catalyst would also like to thank the German Embassy in China for
providing the funding for this report.
We extend special thanks to lawyer Liu Wei, Asia Catalyst board member Andrea
Worden and intern Dai Bin, for their invaluable comments and input into this report.

44

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

Annex 1: Measure on the Custody and Education of Prostitutes and

their Clients

45

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

46

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

47

"Custody and Education": Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

About Asia Catalyst

Asia Catalyst works with grassroots groups from marginalized communities in

East and Southeast Asia that promote the right to health. We train our partners to
meet high standards of effective and democratic governance, to establish a stable
foundation for future growth, and to conduct rigorous human rights research and
advocacy. We aim to help our partners become leading advocates at the local,
national and global levels. For more information, see www.asiacatalyst.org.

48

Research on the Impact of 2010

Crackdown on Sex Work and
HIV Interventions in China

2010

China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum

20111

China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum

Reseank on the Impact of 2010 Crackdown on Sex Work and

HIV Interventions in China
2010 23456789:;<=>?@AB

China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum

January 2011

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1. Background.......................................................................................................................................................5
2. Research Objectives..........................................................................................................................................5
3. Research Methodology .....................................................................................................................................6
3.1Quantitative Questionnaires.............................................................................................................................6
3.2Qualitative Interviews......................................................................................................................................7
3.3Research Limitations .......................................................................................................................................7
4. Basic Data of the Respondents .........................................................................................................................8
4.1 Basic Data of the Respondents .......................................................................................................................8
4.1.1 Basic Data of Questionnaire Respondents ........................................................................................8
4.1.2 Basic Data of the Interview Respondents .......................................................................................11
4.2. Respondents Experience of Crackdowns by Public Security before 2010 ................................................11
4.2.1 Questionnaire Respondents Experience..........................................................................................11
4.2.2 Stories of Crackdown Experiences .................................................................................................13
5. Characteristics of Crackdowns in 2020 ..........................................................................................................13
5.1Wide-Range, Long-Lasting and Intensive .....................................................................................................13
Table 5.1: Details of crackdowns in 2010...........................................................................................................13
5.2 Many EEs Shut Down, Clients and Earnings Decreased......................................................................15
5.3 Regional Characteristics and Differences in the Crackdowns..............................................................17
5.4 More Severe Punishment and Violence in Law Enforcement ..............................................................20
5.5 Policy at the Top, Strategies on the Ground .........................................................................................23
6. Influence of the Anti-Pornography Campaign on Sex Work and HIV/AIDS Prevention ..............................25
6.1 Professional Security is still Sex Workers Major Concern...................................................................25
6.2 Little Change in Bringing and Using Condoms, but Some Reduction .................................................26
6.3 The Effects of Crackdown on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Intervention ..............................................27
6.3.1 Community Grassroots Organizations and Peer Educators.......................................................27
6.3.2 Sex Workers .............................................................................................................................28
7. Findings and Recommendations .....................................................................................................................29

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7.1

Main Findings .................................................................................................................................29

7.1.1
The crackdowns resulted in decrease of sex workers, changed operation patterns of EEs
and more obscure work place of sex workers ....................................................................................29
7.1.2
Sex workers were afraid that carrying and using condoms could become evidence of
prostitution in the anti-pornography campaign ..................................................................................29

7.2

7.3

7.1.3

Crackdowns have increased the vulnerability of sex workers ............................................29

7.1.4

Crackdowns have disclosed the illegal behaviours in law enforcement of the police .......30

Multiple Views on Crackdowns from Sex Workers and Stakeholders ...........................................30

7.2.1

The View of Sex Workers...................................................................................................30

7.2.2

The View of EE owners and managers ...............................................................................30

Commens and Suggestions from Sex Workers and Stakeholders...................................................31

7.3.1

Suggestions from Sex Workers...........................................................................................31

7.3.2

Suggestions from Community-based Sex Workers Service Organizations ........................32

8 Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................................................33

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Glossary
Anti-pornography campaigns CD
Strict crackdown 34
Sex worker (SW) 678E
China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum FCSWONFGHI678EJKLMNO
Female sex worker (FSW) P6678E
Money boy (MB) Q6678E
Transgender (TG) sex worker RS/T6678E
Entertainment establishments(EEs) UVWX
Owners of EEs UVWXYZ
Zero-Tolerance [\]
Outreach ^_
Condom promotion and utilization `abcd9ef
HIV :;<<g
STI 60hi<F6<G
AIDS jk6lmnopqrstF:;<G
UNFPA usIvwxy
NCAIDS Iz6<:;<{=|}H~
CDC i<{=|}H~
Non-governmental organization (NGO)

Sex and reproductive health (SRH)

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1. Background
It is well known that unprotected sex is a major cause of HIV infection. Sexual transmission is already the
leading cause of HIV infection in China. A reported 59 percent of people who are living with HIV/AIDS in
2009 were infected by unsafe sex. Sex workers and their customers are one of the populations with a high
infection risk, so the promotion of condom use among sex workers is an important strategy of HIV
interventions.
However, crackdowns on sex work have always been a favored strategy of authorities as a way of decreasing
the demand. On April 11, 2010, the Beijing Public Security Bureau formed a Prohibition Office on Sex Work,
Gambling and Drugs. On the evening of May 11, the Beijing Public Security Bureau initiated a zero-tolerance
inspection on four top-rated EEs, including "Tian Shang Ren Jian"FPassion ClubG. Via video phone
conferences, public security departments around the country participated in the 2010 Strict Crackdown Special
Initiative on June 13th and Public Security System Renovation Initiative on June 22nd, taking assignments to
conduct crackdowns against sex work, gambling and drug using, especially against illegal activities such as
prostitution and obscene performances. After that, the crackdowns on sex work started in Beijing and quickly
spread all over the nation.
In April 2010, such continual, cooperative, and intensive dragnet crackdowns with multi-level police
involvement (including public security, criminal investigation, policeman and special forces, etc.) were not
common. How these crackdowns that do not end sex work yet impacts the industry and condom use promotion
in EEs is thus far, unknown.
As the leading organization addressing HIV/AIDS and sex work in United Nations, UNFPA has funded
NCAIDS and CSWONF separately to conduct research to understand how local stakeholders, including sex
workers, owners of EEs and sex worker service organizations, see the impacts of these crackdowns and their
effects on HIV intervention; this is what ultimately matters to the formulation of HIV/AIDS prevention and
treatment plans in the long-run.
China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum (CSWONF) was founded in 2009; it is a civil organization
forum initiated by community-based organizations which provide occupational health and safety intervention
for sex workers in China. The mission of CSWONF is to support the development of its members, to improve
the occupational health environment of sex workers so that sex workers can live and work in an environment
free from discrimination with equal right to development. The Forum consists of 14 organizations with its
Secretariat based in Shanghai Leyi (now renamed Shanghai Xinsheng).

2. Research Objectives
The research conducted by CSWONF is to collect data from strict crackdowns and crackdowns on sex work in
2010 in the regions where the forum members work, to understand the impact of crackdowns on local sex

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workers and HIV interventions, and to provide recommendations and suggestions generated from local level to
decision makers. Specifically,
1) Collect first-hand materials in relation to the crackdowns on sex work in 2010 in the regions where
CSWONF members work in order to analyze the direct or indirect impacts of these crackdowns on
local sex workers and HIV interventions.
2) Learn the perspectives of EE owners and the measures they take to counter the crackdown in 2010.
3) Learn how sex worker service organizations see the crackdowns and their suggestions on how to
conduct HIV prevention among sex workers in light of the crackdowns.
This research will present findings on how crackdowns on sex work will affect sex workers and HIV
prevention from their perspective, and try to evaluate what countermeasures the governments and sex worker
service organizations will take under these circumstances.

3. Research Methodology
Combining quantitative with qualitative methods, it took two and a half months for the 14 member
organizations of CSWONF to conduct research in 12 cities. Under the general coordination by the CSWONF
Secretariat, experts on sex workers and HIV prevention were involved in designing the questionnaires and
interview outlines, which also were reviewed by UNFPA, UNAIDS and some CSWONF member
organizations for feedback.
Since the participation and subject matter of NGOs were important in the research, all interviews and
questionnaires were conducted by the staff of CSWONF members. On-site guidance was provided by experts
in Tianjin, Qingdao, Jiaozhou and Guangzhou, and any issues identified were presented to all CSWONF
members for improving data quality in other sites.
In a word, this was the first comprehensively large-scale research targeting sex workers conducted by nonresearchers and non-health professionals in China. The respondents' particularity were taken into consideration
as well, and informed consent from each respondent was obtained in all questionnaires and interview sessions.

3.1 Quantitative Questionnaires

A total of 299 valid questionnaires were finally collected by 14 CSWONF members, from 12 cities including
Beijing (BJ), Kunming (KM), Gejiu (GJ), Shenyang (SY), Tianjin (TJ), Guangzhou (GZ), Wuhan (WH),
Shanghai (SH), Jiangyou (JY), Qingdao (QD), Jiaozhou (JZ), and Ruili (RL). The respondents covered highend to middle-end female sex workers, streetwalkers, money boys and transgender sex workers (please refer to
table 4.1 gender and workplace data of questionnaire respondents). All questionnaires were filled in by sex
workers themselves under CSWONF members' guidance, and were uploaded onto CSWONF's website.
Statistic analysis of the data was run with EXCEL.

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3.2 Qualitative Interviews

Individual interview sessions constitute the qualitative methodology in the study, complementing the
microscopic trends identified from quantitative methods, helping to keep the researchers insightful.
In this research, each CSWONF member was required to conduct five in-depth interviews with sex workers at
different levels of EEs, including streetwalkers (including male, female and transgender), owners of EEs and
peer educators. The final number of qualitative interviews collected were 69 cases, although the original target
was 70. Among all the interview respondents, 43 were female, including 17 owners of EEs, 20 sex workers in
EEs and 6 streetwalkers, and 20 were males, including 7 owners of EEs, 10 sex workers in EEs, 1 in rental
house and 1 mistress. The other 6 were transgender males, including 1 owner of EE and 5 in rental houses
(please refer to table 4.3 for gender and workplace data of interview respondents). All qualitative interview
data was sorted out by respective CSWONF members and were uploaded onto CSWONF's website.

3.3 Research Limitations

It is worth mentioning a few characteristics of this particular research before we present the main findings.
1) Subject matter: The research was conducted by community-based organizations (CBOs) in different
regions under the coordination of CSWONF; data collected were first-handed materials, and differed
from other research in the public health and social science fields.
2) Validity: The data collected was relatively more reliable since the research was carried out by
community organizations that provide services to sex workers and the respondents were more likely to
trust the investigators.
3) Diversity of sample size: The respondents covered female, male and transgender sex workers, owners
of EEs and peer educators, thus was more likely to get an overall picture of the sex industry in light of
the crackdowns.
4) Comprehensiveness: The research was conducted in 12 cities, including municipalities, provincial
capital cities, and prefecture-level cities, that all had extensive crackdowns.
5) Gender-oriented analysis: 40% of the respondents in the study were money boys. This was the first
comprehensive analysis between female and male sex workers.
However, we also faced some limitations in the study, which were as follows:
1) The data collected was still unable to present a complete picture of the crackdowns on sex work
because CSWONF members involved might only work in certain regions or in familiar communities
and contexts.
2) The research capacity that some community organizations demonstrated in conducting the research
was insufficient. There were inconsistencies in the questionnaires collected, and important information
were missing in some of the interviews. All these will affect the quality of data analysis and the
research report.

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3) Due to time and fund limitations, we did not give research training to CSWONF members
participating; however, this was the first study of this type for many of them, and that will affect the
data quality in some way.
Nonetheless, such a grassroot and community based study was important and valuable. Further data sharing
and comparisons with the CDC will help to understand how the crackdowns on sex work and on illegal
activities will affect the sex work industry and HIV prevention.

4. Basic Data of the Respondents

4.1 Basic Data of the Respondents
4.1.1

Basic Data of Questionnaire Respondents

From the 299 questionnaires collected, 1051 respondents were male (35.12%) and 1942 were female (64.88%).
From the 296 answers to the question "what type of a place do you work," 32.45% (61/188) of female sex
workers were more likely to work at a hair salon or foot massage house, while 21.73% (51/188) were
streetwalkers or worked at a rental house. Most money boys, 70.1% (68/97), worked at a club, while 72.72%
(8/11) of transgender sex workers were streetwalkers or worked at a rental house.
4.1 Gender and Workplace Data of Questionnaire Respondents

Gender
Workplace
Highend
EEs

Middleend to
lowend
EEs

1
2

Female

Male

Transgender

Total

Starred
Hotels

Clubs

68

74

Night Clubs

31

34

Bars

Bath Houses

13

20

Hair
Salon/Foot
Massage
Houses

61

62

including money boys and transgender sex workers

including transgender respondents since some transgender respondents identified themselves as female

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Rental
Houses

25

10

39

Wayside
Houses

Streetwalkers

26

34

Others

Total

188

97

11

296

The age and education level of the respondents showed an evident spindle shape. Among the 297 respondents
that provided their age, 59.87% (179) of them were between 20 to 29 years, the youngest was 16 years old and
the oldest was 61 years of age (please refer to table 4.2.1).
Among the 299 questionnaire respondents, 50 (16.72%) were illiterate or primary school graduates, 137
(45.82%) were junior high graduates, and senior high and junior college graduated counted for 112 (37.46%).
The education level of money boys was competitively higher than female sex workers; the rate of senior high
school and above among money boys was 69.07% (67 among 97), whereas the rate for female sex workers
were only 20.94% (40 among 188) (please refer to table 4.2.2).
4.2-1 Age and Gender Data of Questionnaire Respondents

Age Group

No. of Males

Percentage of
Males

50 and above

0.00%

45-50

0.00%

40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
20 and under
Total

0
0
5
38
60
5
108

No. of Females

Percentage of Females

2.68%

2.34%

17

0.00%

5.69%

29

0.00%

9.70%

43

1.67%

14.38%

42

12.71%

14.05%

39

20.07%

13.04%

1.67%

2.01%

191

36.12%

63.88%

4.2-2 Education Level of Questionnaire Respondents

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Education
Level
Illiterates
Primary School
Junior High
Senior High or
Junior College
College and
above
Total

Male

Female

Transgender

Sub-Total

Percentage

10

11

3.68%

37

39

13.04%

27

104

137

45.82%

49

36

88

29.43%

18

24

8.03%

97

191

11

299

100%

4.2.3 Workplace and City Data of Questionnaire Respondents

Work
place
Highend
EEs

BJ

T
J

SH

Q
D

J
Z

S
Y

GZ WH KM GJ

RL JY Total

Starred Hotels
1

74

Clubs
33

14

10

Night Clubs
19
Middl
e-end
EEs

Lowend
EEs

10

34

Bars
1
Hair Salon/
Foot Massage
Houses
Bath Houses
Wayside
Houses
Rental Houses

1
11

16

16

39

20

20

20

22

7
1

3
4

Others
58

10

63

Streetwalkers

Total

5
6

20

20

20

18

20
9
39
34
9

22

20

299

From the above table 4.2.3 it can be seen that the survey covered metropolis, medium-size and smallsized cities. Among the 299 questionnaire respondents, 117 (39.13%) worked at high-end EEs, and 182
(60.87%) worked at middle to low-end EEs.
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4.1.2

Basic Data of the Interview Respondents

In the 69 interview cases collected from 12 cities, the gender and occupation (workplace or occupation) were
as follows: 25 EE owners or madams received interview (including 17 female, 7male and 1 transgender),
accounting for 36.2% of the total interviewed; 30 sex workers at EEs were interviewed (20 female and 10
male) accounting for 43.5%; 6 sex workers at rental houses were interviewed, including 1male and 5
transgender and accounted for 8.7%; 6 streetwalkers were interviewed who were all female (8.7%); there were
also 1 mistress and 1 intervention peer educators received interview (please refer to table 4.3). Findings and
results of the qualitative research are presented in Chapter 6&7 of this report.
4.3

Occupation
Owners of
EEs/Madams

Gender and Workplace Data of Interview Respondents

Female
17!39.5%"

Male
7!35%"

TransGender
1!16.7%"

Total
25 (36.2%)

30 (43.5%)

20(including 4 Peer
Educators)

10(including 2 Peer
Educators)

!46.5%"

!50%"

1!5%"

5!83.3%"

Streetwalkers

6 !14%"

Mistress #

1!5%"

Others
(intervention
educators)

1!5%"

43!100%"

20!100%"

6!100%"

69

Sex workders
in EEs

Rental
Houses

Total

4.2 Respondents Experience of Crackdowns by Public Security before 2010

4.2.1

Questionnaire Respondents Experience

An overwhelming crackdown on sex work happens each year in China. Among the 299 questionnaire
respondents, 135 (45%) reported experiences of crackdowns by public security, 223 in Beijing, 19 in Tianjin,
18 in Jiaozhou, 16 in Gejiu, 10 in Guangzhou, 9 each in Ruili and Wuhan, 8 each in Shanghai and Shenyang, 7
3

The research in Beijing and Tianjin both were conducted by 2 groups therefore the number of samples is bigger.

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in Kunming, 5 in Qingdao and 4 in Jiangyou. From table 4.5, we can tell that 32.99% (32 among 97)money
boys have experienced crackdowns by public security, while female sex workers and transgender sex workers
who have experienced crackdown were 48.69% (93/191) and 90.91% (10/11) respectively.
4.4 General Crackdown Experience of Respondents 1

Crack
down
experi
ence

Male

Female

TransGender

Total

No.

No.

No.

No.

Yes

32

32.99%

93

48.69%

10

90.91%

135

45%

No

64

65.98%

95

49.74%

9.09%

160

54%

N/A

1.03%

1.57%

0.00%

1%

Total

97

299

100%

191

11

Among 299 respondents, 135 said that they have experienced crackdowns: 133 respondents had faced
with fines, detention and/or violence from public security. Among all respondents, most of the
transgender sex workers and about half female sex workers have experienced crackdowns. In addition to
fines and detention, about 4.7% (9/96) female sex workers have experienced violence (please refer to
table 4.5).
4.5 General Crackdown Experience of Respondents 2

Male

Female
No.

TransGender

No.

No.

Fine

15

15.46

9.09

49

16.39

Detention

11

11.34

21

10.99

54.55

38

12.71

Violence

4.71

9.09

10

3.34

All above

2.06

32

16.75

18.18

36

12.04

Total

28

28.87

95

49.74

10

90.91

133

44.48

33

%
17.28

No.

Total

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4.2.2

Stories of Crackdown Experiences

From the interviews, the intensity and influence of the crackdown in the past ten years are highlighted.
The owner and madam of a night club in Beijing recounted her experience of an impressive crackdown she
experienced when she was working ten years ago:
"As I remember, the inspection on sex work was very strict in 2000. Once caught, you would be directly sent to
QiLi Station. Many people I knew had been in QiLi Station, and I had been there as well. I was then newly
arrived in Beijing, and put straight into QiLi Station even before I got my first client. After that, we were
forced onto a train with only a ticket valued at 600 yuan. I ran out after staying at home for a year because
there was nothing I could do at home. The crackdown was the most strict in 2000. We were all sitting in the
hall and they just started to confiscate and capture people. All of the captured people were sent home by train,
one after another. I had just been there for two or three days but didnt know anyone. The policemen just took
us away" (Ms. Huang, Madam in Beijing).
An owner and madam in Qingdao talked out the crackdowns she has witnessed:
"Police often came to capture people in recent years. It happened here but I was not at the place then. They
took one of my assistants away. I went to bring her some clothes in the detention house, but unfortunately the
police detained me for a full day as well. That was in the autumn of 2006. They sent me out after they took my
information and had it on record. In 2003, a policeman surnamed Huang captured a streetwalker and beat her
to death. They said she had a heart attack and died in that detention house" (Owner/Madam, Yezi in Qingdao).

5. Characteristics of Crackdowns in 2020

Crackdowns on sex work are already common for sex workers and people reliant on this industry. But the
strict crackdowns in 2010 were an exception. We tried to identify the crackdowns influence on sex work and
HIV prevention by analyzing the characteristics of the crackdowns in 2010.

5.1 Wide-Range, Long-Lasting and Intensive

! ! ! ! ! ! ! Table 5.1 details of crackdowns in 2010

Have crackdowns been conducted in 2010?

City

No. of
Respondents

Yes

Percentage
(%)

Beijing

58

48

82.76

Tianjin

39

39

100

No

Dont know

10

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Shanghai

22

22

100

Qingdao

19

19

100

Jiaozhou

20

20

100

Shenyang

20

18

90

Guangzhou

20

20

100

Wuhan

20

20

100

Kunming

20

19

95

Gejiu

18

18

100

Ruili

22

16

72.73

Jiangyou

20

20

100

Total

296

277

93.58

12

From the Table 5.1 above, 277 respondents (184 females, 82 males and 11 transgender) out of 296, or 93.58%,
believed that the local public security had conducted crackdowns, while 12 respondents (all male, working in
Shenyang, Beijing and Kunming) reported that they were not sure. Only 74 people (6 females in Ruili, 1 male
in Shenyang) believed that no crackdowns on sex work had been conducted. Until December 2010, 175
respondents clearly expressed that the crackdowns have not ended and did not know when they would end.
"When did the crackdowns start this year? Around June or July. Yes, they have crackdowns everywhere." A
conversation like this common in this study. From the suspension of business in "Tian Shang Ren Jian" to the
normalization of secret inquiries, the crackdown continued in 2010 but went much further. Crackdowns
happened in all the 12 cities that CSWONF members worked, from Beijng to a small city like Jiangyou, Gejiu.
Crackdowns usually happened during the holidays, national conferences or other special activities in past years,
but the public security authorities in all cities have stepped-up the crackdowns, inspired by the zero-tolerance
movement in Beijing and assignments from the Public Security Bureau (PSB). For example, the authorities in
Shanghai and Guangzhou have more support to conduct crackdowns on sex work due to the World Expo and
the Asian Games. Even in Gejiu, a city in the border areas, the local authorities intensified their crackdowns
during the municipal celebration, the World Expo and the Asian Games. In Qingdao, in order to establish a
civilized city, the city established a centralized management system. Other cities like Wuhan followed.
Testimonials:

the 6 respondents who believed that no crackdown conducting include 6 females in Ruili and 1 male in Shenyang.

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The crackdowns this year was because of the 60th Annual Celebration of Gejiu City, the Asian Games and the
World Expo. Even my place was shut down for over a month. Some people gossiped that I had people inside,
but I did not explain. This was all maintained by money. Around eight of my girls were taken into detention
this year and I bought them out (Madam in Gejiu).
The crackdowns lasted longer this year than before. The police had told us that were are not allowed to have
sex workers in the stores. When they first started happening, it was really scary (Madam in Qingdao).
In addition to the expanding areas and long period of the crackdowns, they further intensified in 2010. The
detention and fines on sex workers happened more frequently. Among all the respondents who answered the
question "is there any difference between the crackdowns this year and the ones in former years," 209 of them
reported that the crackdowns lasted even longer, 194 believed that the crackdown struck in broader regions.
Furthermore, 119 respondents thought that more people were detained and fined in the crackdowns, while only
26 people saw no difference from past ones.
They destroyed the houses, no matter who the owners were. My place was destroyed as well. The girls were
taken, as was I. The destruction of the houses happened in July or August. I heard that the police would come
to inspect but they all had their quotas to fill. They just smashed everything and forbid us to open up. I was
detained for 15 days until my friend paid a 4,000 RMB fine for me. Another girl was caught while working,
and they did not even want money; they just wanted to lock her up for half a year (Owner, female in Wuhan).
It was very strict this year. They even detained the servers and performers (Owner/Madam, Yezi, in Qingdao).
It has never happened like this. We heard about the strict crackdowns in May, but the inspections only started
in June. It was the most strict in the beginning. The plain-clothes police came everyday and detained around
30 people in over 10 places from June to November. Three places were raided twice. Half of the places were
forced to shut down. The police station did not give any notice before the crackdowns. They used to just
happen symbolically during holidays, but they formed a special team this year. The policemen came to inspect
everyday in police cars and civilian cars. They spied on us, it was quite weird (Owner/Madam, in Qingdao).
They searched each house. Hotels were required to set up networking systems, otherwise, they could not open
for business. They drove in police cars here a few times everyday and stood on each street. If we dared to walk
out, they would just arrest us. An in-house inspection started in August to clear out the girls in rental houses.
They would even take a ladder just to stop the girls from jumping out. Plain-clothes police rushed to catch us
once they saw us go out to work from the top of the corridors of the residential communities (Streetwalker in
Qingdao).

5.2 Many EEs Shut Down, Clients and Earnings Decreased

Among 299 respondents who answered the questionnaire, 281 answered the question are there any EEs shout
down because of the crackdowns and the question the number of clients each week after crackdowns; 279
respondents answered the question do you think the number of sex workers changed after the crackdown
started?; and 278 respondents answered the question rice of sex services after the 2010 crackdown
(table 5.2).

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Under the strict crackdown situation in 2010, 62.28% (175/281) of sex workers thought that the EEs had shut
down, and 63.44% (177/279) of them said the number of sex workers and the number of clients decreased
(62.99%). Female sex workers were the group that were most affected; 80% of them reported that the number
of clients per week had decreased.
Table 5.2 Effects of the crackdowns on EEs and earnings in 2010

Sex (No./
Percentage)

Dont know

Male

Female

Transgender

Total

Question 1: Are there any EEs in your place that have shut down because of the
crackdowns?
(281 out of 299 respondents answered this question, accounting for 93.98% of the
total)
24/28%
47/25%
4/36%
75/27%

No

11/13%

20/11%

31/11%

Yes

50/59%

118/64%

7/64%

175/62%

85/100%

185/100%

11/100%

281/100%

Total

Increased

Question 2: Do you think the number of sex workers changed after the crackdown
started? (279 out of 299 respondents answered this question, accounting for 93% of
the total)
5/5.8%
6/3.3%
1/9.1%
12/4.3%

Deceased

51/59.3%

119/65.4%

7/63.6%

177/63.4%

Unchanged

19/22.1%

28/15.4%

2/18.2%

49/17.6%

Did not know

11/12.8%

29/15.9%

1/9.1%

41/14.7%

86/100%

182/100%

11/100%

279/100%

Total

Decreased

Question 3: Number of clients in each week after the crackdown

(281 out of 299 respondents answered this question, accounting for 93.98%)
24/28%
148/80%
5/45.5%
177/63%

Inceased

11/13%

6/3.2%

1/9%

18/6.4%

Unchanged

50/59%

31/16.8%

5/45.5%

86/30.6%

85/100%

185/100%

11/100%

281/100%

Total

Went Down

Question 4: Price of sex services after the crackdown

(278 out of 299 respondents answered this question, accounting for 92.98%)
17/20.2%
57/31.15%
1/9.1%
75/27%

Went Up

4/4.8%

11/6.01%

15/5.4%

Unchanged

63/75%

115/62.84%

10/90.9%

188/67.6%

84/100%

183/100%

11/100%

278/100%

Total

The intensified crackdowns significantly affected sex workers' earnings because many EEs shut down and
clients were lost, even though the prices remained unchanged. This was a common phenomenon in each city

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covered in the research. During the Asian Games, the researcher noticed while arranging interviews in a hair
salon in Zhujiang village that almost half of the EEs had shut down in Jinguang, Guangzhou. In the hair salons,
we did not see any clients the entire afternoon. In the beginning, the madam denied that there were any sex
workers, but came out to say hello only after outreach workers began distributing free condoms.
Xiaobai: We cannot make too much money even during a good season, just seven to eight thousand yuan (per
month). In a bad season, sometimes we earn just one thousand a month. It's very hard now because of the strict
crackdowns.
Question: How much can you make in a week?
Xiaobai: Now? Just three or four hundred.
(Xiaobai, a money boy in Kunming)
We dared not work when crackdowns were common. Earnings decreased; this year was the least ever since I
began, because the crackdowns had lasted too long. Some EEs that had people detained by police were shut
down, that indicates the cruelty of it all. Five of my girls were caught and all were released after being fined. I
could not even remember the number of in-house inspections. Some owners were harassed by police as well. It
was hard for us (Owner of a karaoke house in Gejiu).
In other cities, over 95% of the respondents reported that EEs had shut down, and the earnings of the owners
and sex workers decreased.
Analysis of the reasons of decrease of clients, decrease of income and shut-down of EEs shows that,
crackdowns have resulted deterioration of the working environment of the sex industry, but doesnt mean that
sex workers quit the jobthey are more likely to work in more obscure places with high mobility; even they
dont use condoms to meet clients requirements. Under this circumstances, the risks of affecting HIV have
increased (please refer to Table 5.4 After the anti-pornography campaign, strategies that sex workers took).

5.3 Regional Characteristics and Differences in the Crackdowns

Against the backdrop of the crackdowns in 2010, it is worth mentioning that the anti-porn campaigns in
the 12 cities participating in this research were not the same. According to interviews, Qingdao, Gejiu,
Wuhan, et al, were perceived as relatively stricter; Qingdao implemented a comprehensive initiative.
Beijing began earlier, with great intensity, but was still moderate, especially in terms of their method of
shutting down establishments that eased the tension a bit. In the cities with milder campaigns, like
Jiangyou, a female sex worker and an EE owner said:
There are 50 clients on average every day. No strict crackdowns; [we have] more than 80 clients. No, I have
never experienced the polices strict crackdown and anti-porn campaign, they didnt even come to inspect
(performer at a tea house and peer educator, Lijie, Jiangyou).
[The police] wanted to have a meeting with us, about the public security and a joint defense. We have done
this for so many years, we know we have to escape and so dont do business during certain events. The police
came, for example, to inspect IDs, but they didnt inspect other things. Other establishments wanted to dawdle
and dawdle, and then got inspected. I wouldnt change my career or suspend my business because of the
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crackdowns. The campaign did influence me this year. Female sex workers/xiaomei almost didnt go out
(chutai). There are fewer clients. But we still want to earn money. Our establishment and female sex workers
havent been punished, but have been affected (EE owner, Weijie, Jiangyou).
Even with the campaign, they [authorities] just inspect IDs, and ask questions; even if they catch an
establishment in the act, they will only scold and fine. Beating and humiliation is little:
Some close the door. Low-level establishments that close the door are fewer. Someone gets caught. Find an
acquaintance, form relationships/guanxi, and submit the fine, 5,000 Yuan. They would question us, sometimes
scold us, call us bitches and hookers, but they dont beat us. Although they have beaten and scolded us in the
past, now they dont beat us. Their attitude to us is very bad. We have to be honest with them to avoid a
beating (Female sex worker with 2 kids, more than 40 years old, from the countryside, Jiangyou).
I saw the police car coming towards us on the street, and several cops inspected the establishment. They ask
where you are from, and ask to see your ID. They also inspect our facilities. We use red-yellow light, we dont
dare to use red light during the anti-porn campaign. Three or four establishments closed because of the
campaign, but one of them re-opened. After some people were arrested, they were re-educated through labor;
some were detained and fined; detained for about half a month, and re-educated through labor for a year. The
fine is 5,000 Yuan (Female sex worker, divorced, Jiangyou).
Many of the regional characteristics and differences are related to local economic development, management
of establishments and special circumstances (e.g. celebration and interaction, international conference,
inspection, police leader change, etc.), but more important is the interaction between the police and the sex
workers. A 26 year old female sex workers in Gejiu summarized her career experience in many regions, and
compared the characteristics and differences among Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming and Gejiu:
I began as a sex worker in 2006, and have been to Beijing, Guangzhou and Kunming. It was easy to make
money in Guangzhou. The price in Beijing was high, but the police could come anytime, so I only did it for a
year in Beijing and then went back to Yunnan with several sisters. The price in Guangzhou is middle to high
among the places I have been to, and the owners there had a good relationship with the police. I didnt
experience crackdowns in Guangzhou; at most, I didnt do business for awhile. In Kunming, we rotated
between establishments, and made good money. Because I missed home, I went back to Gejiu finally. I have
many acquaintances there, and if anything happens, I can find someone to help (EE female sex worker, Gejiu).
However, she did experience crackdowns in her hometown, and was humiliated.
To establish effective relationships/guanxi, one first needs to find backstage supporters, and then an
understanding of EE owners operation, getting relevant information in advance, cultivating a reaction
strategy and even special protection. Two female EE owners in Gejiu said straightforwardly:
The crackdowns havent stopped this year; several establishments closed their doors last month. Only
those establishments with relationships/guanxi can continue their business. Actually, the relationships are
bought by money. The information they receive were tips such as not to open the door or not to put
condoms in the establishment. Sometimes, we didnt have any other strategies, so we closed the doors.
The purpose of the anti-porn campaign is money (Female owner of a karaoke bar, Gejiu).

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The relationship/guanxi between the police and myself is bought by money. Sometimes when they come, I
would let a few beautiful young female sex workers accompany them. It is a so-called sex bribery. But if I
didnt do this, I couldnt survive in this industry. Todays world is moneys world. This anti-porn campaign
is because of Gejius 60-year City Celebration, and some time ago it was because of the Asian Games and
World Expo. I even had to close my business for more than a month; other owners all said I had guanxi, but I
wouldnt explain anything. This kind of guanxi is maintained by money. About seven or eight female sex
workers /xiaomei were arrested this year, and came out by paying the fine. (Owner of EE /Mami, female,
Gejiu).
An MB and clubhouse owner Anan in Shanghai admitted that he had two backstage supporters, one is his
godfather, who rescued him to avoid labor re-education, and gave him relevant information and suggestions;
another one is anonymous. He said:
I was caught by the police. then sent to Jiangxi and sentenced for two years. I called my godfather, and
then I was released and didnt go to Jiangxi. Actually, to do this business, I think one needs backstage
supporters, which is better. After the World Expo, my godfather warned me on November 3 (beginning of
the strict crackdowns). I sent all my MBs away, they couldnt be in the place of the crackdowns. After
December 15, the crackdowns were looser. They began to destroy hair salons or others(MB and owner,
Shanghai).
The interaction is mutual. We are not sure what this MB used to connect with this godfather, but a female
owner told us the secret to yield returns from those in power was to assign money and lease beauty.
Owner Yezi in Qingdao said:
In any district of Qingdao, they [police] will target several establishments. Every district has some
protected establishments, so they wont go to those, or they will inform them in advance. Usually, they
will organize a meeting for owners in advance, and tell us about their work arrangements during this
period, asking us to cooperate, not to mess it up; You can declare a holiday, or avoid it in some other way,
just not to mess things up in their district. We had a meeting this May or June, after the World in Heaven
/Tianshang Renjian event in Beijing. Sometimes, they will inform us of unannounced visits, and then one
day, show up to inspect, so sometimes we will go on a holiday, at most two days; sometimes, we close the
door, and only accept regular clients that come in through secret passages (Owner/mami, Yezi, Qingdao).
If the relationship/guanxi goes well, someone in the anti-porn campaign office will personally tell them
how to react:
Sometimes, a person would come to say no female sex workers are allowed in the establishment, and in
the beginning, we were very nervous. Then the inside person would tell you what to do, to change the
female sex workers clothes to waitresses; if there are five clients in an establishment, then arrange four
female sex workers (not the exact number), clients and female sex workers sitting opposite to each other
in two rows (Owner/mami, Yezi, Qingdao).
For a low-level establishment, there are different measures to protect these establishments in Jiangyou; for
example, Qingdaos measure is:
The high-level places, if caught are fined and kept on record at most; but the low-level ones are different,
usually subject to criminal detention if caught (Owner/mami, Yezi, Qingdao).

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From the above stories, we found that the relationship between the police and EE owners and sex workers
is subtle. Apart from conducting anti-porn tasks in crackdowns, the police could also become the
backstage supporter of the illegal EE owners and sex workers.
Beijing is another situation. As the capital, Beijing has rich experiences in launching anti-porn campaigns,
and has to consider its international influence and national image. Their method is to crackdown but also
restructure, distributing work cards and wearing work uniforms in the establishments. These methods not
only control peoples movements but also the sex trade, especially for those sex workers going out/chutai.
Also, they ease the relationship between the police and the industry, stabilizing practitioners emotion and
work.
Now its work card. If you have the card, you are relatively secure in this establishment. The police come to
inspect all the time, but it doesnt have much influence, they just come to inspect the work card. They dont
inspect the clients. We have nothing to worry about. We are not scared because we have the work cards. Of
course, we will worry if we dont have the work cards. The owner and mami remind us to swipe the card,
swipe the card every day. We have more regular clients. There are more regular clients, less new clients. We
are not allowed to go out/chutai, but it doesnt influence us much. We can still attract clients (Female sex
worker of a night club, Kaixuan, Beijing).
After experiencing 2,000 anti-porn campaigns, Huangjie was sent back to her hometown, and she became
an owner of a nightclub. She said:
Basically, they only inspect work uniforms and work cards. We all are the same. my club was closed for a
while this year, however they can they will mess you a little. I closed for a month. These two years, I havent
been caught in other establishments. Now the polices attitude is just so-so, just like that. Aside from the police,
the firefighters also came to inspect. The police only check the rooms, very simple, check the work cards, they
wont affect the clients inside. They know this kind of establishment is for going out/chutai, for this stuff, and
the police cant control it. Although they know, they dont have anything to say (Huangjie, Beijing).
The strictness of the anti-porn campaign has many unpredictable factors, like the crackdown on MBs and
transgenders. MBs in Beijing, and EE owners claimed there was nothing going on, but it was very serious
in Kunming. It was rumored that MBs and transgenders in Kunming were targeted, the police knew them,
and would arrest them once seeing them on the road. However, Laosi in Qingdao of Shandong was
protected because transgenders were rare.
I told them I was a man; they let me out without any questions. I am the only evil spirit in our region.
They dont care about me. If there were more, they would control us. Sisters werent beaten or scolded
after being arrested, the police would just shout out: Get the hell out, it is a strict period! (Owner/mami,
transgender, Laosi, Qingdao).

5.4 More Severe Punishment and Violence in Law Enforcement

Prostitution is still illegal in China. According to the law, there are some behaviors that still constitute a crime.
In 2010, because of the anti-pornography campaigns, almost every region made improvements in the
enforcement and administration of the anti-porn campaign, compared to the past. In interviews, findings show
that Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangyou, Wuhan, etc. didnt use fines as the main means of enforcement.
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The Ministry of Public Security even issued a document prohibiting breaking the law while enforcing it, such
as blackmailing, beating, abusing, raping, etc. However, violence carried out during the enforcement of the
anti-porn campaign is still a serious problem.
According to the questionnaires data, 98 respondents (20 males, 71 females and 7 transgender) out of 299
answered the question about the behavior they encountered by the police in 2010 during anti-pornography
campaigns, and many of them encountered more than one type of behaviors.. 79 respondents were questioned
by the police, 43 were subject to body searches, 31 respondents were beaten, 22 respondents were blackmailed,
and 4 respondents were harassed in other ways by the police. 20.62% male sex workers were questioned or
beaten by the police during crackdowns, and the percentage of this among male and transgender sex workers
was 37.33% and 32.78% respectively (please see Table 5.3)..
Table 5.3 During the 2010 Crackdown, Behaviors that the Police Took to Sex Workers (Gender
Disaggregated)

Male
Rate of
No. Of
male
male
group

Total

20

Questioned

16

Body searched
Beaten
Blackmailed

6
3
3

20.62%
16.49%
6.19%
3.09%
3.09%

Female
Rate of
No. of
female
female
group
71
57
33
27
19

Transgender
Rate of
No. Of
transgender
transgender
group

37.33%

63.63%

30.321%

54.55%

17.55%

36.36%

14.36%

0%

10.11%

0%

1.03%
1.06%
1
9.09%
Other
1
2
Note: some respondents encountered more then one type of behavior from the police.

Total
Total
number/
rate
98/32.78%
79/26.42%
43/14.38%
31/10.37%
22/7.36%

4/1.34%

58 respondnets admitted that they were caught by the police in 2010 crackdown, accounting for 19.4%
(58/299). One sex worker5 had been arrested for 3 times, 8 sex workers had been caught twice, and 49 sex
workers had been caught once. In the survey, respondents mentioned being beaten (41), slapped (39), having
money confiscated (33), hair dragged (22), electrically shocked (16), hair cut (7), raped (4), and 14 respondents
mentioned other forms of violence.
From the surveys and interviews, we can see that illegal means of law enforcement, like extended stay, baiting,
backwards fishingFdiaoyuG, smashing, robbery, even brutal beating and rape, etc. existed in some regions.

1 female sex worker in Shanghai.

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The interview material shows that violence to female groups and transgender groups were more common,
harsher in both the degree and form of expression, and even unimaginable insult and harm to women.
This September, three sisters/FSWs and me were accompanying several bosses/clients. A sister was doing it
with a boss, and the door of room was kicked open, and the police caught them in the act. The bosses were
brought out, and three cops came in. They threatened us at first, asking us to reveal the bosss situation; then
they made us do a strip dance together, saying that whoever danced best could go. We sisters danced so hard,
not wanting to become entangled with them. At last, they decided I was good, and one of them who seemed to
be in charge told me to give him a blow job. Another one wanted anal sex. They discussed whether oral sex or
anal sex was cleaner, which wouldnt transmit diseases. What could we do? Its in Gods hands. (Clubhouse
female sex worker, 26 years old, Gejiu, Yunnan).
In July (2010), after 5:00 pm, 3 extended-stay (dunkeng) people rushed in suddenly. They arrested the owner
and female sex workers. In the police station, the police hung her on the tree with a handcuff, beat her with a
wooden stick, forcing her to admit to prostitution; if she didnt, they would beat her again. They lifted her
clothes and skirt to see if she wore bra and underwear, and touched her breasts. When she admitted that she
charged 100 yuan for one time, they beat her again, asking why she charged 150 yuan when they came once.
These police had all visited prostitutes. When it got dark, mosquitoes stung her and caused her to cry out. The
old man that watched the door pitied her, untied her rope, and tied her back after dawn. The next morning,
they asked her to give them her money, or they would send her to detention; if she gave them 10,000 yuan, they
would let her go immediately, with no receipt. One of the female sex workers was so frightened she
developed a mental disorder, and would run to restroom whenever she saw anyone coming. Now she has gone
home (EE owner/mami and female sex worker, Jiaozhou, Shandong).
I was arrested on October 18, 2010. They didnt catch me in the act; the client just came in and we hadnt
talked about the price. I was caught in the afternoon, and was released noon the next day (October 19). I was
beaten by the police after my arrest. The neighbors owner voluntarily helped find someone (guanxi) to payto
get me out (Wangjie, EE owner, 34 years old, Tianjin).
The client just came in and we hadnt begun yet when the police came in. I paid a 3,000 yuan fine for my
release (Question: You didnt even begin, why did you give them the money?) Its out of my control. (Question:
Were you beaten?) There is no way to avoid being beaten. If they didnt beat me, would I pay them 3,000 yuan
(Tianjin).
They caught about 20 to 30 people this year. Usually people are fined 5,000 yuan, detained for 15 days. At
least 7 to 10 people were re-educated through labor. They beat us very hard after our arrest. A sister/FSW
wasnt caught in the act by police, but was afraid of re-education through labor, and refused to admit to
prostitution, so was beaten black and blue on a tiger bench. She was out after 12 hours, and fined 2000 yuan.
Another sister/FSW also wouldnt admit to wrongdoing, so they roller her limbs with an electric stick, and sent
her to re-education camp (Street-standing girl, 20 years old, Jiaozhou, Shandong).
During the strict crackdowns, if you were caught, even if your earnings didnt go down, you just didnt feel like
you had a future. Instead, you have fear, nightmares, and tension. Our establishment had 5 female sex workers
before, but now there is only one, who lost her soul after being released, and couldnt sleep (EE owner/mami,
Jiaozhou, Shandong).

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Illegal behavior during enforcement of the anti-porn campaign often reflected stark gender discrimination,
expressed through stringency to females and flexibility to males. MB and male EE owners said:
For us, the anti-porn campaign meant no clients dared to come out, so business wasnt good, but we wont
close our business or switch to other work, etc. The police basically target the females in the anti-porn
campaign, but it doesnt influence us, the males, no big influence (club owner, male, Beijing).

5.5 Policy at the Top, Strategies on the Ground

According to the questionnaire, most sex workers took measures to respond to the anti-porn campaign. In
Table 5.3, 159 respondents chose to stop engaging in sex work temporarily; meanwhile, many respondents
chose to turn to more obscure establishments/way, or change establishments frequently (110 respondents and
60 respondents respectively), but many still didnt bring and use condoms.
Table 5.4 After the Anti-Pornography Campaign, Strategies that Sex Workers Took

Strategy
Temporarily stop engaging in sex work
Continue doing in more obscure establishments or in
more obscure way

No. of respondents
using it
159

Rate of all
respondents
53.2%
36.8%

110

Change establishments more frequently

60

20%

Not bring condoms

48

16.1%

Not use condoms

14

4.7%

No special strategy

30

10%

Other
Note: some respondents took more than one strategies.

16

5.4%

From the result above, it can be seen that the main strategy sex workers took is evading: they tend to work in
more obscure places and change work places more frequently; they dont bring or use condoms under the
pressure of circumstances and clients. All of these risky strategies are potential barriers to HIV intervention
and prevention.
According to the experience of tackling past anti-porn campaigns, in addition to bribery, seeking favour and
using back door connections, the strategies that EE owners took were: (1) closing (shutting down temporarily,
the most common); (2) moving (move the establishment); (3) disguise appearances (disguise, sometimes
suggested by the police); (4) switching to other work (very few).
When the environment is strict, we have to shut down. We dont dare open the door. Its the inspecting,
requiring us not to do illegal things, asking us if we have a license, if not we cant open for business. When the
police come, our strategy is to shut down. I think safety is the most important thing. The campaign has become
more frequent, sometimes they come every 2 to 3 days, and sometimes they come every day (EE owner-1,
female, Guangzhou).

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The anti-porn campaign makes us move a lot. If there is a strict crackdown and no business in this district, we
will move to another district, or close for a week, and accept some regular clients business. This district is
Korean street, and there are many Korean clients here, so there havent been strict crackdown in this district
before (EE owner, female, Jiaozhou).
The police inspections have been very strict this year. Many beauty parlors/falang closed, some turned to other
businesses, some went back home. This strict crackdown is because of the Asian Games. Yes, especially during
the Asian Games, we couldnt do any business at all, so we did some floral work in the establishment, so the
police wouldnt figure out what we did (EE owner-2, female, Guangzhou).
Now its the anti-porn campaign, but Im not saying I will quit. Unless they forbid this establishment to open,
otherwise I will figure out a strategy. Many establishments are watched, letting female sex workers dress in
uniform, as waitresses. Its a suggestion the institution gives us, with a standard of management, and if
someone comes to inspect us, we will say we are waitresses or wine promoters. Its not that I will close the
door once the campaign begins (EE owner/mami, Yezi, Qingdao).

Sex workers in and outside establishments also had their strategies: (1) hiding; (2) outside; (3) quick; (4)
not on the body. Hiding means to stop working and hiding at home during the anti-porn campaign;
outside means not doing business inside the establishment, renting a room and seeing regular clients in
the interim; quick means doing a fast food style deal in the establishment; not on the body means
not bringing condoms to the room, in case they become evidence of prostitution.
[During strict crackdowns on the establishment] female sex workers dont come to the establishment, they only
do business with regular clients outside (EE owner, female, Gejiu).
No shortcuts; I can only be more discreet. Even without condoms, I will do what I have to, the most important
thing is to be quick. I only do it in the establishment, all I ask is to be quick, because I dont have money to rent
a house outside (owner of foot massage establishment/female sex worker, Tianjin).
I dont bring condoms with me, but put them in the sex service room. If I have a condom when caught, how
would I explain it? (female streetwalker, Tianjin).
Differences between male sex workers strategies from female sex workers are more opportunities and more
methods; for example, seeking back door connections, provisions for cunning escape, various resource capital,
etc. MB and EE owner Anan in Shanghai showed that he had 12 moneymakers (there were 12 MBs earning
money for him in the club); however, he felt fear because of a lack of a sense of security, and had to make
many preparations to react to the anti-porn campaign:

. There are many MBs /xiaodi in Shanghai, and many of them are working for themselves. Today is
different from before. Last year, business was easy, and fewer MBs were working for themselves. Like this
year, lots of MBs are working for themselves. MBs stay here for a while, half a month, some for a month,
at most a month, and then they will go out and work for themselves. My money was transferred back
home to my moms account because if I get caught one day, the police will say this money is not clean,
and they will confiscate it for whatever reason. Its Xiaozhang who taught me this.

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I have patrons in Shanghai; two people will cover my back. For me, I am not afraid. I do business very safely;
my MBs live in one place, and we do business in one place, but I live in another place. My establishment is in
the name of pub; I have a pub license and a tour guide license. Using these two licenses as mortgage, they
cant arrest me. Even if one day my MBs were arrested, you wouldnt be able to arrest me. I have these
licenses, you can check. I admit that I am gay, but what evidence do you have to prove what Im doing?
Moreover, the place I am living in seems like a home for two people, like office workers home, so you cant
arrest me. I have three places, this is what my godfather says to me, so how can you arrest me? (MB and EE
owner, Anan, Shanghai).

6. Influence of the Anti-Pornography Campaign on Sex Work and HIV/AIDS

Prevention
6.1 Professional Security is still Sex Workers Major Concern
This questionnaire also conducted findings of past research and investigations. Under the crackdowns,
safety is still sex workers major concern, including not being found out by their family and not being
caught by the police.
The findings from the interviews are the same as those of the questionnaire. Both EE owners and all kinds of
sex workers believe that safety and health were the most important, and money was less important. Only when
safety is guaranteed will they earn money. The interview and questionnaire answers also show that, sex
workers (83.87%) including male, female and transgender, showed their concern that bringing and using
condoms can become evidences of prostitution. It illustrates that although sex workers have the awareness
of HIV/STI prevention, they could give up bringing or using condoms due to crackdowns in order to
avoid being arrested by the police. It would result in more risks of STI/HIV transmission; therefore,
crackdowns bring potential barriers to the safety of sex work and HIV prevention (please refer to table
6.1).

Table 6.1 After the Anti-Pornography Campaign, Risks that Sex Workers Are Most Concerned
About
Risk

Female

Male

Transgender

Total

1. Afraid to be found out by your family after arrest (279 respondents out of 299, 93%)
Afraid
182
81
11
274!98.21%"
Not afraid

5!1.79%G

2. Afraid to be caught by the police (280 respondents out of 299, 96%)

Afraid
Not afraid

179
6

85
5

10
0

269!96.07%G
11F3.93%G

3. Afraid that clients wont use condoms (277 respondents out of 299, 92%)
Afraid

173

75

10

258!93.14%G

Not afraid

19!6.86%G

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4. Afraid that there will be fewer clients (281 respondents out of 299, 93%)
Afraid

168

75

10

253!90.04%G

Not afraid

17

11

28!9.96%G

5. Afraid that condoms will be used as evidence of doing sex work (279 respondents out of 299,
93%)
Afraid
161
67
6
234 (83.87%)
Not afraid

23

18

45 (16.13%)

6.2 Little Change in Bringing and Using Condoms, but Some Reduction
In table 6.2, we can see that the rate of female sex workers bringing and using condoms is relatively less,
and the rate of female sex workers who never bring condoms is higher than male sex workers. It also
shows from the survey that the rate of sex workers who never bring condoms is quite high, be they female,
male or transgender, which is up to 16.4%. after crackdown, sex workers that less carry condoms reached
near 30%. In terms of condom use, nearly 20% sex workers admitted that they less use condoms. All
these behaviors have increased their risks of affecting STI/HIV.
Table 6.2 Before and After the Anti-Pornography Campaign, a Comparison of
Bringing and Using Condoms
Female
Male
Transgender
Total

No.
Bringing
Condoms

Using
Condoms

Rate

No.

Rate

No.

Rate

No.

18.2%

35

Rate

More
often

23

Less

53

28.7%

24

28.2%

36.4%

81

28.8%

No change

66

35.7%

48

56.5%

45.4%

119

42.3%

Never

43

23.2%

3.5%

46

16.4%

Sub-Total

185

Less

48

26%

9.4%

56

19.9%

More

38

20.5%

12

14.12%

9.1%

51

18.1%

No change

99

53.5%

65

76.5%

10

90.9%

174

61.9%

Sub-total

185

12.4%

11.8%

10

85

11

85

12.5%

281

281

11

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In the interviews, the findings suggest that health knowledge and awareness of sex workers is very strong,
especially among males and transgenders.
Now condom use is pretty high. The price of not using a condom depends on different people. Peoples
thoughts are very different from each other. I know some people here will never do it if you dont use a
condom, no matter how much money you will add! Through training, many sisters began to realize that safety
and health are the most important (EE owner/mami, transgender, Laosi, Qingdao).
95% of my clients are playing the 0 role. They explain that its not comfortable to use a condom. They propose
not to use a condom, but I will always say no. If he insists on not using a condom, the I will insist not to do it. I
cant play with my life just for a few hundreds yuan (MB, Tianjin).

6.3 The Effects of Crackdown on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Intervention

6.3.1 Community Grassroots Organizations and Peer Educators
In terms of health and safety outreach for EEs and sex workers, community grassroots organizations and peer
educators have had a more significant impact than the CDC. They are an important force in HIV/AIDS
prevention, and are praised by EE owners and sex workers:
The CDC or government never come here. Health Center comes to our establishment once a month,
distributing condoms, brochures and Love/Aixin Special Issue to female sex workers. The staff of the center
also brings several female sex workers to teach our female sex workers to learn condom use, give pregnancy
and abortion information, STIs prevention, and important profession-related information. They also do
gynecological exams and blood testing for our female sex workers in the establishment. We go to the Health
Center regularly to do physical exams and blood tests. If they find any disease, they treat us, and the price is
very cheap.
Many peer educators are volunteers, build a sense of mission from personal experience, and gradually feel the
happiness in helping others in the service. The work that peer educators do in the establishment really changes
peoples understanding and behavior of condom use.
I was caught by police when doing sex work, and was re-educated through labor for 3 years. I suffered terribly
in the re-education camps, and my personality wasnt respected. After I came out, I encountered this field
because I was infected with HIV. Thinking about my own experience, I felt that I needed to do something, to
prevent young sex workers from becoming infected with HIV. I wanted to warn my sisters/FSWs through my
own experience, and to keep using condoms (Female Sex Worker/FSW, PLWH/People Living with HIV, Peer
Educator, Gejiu).
Actually I didnt like peer education at first, but after doing it for a long time, we have a connection with each
other. Sometimes people come to me, and I have a sense of accomplishment, organizational capacity,
leadership ability, showing myself, my sense of responsibility and love. Helping others is a kind of happiness,
which is different from my simple streetwalking job. Sometimes people shouldnt care about money too much;
sometimes helping a person will make you very happy. Sisters/FSWs trust me very much, I feel very happy!
(EE Owner/mami, Transgender, Laosi, Qingdao).

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The traditional ideas in China is that its shameful to hold a condom. But after learning through peer
education, we think its protecting ourselves, because people are selfish. The first thought is definitely for
yourself, its a protection for the self, we will accept it, then use it almost every time, not like before only using
it once or never using it (MB, Peer Educator, Tianjin).

6.3.2 Sex Workers

The table 6.3below shows that the effects of crackdown on HIV intervention from the perspective of sex
workers. Almost half sex workers believed that there has little change of free condoms distributed at EEs,
whereas 32% sex workers in the survey thought that free distributed condoms had decreased. In terms of
intervention activities conducted by CDC, most respondents were not clear. It also shows from the survey that
sex workers have a very vague understanding of peer education.
Table 6.3 TheEffects of Crackdowns on HIV Intervention from the Perspective of Sex Workers

Total
Change
Female
Male
Transgender
Question 1: Since crackdown began, number of condoms distributed in your establishment
(259 out of 299 responded, accounting for 86%)
83/32%
Less
63/35.6%
20/25.6%
0
30/16.9%

13/16.7%

1/25%

44/17%

No change

69/39%

40/51.3%

3/75%

112/43.3%

Not clear

15/8.5%

5/6.4%

20/7.7%

More

259
Sub-total
177
78
4
Question 2: Since crackdownbegan, CDC staff coming here to hold propaganda and education activities
on HIV/AIDS and STIs prevention (259 out of 299 responded, accounting for 86%)
32/12.4%
Less
27/15.3%
5/6.3%
0
37/21%

8/10.1%

1/25%

46/17.7%

No change

35/19.9%

32/40.6%

3/75%

70/27%

Not clear

77/43.8%

34/43%

111/42.9%

More

259
Sub-total
176
79
4
Question 3: Since crackdown began, peer education activities on HIV/AIDS prevention in the
establishment (258 out of 299 responded, accounting for 86%)
59/22.9%
Less
54/30.8%
5/6.3%
0
More

46/26.3%

8/10.2%

54/20.9%

No change

46/26.3%

32/40.5%

1/25%

79/30.6%

Not clear

29/16.6%

34/43%

3/75%

66/25.6%

258
Sub-total
175
79
4
Question 4: Since crackdown began, people infected STIs in the establishment (257 out of 299
responded, accounting for 85%)
36/14%
Less
21/12.1%
15/19.2%
0
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More

16/9.1%

6/7.7%

22/8.6%

No change

23/13.1%

11/14.1%

1/25%

35/13.6%

Not clear

115/65.7%

46/59%

3/75%

164/63.8%

Sub-total

175

78

257

Peer educators thought that, Campaign against pornography and strict crackdown has destroyed many
well-developed HIV/AIDS prevention communities. Previous prevention patterns are gone, and its more
difficult for sex work peer educators to find target groups, which will decrease the health services provided.
Because of the anti-porn campaign and crackdown, the effects on the work for streetwalking transgenders are
massive. We will lose the intervention strategies for them; and then we have to put our focus on interventions
for EEs like clubhouses and KTVs (Dajun, Peer Educator, Shenyang).
In addition to peer educators finding it harder to locate target groups, EE owners also require sex workers not
to bring condoms (female 74, male 3, transgender 1), or not to use condoms when providing sex services for
clients (female 10, male 1), in order to avoid the risk. This may be one response to being afraid of condoms as
evidence of prostitution.

7. Findings and Recommendations

7.1 Main Findings
7.1.1

The crackdowns resulted in decrease of sex workers, changed operation

patterns of EEs and more obscure work place of sex workers

Afraid of the police coming, many establishments changed operation patterns, and were more cautious of
strangers. Sex workers would spread out near the club, and if a client likes the photo and wants to see them, the
sex worker would return to the club and go out with the client, which clearly increases the difficulties of
HIV/AIDS and STI prevention work..
Crackdowns had more serious effects on streetwalkers (including female and transgender sex workers).
According to many sex workers, there was more police patrolling in almost every park and areas, so some sex
workers working outside had to postpone their solicitation time for several hours. This delay could bring many
unsafe factors to sex workers professional security, especially personal safety, and increase the difficulties of
community organizing interventions.
7.1.2

Sex workers were afraid that carrying and using condoms could become
evidence of prostitution in the anti-pornography campaign

Although sex workers have the awareness of HIV/STI prevention, they could give up carrying or using
condoms due to crackdowns in order to avoid being arrested by the police. It would result in more risks of
STI/HIV transmission. It is a potential risk to safety and health of sex workers brought out by crackdowns.
7.1.3

Crackdowns have increased the vulnerability of sex workers

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It is found from the research that crackdowns in 2010 were wide-ranged, long-lasting and intensive. 93%
respondents believed that crackdowns had been conducted locally. About 60% thought that EEs near their
workplace had been closed, the number of sex workers had decreased and number of clients per week had
decreased. 80% female sex workers thought their clients had decreased weekly.
In the meantime, crackdowns cannot eliminate sex work. Most sex workers wont leave the industry because
of crackdowns; instead they took some strategies. 83% sex workers chose to stop engaging in sex work
temporarily, or turn to more obscure establishments/way, or change establishments frequently, or not carry and
use condoms. 83% respondents were afraid that carrying or using condoms could be used as evidence of
prostitution which had resulted that 30% sex workers carry condoms less. All of these evidences show that
although crackdowns may temporarily decrease the number of sex work places and sex workers, the risks of
unsafe sex behaviours have increased for those who still stay in the industry.
7.1.4

Crackdowns have disclosed the illegal behaviours in law enforcement of

the police

Although during the crackdown in 2010, the Ministry of Public Security issued a document prohibiting
breaking the law while enforcing it, such as blackmailing, beating, abusing, raping, etc. However, it is found in
the research that violence carried out during the enforcement of the anti-porn campaign is still a serious
problem. About 10% respondents admitted that they have been beaten, among which 14% are female sex
workers. In addition, 13% sex workers were beaten in the ear, and 7% were pulled the hair. It is also found
during the questionnaire that 4 female sex workers had been rapped. Raping has been also found in individual
interviews.
7.2 Multiple Views on Crackdowns from Sex Workers and Stakeholders
7.2.1

The View of Sex Workers

In the interviews, some sex workers and stakeholders like EE owners held negative opinions on the anti-porn
campaign. They thought the campaign was unnecessary, vicious and inhumane. For example:
I feel that this anti-porn campaign is a little unnecessary. This kind of thing is based on consensus, why would
they want to control so much? Its not stealing or robbery! (Clubhouse technician, MB, Tianjin).
We MBs have survived in this way. Not every MB likes this job, some do it because of family financial
problems, and their parents need money to treat illnesses. The anti-porn campaign is a problem for them.
However, for the whole of society, it is to rectify social morality, and improving spiritual civilization is
beneficial (MB, Yiheng, Shenyang).
The anti-porn campaign is useful for the whole society. We MBs do this to earn money. I know its not a good
industry, but if I didnt enter it, we wouldnt know what we were going to do, and no one would tell us what to
do. So I hope the government will give job-seekers some clear instructions, give us another career (MB,
Acheng, Shenyang).
7.2.2

The View of EE Owners and Managers

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Proper crackdown helps with the development of a harmonious society, but its bad if the crackdown goes too
far, the effect would be opposite (Owner of MB clubhouse/KTV, Laobai, Shenyang). The shutting down or
not [of clubs] wont affect disease prevention. Even if they closed, those who wanted to do this job would
continue doing it. If you didnt close, he would also do it. It cant be controlled (Manager Xu of KTV, MSM,
Shenyang). We dont increase domestic demand, but we have solved many employment problems, solved
business negotiations, and solved girls employment. Even college graduates have difficulty finding a job.
These girls dont have a high education, or would you rather they steal or rob? People need to earn their own
living (EE owner, Yezi, female, Qingdao).
In the meantime, some EE owners and MB held interesting attitudes about the anti-porn campaign. On the one
hand, they understood the rationale behind the anti-porn campaign; on the other hand, they argued that the
industry gives them a way out, and search for reasons to do the business legally.
What we are doing is not decent, and many people look down on us. We can understand the governments antiporn campaign. Although we have some thoughts, the government also has its own task, and thats what they
should do. It will be better after the Asian Games. Closing our establishments didnt help HIV/AIDS and STI
prevention. I still hope for looser controls, to let female sex workers/xiaomei make a little money (EE owner,
female, Guangzhou).
7.3 Commens and Suggestions from Sex Workers and Stakeholders
7.3.1

Suggestions from Sex Workers

Sex workers main suggestions include: stop the crackdown, reduce social discrimination, and forbid
police baiting as law enforcement.
Stop the crackdowns. Even fines are better.
Implement a management fee system: submit 300-500 yuan each month, calculated by the area and number of
people, per capita fee. Arrest the clients, but not female sex workers.
Most of our clients are migrant workers and old people. They are also victims of the crackdown. Dont arrest
the disadvantaged groups in the beauty parlor/falang, on the street, in the roadside establishment; we have no
backstage supporter. We dont have it easy. I hope society does not discriminate against us. Even after our
arrest, dont beat us, dont use physical punishment to extort a confession, and dont send us to the reeducation camps (Beauty Parlor girl/ falang xiaojie, peer educator, Qingdao).
I think for real, to have a physical examination and do the business with a certificate is relatively good, I agree
with it. Because this kind of thing is decent. You say, so many people in the world, you cant limit everybody
not to be a prostitute. If s/he didnt do sex service, what could s/he live on? The society would also riot. Its
just peoples need with societys development, right? This kind of thing (prostitution) is very normal
(Transgender, Xiaobai, Kunming).
The police are unreasonable. Only what he says has to be the truth. Even if you dont have a condom, he finds
other things to say. The CDC and you (CSWONF) had better give us a name card, saying we are volunteers.
Then we wouldnt be afraid when the police come, aha. About the impact, there must be some, the business is

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not good, some new kids left very quickly, who knows if they had diseases. If the strict crackdown goes on, the
clubhouse will be more hidden. No suggestions; just dont always bait (MB, Beijing).
7.3.2

Suggestions from Community-based Sex Workers Service Organizations

I think the strict crackdown just let sex workers disappear on the surface, but actually many sex workers
would turn to underground work. The strict crackdowns influence on HIV/AIDS prevention is especially
severe. In addition, some criminals will threaten sex workers personal safety because of the crackdowns. I
think we should cancel the crackdown trends, but have better management of sex workers (Tony Zheng,
Shanghai Xinsheng).
Dont use condoms as evidence of prostitution. Promote condom use. Reduce the punishment if catching
someone using condoms during prostitution.
To sum up, suggestions from some responding directors of CSWONF membership organizations are as
follows:
1) Increase trainings for media. During this years strict crackdown and anti-porn campaigns in the past,
the media stigmatized reports on sex workers, which not only made sex workers more hidden, but
also increased social discrimination (stigma). It is also one of the reasons that sex workers are
underground, which makes HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention for sex workers even more
difficult. Therefore, it is suggested that international organizations, grassroot organizations work with
the media to discuss how to better report through the media, to explore the more effective strategy for
health and safety management and intervention for sex workers.
2) Increase coordination between the Department of Health Management and Department of Public
Security. The research reveals that there is no member from the Health Department in the multidepartmental anti-pornography office of China. This will certainly influence the coordination
between Department of Health Management and Department of Public Security on the antipornography affairs. In addition, there is no specific policy and document about whether condom is
evidence of prostitution. Therefore, more discussion on occupational safety of sex workers should be
conducted either at the international or domestic level.
3) Effective legal aid for sex workers are needed by relevant legal aid agencies and civil society groups.
4) CSWONF increases its health promotion. Advocacy and trainings should be increased to government
level, including forbidding using condoms as evidence, reducing anti-pornography, sunshine law
enforcement. Team leaders among sex workers in HIV prevention should be involved in these
activities so that they can understand the role of sex industry to the stability of society.

32
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./ Tel-021--63801891
01 Fax-021--63809796

+, P.C-200070

China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum

8. Acknowledgements
This report was written by Ms. Cai Lingping. All data was collected and input by the members of CSWONF.
Thanks to UNFPAs funding and technical support; thanks to the assistance and efforts of the 14 CSWONF
member organizations who conducted data collection and data entry. The 14 organizations are: Shanghai
Xinsheng (originally Shanghai Leyi), Qingdao You and Me /Niwo, Jiaozhou Aixin, Shenyang Loves Support
/Aizhiyuanzhu, Beijing Tongxing, Beijing Love without Border /Aixin Wuguojie, Wuhan Feminism
Workroom /Nvquan Gongzuoshi, Jiangyou Caring Home, Sichuan Yunnan Parallel, Gejiu Phoenix
/Kucao,Guangzhou Jinguang, Tianjin Shenlan, Tianjin Xinai, Ruili Women and Childrens Center /Funv
Ertong Zhongxin.
The Secretariat of CSWONF conducted coordination of the research and data sorting.
UNFPA provided financial and technical support for the research.
UNAIDS provided technical assistance for the questionnaire design and report writing.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the above organizations.
Special thanks also go to the respondents of this research, for their great support and cooperation.

33
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./ Tel-021--63801891
01 Fax-021--63809796

+, P.C-200070

June 2015

Policy Brief

Sex Work, violence and HIV IN ASIA

From evidence to safety
Violence against
sex workers is a
violation of their
human rights and
increases HIV risk.

Evidence, on the nature and impact of violence, as well as what works

to reduce and respond to risk of harm and HIV, is increasing. In recent
years, a series of key studies and global and regional guidance has been
released. This brief brings together the latest findings and recommendations
for advocates, programmers and policy-makers, to identify priorities and
implement effective policy and program strategies for putting this growing
body of knowledge into practice.

Sex workers are disproportionately affected by HIV

Globally, female sex workers
are 13.5 times more likely to
acquire HIV than other women of
reproductive age.1 In Asia and the
Pacific, the likelihood is even higher
with women in sex work 29 times
more likely to be living with HIV than
other women of reproductive age.2
Male, female and transgender sex
workers face alarming levels of
violence5,6 at work, from police and in
their homes and neighborhoods.

Violence against sex

workers is a violation
of fundamental human
rights that fuels HIV
transmission in the
region and globally.

Globally, HIV prevalence among

transgender women in sex work is
27.3%.3 In 2011, 31% of transgender
sex workers in Jakarta were living with
HIV and 19% in Maharashtra State,
India.1

In 2012, 8.7% of male sex workers in

Nepal, 12.2% in Thailand and 18% in
Indonesia were living with HIV.1

Too little is known about male

and transgender sex workers
but what we do know
indicates that HIV prevalence
in this region is high.

In Pakistan, 0.6 percent of female sex

workers, 1.6% of male sex workers
and 5.2% of transgender sex workers
are living with HIV. Those numbers
are higher in particular areas: 1.9%
for female sex workers in Karachi and
Larkana, 5.9% for male sex workers in
Karachi and 14.9% for transgender sex
workers in Larkana.4

UNFPA, June 2015

The nature and impact of

violence against sex workers
Sex workers endure a disproportionate burden of violence, in their work and personal lives.5 This violence denies them
rights to equal protection under the law; to protection from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; and the
right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Violence against sex workers has life-long and lifethreatening consequences that increase HIV risk in a range of direct and indirect ways.

The Right(s) Evidence: Sex Work, Violence and HIV in Asia 6

is a collaborative research project by UN agencies
and sex worker networks. The study interviewed 123
sex workers across four study sites (Jakarta, Yangon,
Kathmandu and Colombo) working in sex work
establishments (eg brothels and massage centres),
venues (eg karaoke bars), on the streets and through
outcall via the internet or mobile phone. Sex worker
participants were interviewed by sex worker peerinterviewers about their experiences of physical,
emotional, sexual and economic violence within and
outside their work.

Indonesia
Male

Transgender

10

Female

15

Myanmar

Nepal

Sri Lanka

18

20

20

122 of the 123 participants reported experiencing violence including rape, gang rape, being beaten, stabbed
and burned, theft, mutilation, extortion, unlawful imprisonment and verbal abuse.

Participants experienced violence

From policePolice and clients were the most commonly reported perpetrators of violence against sex
workers including in police stations and during police raids.
From clients Sex workers reported violence by clients and men posing as clients including refusal to
pay for services received, theft and rape including being forced to provide services not agreed to, as well
as gang rape.
At home Some of the most serious physical injuries reported by female and transgender participants were
caused by intimate partners.
In healthcare settingsSex workers reported discrimination, denial of services, breach of privacy and
physical violence from healthcare providers.

This violence had serious lifelong and life-threatening consequences including permanent disability
and disfigurement, skull fractures, loss of consciousness, tears to the genitals and anus, unintended pregnancy, suicide
attempts and increased risk of HIV and other STIs.
2

Violence against sex workers

increases HIV risk
How violence increases HIV risk6

Physical violence

Used by clients to coerce unprotected sex

Fear of harm reduces ability to negotiate condom use

Sexual violence

Usually perpetrated without a condom

Causes genital and anal injuries that increase risk of
HIV transmission
Includes high-risk anal rape and gang rape involving
multiple perpetrators

Intimate partner
violence

Sexual partner violence poses direct threat of HIV

transmission
Fear of harm reduces ability to negotiate condom use

Stigma and
discrimination in
community and
health care settings

Prevents access to HIV testing, treatment, adherence

and viral suppression as well as other health services
Prevents seeking timely medical services including
access to post-exposure prophylaxis
Increases risk of STIs being left untreated, increasing
likelihood of HIV transmission

Economic violence
including extortion
by police

Can prompt sex workers to take on riskier clients or

sex acts to recover lost money.
Reduced financial resources limits sex workers
ability to afford medical treatment, increasing the
risk of injuries going untreated and likelihood of HIV
tramsission

Increased
HIV
risk

Ending violence against sex workers is key to ending HIV

In 2014 medical journal, The Lancet released a special series on sex work and HIV. The series looked at violations of
sex workers rights and how effective different HIV prevention and treatment strategies have been. One study developed
mathematical modelling to predict the impact of addressing sexual violence on future HIV infections in different countries.8
The study found that anti-violence programming in Bellary, India had reduced violence from 35% to 9% between 2006
and 2008 and that elimination of physical and sexual violence could avert a further 5% of new infections among female sex
workers and their clients over the next 10 years through its immediate effect on condom use. Mathematical modelling was
also applied to Vancouver, Canada (where the HIV epidemic is concentrated among key populations) and Mombasa, Kenya
(where the epidemic is generalised). Modelling showed that eliminating sexual violence alone could result in a 17%
reduction in new infections in Mombasa and a 20% decrease in Vancouver among the same cohorts over 10 years.
3

The evidence for decriminalization

of sex work
Sex work is criminalized throughout much of the region through laws that penalise sex workers including laws against
soliciting and selling sex; and laws that penalize others in the industry including laws against operating a brothel.9
Sex workers are also targeted through public order, vagrancy and indecency laws that make no reference to sex work.
Laws that criminalize same-sex sexual acts impact sex workers rights and effectively criminalize some sex work.10
All countries in the Asia-Pacific criminalize sex work or activities associated with sex work except New Zealand and one
Australian state (New South Wales).

33 of 38 Asia-Pacific countries criminalize soliciting.1

18 Asia-Pacific countries also criminalize

same-sex sexual activities between consenting adults.1

Criminalization of sex work and police violence against

sex workers are closely linked
Criminalization legitimizes violence and discrimination against sex workers (particularly from law enforcement officers
and healthcare providers) and makes authorities reluctant to offer protection or support to sex workers. Law enforcement
practices like confiscation of condoms act as a deterrent for condom use and increase the risk of HIV transmission for all
citizens, undermining proven public health interventions.
Police are among the most common perpetrators of
violence against sex workers. The Right(s) Evidence
found that exposure to police increased risk of police
violence whether police were enforcing laws that directly
criminalize sex work, or public order offences that target
sex workers.

Criminalization
(direct/indirect)

Exposure to police

Police vioience
Continuing
violence
Reinforces that
reporting doesnt
work

The study also found that fear of arrest and police

violence prevented sex workers from reporting violence,
by clients, managers and strangers to the police. Of the
122 participants who had ever experienced violence
only 29 reported it to police, including just three men.
Participants were least likely to report violence by police.

Reluctance
to report
Impunity for all
perpetrators

Criminalization and police violence prevent sex workers from reporting violence to police,
creating an environment of impunity for all perpetrators of violence against sex workers.
4

Growing consensus on the need

for decriminalization
Decriminalization removes structural barriers to accessing essential services and support
In New Zealand and New South Wales, decriminalization of sex work has not increased sex work but improved sex workers
access to HIV and sexual health services through occupational health and safety standards across the industry.11

The Lancet special series on sex work calls on governments to

decriminalize sex work, recognizing that there is no alternative
if we wish to reduce the environment of risk faced by men, women
and transgender people worldwide.12

The Global Commission on HIV and

the Law: Risks, Rights and Health13

Support for decriminalization

A growing number of studies and
authorities now support decriminalization
of sex work through the repeal of laws that
prohibit consenting adults from selling or
buying sex, including laws that criminalize
related activities and same-sex acts. Those
include>>

WHO: Consolidated Guidelines for Key Populations

and Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI
Programmes with Sex Workers14
UNAIDS: Global Guidance on HIV and Sex Work15

Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific11

Decriminalization is the most important intervention for

ending HIV among female sex workers
The Lancet series used mathematical modelling to predict the effect of decriminalization in two concentrated (Bellary, India
and Vancouver, Canada) and one generalised epidemic (Mombasa, Kenya).
The series found that decriminalization of sex work would have the greatest impact of all structural interventions to
prevent HIV, across all countries and in both concentrated and generalised epidemics.
Decriminalization could avert 33-46% of new infections among female sex workers and their clients over the next ten
years.8
5

workers rights for safe workplaces

The criminalization of sex work leaves sex workers vulnerable to exploitation and undermines their
work rights. Research shows that employers and workplace conditions can play an important role in
ensuring sex worker safety and reducing HIV risk.

The Right(s) Evidence found that client procurers and

managers and establishment/venue owners were key to
making workplaces safe or unsafe for sex workers.

International Labor Organization Recommendation

200 Concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work
recognizes the role of workplaces in the HIV response.
It calls on States to adopt national policies and
programmes on HIV and AIDS and occupational health
and safety including through preventing violence and
harassment in the workplace and ensuring access to all
means of prevention.16 Recommendation 200 applies
to sex workers, even in countries where sex work is
illegal.17

Some participants reported that client procurers,

owners and managers failed to promote a safe work
environment and perpetrated violence against sex
workers. Others described a protective role, including
coming to their aid when conflicts arose, introducing
policies to deal with violent clients, paying security
guards, warning of police raids or paying bribes to
prevent raids.

Recommendation 200 in action

In 2014 the Cambodian Minister of Labor and Vocational
Training signed the Cambodian Prakas on Working
Conditions, Occupational Safety and Health Rules of
Entertainment Service Enterprises, Establishments and
Companies, a proclamation to strengthen implementation
of the national Labor Law by clarifying employers
obligations toward entertainment workers* including the
prohibition of workplace violence and indecent assault,
and provision of occupational health and safety training.18

Participants from workplaces

that supported decent working
conditions and gave sex workers
the power to choose their clients
reported the least violence.

* A term for sex workers used in Cambodia.

Safe workplaces reduce HIV risk

The Lancet series measured the potential impact of creating safer work environments on HIV infections among female sex
workers and their clients using mathematical modelling. The study found that by reducing violence and police harassment, and
increasing condom use (including through reduced substance abuse in work settings) safer work environments could avert
37% of infections in Vancouver, Canada over the next ten years, 21% in Mombasa, Kenya and 45% in Bellary, India.7

Community empowerment
Evidence increasingly shows the value of empowering key populations in the HIV response. For sex workers, empowerment
through collectivization and legal literacy has been effective in improving sexual and reproductive health, access to rights and
responses to violence.

Community empowerment has proven results

The Lancet series conducted a meta-analysis, comparing twenty-two published studies of eight community empowerment
programs for sex workers in low- and middle-income countries across Brazil, Myanmar, India and Kenya. The study found that
community empowerment-based approaches are consistently associated with significant reductions in HIV and
other STIs, and with increases in condom use with new and regular clients.19

Sex workers interviewed for The Right(s) Evidence described benefits from formal and informal collectivization. Many reported
warning other sex workers of violent clients, others intervened in violent incidents and some pooled savings in case of arrest.
Those who had built connections within the sex worker community described these contacts as an important source of
emotional support. Transgender participants in particular described a strong sense of community among transgender sex
workers. Participants who had joined community-based organizations, and particularly those male and transgender participants
who had joined organizations with an empowerment focus articulated their rights with pride and clarity.

Human rights means the right

I heard that there was an

organization for us. So I went
there. Afterwards, I learned
about HIV and condoms and
was given awareness about my
health issues. I also learned how
to educate other persons and
learned to lead the life beautifully.

to live, to work, to produce

something, to build the future.
In my opinion, sex workers have
those rights Its my right to
fight for them.

- Transgender participant

- Male participant

The WHO Consolidated Guidance for Key Populations includes community empowerment as an essential strategy for
creating an enabling environment as part of the comprehensive package of interventions for key populations.13
Community empowerment is a critical enabler for improving key populations living conditions, developing strategies for
health and rights interventions and redressing violations of the human rights of people from key populations. Community
empowerment can take many forms, such as meaningful participation of people from key populations in designing services,
peer education, implementation of legal literacy and service programs, and fostering key population-led groups and key
population-led programs and service delivery.14
7

Evidence to action
Ending violence against sex workers and realizing their human rights requires communities, States and
donors to act on the evidence and apply what works.

Key messages for realizing sex workers rights in Asia

Criminalization does not keep sex workers safe or prevent HIV transmission Sex work and same-sex sexual
acts between consenting adults must be decriminalized.
Sex work is work and it should be safe Sex workers labor rights must be promoted, including through
occupational health and safety standards.
Police violence fuels impunity and increases HIV risk Police must become partners in ending violence against
sex workers.
Community empowerment gets results Policy and programming should invest in communities to promote
collectivization and sex worker capacity through legal literacy and access to justice.
Integrated and holistic services are key to sex worker health and wellbeing Sex workers need access to a
comprehensive package of health and support services including HIV/STI diagnosis, treatment and care; sexual and
reproductive health information and services; and gender-based violence response services, including psychosocial
and legal support.

Key implementation resources

Implementing Comprehensive STI/HIV Programmes with Sex Workers The SWIT, developed by WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS, the Global
Network of Sex Work Projects and World Bank presents practical approaches from collaborative interventions around the world.
The HIV and Sex Work Collection Innovative responses in Asia and the Pacific The collection provides eleven detailed case studies
on HIV and sex work programmes and advocacy from seven countries in the Asia Pacific region: Bangladesh, China, Fiji, India,
Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand and an analysis of the key lessons learned for delivering and scaling up evidence and rights-based
responses.
The power to tackle violence: Avahans Experience with Community Led Crisis Response in India by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation documents key components, lessons learned and data use in the improvement and scale-up of the Avahan model.
Addressing Violence Against Sex Workers: Documenting good practice by sex worker-led organizations by the Global Network of
Sex Work Projects This introduction to a proposed series identifies effective policy and programming strategies, drawing on case
studies from across the world.
1. UNAIDS (2013) HIV and AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

11. UNFPA and UNDP (2012) Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific: Laws, HIV and
Human Rights in the Context of Sex Work.

2. Baral and others (2012) Burden of HIV among female sex workers in low-income and
middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis, The Lancet Journal
of Infectious Diseases.

12. Das and Horton (2014) Bringing sex workers to the centre of the HIV response, The
Lancet HIV and sex workers.

3. Poteat, T. Wirtz, AL. Radix, A et al (2014) HIV risk and preventative interventions in
transgender women sex workers, The Lancet HIV and sex workers.

13. Global Commission on HIV and the Law (2012) HIV and the Law: Rights, Risks and
Health.

4. National AIDS Control Program (2014) Country Progress Report Pakistan.

14. WHO (2014) Consolidated Guidelines on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care
for key populations.

5. Decker and others (2013) Violence against women in sex work and HIV risk
implications differ qualitatively by perpetrator, BMC Public Health.

15. UNAIDS (2009) UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work.

6. UNFPA, UNDP and the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers (2015) The Right(s)
Evidence: Sex Work, Violence and HIV in Asia A Multi-Country Qualitative Study.

16. International Labor Organization (2010) ILO Recommendation 200: Recommendation

concerning HIV and AIDS and the world of work.

7. Decker and others, Human Rights violations against sex workers: burden and effect on 17. Provisional Record: International Labor Conference (2010) HIV and the World of Work
Report of the Committee on HIV/AIDS, paragraph 209.
HIV, The Lancet HIV and sex workers.
8. Shannon and others (2014) Global epidemiology HIV among female sex workers, The 18. Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, Kingdom of Cambodia (2014) Prakas on
Working Conditions, Occupational Safety and Health Rules of Entertainment Service
Lancet HIV and sex workers.
Enterprises, Establishment and Companies.
9. Grover (2010) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the
19. Kerrigan and others (2014) A community empowerment approach to the HIV response
among sex workers: effectiveness, challenges and considerations for implementation
10. UNDP, Asia-Pacific Coalition for Mens Sexual Health (2010) Legal Environments, Human
and scale up, The Lancet HIV and sex workers.
Rights and HIV Responses Among Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender
People in Asia and the Pacific: An Agenda for Action.
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

UNFPA, June 2015

Information Bulletin Series, Number 3

Violence against sex workers and HIV prevention

Why focus on violence against
sex workers and HIV?

The extent of the problem

I get detained because I dont have a passport. . . they photograph you,

ask for money, if you dont give it they [police] demand a subbotnik
[unprotected and unpaid sex] . . . its like that for me every time, and
if I dont agree, then I get beaten, with sts, and theyre vulgar with
me . . . once they took me by the hair and pushed me into their car,
saying: if you tell anyone, well plant drugs on you.1

In Bangladesh, the national HIV surveillance

(1999-2000) found that between 52% and 60% of
street-based sex workers reported being raped
by men in uniform in the previous 12 months and
between 41% and 51% reported being raped by
local criminals.6

(Sex worker, 22 years, Central Asia)

In Namibia, 72% of 148 sex workers who were interviewed, reported being abused. Approximately
16% reported abuse by intimate partners, 18% by
clients, and 9% at the hands of the police.7

Sex workers are among those who are most vulnerable

to HIV infection in the world today. In low prevalence
settings with a concentrated epidemic, such as India,
Indonesia, Cambodia and the Russian Federation, the HIV
epidemic initially spreads rapidly among sex workers with
prevalence reaching as high as 65% in some sex-worker
populations.3,4 Even in countries with a mature epidemic,
including many in sub-Saharan Africa, sex workers continue
to be disproportionately affected with estimated prevalence
ranging from 30% in Yaound, Cameroon to as high as 75%
in Kisumu, Kenya.5
Several factors heighten sex workers vulnerability to HIV.
Many sex workers are migrants and otherwise mobile
within nation states and are thus, difcult to reach via
standard outreach and health services. They face cultural,
social, legal and linguistic obstacles to accessing services
and information. Equally important, many women in sex
work experience violence on the streets, on the job or in
their personal lives, which increases their vulnerability to
HIV and other health concerns. For example, research from
Bangladesh, Namibia, India and elsewhere shows that many
sex workers, particularly those who work on the streets,
report being beaten, threatened with a weapon, slashed,
choked, raped and coerced into sex.6,7,8
Violence is a manifestation of the stigma and
discrimination experienced by sex workers. In all
societies, sex work is highly stigmatized and sex workers

In India, 70% of sex workers in a survey reported

being beaten by the police and more than 80% had
been arrested without evidence.8

are often subjected to blame, labelling, disapproval and

discriminatory treatment. Laws governing prostitution
and law enforcement authorities play a key role in the
violence experienced by sex workers. In most countries,
sex work is either illegal or has an ambiguous legal
status (e.g. prostitution is not illegal, but procurement of sex
workers and soliciting in public is illegal). Sex workers are
therefore, frequently regarded as easy targets for
harassment and violence for several reasons. They are
considered immoral and deserving of punishment.
Criminalization of sex work contributes to an environment
in which, violence against sex workers is tolerated, leaving
them less likely to be protected from it.9 Many sex workers
consider violence "normal" or "part of the job" and do not
have information about their rights. As a result, they are
often reluctant to report incidences of rapes, attempted (or
actual) murders, beatings, molestation or sexual assault to
the authorities. Even when they do report, their claims are
often dismissed. For example, studies among street-based
sex workers in Vancouver, Canada and in New York City
show that a majority of incidences of harassment, assault,

Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections Violence against sex workers and HIV prevention

rape, kidnapping, and murder are not reported to the police.

Where they are reported, the police do not register the
complaints and in the few instances where they are registered,
many of the perpetrators are not convicted.10,11
While some women engage in sex work voluntarily, there
are others who are coerced into sex work through means
such as trafcking.12 The latter often experience physical
and sexual violence during and after being trafcked into
sex work. However, both trafcking and violence against
trafcked women need to be understood more broadly in
the context of migration, and examined separately from
sex work. At the same time, it is important to note that in
several countries, certain activities such as rescue raids
of sex establishments have exacerbated violence against
sex workers and compromised their safety. For example,
research from Indonesia and India has indicated that sex
workers who are rounded up during police raids are beaten,
coerced into having sex by corrupt police ofcials in
exchange for their release or placed in institutions where
they are sexually exploited or physically abused.13,14 The
raids also drive sex workers onto the streets, where they are
more vulnerable to violence.

Where and how do violence against

sex workers and HIV/AIDS intersect?
The risk of sexual transmission of HIV infection is well
established. In situations where sex workers do not have
access to condoms, HIV prevention information and sexual
health services, or are prevented from protecting their health
and using condoms for any reason, they are at increased
risk of contracting HIV. Violence has a direct and indirect
bearing on sex workers' ability to protect themselves from
HIV and maintain good sexual health. Rape (frequent and
gang rape), by individuals engaged in high-risk behaviours
can directly increase their risk of becoming infected with
HIV through vaginal trauma and lacerations.
Sex workers are surrrounded by a complex web of
"gatekeepers" including owners of sex establishments,
managers, clients, intimate partners, law enforcement
authorities and local power brokers who often have control
or power over their daily lives. Gatekeepers, for example,
may exert control by dictating the amount charged by a sex
worker, whether a sex worker should take on a particular
client and even whether the sex worker can or cannot

insist on condom use. Some gatekeepers may exert control

through subtle means such as holding a debt, emotional
manipulation or through overt means such as threat of and
actual sexual and physical violence, physical isolation,
threat of handing them over to legal authorities and forced
drug and alcohol use.15
In several settings police use anti-prostitution laws to harass,
threaten, arrest, beat and sexually coerce sex workers. In
Papua New Guinea, for example, sex workers participating
in an HIV prevention intervention reported gang-rape and
harassment by the police as a serious problem that impeded
their ability to practice safer sex.16 In Kazakhstan, police
routinely arrest and beat up sex workers and often force
them to bribe arresting ofcers with money or sexual
services.17
Sex workers also nd it difcult to negotiate safer sex with
intimate partners and clients in the context of physical
and sexual violence perpetrated by some of them.18 For
example, in a survey conducted among Vietnamese sex
workers in Cambodia, 30% reported that they had been
sexually coerced by clients who were unwilling to put on
a condom.19
Sex workers often do not have access to Sexually
Transmitted Infection (STI) and HIV/AIDS services. The
reasons for this are varied, but violence or fear of violence
and discrimination play a role. In the USA, police have
been known to conscate condoms during routine "sweeps"
(i.e. arresting all women or people) in known sex work
districts, which undermines public health outreach efforts.
For example, possession of condoms is used as evidence of
intent to commit prostitution and arrests are made on that
basis, discouraging sex workers from carrying condoms.20
Health services are often hostile to sex workers, subjecting
them to disapproval, refusal to treat their health problems,
mandatory HIV testing, exposure of their HIV status and
threatening to report them to the authorities. For example,
sex workers from the Russian Federation and India reported
being treated callously in hospitals and clinics, made to
wait longer periods to be seen if providers knew that they
were sex workers and refused treatment until they agreed to
undergo HIV testing. This made many sex workers reluctant
to seek health care services.21,22
The AIDS epidemic has added another layer of stigma and
discrimination against sex workers one in which they are

Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections Violence against sex workers and HIV prevention

often blamed for spreading the virus to the rest of society.

This combination of violence and AIDS-related stigma and
discrimination also undermines HIV prevention efforts
by affecting the psychological well-being of sex workers.
Violence and lack of control over one's life means that
sex workers may give lower priority to their health needs
and behaviour change, over more immediate concerns
for safety and survival. Programme experiences with sex
workers suggest that maintaining health and preventing
HIV hold lower priority for sex workers than coping with
violence and daily harassment from police. Many sex
workers experience low self-esteem, emotional stress and
depression associated with living with violence and fear of
arrest. Some resort to alcohol and drug use to cope with their
situation behaviours that are linked to violence, lack of
control and HIV risk.23
In several countries particularly in eastern Europe and
central Asia, there are increasing numbers of sex workers
who inject drugs and injecting drug users who engage in
sex work to support their drug habits.24 Groups that both
inject drugs and sell sex are among those experiencing
the fastest increases in HIV prevalence due to the dual
risks from unprotected sex and needle sharing. Violence,
criminalization of injecting drug users and harassment
from law enforcement authorities (e.g. shutting down
of harm reduction projects) add another layer of risk
and vulnerability to this group by preventing them from
protecting themselves. In Panama City, approximately
13% of sex workers reported being raped while engaged
in sex work and this proportion increased to 41% among
those who used drugs.25 In New York City, a study found
that street-based sex workers who reported injecting drug
use were more likely to report physical and sexual violence
compared to those who did not use drugs. Researchers
explained that conicts over sharing, buying and selling
drugs and hostility while under the inuence of drugs
exposed sex workers to potentially violent situations (e.g.
shooting galleries), people (e.g. drug dealers) or activities
(e.g. stealing) which contributed to violence against those
who used drugs.26

What are the opportunities to address

violence against sex workers in
HIV/AIDS programmes?
There is growing recognition that effective HIV prevention

policies and programmes focusing on sex workers must

incorporate violence prevention strategies. Interventions to
promote safer sex among sex workers must be part of an
overall effort to ensure their safety, promote their health and
well-being more broadly and protect their human rights.
There is also a need to recognize that not all sex workers
see themselves as victims, oppressed, or exploited. Instead,
many can and are taking control of their own lives, nding
solutions to their problems, acting in their individual and
collective interests and contributing to the ght against HIV/
AIDS. Some of the most successful sex work interventions
have been led and run by sex workers and have allowed
them to organize themselves for their own safety. Such
an approach also frames HIV risk reduction and violence
prevention within a broader context of occupational health,
improving working conditions and enabling sex workers to
have labour rights.
Targeted interventions for sex workers
A number of programmes have developed ways to reduce
violence faced by sex workers at multiple levels. At the
individual level, efforts to reduce violence have focused on
developing educational materials providing safety tips and
creating awareness of legal and civil rights for street-based
and indoor work. For example, TAMPEP (Transnational
AIDS/STI Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in
Europe) an organization working with migrant sex workers
in four European countries and SWEAT (Sex Worker
Education and Advocacy Task Force), an organization
based in South Africa, have developed resources, education
and tips for sex workers on how to prevent or reduce
violence and about their legal rights during police raids.27,28
Other programmes have offered lessons in self-defence and
distributed alarms and deterrent sprays to help sex workers
defend themselves in the event of an attack.29
Efforts to reduce violence and repression at the community
level include organizing and mobilizing sex workers to ght
for their civil and human rights. For example, the Sonagachi
project in India has organized sex workers into collectives and
promoted sex worker solidarity as one way of ghting violence
and injustice towards their community.30 Some programmes
have developed a "bad-date" warning system where sex
workers inform their colleagues of potentially violent clients
or incidents. Such a system helps sex workers avoid dangerous
clients, encourages them to make reports, attracts them to
services and increases the credibility of programmes. Other
programmes have conducted peer education, sensitization

Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections Violence against sex workers and HIV prevention

Work Wise: A handbook on sex workers rights, health and safety in South Africa SWEAT 27
The Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) is based in Cape Town, South Africa. It provides services as well as advocates for rights, health and safety of sex workers. It has conducted a number of workshops
for sex workers on the law and violence. In 2002, it produced a handbook that provided illustrative tips on their
human rights with respect to the existing laws on prostitution in South Africa so that sex workers know where
they stand with respect to the police. The handbook also has a section on dangerous situations and how to get out
of them and a list of important telephone numbers to contact in case of an emergency that sex workers should
keep with them at all times. The handbook is available in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa (the languagages spoken
in South Africa).

Rights of an arrested person illustrated

Tips for self-defense

Source: SWEAT (http://www.sweat.org.za)27

workshops with law enforcement authorities. These efforts

have engaged them in dialogue to reduce police violence
and interference in projects and to get them to take reports of
violence from sex workers seriously.31,32
At the policy level, violence reduction and prevention efforts
have focused on advocacy. This includes liaising with rights
groups; forming international and national networks of sex
workers who speak out about their situation in various fora;
dialoguing with policy-makers to change repressive laws
and policies; and working with media to change perceptions
of sex work.33 In Argentina, for example, sex workers have
formed their own unions and joined with existing labour
unions to demand better working conditions including
health, safety, contractual rights and decriminalization of
sex work. These unions have lobbied for sex work to be
recognized as valid paid work and to be included in larger
labour struggles.34

Conclusion:

enforcement authorities and laws governing prostitution

have, in some cases, increased the risk of violence
against sex workers rather than protected them against it.
Violence is also perpetrated by some gatekeepers, clients,
family members and intimate partners. It undermines HIV
prevention efforts and increases sex workers' vulnerability
to HIV transmission in several ways.
Rape, particularly by high-risk individuals can directly
increase sex workers risk of infection due to vaginal
trauma and lacerations resulting from use of force and
transmission of other STIs.
Some gatekeepers may force sex workers to take more
clients or forego condom use threats or through actual use
of violence.
Sex workers, especially street-based sex workers, may
be forced to exchange unpaid and unprotected sex with
some law enforcement authorities in order to escape
arrest, harassment, obtain release from prison, or not be
deported.

Violence against sex workers is not only widespread, but is

also perpetrated, legitimized, and accepted by many. Law

Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections Violence against sex workers and HIV prevention

Working with the police in Papua New Guinea 32

In Papua New Guinea rape and harassment by police
was identified as a serious issue by sex workers who
were part of a targeted intervention to prevent HIV.
Sex workers reported their inability to practice safe
sex in the context of lainaps a term used for coercive
group sex in which known sex workers would be
taken out of cars, drinking venues, or off the street,
ordered into the police cars and taken to a police
station, the police barracks or to an uninhabited
section of the city, and raped by a number of men
in tandem.
The intervention targeted police to reduce the
practice of group coercive sex using several
strategies. Police were trained as peer educators
and they used diagrams and demonstrations to
show the men how rapidly HIV can spread through
such group sex events. A comic book specifically
about lainaps called Hit n Run was developed, which
depicted an HIV negative sex worker being forced
into sex with numerous police, who later are shown
to be HIV positive. The story was designed not to
place blame on sex workers, but to illustrate the
possibility of acquiring HIV from the semen of
previous men in the line.
Evaluation of the overall intervention indicated
that in the pre-intervention phase, 10% of the
police stated they had been in a lainap during the
previous week, whereas this was reduced to 4.2%
post-intervention .

Harassment of those providing outreach services to sex

workers by law enforcement authorities may reduce sex
workers access to prevention information and services.
Sex workers may experience violence at the hands of
some clients and intimate partners, preventing them from
negotiating safer sex.
Sex workers may not use HIV/AIDS services due to
hostility and abuse by health care providers.
Sex workers who inject drugs or injecting drug users
who sell sex face risks from both unsafe needles and
unprotected sex. They may also experience increased
violence related to buying, sharing or selling drugs, which
further undermines their ability to protect themselves.
The constant threat or experience of violence may be

linked to sex workers experiencing anxiety, depression,

loss of self-esteem and in some situations giving lower
priority to health and HIV prevention over more immediate
concerns for safety and survival.
As recommended by the WHO Sex Work Toolkit:
Community Mobilization, HIV prevention interventions
should adopt practical strategies to reduce violence against
sex workers.35 This includes:
Develop educational materials and resources for sex
workers on their legal rights and on how to prevent, reduce
and respond to violence.
Support community mobilization of sex workers to
respond to violence and discrimination.
Develop a bad-date warning system where sex workers
inform colleagues of potentially violent clients or
incidents.
Conduct sensitization workshops with police and law
enforcement authorities to reduce harassment and
interference in prevention and outreach programmes.
Advocacy to promote human rights of sex workers.
HIV prevention interventions that address violence against
sex workers must be based on a human rights approach
one in which the responsibility for sexual health lies
not only with sex workers but also with clients, third
parties, government and the larger society. The health and
human rights of sex workers must be seen as legitimate
ends in themselves. Addressing HIV/AIDS among sex
workers requires a commitment to addressing their social
marginalization as well as a focus on health.

Acknowledgements: This document was prepared by Avni Amin

in the Department of Gender, Women and Health (GWH) with
inputs from GWH and the Department of HIV/AIDS (HIV) at
WHO; Cheryl Overs at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance; and
Penelope Saunders, Different Avenues.

World Health Organization 2005

Department of Gender, Women and Health (GWH)
Family and Community Health (FCH)
genderandhealth@who.int
http://www.who.int/gender

Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections Violence against sex workers and HIV prevention

clients do not necessarily comprise a majority of the clients sex

workers see. It is important to distinguish between abusers or
rapists who pose as clients, and clients who do not use violence
and who sex workers are willing to see again.

References and Notes (2, 12, 18 and 30)

1

Human Rights Watch (2003). Fanning the ames. How human

rights abuses are fueling the AIDS epidemic in Karzakhstan. Vol.
15, No. 4 (D). New York, USA, Human Rights Watch.

Since this is part of a series on violence against women, this brief

is focused on adult female sex workers, while acknowledging that
violence also affects male and transgender sex workers as well as
children who are forced into prostitution as sex slaves.

19

Schunter B (2001). Filial Piety and Vietnamese Sex Workers in

Svay Pak, Cambodia. Research for Sex Work. 4: 9-10.

20

Alexander P (2001). Contextual risk versus risk behaviour: The

impact of the legal, social and economic context of sex work on
individual risk taking. Research for Sex Work. 4:3-5.

21

Montgomery R (1999). There arent even any written materials

in the clinic to read: AIDS infoshare project activities in
Moscow. Research for Sex Work. 2:3-5.

22

Morison L, Weiss H A, Buve A, Carael M et al. (2001).

Commercial sex and spread of HIV in four cities in sub-Saharan
Africa. AIDS. Suppl 4:S61-69.

Amin A (2004). Risk, morality and blame: A critical analysis of

government and USA donor responses to HIV infections among
sex workers in India. Takoma Park, MD, CHANGE.

23

AIDS and STD Control Programme, Directorate General of Health

Services (2000). Report on the second national expanded HIV
surveillance. p. 47, Dhaka, Government of Bangladesh.

Alexander P (1998). Sex work and health: a question of safety

in the workplace. Journal of the American Womens Medical
Association 53(2):7782.

24

Ibid 4.

25

Carrington C and Betts C (2001). Risk and violence in different

scenarios of commercial sex work in Panama City. Research for
Sex Work. 4:29-31.

26

El-Bassel N and Witte S (2001). Drug use and physical and

sexual abuse of street sex workers in New York City. Research
for Sex Work. 4:31-32.

27

EUROPAP/TAMPEP (1998). Hustling for health: Developing

services for sex workers in Europe. London, Gent and
Amsterdam, Imperial College School of Medicine, University of
Gent and TAMPEP International Foundation.

28

SWEAT (2004). Work wise: Sex worker handbook on human

rights, health and violence. Cape Town, South Africa, SWEAT.

29

Longo P and Overs C (1997). Making sex work safe. South Africa
and Britain, Network of Sex Work Projects and AHRTAG.

30

The Sonagachi project with sex workers in Calcutta, India

includes not only efforts to reduce STIs and promote condom use
but also community mobilization of sex workers as peer educators
focusing on their overall health, social and economic well-being
and human rights.

31

Ibid 29.

32

Jenkins C. (1997). Final report to UNAIDS: Police and sex

workers in Papua New Guinea. Geneva, Switzerland. Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

33

Red E and Saul (2003). Why sex workers believe smaller is

better: The faulty implementation of decriminalization in New
South Wales, Australia. Research for Sex Work. 6:12-14.

34

Irrazabal G (2004). Argentinean sex workers taking care of

themselves: The experience of AMMAR. Research for Sex Work.
7:14-16.

National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Government of

India, (2005). State wise HIV prevalence, 1999-2003, India.
Ministry of Health And Family Welfaree, Government of India.
http://www.nacoonline.org/facts_statewise.htm

UNAIDS and WHO (2004). AIDS epidemic update. Geneva,

Switzerland, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and
World Health Organization.

Hubbard D and Zimba E (2003). Sex work and the law in Namibia:
A culture-sensitive approach. Research for Sex Work. 6:10-11.

Sangram, Point of View and VAMP (2002). Turning a blind eye.

Of veshyas, vamps, whores and women: Challenging preconceived
notions of prostitution and sex work. 1(3).

Rekart M. L (2005) Sex-work harm reduction. The Lancet. 366

(December):2123-2134

10

Cler-Cunningham L and Christerson C (2001). Studying violence

to stop it. Research for Sex Work. 4:25-26.

11

Thukral J and Ditmore M (2003). Revolving door: An analysis of

street-based prostitution in New York City, USA, Urban Justice
Center.

12

The notion of "voluntary" sex work is debated in the human

rights eld. For some all sex work is equated with exploitation
and trafcking. Others recognize that many sex workers decide
to sell sex as a pragmatic response to limited livelihood options
or may have been coerced into sex work through trafcking. The
latter argue for sex workers to have the right to work with the laws
protection from harm be it rape, violence, harassment or other
human rights violations. Butcher K (2003). Confusion between
prostitution and sex trafcking. The Lancet, 361(9373): 1983.

13

14

Surtees R (2003). Brothel raids in Indonesia ideal solution or

further violation? Research for Sex Work. 6:5-7.
Sangram, Point of View and VAMP (2002). Rehabilitation:
Against their will? Of veshyas, vamps, whores and women:
Challenging preconceived notions of prostitution and sex work.
1(2).

15

Alexander H (2001). The impact of violence on HIV prevention

and health promotion: The case of South Africa. Research for Sex
Work. 4:20-22.

16

Jenkins C (2000). Female sex worker HIV prevention projects:

Lessons learnt from Papua New Guinea, India and Bangladesh.
UNAIDS Best Practice Collection. Geneva, Switzerland. UNAIDS.

17
18

Ibid 1

In some settings referred to as bad dates or ugly mugs. Violent

35

WHO (2004). Sex Work Toolkit: Community Mobilization.

Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization. http://who.
arvkit.net/sw/en/contentdetail.jsp?ID=86&d=sw.03.02.01

THEMATIC DISCUSSION PAPER:

Eliminating Violence Against Sex Workers
This paper is the product of discussions of the Thematic Task Team on Eliminating Violence against Sex Workers in
st
preparation for the 1 Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work,
12 15 October 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand (contact: linde@unfpa.org).

1. INTRODUCTION
In their work and lives, sex workers experience disproportionate levels of violence including
police abuse, sexual assault, rape, harassment, extortion, and abuse from clients, agents
(pimps), sex establishment owners, intimate partners, local residents, and public authorities.
Violence against sex workers is a violation of their human rights, and increases sex workers
vulnerability to HIV.
Violence against sex workers must be understood beyond the individual incidents and in a
wider context of gender and stigma. Violence is often directed against women because they are
female and have unequal power in relationships with men and low status in society in general.
This lack of power and status make women, including female sex workers, vulnerable to acts of
violence. This is also referred to as gender based violence (GBV). Also male and transgender
sex workers lack power and status and are vulnerable to homophobic and gender based
violence. Relevant in this context is the definition of violence against women from the UN
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993) as any act of gender-based
violence that results in... physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women,
including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in
public or in private life. This definition includes violence occurring in the family, in the general
community, and violence perpetrated or condoned by the State.
Violence is an important factor affecting the vulnerability of sex workers to HIV and sexually
transmitted infections. Studies around the world show that women living with HIV are more
likely to have experienced violence, and women who have experienced violence are more likely
to have HIV. Injury caused by physical violence during sexual activity or rape can increase risk
to HIV infection. Violence associated with stigma and discrimination against sex workers and
people living with HIV also increases their vulnerability to HIV. Being labelled vectors of HIV,
blamed for the violence inflicted upon them, verbally abused, and living under the constant
threat of violence damages ones self-esteem. This results in poor health-seeking behaviours
and exposure to risky behaviours. Some sex workers resort to alcohol or drug use, which may
result in increased violence and risky sexual behaviour. Avoiding HIV by using a condom
becomes less important or even practically impossible - when a person has the immediate
need to protect themselves from violence.

2. PRIORITY ISSUES
2.1 Perceptions of Sex Work impacting Sex Workers Vulnerability to Violence and HIV
Sex work is seen by some people as a form of violence and exploitation. The global sex
workers rights movement has consistently argued that while there is violence within the sex
industry, the exchange of sexual services for money is not in and of itself violence. In other
words, consensual adult sex work does not constitute violence per se. Because of this overall
positioning of sex work as sexual exploitation and violence, the everyday violence that sex
workers face is largely overlooked, ignored or even accepted.

Page |2
A recurrent example of defining sex work as exploitation per se is the confusion of sex work
with sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking, which is a crime that involves
threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception... for the
purpose of exploitation1. The United Nations differentiates persons who have been trafficked
for the purpose of sexual exploitation with sex workers, who are considered to enter into sex
work as a result of conditions that, while deplorable [including poverty, gender inequality, family
abuse, humanitarian emergencies], do not involve direct coercion and/or deceit by another2.
The issue of human trafficking eclipses other situations of violence taking place in sex work
contexts, many of which put sex workers at great risk of contracting HIV.
The root cause of rights violations - including violence - against sex workers is sometimes
referred to as the whore stigma. This refers to the idea that (especially) women labelled as sex
workers (whores) are somehow less human or at least not entitled to the same human rights
as other women. Common attitudes that sex workers deserve what they get when they face
violence make it difficult for sex workers to obtain protection from violence and to access
support when they have experienced violence. This stigma is also internalized by sex workers,
who may consider violence normal and part of the job. They may not take precautions to
prevent violence and are less likely to report incidences of violence such as molestations and
rape to the authorities.
Transgender sex workers face additional stigma and violence as a result of their gender
identity. They are often expected to provide free sexual services and because their identity as
transgender people is usually visible, they are susceptible to homophobic and gender violence.
2.2 Perpetrators of Violence against Sex Workers
Like many people, especially women, sex workers face violence perpetrated at intimate levels,
from their intimate partners and other family members. But some sources of violence are quite
different for sex workers than they are for other people. Not only do criminals often operate in
red-light areas, but violence perpetrated by the State is a routine source of violence for sex
workers in most countries in Asia and the Pacific. Sex workers also face violence specific to
their work-place, for example by agents (pimps) and sex work establishment owners. Violence
from clients is often triggered by the refusal of a sex worker to comply with a demand for
unprotected sex3.
Police and law enforcement authorities are often given a free rein in exercising their powers in
illegitimate ways when dealing with sex workers, threatening violence if sex workers do not
comply with their demands. In numerous countries, the police regularly rape and beat sex
workers and demand bribes to avoid arrest. In Bangladesh, the National HIV Surveillance
(1999-2000) found that between 52% and 60% of street-based sex workers reported being
raped by men in uniform in the previous 12 months and between 41% and 51% reported being
raped by local criminals. In India, 70% of sex workers in a survey reported being beaten by the
police and more than 80% had been arrested without evidence4.
Violent actions of street clean-up operations, police-led brothel closures or so-called rescue
operations are carried out en masse by law enforcers. This is often done in the name of
upholding decency and sexual morality, and it is often combined with sex workers being beaten
and raped. In China, public shaming programmes have been used on arrested sex workers.

United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing
the United Nations (2000) Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. (known as the Palermo Protocol).
UNAIDS (2009). UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work.
3
http://www.whatworksforwomen.org/chapters/7/sections/9
4
WHO (2005). Violence against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections: Violence Against Sex Workers and HIV Prevention.
WHO Information Bulletin Series, Number 3.
2

This paper is the product of discussions of the Thematic Task Team on Eliminating Violence Against Sex Workers in
st
preparation for the 1 Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work,
12 15 October 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand.

Page |3
While anti-trafficking laws and policies are put in place to protect people from violence and
exploitation, trafficking is often equated with sex work and anti-trafficking laws are used to
arrest sex workers or demolish sex work establishments. In Cambodia, new legislation intended
to tackle human trafficking, has lead to arbitrary detention of anyone carrying a condom and
other human rights abuses5. Arrested sex workers are sent to rehabilitation centres that are
like prisons where women are held in communal cells without bathrooms or running water.
They lack access to sufficient food or clean water, may be exposed to beatings and rape, and
are denied anti-retroviral drug treatment if they are HIV-positive6.
HIV-related policies and programmes have led to mandatory testing in some countries in the
region. In Mongolia, sex workers have been picked up by police officers and taken to the police
station for voluntary counselling and testing. In many countries in the region, sex workers who
have been beaten up report being turned away at government health centres.
2.3 Preventing and Addressing Violence against Sex Workers
Sex workers often find themselves in situations that put them at increased risk of violence. This
situation is exacerbated because sex work in many countries in the region is an illegal activity
or is perceived as illegal. As a result, the sex industry often takes place in more or less hidden
locations and is often associated with other forms of criminal activities. In countries with
legislation that criminalizes sex work or specific sexual activities, such as homosexuality, there
is a greater risk of targeted violence, by police, health service providers, and the general public,
against people associated with those behaviours.
A sex workers gender identity, physical and mental ability, location, age, drug and alcohol use,
ethnicity and legal status all impact on her or his vulnerability to violence, which in turn
influences the sex workers vulnerability to HIV. Sex workers who are not part of any group and
work in isolated or hidden areas, such as most street-based sex workers, are more vulnerable
to violence. They are also less likely to be reached by HIV and violence prevention
programmes and health services and less likely to report incidences of violence. Also migrant
sex workers are more vulnerable to violence because they may not be well-informed about the
local customs and services, may not speak the local language, and may not possess the
necessary documentation. They are also more likely to lack a social support network.
The cost of violence upon the lives of sex workers and their families is significant. The most
obvious is that physical injury and other forms of ill-health have considerable effect on the
ability to work. The loss of income impacts the livelihood of entire families. The threat or
experience of abuse, raids or bribery causes sex workers to move around. Mobility reduces
time spent working, increasing the urgency to take on more clients, to work for less money or
engage in better paid, higher risk, sexual activity. Mobility also increases sex workers
vulnerability to violence as they may not be aware of local risks and lack access to local support
and services. Disruption caused by police activity or anti-trafficking raids may also lead to
closing down sex work establishments or areas, affecting the income of entire communities and
moving sex work more underground and therefore more vulnerable to violence.
Only few HIV programmes targeting sex workers or their clients address violence and violence
prevention. In most countries, sex worker organizations if they exist - lack capacity to provide
sufficient support to sex workers and to advocate for prevention of violence against sex workers
and proper reporting and follow-up of cases of violence by law enforcement authorities. Health
services are often not easily accessible to sex workers and may not properly address the needs
of sex workers in relation to the violence they have faced. Police and other law enforcement
authorities often harass and abuse sex workers, refuse to report cases of violence against sex
5

http://www.sexworkeurope.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=218&Itemid=1
http://www.groundreport.com/World/Cambodia-Sex-workers-100-Condom-Use-and-Human-Rights

This paper is the product of discussions of the Thematic Task Team on Eliminating Violence Against Sex Workers in
st
preparation for the 1 Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work,
12 15 October 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand.

Page |4
workers, or otherwise document but do not follow-up on the cases.

ACTIONS

Immediate actions:
Governments should publicly speak out against violence against sex workers, including
from state actors, and include the elimination of violence against sex workers in all HIV
prevention programmes and include sex workers vulnerability to violence and HIV in all
violence prevention programmes. In all cases, such programmes need to be strengthened
and scaled up.
Train and sensitize police and other law enforcement officers on human rights of sex
workers, violence prevention, rights of transgender people and men having sex with men,
and proper documenting and processing of cases of violence. They need to be transformed
into agents of change who protect sex workers from violence.
Support sex worker organizations in their capacity building and organizational development
in order to ensure mutual support and solidarity between sex workers and sharing of
information and effective strategies.
Set up drop-in centres for female, male and transgender sex workers that provide trainings
on human rights and violence prevention, including practical self defence methods and tips
(such as carrying whistles) and that provide support to address violence. Preventing
violence at the personal level requires, first and foremost, that sex workers believe they do
not deserve violence and that they can help prevent it.
Support sex workers who have faced violence, to move from victim to survivor through
harm and trauma-reduction strategies including sexual assault counselling, first aid,
emotional support, practical support (such as shelter, child care), and support to document,
report or take legal action.
Sex work organizations and other non-governmental organizations including feminist and
womens organizations should document cases of violence against sex workers and use
them for awareness raising with other civil society organizations, liaison with law
enforcement officers, and advocacy.
o Good practice: An Ugly Mugs List or bad-date warning system is an effective informationsharing strategy that sex worker-led projects have used since the mid 1980s to prevent
and document violence7. Sex workers routinely draw up descriptions of violent clients
that are posted at prominent places so that other sex workers can avoid such clients. The
list is shared with the police for further action.
Train outreach workers on how to prevent and deal with violence.
Sensitize and mobilize agents (pimps) in violence prevention.
Implement complementary programmes that target clients of sex workers, through mass
media campaigns and targeted behaviour change communication activities to address
violence prevention. These programmes should be designed to include men and boys in
advocacy to end violence against sex workers. They should be funded through allocations
for general programmes addressing gender based violence.
Long term actions:
Advocate for governments to ensure a structural response is put in place to prevent
violence. Rule of law should be firmly observed in relation to ensuring that citizenship rights,
including the right to violence-free lives, are available to sex workers.
Advocate for the decriminalization sex work and adoption of a human rights and public
health framework.
o Good practice: Decriminalization of sex work in New Zealand has resulted in sex

UKNSWP (2008). Good Practice Guidance. Ugly Mugs and Dodgy Punters. http://www.uknswp.org/resources%5CGPG1.pdf

This paper is the product of discussions of the Thematic Task Team on Eliminating Violence Against Sex Workers in
st
preparation for the 1 Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work,
12 15 October 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand.

Page |5

workers being able to negotiate safer sex and report abuse to the police8.
Develop partnerships with a variety of sex worker groups, womens groups, and other civil
society organizations, media, and others to implement mass campaigns around violence
against sex workers.

ADDITIONAL ISSUES (discussed but not prioritized in this paper)

Violence faced specifically by migrant and undocumented sex workers; by transgender sex
workers; by (peer) outreach workers; and by children of sex workers (including enforced
measures of protecting sex workers children by government child protection services).
Drug and alcohol use-related violence
Robbery
Additional sexual and reproductive health concerns for female sex workers who are sexually
assaulted, such as unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion (which are included in the
Thematic Discussion Paper on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights).

MORE INFORMATION & EVIDENCE

Relevant reading, in addition to documents already cited in the footnotes of this paper:
WHO, UNAIDS (2010). Addressing Violence against Women and HIV/AIDS: What Works?
International HIV/AIDS Alliance (2007). Sex Work, Violence, and HIV: A Guide for
Programmes with Sex Workers.
Kinnell H. Cullompton (2008). Violence and Sex Work in Britain. Willan Publishing.
Saraswathi Seshu, M. (2003). Sex Work & HIV/AIDS: The Violence of Stigmatization.
UNAIDS Global Reference Group on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Supporting Document.
Commission on AIDS in Asia (2008). Redefining aids in Asia: Crafting an Effective
Response, Report of the Commission on AIDS in Asia. Oxford University Press, 2008.
CREA and CASAM (2009). Aint I A Woman? A Global Dialogue between the Sex Workers
Rights movement and the Stop Violence Against Women movement. Bangkok, Thailand.
Human Rights Watch (2010). Off the Streets. Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against
Sex Workers in Cambodia. http://www.hrw.org/en/node/91626/section/1

8
Grover A. (2010). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health (2010), Human Rights Council.

This paper is the product of discussions of the Thematic Task Team on Eliminating Violence Against Sex Workers in
st
preparation for the 1 Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work,
12 15 October 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand.

SEX WORK, VIOLENCE

ANDHIV IN ASIA
A MULTI-COUNTRY QUALITATIVE STUDY: SUMMARY REPORT

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily
represent those of the United Nations, including UNDP, UNFPA, UNAIDS or
UNMemberStates.
The information contained in this report may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes
withattribution to the copyright holder.
Copyright UNFPA and UNDP, 2015
Authors: Manjima Bhattacharjya, Emma Fulu and Laxmi Murthy
with Meena Saraswathi Seshu, Julia Cabassi and Marta Vallejo-Mestres
Regional Steering Committee:
United Nations Population Fund
Asia and the Pacific Regional Office

Julia Cabassi
Gabrielle Szabo
Kari Bowling

United Nations Development Programme

AsiaPacific Regional Centre

Marta Vallejo-Mestres
Nadia Rasheed
Rebecca Nedelko

Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers

Andrew Hunter
Kay Thi Win

Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalization

Meena Saraswathi Seshu

Laxmi Murthy
Aarthi Pai

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific

Brianna Harrison
Tony Lisle

Copy editor: Karen Emmons

Citation: Bhattacharjya, M., Fulu, E. and Murthy, L. with Seshu, M.S., Cabassi, J. and
Vallejo-Mestres, M. (2015). The Right(s) Evidence Sex Work, Violence and HIV in Asia:
AMulti-Country Qualitative Study. Summary Report. Bangkok: UNFPA, UNDP, APNSW
(CASAM).
Printed on 100% recycled paper

SEX WORK, VIOLENCE

ANDHIV IN ASIA
A MULTI-COUNTRY QUALITATIVE STUDY: SUMMARY REPORT

INTRODUCTION

ex workers experience extreme

physical, sexual, emotional and
economic violence at work, in
health care and custodial settings, in
their neighbourhoods and in their homes.
This violence denies sex workers their
fundamental human rightsto equal
protection under the law; protection
against torture, cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment; and their right to
the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health. Research is increasingly
demonstrating how violence contributes
to the spread of HIV. In Asia, the HIV
epidemic remains concentrated among key
populations, including sex workers, people
who inject drugs, men who have sex with
men and transgender people. Realizing
the human rights of female, male and
transgender sex workers requires an
understanding of the intersecting factors
that affect their safety and their protection
from violence.

SUMMARY

BACKGROUND
ANDMETHODOLOGY
In 2011, a research partnership among
United Nations agencies, governments, sex
worker community groups and academics
was formed to address gaps in knowledge
regarding the links between sex work,
violence and HIV in Asia. A multicountry qualitative study: The Rights(s)
Evidence: Sex Work, Violence and HIV
in Asia (the study) was developed, with
research carried out in Indonesia ( Jakarta),
Myanmar (Yangon), Nepal (Kathmandu)
and Sri Lanka (Colombo). The objective
of the study was to better understand
female, male and transgender sex workers
experiences of violence, the factors that
increase or decrease their vulnerability to
violence and how violence relates to risk
of HIV transmission. This regional report
presents an analysis of the findings from
the four country sites.
The study comprised a total of 123 peer-topeer in-depth qualitative interviews with
73 female, 20 male and 30 transgender sex
workers aged 18 and older. In addition, 41
key informant interviews were conducted
with police personnel, NGO officers,
health and legal service providers and
national AIDS authorities for insight on
contextual information to aid with the
analysis and shape the recommendations.
Data was collected between 2012 and
2013.

FIGURE 1
PROJECT PARTNERSHIPS

REGIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE

UNFPA

NATIONAL
WORKING
GROUP
INDONESIA

UNDP

APNSW (CASAM)

NATIONAL
WORKING
GROUP
MYANMAR

UNAIDS

NATIONAL
WORKING
GROUP
NEPAL

NATIONAL
WORKING
GROUP
SRI LANKA

FIGURE 2
SAMPLE SIZE, BY GENDER CATEGORY AND SITE

MYANMAR
INDONESIA
MALE

TRANSGENDER

FEMALE

5
10

15

NEPAL

SRI LANKA

18

20

20

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

FIGURE 3
GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE STUDY

Respect all study

participants and conduct
research transparently

Research for change:

Reduce social oppression
against marginalized and
stigmatized communities

HUMAN RIGHTSBASED RESEARCH:

Sex workers involved in
all aspects of research

Balance ethics of data use

and public interest

SUMMARY

Promote human rights,

gender equality, justice
and empowerment of
marginalized communities

Alliances for change:

Build and strengthen
alliances between sex
worker organizations and
gender and social justice
movements

Safety and well-being

of participants and
researchers paramount

KEY FINDINGS
The study used a consistent methodology in
all country sites to enable an examination
of common trends across diverse cultural
contexts as well as the experiences unique
to sex workers in different settings. Incountry ethics approval was obtained
in each site. The study adhered to the
World Health Organizations Ethical and
Safety Recommendations for Research on
Domestic Violence Against Women as
well as specific considerations related to
male and transgender participants in the
sex work environment.1 Participants were
recruited using purposive and snowball
sampling among self-identified sex
workers through community organizations
and sex worker networks. Semi-structured,
qualitative interviews were conducted
by peer interviewers who underwent
comprehensive training in each country.2
The peer interviewers were matched to
participants by gender. The interviews
were conducted in private settings, in local
languages and lasted between one and
three hours.

UNDERSTANDING
THE SEX WORK CONTEXT
The majority of participants had
entered sex work by their own choice
and for financial reasons.
Most participants were internal migrants,
having left rural and semi-urban areas to
seek work in the capital/largest city of
their country. Several noted that among
the work options available to them, sex
work was more flexible and better paid.
The majority of female participants in all
four countries reported that they began
sex work to financially support their
dependants, particularly their children.
When I was working as a maid,
washing and ironing clothes, I was
only paid 200,000 rupiah [$16].
How can I afford my daily needs?
My child needed two cans of milk
each week. I had no money to visit
my home in the village. Thats why
I asked a friend about another job
and she [suggested] I get into this
job.
FEMALE PARTICIPANT IN JAKARTA

World Health Organization, Putting Women First: Ethical and Safety

Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence against Women
(Geneva, 2003).

Peer interviewers underwent one week of intensive training

that covered the objectives of the research, sampling strategies,
ethics and safety issues and processes, and skill building in
conducting in-depth interviews. The training was conducted by
the lead researcher and sex worker organizations at the national
level, with support from the Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and
Marginalization and Partners for Prevention.

Male and transgender participants cited

their own financial needs as a reason for
entering sex work. Many also reported
benefits, such as sexual satisfaction and the
opportunity to explore their sexuality.

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

I became involved in sex work

because it would give me both

SEX WORKERS EXPERIENCE

OFVIOLENCE AND HIV RISK

money and sexual satisfaction

nobody introduced me. It came from
my inner core. I could get money
and get pleasure, too. Double
advantage!
MALE PARTICIPANT IN KATHMANDU

Entry into sex work varied by gender

identity and was influenced by gender
norms.
For financial needs, most transgender
participants in all sites noted that exploring
their gender identity and being able to
be open about their transgender identity
played a significant role in their entry into
sex work. In addition, for many transgender
participants, the discrimination they often
encountered because of their gender
identity had forced them to leave home
and limited their other employment
options. For many female participants, the
circumstances under which they entered sex
work were borne out of gender inequality
and gender-based violence. This included
early marriage, early widowhood, leaving
abusive families and intimate partners, loss
of family support due to stigma associated
with premarital sex or after divorce and
low levels of education that prevented
them from finding other work.

SUMMARY

The sex worker participants experienced

violence in all areas of their lives, at work,
in custodial and health settings, in their
neighbourhoods and in their homes.
Violence was experienced by all
participants in all study sites.
Violence in work settings was an
overarching experience, across all gender
categories in the four country sites: 122 of
the 123 participants reported experiencing
violence in the context of their work. Many
reported having experienced multiple forms
of violence, including rape, gang rape,
arbitrary detention, beatings, humiliation
and public shaming. Participants reported
violence in work settings by police
personnel, clients, client procurers and
managers or owners of establishments.
Sex workers experienced specific types
of violence because of their work, such
as sexual extortion and harassment by
the police for carrying condoms.
Participants in all four countries reported
that police personnel regularly extorted sex
from them. Participants were coerced into
unpaid sex (sexual extortion) to prevent
their arrest, to secure their release from
custody, in place of a monetary bribe, to
avoid being beaten or abused or to prevent
being exposed as a sex worker. Although
the participants did not refer to this abuse
as rape, it was sex without free consent

and often provided to avoid the custodial

settings in which violence was commonly
reported (sex under threat of violence)
circumstances that constitute rape under
most legal definitions.
Participants also reported that police
officers often used the possession of
condoms (as evidence of engaging in sex
work) to stop and search them in public
places, harass them and detain them.
Several participants reported extortion for
money or sex and cases of rape and gang
rape following such searches.
I had 15 condoms hidden in the
waist of my trousers. The police
caught me, and when they checked me
in the police station, they found
the 15 condoms. The head officer in
the police said to distribute the
15 condoms to the persons whose
name he called. He called the
names. I gave one condom to each.

Police personnel and clients were the

most commonly cited people who used
violence against sex workers, across
study sites and gender categories.
The vast majority of participants in all
four sites had experienced some form of
violence by police personnel, including
violent raids in their work settings;
custodial violence in police stations, police
vans and in detention; rape and gang rape;
and extortion for money and sex. Violence
by police personnel included physical,
sexual, economic and emotional violence,
and commonly more than one type of
violence was used at one time. In many
instances cited, police personnel used
their official status and power to rape the
research participants or obtain sex without
payment. Violence was aggravated during
raids that were undertaken to cleanse the
city, arrest vagrants or maintain law and
order. The study found that violence in
prison was particularly brutal.

Then he said now you have to have

sex with these 15 persons until the

A policeman took me to have sex.

sun rises.

He took me to the lodge. He had a

TRANSGENDER PARTICIPANT IN COLOMBO

few drinks. He offered to pay 200

rupees at first. I asked for 500
rupees and he agreed. After having
sex with me, he called another
person. They beat me badly. They
forcibly tore my clothes. They put
my leg on their shoulder and had
sex with me and a lot of blood came
from my anus. The situation was
very bad.
MALE PARTICIPANT IN KATHMANDU

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

Participants in all four sites also reported

frequent violence by clients, including
by regular-paying clientele and those
posing as clients who had no intention of
paying. Client violence included economic,
emotional, physical and sexual violence,
with participants often experiencing
multiple forms of abuse at once. More than
one third of all the participants described
experiences of gang rape by clients. Client
violence took place across all work settings
and in cars, guesthouses and clients homes
(in the case of outcall sex work).
I had an agreement on the phone

Police violence fuelled impunity and

increased sex workers vulnerability to
client violence.
This study revealed interconnections
between police violence and client violence
client violence was more commonly
described where police violence and
harassment were more common, in part
due to the impunity created by fear of
reporting to the police and reduced ability
to screen clients in the context of efforts to
avoid interaction with the police.
If we report any act of violence

that the service would be oral sex

against us to the police, it is

and massage. But when I came to

the same as suicide revealing

the clients house, he forcibly

ourselves. Next time they could

penetrated me with an instrument.

raid us. Its better to move to

I was crying in pain. I wanted to

another place.

kick him, but I was scared. I was

MALE PARTICIPANT IN JAKARTA

upset because it didnt meet with

[our] agreement and at the end
Iasked for [extra] money. Then the
quarrel started about fees. I was
afraid that he would kill me.

Sex workers also experienced violence

by client procurers and managers of
establishments.

His house was big, no one could

hear me.
MALE PARTICIPANT IN JAKARTA

SUMMARY

Violence by client procurers was reported

in two study sites where brothels and
soliciting are illegal. The most common
type of violence perpetrated by client
procurers was economic violence and, in a
few cases, emotional and sexual violence.
Only female participants used client
procurers, and participants working in
street settings appeared to be the most at
risk of violence by client procurers.

Several participants reported positive

experiences with establishment owners and
managers, particularly those who worked
in places with decent working conditions
and a supportive owner or manager.
However, one third of the participants in
two study sites reported violence by the
owner or manager of the establishment
in which they worked, including being
coerced to provide sex without payment.
Some participants in all countries reported
neglectful, abusive and harmful practices at
work.
Earlier, when [I was starting
out], only the brokers in the area
decided [the fee]. They divided
what they took and gave me a small

Participants experienced specific forms

of violence even outside their work
setting because of their work, such as
violence and harassment by neighbours
and the general public as well as
discrimination and abuse in health
settings.
Participants across sites and gender
categories reported violence in community
settings by neighbours and the general
public, all of whom were cited as using
emotional violence against participants. In
three of the four study sites, the participants
reported experiencing discrimination and
violence in health care settings by doctors,
nurses and other staff, including in relation
to actual or perceived HIV status.

amount Those who chose for me are

the ones who took the money, and

The doctor said that I had to do

I got only a small amount. Those

a blood test. Then I told him that

days I did not know how to find

it was unnecessary to test because

[clients], so they found them and

I am HIV-positive. Immediately he

put me into vehicles. In those

put on a mask and gloves and chased

days, if I went alone for a task,

me from there, saying that HIV-

the money was all mine. They didnt

positive people were not treated

like me going by myself. If I said

there.

no and cried, they hit me because

FEMALE PARTICIPANT IN KATHMANDU

of my crying. I said cant and

by force, after being assaulted,
I have gone.
FEMALE PARTICIPANT IN COLOMBO

10

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

FIGURE 4
LAW, POLICY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT APPROACHES THAT AFFECT SEX WORKERS

Inflexible
regulations for
ID card access

Laws against
same-sex
sexualacts

Laws against
soliciting

Public order
offences

Laws against
brothels

SEX WORKERS

Laws against clients

procuring sex work

Laws against living

on earnings from
sexwork
Anti-trafficking
responses

SUMMARY

Confiscation
of condoms
as evidence of
sexwork

11

Participants experienced gender-based

violence that was directly related to
harmful gender norms and patriarchy.
Participants experienced gender-based
violence by all types of perpetrators.
Intimate partner violence was the most
common form of violence experienced by
the participants outside the work setting,
with the majority of participants in all
four countries reporting violence by their
intimate partners. Female participants
in all study sites were more likely to
experience intimate partner violence than
were male or transgender participants.
Participants in all countries experienced
violence as punishment for stepping
outside traditional gender roles female
participants were punished for having
multiple sexual partners and sex outside
of marriage, while male and transgender
participants were punished for challenging
masculine and heterosexual norms.

CONSEQUENCES OF AND
RESPONSES TO VIOLENCE
Violence against sex workers
has lifelong and life-threatening
consequences for their physical,
mentaland sexual health.
The participants suffered extreme physical,
sexual and mental health consequences as
a result of violence, both inside and outside
their work setting, as illustrated in figure
5. These consequences are interconnected
and reinforcing. Violence against women
has been defined as a global health issue
of epidemic proportions, and sex workers
(female, male and transgender) experience
an even greater burden of violence
and injuries than the general female
population. More than two thirds of all
study participants reported that they had
suffered physical injuries that required
medical attention. Some described lifelong
disabilities and disfigurement, and almost
half of all the participants explicitly reported
suicidal thoughts or had attempted suicide
in response to cumulative experiences of
physical, sexual, emotional and economic
violence.
[Police] behaviour makes us feel
sad. We become hopeless, feel pain,
feel frustrated. The police and
everybody always abuse us and hate
us and we are mentally tortured.
FEMALE PARTICIPANT IN KATHMANDU

12

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

FIGURE 5
PHYSICAL, SEXUAL AND MENTAL HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLENCE

PHYSICAL HEALTH
CONSEQUENCES

SEXUAL AND
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
CONSEQUENCES

MENTAL HEALTH
CONSEQUENCES

Loss of consciousness

Tearing, cuts and swelling of

genitals and anus

Suicidal ideation

Permanent disability and

disfigurement

Vaginal and rectal bleeding

during and after intercourse

Suicide attempts, including

directly after violent incidents

Head injuries, including

fractured skull

Bladder and urinary tract

infections

Self-harm

Concussion

Problems passing urine and

stool

Feeling depressed

Broken bones

Unintended pregnancies

Feelings of shame
andselfhatred

Broken teeth

Miscarriage from violence

Low self-esteem

Eye injuries

Unsafe abortion, lack of

post-abortion care

Internalization of stigma
(believing they are dirty
orbad)

Ear injuries, including loss of

hearing

Fissures and piles due to anal

rape

Alienation, isolation and

becoming withdrawn

Dislocated vertebrae

STIs, including syphilis

Feeling hopeless and

powerlessness

Severe bruising and swelling

Inability to conceive due to

untreated STIs

Stress, fear and anxiety

Cuts, gashes and wounds,

including from weapons

HIV

Extreme anger

Burns from cigarettes, kerosene

and acid or being set on fire

Note: Table based on reports by particpants in the study.

SUMMARY

13

Violence against sex workers greatly

increased their risk of HIV infection.

We had to do without one because we

couldnt go out late at nights to
buy condoms if there was a police

Sexual violence and genital or anal injury,

forced or violent sex without a condom and
non-violent sex without a condom pose a
direct risk of HIV transmission. In a few
cases, female participants reported that
they had contracted sexually transmitted
infections (STIs) after being raped,
including in one case, HIV. Other forms of
violence and harassment also increased sex
workers vulnerability to HIV via multiple
and interlinked pathways. The sex workers
in the study described sacrificing condom
use in exchange for immediate safety from
physical violence by clients and others.
This study further suggests that stigma and
criminalization of sex work compromise
HIV prevention. Discrimination in health
settings increased the likelihood of STIs
and genital injuries going untreated, in turn
increasing the risk of HIV transmission.
Confiscation of condoms as evidence,
police surveillance and the threat of arrest
led to higher levels of violence. It also
limited participants ability to negotiate
condom use or screen clients and exposed
them to increased risk of forced and
extorted sex by a range of perpetrators, as
illustrated in figure 6.

14

project [raid/crackdown] Sometimes,

I have many clients on that night
and its kind of urgent and didnt
have time to find condoms. So I had
to stay (provide sexual services)
with them without condoms.
FEMALE PARTICIPANT IN YANGON

Most participants disclosed their

experiences of violence, but few
reported it to the police or medical
services.
Overall, the majority of participants
reported that they told someone about the
violence they experienced. In most cases,
they disclosed the violence to friends and
peers rather than seeking support through
formal services. Male and transgender
participants were more likely to tell
someone about violence they experienced
than the female participants.
Less than a quarter of participants
reported experiences of violence to the
police, attributing their reluctance to fear
and mistrust of the police. Participants
were even less likely to report violence that
police personnel had committed against
them. In all but one case when they did
report, no one was held accountable;
in some instances the participant was
subjected to more violence.

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

FIGURE 6
VIOLENCE, STIGMA AND HIV RISK
TYPE OF VIOLENCE

IMPACT ON HIV

Physical violence

Used by clients to coerce unprotected or unsafe sex

Reduces ability to negotiate condom use

Sexual violence

Usually perpetrated without a condom

Causes genital and anal injuries, which increase the risk of HIV transmission
Sometimes includes high-risk anal rape or gang rape
STIs contracted through sexual violence increase HIV risk
Multiple perpetrators in gang rape increase HIV risk

Intimate partner
violence

Sexual partner violence poses a direct risk of HIV infection

Arbitrary arrest
anddetention

Raids and detention are a context for police harassment and abuse,
including sexual violence

Reduces ability to negotiate condom use

Sexual abuse in detention leads to heightened HIV risk within a population

at higher risk of HIV infection
Fear of arrest is a barrier to HIV testing, access to STI diagnosis and
HIVtreatment
Sex workers work in more hidden environments to avoid police detection,
leading to greater difficulty accessing condoms or assistance when
violence occurs
Police seizure
ofcondoms

Undermines access to and use of condoms inside and outside of sex work

Police violence
andextortion

Can prompt sex workers to take on riskier clients or riskier sex acts to
recover lost money
Undermines sex workers ability to obtain police protection or report and
seek redress for violence

Stigma and
discrimination in
community and health
care settings

Prevents access to HIV testing, treatment, adherence and viral suppression

as well as access to a wider range of health services
Can prevent seeking timely medical services following rape, including
access to post-exposure prophylaxis

Note: Figure based on reports by particpants in the study.

SUMMARY

15

Even when participants had severe injuries

from a violent incident or suspected STI
or HIV transmission, few sought formal
medical care. When they did seek medical
care, they did not reveal the true cause of
their injuries because they feared stigma,
discrimination and/or mistreatment on
the basis of their occupation, their sexual
orientation, gender identity or HIV status.
Female, male and transgender
participants experienced and
responded to violence differently.
Participants in all gender categories
experienced violence, but this study is
one of the first to highlight the important
differences in the experiences of female,
male and transgender sex workers. Female
participants reported more frequent
and severe incidents of intimate partner
violence than the male and transgender
participants. They were also at higher risk
of economic and sexual violence from
client procurers and owners or managers
of establishments because of their genderbased social and economic vulnerability.
Male and transgender participants were
more likely to experience physical violence;
for example, more transgender participants
than female participants reported severe
physical violence by police personnel during
raids. Male participants experienced gang
rape and more severe physical violence
than female participants. The transgender
participants encountered specific acts of
transphobic violence, especially by police
personnel, aimed at humiliating or shaming
them. The transgender participants were

16

also vulnerable to abuse by clients who

did not initially realize that they were
transgender.
There were some differences in the health
consequences of sexual violence for female,
male and transgender participants. Male and
transgender participants reported bleeding,
swelling, soreness and injuries to their anus
and rectal lining as the result of violence.
Female participants reported experiencing
unwanted pregnancies as a result of rape
and, in some cases, an unsafe abortion. One
woman suffered a miscarriage due to violence
during her pregnancy. Many participants
had to seek emergency contraception and
post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV in cases
of rape and gang rape in which condoms
were not used. Female sex workers also
reported more severe injuries from intimate
partner violence.
Overall, the male and transgender
participants were more likely to disclose
experiences of violence than the female
participants. This may be related to the
pervasive silence surrounding violence
against women in many societies. The
female participants usually called other
friends who were sex workers or a manager
or client procurer, whereas male and
transgender participants who had strong
ties with sex worker-led organizations and
networks called them for help. However,
when it came to reporting to the police,
male participants were less likely to report
violence than female participants because
of concerns about how police personnel
viewed homosexuality and male sex work.

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

FACTORS THAT INCREASE OR

DECREASE SEX WORKERS
RISKOF VIOLENCE AND HIV
The factors that contributed to the
protection of the research participants from
or vulnerability to violence are outlined
in figure 7. As the figure shows, multiple
and interconnected factors operate across
different areas of sex workers lives.
Factors that decreased participants
exposure to violence and HIV risk
included:
Safe workplaces, including those with
more well-defined workplace safety
frameworks, decent work conditions,
responsible and responsive establishment
owners or managers and supportive
employers and co-workers.
Information on rights, complaint
mechanisms and access to redress for
experiences of violence.
Collectivization, strong sex worker-led
networks and individual access to
knowledge and skills to conduct sex work
more safely.

Factors that increased participants

exposure to violence included:
The criminalization of various aspects of
sex work and male-to-male sex as well as
law enforcement practices exacerbated the
incidence of violence by police personnel
and clients by giving the police broad
powers to arrest and detain sex workers,
promoting impunity, pushing sex work
underground, reducing sex workers ability
to negotiate safe work practices and
increasing stigma and discrimination.
A culture of impunity in which
perpetrators of violence are not held
accountable, and which undermines
sexworkers access to justice and creates
an environment in which violence against
sex workers is normalized and justified.
The stigma and discrimination associated
with sex work, which allows for violence
against sex workers.
Gender inequality, whereby violence is
used to uphold and reinforce harmful
gender norms and maintain existing
power relations.

Learning from past experiences on how

tokeep safe.
Access to non-stigmatizing and nondiscriminatory health care services.

SUMMARY

17

FIGURE 7
USING THE SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL MODEL TO UNDERSTAND FACTORS
THATINCREASE OR DECREASE SEX WORKERS RISK OF VIOLENCE AND HIV

STATE LEVEL
INCREASE RISK

Criminalization of sex work

Harmful law enforcement practices
Criminalization of male-to-male sex
Gender inequality
Impunity for violence against sex workers

PUBLIC LEVEL
INCREASE RISK

Discrimination
Stigma around sex work, HIV
and transgressive and dominant gender norms

WORK LEVEL
DECREASE RISK

Sex work recognized as work

Workplace safety
Learning from experience
Access to supportive peer-led organizations
Collectivization

INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
DECREASE RISK

Education
Financial security and support
Knowledge about rights
Gender identity

18

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

RECOMMENDATIONS
This study finds that violence against sex
workers in the four country sites is pervasive
and severe, with clear patterns of violence
across all categories of participants. The
following recommendations address reform
of laws, law enforcement practices and
policies and programmes to prevent and
respond to violence against female, male
and transgender sex workers in the region.
1

1.4

1.5

Reform punitive laws, policies and law

enforcement practices to protect sex
workers rights, including the right to be
free of violence.
1.6
1.1

1.2

1.3

Decriminalize sex work and activities

associated with it, including removing
criminal laws and penalties for
the purchase and sale of sex, the
management of sex workers, living off
the earnings of sex work and other
activities related to sex work.3

1.7

Public order laws or regulations should

not be applied in ways that violate sex
workers rights.4
Ensure the maintenance of
confidentiality, especially where identity
cards and other identifiers are used to
track sex workers by law enforcement
agencies and health authorities.

UNAIDS, Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, Annex 1 (Geneva,

2012); Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Risks, Rights and
Health (New York, 2012); World Health Organization, Consolidated
Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Care
for Key Populations (Geneva, 2014); Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Resolution 67/9 on the
AsiaPacific regional review of the progress achieved in realizing
the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political
Declaration on HIV/AIDS (Bangkok, 2011)
ibid.

SUMMARY

The police practice of confiscating

condoms and using possession of
condoms as evidence of sex work
should be eliminated.5
Ensure that national laws clearly
differentiate between sex work
and human trafficking; train law
enforcement officials to understand
and respect the distinctions to ensure
that anti-trafficking efforts do not
impinge on the rights of people in sex
work.6
Repeal all laws that criminalize
consensual sex between adults of the
same sex and/or laws that punish
homosexual identity.7
Ensure that transgender people are
able to have their affirmed gender
recognized under the law and in
identification documents, without the
need for prior medical procedures,
such as sterilization, sex-reassignment
surgery or hormonal therapy.

Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and

Care for Key Populations (see footnote 3).

Risks, Rights and Health (see footnote 3).

Risks, Rights and Health (see footnote 3); John Godwin, 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, United Nations Development
Programme and Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health,
2010); Resolution 67/9 on the AsiaPacific regional review of the
progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on
HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS (see footnote
3).

19

End impunity of those who commit

violence against sex workers.
2.1

2.2

2.3

End impunity for any act of torture,

ill treatment or other human rights
violation under either the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
which prohibits torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment and calls on the State to
protect an individuals right to life,8 or
the Convention Against Torture.9 This
means ending impunity for violence
against sex workers, including when it
is committed by police and other state
officials.
Implement a monitoring system to
ensure that all allegations and reports
of violence against sex workers,
including by police personnel and
other state officials, are promptly and
impartially investigated. All state
officials responsible for abuses should
be adequately disciplined.

2.4

2.5

2.6

Train law enforcement officials to

recognize and uphold human rights,
including those of sex workers; for
example, by holding other police
personnel who violate these rights
accountable.10
2.7

20

Articles 6 and 7, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. 14668
(International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).

United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1465, No. 24841 (Convention

Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment).

10

Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and

Care for Key Populations (see footnote 3).

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

Expand all programmes on genderbased violence to expressly include

violence against sex workers and
ensure the direct involvement of
sex worker leadership in the design,
implementation and evaluation of
national programmes and initiatives on
gender-based violence and domestic
violence.
Review and amend as necessary all
legislation against domestic and genderbased violence to ensure adequate
protection to people of all gender
identities, including those in same-sex
relationships and relationships in which
at least one partner is transgender. Law
enforcement officials should be trained
to respond to reports of violence in
domestic relationships involving all
genders and to treat individuals with
respect and dignity.
National human rights institutions
should monitor and respond to
incidents of violence and violations
by state and non-state actors. Human
rights institutions should seek to ensure
that all guidelines and programmes to
prevent and eliminate gender-based
violence expressly address the needs of
sex workers.
Build and/or strengthen community
police partnership programmes that
create a culture of police accountability
to the sex worker community.

Strengthen sex workers access to

justice, and empower sex workers
withinformation about their rights.
3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

Support the collectivization of and

network-building among sex workers
to enhance their access to peer support
to prevent and mitigate the effects of
violence.

3.5

3.6

Implement
community-led
empowerment initiatives for sex
workers, and create mechanisms
to enable governments, sex worker
organizations and other interested civil
society groups in locally appropriate
ways to create environments conducive
to eliminating violence.
Ensure sex workers access to legal
literacy programmes and legal aid
services, including through the training
of legal aid providers on sex workers
rights and establishing networks of
paralegal peers to provide legal support.
Implement community-led monitoring
systems to ensure that all reports of
violence by clients, client procurers,
establishment owners or managers
and the general public are officially
recorded and that these systems link to
authorities mandated to take follow-up
action.

SUMMARY

3.7

Implement education interventions

to improve negotiation skills among
sex workers for preventing violence,
seeking redress for violations and
maximizing condom use.
Build capacity among sex worker
communities to ensure that progress
in relation to violence against sex work
ers is reported through the Universal
Periodic Review, the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women
and other human rights reporting
mechanisms. States should include
efforts to eliminate violence against sex
workers in their reports, and sex worker
communities should be supported in
developing thematic shadow reports
that hold States accountable to their
treaty obligations.
Ensure that States ratify and implement
the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women,
the Convention Against Torture and
all the related optional protocols,
including all necessary steps to enable
complaints or communications to the
treaty bodies established under each of
those instruments.

21

3.8

3.9

Implement programmes and policies

that address the broader context of
gender inequality and discrimination
against sex workers, such as
strengthening financial independence
and stability, social protection and
access to education for sex workers.
Build sex worker communities
social capital through the forging
of partnerships with local leaders,
establishment owners and managers
and the media.

4.2.3

Recognize sex work as legitimate work

and ensure that sex workers have legally
enforceable rights to occupational
health and safety protection.
4.1

4.2

Implement the International Labour

Organizations Recommendation
concerning HIV and AIDS and the
World of Work, 2010 (No. 200) in
relation to sex work.

4.2.4

4.3

Develop workplace health and safety

standards for venues where sex work
takes place, including:
4.2.1

22

4.2.2

strategies to prevent and respond

to violence, such as referrals to
services related to gender-based
violence;

THE RIGHT(S) EVIDENCE: SEX WORK, VIOLENCE AND HIV IN ASIA

effective HIV prevention that

ensures the availability of
condoms and lubricant, builds
social norms that encourage
condom use by clients and
supports sex workers to negotiate
condom use;
occupational health and
safety measures that do not
include mandatory testing and
always include ready access to
antiretroviral treatment and postexposure prophylaxis; and
training and sensitization of
establishment owners and
managers in occupational health
and safety issues.

Ensure that sex work is included in the

implementation of and reporting on
article 6 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and any corresponding national
legislation. The covenant recognizes
the right to work, defined as the
opportunity of everyone to gain their
living by freely chosen or accepted
work in just and favourable working
conditions.

Improve sex workers access to sexual

and reproductive health, HIV and
gender-based violence services.
5.1

5.2

5.3

5.3.2

Ensure that sex workers of all genders

enjoy the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health, in line
with article 12 of the International
Covenant of Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights.
Under Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific
resolutions 66/10 and 67/9, all States
should call for universal access to HIV
prevention, care and support.11 And
States should follow through on these
commitments.
At the domestic level:
5.3.1

ensure sex workers of all genders

can access affordable, acceptable
and good quality services to
prevent and respond to violence,12
and expand other violence
against women and gender-based
violence programmes to include
violence against sex workers;

11

Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Resolution 66/10 Regional call for action to achieve universal
access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in Asia and
the Pacific and Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific Resolution 67/9 on the AsiaPacific regional review of the
progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on
HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.

12

In particular, persons experiencing sexual violence should have

timely access to comprehensive post-rape care in accordance with
the World Health Organizations 2013 clinical and policy guidelines
in Responding to Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence
Against Women.

SUMMARY

5.3.3

5.3.4

ensure adequate training of

medical professionals on nondiscrimination and patients
rights and ensure that sex
workers of all genders can
access health services without
fear of discrimination and
with confidence that they will
be treated with dignity and
respect and that their personal
health data will be treated with
confidentiality;
implement one-stop crisis
centres within community-led
organizations, and institute
sex worker-led interventions
specifically targeted to the needs
of sex workers; and
ensure that care and support for
sex workers who survive violence
is, to the greatest degree possible,
integrated into services for HIV
prevention or care and for sexual,
reproductive and mental health
care.

23

SEX WORK, VIOLENCE

ANDHIV IN ASIA

FULL REPORT AVAILABLE AT WWW.AIDSDATAHUB.ORG

Saving young girls from Chinatown: white slavery and woman suffrage, 1910-1920.(Report)

2/23/13 5:46 PM

Saving young girls from Chinatown: white slavery and woman

suffrage, 1910-1920.(Report)
Journal of the History of Sexuality | September 01, 2009 | Lui, Mary Ting Yi
IN MAY 1912 ROSE LIVINGSTON, a self-described missionary working among the white female population of New York's
Chinatown, suffered an attack at a tenement on Doyers Street in the Chinatown neighborhood when she tried to save a
young white girl from the clutches of her "cadet," or procurer. (1) A physician's report stated that Livingston experienced
severe bodily injuries, including "serious and permanent damage" to her face and "a fracture of the alveolar process of the
upper jaw bone which caused severe neurities [sic] with persistent neuralgic pain both day and night ... likewise causing the
loss of all the teeth of the upper jaw on one side of the face." (2) The attack created a public outcry, with New Yorkers
petitioning Mayor William J. Gaynor to prod the police to offer better protection for woman missionaries and reform workers
in Chinatown. The police commissioner disputed the complaints of civilians, however, responding that "conditions in
Chinatown have never been better than they are at present, nor is any portion of the City as heavily policed as this section."
(3) Furthermore, the commissioner claimed that police records did not indicate any report of Livingston having suffered such
an attack. Satisfied that the police had handled the situation properly, Mayor Gaynor concluded that "the police are entirely
capable of taking care of Chinatown. If Miss Livingston is in any danger there she may very easily withdraw." (4)
Although Livingston often worked and traveled alone to minister to the "fallen women" of Chinatown, she received financial
aid and social support from the city's prominent suffragettes, most notably, Harriet Burton Laidlaw and James Lee Laidlaw,
who promoted the entry of women into electoral politics to bring forth much-needed social and municipal reform. To the
Laidlaws, the mayor's response to the attack on Livingston was not only inadequate but symptomatic of the larger problem of
municipal corruption. In response to the mayor's rebuff Livingston and the Laidlaws worked with the city's suffrage leaders to
support a petition for increased police protection in Chinatown.
That December Livingston and the Laidlaws further publicized her antagonistic relationship with the mayor and police at a
lecture held at the Metropolitan Temple at 14th Street and Seventh Avenue. At the conclusion of his introductory remarks
James Laidlaw surprised the audience with the harsh pronouncement that Livingston's worst enemy in her antiprostitution
crusade was no other than the mayor himself. Livingston heartedly agreed, and then, turning to address the audience, she
continued: "If you only knew all the meanness that man has done to me you would understand. Just let me tell you." (5) To
the mayor's annoyance the public lecture and Livingston's constant criticism of the mayor's policing efforts as merely
"keeping vice under cover" led to another round of citizens' letters and petitions flooding the mayor's office. (6) The City
Committee and the board of directors of the Woman Suffrage Party in New York passed a resolution on Livingston's behalf
"relative to conditions said to exist in 'Chinatown' and alleging that the life of Mrs. Livingston, a social worker, is in danger."
(7) Under the guidance of New York's suffrage leaders Livingston further broadened her antiprostitution crusade in
Chinatown, taking the cause beyond New York City and its antagonistic municipal officials to the national political stage of the
woman suffrage movement.
Dubbed in the local New York press as the Angel of Chinatown, Livingston, under the sponsorship of suffrage organizations
throughout the country, conducted lecture tours to call attention to the problems of "white
white slavery
slavery" in New York City's
Chinatown. Aside from offering her eyewitness accounts on coerced prostitution in that neighborhood, she spoke at length
against municipal corruption and ineptitude and for women's right to vote. By publicizing her ongoing clashes with the New
York
City police department and mayor in the course of pursuing her antiprostitution activities, Livingston challenged the
established patriarchal authority of municipal government to protect female residents from sexual and physical harm.
Livingston and her supporters argued that only through women's moral influence in government and lawmaking could women
hope to find adequate protection from sexual predation and exploitation.
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While this period's fascination with coerced prostitution, or "white

white slavery
slavery," as it was called by journalists and reformers, is
well documented, little is known of the role public discourse around white slavery and the accompanying calls for policing
prostitution and interracial sex among immigrants and the working class had in the predominantly middle- and upper-class,
native-born, white
white, woman suffrage movement in New York City. (8) Publications such as What Women Might Do with the
Ballot: The Abolition of the White Slave Traffic and Woman Suffrage and the Social Evil were some of the many
antiprostitution and sexual trafficking tracts that circulated among suffrage circles in the early twentieth century. (9)
Americans' anxieties with female kidnapping and coerced prostitution popularized through the "white
white slavery
slavery" scare
coincided with the last decade of dramatic mass political mobilization for woman suffrage. The overlap of these two social
movements was hardly coincidental or accidental but reveals the ways in which public concern with racial and sexual
transgressions played an important role in the woman suffrage movement.
While the public discourse around "white
white slavery
slavery" mushroomed in 1909, public concern with Chinese immigrants and
coerced prostitution dates back to earlier nineteenth-century concerns with the trafficking of Chinese women for the purposes
of prostitution. (10) These concerns with Chinese prostitution influenced the passage of federal legislation banning Chinese
immigration such as the Page Law of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. (11) In California and along the West
Coast concerns with forced prostitution and public immorality in Chinese American communities continued to center on
Chinese prostitutes. The general absence and invisibility of Chinese women on the East Coast, however, meant that the
press, political leaders, and social reformers directed their efforts toward the many white working-class women working and
residing in the Chinatown neighborhood as prostitutes, companions, and wives of Chinese laborers. (12)
Analyzing the public's fascination with Rose Livingston's antiprostitution work quickly reveals how these decades-old popular
fears of Chinese male labor migration bringing forth a sexual "Yellow Peril" resurfaced in the white slavery narratives that
circulated in the early-twentieth-century suffrage movement. Particularly through Livingston's passionate oratories on the
subject of women's sexual oppression and racial endangerment at the hands of unscrupulous Chinese men, these popular
narratives of racialized sexual danger became immensely successful in selling the cause of suffrage to broader audiences
who were otherwise skeptical of women's eligibility to participate in a democratic citizenry. This essay explores the ways in
which the suffrage movement mobilized Livingston's biography and antiprostitution work in New York City's Chinatown to
illuminate the interconnections of class, racial, and sexual politics in the early-twentieth-century woman suffrage movement.
ROSH LIVINGSTON AND THE NEW YORK SUFI-RAGE MOVEMENT
By the late nineteenth century the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) had emerged as the leading
national organization of the woman suffrage movement. (13) Often thought of as a white middle-and upper-class women's
organization, the movement in New York City, under the leadership of women such as Harriet Laidlaw and Harriot Stanton
Blatch, worked to build associations with the city's working-class women. Blatch, in particular, drew upon her early
experiences with the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), with which she worked both in Great Britain and, later, in New
York after die organization established a local chapter in 1902. As historian Ellen DuBois notes, whereas Blatch's mother,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, employed natural rights theory to argue for woman suffrage, Blatch emphasized women's
importance as laborers and their economic contributions. (14) In the WTUL elite and working-class women collaborated to
bring forth labor reforms through the empowerment of women wage earners. (15) In making the woman suffrage cause
appeal to working women, New York suffrage leaders specifically addressed these workers' concerns about wages and work
conditions, which were informed by legislation influenced through exercising the vote.
Suffragettes such as Blatch and Laidlaw, similar to other urban activists of their day, also devoted their energies to the
Progressives' fight against municipal corruption, including investigations into police involvement in organized prostitution. In a
1914 plan to action for the Woman Suffrage Party of New York, for example, Laidlaw listed the "abolition not regulation of
the White Slave traffic" along with the establishment of a "Wage-Earners Suffrage League" and participation in "the Labor
Day Parade, and other labor demonstrations" as among the many pressing items in the party's social reform agenda. (16)
Given the growing incorporation of working women into the cause of woman suffrage in the early twentieth century, it is
perhaps not surprising that suffrage leaders sought to create an expansive political and social reform platform that
incorporated both labor and antiprostitution concerns because they saw these two issues as intimately connected to the

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economic exploitation of the city's wage-earning women. In their continued work with the city's female laborers, the Laidlaws
and other suffrage leaders enthusiastically supported Rose Livingston's antiprostitution work in Chinatown in the hopes of
ending the sexual exploitation of urban working women.
Despite the Laidlaws' strong commitment to social reform and suffrage, the inclusion of Rose Livingston and her
antiprostitution work posed certain challenges from the beginning. According to the press, the Laidlaws learned about
Livingston and her work after two suffragettes, Cornelia Swinnerton and Florence Irwin, happened onto Livingston as she
was trying to stop a woman from committing suicide in a Greenwich Avenue basement apartment. The two suffragettes
immediately took an interest in Livingston and introduced her to the Laidlaws, who became instant supporters of her mission.
James Laidlaw then worked with two other social reformers--Lawrence Chamberlain and Rev. Edward Sanderson in
Brooklyn--to establish a Mind to support Livingston's work. (17) However, as Livingston emerged as a spokesperson for the
suffrage cause, questions about her background, particularly around her claims to be an ex-prostitute and social reformer,
surfaced in the press and among municipal leaders.
The origins of Rose Livingston remained shrouded in mystery and controversy throughout her reform career, making her
vulnerable to critics who doubted her stories of abduction and coerced prostitution and disapproved of her confrontational
tactics. One internal memo circulating within New York's suffrage circles provided a brief sketch of Livingston with
biographical details that were often repeated during her public lectures. The memo recounted that Livingston had been
abducted and brought to New York City's Chinatown at the age often and had remained the prisoner for the next ten years of
a Chinese man who was both her jailor and her abuser. She had given birth to two children, one at the age of twelve and the
other at the age of fifteen. A local missionary worker learned of her plight and helped to facilitate her flight. After a harrowing
escape that almost cost Livingston her life, the missionary led her to the home of a minister, where she rid herself of an
entrenched drug habit and experienced a religious conversion. (18)
Her detractors, including the mayor and police commissioner of New York City following the alleged 1912 assault incident,
often challenged the validity of these details of Livingston's life and cast aspersions upon her work as a social reformer. In
response to Harriet Laidlaw's complaints over the police department's handling of the incident, for example, Mayor Gaynor
replied: "My reports concerning her are quite different. I shall not put a police guard over here. I doubt if her conduct in
Chinatown is of any service to anyone." (19) And to suffragette and historian Mary Beard, Gaynor added further that "my
police reports strongly indicate that she may not be doing quite so much good there as some suppose." (20) In her own
defense Livingston never placated her critics by proving any detail of her captivity story as a prostitute imprisoned in
Chinatown but rather spoke of her mistreatment at the hands of procurers and corrupt police officers and appealed to the
reputation of her patrons, such as the Laidlaws, as testament to her virtue and honesty.
A month after the alleged 1912 Chinatown assault, for example, the Laidlaws solicited character references from city
reformers such as Frank Moss of the Society for the Prevention of Crime and her past employers to shore up Livingston's
reputation. (21) Elizabeth Hartley of the Hope Baptist Church confirmed the stories of Livingston's dramatic religious
conversion in the fall of 1906 and recalled that she quit her opium habit the following spring through a painful detoxification
process: "We put her in my bed and there she stayed for about three months. Twice we called a Doctor but she refused to
take any medicine saying she would rather die than go back to the opium. She was delirious for three days in awful physical
agony." (22) Eleanor Keller, who had employed Livingston for two years following her conversion, commented on Livingston's
"personal habits and conduct," stating that she was always all that one could desire pure m word and thought, free from any
desire for drink or drugs, kind patient and ever anxious for others who were tempted." (23) Bertha Rembaugh, who served as
counsel for the Women's Society for the Prevention of Crime, where Livingston worked for a year under her supervision,
stated that "while Miss Livingston is not, of course, without faults and weaknesses of temperament, yet I firmly believe her
honest and reliable in every way." (24) The letters of Hartley, Keller, and Rembaugh--similar to those written by Livingston's
other supporters throughout her tussle with the mayor and police department--made no attempts to verify the details of her
Chinatown capture and sexual exploitation. Instead, they strongly testified to her social commitment, sobriety, and steadfast
moral character. In effect, they supported Livingston's claims of spiritual, moral, and social redemption without commenting
on the veracity of her story of abduction and sexual slavery
slavery.
The only writer to take up Livingston's claims of sexual slavery in Chinatown was a Chinese American interpreter by the
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name of Moy Gum. After much questioning in the Chinatown neighborhood, Moy Gum reported that Livingston was an
accomplished liar who "professes to have been detained a prisoner there to an evil life for ten years but this is contradicted
by all who have known her in the life. She is a terrible story teller contradicting her own statements wherever she goes." (25)
Moy Gum furthermore questioned her claims to be a selfless social reformer, claiming that he and other Chinese residents in
the neighborhood had recently attempted to rescue "little Chinese domestic servants (and have been successful in three
cases)" but were thwarted by Livingston herself. Lest his readers think him prejudiced against white female missionaries or
social reform workers in Chinatown, Moy Gum added that he personally knew of several such workers in the Chinatown
neighborhood, but he could in good conscience only state that Mary Banta of the Church of All Nations on Second Avenue is
"a hard and good worker." In support of his claim that Livingston was not the self sacrificing reformer the Laidlaws believed
her to be, he enclosed with his letter a photograph of "slave girls
girls" rescued by Miss Banta whom she supported "out of her
hard earned missionary salary at Drew Seminary, Carmel, N.Y." (26)
Livingston's benefactors did not take such accusations lightly and quickly investigated the letter's origins and charges against
Livingston. The letter, it was later discovered, was sent after a man by the name of James R. Garner had contacted the New
York City Chinese Extension and Mission Society at the Chinese Mission located at 291 Bowery for information on
Livingston. Moy Gum, it was said, "'was a nice young man of Christian character." (27) Not satisfied, the Laidlaws made
additional inquiries into Moy Gum's background within the Chinatown neighborhood and came upon Charles Gong, a
resident of 3 Doyers Street, who also worked as an interpreter. Gong's letter cast doubt on Moy Gum's damning claims
against Livingston, suggesting that Moy Gum was tricked into penning and signing the incriminating missive by women of
questionable character in the Chinatown neighborhood. "The Chinese man which you wish to find out who written such an
outrageous letter against Miss Livingston he must influence by those women whom they are associated with. The case like
that most of them wrote the letters and made the Chinaman signed their name for there is such foolish men do what they
want them." (28)
The Laidlaws seem not to have put their trust in either Chinese American interpreter. Instead, in an attempt to quell the many
challenges to Livingston's character the Laidlaws requested a medical examination to ascertain the extent of Livingston's
injuries as well as to confirm that she was not afflicted with syphilis. (29) Even with such unresolved questions regarding her
origins, Livingston's audiences and supporters for the most part overlooked these challenges to her past and moral
character. Instead, they, like the Laidlaws, were genuinely moved by her heart-rending story of abduction, enslavement, and
moral redemption, compelling them to take up the fight against forced prostitution in New York's Chinatown and by extension
woman suffrage.
More powerfully, the press and Livingston's descriptions of her experiences working in Chinatown won her many supporters
throughout die city and silenced her detractors. At the December 1912 Metropolitan Temple meeting, for example, she vividly
painted to her audiences her many run-ins with the police in Chinatown when she attempted to protect a girl from her cadet.
"I saw a girl running away from a cadet, and she ran almost into a policeman's arms." Livingston continued: "'Officer,' I said,
'won't you protect this poor girl from this fellow?" and, would you believe it, that policeman just knocked her back into the
cadet's arms and watched while he beat her up." She finished with another story depicting similar physical violence and
police indifference in a case where a girl had been "dragged by die hair till her scalp 'stood up' and kicked brutally in the
stomach." Exasperation with die police, Livingston informed her audience, led her to get a "warrant and serv[e] it herself."
(30)
Livingston's monthly activity reports to the Laidlaws provide brief descriptions of her consistent daily efforts to both police and
minister to Chinatown's white female population. Her work log for the month of July 1915 noted her visits to tenement
houses on Bayard and Division streets where "girls
girls are leading immoral lives" as well as her efforts to provide care and
comfort to ailing women in the Chinatown neighborhood--Eliza at 4 Doyers Street and Mamie Budd at 12 Pell Street, who
was "very ill with consumption, and also from giving up the opium." (31) Eliza's health improved after a few days of rest, but
Mamie Budd's worsened. After providing almost ten days of care, Livingston arranged for a nurse from the Henry Street
Settlement to take over visiting the very ill Budd. She returned in mid-August but found that Budd remained in extremely poor
health. A few days later Budd died with Livingston at her side. (32)
While Livingston engaged in social welfare work for several days each month, the great portion of her activities involved
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maintaining surveillance on the white female population of Chinatown. At times Livingston intervened to rescue underage
girls from working as prostitutes in die area. Yet the extent to which young teenage girls or women were actually abducted
and imprisoned in the Chinatown neighborhood remains difficult to assess, given that many of Livingston's cases suggest
more freedom of physical and social mobility and sexual experimentation than the term "white
white slavery
slavery" clearly suggests.
Popular narratives of Chinese-white
white sexual relations came couched in the language of the "white
white slavery evil" in
Chinatown and more often portrayed these young girls and women as victims of predation--whether by Chinese laborers or
procurers--rather than acknowledged their ability to make conscious choices that included refusing aid and running away.
Regardless of whether these accusations were accurate or false, these beliefs of young white women under assault by
Chinese men informed the social reform discourse that authorized the policing of white female and Chinese male mobility
and social interactions in the Chinatown neighborhood.
Livingston's notes on her surveillance of and intervention for seventeen-year-old Bessie Baker exemplify a typical case for
the Angel of Chinatown. The reformer first encountered Baker when she noticed her coming out of a residence in Chinatown.
Livingston then "watched her for several days" before discovering that Baker was working with another Chinatown prostitute,
Gypsy Gordon, to whom Baker gave "$.50 of every dollar she got." (33) Livingston eventually approached Baker and learned
from their conversation that she was under age. She then "rescued her" by removing her from the neighborhood and taking
her to Livingston's home; Baker was then taken away by another social reform worker in the hopes of finding a new "good
home." However, Baker refused their assistance and told Livingston that she preferred to return to her family, who resided at
33 Allen Street on the Lower East Side. But when Livingston returned about a month later to monitor her progress, Baker
was not residing at her parents' home. Livingston then tried to convince Baker's parents to "file a complaint against her in
order to have her sent away to the Bedford Home for she has gone back to lead an immoral life as formerly." Her parents,
who "refuse to have anything to do with her," did not comply with Livingston's instructions. Baker later became ill and was
taken to a hospital. (34) As this case suggests, despite Livingston's descriptions of her efforts toward Baker as "rescue,"
Baker's defiance and unwillingness to cooperate with reformers showed the extent to which Baker may not have viewed
Livingston's actions as "rescue" but more as an unwelcome attempt to end her free mobility.
Real or imagined, this discourse on Chinatown as a site of racialized sexual danger offered suffrage leaders a valuable
weapon in their efforts to attract and convert supporters to the cause. During her lectures on behalf of the suffrage movement
Livingston challenged her audiences to consider the potential of women's political participation to eradicate public toleration
of prostitution, arguing that only through women's influence exercised through the vote in shaping critical legislation would
the sexual exploitation of women finally end. In her talk to the Political -Equality Association, headed by the prominent
socialite and suffragette Alva Belmont, for example, Livingston began by describing her work in Chinatown and stating that
"nothing would wipe out 'white
white slavery
slavery' there until women got the vote." (35) She added: "A woman may make a mistake,
but she would never make a bigger mistake than the men who elected [Mayor] Gaynor." (36)
Furthermore, their ineligibility to vote made women lesser citizens and deprived them of equal treatment under the law. To an
audience gathered at the Central Presbyterian Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania, Livingston decried the unfair treatment
of female prostitutes and "double standards of morality" when it came to prosecuting male procurers and customers. She told
the story of a young girl whom she had rescued after the girl was viciously beaten. The man charged in her attack, however,
"got off with but a short term, as he was a voter, and election time was near." (37) Questions about municipal corruption and
political machines aside, as long as men could vote and women could not, men would continue to enjoy special privileges.
At the conclusion of these anti-white
white slavery
slavery/suffrage meetings, organizers asked for donations for Livingston's
antiprostitution work and pledges of commitment to the woman suffrage cause. In West Newton, Massachusetts, for
example, the audience was asked first to contribute financially to Livingston's work against white slavery
slavery. Then the women
in the audience were asked to join the Equal Suffrage League, while the men were "asked to sign cards, saying that they will
vote for Woman Suffrage next fall." (38) By numerous accounts, Livingston's tours around the country were highly
successful in simultaneously winning supporters for both the antiprostitution and suffrage causes. The vivid descriptions of
white female imprisonment and sexual exploitation and police corruption so passionately conveyed by Livingston in her
speeches stuck with audiences long after her appearances. Supporters such as Letta Turnbull of Cleveland, Ohio, sent in
donations and words of encouragement and outrage after first apologizing for not having made a donation when she first
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heard Livingston speak in her city. "This business of seizing girls forcibly and imprisoning them in resorts seem[s] to me so
horrible that I grow furious at the great indifferent public which tolerates it. For the public is to blame. If people were
sufficiently aroused to the enormity of this thing it could and would be prevented." (39) Likewise, Mrs. John A. Church of
Chagrin Falls, Ohio, sent Livingston a watch chain and neck chain "to be used in her work." (40) Livingston's highly
successful spring 1913 whirlwind tour of Ohio led Harriet Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association,
to remark in a letter to Harriet Laidlaw that the news from the Cleveland and Chagrin Falls suffragettes had been
overwhelmingly positive," all [speaking] so splendidly of Rose's work and all saying that she did an immense amount of good
for suffrage. One woman expresses it that she did more good than any other one person who has been in Cleveland for a
long, long time." (41)
So popular was Livingston's visit to Chagrin Falls that some members of the audience formed the Rose Livingston Club,
comprising school-age girls
girls, in her honor. Shortly after die club's founding the local suffrage association gave a banquet in
honor of the club and its newly elected officers, thereby cementing the link between the causes of anti-white
white slavery and
woman suffrage. Members wore special pins to identify themselves and maintained correspondences with Livingston herself
on her Chinatown work while pledging themselves to the woman suffrage cause. The intimate nature of these exchanges
allowed members to feel personally connected to Livingston and her antiprostitution crusade in Chinatown. Marian Brewster,
for example, in her letter to Livingston discussed family matters as well as club activities, ending with die message to "give
my love to all of those unfortunate girls and tell them we, our club, is going to help them all we can." (42)
THE ANTI-WHITE
WHITE SLAVERY CRUSADE AND THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT
Livingston's arguments for the vote in order to fight forced prostitution mirrored contemporary popular discourses on the
topic. For example, in 1913 Laidlaw published in the national social reform magazine Survey a review of My Little Sister, a
novel by the American writer and suffragette Elizabeth Robins. Following the lead established by English social reformer
William T. Stead, whose 1885 series The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon first brought the problem of forced prostitution to
the British public and sparked a white slavery scare, Robins's book similarly focused on the themes of child abduction and
white slavery through the domestic fictional narrative of an English family whose younger daughter falls prey to white
slavers. Though originally published in London, the story reached American audiences through its two-part serialization in
McClure's magazine. (43)
Laidlaw praised Robins's writing for conveying the emotional turmoil suffered by families whose daughters fall victim to white
slavery
slavery. More importantly, she lauded die novel's ability to convey the urgency of woman suffrage as a critical tool for
combating sexual slavery
slavery: "How utterly ineffectual seem an individual mother's effort for the safety of her child. How evident
is it that a mother's care must have back of it power--power in council and legislative hall." (44) She sharply called into
question those mothers who continued to abide by the rule that their "place was the home" by suggesting that they were the
ones ultimately responsible for their daughters' tragic fates because "what did all her negative efforts avail in shutting the
danger away from her cherished daughters, in a nation, in a world, which holds a traffic system of such Machiavellian
adroitness, a system which can afford, so great are its profits, to reach into the inner recesses of a home." (45)
The promotion of women's involvement in worldly affairs, particularly through the cause of suffrage, directly attacked the
Victorian bourgeois separation of the social spheres of the sexes. The promoters of the white slavery
slavery/suffrage cause,
however, carefully couched its message of female social and political activism in culturally conservative language that
appealed to broad audiences, especially to those middle- and upper-class women known as die "anus" who opposed the
suffrage movement and advocated the maintenance of separate spheres and gender roles. (46) For example, the
descriptions of Livingston emphasized her religious conversion, which brought about her social redemption from her former
life as a Chinatown prostitute who engaged in commercialized sex with nonwhites. The public's response to her work echoed
these spiritual overtones of Christian salvation. A poem published in her honor by the New York Times in 1912 references
her Christian conversion to counter public criticisms of her sexual past, likening her to Mary Magdalene:
Shall we, in our smugness, pass her by
Because, perchance, [of] the dust of sin
The woman who spite of buffet and scoff
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Has followed Him in a manger born.

Similarly, discussions of her work in "saving

saving" the girls of Chinatown invoked the image of Jesus Christ's great bodily
sacrifices for humankind's redemption. The New York Times poem closed with the following comments:
It is lives like hers that glorify man
Above the beast that preys on its kind.
The martyr's thorns have pierced her brow.
She has felt the touch of His chastening Rod:
It is lives like hers--let us humbly avow-That plead for Man at the throne of God. (47)

Introductory remarks at her lectures similarly typically directed her middle-class audiences to gaze upon Livingston's body-scarred and battered by her clashes with the agents of vice and immorality--as evidence of her moral uprightness and
affirmation of her title as the Angel of Chinatown. A suggested introduction to Livingston began: "She today is fighting a great
fight and she has spent her life's blood on this battle line. Again and again in her fearless determination to rescue a girl she
has been beaten and stabbed and her life is still sought by those of the underworld whom she has foiled again and again and
whose profits she has decreased. She comes to you today sick and broken as the result of the last brutal attack made upon
her life." (48) During a 1916 campaign, press materials sent by the New York State Woman Suffrage Party described her
having a "record of 300 children saved, but it has meant being kicked down cellar stairs, thrown from a roof, stabbed in a
dark hallway, but always she has saved the child she sought." (49)
To more socially and politically conservative audiences, this narrative of Christian martyrdom used by Livingston's supporters
perhaps softened the changing contemporary image of the American woman suffrage movement. The confrontational tactics
of the New York suffragettes and the charismatic firebrand Alice Paul, who from 1913 to 1914 began to split from NAWSA to
form the independent Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), created a new media image of the suffragette as
youthful and militant. By 1916 the CU had transformed itself into the Woman
Woman's Party and then in 1917 into the National
Woman
Woman's Party (NWP) to focus solely on the passage of a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage. The NWP
distanced itself from NAWSA and its staid tactics of focusing on passing individual state-level woman suffrage amendments
and instead purposefully promoted itself as the new modern, youthful heirs to the suffrage movement with its bold vision for
national reform. Through its controversial and highly publicized strategy of direct confrontation--street marches, open-air
meetings, pickets, arrests, and hunger strikes--the NWP garnered great attention for the cause. (50)
This particular Christian-inflected narrative of Livingston's bodily sacrifice legitimized her confrontational tactics of challenging
the municipal authority of the police and mayor as necessary for the Angel of Chinatown to combat the twin immoral forces of
public graft and prostitution. This Christian narrative also worked to desexualize her image and distance her current role as a
social reformer and martyr from her past as a sexual deviant and delinquent sullied by her intimacies with Chinese men.
Physical descriptions of Livingston, whether in newspaper articles, suffrage materials, or lectures, overwhelmingly focused on
her injuries such as those following her encounter with a cadet that left her "with a splintered jaw and seven teeth gone." (51)
Press descriptions often stressed her physical frailty and diminutive size in order to liken her to David in challenging the
Goliath that is municipal corruption and forced prostitution. "She is a small woman
woman, scarcely over five feet in height," began
one account. "At her best she would weigh one hundred and ten pounds. At present, she would scarcely turn the scales at
ninety. ... Were it not for this fire in her, Rose Livingston would now be dead." (52) In her stage appearances on behalf of the
suffrage movement her body became not an object for sexual consumption but a weapon to be used for the purposes of
Christian combat against the forces of social evil and municipal corruption.
Livingston in her public role as a spokeswoman for the movement, however, was quick to challenge this image of her as a
Victorian heroine or Christian saint. She chafed at the public's attempt to associate her with this outmoded sentimental
reform tradition based on Christian salvation alone. (53) A 1912 New York Times article, for example, commented on
Livingston's speech as anything but genteel, refusing "to tone down her speech to make things easier for her audience. She
used none of the euphemisms so common in social evil discussions, but kept her talk homely and sharp with the vernacular
of the gutter." (54) She mocked the proselytizing efforts of the Victorian rescue homes, saying, "I don't go in to visit these
girls and give them a tract and say 'God bless you,' and invite them around to take tea with me. That's not my kind of work."
(55) Instead, she told her audience of her physical confrontations with angry pimps and dirty cops, even going to the lengths
of serving arrest warrants to protect and rescue prostitutes.
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Livingston's bravado in the face of personal danger earned her the admiration of many suffrage leaders outside of New York
City. Ethel R. Vorce, corresponding secretary of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, became one of Livingston's most
ardent supporters shortly after one of her early lecture tours through Ohio in 1913. Following Livingston's return to New York
City, Vorce wrote the Laidlaws to convey her excitement about the lecture tour's positive effect on the suffrage campaign,
"having stirred up the entire town and doing more practical good for suffrage than any one other speaker of whom I know."
(56) To Livingston she sent a special note of encouragement: "Don't forget when you get back to the girls and your rescue
work that by giving your message to the world you can save the generations yet to come, my dear you must keep up your
talking. You have converted many people to suffrage here and you can do likewise in other places." (57)
Despite Vorce's clearly high regard for Livingston's life and work against prostitution, the relationship between the two
women--as it often was between Livingston and her older and wealthier suffragette supporters--was not an equal one.
Rather, these relationships were phrased in familial terms, with the older suffragettes expecting Livingston to play the
subordinate role of a dutiful "daughter" in relation to her more maternal suffragette superiors. Vorce, for example, referred to
Livingston as "dear little Rose" in her correspondences with the Laidlaws and addressed Livingston in her letters as "my dear
little girl." Similarly, Loa Scott, a fellow suffragette in Ohio, opened her description of Livingston's activities in Ohio to Harriet
Laidlaw with "I know you want to hear how your little girl is getting along." (58) In her relationship with her benefactors
Livingston took on a similar submissive familial role. In letters she called Harriet "sweet mother" and James "Daddy" (59) In a
message to Harriet Laidlaw, Livingston expressed her fond sentiments to her benefactors: "'Tell her I love her, and can't wait
till I get back to see her and dear Daddy'--and then she goes off with the words--'May precious Daddy, the dearest Daddy,
the dearest Daddy under Heaven.'" (60) While Livingston was convalescing in New Jersey during the summer of 1913, her
care attendant, Laetitia Gordon Smith, wrote to inform James Laidlaw of Livingston's medical care and progress, nothing that
she "has difficulty in retaining her food, thus continuing the feeling of weakness." In closing Smith added that "Rose is in bed
near me asking me to tell you that she is feeling tonight lonely for her Daddy Laidlaw, but she consoles herself by having in
full view on the washstand your photograph and Mrs. Laidlaw's which we recovered from the Montclair Times office two days
ago." (61)
Framed in terms of familial affection, these infantilizing remarks also worked to contain or suppress Livingston's sexual
identity as a former prostitute as well as unmistakably denoted her status in the movement as socially subordinate to and
financially dependent on her more wealthy and older suffrage patrons. Although Livingston successfully raised funds for her
antiprostitution work during the course of her lecture tours, all money earmarked for her care was sent to the three-person
committee of Sanderson, Chamberlain, and Laidlaw to be administered as they saw fir. Throughout her association with the
Laidlaw, Livingston regularly submitted to this committee of three-person committee of Sanderson, Chamberlain, and Laidlaw
to be administered as they saw fit. Throughout her association with the Laidlaws, Livingston regularly submitted to this
committee of three, sending them reports of her daily work and requests for funds for living and medical expenses. (62) when
Livingston was hospitalized in March and April 1914, for example, the Laidalws paid for Livingston's stay at the presbyterian
Hospital in New York City.
These expressions of endearment and subordination also reflected suffrage leaders' private views of Livingston, view that
influenced their strategies for touring and showcasing the firebrand in her antiprostitution/prosuffrage lectures. A letter of
introduction by a suffrage leader who hosted Livingston's lectures at his church began by praising her abilities as a speaker
for the suffrage cause as" young woman with a fine spirit and a burning message" but then added a warning. "Miss
Livingston is little more than a mere child, in her intellectual development, and quite temperamental and therefore, should be
closely supervised if she is to be used as a speaker for suffrage. Yet, properly directed, she can be made a tremendous force
for the cause." (63) Likewise, another activist pronounced that "Rose is a temperamental child, and willful, and has to be
managed like a small impresario; but she is very lovable, and responds in a wonderful way to affection." (64) Yet this suffrage
leader worried about Livingston's future and feared that, without constant monitoring by a more experienced suffrage
spokesperson, Livingston would be easily swayed by the unscrupulous who sought to exploit her story. These descriptions of
Livingston as highly temperamental and childlike may reflect middle-class suffrage leaders' own biases in judging the
working-class Livingston as uncouth and uneducated, someone whose impassioned oratory appealed to audiences through
raw emotion rather than careful reasoning and debate. It also worked to justify the perpetuation of a mother-daughter or
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superior-inferior relationship that placed suffrage leaders in positions of authority over Livingston.
Throughout her tours suffrage leaders made efforts to pair Livingston with a more seasoned and educated suffrage
spokesperson such as Ethel Vorce. A letter from Gertrude Leonard, chairman of the executive board of the Massachusetts
Woman Suffrage Association, to the presidents of local suffrage leagues throughout the state, for example, announced the
availability of Livingston and Vorce to speak "for a month of meetings in Massachusetts beginning January 11th," 1914. In
her promotion of Livingston Leonard wrote: "The dramatic strength of her appeal can scarcely be exaggerated." The
accompanying biography of Vorce, in contrast, listed her education and career background as a news reporter and
settlement house worker who possessed a thorough knowledge of the suffrage cause from her long history of participating in
international woman suffrage conferences and organizing and directing the Woman Suffrage Party in Cuyahoga County in
Ohio. (65) While Livingston moved audiences with her riveting stories of fighting prostitution and police corruption in
Chinatown, Vorce delivered the more carefully crafted and reasoned speech connecting the causes of suffrage and
antiprostitution work. To an audience in New Castle, Pennsylvania, for example, Vorce offered the point that "while a girl
must be 18 years old before she can marry, that in some states, the age of consent is 10 years, and in others, 16 years."
With female intervention into the legislative process, Vorce suggested, "such as evil as the white slave traffic could not
exist." (66)
Livingston's insistence on employing the vernacular of the street when addressing her audience was one of the many ways
she attempted to assert control of her own voice and image on the suffrage lecturing circuit. Her graphic and ardent oratory
effectively captured her audiences, shocking their sense of bourgeois comfort and morality and allowing the "average
woman or girl who lives in a protected home to know something of the tragedy which surrounds those women whom we are
wont to refer to as 'the underworld.'" (67) Her fervor and strong-willed independence--so important in establishing her social
reformer authority and authenticity to her middle-class audiences--could be forgiven by her suffragette handlers even if it
meant an unpolished performance that "cannot be relied upon to tell a straightforward logical story" as long as the rambling
narrative continued to make the suffrage cause its priority. (68) However, as Livingston's successes on the lecture circuit
brought her more celebrity, her obedience to the authority of her suffragette supporters was sorely tested. As she
increasingly focused her lectures on her spiritual conversion, personal redemption, and the anti-white
white slavery cause, her
suffragette handlers discovered the ongoing difficulties with containing the highly charismatic Livingston and employing her
sensational story as a useful strategy for gaining the vote.
Indeed, audiences were often more easily captivated and moved by Livingston's stories of abduction, sexual imprisonment,
and clashes with the police and mayor, which eclipsed the message of woman suffrage. On 12 July 1913 members of the
Stenographers' Association of Cincinnati, after hearing Livingston's lecture in their city, adopted a resolution in support of
Livingston's work in New York City to present to Mayor Gaynor. The resolution, beginning with "whereas, Miss Rose
Livingston, Angel of Chinatown, is imperiling her life and safety in service to our country by rescuing little girls held as slaves
in Chinatown and other dives in the East, from a fate far worse than death," also spoke of a five-hundred-dollar bounty
placed on Livingston's head by her enemies and ended with a demand for better police protection. The cause of woman
suffrage did not merit a mention in this resolution. (69)
As Livingston's success on the suffrage lecture circuit rose, she increasingly asserted her own control over her stage
appearances. Her acts of independence, however, were not taken well by her handlers. Instead, her suffragette supporters
more often interpreted her efforts at self determination as acts of childish impudence or disrespect, not the legitimate and
reasoned actions of a fellow equal in the movement. In 1915, while conducting a lecture tour through Pennsylvania
sponsored by that state's suffrage association, Livingston complained of fatigue and poor health and asked to eliminate the
two meetings scheduled for Easton. Vorce, who was accompanying Livingston on the trip, questioned Livingston's claims of
illness and suggested another possible reason for calling for the cancellation. "The real truth is that Rose arrived in
Philadelphia in a very bad mood. She failed to make a good impression, as was quite natural, with the exception of the
Chester and Sunday meetings which were excellent, and is her old force. The child is suffering from consciousness of lies
over misdoings and of course has not the control or philosophy necessary to keep herself." (70) Vorce further complained
that Livingston's increased popularity as a lecturer "likened her to Billy Sunday," a popular fire-and-brimstone evangelical
preacher of the day, and "now instead of talking of her work she devotes more time to Heaven, Hell not straight suffrage."
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(71) Vorce urged the Laidlaws to remove Livingston from the suffrage campaign circuit, concluding sadly, "I doubt if ever I go
on another tour with Rose--while I had her affection, I could control and influence her but as that seems entirely to have
disappeared I believe the best interests of the cause will no longer be served by such a combination." (72)
In a confidential letter to Carrie Chapman Catt, Vorce was even more candid in pointing out Livingston's flaws as a
representative of the movement. Claiming that Livingston's "state of mind at present is actually savage," Vorce suggested
that it would be better for the movement if "her audience could always be confined to the Women's Missionary & W.C.T.U.
type." (73) More galling to Vorce was Livingston's defiance of Vorce's "wishes or advice," her bragging that she could
command crowds larger than the more prominent and established suffragettes such as Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and her
demand to be "paid 100.00 per speech." (74) As she had with the Laidlaws, Vorce pressed for Livingston's temporary
removal from the campaign: "For the best interests of our Cause I suggest that for the present she be not asked to speak
after a time, if the inflated idea she now has of her self, subsides, she may once more bring us many converts." (75)
Livingston's brash style may have shocked her white middle-class audiences in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ohio.
Yet the prevalent fear of sexual predation of young white girls and women by Chinese men was even more immediate and
alarming. This period's mainstream press reported frequently on the participation of Chinese men in the underground world
of commercialized vice in the Chinatown neighborhood, particularly around activities such as prostitution, opium smoking,
and gambling. While non-Chinese also engaged in these activities, the link between the city's male Chinese population and
these vices was historically naturalized through popular representations such as cartoons and literary accounts. Sketches
appearing in popular publications such as Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated repeated the message contained in
J. W. Alexander's American Opium Smokers--Interior of a New York Opium Den, which showed Chinese opium smoking to
be a threat to white Americans. Alexander depicts a menacing-looking Chinese proprietor bringing out the opium-smoking
paraphernalia for his white clientele (Fig. 1). (76) An 1883 illustration entitled New York City--The Opium Dens in Pell and
Mott Streets--How the Opium Habit Is Developed made the link between opium smoking and white slavery more explicit by
showing Chinese kidnapping a white female victim in the Chinatown neighborhood. Opium pipes and other smoking
accoutrements surround the central image of the abduction(Fig. 2). (77)
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
These popular narratives of Chinatown, which commercialized sex and sexual danger, supported the federal Chinese
exclusion laws as well as called into question the wisdom of allowing Chinese men free mobility throughout the city and
nation. The ubiquitous presence of Chinese-owned businesses such as "chop suey" restaurants and hand laundries
throughout the city' particularly alarmed whites and often became die targets of criminal investigations into prostitution,
abduction, and opium smoking. The gruesome murder of nineteen year old Elsie Sigel allegedly by her Chinese lover in
1909, for example, spurred the city's police and social reformers to police the Chinatown neighborhood and the city's
Chinese-owned establishments in an effort to curb social relations between Chinese men and white women. (78) Journalists
such as William Brown Meloney shocked New Yorkers with their exposes on the lives of Chinatown's white female
residents, like Lulu Shu, who seemed to be trapped in her second-floor tenement flat on Pell Street, "a coop with a wiremeshed window" in which she "has lived for eighteen years." (79)
This period's social reformers continued their surveillance and monitoring of Chinese-owned restaurants and laundries in the
city for evidence of illegal and immoral activities. A 1911 report on prostitution in Harlem by an investigator for the Committee
of Fourteen, an antiprostitution social reform agency, identified a "chop suey joint" on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 15th
Street as having "small rooms and much disorderly conduct is witnessed there." (80) The following year a report entitled
"Houses and Resorts of Prostitution in the City of New York," authored by investigators for the Committee of Fourteen, listed
Chinese-owned businesses such as Li He Laundry at 200 West 28th Street and a "chop suey restaurant" at 38 West 29th
Street as disorderly. (81)
The mass circulation of these popularized narratives of a sexual yellow peril led many desperate parents to consider the
possibilities of white female abduction by Chinese men when confronted with die heartbreaking tragedy of a missing
daughter. The disappearance of Jessie McCann of Brooklyn in early December 1912 led to a series of desperate searches
through the Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay sections of the borough as well as in die city of Philadelphia. According to
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the New York Times, police assigned "a squad of detectives" to follow leads furnished by Livingston, "who had said she was
confident she knew where Miss McCann could be found." (82) None of Livingston's suggestions, however, panned out. But
with Livingston's network of religious supporters, desperate parents with the assistance of their ministers sought her
assistance and advice to locate their missing daughters. In the fall of 1914 Pastor T. J. Ferguson asked Livingston to
investigate the mysterious disappearance of sixteen-year-old Mary Loudon from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Although no
evidence was present to suggest that she traveled to New York City, let alone the lower Manhattan Chinatown neighborhood,
the parents and pastor nonetheless directed their inquiry to Livingston and that neighborhood. (83)
In Livingston's white slavery lectures across the country the depictions of New York's Chinatown and the city's Chinese
male residents as sexual threats to white womanhood enabled activists to promote the suffrage cause to socially and
politically conservative audiences, particularly church-going audiences who were especially won over by her Christ-like public
persona as the Angel of Chinatown engaged in a moral crusade against forced prostitution and sexual assault. If the notion
of equal rights between the genders was too modern for these more conservative audiences, the notion of moral protection
for the young and innocent was certainly not. The image of the lascivious Chinese male laborer as a menace to urban
working girls and women fit neatly within familiar, established Victorian narratives of male seduction and female innocence.
Even as New Yorkers at the dawn of the twentieth century struggled with accepting new modern modes of female sexuality
that widened the bounds of feminine respectability, expressions of mutual attraction and affection between Chinese and
whites remained difficult to accept. Interracial sexual relations--particularly between white women and Chinese men-continued to be defined in the earlier Victorian terms of masculine assaults on vulnerable white girls and women.
As argued by suffrage leaders such as Laidlaw and Vorce, woman suffrage provided the means to extend much-needed
moral and legal protections to the weaker sex or, more specifically, die perceived weaker members of die female sex--poor
and working-class girls and women--from sexual predation. (84) Regardless of how well these seasoned veterans
articulated die connections between the causes of suffrage and anti-white
white slavery
slavery, it was the magnetic and electrifying
presence of Rose Livingston--the self-proclaimed ex-Chinatown prostitute and social reformer--on die suffrage lecture circuit
that brought formerly indifferent and conservative audiences into the movement's fold. Livingston's speeches on the "white
white
slavery evil," couched in the alarmist rhetoric of a sexual Yellow Peril, made the suffrage cause take on a more immediate
urgency that jolted her audiences into action. Yet the sensationalist narratives of white slavery and Livingston herself
proved difficult for movement leaders to contain and channel consistently for the suffrage cause. Her refusal at times to play
die role of die obedient daughter to her wealthy suffrage benefactors and her frank disdain of Victorian sentimentalism tested
the movement's leaders' abilities to frame and harness her life story and work for the promotion of woman suffrage.
Livingston's relationship with her wealthy suffrage benefactors reflects the difficulties in closing the class divide within the
movement even as her supporters espoused a political platform that would address die concerns of die city's wage-earning
women. Through Livingston, die city's middle- and upper-class leaders found a means to connect with the poor, workingclass women of New York's Chinatown. Even so, the strategic mobilization of Livingston's Chinatown anti-white
white slavery
crusade by New York's suffrage leaders did more to smooth over die political differences of socially conservative and
Progressive middle-class and upper-class men and women through a commonly shared moral outrage than to carve
permanently a powerful place for former sex workers into die suffrage movement. For working-class women with
transgressive sexual pasts such as Livingston, full social acceptance and equal political participation in the movement
remained just beyond their reach.
I am immensely grateful for the thoughtful comments and suggestions offered by a number of scholars in the research and
writing of this essay and indebted to Kathy Peiss, Timothy Gilfoyle, and Chad Heap for their many insights.
(1) "How Rose Livingston Works in Chinatown," New York Times, 3 December 1912, 5. "Cadet" was the common term for
the young man responsible for seducing and entrapping a young woman to prostitute herself.
(2) Willard Travell, MD, "Physician's Report," 1 July 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 92 Correspondence, JulyDecember 1912, Harriet Wright (Burton) Laidlaw Papers, Schlesinger Library (hereafter HWLP-SL).
(3) Police commissioner to Robert Adamson, secretary to the mayor, 21 May 1912, Box GWJ-54, Mayors' Papers, New York
City Municipal Archives (hereafter MP-NYCMA).
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(4) Mayor William J. Gaynor to Mary Beard, 11 June 1912, Box GWJ-92, MP-NYCMA.
(5) "How Rose Livingston Works in Chinatown."
(6) "Woman
Woman Criticizes Gaynor," New York Times, 10 December 1912, 7.
(7) Robert Adamson to Harriet Wells, secretary of the Woman Suffrage Party, 20 May 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery,
Folder 91 Correspondence, May-June 1912, HWLP-SL.
(8) Recent studies examining the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century "white
white slavery
slavery" panic over kidnapping and
trafficking of white women include Christopher Diffee, "Sex and the City: The White Slavery Scare and Social Governance
in the Progressive Era," American Quarterly 57, no. 2 (2005): 411-37; Mara L. Keire, "The Vice Trust: A Reinterpretation of
the White Slavery Scare in the United States, 1907-1917," Journal of Social History 35, no. 1 (2001): 5-41; Frederick K.
Grittner, White Slavery
Slavery: Myth, Ideology, and American Law (New York: Garland, 1990); David J. Langum, Crossing over
the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 30-33; Judith Walkowitz, City
of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London (London: Virago, 1992); David Pivar, Purity
Crusade: Sexual Morality and Social Control, 1868-1900 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1973); Paul Boyer, Urban Masses
and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978), 189-219.
(9) Some of these woman suffrage-sponsored publications on white slavery include Clifford G. Roe, What Women Might
Do with the Hallot: The Abolition of the White Slave Traffic (New-York: National American Woman Suffrage Association
Headquarters, n.d.); Mrs. T. P. Curtis, The Traffic in Women (Boston: Woman Suffrage Party of Boston, n.d.); and Katharine
Houghton Hepburn, Woman Suffrage and the Social Evil (New York: National American Woman Suffrage Association,
n.d.).
(10) Luise White
White, "Prostitutes, Reformers, and Historians," Criminal Justice History 6 (1985): 202-3.
(11) George Anthony Peffer, If They Don't Bring Their Women Here: Chinese Female Immigration before Exclusion (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1999).
(12) Mary Ting Yi Lui, Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-theCentury New York City (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005), 45, 81-110.
(13) NAWSA was Pounded after the 1890 reconciliation and merger of two other woman suffrage associations--the National
Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). For histories of the
woman suffrage movement see Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's
Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1978); Aileen S. Kraditor, the Ideas of the Woman
Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965); Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern
Feminism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987); Anne Firor Scott, One Half the People: The Fight for Woman
Suffrage (Philadelphia; Lippincott, 1975).
(14) Ellen Carol DuBois, "Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriot Stanton Blatch and the New York
Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909," in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, cd. Vicki L.
Ruiz and Ellen Carol DuBois (New York: Routledge, 1994), 235. For more on Blatch's remarkable life and career see Ellen
Carol DuBois, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
1997).
(15) On the history of the WTUL see Nancy Schrom Dye, As Equals and as Sisters: Feminism, the Labor Movement, and the
Women's Trade Union League of New York (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1980); and Meredith Tax, 'The Rising of
the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880-1917(New York: Monthly Review Press), 95-124.
(16) Harriet Laidlaw, "Organizing to Win by the Political District Plan (1914)," in Public Women, Public Words: A
Documentary History of American Feminism, ed. Dawn Keetley and John Pettegrew (Lanham, Md.: Rowan and Littletield,
2002), 179.
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(17) "The Free-Lane Soul Saver of New York's Slums," fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 28 January 1917, 2.
(18) "Rose Livingston," n.d. Because the memo mentions the "Massachusetts campaign" 1 would date the document to
around 1914. Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 90 Lists of expenses, hospital and doctors' statements, biographical
information, 1912-16, n.d., HWLP-SL.
(19) Mayor to H. B. Laidlaw, Esq., 28 May 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 91 Correspondence, May-June 1912,
HWLP-SL.
(20) Mayor Gaynor to Mary Beard, 11 Juno 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 91 Correspondence, May-June 1912,
HWLP-SL.
(21) Frank Moss to Nathan A. Smyth, 11 June 1912, Gabrielle Stewart Mulliner to Rose Livingston, 15 June 1912, and
Nathan Smyth to Harriet Laidlaw, 24 June 1912, 12, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 91 Correspondence, May-June 1912,
HWLP-SL.
(22) Elizabeth Hartley to Nathan A. Smyth, 26 May 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 91 Correspondence, May-June
1912, HWLP-SL.
(23) Eleanor Keller to Harriet Laidlaw, 18 June 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 91 Correspondence, May-June
1912, HWLP-SL.
(24) Bertha Rembaugh to Nathan A. Smyth, 28 May 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 91 Correspondence, May-June
1912, HWLP-SL.
(25) Moy Gum to Mr. Gardner, 8 November 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 92 Correspondence, July-December
1912, HWLP-SL.
(26) Ibid.
(27) William Osgood Morgan to Harriet Laidlaw, 27 December 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 92 Correspondence,
July-December 1912, HWLP-SL. It is unclear who Garner was, since the letter suggests that Harriet Laidlaw and Garner did
not know each other.
(28) Chas. F. Gong to Harriet Laidlaw, 29 December 1912, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 92 Correspondence, JulyDecember 1912, HWLP-SL.
(29) John Willard Travell m Harrier Laidlaw, 5 July 1912, and James Laidlaw to Nathan Smyth, 23 July 1912, Series IV,
White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 92 Correspondence, July December 1912, HWLP-SL.
(30) "How Rose Livingston Works in Chinatown."
(31) Rose Livingston, "Report for the Month of July," Series I, Woman
Woman's Suffrage, Part B, Box 6, Folder 103 New York,
HWLr-SL.
(32) Rose Livingston, "Report for the Month of August," Series I, Woman
Woman's Suffrage, Part B, Box 6, Folder 103 New York,
HWLP-SL.
(33) Report dated 24 March 1910, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 89 Hattie Rose Correspondent, HWLP-SL.
(34) Ibid.
(35) "woman
woman Criticizes Gaynor."
(36) Ibid.
(37) "Paints Horrors of Woman
Woman's Life in Underworld," New Castle News, 6 April 1915, 6.
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(38) "Reviewed Steps Taken," newspaper clipping, n.d., Series, IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 92 Correspondence, JulyDecember 1912, HWLP-SL.
(39) Letta M. Turnbull to James Laidlaw, 25 March 1913, Scales IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 93 Correspondence, JanuaryMarch 1913, HWLP-SL.
(40) Mrs. John A. Church to James Laidlaw, 24 March 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 93 Correspondence,
January-March 1913, HWLP-SL.
(41) Harriet Taylor Upton, president, Ohio Woman Suffrage Association to Harriet Laidlaw, 8 March 1913, Series IV, White
Slavery
Slavery, Folder 93 Correspondence, January-March 1913, HWLP-SL.
(42) Marian H. Brewster to Rose Livingston, 26 March 1913, Series TV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 93 Correspondence,
January-March 1913, HWLP-SL; and James M. Gates to Rose Livingston, 2 June 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder
94 Correspondence, April-June 1913, HWLP-SL.
(43) The story was serialized in two parts in McClure's, December 1912, 121 -45, and January 1913, 253-60.
(44) Harriet Burton Laidlaw, "My Little Sister," Survey, 3 May 1913, 201.
(45) Ibid.
(46) For a good discussion of Anti-suffrage activism sec Jane Jerome Camhi, Women against Women: American AntiSuffragism, 1880-1920(Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, 1994).
(47) Elias Lieberman, "Rose Livingston: A Reverie," New York Times, 22 December 1912,14.
(48) "Suggested Introduction of Rose Livingston," 2. This description of her bodily torment is repeated in numerous public
accounts of her work. See, for example, "The Livingston Case," n.d., in The Woman Voter Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery,
Folder 90 Lists of expenses, hospital and doctors, statements, biographical information, 1912--16, HWLP-SL.
(49) Publicity materials sent by the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, "Miss Rose Livingston," 9 October 1916, Series
IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 90 Lists of expenses, hospital and doctors' statements, biographical information, 1912-16,
HWLP-SL.
(50) For more on Alice Paul and die National Woman
Woman's Party see Linda G. Ford, Iron-Jawed Angels: The Suffrage Militancy
of the National Woman
Woman's Party, 1912-1920 (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991); Nancy F. Cott, "Feminist
Politics in the 1920s: The National Woman
Woman's Party," Journal of American History 71, no. 1 (1984): 43-68; Christine A.
Lunardini, From Equal Suffrage to Equal Rights: Alice Paul and the National Woman
Woman's Party, 1910-1920 (New York: New
York University Press, 1986).
(51) "How Rose Livingston Works; in Chinatown."
(52) "The Free-Lance Soul Saver of New York's Slums."
(53) For a discussion of approaches to urban moral reform in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries see Boyer, Urban
Masses.
(54) "How Rose Livingston Works in Chinatown."
(55) Ibid.
(56) Ethel R. Vorce to Harriet Laidlaw, 5 March 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 96 Correspondence, January-April
1913, HWLP-SL.
(57) Ethel R. Vorce to Rose Livingston, 5 March 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 96 Correspondence, January-April
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1913, HWLP-SL.
(58) Loa E. Scott to Harriet Laidlaw, 18 February 1913, Folder 93 Correspondence, January-March 1913, HWLP-SL.
(59) Rose Livingston to Harriet Laidlaw, n.d., Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 96 Correspondence, June-December 1914,
HWLP-SL.
(60) Mabel C. Willard to Harriet Laidlaw, 1 March 1914, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 96 Correspondence, January-April
1914, HWLP-SL. She also used the term "Daddy" with other older male supporters such as James Gates, an attorney and
male suffrage activist, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. James signed all of his letters to Livingston with "Daddy." James M. Gates to
Rose Livingston, 2 June 1913, 26 June 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 94 Correspondence, April-June 1913,
HWLP-SL.
(61) Laetitia Gordon Smith to James Laidlaw, 3 July 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 95 Correspondence, JulyDecember 1913, HWLP-SL.
(62) Receipts and lists of expenses, n.d., Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 90 Lists of expenses, hospital and doctors'
statements, biographical information, 1912-16, HWLP-SL.,
(63) George Hugh Birney, n.d., Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 93 Correspondence, January-March 1913, HWLP-SL.
(64) Gertrude Halladay Leonard to Harriet Laidlaw, 2 March 1915, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 98 Correspondence,
1915, HWLP-SL.
(65) Gertrude Halladay Leonard, 16 December 1914, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 97 Correspondence, JuneDecember 1914, HWLP-SL.
(66) "Paints Horrors of Woman
Woman's Life in Underworld."
(67) "Nellie D. Merrell to Miss Treat, Cleveland, Ohio, n.d., Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 94 Correspondence, April-June
1913, HWLP-SL.
(68) Ibid.
(69) Laura C. Haeckl to James Laidlaw, 30 July 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 95 Correspondence, JulyDecemeber 1913, HWLP-SL.
(70) Ethel Vorce to James Laidlaw, 27 April 1915, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 98 Correspondence, 1915, HWLP-SL.
(71) Ibid.
(72) Ibid.
(73) Ethel R. Vorce to Carrie Chapman Catt, n.d., Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 94 Correspondence, April-June 1913,
HWLP-SL. Although the correspondence does not bear a date, the contents strongly indicate it was written at the conclusion
of the 1915 Pennsylvania tour.
(74) Ibid.
(75) Ibid.
(76) See, for example, J. W. Alexander, American Opium Smokers--Interior of a New York Opium Den Harper's Weekly, 8
October 1881.
(77) Frank Yeager. Mew York City--The Opium Dens in Pell and Mutt Streets--How the Opium Habit Is Developed, Frank
Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 19 May 1883.

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(78) Lui, Chinatown Trunk Mystery, 17-20, 47-51, 52-54, 73-80.

(79) William Brown Meloney, "Slumming in New York's Chinatown," Munsey's Magazine 41 (September 1909): 825.
(80) S. Robinson to J. H. Hooke, 23 March 1911, 3-4, Box 1, Folder General Correspondence, January-May 1911,
Committee of Fourteen Papers, New York Public Library.
(81) "Houses and Resorts of Prostitution in the City of New York," 1 February 1912, 8-9, Box 28, Folder 1912, Committee of
Fourteen Papers, New York Public Library.
(82) "Boston Finds Girl like Miss M'Cann," New York Times, 12 December 1913, 1.
(83) Missing persons flyer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 19 October 1914, and report by Rose Livingston, 26 May 1915,
Series I, Woman
Woman's Suffrage, Part B New York, Box 6, Folder 103, HWLP-SL. For more on missing person requests see
Harrison T. McCann to James Laidlaw, 11 December 1913, Series IV, White Slavery
Slavery, Folder 95 Correspondence, JulyDecember 1913, HWLP-SL. See also Mrs. W. A. Winters to Rose Livingston, 28 January 1914, Mrs. Rubie A. Young to
Rose Livingston, 26 February 1914, .and Jane Arlin to Rose Livingston, 28 February 1914, Folder 96 Correspondence,
January-April 1914, HWLP-SL.
(84) For an interesting discussion of class and white racial privilege in the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century
suffrage movement see Louise Newman, White Women's Rights: The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
MARY TING YI LUI
Yale University
COPYRIGHT 2008 University of Texas at Austin (University of Texas Press).

2013 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. www.accessmylibrary.com

The AccessMyLibrary advertising network includes: womensforum.com GlamFamily

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Page 16 of 16

From Somaly Mam to ''Eden'': How Sex

Trafficking Sensationalism Hurts Sex
Workers
Wednesday, 09 July 2014 00:00

ByMikeLudwig(/author/itemlist/user/44659),Truthout|Report

(Photo:BlondinRikard/Flickr(https://www.flickr.com/photos/blondinrikard/14135607987))

Megan Griffith's 2012 film Eden opens with the silhouette of a man lifting the lid of a car trunk.
Inside is 19-year-old Hyun Jae moaning through a gag taped to her mouth. Jae and her
kidnapper are on their way to a warehouse prison in the remote southwestern desert, where a
human trafficking ring keeps a group of teenage girls captive. The next 30 minutes of the movie
are a gut-wrenching depiction of sex slavery. Jae, nicknamed Eden by her captors, is tortured
into submission, forced to service johns and even chained and whipped in a BDSM film.
With its gratuitous shots of teenage sex slaves living every day in their underwear, Eden
(http://www.edenthefilm.com/) could be seen as a dramatic sexploitation flick, but viewers can
rest easy, because, the rationale goes, it's all for a good cause. Anti-human trafficking groups
receive a portion of the film's proceeds, and the film's producers make it clear that Eden is based
on a true story. That story, however, has recently been called into question, and some activists
claim that Eden may be based on an outright lie.
Eden supposedly follows the life of Chong Kim, an award-winning writer and activist whose
survival story has been trumpeted as proof that sex trafficking is not some faraway, third world
problem and must be tackled in the United States as well. Sex worker rights activists, however,

have been busy poking holes in Kim's story, working to expose it as another sexually sensational
but dishonest and misleading trafficking narrative - a tale that is good for fundraising
juggernauts but bad for human rights and public policy.
On her public speaking agency's website (http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/chong-kim),
Kim is featured next to Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times columnist who recently washed his
hands of Somaly Mam (http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/07/when-sources-may-havelied/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0), the Cambodian anti-trafficking activist. Kristof
championed Mam until her very public fall from grace in late May, when she resigned from her
own foundation after a Newsweek investigation
(http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/30/somaly-mam-holy-saint-and-sinner-sex-trafficking251642.html)revealed that she fabricated parts of her own story of being sold as a teenager and
forced to work in a brothel, and even had young women at her shelters rehearse made-up stories
about being trafficked for Western cameras.
As the Mam scandal was unfolding in the world media, Kim's skeptics were quietly combing
through her writings and video interviews on YouTube, and another sensational human
trafficking story began to crumble under its own weight. Then, last month, as sex workers and
their allies (https://twitter.com/mistressmatisse) tipped off this reporter to the holes in Kim's
story, an anti-trafficking group publicly denounced Kim as an outright fraud who uses a dramatic
fiction to milk cash from human rights groups.
AnotherSexTraffickingSensationalist?
In 2004, Kim published an essay titled "Nobody's Concubine" - a reference to the way her
escorting clients viewed her due to her Korean heritage - in a compilation called NotForSale:
FeministsResistingProstitutionandPornography. Kim's early story is a tough one but has little
in common with Eden. Kim writes that she suffered abuse at home and was dumped by her high
school sweetheart after being raped by an acquaintance as a young adult. She started working as
a stripper and then for an escort service after escaping an abusive boyfriend and falling on hard
times. Her experience as a sex worker was not a positive one. She used drugs, was abused by
clients and suffered from low self-esteem until she met a boyfriend who helped her leave the sex
industry.
Missing from the essay, however, is the desert warehouse full of teenage sex slaves in Nevada and
the daring escapes described in her later accounts. Over the years, Kim's story has grown more
lavish and sensational as the bad guys morphed from abusive clients and boyfriends to
international gangs of kidnappers, pimps, human traffickers and johns that included law
enforcement agents and even an unnamed former state governor.
In 2012, Kim told a Texas reporter
(http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/19621930/2012/09/24/clues-that-could-indicatehuman-trafficking-where-you-live) that she engineered her escape by earning a spot as a
"madame" and gaining the trust of her traffickers by helping run their business. She said that she

then escaped the trafficking ring while running errands. In an interview recorded earlier this year
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WC8Y61fAWg), Kim described becoming a madam, and
said that she made her escape at a Las Vegas hotel by seducing a maintenance worker into giving
her the blueprints to the building, which she used to make a James Bond-style dash through
heating vents and a laundry chute. This version of the story also includes descriptions of rape and
torture that helped inspire the Eden script.
Penelope Saunders, a harm reduction and human rights activist with the Best Practices Policy
Project, has been reflecting on Kim and Mam. For nearly two decades, Saunders has been casting
a critical eye toward wings of the anti-human trafficking movement that routinely use
questionable statistics and horrific tales to raise millions of dollars in donations.
"There's a sensational desire to tell more and more graphic stories. Once you get caught up with
that, there is so much pressure to keep the story going," Saunders said. "It's like a machine, and it
is linked to other kinds of fascinations in other kinds of media."
Recently, Breaking Out (http://www.breakingoutcorp.org/), a small human trafficking "rescue"
group that had considered working with Kim, released a statement accusing Kim
(http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/06/04/chong-kim-the-woman-whoseallegedly-true-story-served-as-the-basis-for-megan-griffiths-film-eden-revealed-to-be-a-fraud)
of "fraud, lies, and most horrifically capitalizing and making money on an issue where so many
people are suffering from." Breaking Out deleted its original online statement after receiving
legal threats from Kim's lawyer, but soon released another statement on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/BreakingOut/posts/654145121340801) cataloguing blatant
inconsistencies in Kim's statements about her past. Breaking Out activists suggested that
unraveling Kim's story was as simple as reading her memoir and then typing her name into
Google.
The group also dug up court records revealing that, in 2009, Kim pled guilty to a felony "theft by
swindle" charge and was ordered to return $15,000 to another human trafficking victim and
activist in Minnesota.
Eden publicist Jim Dobson recently told Truthout that he had not heard from Kim or her
representatives and could not comment. Dobson did not respond to follow-up emails from
Truthout. Kim said she would discuss questions from Truthout with her attorneys but did not
respond by the time this story was published.
Dobson also did not respond to questions on how much of the proceeds from Eden benefited the
anti-trafficking cause, but a look at the benefiting organizations listed on the Eden website
reveals that fundraising to stop modern-day slavery can be lucrative. ECPAT-USA, a New Yorkbased anti-child trafficking group that lists Kim as a member of its advisory board, brought in
$2.1 million in revenues (http://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133755580)
from 2010 to 2012. The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) reported $2.1 million

in contributions in 2012, and the Polaris Project brought in nearly $7.3 million
(http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/03-0391561/polaris-project.aspx) during the same
year.
Kim has never named names, for fear, she says, of retribution from her alleged pimps and
traffickers, who have apparently never been busted. At this point, it remains unclear which
version of her fragmented story is true. Trauma, of course, can have serious and confusing
impacts on the mind, and if Kim is working to end the exploitation of woman and minors, then
what's wrong with embellishment?
There's more than one answer. Groups like Breaking Out may say that anti-trafficking activism
should be humble and honest, not a sensational, moneymaking machine. For the sex workers
rights movement, however, the implications of sex trafficking sensationalism are much more
dire.
As journalist Melissa Gira Grant recently pointed out in The New York Times
(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/opinion/the-price-of-a-sex-slave-rescue-fantasy.html),
Somaly Mam's campaigns may have provided wealthy Westerners with some feel-good
philanthropy, but her "portrayal of all sex workers as victims in need of saving encouraged raids
and rescue operations that only hurt the sex workers themselves." Sex workers in Cambodia have
told human rights activists (http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/20/cambodia-sex-workersface-unlawful-arrests-and-detention) that they were detained and assaulted by authorities during
police crackdowns on brothels, and some of Mam's so-called victims have even attempted to
escape from her shelters.
It's no wonder that Kim, who has worked directly with law enforcement and groups that conflate
many types of sex work with human trafficking, is now a target of sex workers' scrutiny. Sex
worker advocates routinely debunk (http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/resources/frequentlytold-lies/) the alarming statements and statistics shared by anti-sex trafficking groups, which are
good for fundraising campaigns but often based on conjecture
(http://humantraffickingcenter.org/posts-by-htc-associates/how-not-to-talk-about-humantrafficking/) because underground economies are so difficult to study.
Such advocates, along with human rights groups like Amnesty International
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/202126121/Amnesty-Prostitution-Policy-document), have long
argued that when sex workers are lumped into the panic surrounding human trafficking, they
face an increased threat of exploitation and human rights abuses. Labeling anyone in the sex
trade as a "victim" in need of "rescue" robs them of autonomy and agency while ignoring the fact
that many sex workers are marginalized and just as likely to experience violence, abuse and
harassment at the hands of NGOs (http://mollidesidevadasi.blogspot.co.uk/) and police as they
are pimps and traffickers.

"When sex worker rights advocates start sounding alarm bells, listen and be careful about what
you are supporting - often where your tax dollars are going, and where your individual donations
end up, is in the hands of the vice squad," Saunders said.
NationwideFBICrackDown
In June, the FBI worked with local law enforcement agencies in 106 cities across the country to
conduct its annual, weeklong crackdown on child sex trafficking known as Operation Cross
Country. The FBI began the sweeps in 2003 as part of The Innocence Lost National Initiative, a
multimillion-dollar effort to rescue minors from prostitution and sex trafficking. The FBI hailed
its 2014 Operation Cross Country as a great success, with 168 minors recovered and 281 "pimps"
arrested.
A 2008 study (https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/225083.pdf) on underage teenagers
selling sex in New York City found that only 9 percent of males and 23 percent of females said
they had a "market facilitator" or pimp, and the vast majority worked alone. So why do the FBI's
numbers seem to imply that every underage prostitute has at least one pimp or trafficker, if not
more? Operation Cross Country's most impressive statistics, it turns out, are not directly related.
To track down the sex trafficking victims, local cops staked out casinos, truck stops, "street
tracks" and escort websites to apprehend sex workers and then glean information on efforts to
exploit minors. In each city where the FBI publically released the results of the stings, the
number of adults selling sex who were apprehended by authorities greatly outnumbered the
minors. In many states, minors cannot be prosecuted for prostitution, but anyone 18 years or
older certainly can.
In eastern Tennessee, no minors were recovered during the stings, but eight women were
arrested for prostitution, four women were arrested for promoting prostitution, three men were
cited for soliciting, and two women were arrested for "human trafficking," although the nature of
the alleged trafficking offenses are unclear. In Portland, one minor was recovered, and police
cited 20 adults for prostitution.
In Arizona, five minors and 42 adults "who were being victimized through prostitution" were
recovered during the sting. Like his counterparts in other cities who were contacted by Truthout,
FBI spokesman Special Agent Perryn Collier in Phoenix did not know how many of the suspected
adult prostitutes were handcuffed, detained or charged with crimes. A spokesperson for the local
prosecutor also told Truthout that he didn't know if charges had been filed and failed to respond
to several follow-up emails. An FBI statement made it immediately clear, however, that 21
"pimps" and 41 "johns" were arrested on state and federal charges.
FBI statements from other cities were similarly opaque. Adult prostitutes were "identified" and
"interviewed," but it's unclear if they were detained, arrested and are now caught up in the
criminal justice system. When the FBI was more transparent about who ended up in jail, feminist

blogger Emi Koyama crunched the numbers (http://eminism.org/blog/entry/325) and found

that, for every few dozen minors the FBI "rescued" from selling sex, hundreds of adults were
arrested for doing the same.
"On average, there have been 1.5 minors identified in each city and 10 to 50 sex workers, which
places this year's estimate at about 2,000 sex workers arrested and placed into forced diversion
programs," said Carol Fenton, a Portland-based social media activist and blogger
(http://cfpdx.blogspot.com/) who follows Operation Cross Country. "The number of 'pimps'
arrested continues to increase, as fellow sex workers, friends, boyfriends and spouses who've
driven [workers to clients] or placed ads are now being arrested."
Collier said the FBI's sex trafficking enforcement is "pimp-centric" and prostitution "victims" of
all ages are offered services such as counseling, safe shelter, food and medical care. He said the
FBI has "victims witness specialists" on the scene of busts to address emotional and
psychological harm, and give them the option of participating in prosecutions against pimps and
traffickers.
Fenton is skeptical of the FBI's victim specialists, and pointed to a recent news story on
Operation Cross Country (http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/100-arrestedprostitution-sweep/ngRKS/%20http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/100-arrestedprostitution-sweep/ngRKS/) in the Bay Area that described a specialist interviewing a sobbing
16-year-old girl in a hotel while she was handcuffed to a chair.
"There are proven harm reduction solutions to these issues, and grabbing someone off the street
and scaring them in a hotel room, and cuffing them, and interviewing them while they are cuffed,
and allowing a reporter to quote them in a newspaper is probably not OK," Fenton said.
Collier said the FBI is simply trying to "rescue" victims. He portrayed interacting with law
enforcement as akin to therapy, as opposed to a situation that could potentially land someone in
mandatory diversion classes or, for repeat offenders, behind bars. Harm reduction activists like
Saunders and Fenton say that interacting with law enforcement and the criminal justice system
can seriously interrupt someone's life and even be traumatic. As Truthout has reported
(http://truth-out.org/news/item/23551-walking-while-woman-and-the-fight-to-stop-violentpolicing-of-gender-identity), cops in cities across the country have been called out for abusing
suspected sex workers and profiling LGBT youth, women of color and gender non-conforming
people as prostitutes.
"Most of the people being rescued are adults and there is no way of finding out what's happening
to them," Saunders said. "They are caught up in the criminal injustice system, getting processed,
getting a criminal record . . . you know they are not getting helped at all."
But what about the minors "rescued" by law enforcement? The FBI reports that its Innocence
Lost initiative has rescued roughly 3,500 minors "from being exploited" since 2003, although the
agency's definition of exploitation is unclear. The FBI does not release information about these

cases because they involve minors. Subsequent investigations lead to 1,450 criminal convictions
(in comparison, more than 3,300 adults were arrested during Operation Cross Country from
2005 to 2012).
Fenton worries about what happens to the children after they are "rescued." Will they be
returned to an abusive family or foster home that they were running away from? If they have
nowhere to go, will they simply end up in a miserable shelter or detention center before facing
the foster care system?
In a recent article (http://www.vice.com/read/sex-trafficking-how-i-survived-foster-care) on
surviving sex trafficking and the perils of the foster care system, survivor Tara Burns points out
that the so-called "rescue industry" that has sprung from the anti-trafficking movement causes so
much harm that the Global Alliance of Trafficking in Women wrote a 250-page report
(http://www.gaatw.org/Collateral%20Damage_Final/singlefile_CollateralDamagefinal.pdf)
about it in 2008.
Burns also references The Bad Encounter Line
(http://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/bad-encounter-line-report-2012.pdf), a
participant-driven research project on violence experienced by girls in the Chicago sex trade,
released by the Young Women's Empowerment Project in 2012. The group found that police were
responsible for the highest number - about 30 percent - of violent encounters, and the local
family services department was responsible for 6 percent of violent encounters. Pimps were
responsible for 4 percent. Police were also responsible for 11 percent of violent sexual encounters,
almost three times as much as pimps. Statistics like these can explain why sex workers, even
those who are underage, may not be crying tears of joy when the cops bust in to "rescue" them.
TheWorld'sOldestDebate
The questions surrounding sex workers' rights and the effort to end sex trafficking revolve
around one of the oldest and fiercest debates in the women's movement, and if feminist Twitter
disputes are any evidence (http://www.bustle.com/articles/13651-sex-workers-were-not-arescue-project-not-trafficking-victims), that debate is still raging today. Some believe the sex
trade is inherently exploitive of women and that most sex work must carry the distinct markings
of coercion, manipulation and violence that define human trafficking. For others, human
trafficking has nothing to do with sex work, which is simply work that some people choose to do
for a variety of reasons, most often to simply get by.
Survivors with stories like Somaly Mam's and Chong Kim's are celebrated by the prostitutionabolitionist feminists who have made unlikely bedfellows with conservative Christians to form
the wing of the anti-trafficking movement that often finds itself at odds with sex worker
advocates. These heart-wrenching tales paint prostitution as a male-dominated world of torture,
pain and exploitation that woman must be saved from, even if that means working with police.
Sex workers cheer when these stories fall apart because police put sex workers in jail.

Activists like Saunders, however, recognize that the worlds of sex work and sex trafficking should
not be painted in black and white. She said that stories like Kim's are much more exciting than
the real experiences of people involved in the illicit sex trade, but those real-life stories are just
not good enough for the evening news.
"I'm not skeptical about [sex trafficking] abuses, but there is something very wrong in the
trafficking framework in the way that it turns people into silent victims rather than people who
are active with rights," Saunders said. "There is more than a 100 year history of the antitrafficking and white slavery narrative (http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/22/sex-slavesand-the-surveillanc) being used to lull an unsuspecting and unconcerned public into thinking
that they are doing the right thing."
Saunders said that she believes that most activists, regardless of ideology, are trying to do the
right thing. But when it comes to human rights and sex work, she said, doing the right thing is
often much more complicated than calling the cops or donating 75 cents a day to a starving child
on TV.
"Something that sex workers rights advocates do very well is to make people think very hard
about this, and harm reductionists as well," Saunders said. "We are not doing police ride-alongs
to pull people off the streets for their own good, which, in some ways, gets you a lot of media
coverage and a lot of funding. But we're here for the long haul to find meaningful solutions."
In the meantime, you can safely bet that the world's oldest profession is not going to disappear
anytime soon, and neither will the controversy surrounding it. The same goes for Chong Kim,
who is scheduled to publish a new edition of her memoir BrokenSilence under the new title In
MyOwnWords by the spring of 2015. You can also bet that sex workers will be reading it, red
pen in hand.
Copyright,Truthout.Maynotbereprintedwithoutpermission(mailto:editor@truthout.org).

MIKE LUDWIG (/AUTHOR/ITEMLIST/USER/44659)

Mike Ludwig is a Truthout reporter. Follow Mike on Twitter @ludwig_mike
(https://twitter.com/ludwig_mike).
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Gretchen Soderlund

The Rhetoric of Revelation:

Sex Trafcking and the Journalistic Expose

In Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, their
humanitarian work of 2009, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn recount their experience working as foreign correspondents in China after the Tiananmen Square
protests and realizing for the first time that news media ignore the everyday realities
of millions of women worldwide. From the perspective of journalists, the everyday
abuses women around the world suffered were not newsworthy: When a prominent
dissident was arrested in China, we would write a front-page article; when 100,000
girls were routinely kidnapped and sold into brothels, we didnt even consider it news.
Partly that is because we journalists tend to be good at covering events that happen in
a particular day, but we slip at covering events that happen to girls every day.1
In this account, sex traffickinga practice also commonly referred to as modernday slavery, sex slavery, forced prostitution, and, in earlier periods, white slaveryis
taken to be the paradigmatic case of gender violence ignored by journalists. Yet
positing sex slavery as the exemplary media blind spot is curious when one considers
the history of journalism on this topic. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
Western news media offered extensive coverage of white slavery, making claims about
the severity and ubiquity of the practice that had far-reaching and questionable legislative effects. Had Kristof and WuDunn dug deeper, they would have discovered that
the advent of humanitarian campaigns against sex trafficking and the rise of investigative journalism share an intertwined history. In fact, the press played a critical role
in producing now-familiar narrative conventions and rhetorical tropes commonly used
to depict sex trafficking, as well as establishing methods for gathering facts and arriving
at conclusions about prostitution and sex slavery.
While there may have been a dearth of news reports of sex trafficking in the
decades immediately before the fall of the Soviet Union, stories of innocent women
and girls held captive in prison-like brothels are not new. Rather, they have, in the
last two decades, resurfaced as an object of journalistic attention. This article considers
the phenomenon of the sex-trafficking expose at two moments, the late nineteenth
century and the early twenty-first century, in order to gain some purchase on the
relationship between journalistic coverage and the construction of sex trafficking as a
practice viewed by many policymakers, feminists, and evangelicals as among the most
urgent of global humanitarian issues.
A central premise here is that sex trafficking is not so much discovered as it is
created as an object of humanitarian action, law enforcement intervention, and human
rights policy. Indeed, episodes of heightened concern over trafficking have historically

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relied on textual assertions that involve a set of interpretations that give substance and
meaning to a phenomenon not readily available to public view. To explore the cultural
construction of sex slavery as an object of human rights and humanitarian intervention, this article will focus on three journalistic exposes that brought a great deal
of public attention to sex trafficking: The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,
William T. Steads Pall Mall Gazette series in 1885 on Londons trade in virgins; The
Girls Next Door, Peter Landesmans 2004 New York Times Magazine piece on
domestic trafficking; and Kristof s New York Times series from the same year on sex
slavery in Poipet, Cambodia.
Sex Trafcking as a Cultural Construction

In the late nineteenth century, journalists, vigilance movements, and evangelical

women activists established a set of images and associationsthe enslaved prostitute,
the prison-like brothel, the mercenary procurer, and the monstrous clientto describe
the players involved in the phenomenon of white slavery. These associations were first
popularized in 1880s England, but by the twentieth centurys first decade they became
deeply embedded in the Western imaginary such that even today the term trafficking (and, increasingly, prostitution) connotes sexual enslavement, captive innocents, and mercenary villains.
Yet despite the current ubiquity of mass and activist media productions equating
trafficking with sexual slavery and identifying women and girls as its primary victims,
sex trafficking has proved itself a unique social problem, in part because its existence,
scope, and scale are notoriously difficult to establish using empirical methods. There
is no consensus among activists, human rights advocates, or policymakers as to the
actual numbers of trafficked women and girls in the world today. Even groups that
take the existence of large-scale sex trafficking networks as a social fact often disagree
over the reasons people end up working abroad in the sex industry. Do they willingly
enter into debt-bondage agreements, believing these arrangements offer them more
security or money than they can find elsewhere, or are they lured or physically coerced
into such contracts against their will? Non-governmental organizations, activists, and
policymakers have been divided over such issues since sex trafficking reemerged as one
of the preeminent human rights issues of the late twentieth and early twenty-first
centuries.
Considering sex trafficking as a social construction is not meant to circumvent or
replace a discussion of abuse in the sex industry. Forced prostitution is not just a
textual illusion or figment of activists imaginations; real victims of the practice exist,
and some have shared their experiences with activists, law enforcement officers, immigration officials, safehouse operators, and others. Yet a quick survey of the numbers
cited should give us pause. Groups with an interest in collating statistics on trafficking
in its many variants offer wildly divergent statistics on the extent of the problem
globally and within U.S. borders. The Department of State trafficking in persons
(TIP) report for 2010 estimated that there were 12.3 million adults and children in
forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world.2 The United
Nations International Labour Organization figure of 1.2 million child victims of trafficking worldwide is widely cited.3 Abolitionist human rights groups like Kevin Baless

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Free the Slaves tend to put the higher total number of enslaved men, women, and
children globally at 27 million, a figure that then gets repeated in other groups abolitionist media.4 As Kamala Kempadoo puts it, To any conscientious social scientist,
such discrepancies would be cause for extreme suspicion of the reliability of the
research, yet when it comes to sex work and prostitution, few eyebrows are raised and
the figures are easily bandied about without question.5
The estimates of U.S. government agencies also vary wildly: at different moments,
the State Department has speculated that there are as many as 4 million victims of
trafficking in the world and as few as 600,000. In terms of domestic numbers, the
State Department estimated in 2002 that there were between 45,000 and 50,000 trafficking victims in the United States; in 2003, it reduced that estimate to between
18,000 to 20,000; and in 2004 its estimate shrank to between 14,500 and 17,500. A
Department of Justice report issued in 2005 was highly critical of even these reduced
numbers, citing the incongruity between the estimated number of victims trafficked
into the United States14,500 and 17,500 annuallyand the number of victims
foundonly 611 in the last 4 years.6 More recently, the U.S. General Accountability
Office issued a report that was equally critical of the administrations numbers. It
referred to methodological weaknesses, gaps in data, and numerical discrepancies in
figures of domestic and international human trafficking victims. The report argued
for greater oversight of groups involved in antitrafficking efforts in light of the fact
that the US government has not yet established an effective mechanism for estimating the number of victims.7 In short, none of the widely cited statistics on
migrant slave labor are based on representative samples, and thus they cannot be
trusted to accurately capture the number of people who are victims of trafficking each
year. Yet despite the proliferation of high estimates, the unavailability of accurate data
leads to a curious tendency in antisex trafficking texts to claim that the statistics
reported underestimate the actual numbers of victims because the numbers are extrapolated only from known instances of sex trafficking.8
Concerns about sex trafficking, then, have both material and symbolic dimensions.
On the one hand, forced prostitution is a sociological reality, which on some scale
does exist in the world. On the other hand, our understandings of this phenomenon
are always mediated through language and institutional discourses. Indeed, most of us
know of trafficking secondhand, through representations created by governing institutions, human rights organizations, the news and entertainment media, filmmakers,
and humanitarian, evangelical, and feminist action groups. These groups shape each
others and the publics perceptions of the sex trade. Sex trafficking in its many
guiseswhite slavery, virtual sex slavery, debt-bondage, and so forthraises difficult
epistemological and methodological questions. A concept that is difficult to quantify
yet holds such capacity to inspire moral outrage deserves special inquiry into the terms
used to describe and produce it. It also bears asking what other social concerns may
be embedded within or hidden by controversies over sex trafficking.
The public debates, behind-the-scenes organizing, and tenuous alliances that go
into influencing policy on womens human rights issues are complex and have been
considered elsewhere.9 The analysis that follows shifts attention from internal debates
and the policymaking process to explore the representation of sex trafficking as an

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195

object of human rights and humanitarian intervention. For over a century the print
media, in particular, have produced and disseminated victims stories, intermingled
with statistics about the ubiquity of sex trafficking, and these stories have helped to
generate a belief that arguing over minute facts and details is irrelevant in the face of
such a horrific form of abuse.
While many studies have considered the social movements that emerged around
sex trafficking after 1885, journalisms role in creating sex trafficking as an object of
humanitarian and human rights concern is frequently ignored within this literature.10
Indeed, many works on the history of antitrafficking movements brush over the role
of mass-distribution exposes in constructing moral entrepreneurs own understandings
of sex trafficking. The tendency within some of this literature is either to accept stories
as neutral statements of fact or contend that such stories made a mockery of an
important social issue by sensationalizing sex trafficking.11 However, such claims about
press coverage overlook the fact that, from the nineteenth century on, newspapers
often directed social movement actors to the very objects they sought to reform.
Indeed, many antitrafficking activists have claimed that their first encounter with
sex trafficking was through the popular press. Frances E. Willard, head of the
Womens Christian Temperance Organization when Steads 1885 report was released,
described reading the disclosures as a moral cyclone [that] cleared the air and broke
the spell, so that silence now seems criminal and we only wonder that we did not
speak before.12 In 2004, Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals
described ending sex trafficking as a cause that just jumped off the pages of the
newspaper.13 It could be argued, then, that the representational strategies journalists
employ in sex trafficking narratives, especially the conflation of sexual commerce with
slavery, have functioned from the outset to inform and shape understandings of the
phenomenon in social movements, non-governmental organizations, and legislative
bodies.
Journalists from Stead to Kristof have used a revelatory discourse in which they
visit a brothel, have a direct interaction with a sex worker or a group of sex workers,
and experience a transformative epiphany that is then presented as the origin point of
their beliefs. This encounter is revelatory because it is experienced and represented not
as an impression about an individual case but as a profound truth applicable to all
instances of prostitution. Such revelatory discourse functions to legitimize stories
about sex trafficking in two ways. First, it creates an origin story in which particular
assertions about the nature of sex work (typically that all prostitution is trafficking
and that all prostitutes are victims) are true and are grounded in a unique experience
that causes the revelation. The revelatory discourse assures readers that these assertions
are not merely the opinions of the writer. Second, the revelatory moment turns the
narrative into a story that posits a moral high ground, elevating what might otherwise
be a touristic encounter to almost a spiritual level. This otherwise salacious touristic
encounter then becomes a pilgrimage that the reader, by reading and identifying with
the text, is invited to share in both the details of the experience and the occupation of
the moral high ground. Moreover, this rhetoric of revelation is intimately connected
to stunt journalism in which isolated incidents and the outcome of the journalists
behavior are taken to represent greater truths.

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Linking Prostitution and Slavery: William T. Steads 1885 Campaign

In 1885 the crusading journalist and editor William T. Stead set out to chronicle what
he and other moral reformers viewed as a pernicious new form of commercial
exchange: the purchase of female virgins by wealthy English aristocrats. Steads investigation resulted in The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, a scandalous expose of
sexual transgression that appeared in five installments of the Pall Mall Gazette, a
central newspaper of the era.
The first installments depiction of such sexually taboo acts as bondage and
flogging brought throngs of eager readers and newspaper hawkers to the Pall Mall
Gazettes Northumberland Street office for the next mornings copy. Within two days
word of the Maiden Tribute had traveled across the Atlantic. Readers across Europe
and in American cities began following the story through telegraph. The bulk of
Steads evidence came from second- and third-hand accounts of teenage prostitution,
but the narratives centerpiece was a firsthand account in which an associate of Steads
purchased Eliza Armstrong, a thirteen-year-old virgin, from her mother for five
pounds.14 This purchase functioned within the story as proof that virgins were easily
procured and that such abuses were rampant in London, the city Stead christened the
new Babylon. In addition to purchasing the girl, Steads associate, a reformed prostitute, took Armstrong to a midwife who medically inspected her to certify her
virginity. According to Steads narrative, Armstrong was then taken to a brothel and
actually chloroformed, as Stead imagined would happen to a real sex slave.
Stead was an early pioneer of stunt and role-playing journalism, and he developed
many of his characteristic techniques while researching and writing Maiden Tribute.
Yet he also subjected Armstrong to physically harmful medical exams, as well as a
potentially deadly exposure to the anesthetic chloroform, in the interest of public
knowledge and a broader reformist agenda that conceived of itself as morally righteous. The medical examination met Steads desire to legitimate Armstrongs virginity
and ensure the credibility of the text. Although this simulated rape flew in the face of
the original purity campaigns against the Contagious Diseases Acts, which sought to
protect prostitutes from state-enforced medical examination, activists like Josephine
Butler placed their full support behind Steads actions.15 Armstrong became a martyr
in a journalistic and humanitarian quest to convey a larger moral truth through a
sensationalist and pornographic representation of sex slavery.
Stead helped establish narrative conventions and a cast of characters, including the
victim and the procurer. His story and the characters within it served as evidence
supporting his claim of a much wider phenomenon. Stead made no attempt to
quantify or estimate the numbers of girls and young women lured or forced into
prostitution in London; as such, his narrative stood alone as evidence. Yet Steads
methods and the narrative that resulted would come to serve as the template on which
later journalistic stories would be built. This narrative structure is commonplace in
current antitrafficking reports and continues to serve as evidence of the assertions
made by authors, sometimes in place of numerical evidence and sometimes alongside
various figures that are bandied about. Steads narrative supported universalizing
claims about sexual slavery and trafficking and served to foreshorten lengthier discussions of variations in conditions under which commercial sex work occurs.

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197

Maiden Tribute was Englands most commercially and politically successful

publicity stunt of the decade. It contained all the thematic ingredients of sex scandal
sexual transgression and abuse of power and social rankwhile also directing readers
attention to a more systemic social problem. Where the previous lobbying efforts of
British antivice social organizations had not resulted in the implementation of strong
laws protecting girls, the widely distributed journalistic expose succeeded in
constructing forced prostitution as an urgent humanitarian crisis and object of
political intervention by strategically using scandal to force political action. In
response to Steads allegation that members of Parliament abetted the virgin trade,
Parliament passed the sweeping Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. This law
raised the age of consent, expanded police power to arrest prostitutes and brothel
owners, and led to a national crackdown on all forms of commercial sex. It also
ushered in a period of police attacks on male homosexuality in Britain through its
provision making indecent acts between men illegal. Oscar Wilde, an acquaintance
of Steads, was convicted in 1895 of violating the law.16
As the Criminal Law Amendment Bill was being passed in Parliament, Stead
himself was tried and convicted on abduction charges. Armstrongs mother, who
sought the criminal charges, testified that her understanding was that her daughter
had been offered a respectable position as a domestic and that Steads apprentice had
deceived her into accepting the deal. Stead argued in court that the girls purchase was
justified because it had been committed in the service of a larger goal. The court
finally pronounced the journalist and his conspirators guilty of abduction, but Stead
nevertheless emerged from this episode a national and international hero among
antivice and social purity forces in England and abroad.
The history of antitrafficking activism did not begin with Stead, but his reportage
helped jumpstart an international humanitarian movement to combat the traffic in
women. The eras campaigns against sexual commerce were in part a response to
increased state regulation of prostitution in the nineteenth century. The rise of regulatory systems that enabled, coordinated, and stipulated the conditions of mens access
to womens bodies led to an international movement against organized prostitution.17
After 1885 the movements that arose to fight various forms of state intervention into
prostitution began to coalesce under the mantle of stopping trafficking. Despite this
new common cause, the groups that emerged during this period often operated with
different definitions of trafficking and had diverse agendas. Some focused only on
local and national issues, while others sought to rescue prostitutes in colonial contexts
or to stem the international flow of prostitutes. Some worked for the abolition of
prostitution on the grounds that its existence harmed all women, while others sought
new forms of protective regulation.18
While in its generic sense trafficking refers to the unsanctioned movement of
bodies or goods across borders, often for commercial purposes, by 1910 trafficking in
most popular and humanitarian discourse had become nearly synonymous with prostitution. Moreover, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century activists increasingly
referred to the trade in women as white slavery, a racialized conception that imaginatively conflated prostitution and chattel slavery. Within the phrase white slavery,
white connoted innocence and racial purity, while slavery suggested a lack of

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freedom and possession by another individual. On a symbolic level, the notion that
prostitutes suffered under slavery-like conditions was mapped onto the understanding
of trafficking as organized prostitution. In addition to its proximal effects, Steads
expose performed important cultural work by cementing this connection between
prostitution and slavery, a symbolic association that continues to animate representations of prostitution and to mobilize transnational social actors on behalf of todays
sex slaves.
Journalism and the New Abolitionism

The traffic in women continued to be an object of newspaper crusades in England

and the United States until the onset of World War I. Grassroots activism in both
countries waned by the 1930s, although the League of Nations was active in this arena
well into the 1930s and the United Nations declared sex trafficking a human rights
violation in 1949. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of economic globalization, however, there has been an increase in media exposes on trafficking and prostitution as well as heightened visibility of concern surrounding the global sex trade.
Many of the new campaigns against global sex slavery are based in the United States
and England. Most recently, American celebrities like George Clooney, Demi Moore,
and Ashton Kutcher pledged money to combat sex trafficking and used their celebrity
status to publicize the issue.19 In September 2010, Moore and Kutcher unveiled their
new campaign Real Men Dont Buy Girls at the Clinton Global Initiative forum,
which will feature public service messages by such high-profile men as Ben Stiller,
Ben Affleck, and Snoop Doggy Dog. The DNA (Demi and Ashton) Foundation
also intends to work with communications companies like Microsoft and Square, a
mobile credit card reader, to create technological barriers to online sexual exchanges.
At a press conference, Kutcher claimed that the anniversary of Abraham Lincolns
Emancipation Proclamation was not celebrated because people believe slavery is over.
Invoking the evangelical neo-abolitionist Kevin Baless oft-cited figure, Kutcher
claimed there were 27 million slaves in the world today and of these 1 million [are]
in the United States today, of which 120,000 to 130,000 are children, raped for the
benefit of pimps.20
To some degree our current understanding of trafficking is the result of remnants
of historical discourses that congealed during an earlier wave of global migration,
revived in a new historical moment. An increased wave of immigration in the 1990s
led to renewed attention to sex trafficking, which was represented in the early 1990s
in the news media and among feminist organizations like the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) as the dark underbelly of globalization and free-market
economies. As the 1990s went on, however, evangelical groups, harnessing their
activism to human rights initiatives, became increasingly interested in sex trafficking
as a social ill that preys upon the most innocent victims.21
As evangelical antitrafficking efforts gained momentum after 9/11, there was a shift
toward representations of innocent victims and villainous captors that continued to
emphasize globalization, but only to the degree that it created new opportunities for
evildoers. This emphasis on bad guys who enslave girls led to a focus on criminality
and a quest to find law-and-order solutions to the problem of sex trafficking. For

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example, the evangelical activist Gary Haugen, head of the International Justice
Mission (a group based in the United States that conducts raids on brothels in India,
Thailand, and Cambodia), has repeatedly claimed that trafficking is not a poverty
issue, its a law enforcement issue.22 In a Christianity Today article of 2007 commemorating the great abolitionist William Wilberforce, Haugen claimed there were 25
million slaves in the modern world and went on to suggest that the problem surpasses
the transatlantic slave trade in size and severity: There are more slaves in the world
today than were extracted from Africa during 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade.
More than 25 million human beings are slaves in 2007. They are not slaves in a
metaphorical sense. They are held in forced servitude by other human beings. The
statistics may seem incomprehensible, but my colleagues and I have known thousands
of them by name. Haugen then offered his theory of the most important factor
behind slavery, aggressive violence. As he explained, That is the core reality of
forced labor: coercion and terror. Poverty, ignorance, and spiritual darkness are all
part of a complex set of social factors that exacerbate slaves original vulnerability, but
once enslaved, they need someone to rescue them from the brutal hand of their
oppressor. Haugen recounted the story of Elizabeth, a 16-year-old girl held inside a
brothel in Thailand for whom it was money for Bible college that lured her into
the hands of a sex trafficker who lied about a job across the border. Once inside the
brothel, however, it was sheer violent terror that forced her to submit to multiple
rapes by the brothels paying customers.23 While acknowledging tenuous links
between cases of forced prostitution to economic inequalities, many current trafficking
narratives take the form of melodramas that depict innocent victims enslaved by evil
people who must be stopped.24
From an early twenty-first-century vantage point, it is clear that fears of womens
sexuality, immigrant populations, urbanization, and racial mixing were encapsulated
in campaigns against sex trafficking a century ago. Maiden Tribute was a watershed
moment for the antivice movement because it defined a new object of humanitarian
concern that had both domestic and international dimensions and was consonant with
prevailing understandings of womens purity.25 The social anxieties expressed in
current trafficking narratives are not always so readily apparent, but an examination
of the sex slavery expose can provide a starting point for examining why trafficking
has resurfaced as, in the words of former president George W. Bush, a spreading but
hidden evil.26 If Steads crusading journalism helped propel an international
movement against sex slavery, how has recent reportage helped to produce sex trafficking as a central object of humanitarian action?
Twenty-first-century investigative reports on sex trafficking have followed a
different trajectory. Where some evangelical antitrafficking crusaders learned about
the phenomenon through episodic accounts of busted sex trafficking rings in the 1990s
press, the last decades highest-profile exposes, both published by the New York Times
in January 2004, emerged in the context of an already growing movement. In 2000,
the United Nations established the Optional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (also known as the UN
Protocol), and the United States passed the Victims of Violence and Trafficking in
Persons Act, which mandates a yearly TIP report. By 2004, in an address to the

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United Nations, President Bush had declared sex trafficking as the worst moral
scourge confronting the planet.
On the heels of President Bushs call to end sex slavery, the New York Times ran
two reports on the topic in January 2004. The first was Nicholas Kristof s series on
teenage prostitution in Poipet, Cambodia, which appeared in five installments
between January 14 and January 31. Apparently ignorant of Steads unscrupulous strategies, Kristof s special journalistic and humanitarian mission was to purchase the
freedom of two sex slaves and write about his experiences for New York Times readers.
The other was Peter Landesmans January 25 piece in the New York Times Magazine,
The Girls Next Door, a detailed investigative report focusing on the ubiquity of
internationally trafficked sex slaves in the United States that blended interviews,
personal narratives, and hearsay to create a partially fictive portrayal of the global sex
trade.
While the exposes in question did not spearhead antitrafficking movements, they
did perform important cultural work by helping to establish the invisibility of the
trade, a move that rendered critique of trafficking narratives difficult and established
a dynamic in which belief trumped evidence. These trafficking exposes also used a
relatively small number of personal narratives to metonymically stand in for the
alleged millions of victims of sex trafficking worldwide, and tended to appeal to a
rhetoric of revelation in which antitrafficking authors behaved as though their ideas
were spawned at the very moment in which they personally encountered prostitution.27
Hiding in Plain Sight

In December 2001, the Canadian newsmagazine Macleans printed an expose of the

countrys alleged traffic in women. Inside the Sex Trade purported to capture for
its readers the largely invisible yet rapidly expanding world of sexual trafficking. The
cover photograph suggested that viewers were covertly witnessing an intensely private
but also bleak and impersonal moment between two figures. The photo was framed
by a doorway, which illuminated only a small portion of the austere room within.
Inside the room, a shirtless man, obese and hairy, lay on a massage table, his face
obscured. A dressed woman leaned listlessly against the doorway, her back to the
camera and gaze fixed on the man on the table. A caption identified the scene as
occurring in a Toronto massage parlor. Another caption read: Trafficking in foreign
prostitutes is one of the fastest-growing illicit activities in the world. Welcome to a
hidden Canadaand lives of quiet desperation. The magazines cover featured a
slightly open doorway inviting readers to view just a small slice of what presumably
lay inside both the magazine and the massage parlor. Macleans readers were promised
an expanded view of this disturbingly different world.28
Though other sex trafficking exposes appearing during this period were peppered
with similar allusions to the sex trades hidden nature and the readers potential for
voyeurism, the most extreme example of this tendency was Peter Landesmans article.
The magazines cover photo was captioned Sex Slaves on Main Street and featured
an image of a girl sitting on a bed with a wooden dresser behind her. The generic
nature of the comforter and dresser suggested that the photos backdrop was a cheap

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motel room. A teenager in a schoolgirls outfit, with a short plaid skirt and knee-high
black socks, sat on the bed. The photo was taken from below and the girls face was
partially cropped. Because the camera was focused on the girls knees, viewers were
literally looking up the girls skirt. This photo served as an invitation to readers to
indulge their voyeuristic fantasies, in much the same way as the partially opened door
in the Macleans photo did.
This salacious cover photo was the introduction to Landesmans dubious investigative piece that purported to detail the methods used by Eastern European and
Mexican trafficking rings to import sex slaves into the United States. Evidence for
Landesmans claims rested on a mixture of interviews with law enforcement agents as
well as feminist and evangelical antitrafficking activists, first-person observation, lavish
description based on hearsay, and interviews with two self-described sex slaves to create
a composite representation of global trafficking circuits and the despicably brutal practices that recruiters and Mexican pimps use to break girls in and prepare them for
the rigors of sex slavery in the United States.29 Some of the scenarios he described,
such as lines of sex slaves in mini skirts and high-heels being force-marched across the
U.S.Mexico border and a child sex ring that conducts its transactions at Disneyland,
were so outlandish that a number of bloggers and media critics pointed out several
blatant contradictions in his story and questioned the veracity of his sources.30 During
the postpublication media blitz about his expose, Landesman admitted while being
interviewed for Fresh Air that his primary informant, Andrea, suffered from multiple
personality disorder.31
Along with other recent antitrafficking publications like Kevin Baless and Ron
Soodalters The Slave Next Door, The Girls Next Door appeals to a logic of ubiquity
and invisibility.32 One section of Landesmans piece was suggestively titled In the
United States: Hiding in Plain Sight.33 Such appeals to invisibility lead to a peculiar
dynamic in which groups and individuals claiming the widespread existence of slavery
speculate as to its scope and scale, while law enforcement sets out after the fact to
confirm such allegations. The ensuing allocation of vast resources and elaborate institutional responses are then justified to critics through an appeal to the invisibility of
the phenomenon. For example, Landesman reported that Laura Lederer, acting as
senior State Department advisor on trafficking, told him: Were not finding victims
in the United States because were not looking for them.34 Lederer articulates a paradoxical reasoning in which the presence of a phenomenon purported to be invisible is
actually supported by its very unverifiability.
The Rhetoric of Revelation

When comparing a century of narratives over sex trafficking, it becomes clear that
while the temporal and spatial vectors have changed, the basic narrative structure of
these stories has remained the same. The following two passages illustrate how a revelatory discourse similar to that deployed by Stead functions in recent journalistic antitrafficking narratives.
The first example comes from a speech delivered by Dorchen Leidholdt, coexecutive director of CATW, to fellow feminist antitrafficking activists. In this speech
Leidholdt describes how she posed as a newspaper reporter to get inside a Frankfurt

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brothel and how her encounter with the citys legal sex industry convinced her of the
necessity to combat prostitution in all its forms. CATW explicitly aligns itself with
earlier women-led campaigns against trafficking and nearly singlehandedly kept the
trafficking-as-prostitution thesis alive in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when many
American feminists were preoccupied debating whether or not pornography was the
lynchpin of womens oppression. The group argues that trafficking and prostitution
are synonymous phenomena and sharply disagrees with distinctions other feminist
and human rights groups make between legal and illegal or voluntary and coerced
prostitution (or any other frameworks meant to differentiate among forms of
commercial sex and degrees of harm and risk). At the level of narrative, Leidholdts
speech sought to create and reinforce strong semantic and emotional associations
among the terms trafficking, prostitution, slavery, and violence:
While not as dire as their internationally trafficked sisters, the lot of the legally
prostituted woman was also dismal. Posing as an American newspaper reporter, I
was welcomed by the madam into a legal brothel in the heart of Frankfurt. It
resembled a four-star hotel in the US. I was soon surrounded by a group of women
eager for a distraction from their late afternoon wait for their clients. Several of
the womens husbands were also their pimps, most of the women were from poor,
rural areas of Germany, and all faced bleak futures with few employment skills.
The sex of prostitution was an unwanted invasion they had developed a series of
strategies to avoidtheir favorite, they confided, was to get the men so drunk that
they didnt know what they were penetrating. The women seemed bored and
depressed. The depression deepened when I asked them what they were going to
be doing in five years. Aside from one woman who said that she hoped to help
manage the brothel, they were at a loss for words. [ . . . ] When I boarded the
plane to Strasbourg, it seemed indisputable to me that prostitution and sex trafficking were interrelated phenomena.35
Here Leidholdt chooses to impersonate a journalist, of all people, in order to gain
access to the interior of a brothel. Leidholdts invocation of a rhetoric of revelation is
somewhat more subtle than that of most journalists. She does not make an overt claim
that these women are held captive inside. However, she does interpret the womens
affect and failure to answer some of her questions as depression. Leidholdts experience
of this perceived emotion then leads her to posit a connection between prostitution
and sex trafficking as inseparable phenomena. She implies that the sex workers in all
contexts are experiencing similar emotions.
The second passage appeared in the January 17 installment of Kristof s Cambodian
sex-trafficking series. Kristof describes posing as an American sex tourist so that he
can purchase the freedom of young sex slaves in order to eventually deliver them back
to their families in rural Cambodia. Reviving a long-established tradition in the factgathering methodology of trafficking journalism, Kristof purchases a real live sex slave.
But this time he buys her freedom instead of chloroforming her and having her hymen
checked, in an apparent improvement over Steads approach. Here Kristof meets Srey
Momm, one of the two girls whose freedom he purchases:

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Another girl, Srey Momm, grabbed at me as I walked down the street. She
wouldnt let go, tugging me toward the inner depths of her brothelbut she
looked so young and pitiable that I couldnt help thinking that she really wanted
me to tug her away.
So I did. I paid the owner $8 to spring her for the evening and then took her
away for an interview. . . . I asked Srey Momm what her freedom would cost.
Payment of about $70 in debts to her brothel owner, she said. Two girls in her
brothel had been freed after they found boyfriends who paid their debts, she said,
and she spoke of her longing to see her sisters and the rest of her family in her
village on the other side of Cambodia.
Do you really want to leave the brothel? I asked.
I love myself, she answered simply. I do not want to let my life be destroyed
by what Im doing now.
Thats when I made a firm decision Id been toying with for some time: I
would try to buy freedom for these two girls and return them to their families. Ill
tell you in my column Wednesday what happens next.36
Kristof s purchase of Momms freedom appears at once as a rehash of and at the same
time as an improvement on Steads kidnapping and assault. But both journalists take
the logic of the exotic touristic encounter with commercial sex to the brink, then
recover their own and their readers moral high ground by releasing their female
subjects and framing the stunt as a humanitarian action. Certainly Kristof s assaultfree approach allows him to end his travels with an instance of moral consumerism,
the ultimate feel good purchase (a righteous souvenir of sorts). However, even
though Kristof verifies the actual freedom of his victim with the same enthusiasm that
Stead verified his victims virginity (Kristof devotes a chapter of Half the Sky to Srey
Neth and Srey Momm, the two girls he purchased), it is possible that these methods
perform little good other than serving as publicity stunts and rhetorical fodder in the
form of journalistic evidence.37
Indeed, purchasing sex slaves, even for the purpose of obtaining their freedom,
may in fact exacerbate problems of prostitution in impoverished areas. The trafficking
in persons Report of 2009 specifically warned against taking such measures to combat
human trafficking in all its manifestations.38 In the case of prostitution, such a strategy
creates a market for sex slaves whose freedom becomes another item to be purchased
on the brothels menu. Just as virginity can be purchased at a premium in illicit sex
markets, so too now can freedom. It matters not whether Steads girl was a real
virgin or Kristof s was really a slave. An influx of crusaders with full wallets can
ultimately result in the costly purchase of false hope.
Kristof s and Leidholdts eyewitness accounts emerged from different institutional
locations. Leidholdt is an antitrafficking activist who traveled abroad to convince an
international audience that abolishing prostitution in all its forms should be feminisms central task. Kristof traveled to Cambodia at the behest of the New York Times
in order to bring stories about trafficking back to American newspaper readers. Yet
despite differences in time and placenot to mention diverging political and professional agendasthe authors offer strikingly similar perspectives on the sex industry
and the women working in it.

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Such stories, reproduced at international conferences, in activist publications, and

in the print, broadcast, and digital media, constitute evidence that the trade exists,
standing in as a synecdoche for the alleged millions of trafficking cases worldwide.
When storiesespecially two firsthand accountsshare so many common features,
we can generally assume an important essential truth is being conveyed about an event
or phenomenon. These narrators must have captured some intrinsic or elemental
aspect of prostitution that would be readily available to all sympathetic observers
venturing into such spaces as German brothels or Cambodian red light districts. It is
my contention, however, that what connects these two representations has less to do
with what our activist and reporter witnessed in Germany and Cambodia as it does
with the way they understood what they saw and heard and the conventions they
drew upon to bring these findings to light. The similarities also have to do with their
use of a common rhetorical strategy in which these stories stand in for a larger reality
but also certify their argument that the trade exists and universally means what they
say it means: in Leidholdts case that all sex workers are helpless victims, and in
Kristof s case that trafficking is the only form of prostitution with which we should
be concerned.39
These representations share at least two striking features that are common to innumerable journalistic and activist narratives of sex slavery and that highlight the power
of narrative to write us, in Stuart Halls words.40 First, the concept of trafficking as
it has evolved linguistically exercises a determining force in both narratives. From the
beginning, trafficking constitutes the frame through which the authors view the social
milieu of commercial sex. Both authors approach their object fully expecting to
witness scenes of imprisonment and hear stories of emotional depression and withdrawal. Yet details offered up in their own narratives depend on lavish interpretive
license in order to conform to the trafficking narrative. Kristof meets Srey Momm
when she grabs him walking the streets of Poipet. Assuming he is a Western sex
tourist, she pulls him toward her brothel, an action that disrupts the sense of forcible
enclosure that Kristof has earlier equated with slavery. The journalist superimposes his
own interpretation on the interaction: She wouldnt let go, tugging me toward the
inner depths of her brothelbut she looked so young and pitiable that I couldnt
help thinking that she really wanted me to tug her away. Likewise, Leidholdt interprets her informants loss for words in response to her query about future prospects
as emotional resignation. While occasionally errant details threaten to undermine
these narratives, the concept of trafficking serves to unify and anchor them, pulling
the stories toward established conventional meanings.
Second, witness accounts, such as these that assert sex slavery, are infused with a
rhetoric of revelation. Although Leidholdt and Kristof purposely set out to chronicle
trafficking and sex slavery, they nonetheless rely on a revelatory discourse to convey
what they witness in the field. Thus, despite a predisposition to see and document sex
slavery, the actual encounter with what they understand as trafficking is inevitably
couched as a discovery. Encounters with the object inevitably lead the chronicler to
confess shock, stirring, awakening, surprise, and renewed conviction to battle trafficking. For example, Leidholdt leaves the Frankfurt brothel with what she describes
as a renewed belief that trafficking and prostitution are intrinsically related

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phenomena (as though her belief in this understanding of trafficking had ever been in
doubt). The ubiquity of revelatory discourse in antitrafficking texts leads me to believe
that they are actually ritualized travel narratives, stories of predestined epiphany resembling the experience of a pilgrim visiting a foreign shrine. These accounts put both
audience and writer on the moral high ground. The writer invites the reader to partake
in an exotic touristic narrative; and because that narrative has a moral, both can feel
good about their role as witness.
Narrative and Political Effects

The purpose of this inquiry has not been to assert that narratives are fictive but to
underscore the idea that journalists often employ old familiar victim narratives to
create stories and garner evidence that promote particular interpretations of the
meaning of commercial sex work. These meanings are not just a matter of personal
opinion and are not mere semantic distinctions but have broad policy implications
and even more pointedly become the hinge on which legal definitions turn.
The antitrafficking crusade that gained traction under the Bush administration
tends to conceive of all prostitution as a form of slaverythe worst form of slavery
ever. And some moral entrepreneurs like John R. Miller, who until 2006 headed the
State Departments Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, have
campaigned for a thoroughgoing eradication of prostitution under the mantle of antitrafficking.41 Following this reasoning, there is something that is so morally repugnant
about prostitution that it should somehow be grandfathered in as a special type of
trafficking, even in local cases in which there is no movement or migration of people,
forced or unforced. Indeed, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection
Reauthorization Act of 2008 contained a provision that rendered so-called domestic
traffickingwithout so much as crossing a state bordera federal crime.42 This
provision allocated five million dollars to local urban police squads to aid in routine
crackdowns on street prostitution. Pimps can now be convicted of a federal crime and
serve prison sentences disproportionate to the offense (as long as ninety-nine years),
and discussions on how to implement similar draconian punishments for clients of
prostitutes are currently underway.43
Because of its historical association with prostitution and the way it has been used
interchangeably with the terms forced labor and slavery, the concept of trafficking tends to confuse rather than clarify the multiplicity of processes of labor and
migration in the global economy. Human trafficking implies the movement of people
across borders, and yet in a form of symbolic slippage, trafficking has gone from
denoting the unsanctioned movement across nations or states to the domestic
movement of people (rural to urban migration, for example). Now, it is even used to
describe conditions in which there is no movement at all (urban street prostitution,
for example), and antitrafficking activists assert that movement is not necessary for
trafficking to occur. One antitrafficking organizations website states human trafficking is modern-day slavery through labor or commercial sexual exploitation, and
does not require transportation to occur, though transportation may be involved.44
The target of many antitrafficking interventionsprostitution and not forced or
coerced migrationultimately stands in for and displaces other forms of labor and

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other forms of exploitative migration, thereby eliding and undercutting the significance of forced and exploitative migrant labor as well as the trafficking of humans for
nonsexual exploitation.
The United Nations, to its credit, has consistently deployed a more nuanced
understanding of sex trafficking that distinguishes among forced and voluntary
migration for work into the sex industry. The UNs new forced labor approach
being advanced under the aegis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) is
beneficial because it emphasizes labora critical variable that many antisex trafficking activists have tried to deemphasizeand considers the trafficking and forced
labor of people across a range of industries, from the sex industry to gem-cutting and
agricultural work. Critically, the ILOs efforts to combat forced labor take into
account that men and boys are also victims of this practice.
However, legislation often has unanticipated effects, and policies pertaining to
forced prostitution can also be used for purposes that may interest states and their
law and order campaigns but that have little to do with ensuring the security of
men, women, and children. For example, the United States could easily adopt forced
labor statutes that are used in practice only to crack down on and impose heavy
punishments on prostitutes, their clients, and their intermediaries. A more nuanced
approach to prostitution would recognize womens agency, distinguish among
voluntary and involuntary prostitution, and not demonize sex workers or cut funding
from programs that emphasize harm reduction.
Conclusion

Attempts to curb trafficking by creating heightened minimum jail sentences for perpetrators do nothing to address the conditions that lead to prostitution and to forced
labor more generally. It is also possible that recent efforts to curb the global traffic in
women can harm rather than assist migrating and nonmigrating women who work in
the sex industry. Those who facilitate unsanctioned immigration do so in order to
circumvent restrictive immigration policies. Yet for many women in poor countries,
the ability to enter constitutes the appeal of debt-bondage contracts. Legal solutions
to trafficking often culminate in the creation of restrictive immigration laws and the
fortification of national borders. If anything, the history of panics over trafficking
suggests that activists, in their selection of issues, should base their decisions not on
the phenomenological experience of shock in confronting representations of sex
slavery but on historical and social knowledge of the unintentional material effects of
past campaigns against trafficking on womens lives.
If we remain mired in a discourse of innocent victims and villainous captors, we
are unlikely to find solutions to the problem that do not ultimately rely on repressive
measures to curb instances of forcible trafficking. As some progressives have pointed
out, the suppression of prostitution through negative means often leads to the
production of new social problems, while frequently intensifying old ones. While the
legal solution to trafficking is to restrict immigration and fortify national borders,
the solution in part exacerbates the problem it attempts to ameliorate. Moreover,
journalistic and activist approaches insisting that all forms of prostitution are trafficking, or that trafficking is a problem primarily of sexual slavery, ultimately

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encourage international policy and domestic legal tactics that target prostitution and
thus female prostitutes, the women they purportedly assist. Once again, this points to
the importance of critical approaches to how journalists gather evidence, tell stories,
and create meanings. If journalists who seek to render sex trafficking visible to policymakers do not understand the narratives and rhetorical tropes they are deploying in
their productions, how can they be sure that the legislation that may be implemented
as a result of their efforts targets only those undesirable practices and does not have
unintended effects?
Sex trafficking allows governments like the United States to appear to be making
humanitarian interventions by focusing on moral crusades of relatively limited scope
and cost. State-sponsored campaigns to end trafficking are not conducted against other
states, or against terrorists who might fight back; they are humanitarian actions that
even a noninterventionist like former American UN ambassador John Bolton would
likely approve. The public and international communities applaud such efforts
because they approve of humanitarian efforts that help people. But when these efforts
produce few resultsin this case few sex traffickers and few trafficked womenthe
American public, in particular, is still left with a feeling of satisfaction because its sense
of moral rectitude has been stroked. This moral ethos overwhelms any residue of
failure that might potentially smear the antisex trafficking international agenda. Thus
the antisex trafficking movement presents a win-win proposition for politicians who
promote it: they come out looking good regardless of the results.
In a field whose primary function is to report on the new, journalists are not
always historically informed and rarely reflect on the linkages between journalistic
methods and specific representations, including portrayals of gendered and racialized
violence. Yet reportage and humanitarian representations are always a blend of fact
and narrative. They are human creations that explain events and attempt to incite
change. Ideally these representations would be accountable to the facts, including
where they came from, whom they came from, and the conditions under which they
were produced. But it is also important to critically examine stories as narratives, to
understand how meaning is created, how stories are structured, and how certain stories
are deployed to particular effects. After all, the stories we tell are never just stories in
a vacuum. These stories have social and institutional effects; and those effects, the
products of narrative, are facts as well.
In addition to using recycled stories and images from earlier eras, journalists and
antitrafficking activists repeatedly deploy a number of rhetorical strategies to legitimize
their claims about prostitution. As I have shown in this essay, one prominent strategy
is the rhetoric of revelation, in which a journalist or activist tells a story recounting
how the direct experience of having contact with a prostitute led him or her to have
an epiphany in which his or her beliefs about sex trafficking were revealed as a Gestalt,
moral imperative, or higher level of awareness. By appealing to the reader to accept
their direct experience, in particular the experience of emotions attributed to the sex
worker or by the writer on her behalf, authors using the rhetoric of revelation establish
authority and legitimize the truth value and generalizability of their narrative as well
as explicitly certify their own point of view about commercial sex work. The endpoint
of this rhetoric is almost always an oversimplified argument about the nature of sex

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work, one that posits a single truth and tends to be highly reductionist. While there
is no logical reason why the rhetoric of revelation should always result in oversimplified understandings of sex work and womens mobility, the fact remains that in the
past and present the overwhelming function of the rhetoric of revelation is not to
explain at all but to establish belief.
NOTES

1. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity
for Women Worldwide (New York: Vintage, 2009), xiv.
2. United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, 10th ed. (Washington,
D.C., 2010), 7.
3. International Labour Organization, Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children for
Labour, Sexual and Other Forms of Exploitation (Geneva: ILO Publications, 2009), 34.
4. Kevin Bales, Zoe Trodd, and Alex Kent Williamson, Modern Slavery: The Secret World of
27 Million People (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009).
5. Kamala Kempadoo, Globalizing Sex Workers Rights, Canadian Women Studies/Les
Cahiers de la Femme 22, no. 3/4 (2003): 144.
6. U.S. Department of Justice, Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking
in Persons in Fiscal Year 2004 (Washington, D.C., 2005), 4.
7. U.S. Government Accountability Office, Human Trafficking: Better Data, Strategy, and
Reporting Needed to Enhance U.S. Antitrafficking Efforts Abroad (Washington, D.C., 2006), 2.
8. For example, the Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children for Labour, Sexual and
Other Forms of Exploitation claims that the criminal and hidden nature of trafficking means that
the only data available are generally based on the few reports that come to light. [ . . . ] By their
very nature, these figures probably underestimate the true picture. International Labour Organization, Training Manual, 34.
9. See Sally Engle Mary, Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law
into Local Justice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006); Penelope Saunders, Traffic Violations: Determining the Meaning of Violence in Sexual Trafficking versus Sex Work, Journal of
Interpersonal Violence 20, no. 3 (2005): 34360; Gretchen Soderlund, Running from the Rescuers:
New U.S. Crusades against Sex Trafficking and the Rhetoric of Abolition, NWSA Journal 17, no.
3 (2005): 6487.
10. One striking exception to this claim is Judith R. Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight:
Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
11. See, for example, Stephanie L. Limoncelli, The Politics of Trafficking: The First International
Movement to Combat the Sexual Exploitation of Women (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010);
Ruth Rosen, The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America, 19001918 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1983).
12. Frances E. Willard, Glimpses of Fifty Years: The Autobiography of an American Woman
(Chicago: Womans Temperance Publication Association, 1889), 419.
13. Nina Shapiro, The New Abolitionists, Seattle Weekly, August 30, 2004.
14. Stead used the terms girls and children interchangeably in the expose. In fact all of
the girls to whom he refers were teenagers.
15. For more on the earlier campaigns, see Judith R. Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian
Society: Women, Class, and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980).

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16. Raymond L. Shultz, Crusader in Babylon: W. T. Stead and the Pall Mall Gazette (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1972); Anthony E. Simpson, ed., The Maiden Tribute of Modern
Babylon: The Report of the Secret Commission by W. T. Stead (Lambertville, N.J.: True Bill Press,
2007); Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight.
17. For an insightful account of the globalization of prostitution in the nineteenth century,
see Limoncelli, Politics of Trafficking.
18. See Brian Donovan, White Slave Crusades: Race, Gender, and Anti-Vice Activism, 18871919
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006); Limoncelli, Politics of Trafficking; Rosen, Lost Sisterhood.
19. George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh served as executive producers of the 2009 documentary Playground: The Child Sex Trade in America, directed by Libby Spears.
20. Karen Rubin, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore Launch Campaign to Stop Child Sex Trafficking, Long Island Populist Examiner, September 26, 2010.
21. For an account of the recent evangelical involvement in human rights campaigns, see Allen
D. Hertzke, Freeing Gods Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights (New York:
Rowman and Littlefield, 2004); see also Elizabeth Bernstein, The Sexual Politics of the New
Abolitionism: Imagery and Activism in Contemporary Anti-Trafficking Campaigns, differences
18, no. 3 (2007): 12851.
22. Quoted in Peter Landesman, The Girls Next Door, New York Times Magazine, January
25, 2004, 3435.
23. Gary Haugen, On a Justice Mission, Christianity Today, March 2007.
24. For an insightful analysis of melodrama as a pervasive post-9/11 cultural narrative, see
Elizabeth Anker, Melodrama, Victims, and September 11, Journal of Communication 55, no. 1
(2005): 2237.
25. While Steads investigation focused on the London sex slave market, it contained sections
on the import of French and rural girls to London and the export of British girls to other European
countries.
26. George W. Bush, Address to the United Nations (September 23, 2003), http://www
.presidentialrhetoric.com/speeches/09.23.03.html (accessed May 29, 2005).
27. Given that the rhetoric of revelation, which structures so many sex slave narratives, is
similar to standing before a church and bearing witness to the personal experience of being born
again, it is little wonder these narratives have appealed to evangelicals.
28. Susan McClelland, Inside the Sex Trade, Macleans, December 3, 2001, 2125.
29. Landesman claims some girls in Mexico were made to have sex with 29 to 30 men a day;
they would do this seven days a week usually for weeks but sometimes for months before they
were ready for the United States. Landesman, The Girls Next Door, 37.
30. The blogger Daniel Radosh, the Slate media critic Jack Shafer, and the journalist Debbie
Nathan continue to express intense skepticism over Landesmans piece, claiming that at least parts
of it were fabricated.
31. See Jack Shafer, Doubting Landesman: Im Not the Only One Questioning the Times
Magazines Sex-slave Story, Slate, January 27, 2004, http://www.slate.com/id/2094502 (accessed
March 15, 2011).
32. Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter, The Slaves Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in
America Today (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009).
33. Landesman, Girls Next Door, 38.

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34. Ibid., 37.

35. Dorchen Leidholdt, Demand and the Debate, CATW website, http://action.web.ca/
home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x53793 (accessed May 2, 2009).
36. Nicholas D. Kristof, Girls for Sale, New York Times, January 17, 2004.
37. Indeed, Srey Momm (spelled Mom in Kristof s New York Times pieces) ultimately
rejected Kristof s rescue attempts. Kristof reports being devastated when, during a follow-up
visit to Poipet, he found Momm working in the same brothel from which he had purchased her a
year earlier. Over the course of 2004 an American aid group had given Momm several chances to
earn a living outside of prostitution, but each time Srey Mom fled back to the brothel. Kristof
attributes Momms inability to be rescued to her low self-esteem, her drug addiction, and her
eerily close relationship with Mrs. Heok Tem, the brothel owner, whom she calls Mother.
Kristof, Back to the Brothel, New York Times, January 22, 2005, A10. The purchases of Srey
Momm and Srey Neth are also detailed at length in Half the Sky. The uncertainty of purchasing
freedom leads the authors to conclude that rescue is sometimes impossible, and thats why it is
most productive to focus efforts on prevention and putting brothels out of business. Kristof and
WuDunn, Half the Sky, 45. For more on the politics of rescue, see Soderlund, Running from the
Rescuers.
38. U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, 9th ed. (Washington, D.C.,
2009), 24.
39. Kristof advocates a big stick approach to prostitution. He contends that sex slavery is
so heinous a crime that using law enforcement and other repressive measures to end it outweighs
any harm that may come to nontrafficked prostitutes in the process. See Kristof and WuDunn,
Half the Sky, 2534.
40. Stuart Hall, The Narrative Construction of Reality, Southern Review 17, no. 1 (1984): 8.
41. John R. Miller, The Justice Department, Blind to Slavery, New York Times, July 11,
2008. Miller believes that all women prostitutes, except perhaps the highest-paid call girls, are
victims.
42. U.S. Department of Justice, William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (Washington, D.C., 2008), http://www.justice.gov/olp/pdf/wilber
force-act.pdf (accessed September 25, 2010).
43. Bernstein, Sexual Politics, 148.
44. Polaris Project, http://www.polarisproject.org (accessed September 10, 2010).

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WHATS THE COST OF A

RUMOUR?
A guide to sorting out the myths and the facts
about sporting events and trafficking

2011

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WHATS THE COST OF A RUMOUR?

A guide to sorting out the myths and the facts about sporting events
and trafficking
2011 Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)

Writer and researcher: Julie Ham

Cover Photo by Jay Simmons
jay.simmons@rgbstock.com
Layout & design: Alfie Gordo
Printing: Suphattra Poonneam
Supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.
Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
P.O. Box 36, Bangkok Noi Post Office
Bangkok 10700 Thailand
Email: gaatw@gaatw.org
Website: www.gaatw.org

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
How to read this information guide?
Executive summary

6
8

LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

11

What is trafficking? What is not trafficking?

What is the link being made between trafficking and large sporting events?
What is the evidence on this link?
2010 World Cup, South Africa
2010 Olympics, Vancouver, Canada
2006 World Cup, Berlin, Germany
2004 Olympics, Athens, Greece
US Super Bowls, e.g. Dallas (2011), Tampa (2009), Phoenix (2008)

12
14
15
16
18
20
22
23

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

29

If there isnt any evidence, why is the connection still made? Doesnt all this attention
mean somethings going on?
Is it possible that the media and political hype actually helped prevent trafficking
from occurring?
Even if there isnt any evidence, is there any harm in publicising this issue? What are the
consequences of an unscreened rumour?
Wasting needed resources
Misrepresenting people and issues ultimately undermines anti-trafficking
objectives
Criminal penalties and human rights violations against sex workers
Cleaning up the streets by displacing sex workers and other marginalised groups
Controlling womens travel
Even if there isnt evidence, is it still possible that trafficking for prostitution could
increase during large sporting events?

30
34
36
36
38
39
41
42
43

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

51

Are there any connections between other forms of trafficking and large sporting events?
Whats the best way to deal with the issue of trafficking around international sporting
events?
Consult and collaborate with groups affected by trafficking and/or
antitrafficking measures
Raise awareness about rights and options, not fear or pity
Encourage more thoughtful analysis in public discussions around trafficking
Offer legal, non-exploitative labour options for migrants
Address sex workers fears of police violence and exploitation
Decriminalise sex work
Base anti-trafficking efforts on evidence, not sensationalism

52

55
56
59
60
60
62
64

To sum up
Useful contacts and suggested resources
Acknowledgements

69
70
75

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54

How to read this information guide?

Whats this for?
There has been a lot published on the supposed link between sporting events and trafficking, but how
much of it is true and how much of it is useful? With this guide, weve tried to pull out the most useful
information on this topic. To do this, we reviewed literature from various sources including anti-trafficking
organisations, sex workers rights organisations, other types of non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
academic researchers, UN bodies, government offices, the media and the GAATW network.
We hope that the information here will help readers:
Develop proportionate and evidence-based anti-trafficking responses, rather than measures
based on ideology or public myths;
Critically analyse claims and assumptions about trafficking and sporting events;
Share factual information about trafficking and quickly correct misinformation about
trafficking;
Quickly respond to measures that stigmatise sex workers and migrants, including
prostitution abolitionist campaigns; and
Learn what worked and what didnt in past host cities.

Whos this for?

Audiences that are interested in anti-trafficking issues:
Media
Government representatives
General public
Local officials, city planners
Law enforcement
Civil society, including anti-trafficking organisations and sex workers rights organisations

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LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

How to use this guide

Pull out what you need Given the diverse needs of different audiences, weve tried to make each
chapter work as a stand-alone document.
Listen to what different voices are saying Messages can resonate in different ways with different
audiences, so weve tried very hard to include a variety of quotes representing different voices that
have worked on this issue. The quotes and source materials referenced here come from anti-trafficking
organisations, sex workers rights organisations, law enforcement, journalists, government
representatives, UN bodies, and researchers.

A note about language:

Sex work and prostitution
The terminology around commercial sex can be very politically loaded. Sex workers rights organisations
typically refer to commercial sex as sex work and some have argued against using the term
prostitution. Groups that are seeking to eliminate all forms of sex work use the term prostitution and
reject the term sex work. Since its inception, GAATW has supported sex workers rights and valued
the role of sex workers rights groups in anti-trafficking efforts. However, both sex work and prostitution
are used throughout this document. In most cases, this is to maintain continuity between whose
opinion is being stated; for example, prostitution is often used when abolitionist efforts are being
described, and sex work is used when sex workers rights groups are discussed. In other instances,
prostitution is used when discussing frameworks that use the term prostitution rather than sex
work, e.g. laws in many countries refer to prostitution rather than sex work. Terms in quotes used
in this document have also not been altered.

Abolitionist and prohibitionist

There is also contention around how to identify those who wish to eliminate all forms of sex work.
Many of those who wish to eliminate all forms of sex work identify themselves as abolitionists, i.e.
working to abolish prostitution. In this document, these groups are identified as prostitution abolitionists
to differentiate them from abolitionists in other movements (e.g. movement to abolish slavery). It
should be noted that some sex workers rights allies feel that prohibitionist is a more accurate description
of these groups, as the measures abolitionist groups call for are generally based on increasing criminal
penalties around consensual sex work. While prostitution abolitionists see their efforts as akin to
abolishing slavery, sex workers rights allies and others see them as prohibitionists and their efforts
more akin to prohibiting a social vice.

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Executive Summary
Human trafficking is a very serious human rights violation that demands a sustained and holistic
response based on real evidence. We are concerned that valuable resources and public momentum
are being channelled towards a false link between sporting events and trafficking for prostitution,
resources that are needed elsewhere.

LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

Trafficking is not the same thing as sex work. There is a difference between women
trafficked into prostitution and sex workers who migrate to other countries for work.

Prostitution abolitionists have argued that large groups of men at sporting events result in
increased demand for commercial sex, and that this demand is supposedly met through
trafficking women. Anti-trafficking organisations, sex workers rights organisations and
other stakeholders have strongly refuted this claim.
There is a very wide discrepancy between claims that are made prior to large sporting
events and the actual number of trafficking cases found. There is no evidence that large
sporting events cause an increase in trafficking for prostitution.

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR
Fortunately, more stakeholders are increasingly becoming aware that there is no evidence that large
sporting events increase trafficking for prostitution. During previous sporting events, sex workers rights
organisations in particular, have worked hard to inject an evidence-based approach and human rightsbased approach into anti-trafficking discussions.
There are a number of reasons why an increase in trafficking for prostitution during large sporting
events is unlikely:
Statistically not feasible;
Short-term events are not likely to be profitable for traffickers or sex workers;
Large sporting events are not only attended by men; and
Paid sexual services may not be affordable for most sports visitors.
Despite the lack of evidence, this idea continues to hold great appeal for prostitution abolitionist
groups, anti-immigration groups, politicians and some journalists. The resilience of this inaccurate
claim could be due to:

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Its usefulness as a fundraising strategy;

Its effectiveness in grabbing the media and the publics attention;
Being a quick, easy way to be seen doing something about trafficking;
Being a more socially acceptable guise for prostitution abolitionist agendas and antiimmigration agendas.

LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

Even if numerous law enforcement and anti-trafficking campaigns have not detected the massive
floods predicted, the idea may still sound plausible because of:
Ideas about better victims;
Assumptions about sports and masculinity;
Efforts by prostitution abolitionist groups; and
Ideas about foreign threats.
Anti-trafficking campaigns that are based on unsubstantiated claims can cause collateral damage or
negatively impact the groups they are purported to protect, including:
Wasting needed resources;
Misrepresenting people and issues, ultimately undermining anti-trafficking objectives;
Resulting in increased criminal penalties and human rights violations against sex workers;
Displacing sex workers and other marginalised groups in city clean-up efforts; and
Attempting to restrict or control womens travel.

ACTING EFFECTIVELY
More productive ways to deal with the issue of trafficking around international sporting events are:
Addressing other forms of trafficking and/or exploitation connected to large sporting events,
such as migrant workers rights in the construction industry, workers rights in sport clothing
and equipment industries, and the recruitment of young athletes;
Consulting and collaborating with groups directly affected by trafficking and/or anti-trafficking
measures, including sex workers and migrants;
Raising awareness about peoples rights and options, instead of fuelling fear or pity;
Encouraging more thoughtful analysis in public discussions around trafficking;
Offering legal, non-exploitative labour options for migrants;
Decriminalising sex work;
Addressing sex workers fears of police violence and exploitation; and
Basing anti-trafficking efforts on evidence, not sensationalism.

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What is trafficking? What is not

trafficking?
Trafficking in persons is a very serious human rights violation and is defined by three elements the
movement of a person; with deception or coercion; into a situation of forced labour, servitude or slaverylike practice.1 Trafficking is not the same thing as sex work. While some persons are trafficked into
prostitution, not all (or even most) sex workers are trafficked.
It is possible for sex workers to be trafficked. For example, women already doing sex work may plan
to work abroad but find themselves in a situation where they are unable to move freely. Similarly,
women who have not worked in the sex trade may know they will be doing sex work but find working
conditions unacceptable (e.g. less choice about clients or services, lower rates).
Many women, whom we assisted, had agreed to work in the sex industry, and therefore
do not complain about working in the sex industry, but do complain about their working
conditions. Further one needs to keep in mind that some women, who were initially
trafficked decide to work in the sex industry later.2 Ban Ying, an anti-trafficking
organisation based in Germany and GAATW member
Sexual exploitation is also not the same thing as sex work. While some sex workers may be sexually
exploited (e.g. if a customer refuses to pay, if a club owner demands sexual favours from an employee),
not all sex workers are sexually exploited (i.e. paid, consensual sex is not sexual exploitation).
Escaping trafficking to work independently with other sex workers
Bee (not her real name) was sold by her brother to one of his friends who owned a
brothel in the Narathiwat province in Thailand. Bee was determined to help her brother
and was not afraid of going away to work as she knew who her employer would be.
However, after some time passed, she discovered she was bonded to her employer
and in debt as her brother had been regularly withdrawing her pay from the owner.
She fled the brothel and started working independently in sex work with other sex
workers: Some of the girls who couldnt stand the pressure and exploitation, joined
together to work. We rented a room together and worked without having anyone take
a cut in our earnings or forcing us to do anything. We would look out for each other
and find our own customers, like a self-reliant group. When some of the girls had
saved enough money, they left the group to return home. About a year after earning
money as a sex worker, Bee decided to return home.3 Self Empowerment Programme
for Migrant Women (SEPOM), a returnee migrant womens organisation in Thailand
Trafficking women into prostitution is different from (a) sex workers who migrate to other countries for
work on their own, and (b) persons who help sex workers migrate to other countries for work (i.e.
helping someone travel in itself does not fit the international definition for trafficking).
Despite several media reports to the contrary, foreign migrant sex workers are not
automatically victims of trafficking.Research in Southern Africa has established
that a number of migrant women choose to engage in sex work as a practical solution
to periods of intense economic strain. Although some may make this choice reluctantly,
they are not victims of trafficking. Therefore, they should not be treated as victims to
be rescued and returned to their countries of origin. The idea that migrant sex workers
need to be rescued and rehabilitated is harmful rather than helpful, as it overlooks
the agency and rights of those who engage in sex work.4 Marlise Richter and Tamlyn

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LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

Monson, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand, South

Africa
GAATWs membership has very diverse opinions on sex work, but what we agree on is that:
Sex workers have the right to organize;
Sex workers have the right to safe working conditions;
Violence against women in sex work is a grave human rights violation;
Trafficking is distinct from sex work; and
Anti-trafficking policies must factor in sex workers concerns and knowledge.
In addition to understanding the difference between trafficking and sex work, people should also be
prepared to question trafficking statistics often repeated in the media. Measuring trafficking is notoriously
difficult and estimates can vary widely due to methodological and ideological differences. In actuality,
there still is not a sufficient body of research that accurately measures how many people are trafficked
globally and how many of these are women, men, transgender and/or children.5 6 One significant
limitation has been researchers selective focus on a particular type of trafficking, specifically trafficking
of women into prostitution.7 The consequences of what this selective focus has had on victims of other
forms of trafficking are detailed in GAATWs 2011 Working Paper on Labour Exploitation (www.gaatw.org).
When it comes to statistics, trafficking of girls and women is one of several highly
emotive issues which seem to overwhelm critical faculties. Numbers take on a life of
their own, gaining acceptance through repetition, often with little inquiry into their
derivations. Journalists, bowing to the pressures of editors, demand numbers, any
number. Organizations feel compelled to supply them, lending false precisions and
spurious authority to many reports.8 Trafficking Statistics Project, UNESCO Bangkok
Ann Jordan from the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law (US) suggests the following strategies
to assess the accuracy of anti-trafficking data:
Examine the definitions used, e.g. how is trafficking defined, how is exploitation defined;
Locate the source of the data;
Examine the research methodology;
Think about what information may be missing; and
Ask whether the data actually supports the conclusion.9

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What is the link being made

between trafficking and large
sporting events?
Somewhere along the way, testosterone-lined sports events like the Super Bowl began
to have the reputation of rolling versions of Sodom and Gomorrah. Months before
each event, the clarion calls warn of impending invasions by legions of those who
belong to the worlds oldest profession.10 Super Bowl hyperbole and prostitution,
The Star (Toronto, Canada)
The assumed link between large sporting events and trafficking for prostitution has been argued most
forcefully by groups who believe that eradicating sex work will decrease trafficking (i.e. prostitution
abolitionists). These groups have claimed that large groups of men results in an increased demand for
paid sexual services, and that this demand will supposedly be met through the trafficking of women.
Any time that you have a mega event... trafficking goes up because the demand
goes up. Any time you have men traveling away from their social networks [to a place]
where they enjoy a degree of safety and anonymity, theyre more likely to pay for
sex.11 Michelle Miller, Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity
This simplistic equation relies on problematic assumptions about masculinity, business practices
within the sex industry, sex workers capacity to take action, and the root causes of trafficking.
Within the demand-supply equation, the estimated number of migrant sex workers
needed to fulfil the demand during the World Cup altered to the number of women
who might be trafficked, by establishing at first potential and subsequently an explicit
connection between sporting events and the increase in demand for commercial sex.
Finally, the claim that some women among those expected to migrate might be
trafficked, that is forced into the sex industry, or deceived about the conditions of
work, evolved to the claim that the majority if not all women will been trafficked.12
Dr. Sanja Milivojevi (University of New South Wales) and Dr. Sharon Pickering
(Monash University), Australia
The hype around large sporting events and increases in trafficking for prostitution is often based on
misinformation, poor data, and a tendency to sensationalise. Despite the lack of evidence, this idea
continues to hold great appeal for prostitution abolitionist groups, anti-immigration groups, and a
number of politicians, scholars and journalists.
Whats troubling is that this idea has been taken for granted as fact, particularly by politicians. On
various occasions, politicians have uncritically repeated this claim13, despite the fact that numerous
researchers, anti-trafficking experts, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have stated that
there is no evidence of a link between large sporting events and trafficking for prostitution.
This has perhaps been most visible with inter-governmental discussions prior to the 2006 World Cup
in Germany. This issue first arose, not because NGOs or law enforcement detected any increases,
but because it presented the Swedish government with a political opportunity to challenge Germanys
policy towards sex work. The Swedish government argued that Germanys policy of legalised prostitution
would increase the risk of trafficking for the 2006 World Cup.14 This was followed by a European
Parliament resolution on 15 March 2006, falsely claiming that major sports events result in a temporary
and spectacular increase in the demand for sexual services15 and repeated by the Council of Europe:

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LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

Taking into account the European Parliaments resolution of 15 March 2006 on forced
prostitution in the context of world sports events16, the Presidency emphasises the
fact that major international events, including sports events, have shown to pose the
risk to contribute to a temporary increase in trafficking in human beings.17
Given the high numbers of tourists, visitors and temporary workers related to large sporting events,
some have argued that there could be an increase in business for women in sex work. Sex workers
have also remarked that these events could be an opportunity to gain more clients. However, based on
available information (including anecdotal reports), many sex workers report being surprised and
disappointed at the lack of business during large sporting events. In any case, any small increases in
the demand for paid sexual services have not reached the extremely high levels predicted by prostitution
abolitionist groups.
Theres no doubt prostitution takes place during Super Bowl week, and that prostitutes
do flock to big events, like conventions or festivals, but the hyperbole seems to
more often than not to outstrip the event.18 Super Bowl hyperbole and prostitution,
The Star (Toronto, Canada)

What is the evidence on this link?

Despite massive media attention, law enforcement measures and efforts by prostitution abolitionist
groups, there is no empirical evidence that trafficking for prostitution increases around large sporting
events. This link has been de-bunked by other anti-trafficking organisations and researchers. There is
also no empirical evidence that the demand for paid sex increases dramatically during international
sporting events.19 20
For all of the events detailed in this section (the events that had the most media coverage about
trafficking), cases of trafficking for prostitution linked to the sporting event were absent or nowhere
near the predicted levels.
The focus on 40.000 forced prostitutes [supposedly in Germany for the World Cup]
is characteristic for a discourse which does not make exact distinctions between
undocumented sex workers who work here without a visa and a work permit but on a
voluntary basis; and sex workers who are trafficked.21 Dr. Nivedita Prasad & Babette
Rohner, Ban Ying, an anti-trafficking organisation (Germany) and GAATW member
No one is quite sure where the number originated. But in the past few years, whenever
a place holds a great sporting event the rumor of a flood of prostitutes soon blossoms.
And for some reason that number is 40,000. Laura Agustin, a sociologist who studies
and blogs about migrant sex workers, calls it a fantasy number. It has no basis.22
Debunking World Cups biggest myth, Yahoo! Sports

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2010 World Cup, South Africa

WHAT WAS PREDICTED?
40,000 extra prostitutes/foreign prostitutes/trafficked women/forced
prostitutes were predicted to be imported for the event
The South African Central Drug Authoritys claim that 40,000 women would be imported for the 2010
World Cup was repeated by various media.23
However, researchers, government representatives, sex workers rights groups and the International
Organisation for Migration all argue that the 40,000 to 100,000 figures reported by the media and
public officials are unfounded hype and recycled rumours from previous sporting events, such as the
2006 German World Cup.24
Dr. Chandr Gould, Institute for Security Studies (South Africa) suggested that the
figure originated with an agency official but was mistakenly interpreted as an official
estimate: I dont think at any stage it was really a serious answer.25 Another article
quoted a government representative saying: We laughed at that [40,000] number,
and There was no evidence there would ever be 40,000 prostitutes.26
One flaw with the number is obvious, says Patrick Belser, a senior economist with
the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency. Of the hundreds of
thousands of people expected to visit South Africa for the World Cup, not all of them
are men, and most men probably wouldnt seek to pay for sex. An additional 40,000
sex workers, says Dr. Belser, would represent some kind of oversupply.27
Suspect estimates of sex trafficking at the World Cup, Wall Street Journal

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development did not find one
case of trafficking during the World Cup.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development reported at a Parliamentary meeting that
no cases of trafficking were found during the World Cup.28 This was mentioned in a report by the Sex
Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and the South African National AIDS Councils
(SANAC) Womens Sector29 but was not reported by the media, despite the intense media and political
attention on trafficking leading up to the 2010 World Cup.

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OVERALL, BUSINESS WAS DOWN

Both the purchase and sale of sex is illegal in South Africa. Related activities such as brothel keeping
and living off the earnings from sex work, are also illegal.30
Research commissioned by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) found that there was a small increase
in the number of female workers who advertised online and in newspapers but that the percentage of
non-South African sex workers declined rather than increased in relation to the World Cup. The total
number of clients seen by sex workers did not increase significantly, although the percentage of
foreign clients doubled during the event. This suggests that a percentage of the local clientele was
temporarily replaced by foreign clients during the event.31 32
Before the World Cup, many sex workers expressed the hope that they would be able
to make more money during the World Cup, that their working conditions might improve,
that they would meet new clients, and that some might be able to leave the sex work
industry.Despite high sex worker hopes, more than two thirds of sex female workers
had seen no change in the sex industry during the World Cup period.33 Marlise
Richter and Dr. Wim Delva
Anecdotal reports in the media from sex workers and business owners reported that business (or
demand) fell during the World Cup:
No, I didnt make money, nothing. I only see my regular clients, my local regular clients. I
never saw foreigner or nothing. I didnt make even money.34 World Cup avoids flood of
sex workers, National Public Radio (US)
Paula at Executive Shows, which provides exotic dancers for adult entertainment clubs,
said business had been terrible. Since the World Cup began, the roughly 300 clubs
across Gauteng for whom she books girls have cancelled shows. Guys would rather
watch soccer. I am counting down the days until the end.35 No boom boom for Joburgs
sex workers, IOL News (South Africa)
Unfortunately, all the media hype around trafficking did nothing to reduce sex workers vulnerabilities:
Much media attention was focused on South Africas sex industry in the run-up to the
World Cup, but few actors engaged sex workers on their needs and expectations of
the World Cup. Police contact with sex work remained high and included systematic
police brutality, corruption and harassment. Health care contact with sex workers
generally decreased during the World Cup period at a time where health care coverage
should have expanded.36 Marlise Richter and Dr. Wim Delva

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2010 Olympics, Vancouver, Canada

WHAT WAS PREDICTED?
It was mainly the media, prostitution abolitionist groups, faith-based groups, and the Salvation Army
that predicted trafficking would increase during the Vancouver Olympics, warning of an explosion in
human trafficking.37 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimates that approximately 800
people are trafficked into Canada per year, with an estimated 600 trafficked into the sex trade.38
While the government was relatively quiet, secure in the knowledge of their border
security budget of 6 billion dollars, the period before the Olympics then became the
battle zone between sex workers rights organisations and abolitionist groups focused
on curbing male sexual demand with graphic and sensationalist posters and media
campaigns. One law enforcement vice police officer said he did not even know what
he was looking for, that he was searching for ghosts.39 Dr. Annalee Lepp, GAATW
Canada
Law enforcement and sex workers rights groups in Vancouver tried to counter these claims that
trafficking would increase by:
Pointing to evidence from past events;
Clarifying the distinction between trafficking and sex work; and
Critiquing the messages in prostitution abolitionist campaigns. Vancouver Police Inspector
John de Haas spoke out against the Salvation Armys anti-trafficking campaign (The Truth
Isnt Sexy) and argued that information campaigns should be grounded in facts and not
cause hysteria.40
Theres been an erosion between some of the distinctions between human trafficking
and sex trade and victimization...While there may be an increase in prostitution,
there hasnt been any link between human trafficking and prostitution. As far as I
know we havent had a spike in investigations in human trafficking or human smuggling
that we can link to the 2010 Olympics in any way. 41 Sgt. Duncan Pound, British
Columbia Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Border Integrity Program
It costs a lot of money to move people around. Its a short-term event, so from a
traffickers perspective, it wouldnt make a lot of sense.42 Vancouver Police Inspector
John de Haas.
Prostitution abolitionist groups claimed that any efforts to empower sex workers to improve their
working conditions would increase trafficking around the Olympics. In 2007, the British Columbia
Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC) proposed a sex worker-led, cooperative brothel, as a
strategy to improve workers safety, reduce violence against street-based workers, and mitigate
displacement by Olympic-related law enforcement measures.43 Prostitution abolitionist groups and
the Committee Against Human Trafficking launched a campaign to protest Vancouvers mayor, who
said he would consider the proposal.

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WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

Researchers are still examining the data44, but anecdotal reports suggest no
trafficking cases were identified and business (or demand) was down for sex
workers.
In Canada, it is not illegal to buy or sell sex, but many related activities are illegal. For instance, it is
illegal to own or occupy a bawdy house (i.e. location regularly used for sex work), live on the avails of
sex work (e.g. earnings), talk with a client in a public place, or assist anyone to work in sex work (e.g.
security, receptionists, accountants, etc.).45
A study with 230 sex workers found that during the Olympics, sex workers reported significantly more
police stopping sex workers without arrest, less clients, and more difficulty meeting clients due to
construction.46 The same study found no significant increases in new sex workers or trafficked sex
workers. Other research on the impact of the 2010 Olympics on trafficking and sex work is still being
finalised.47 However, anecdotal reports from sex workers groups in Vancouver confirm that business
(or demand) was slow for sex workers.48
Our members reported that business was slow, said Kerry Porth, the executive
director of Prostitution Alternatives Counseling & Education Society (PACE), which
offered free media training and nightly outreach sessions during the Games. But the
most important thing is that they were able to work safely..[U]nless they receive a
complaint, the Vancouver Police Department usually gives sex workers a wide berth
to conduct business. During the Games, they honored their commitment to continue
the no-arrest routine. The city even donated extra money to PACE, so the organization
could stay open overnight, and proffered tickets to Olympics events for sex workers
who partook in PACE outreach.49 Vancouver sex workers had an amazing two
weeks, AOL News
Anecdotally, there was no increase in levels of prostitution. In fact, there was likely a
reduction in work for both street level and inside workers, Shannon said, citing that
added security and a decreased area, with more areas given to the Games, may have
affected clientele.50 Esther Shannon, FIRST, a sex worker ally group (Canada) and
GAATW member

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2006 World Cup, Berlin, Germany

WHAT WAS PREDICTED?
40,000 extra prostitutes/foreign prostitutes/trafficked women/forced
prostitutes were predicted to be imported for the event
Nobody knows, but the number is making a national career and has turned into a steady figure.51 Dr.
Nivedita Prasad & Babette Rohner, Ban Ying, an anti-trafficking organisation (Germany) and GAATW
member
Estimates that 40,000 women would be imported for the 2006 World Cup was first claimed by the
Association of German Cities who later disclaimed the figure; CARE for Europe; the Salvation Army;
the German Womens Council or Deutscher Frauenrat; and the Nordic Council.52 53 54 The Council of
Europe estimated that 30,000 to 60,000 women would be trafficked for the event.55
Many non-governmental organisations (NGOs), experts, and law enforcement services later argued
that the figure was unrealistic and unfounded, arguing that with 1,000 victims of trafficking for sexual
exploitation in Germany a year, an increase to 40,000 would be highly unlikely. 56 57 However, media
and politicians continued to circulate estimates and figures from prostitution abolitionist groups.
[T]he moral panic around sex slaves and the World Cup in Germany was fuelled by
sensationalistic reporting, in which trafficking was reduced to sex work, and women
trafficked for sex portrayed as innocent and naive girls forced into the sex industry.58
Dr. Sanja Milivojevi (University of New South Wales), Australia
Prostitution is a legally recognised profession in Germany. Germany (and the Netherlands) have the
most liberal prostitution policies in Western Europe: sex work is recognised as a legal profession,
sex workers are recognised as employees and are entitled to social benefits and health insurance.59
US and Swedish government representatives used the World Cup moral panic to challenge Germanys
policies on sex work60 with the US lobbying for the German government to criminalise all sex work,
despite no conclusive evidence [that] Germanys liberal approach to prostitution made it more attractive
to human traffickers..61

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

All data, information and experts statements that are available to date strongly indicate
that an increase in human trafficking, during and after the World Cup did not occur.62
Jana Hennig, Sarah Craggs, Frank Laczko and Fred Larsson

5 trafficking cases assumed to have a direct link to the 2006 World Cup63
Researchers for the International Organisation for Migration (intergovernmental organisation) found
that at the time of the 2006 World Cup, 33 investigation cases of human trafficking for the purposes of
prostitution and/or promotion of human trafficking were reported to the Federal Criminal Police Office.64
Of these, only 5 cases were thought to be linked to the 2006 World Cup. These 5 cases involved 4
female victims and 1 male victim, all between the ages of 18-21. The victims came from Bulgaria (2
women), Hungary (1 man), the Czech Republic (1 woman) and Germany (1 woman).

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Police also targeted sex workers, aggressively raided brothels and intensified checks on brothels.
Police raided 71 brothels in Berlin during the 2006 World Cup. Police found no evidence
of trafficking but deported ten women.65 Ban Ying, an anti-trafficking organisation
(Germany) and GAATW member
Obviously, even one victim of trafficking deserves serious attention and care. However, these numbers
are far below the predicted estimates that have typically been promoted by anti-prostitution
organisations. These findings were echoed by other anti-trafficking stakeholders:
Four different national hotlines have been set up by NGOs. For Berlin, Ban Ying had
agreed to assist trafficked women, if any would have called. The 1st hotline started
on the 1st of May. Till today we have received one (!) phone call but even this one
case was not a case of trafficking. We do not know how many calls were directed to
NGOS in other cities but had there been an increase we would have realised it in
BerlinBesides these hotlines, we had business as usual no more phone calls
from (potentially) trafficked women or clients.66 Ban Ying, a German anti-trafficking
organisation and GAATW member organisation
None of the La Strada member organisations received information on referrals on
trafficking cases explicitly related to the World Cup event.67 La Strada International,
a European network of anti-trafficking organisations and GAATW member organisation
The mass of prostitutes simply never arrived and people involved in the sex industry
were hardly surprisedThose who work in the sex industry and its associated services
in Germany saw the whole thing as hysterical media hype and the claims of the
predicted forced prostitution as exaggerations.68 Samuel Loewenberg
The German Government reported to the Council of the European Union that the number of sex
workers only increased in the city of Munich69 (from 500 sex workers to 800 sex workers) as a result
of the World Cup, but trafficking did not. There were also no significant increases in illegal stays in
connection with the practice of prostitution.70

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2004 Olympics
Athens, Greece
INACCURATE REPORTING AND INTERNATIONAL
CONTROVERSY
The 2004 Athens Olympics appears to be the first event where trafficking was misleadingly linked with
an international sporting event.71 In the lead-up to the Olympics, Athens officials attempted to enforce
city regulations regarding brothels, e.g. brothels are only allowed to employ a maximum of three
people, must not be located near schools, and should have a permit to operate legally.72 73 This was
inaccurately reported in the media as an attempt to increase the number of brothels (when in fact, city
officials had tried to shut down 15 brothels). Inaccurate media reports were then used by Scandinavian
and a few Eastern European government ministers to accuse Athens officials of encouraging sex
tourism.
In other words, when 230 permits were issued to already existing brothels in the year
before the 2004 Olympics, this was interpreted by abolitionists as Greece sanctioning
a major expansion of the sex industry and, by extension, sex trafficking.74 Sexual
enslavement at the Ryder Cup?
KAGE, a Greek sex workers union, charged that the city was encouraging illegal prostitution by
cracking down on legal brothels that would drive legal sex workers out of business (prostitution is
regulated in Greece, sex workers are required to undergo health checks and pay social insurance). 75

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

No instances of trafficking for prostitution were linked to the 2004 Olympics
Some have repeated a misleading argument by the Future Group that there was a 95% increase in
trafficking in Athens. 76 To be precise, 181 trafficked persons were reported in all of 2004, which is an
increase from 93 trafficked persons that were reported in all of 2003.77 However, none of these cases
were linked to the 2004 Olympics, according to Greeces Annual Report on Organised Crime and the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Athens.78 NGOs also did not report increases in
trafficking which suggests that the higher number of reported victims was due to increased efforts to
identify victims, and better detection and reporting methods.79
Anti-trafficking efforts also included prevention measures by childrens rights NGOs (although these
focused more on outreach than awareness raising). They reported that child trafficking for prostitution
did not increase during the Olympics, and that the number of street children decreased during this
period. 80 81 Street assessments by NGOs identified and repatriated 6 trafficked children.82
A local sex worker activist noted that business didnt improve during the Olympics, contrary to their
expectations: No, we havent seen the slightest increase in demand.83

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US Super Bowls, e.g. Dallas (2011), Tampa (2009),

Phoenix (2008)
WHAT WAS PREDICTED?
Anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 sex workers will invade, flood, be
magnetically drawn towards, or be trafficked for the Super Bowl
There has been great interest among US media around an unsubstantiated link between trafficking
and the Super Bowl. Hyperbolic claims about floods or invasions of 10,000 to 100,000 sex workers to
the Super Bowl has been widely repeated by American media, as has Texas Attorney General Greg
Abbotts unfounded claim that the Super Bowl is one of the biggest human trafficking events in the
United States.84
Despite the widespread repetition of these claims, only a few journalists have questioned the plausibility
of these claims. A few journalists have pointed out that the total number of visitors to the Super Bowl
is estimated between 150,000 to 200,00085 and that at these figures, it meant that every man, woman
and child holding a ticket would have their own personal hooker, from the vice presidential wing of
FedEx to Little Timmy from Green Bay.86

WHAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

Within the US, prostitution laws are specific to each state. In most states, both the sale and purchase
of sex is illegal, with a disproportionate emphasis on punishing persons who sell sex.87 The confusion
between eliminating sex work and tackling trafficking was institutionalised by the US government
under the Bush administration.88
Given the amount of media attention paid to estimates of what might happen in the lead up to the
Super Bowl, there is surprisingly little media information about what actually happened or any postevent analysis. Below are excerpts from the only two articles we could locate that included post-event
assessments.
Phoenix hosted the big game three years ago [2008]. Police there told News 8 they
received similar warnings about an increase in prostitution and prepared for it, but
never uncovered any evidence of a spike in illegal sexual activity. I think one of the
things people automatically assume is that while youve got influential people in town,
people with significant amounts of money and therefore a whole lot of prostitution is
going to follow with that, said Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Tommy Thompson.
We did not notice an increase or anything out of the ordinary. Tampa hosted the
Super Bowl in 2009. A police spokeswoman there said officers there made 11
prostitution arrests during the entire week leading up to the game. And last year
[2010], Miami police told News 8 they arrested 14 for prostitution. Those figures are
not uncommon for large cities during a seven-day period, experts said. 89
Super Bowl prostitution forecast has no proof, WFAA
We may have had certain precincts that were going gangbusters looking for
prostitutes, but they were picking up your everyday street prostitutes. They didnt
notice any sort of glitch in the number of prostitution arrests leading up to the Super
Bowl.90 Sergeant Tommy Thompson, Phoenix, Arizona (2008 Super Bowl).

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1
For more information on the definition, see: What is human trafficking? Retrieved April 23, 2010, from United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime website: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-humantrafficking.html
2
Ban Ying. (2006). Comments on the first Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of the
victims of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Sigma Huda: Integration of the human rights of
women and a gender perspective, E/CN.4/2006/62, 20.2.2006 for the 62nd Session of the Commission on Human
Rights.
3
Self-Empowerment Program for Migrant Women (SEPOM) (2010). Trafficked Identities as a Barrier to Community
Reintegration: Five Stories of Women Rebuilding Lives and Resisting Categorisation. GAATW Feminist Participatory
Action Research Series. Bangkok: GAATW. Available at: http://www.gaatw.org/FPAR_Series/
FPAR_SEPOM.2010.pdf
4
Richter, M. & Monson, T. (2010). Human trafficking & migration. Migration Issue Brief 4. Available online at: http://
www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/reports/2010/FMSP_Migration_Issue_Brief_4_Trafficking_June_2010
_doc.pdf
5
Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. (20 February 2009). Promotion and
Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to
Development. (Submitted to the 10th HRC, Agenda item 3, No. A/HRC/10/16). Geneva: United Nations.
6
E.g. UNESCO (Bangkok). Factsheet #1: Worldwide Trafficking Estimates by Organizations. Available online at:
http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/culture/Trafficking/statdatabase/
Copy_of_Graph_Worldwide__2_.pdf
7
GAATW. (2010). Beyond Borders: Exploring Links Between Trafficking and Gender. GAATW Working Papers
Series 2010. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/publications/WP_on_Gender.pdf
8
UNESCO (Bangkok). Trafficking Statistics Project. Available online at: http://www.unescobkk.org/en/culture/
cultural-diversity/trafficking-and-hivaids-project/projects/trafficking-statistics-project/
9
Jordan, A. (2011). Fact or fiction: What do we really know about human trafficking? Program on Human
Trafficking and Forced Labour, Issue Paper 3. Washington, D.C.: American University Washington College of Law.
Available online at: http://rightswork.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Issue-Paper-3.pdf
10
Lee, E. (2011, February 3). Super Bowl hyperbole and prostitution. The Star. Available online at: http://
www.thestar.com/sports/football/nfl/superbowl/article/932794super-bowl-hyperbole-and-prostitution
11
Kardas-Nelson. M. (2010, February 25). Human trafficking and the Games. Rabble.ca. Available online at: http://
rabble.ca/news/2010/02/human-trafficking-and-games
12
Milivojevi , S. & Pickering, S. (2008). Football and sex: the 2006 FIFA World Cup and sex trafficking. TEMIDA, 2147. Available online at: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-6637/2008/1450-66370802021M.pdf
13
E.g. McLaren, C. (2009, May 22). Buying sex is not a sport: sex work campaign. The Hook. Available online at: http://
thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Olympics2010/2009/05 22/CampaignProstitutionOlympics/
14
(2006, February 28). EU to fight forced prostitution during major sports events. EurActiv.com. Available online at:
http://www.euractiv.com/sports/eu-fight-forced-prostitution-major-sports-events/article-152961
15
European Union. European Parliament. (2006). European Parliament Resolution on forced prostitution in the
context of world sport events.
Available online at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=en&procnum=RSP/2006/2508
16
European Union. European Parliament. (2006). European Parliament Resolution on forced prostitution in the
context of world sport events.
Available online at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=en&procnum=RSP/2006/2508
17
Council of the European Union. (2006, April 27-28). 2725th Council Meeting: Justice and Home Affairs (press
release). Luxembourg: Justice and Home Affairs. Available online at: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/apr/jha27-28-april-press-rel.pdf
18
Lee, E. (2011, February 3). Super Bowl hyperbole and prostitution. The Star. Available online at: http://
www.thestar.com/sports/football/nfl/superbowl/article/932794super-bowl-hyperbole-and-prostitution
19
Richter, M. & Massawe, D. (2010). Serious soccer, sex (work) and HIV will South Africa be too hot to handle
during the 2010 World Cup? South African Medical Journal, 100 (4), 222-223. Available online at: http://
www.samj.org.za/files/2.pdf
20
Lepp, A. (2010). Gender, racialisation and mobility: Human trafficking and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic
Games. Alliance News, 33, 47-51. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/publications/Alliance%20News/
Alliance_News_July_2010.pdf
21
Prasad, N. & Rohner, B. (2006). Dramatic increase in forced prostitution? The World Cup and the consequences of
an unscreened rumour. Ban Ying. Available online at: http://www.ban-ying.de/downloads/Worldcup&Trafficking.pdf
22
Carpenter, L. (2010, June 10). Debunking World Cups biggest myth. Yahoo! Sports. Available online at: http://
g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/debunking-world-cups-biggest-mythfbintl_lc-prostitutes061010.html
23
E.g. (2010, March 5). World Cup 2010: 40,000 prostitutes to enter South Africa. The Telegraph. Available online at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/world-cup-2010/7374301/World-Cup-2010-40000prostitutes-to-enter-South-Africa.html
Skoch, I. (2010, October 7). World Cup welcome: A billion condoms and 40,000 sex workers. GlobalPost. Available
online at: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/sports/100505/world-cup-sex-workers?page=0,0
Cherner, R. (2010, June 15). World Cup: A billion condoms may not be enough. USA Today. Available online at:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/06/world-cup-a-billion-condoms-may-not-be-enough/1
24
E.g. Ajam, K. (2010). Trafficking of people, the Cup crisis that never was. IOL News. Available online at: http://
www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/trafficking-of-people-the-cup-crisis-that-never-was-1.490109
Robertson, D. (2010, April 13). Spotlight on human trafficking before World Cup in South Africa. Voice of America.
Available online at: file:///Z:/PowerInMigration&Work%20-%20Demand/Print%20media%20%20trafficking%20sporting%20events/1-DONE/VOA%20-%20SA%20World%20Cup%20trafficking%
20exaggerated.htm

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LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

Bialik, C. (2010, June 19). Suspect estimates of sex trafficking at the World Cup. Wall Street Journal. Available
online at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704289504575312853491596916.html
26
Carpenter, L. (2010, June 10). Debunking World Cups biggest myth. Yahoo! Sports. Available online at: http://
g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/debunking-world-cups-biggest-mythfbintl_lc-prostitutes061010.html
27
Bialik, C. (2010, June 19). Suspect estimates of sex trafficking at the World Cup. Wall Street Journal. Available
online at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704289504575312853491596916.html
28
Portfolio Committee on Justice. (2010, August 3). World Cup dedicated courts; Human trafficking during 2010
Soccer World Cup. Department of Justice briefing. Available online at: http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20100803department-justice-constitutional-development-dedicated-courts-conven
29
Harper, E., Massawe, D. & Richter, M. (2010). Report on the 2010 Soccer World Cup and Sex Work: Documenting
Successes and Failures. FMSP Research Report. Johannesburg: Forced Migration Studies Programme (University
of the Witwatersrand). Available online at: http://www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/reports/2010/
Report_on_the_2010_Soccer_World_Cup_and_Sex_Work_-_Documenting_Successes_and_Failures.pdf
For more information, visit the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) website at www.sweat.org.za.

31

Delva, W. (undated). Female sex work and the 2010 Soccer World Cup: No spike in supply and demand of paid sex
through newspaper and online advertising. International Centre for Reproductive Health (Ghent University). Available
online at: http://www.icrh.org/news/female-sex-work-and-the-2010-soccer-world-cup-no-spike-in-supply-and-demandof-paid-sex-through
32
Richter, M. & Delva, W. (2010). Maybe it will be better once this World Cup has passed: Research findings
regarding the impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on sex work in South Africa. Johannesburg: UNFPA. Available
online at: http://www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/sweat_report.pdf
33
Richter, M. & Delva, W. (2010). Maybe it will be better once this World Cup has passed: Research findings
regarding the impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on sex work in South Africa. Johannesburg: UNFPA. Available
online at: http://www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/sweat_report.pdf
34
Kelto, A. (2010, July 6). World Cup avoids flood of sex workers. National Public Radio. Available online at: http://
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128342077
35
Thakali, T. & Bailey, C. (2010, June 19). No boom boom for Joburgs sex workers. IOL News. Available online at:
http://www.iol.co.za/sport/no-boom-boom-for-joburg-s-sex-workers-1.490629
36
Richter, M. & Delva, W. (2010). Maybe it will be better once this World Cup has passed: Research findings
regarding the impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on sex work in South Africa. Johannesburg: UNFPA. Available
online at: http://www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/sweat_report.pdf
37
E.g. The Future Group. (2007). Faster, higher, stronger: Preventing human trafficking at the 2010 Olympics.
Calgary: The Future Group.
(2007, November 2). Human trafficking a Games pitfall, researcher warns. Vancouver Sun. Available online at: http://
www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=c8b93773-4373-465c-92a3-4c5af740bec7
(2009, May 21). Campaign to raise awareness of potential sex trafficking at 2010 Games. The Canadian Press.
Available online at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/05/21/bc-olympic-buying-sex.html
Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity (REED). Buying Sex is Not a Sport. Available online at: http://embracedignity.org/
?page=buyingsexisnotasport
38
Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games:
Assessments and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available
online at: http://www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
39
Lepp, A. (2010, July 6). Understanding Trafficking and Human Rights in the Context of Migration, Labour, Gender
and Globalisation at Beyond Borders: Trafficking in the Context of Migrant, Labour and Womens Rights GAATW
International Members Congress and Conference, Bangkok, Thailand. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/
publications/IMCC2010_Report.pdf
40
(2009, September 28). New anti-sex-trafficking campaign before Games: police. CBC News. Available online at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/28/bc-salvation-army-human-sex-traffickingpolice.html
41
Kardas-Nelson. M. (2010, February 25). Human trafficking and the Games. Rabble.ca. Available online at: http://
rabble.ca/news/2010/02/human-trafficking-and-games
42
(2009, September 28). New anti-sex-trafficking campaign before Games: police. CBC News. Available online at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/28/bc-salvation-army-human-sex-traffickingpolice.html
43
Lepp, A. (2010). Gender, racialisation and mobility: Human trafficking and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic
Games. Alliance News, 33, 47-51. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/publications/Alliance%20News/
Alliance_News_July_2010.pdf
44
Dr. Annalee Lepp (University of Victoria) plans to release research findings from a research project on the
Olympics, trafficking and sex work, in the fall/winter of 2011.
45
i.e. Sections 210-213 of the Canadian Criminal Code. For more information, see http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C46/
46

Deering, K. N. (2011). Sex work safety, human trafficking and the 2010 winter olympics in Canada. Canadian Journal
of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology Conference: 20th Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research:
Honouring our History, Embracing our Diversity, CAHR 2011 Toronto, ON Canada, 14-17 April 2011.
47
Dr. Annalee Lepp (University of Victoria) plans to release research findings from a research project on the
Olympics, trafficking and sex work, in the fall/winter of 2011.
48
Shannon, E. (2010). Sex workers rights and Olympic anti-trafficking rhetoric. Alliance News, 33, 27-31. Available
online at: http://www.gaatw.org/publications/Alliance%20News/Alliance_News_July_2010.pdf
49
Drummond, K. (2010, March 3). Vancouver sex workers had an amazing two weeks. AOL News.. Available online
at: http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/03/vancouver-sex-workers-had-an-amazing-two-weeks/
50
Lee, E. (2011, February 3). Super Bowl hyperbole and prostitution. The Star. Available online at: http://
www.thestar.com/sports/football/nfl/superbowl/article/932794super-bowl-hyperbole-and-prostitution

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51

Prasad, N. & Rohner, B. (2006). Dramatic increase in forced prostitution? The World Cup and the consequences of
an unscreened rumour. Ban Ying. Available online at: http://www.ban-ying.de/downloads/Worldcup&Trafficking.pdf
52
Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006 World Cup in
Germany. IOM Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/
myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf
53
Milivojevi , S. & Pickering, S. (2008). Football and sex: the 2006 FIFA World Cup and sex trafficking.
TEMIDA, 21-47. Available online at: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-6637/2008/1450-66370802021M.pdf
54
(2006, April 26). World Cup concerns Nordic council. Norden.org. Available online at: http://www.norden.org/en/
news-and-events/news/world-cup-concerns-nordic-council/
55
Council of Europe. (2006). 2006 World Cup: PACE asks FIFA to join the fight against trafficking in women.
Strasbourg: Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. Available online at: http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Press/
StopPressView.asp?ID=1759
56
Tavella, A.M. (2007). Sex trafficking and the 2006 World Cup in Germany: Concerns, actions and implications for
future international sporting events. Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights, 6(1), 196-217. Available
online at: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/jihr/v6/n1/8/Tavella.pdf
57
Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006 World Cup in
Germany. IOM Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/
myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf
58
Milivojevi , S. (2008). Womens bodies, moral panic and the world game: Sex trafficking, the 2006 Football World
Cup and beyond. Proceedings of the 2nd Australian & New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference, 19-20 June
2008. Sydney: Crime & Justice Research Network and the Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Network.
Available online at: http://www.cjrn.unsw.edu.au/critcrimproceedings2008.pdf
59
Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games:
Assessments and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available
online at: http://www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
60
(2006, February 28). EU to fight forced prostitution during major sports events. EurActiv.com. Available online at:
http://www.euractiv.com/sports/eu-fight-forced-prostitution-major-sports-events/article-152961
61
Tzortzis, A. (2006, May 5). World Cup goal: Stem prostitution. The Christian Science Monitor. Available online at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0505/p06s02-woeu.html
62
International Organisation for Migration (IOM). (2007). Research on Trafficking in Human Beings and the 2006
World Cup in Germany [info sheet]. Geneva: IOM. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/
myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/projects/showcase_pdf/WorldCup2006.pdf
63
German Delegation of the Council of the European Union. (2007, January 19). Experience Report on Human
Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation and Forced Prostitution in Connection with the 2006 Football
World Cup in Germany, 5006/1/07. Presented to the Multidisciplinary Group on Organised Crime of the Council of the
European Union. Available online at: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/07/st05/st05006-re01.en07.pdf
64
Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006 World Cup in
Germany. IOM Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/
myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf
65
Ban Ying. (2006). Where are the 40.000? Statement on Trafficking during the World Cup. Available online at:
http://www.ban-ying.de/downloads/Worldcupstatement.pdf
66
Ban Ying. (2006). Where are the 40.000? Statement on Trafficking during the World Cup. Available online at:
http://www.ban-ying.de/downloads/Worldcupstatement.pdf
67
La Strada International. (2006, October). La Strada International Newsletter, Issue 3. Available online at:
http://lastradainternational.org/documents/newsletters/La%20Strada%20Newsletter%20Issue%203.pdf
68
Loewenberg, S. (2006). Fears of World Cup sex trafficking boom unfounded. The Lancet, 368(8), 105-106
69
(2006, July 6). Feared Surge in World Cup Prostitution Proves Unfounded. Deutsche Welle. Available online at:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2079721,00.html
70
Council of the European Union. (2007, January 19). Experience Report on Human Trafficking for the Purpose of
Sexual Exploitation and Forced Prostitution in Connection with the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany [5006/1/
07, REV 1]. Available online at: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/07/st05/st05006-re01.en07.pdf
71
Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments and
recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://
www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
72
(2003, July 23). Anger over Greek Olympic brothels. BBC News. Available online at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/
3091209.stm
73
Tzilivakis, K. (2004, August 27). Red-light workers get the blues. Athens News. Available online at: http://www.athensnews.gr/
old_issue/13091/11931
74
Paterson, S. (2010, September 29). Sexual enslavement at the Ryder Cup? spiked. Available online at: http://www.spikedonline.com/index.php/site/article/9712/
75
Tzilivakis, K. (2004, August 27). Red-light workers get the blues. Athens News. Available online at: http://www.athensnews.gr/
old_issue/13091/11931
76
The Future Group. (2007). Faster, higher, stronger: Preventing human trafficking at the 2010 Olympics. Calgary: The Future
Group.
77
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, Progress Report on the National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in
Persons, 2004, p. 9 as cited in Prasad, N. & Rohner, B. (2006). Dramatic increase in forced prostitution? The World Cup and the
consequences of an unscreened rumour. Ban Ying. Available online at: http://www.ban-ying.de/downloads/
Worldcup&Trafficking.pdf
78
Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006 World Cup in Germany. IOM
Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/
published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf

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79

LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE

Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments and
recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://
www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
80
The Protection Project (2004, November 25) as cited in The Future Group. (2007). Faster, higher, stronger: Preventing human
trafficking at the 2010 Olympics. Calgary: The Future Group.
81
ARSIS (2004) as cited in Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006
World Cup in Germany. IOM Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/
myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf
82
US State Department (2005) as cited in Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety
and the 2010 Games: Assessments and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG).
Available online at: http://www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
83
Tzilivakis, K. (2004, August 27). Red-light workers get the blues. Athens News. Available online at: http://www.athensnews.gr/
old_issue/13091/11931
84
E.g. Ryan, K.M. (2011, January 31). Lets not let the Super Bowl be a business opportunity for sex traffickers.
Huffington Post. Available online at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-m-ryan/post_1653_b_816311.html
Goodman, M. (2011, February 1). Super Bowl a magnet for under-age sex trade. Reuters. Available online at: http://
www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/01/us-nfl-superbowl-sex-idUSTRE70U6F820110201
Van de Putte, L. (2011, February 2). Super Bowl a magnet for human traffickers. San Antonio Express News.
Available online at: http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Super-Bowl-a-magnet-for-humantraffickers-990483.php
(2011, February 1). Police watch for sex trafficking ahead of big game. Associated Press. Available online at: http://
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/01/ap/national/main7304578.shtml
85
Lee, E. (2011, February 3). Super Bowl hyperbole and prostitution. The Star. Available online at: http://
www.thestar.com/sports/football/nfl/superbowl/article/932794super-bowl-hyperbole-and-prostitution
86
Kotz, P. (2011, January 27). The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers wont be showing up in Dallas.
Dallas Observer. Available online at: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitutemyth-100-000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-in-dallas/
87
Huckerby, J. (2007). United States [book chapter]. In GAATW (Ed.), Collateral Damage: The Impact of AntiTrafficking Measures on Human Rights Around the World. Bangkok: GAATW. Available online at: http://
www.gaatw.org/Collateral%20Damage_Final/CollateralDamage_BRAZIL.pdf
88
E.g. U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. (2011). Prevention: Fighting
Sex Trafficking by Curbing Demand for Prostitution [factsheet]. Available online at: http://www.state.gov/
documents/organization/167329.pdf
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs. (2004). The Link Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
[factsheet].
89
Whitely, J. (2011, January 31). Super Bowl prostitution forecast has no proof. WFAA. Available online at: http://
www.wfaa.com/sports/football/super-bowl/Super-Bowl-prostitution-prediction-has-no-proof114983179.html
90
Kotz, P. (2011, January 27). The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers wont be showing up in Dallas.
Dallas Observer. Available online at: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitutemyth-100-000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-in-dallas/

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If there isnt any evidence, why is

the connection still made?
Doesnt all this attention mean
somethings going on?
Despite the lack of evidence, its striking to see how much interest this issue still holds for some
media, politicians and prostitution abolitionist groups. The resilience of this claim is partly due to:
its usefulness as a fundraising strategy,
as a way to grab the media or the publics attention,
being a quick, easy way to do something about trafficking, and
its usefulness in justifying social control measures (e.g. anti-migration measures,
crackdowns on sex workers) and cultivating moral panics.91
The media has jumped onto a rumour and unfortunately some NGOs are using it for
publicity.92 Ban Ying (Germany), an anti-trafficking organisation and GAATW member
Of course, we in the media are equally culpable. We dutifully relay the fraud via our
Patented Brand of Unquestioning Stenography, rarely bothering to check if its remotely
plausible. And by this time, theres no going back. The fraud must be upheld. Charities
have raised money to help the innocents. Politicians have brayed and task forces
have been appointed. Editors and news directors have ordered five-part series. No
one wants to look like a moron.93 - The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers
wont be showing up in Dallas, Dallas Observer (US)
Internationally, human trafficking is a highly visible issue and national governments are frequently
called upon to improve their efforts to fight human trafficking. At the same time, some governments
have been critiqued for not doing enough to address the root causes of trafficking, such as poverty.
Large sporting events can provide a chance for governments to visibly affirm their commitment to
fighting trafficking while leaving more politically charged issues untouched (such as the link between
restrictive migration policies and human trafficking94).
The supposed link between sporting events and trafficking for prostitution first gained international
attention in the lead up to the 2004 Athens Olympics. The attention didnt come from organisations
working directly with trafficked persons but rather came from Northern European governments who
criticised the Greek governments policies on regulating prostitution.95
But why is this idea so appealing? Even if numerous law enforcement and anti-trafficking campaigns
have not detected the massive floods predicted, why does it still sound plausible? Like other
unsubstantiated moral panics (e.g. white slavery), it could be due to a combination of ideas about
womens sexuality, foreign or racial threats, evil perpetrators and suitable victims.96
Profoundly this scare speaks to an elite fear of unpredictable movements across
borders, of working-class male behaviour, and of Third World women being easily
tricked into a life of sexual bondage.97 Stop this illicit trade in bullshit stories,
spiked

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Better victims
For some, the simplistic cause and effect argument is an easier fit (e.g. for some media, politicians)
than the complexities and ambiguities that trafficking actually involves. In other words, it offers audiences
an easy way of feeling good about feeling bad.98 GAATW members and anti-trafficking practitioners
have remarked on how useful the powerless female trafficking victim identity is in generating public
interest and attracting funds, sometimes to the detriment of other issues.99 By comparison, encouraging
more thoughtful discussion on migrants rights and strategies for survival can result in xenophobic or
racist backlash and less public, media and donor interest.

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

So how do these myths get started? Through good intentions, of course. But its hard
to kindle interest in the worlds oldest profession. So they latch onto the occasional
news story or CNN special. After all, children in distress sell. Underage girls make
better victims, better poster children, says [Maggie] McNeill [The Honest Courtesan],
a former librarian with a masters from LSU. Im 44. What kind of believable victim
would I make?100 The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers wont be
showing up in Dallas, Dallas Observer (US)
This is an issue as Ive suggested that appeals to peoples emotions - they are afraid
of what is happening, it is obviously not a good thing; and it appeals I think to the
savior mentality of a lot of western countries, and a lot of westerners about trying to
fix the problems of the third world.101 Dr. Loren Landau, University of the
Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Assumptions about sports and masculinity

The hype around sporting events and trafficking for prostitution relies on hetero-normative or heterosexist
notions about masculinity and femininity. Crowds are assumed to be predominantly male crowds
demanding commercial sex, and women are only visible as targets for mens demand.
There are large volumes of people coming and they are men. They are away from
home and alcohol is flowing and they want sex.102 Christine MacMillan, Salvation
Army
However, reports found that many of the visitors and spectators at the 2006 World Cup (Germany) and
the 2010 World Cup (South Africa) comprised families, women, couples, and mixed groups.103 In
South Africa, fears of trafficking partially stemmed from the idea of rowdy male fans being the only
visitors that would be willing to visit a country with high crime rates, which turned out to be false.104
Two South African publications challenged the focus on sex workers as the only representation of
women around the World Cup. Agenda magazine105 and the Gender Media Diversity Journal106 both
devoted an issue to exploring some of the other gendered issues around the World Cup, such as
issues impacting women construction workers, women entrepreneurs (e.g. street vendors), women
spectators, women athletes and other women involved in sports (e.g. referees).
[T]he only gendered conversations I have heard surrounding 2010 are those of sex
work. I am not sure if the Department of Tourism has thought about linking the
various women owned hospitality companies to various tourism activities they have
lined up for 2010.107 Dr. Elaine Salo, Gender Institute at the University of Pretoria,
South Africa
The response to women at the 2006 World Cup is telling.Even the media
preoccupation with forced prostitution contributed to the larger fantasy engendered
by the World Cup. The connection between sex, football and men is so taken for
granted that no one seems to have questioned its presumption. On the other hand,

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women as fans both in the flesh and from a distance were not considered during
this male World Cup, despite constituting 40 to 50 percent of the fan base.108
Margot Rubin

Prostitution abolitionist agendas

The groups that have argued the loudest about this link have typically been groups calling for an end
to sex work. They have argued that an increase in sex work results in an increase in trafficking, and
that sex work should be eradicated because trafficking can occur in the sex trade.109 These groups
also see male customers ultimately as the cause for commercial sex.110
Members of the Canadian public and those visiting Canada during the 2010 Olympics
need to be advised of laws against sexual exploitation and human trafficking. This is
particularly necessary because some visitors will come from countries where
prostitution is legal, and it is critical that the demand for sexually exploitative activities
not be permitted to spike.111 The Future Group, a prostitution abolitionist/antitrafficking organisation (Canada)
This argument has been criticized by anti-trafficking organisations (including GAATW) for confusing
trafficking with prostitution and muddying efforts to genuinely address trafficking (in various sectors).
Getting rid of a sector because it can include trafficked labour is not a strategy that is supported by
many anti-trafficking advocates. For example, although domestic violence has been identified as a
serious issue in marriages, few have publicly argued that the institution of marriage should be abolished
to eradicate domestic violence. Likewise, human rights violations against people working in the
agriculture sector have been documented in numerous countries. Yet no organisations are calling for
the abolition of agricultural work, but rather for greater protection of workers rights and enforcement of
labour standards. Sex workers rights organisations and sex worker allies (including GAATW), have
also protested abolitionist approaches towards sex work, who logically argue that these efforts often
end up criminalising, stigmatising or threatening sex workers health, safety, and income. On the
other hand, sex workers rights and their allies argue that decriminalising sex work can increase sex
workers power over their working conditions, foster cooperation with police, and allow sex workers to
contribute to anti-trafficking efforts (also see Decriminalise sex work on page 62).
The prostitution abolitionist movement claims not to victimise women by instead stigmatising men
who seek commercial sexual services.112 However, sex workers rights organisations have protested
efforts to criminalise sex workers clients, arguing that it jeopardises sex workers safety and income.
As stated, World Cup fears concerning the number of women and girls who might be
trafficked into Germany for the purpose of sexual exploitation also presented for
some a tangible opportunity to lobby against the legalization of prostitution in
Germany.113 Jana Hennig, Sarah Craggs, Frank Laczko and Fred Larsson
One of the main divisions between the prostitution abolitionist movement and the sex workers rights
movement is that the abolitionist dont accept that women can choose to engage in sex work. Or, if
women choose to engage in sex work, they argue that their choice does not count as real choice or
that their consent does not need to be respected.114 Sex workers rights organisations argue that
ignoring women who choose to engage in sex work is a violation of womens rights and perpetuates
gender inequality by disregarding womens consent.115
One of the most ardently advocated feminist principles is that no means no. Ironically,
according to some feminists, for sex workers, yes does not mean yes. Until our
consent is treated with the same respect as that of any other woman, violence against
sex workers will not be stopped. International Union of Sex Workers
In the lead up to the 2006 World Cup (Germany), the US government used fears of trafficking to
promote its abolitionist stance and to criticise Germanys policy of legalising prostitution.

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[S]ince the matches are being held in Germany, which legalized pimping and
prostitution in 2001, the World Cup fans would be legally free to rape women in
brothels... Of the approximately 400.000 prostitutes in Germany, it is estimated that
75 percent of those who are abused in these houses of prostitution are foreigners,
many from Central and Eastern Europe.116 Christopher H. Smith, US House of
Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International
Operations, 2006
The argument that trafficking in humans and prostitution are inexorably linked is in
part due to policy decisions made by the United States. Although much international
dialogue surrounding both trafficking and prostitution claims prostitution and trafficking
are often linked, the extent of this link is debated.117 New Zealand Government,
Ministry of Justice

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

Foreign threats
Discussions on the supposed link between trafficking and international sporting events have also
included suspicious sentiments about those entering the country. In articles about the 2010 South
Africa World Cup, news articles referred to the countrys porous borders as a factor that could
increase the likelihood of trafficking.118 119 The Future Group argued that allowing people to enter the
country legally would result in trafficking victims disguised as legal tourists and visitors.120 121
Coordinators must protect the host countrys citizenry, foreign athletes, and tourists
from all over the world they must prevent clandestine activities from thriving in the
presence of large groups of foreigners.122 Samantha McRoskey
I support the increased efforts, announced by the Government, to detect and rescue
victims of trafficking by allowing border officials to conduct separate interviews at all
airports for women and children travelling with an adult who is not a parent, guardian
or husband.123 Lord Sheikh (UK), Lords Debate on human trafficking, 14 October
2010
Contrary to the fears detailed above, restricting travel requirements can increase the risk of trafficking.124
When people are able to travel freely on their own (e.g. eligible to apply for travel visas), they are less
likely to require the services of traffickers and brokers to enter another country.
Years of implementing a restrictive approach to migration and immigration policies by
the EU have not resulted in a decreased migration, but rather have left migrants more
vulnerable to irregular forms of migration, including smuggling and trafficking for
labour and other forms of exploitation.125 Excerpt from joint statement by GAATW
and La Strada International
This bias also thrives on race- and class stereotyping of women, as evidenced by the
South African Serious and Violent Crimes Unit submission to the earlier Issue Paper
on Trafficking in Persons. The unit claimed it knew trafficking had increased in South
Africa because border control have noticed suspicious foreigners entering the country
accompanied by young Asian women (South African Law Reform Commission, 2004).
These types of xenophobic comments led the SALRC to suggest that certain countries
be designated as countries of origin or destination for human trafficking and that
citizens of these countries be subjected to rigorous procedures at South African
border posts. Clearly, this would amount to a human rights infringement.126 Anna
Weekes, Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), South Africa

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Is it possible that the media and

political hype actually helped
prevent trafficking from
occurring?
Some prostitution abolitionist organisations and media have argued that the absence of trafficking
increases during large sporting events proves that the media and political hype helped prevent trafficking
from occurring.127
Its too easy
to construct
an issue
(when there
is no
evidence),
call for large
resources to
attack the
issue, then
claim
success
when nothing
happens.

For example, some media repeated a misleading argument by the Future Group that there was a 95%
increase in trafficking in Athens because prevention efforts hadnt been as extensive as measures
during the 2006 World Cup in Berlin.128 129 To be precise, 181 trafficked persons were reported in all of
2004, which is an increase from 93 trafficked persons that were reported in all of 2003.130 However,
none of these cases were linked to the 2004 Olympics, according to Greeces Annual Report on
Organised Crime and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Athens.131 In addition, the
Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded free legal aid for trafficking victims, training for judges and
prosecutors, a national victims hotline, an information campaign on disease prevention, increased
enforcement efforts, 3 government shelters, and 3 million Euros to non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) to provide assistance services.132 133
There may a number of reasons why trafficking has not occurred around large sporting events, why
business slows down for sex workers, and why traffickers may not be interested large sporting events
(see page 43). Its also important to remember that the first media interest on this issue (around the
2004 Athens Olympics) was due to governments criticising Greeces regulation policies around sex
work, not because of any increases observed by NGOs or service providers.134
[T]here is no conclusive evidence indicating that an increase in trafficking would have
occurred without these campaigns.135 Victoria Hayes
Its also hard to believe that media hype prevented trafficking from occurring when we take a closer
look at the content of various anti-trafficking campaigns by prostitution abolitionist groups. For example,
the abolitionist-driven anti-trafficking campaigns around the 2010 Vancouver Olympics confused trafficking
with sex work and relied on extremely negative imagery about women.136 In South Africa, Dr. Chandr
Gould remarked that many of the anti-trafficking campaigns around the 2010 World Cup bear the
characteristics of what is described as moral panic.137
In contrast, a number of the anti-trafficking campaigns prior to the 2006 Berlin World Cup explicitly
stated they were not campaigning against prostitution itself (prostitution is legal in Germany), but
rather targeting trafficking for prostitution.138 Two campaigns, Stop Forced Prostitution and Action
Against Forced Prostitution focused on their messages that sex workers clients could act responsibly
and contribute to anti-trafficking efforts.139 Although these campaigns may not have affected actual
incidences of trafficking, they may have more accurately helped the public (particularly clients) to
identify trafficking.

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One information campaign, Final Whistle Stop Forced Prostitution explicitly stated that rights,
respect and working conditions for sex workers need to be strengthened in order to address trafficking
for prostitution.
Existing rights for prostitutes need to be expanded in order to improve working
conditions, to ensure that services are voluntary and independent, and to combat
social stigma. We have to make sure that the human rights of prostitutes are upheld
and that prostitutes themselves are treated with respect by society at large and by
their clients in particular. Respectful treatment of prostitutes, however, must be
combined with resolute measures taken against forced prostitution.140

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

All this is not to deny the importance of awareness-raising campaigns and other prevention efforts. We
do want anti-trafficking campaigns to be successful and to have a genuine impact in decreasing
trafficking. However, its crucial to be honest about the strategies we use, considering the huge amount
of resources channelled into anti-trafficking efforts. Its too easy to construct an issue (when there is
no evidence), call for large resources to attack the issue, then claim success when nothing happens.
Justifying resource-intensive campaigns on unsubstantiated links becomes more of a concern when
resources are genuinely needed to address trafficking elsewhere.

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Even if there isnt any evidence,

is there any harm in publicising
this issue? What are the
consequences of an unscreened
rumour?141
It is crucial for any anti-trafficking activities to be grounded in evidence and the concerns of directly
affected groups.
Trafficking is a very serious human rights violation that needs to be tackled effectively. However,
GAATWs Collateral Damage: The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights Around the
World (2007) found that uncritical and uninformed anti-trafficking efforts can too often result in human
rights violations against the very groups they are intended to protect.142 In the 8 countries studied,
trafficked women were denied assistance unless they agreed to cooperate with law enforcement.
Women were locked up in shelters or detention centres, in the name of protecting them. Trafficked
persons were deported back to their place of origin without consideration of the risks. And men who
had been trafficked received little assistance.
Anti-trafficking can also very easily be used as a more socially acceptable guise for prostitution
abolitionist, anti-migrant and anti-womens rights rhetoric. The anti-trafficking rhetoric that has been
used most frequently around international sporting events has too often focused on criminalising
groups affected by trafficking (e.g. by justifying crackdowns against sex workers) and victimising them
(e.g. media representations of migrant women as helpless victims).
The Experts Group would like to underline that all activities in connection with this
[2006 World Cup] or other similar events should not be misinterpreted or
instrumentalised to discriminate against prostitutes or to further marginalise or
stigmatise them, thus increasing their vulnerability to trafficking and other forms of
violence and abuse.143 Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European
Commission
I am concerned with how the World Cup is arguably another illustration of merging
punitive border protection, the criminalization of women, and the undermining of
womens human rights, under the cover of protection of women.144 Dr. Sanja
Milivojevi , University of New South Wales (Australia)

WASTING NEEDED RESOURCES

The amount of resources (e.g. charities, task forces, media) given to a sensationalised issue is
diverting resources and attention from other priorities that are genuinely affecting trafficked victims,
sex workers, migrants and women.145 146 147 148
Anti-trafficking organisations have argued that most of the resources for anti-trafficking activities around
large sporting events have gone into highly publicised, and misleading, media campaigns, rather into
services for trafficked persons:

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[L]arge sums are being spent on national campaigns without a joint concept which
are meant to reach both the women affected as well as clients of sex workers. While
these hectic activities took place, which ensure big media interest for the big
associations, the question where all those additional trafficked women could turn to,
was neglected..This leads to the suspicion that the goal is mainly to increase ones
own reputation by using the issue of trafficking in human beings.149 Dr. Nivedita
Prasad & Babette Rohner, Ban Ying, an anti-trafficking organisation (Germany) and
GAATW member

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

Another NGO reported a case of two African victims of THB [trafficking in human
beings], who spoke a rare African language and where the only locally available
interpreter had requested a fee somewhat above the usual rate. The NGO had not
been able to receive the needed 400 Euro additional funding from the relevant
authorities for the interpreter to accompany the women to first medical examinations
and appointments with the social authorities.150 Jana Hennig, Sarah Craggs, Frank
Laczko and Fred Larsson
There is also concern that providing resources for an unsubstantiated issue may result in funding
organisations who are not adequately informed to provide anti-trafficking services, and who could
potentially harm people who are referred to them.
The focus on a supposed link between large sporting events and trafficking for prostitution also results
in blind spots, ignoring or distracting the public from more urgent and long-term issues, such as:

Other forms of trafficking:

Emphasis on trafficking for sexual exploitation diverts attention from less sensational
aspects of labour exploitation, such as the exploitation of undocumented migrants and of
vulnerable workers in largely unregulated or unmonitored sectors such as domestic work,
farm labour and forms of casualised construction work.151 Marlise Richter & Tamlyn
Monson, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand, South
Africa

Violence against women and migrants, including sex workers:

Other human rights abuses, which are well documented as being highly prevalent in South
and Southern Africa, receive less attention and resources by welfare and advocacy
organisations, the media, and government, due to the attention and resources dedicated
to human trafficking prevention. Such abuses include rape and other forms of genderbased violence, and various forms of violence perpetrated by human smugglers and gangs
upon undocumented migrants crossing South Africas land borders.152 Marlise Richter &
Tamlyn Monson, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand,
South Africa

Sex workers rights:

In response to this media frenzy and public fears, a number of national and international
organisations invested in the distribution of condoms, generalised HIV and AIDS information
campaigns for South Africans and visitors, and rolled out anti-trafficking campaigns. Yet,
very little support concentrated on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of most
at risk populations such as sex workers. Few actors engaged with sex workers on their
needs and expectations of the World Cup.153 Mark Bryan Schreiner, UN Population
Fund

Urban issues such as the lack of affordable housing, rising house rates and urban
displacement related to Olympic-related urban development; homelessness, poverty,
addiction, HIV and mental illness. In Vancouver, sex workers groups protested the shortterm focus of Olympics-related anti-trafficking campaigns and called for more attention
towards long-term violence and housing issues.154

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MISREPRESENTING PEOPLE AND ISSUES ULTIMATELY

UNDERMINES ANTI-TRAFFICKING OBJECTIVES
Trivialising trafficking
Some anti-trafficking stakeholders are concerned that sensationalising a false link between large
sporting events and trafficking ultimately undermines serious efforts to fight trafficking and assist
victims.
All experts (NGOs and police) had experienced an increased interest from the media
and tried their best to respond. Many were disappointed by journalists who were just
after sex-n-crime stories and further support of the 40,000 figure, without much
interest in other accounts. Some NGOs felt they had first been ignored by the media
with their assessment of a moderate increase in trafficking or even none at all; after
the World Cup some press articles blamed the NGOs across-the board for putting up
a wrong and unfounded figure.155 Jana Hennig, Sarah Craggs, Frank Laczko and
Fred Larsson

Perpetuating sexual and racial stereotypes

The more stereotyped you are, the more dehumanized you are.156 - Pye Jacobson,
Swedish sex worker and activist
For sex workers, however, these false claims became a form of symbolic
violence.The abolitionist anti-trafficking rhetoric was so painful that one sex worker
was moved to investigate whether she could charge some of the abolitionist groups
with hate crimes.157 Esther Shannon, FIRST, a sex worker ally group (Canada) and
GAATW member
Public awareness campaigns and media depictions of trafficking have been key in promoting particular
ideas about what victims of trafficking look like, where they come from, and what theyre capable (or
incapable) of. It is important to think carefully about the underlying messages anti-trafficking campaigns
are communicating about women.
Some anti-trafficking campaigns have tried to capture the publics attention by displaying graphic
images of violence against women and the weakness of women.158 Media articles on trafficked victims
routinely describe victims as frightened, powerless, weak, gullible, and unable to make decisions for
themselves.
Trafficking for prostitution has been described by
prostitution abolitionist as meeting a demand.159 Yet
the use of eroticised and violent imagery in antitrafficking campaigns is rationalised as the need to
meet media and public demand, i.e. to make
trafficking sexy enough for media and public
consumption. Stories of victimhood typically generate
a great deal of interest and can be used strategically
by media and NGOs to, respectively, gain readers
and increase charitable donations. While trafficking
is obvious exploitation, the focus on one-on-one
violence maintains the status quo by excluding
discussion on the broader social and economic
contexts that contribute to trafficking (e.g. lack of legal
migration opportunities for working-class women). The
use of racialised women in Western anti-trafficking
public awareness campaigns also often end up

38

Source: The Union of Finnish Feminists, Finland

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defining certain groups of women in need of assistance from women in wealthier countries, e.g. female
victims from the Global South needing rescue.
Relying on explicit and sexualised images of violence can end up perpetuating negative stereotypes of
sex workers and migrant women as weak, passive, helpless, gullible and in need of rescue.160 161
These representations can also end up justifying measures to control womens behaviour, determine
womens morality, and rationalise womens resistance as the behaviour of women who are incapable
of making their own decisions.

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

Anti-trafficking measures affected not only German sex workers, but also women
from the supposed countries of origin who, for whatever reason, wanted to visit Germany
during the World Cup. As women in danger of being trafficked for sex during the
World Cup were constructed as young, naive women from Eastern and Central Europe
(Ekklesia 2006, Haape 2006, Tzortzis 2006), who seek a life free of poverty or
abuse (Neuwirth 2006) but instead end up being severely victimized, their bodies
have been yet again constructed as weak and vulnerable.162 - Dr. Sanja Milivojevi
(University of New South Wales), Australia
The moralistic approach, which assumes that women do not know their own minds
(Agustin, 2005) has to be dismissed: western governments, international and religious
organizations, and western feminist scholarship need to abandon their colonial gaze
(Mohanty, 1998) and broad generalizations.163 Dr. Sanja Milivojevi (University of
New South Wales) and Dr. Sharon Pickering (Monash University)
Media and public pressure around trafficking for prostitution could result in tighter entrance restrictions
or the profiling of particular racial or ethnic groups as potential trafficked persons. In the name of
preventing trafficking, some governments have developed restrictive entry policies denying women of
certain ages or certain appearance from entering a country. For instance, research at the San Paulo
airport found that Brazilian women were being refused entry and repatriated from European airports
because they were suspected of being in the sex industry.164 Swedish law, through the Alien Act,
allows the government to refuse women entry into the country if it can be assumed that the person
will commit a crime or that he or she will not support themselves by honest means .165

CRIMINAL PENALTIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

AGAINST SEX WORKERS
Anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns often rely on ideas and images of women as victims, yet
the solutions proposed often penalise both women who have been trafficked and sex workers. Sex
workers rights groups have argued that police violence and police brutality (sanctioned by criminalising
laws) is an urgent danger.166 This may worsen during international sporting events if law enforcement
feel pressured to prove they are doing something or target specific ethnic groups (based on stereotypical
assumptions of trafficked women). For example, in South Africa, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille
appeared to rationalise crackdowns against sex workers as an anti-trafficking measure.167
[S]ex workers experienced ongoing harassment before and during the World Cup
period and, at times, could not access the few services that were available to them.
Some examples include:
Police extortion of sex workers and extraction of bribes;
Police arrests of sex workers without being formally charged; and
Client intimidation and extortion by police (which affected sex workers ability to earn)168
- Eric Harper and Diane Massawe, Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce
(SWEAT) and Marlise Richter, South African National AIDS Council

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Photo by Jerome Kashetsky

Sex workers have the same right to travel and migrate as anyone else, but when they
are wrongly labeled as trafficking victims, it leads to extreme human rights violations.
In many countriesincluding Canadathis means violent raids of brothels, and the
harassment, criminalization, detention, and deportation of sex workers, most of whom
are voluntary workers.169 Joyce Arthur, FIRST, a sex worker ally group (Canada) and
GAATW member
This also applies to law enforcements use of rescue raids, or raiding premises where sex work is
taking place. This is ostensibly to identify and rescue trafficked victims but has often led to arrests,
harassment, and deportation of migrant sex workers in many countries.170 171 172
While prostitution is legal in Germany, police in Berlin raided 71 brothels in the city during the 2006
World Cup; they found no evidence of trafficking but did deport ten women.173
As a consequence of conflating trafficking and sex work the crackdown on illegal
prostitution and sex trafficking resulted in large-scale raids throughout Germany, with
nearly one hundred people, seventy four of them sex workers, arrested by the German
police. The interior minister of the Hesse province directly linked these raids with
concerns expressed by human rights organizations and other groups that thousands
of women, mostly from Eastern Europe, could be smuggled into Germany and forced
to work as prostitutes during the World Cup.174
In preparation for the 2012 London Olympics: Figures recently released to parliament
by the Home Office show SCD9 carried out 80 brothel raids between January to
August 2010 in the five boroughs.But the probation union, Napo, claimed the
crackdown would have unintended consequences. The strategy will drive the trade
underground and prohibition merely distorts the laws of supply and demand. As a
consequence, the trade will be more dangerous for women. Policy initiatives should
address real problems, such as housing, health and safety, and not be based on
flawed ideology which distorts the market and endangers the women.175

London 2012 Olympics: Crackdown on brothels puts sex workers at risk, The
Observer (UK)

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DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

Special Thanks to Laura Agustin

CLEANING UP THE STREETS BY DISPLACING SEX

WORKERS AND OTHER MARGINALISED GROUPS
Intense media and law enforcement scrutiny to find trafficked victims has often occurred alongside
efforts to hurriedly move undesirables away from public view. Although not specifically linked to antitrafficking policy, displacement of sex workers and other marginalised groups was a strong concern
expressed by community advocates and other stakeholders in Vancouver prior to the 2010 Winter
Olympics and in Johannesburg prior to the 2010 World Cup.176 Community groups and allies were
concerned that efforts to clean up the streets would impact any groups that didnt fit the citys image
(e.g. sex workers, the homeless, poor people, jaywalkers). There were fears that displacing sex
workers and other marginalised groups would increase the risk of violence by forcing sex workers to
work in more isolated areas.
[T]he police were already arresting the ladies saying they are making South Africa
dirty so those people who come from the other countries, they wouldnt like South
Africa because it would be dirty from the sex workers.177 female sex worker, Cape
Town
We especially urge you to resist the temptation to clear the streets and parks of the
Downtown Eastside of their longtime residents to address the imagined perceptions
of the international community in 2010.178 Letter addressed Vancouvers Chief of
Police and Mayor, February 2009
In South Africa, sex workers reported great fears about being arrested and detained during the 2010
World Cup.179
[H]otels have begun clamping down on sex workers. On the streets this week, the
winter chill and increased police visibility meant fewer sex workers on the strip. Visits
during peak cruising hours, around 9pm, to the traditional red-light areas of Oxford
Street, Illovo and Sandton found fewer than 10 sex workers roaming around in skimpy
skirts. Those who had braved the low temperatures to lure clients dived into bushes
whenever the police patrolled..The securities have been making our lives hard.
They say they dont want girls in their hotels.180 No boom boom for Joburgs sex
workers

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Sex workers rights groups are already concerned about City clean-up efforts in London (for the 2012
Olympics) and Rio (for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics).181
Scotland Yard has been accused of endangering sex workers after it emerged that
officers were targeting brothels in Londons Olympic boroughs as part of a coordinated
clean-up operation ahead of the 2012 games.Figures from the Open Door agency,
a health clinic based in East London, appear to partially confirm Napos claim. The
agency reported that there has already been a significant displacement of sex workers
throughout Newham, with a decline of 25% in referrals to health clinics since the
previous year. Napo said it appeared the women had not stopped working, but were
moving to other areas where they could be more at risk of rape, robbery and assault.182
London 2012 Olympics: Crackdown on brothels puts sex workers at risk, The
Observer (UK)

CONTROLLING WOMENS TRAVEL

Making migration and travel restrictions tougher for certain groups of women has been argued as a
strategy to stop trafficking and to protect women from being trafficked.183 However, making migration
and travel more difficult can (1) increase the risk of trafficking and (2) restrict womens rights. If women
are not allowed to travel on their own, traffickers or brokers become the only option to access work
opportunities abroad.184
Several organisations have indicated that efforts to prevent human trafficking have,
in some countries, resulted in the restriction of the movement of young women, which
is a violation of their rights. .. La Strada is sceptical about prevention campaigns
that stigmatise or are only intended to prevent persons (in particular women) from
coming to South Africa.185 La Strada International, a European anti-trafficking network
and GAATW member, speaking about the 2010 World Cup (South Africa)
Calling for increased border security measures around international sporting events allows governments
to justify restricting migrants rights in the name of fighting trafficking. For the 2006 World Cup, the
German government tried to demonstrate its commitment to anti-trafficking by restricting visas from
East European countries such as Ukraine and Belarus for the duration of the tournament and stepping
up police raids on German brothels, looking for illegal immigrants and evidence of coercion.186
[M]oral enforcement agents not only perform a gendered securitization of the border
but also a social and racial patrol of particular groups. Consequently the moral panic
surrounding the World Cup evidenced a peak in the subjection of some racial and
social groups to differential border, immigration and labour regimes. 187 Dr. Sanja
Milivojevi , University of New South Wales, Australia
Based on these measures, women sports fans from poorer countries will have to run away from their
rescuers188 or be seen as trafficking victims who are only pretending to be visitors189:
Mr Frattini said that each and every application for a visa from women in the suspected
countries of origin for forced prostitution should be checked, as a lot of the times the
women lie and say they will attend for instance cultural events in the application.190
EU wants tighter visa rules to stymie World Cup sex trade, EU Observer

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Even if there isnt evidence, is it

still possible that trafficking for
prostitution could increase during
large sporting events?
There are a number of reasons why an increase in trafficking for prostitution during international sporting
events is unlikely.

DE-CONSTRUCTING A RUMOUR

Trafficking results from poverty, powerlessness and limited economic options. The
supply of trafficking victims is driven far more by these factors than by temporary
fluctuations in demand for sex workers arising from sporting events. There is no
instantaneous, market-clearing process that responds to short-term shifts in demand.191
Christina Arnold, Project Hope International

Statistically not feasible, i.e. think it through

The same inflated numbers of trafficked persons are often predicted for different large sporting events,
typically anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000. The implausibility of these figures are clearer when put
into perspective, such as by comparing these estimates to a countrys actual trafficking incidence
rates, the number of expected visitors for a particular event, and even the seating capacity of a sports
venue (see page 15).
Considering that the trafficked women will be joined by thousands of legal and voluntary
sex workers registered with the German government, there are simply not enough
men to seek the services of an additional 40,000 trafficking victims. Petra Burcikova,
the national coordinator for La Strada, a pan-European anti-trafficking organization,
sums up the implausibility of this figure. She says, I think the guys who are coming
to watch the championship would not have time to watch any games because they
would have to be engaged in having sex with all of those prostitutes all of the time.192
Christina Arnold, Project Hope International
FIFA estimates that 450 000 international spectators will visit South Africa - that is 6
times fewer visitors than to the 2006 Germany World Cup. It is therefore highly unlikely
that 100,000 people would be trafficked into South Africa. Indeed, were that to be the
case there would be just less than one trafficked victim for every four spectators.193
Marlise Richter & Dr. Chandr Gould, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa

Short-term events are likely not profitable for

traffickers or sex workers
The idea of traffickers being magnetically drawn to large sporting events ignores the cost-benefit
analysis for a short-term event, especially given the fact that sex workers have often been displaced or
removed during street clean-up activities (see page 41). Short-term sports events are not only
insufficiently profitable for traffickers, sex workers and business owners they have more often than not,
reported a drop in business (or demand) during large sporting events.
While it is far too soon for any research results on the impact of the Games on sex
work in Vancouver, to date, all anecdotal reports we have received testify to a significant

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drop in business during the Games. According to both street-level and inside workers
we have spoken to, customers stayed away because of concerns about street closures,
the overall security presence and the massive crowds that daily gathered in the city.194
-Esther Shannon, FIRST, a sex worker ally group and GAATW member
Trafficking in human beings is a business; traffickers want to make profits. It is
costly to bring a woman without valid residence papers to Germany. Women who
would be forcibly carried off to Germany just for the World Cup would not make
enough money for the perpetrators within the four weeks of the tournament. In general,
the women who are being supported by Ban Ying have had to work much longer for
the perpetrators than just four weeks.195 Dr. Nivedita Prasad & Babette Rohner,
Ban Ying, an anti-trafficking organisation (Germany) and GAATW member
The high number of sex workers in Germany was also given as a reason that would decrease the
profitability for traffickers:
It is no surprise for us that the numbers are not so high, says Heike Rudat, a
spokeswoman for the German Union of Criminal Investigators. Germany already has
so many prostitutes, say experts, estimated at nearly 400,000, that there was simply
no need to increase the population, especially for such a short period.196 Samuel
Loewenberg

Not just male fans

The hype around sporting events and trafficked women is largely based on assumptions about male
sports fans.197 In reality, sports fans and visitors often include large numbers of women, families, and
mixed groups.198 199 200 Events such as the Olympic Games are also typically marketed as a familyfriendly event to showcase the best the host city has to offer. This contradicts the assumptions made
about the fan base of large sporting events as being predominantly male and demanding sex.
These are family events, and the idea that thousands of testosterone-fuelled blokes
turn up looking for sex just doesnt reflect reality.201 Catherine Stephens, International
Union of Sex Workers (IUSW)

Sexual services may not be affordable for most sports

visitors
Considering the costs involved in attending an international sporting event, paying for sexual services
may not be affordable for many sports visitors. This may be the case especially for sports events in
very expensive cities (such as London, Vancouver, Berlin) or relatively long-distance locations (such
as South Africa).
Sporting events suck for the sex trade. The younger fans have already spent thousands
on jacked-up hotel rates, airfare and scalped tickets, she says [Maggie McNeill, The
Honest Courtesan]. They only have enough left to nurse Bud Lights and J ger bombs.
The executive caste may have money to burn, but most bring their families along.
What do they say to their wives? McNeill asks. Hey honey, Im going to see a
hooker now?202 The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers wont be showing
up in Dallas.
In general, interest in football and partying seemed to have prevailed. Further, it was
pointed out that there were many low-budget tourists among the fans, who had just
enough money for tickets and transport.203 International Organisation for Migration
(IOM)

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Gould, C. Moral panic, human trafficking and the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Agenda, 85, 31-44. Available online at:
http://www.agenda.org.za/launch-of-agenda-no-85-2010-fifa-world-cup-gender-politics-and-sport/
92
Ban Ying. (2006). Where are the 40,000? Statement on trafficking during the World Cup. Available online at: http://
www.ban-ying.de/pageeng/start.htm
93
Kotz, P. (2011, January 27). The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers wont be showing up in Dallas. Dallas
Observer. Available online at: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitute-myth-100000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-in-dallas/
94
E.g. see GAATW. (2010). Beyond Borders: Exploring Links Between Trafficking and Migration. GAATW Working Papers
Series 2010. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/publications/WP_on_Migration.pdf
95
(2003, July 23). Anger over Greek Olympic brothels. BBC News. Available online at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/
3091209.stm
96
E.g. See Bovenkerk, F. & van San, M. (2011). Loverboys in the Amsterdam Red Light District: A realist approach to the
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Loewenberg, S. (2006). Fears of World Cup sex trafficking boom unfounded. The Lancet, 368 (8), 105-106.
197
Sapa. (2009, October 23). Human trafficking: Not enough awareness. IOL News. Available online at: http://www.iol.co.za/
news/south-africa/human-trafficking-not-enough-awareness-1.462525
198
Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
IOM Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/
shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf
199
Wyatt, B. (2010, July 10). Soccer fans shun hookers for arts sake. CNN. Available online at: http://edition.cnn.com/
2010/SPORT/football/07/09/prostitute.gallery/index.html
200
Rubin, M. (2009). The offside rule: Womens bodies in masculinised spaces. In U. Pillay, R. Tomlinson, & O. Bass (Eds.),
Development and dreams: The urban legacy of the 2010 football World Cup (266-280). Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Available online at: http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2259&freedownload=1
201
Ozimek, J.F. (2010, October 7). Have hordes of sex workers snubbed the Commonwealth games? The Register.
Available online at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/07/olympic_workers/
202
Kotz, P. (2011, January 27). The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers wont be showing up in Dallas. Dallas
Observer. Available online at: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitute-myth-100000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-in-dallas/
203
Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
IOM Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/
shared/mainsite/published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf
190

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Are there any connections

between other forms of trafficking
and large sporting events?
There are other forms of trafficking that may be related to international sporting events. However,
stakeholders should weigh the evidence and assess ramifications of media portrayals. Examinations
into other forms of trafficking around large sporting events should focus on the rights of migrants and
trafficked persons, rather than used to fuel anti-immigration sentiments.
For instance, the number of migrant workers on Olympics construction projects in London has already
been noted in the UK media. Unfortunately, the media has so far been less interested in migrant
workers working conditions than on the idea of migrant workers fuelling demand for commercial
sex.204
Elsewhere, other organisations have examined labour exploitation and human rights abuses of migrant
workers on sports-related construction projects. A sudden need for specific sports venues and housing
for athletes within a limited time period may lead to extended working hours and increased risk for
workers.
The working conditions of the migrant workers that have contributed to the building of
the stadiums are known to be very poor. In fact, the only figures we have on the 2004
Olympics in Greece are the 13 Greek and at least 25 (undocumented) migrant workers
that have died due to unsafe working conditions.205 La Strada International, a European
anti-trafficking network and GAATW member
[I]n the years prior to the 2010 Olympic Games with British Columbia experiencing
severe labour shortages, the reliance on temporary migrant workers from Latin America
and the Philippines to construct the massive transportation and sports infrastructure
in Vancouver and surrounding areas was less than a footnote to this unfolding story.
Nor was there any extensive investigation of or concern about the working conditions
under which Third World and predominantly Chinese workers produced the dizzying
array of consumer goods available at Olympic venues and on-line.206 Dr. Annalee
Lepp, GAATW Canada
In 2008, the Chinese government admitted that six workers had been killed in workplace accidents at
Olympic venues.207 In Hidden Faces of the Gulf Miracle208, the International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC) examined human rights violations against migrant construction workers in Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates. Human rights violations included contract substitutions, non-payment, exploitative
working conditions, physical abuse, excessive recruitment fees, and restrictions on worker organising
efforts.
There is widespread concern that migrants will fall victim to agencies seeking to
make quick money from the [2022] World Cup recruitment boom or face exploitation
from companies eager to cut costs and deadlines in the rush to complete projects in
time for the tournament. International Trade Union Confederation

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Migrant workers win case over discriminatory practices

on Olympics construction project
Under Canadas Temporary Foreign Workers visa program, the construction companies leading Olympicrelated construction projects hired 38 workers from Latin American countries to build an underground
tunnel as part of the metro line linking Vancouver with the Vancouver International Airport (the Canada
Line project). Compared to Canadian and European construction workers on the same project, the
Latin American construction workers were discriminated against in terms of salaries, accommodations,
meals, and expenses.209
The Construction and Specialised Workers Union launched a complaint on their behalf in 2006:
Temporary foreign workers should not have to rely on extensive litigation or suffer
lengthy delays to win their basic human rights in Canada.I hope this historic decision
will make it much easier for other workers to demand fair treatment and encourage
governments to adequately protect those rights.210
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ordered the companies to pay each worker the difference
between the amount paid to them and the amount paid to others plus $10,000 (CDN) each for injury
to dignity, feelings and self-respect. The award for all workers totaled more than $2.4 million (CDN).

Calling for ethical working conditions in the sports

manufacturing sector
Research has highlighted the labour rights violations in the production of soccer balls and sportswear
factories in Asia.211 212 Labour rights issues include the use of child labour, precarious labour, low
wages, occupational health and safety violations, and limited rights to organise and collectively bargain.

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

The international PlayFair campaign was launched prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics and aimed to
pressure sportswear and athletic footwear companies, the International Olympics Committee as
well as national governments, into taking identifiable and concrete measures to eliminate the exploitation
and abuse of the mostly women workers in the global sporting goods industry.213 This campaign
continued prior to and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics214. A 2012 campaign (www.playfair2012.org.uk)
has been launched to address workers rights and ethical consumption issues around the 2012 London
Olympics. In Brazil, Building Workers International has launched a campaign around the 2014 World
Cup and PlayFair has launched a campaign for the 2016 Olympics.215

Recruitment of young athletes

There have been a number of media articles examining the recruitment and exploitation of young
African athletes in the sports sector generally (i.e. not limited to large sporting events).216 Issues
include the practices of unlicensed football academies, false contract offers, large rates paid to
agents and brokers to facilitate travel for young athletes, and the abandonment of young athletes in
destination countries.
There have been some troubling reports in print and electronic media of young and
adult Kenyan athletes being recruited by foreign countries, mostly the Gulf States of
Qatar and Bahrain, only to find themselves in conditions they had not consented to.
As Kenya does not recognise dual citizenship, both young and adult athletes who
revoke their nationality so as to move to foreign countries face the danger of being
rendered stateless, as was the case with Gregory Konchellah (Yusuf Saad Kamel)
who fell out with his adopted country Bahrain - over claims of unpaid dues. Bahrain
refused to grant his request to revert to his Kenyan citizenship and also denied him
the right to use his Bahraini passport. Besides allegations of unpaid salaries, there
have been complaints that young migrant athletes who are not good enough to make
the cut are required to join their adopted countries military. Such practices have been
disturbing enough for Athletics Kenya, the countrys official athletes governing body,
to accuse Bahrain and Qatar of modern day slavery.217 Nkirote Laiboni

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Whats the best way to deal with

the issue of trafficking around
international sporting events?
We must involve affected stakeholders and apply an evidence-based approach to
prevent trafficking, rather than misrepresent the issues with scare-mongering, sexist
rhetoric. Most importantly, our focus must be on ensuring the safety and full human
rights of sex workers before, during, and after the 2010 Games.218 Joyce Arthur,
FIRST, a sex worker ally group (Canada) and GAATW member
While there is no evidence linking sporting events with trafficking for prostitution, we recognise that
some stakeholders might feel compelled or face political pressure to do something about trafficking.
Some of the rights-based groups in our network have tried to channel the increased attention in a more
productive direction, such as by raising awareness of broader trafficking issues or highlighting sex
workers rights. 219 Below are some recommended guidelines for stakeholders, based on
recommendations from sex workers rights groups, GAATW members and allies. Some of the
recommendations below also focus on preventing any collateral damage or negative impacts that can
occur from misguided or misinformed anti-trafficking efforts.
The recommendations below mainly apply to anti-trafficking efforts specifically related to international
sporting events. These recommendations dont cover other general anti-trafficking issues that have
already been detailed elsewhere, such as training for the proper identification of trafficked persons,
ensuring access to justice for trafficked persons, and the need for strong victim protection and support
services. For the handling of actual trafficking cases, we encourage stakeholders to refer to the
Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking220 and its
Commentary221 by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and other resources
developed by the GAATW International Secretariat and our member organisations (available at
www.gaatw.org).222
Any anti-trafficking efforts must be proportionate, sustainable, evidence-based, cognizant of other
sectors in which trafficking occurs, and done in consultation with groups affected by trafficking and/or
anti-trafficking measures, such as sex workers.
Organizations should further avoid using valuable resources for counter-trafficking
measures solely within the context of major events.223 Jana Hennig, Sarah Craggs,
Frank Laczko and Fred Larsson
In preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, the Brazilian Observatory of Human
Trafficking (an anti-trafficking coalition with several GAATW members) has already started to reach
out to stakeholders with their recommendations:224
Do not suppress the practice of prostitution in the name of fighting trafficking of persons.
Prevention efforts are recommended in fans or visitors countries of origin, and the cities
of the World Cup against the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
Sex workers, women and men, need support services such as information, condom
distribution, ways to report violence, without fear of being arrested or punished.
Campaigns and interventions that weaken the position of sex workers should be avoided,
and do not implement crackdowns to evict sex workers from the streets, squares, clubs,
etc. More visibility means more safety.
Develop policy on this issue in consultation with prostitutes and sex workers organisations.
The World Cup events are opportunities for traffickers to entice local players, mostly
young, to take a chance at opportunities abroad. Information campaigns with football
academies are essential.

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CONSULT AND COLLABORATE WITH GROUPS AFFECTED BY

TRAFFICKING AND/OR ANTI-TRAFFICKING MEASURES
Groups directly affected by trafficking and/or anti-trafficking measures must be consulted to ensure
that anti-trafficking measures are effective, reflect community priorities, and dont result in further
harm.225
It is inappropriate to think that sex workers want to be saved by the Salvation ArmyIf
they really want to know what sex workers need, they should have asked them.
Katrina Pacey, PIVOT Legal, a legal aid organisation (Canada), in response to an
anti-trafficking campaign by the Salvation Army226
Given that the issues at play - homelessness, poverty, sex work, migration and
trafficking - can encourage notions about what is best for people, local stakeholders
expressed concern that identified solutions may not respect their realities. Such
solutions would have negative effects on the health and safety of sex industry workers
and trafficking victims and also reduce their willingness to access services.227
Raven Bowen and Esther Shannon, Frontline Consulting
Directly affected groups such as sex workers have valuable knowledge and information that can assist
anti-trafficking efforts. Increased attention on trafficking presents an opportunity to develop alternatives
that work productively with sex workers rather than punishing them (such as the raid and rescue
method currently used). If there is increased funding allocated to anti-trafficking initiatives around large
international events, sex workers rights groups and other peer-led or self-organised groups should be
prioritised for support.
Vancouver should fund organizations that are made up of sex workers and not sex
worker helpers. sex worker228

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

A sex worker hotline pilot project was launched during the World Cup. Cape Town sex
workers were trained as helpline counsellors and provide telephonic assistance to
sex workers. The helpline calls over this period confirmed an increase in intimidation
from the police and in particular the Vice Squad in Cape Town.229 Eric Harper and
Diane Massawe, Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Marlise
Richter, South African National AIDS Council
The South African National AIDS Councils Intersectoral
Working Group on Sex Work is an example of a collaborative
effort between sex workers, researchers, healthcare providers,
lawyers and advocates. The Working Group was formed in
2009 to address human rights and public health issues around
the 2010 World Cup; and to see if World Cup-related activities
could catalyse productive debate about the decriminalisation
of sex work. The Working Group was supported by an egroup of researchers, healthcare providers, lawyers, sex
workers and advocates.
In November 2009, the South African National AIDS Council
(SANAC) and the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy
Taskforce (SWEAT) organised a 2-day consultation to discuss
strategies and coordinate action amongst allies.230
The consultation called for:
Right to sex worker safety and protection
Right to sexual health for everyone

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Accessibility to sexual health services for everyone

Lawful, responsible and respectful police behaviour towards sex workers
Freedom of movement in ones living environment
Dignity for sex workers

After the World Cup, members of SWEAT and SANAC published their Report on the 2010 Soccer
World Cup and Sex Work: Documenting Successes and Failures231. This report assessed the actions
that had been successful in their work, such as: the delivery of human rights training and public health
messaging, research into sex work around sporting events, the creation of a sex worker hotline staffed
by sex workers, delivery of media training for sex workers and advocates, and a workshop on sex
worker arrest. Authors also reflected on the failed actions, noting that authorities failed to implement a
moratorium on sex work related arrests (as recommended by the Working Group), SANACs failure to
adopt the recommendations from the November consultation, and SANACs resistance to adopt the
recommendation to decriminalise sex work.

RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT RIGHTS AND OPTIONS, NOT FEAR

OR PITY
Any media, fundraising, and public awareness activities bear a responsibility towards accuracy and
ethical representation of trafficked persons, sex workers, migrants and other groups affected by antitrafficking efforts.

Raise informed awareness, not fear and pity

Some anti-trafficking awareness raising campaigns have been limited to promoting a certain ideology
(e.g. demonising clients of sex workers), or promoting emotions such as fear (e.g. dangers of migrating)
or paternalism (e.g. helping those who cannot help themselves). Considering the amount of resources
channelled into awareness raising campaigns, its surprising how few provide concrete information on
the practical options that would be helpful to trafficking victims, exploited migrants, or to those that
might assist them.
Awareness raising campaigns that clearly state the rights and resources available to trafficked persons
would allow victims to assess whether they should seek assistance and whether they can trust
authorities.
LSI recommends that such campaigns do not only warn against human trafficking
but also provide adequate information to migrants who want to work in the country
during the World Cup with accurate information about working in South Africa in the
different industries and the rights that they do or do not have.232 La Strada International,
a European anti-trafficking network and GAATW member

Raise awareness about the rights, not just the

vulnerabilities, of sex workers and other marginalised
groups
Sex workers and other groups likely to be targeted by misguided or punitive anti-trafficking efforts (e.g.
migrants, racial/ethnic minority women) should be informed about their rights and their options should
they encounter intimidation, harassment or abuse from law enforcement, the media or others.
For community groups in Vancouver and Johannesburg, this included providing media training for sex
workers, to meet the increased media demand before the 2010 Olympics and 2010 World Cup,
respectively.233

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We just want our members to feel safe in the neighbourhood in which they live and
safe to work in the neighbourhood in which they liveWe find sometimes that media
attention to the area can be a little less than compassionate, and we dont want them
to feel like animals in a zoo during that time We just want [the sex trade workers]
to be aware of what their rights are around media, including the fact that it is legal for
[media] to take a picture of them on a public street And if they do consent to an
interview, they can get the questions ahead of time. Things like that.234 Kerry
Porth, Providing Alternatives Counselling and Education (PACE), Canada
Stigma around sex work contributes to sex workers vulnerability and entrenches the belief that violence
against sex workers will not be taken seriously. Raising awareness of sex workers rights has the
potential to address violence by reinforcing messages that violent perpetrators will not be able to get
away with harming sex workers.235

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

A South African coalition of sex workers rights groups, researchers, and public health allies agreed to
base any 2010 World Cup-related materials around these messages236 237:
Sex workers have the right to work for the period of the World Cup.
Sex workers have the right to personal safety and not to be harassed by police.
Sex workers have the right to have access to free, quality and respectful health care. This
includes foreign migrant sex workers.

Encouraging clients and the public to act responsibly

For the 2008 Euro Cup, a few European GAATW members participated in a coalition campaign, Euro
08 Campaign Against Trafficking in Women.238 239 GAATW members were very wary about the
sensationalist reporting trends around sporting events, but wanted to see whether there was a way to
channel that attention in a more productive direction. The campaign attempted to do this by incorporating
warnings against misguided policy into campaign messages, clarifying the distinction between trafficking
and sex work, and by focusing on protection mechanisms rather than punitive measures against
immigration and sex work. Part of the campaign materials included guidelines for sex workers clients240,
including information on:
How to recognise trafficked prostitution
How to help
What not to do
Rules for punters
Contact information

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In Vancouver, the British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC) distributed For Our
Clients241 during the 2010 Olympics, which included guides to ethical transactions with sex workers
and sexual health information.
Public awareness campaigns during the 2006 World Cup in Germany also included condom distribution
and informing potential clients about sex workers rights.242 Two campaigns around the 2006 World
Cup in Germany, Stop Forced Prostitution and Action Against Forced Prostitution243 sought to help
sex workers clients identify and report trafficking cases. The Stoppt Zwangsprostitution or Stop
Forced Prostitution campaign244 stated that it was not judging clients in general, but raising their
awareness and encouraging them to report suspected cases of trafficking.

FairPlay

Existing rights for prostitutes need to be expanded in order to improve working

conditions, to ensure that services are voluntary and independent, and to combat
social stigma. We have to make sure that the human rights of prostitutes are upheld
and that prostitutes themselves are treated with respect by society at large and by
their clients in particular. Respectful treatment of prostitutes, however, must be
combined with resolute measures taken against forced prostitution.245

The FairPlay campaign created 10 rules in 8 languages for sex workers clients, and told clients to
make sex with a sex worker more enjoyable and fun, keep the following guidelines in mind246:
1. Politeness, respect and a pleasant appearance will open many doors and more.
2. Alcohol may help you overcome your fears, but it also affects your ability to keep it up. In
other words: The less you drink the more fun youll have.
3. A man keeps his word. Be clear from the start about what you want and what it will cost.
It prevents disappointment in the long run.
4. No means no. For example, tongue play while kissing is usually out of bounds. Every
business has its limits.
5. With a condom, or with a condom the choice is yours. Black, green, blue, ribbed or with
pleasure bumps take your pick. Not using a condom, however, is a major foul.
6. If you suspect violence or force is being used, what should you do? Dont try to be a hero.
Find out where the nearest hotline is for sex workers, for example at www.freiersein.de.
7. Business is business and not love, even if your time together was wonderful. That
means: Stay cool and keep your feet on the ground.
8. Pressure doesnt help performance. Sometimes it just doesnt work. Thats ok. Just relax
and, when the times right, give it another go.
9. When it comes to sex, theres no money-back guarantee. If youre not satisfied, talk
about it. If youre smart, you wont lose your head. Whatever happens, dont demand your
money back.
10.The neighbors want to get some sleep and are not interested in your sex life. Really.

Challenge misleading and harmful campaigns

For some sex workers rights groups and their allies, raising awareness has meant correcting the
exploitative imagery in anti-trafficking campaigns. The period leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Winter
Olympics saw an increase in abolitionist rhetoric framed as anti-trafficking efforts. Rhetoric by these
groups included the use of unsubstantiated numbers, extremely polarising language, and victimising
imagery of women. In Vancouver, a coalition of sex workers rights allies protested the Salvation Armys
plans to hold group prayers outside of sex work sites and their ads depicting women in dangerous
and violent situations.247 248
What they are trying to do is create real hysteria about this issue, as opposed to
coming up with productive solutions.249 Katrina Pacey, PIVOT Legal, legal aid
organisation, Canada

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Increase understanding about the complexities of

trafficking and its root causes, rather reducing
trafficking to a simplistic supply and demand equation
Ban Ying, a German anti-trafficking organisation, suggested that media focus on other traffickingrelated issues, particularly the lack of rights for trafficked women who have been rescued:
Women who have managed to escape such a situation and turn to the police are
being assessed according to their value as a witness.Trafficked women are thereby
forced into idleness and cannot earn any money during that period of time. However,
they are under intense financial pressure also in this situation. Due to the long
waiting period for a trial to start they are losing important time which they desperately
need in order to establish a perspective for their future. The women have no right to
psychological assistance during that period of time.The women are not allowed to
see their children or other relatives during that period of time. They are also not
allowed to start an education. It can take up to three years from the first statements
as a witness until the start of a trial against the perpetrators. It is a heavy burden to
live without family contacts during such a long period of time..There has been
virtually no media coverage of this scandal.250
Sex workers rights groups and allies in South Africa argued that the increased media and political
attention around the World Cup could have been more productively channelled into public health
efforts to address South Africas high HIV/AIDS rates, such as by encouraging the public to practise
safe sex.251
The Experts Group sees the World Football Cup as a specific moment in time with an
increased international attention towards trafficking in human beings, which in its
complexity and structural causes will not be solved by one-off activities around this or
other similar events. Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European
Commission252

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

ENCOURAGE MORE THOUGHTFUL ANALYSIS IN PUBLIC

DISCUSSIONS AROUND TRAFFICKING
A great deal of global attention in terms of campaigns, funding, anti-trafficking laws, and a myriad of
anti-trafficking programming has certainly made anti-trafficking popular. Yet, awareness raising
campaigns run the risk of negatively impacting marginalised groups, if these campaigns are not based
on trafficked persons needs, strengths and aspirations.
Audiences for anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns should be encouraged to assess media
messages more thoughtfully. For example, by asking:
What sources are they basing their information on? Who are the main voices in the
article?
How are they defining trafficking? Are they distinguishing between trafficking and sex
work?
What do these images or messages say about women? What do these images or
messages say about people who come from other countries?
Is the woman speaking for herself or are others speaking for her?
How am I being encouraged to see her?
What action is being asked of me?

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Who is portrayed as the victim? Who is portrayed as the criminal?

Is this about increasing womens power and womens rights, or is it about saving women?
If theyre asking for money, where is the money going to?

OFFER LEGAL, NON-EXPLOITATIVE LABOUR OPTIONS FOR

MIGRANTS
Establishing legal channels for working-class migrants to work in countries where their labour is
needed can help prevent trafficking and exploitation. Further tightening borders and restricting immigration
can increase the likelihood of trafficking. By necessity, people are much more likely to require the
services of traffickers, brokers and smugglers if they are not allowed to travel legally on their own.
We believe that the best prevention against trafficking in persons is to create regular
labour options for migrants. The option for regular labour and employment opportunities
for migrants should also entail the option to work in prostitution. If an increased
demand in sexual services during the world soccer tournament really exists, then
prostitutes willing to migrate should be enabled to a legal and temporary entry. The
World Cup would be a good opportunity to test such a measure.253 Dr. Nivedita
Prasad & Babette Rohner, Ban Ying, an anti-trafficking organisation (Germany) and
GAATW member
[E]stablished legal channels would substantially decrease the risk for potential labour
migrants to be trafficked and end up in slavery like conditions. They would have real
opportunities to enter the EU legally and participate in the labour market.254 Expert
Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission
Lack of documentation also exposes migrants to a greater risk of labour exploitation
during their stay in South Africa, because employers know that undocumented
employees are unlikely to report abuses. The establishment of a broad range of
simple, inexpensive and well-publicised legal channels for immigration into South
Africa would narrow the opportunities for traffickers to mislead potential migrants and
to profit from exploitation, and would encourage migrants to use formal immigration
channels where their rights and safety would be better protected.255 Marlise Richter
and Tamlyn Monson, Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the
Witwatersrand, South Africa

ADDRESS SEX WORKERS FEARS OF POLICE VIOLENCE AND

EXPLOITATION
The harassment, exploitation and abuse of sex workers by police has been documented by sex
workers rights groups in various countries.256 In many countries, laws criminalising sex work leave sex
workers vulnerable to arrest and/or exploitation by police in exchange for not being arrested.
I bumped into the police and they asked me if I know that prostitution is illegal, just
when I wanted to respond one of the cops, who was a female hit me with a fist on my
face and I bled lots of blood; I spent about three days not being able to talk, I was
afraid of laying charges.257 Female sex worker, Johannesburg, South Africa
At a South African consultation, sex worker peer educators presented sex workers reflections,
aspirations, and fears around the 2010 World Cup.258 Some of their fears about police included:
Police are going to be more strict.
Sex worker abuse and crime rate increase.

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Being arrested for the World Cup period and being kept in jail.
Worry about more gangsters on the streets and being mugged and increased violence.
More police raids migrant sex workers cannot open bank accounts and have to keep
money in their rooms. Police know this and do raids on their rooms and take the money.
Worry about cleaning the streets clean-up of the cities. Many government people see
sex workers as dirty and take them off the streets.

After the South African World Cup, researchers found that many of these fears had occurred.259

Amnesty or moratorium on sex work-related arrests

Decriminalising sex work remains the long-term goal for many sex workers rights groups. For
international sporting events, short-term measures could also include at the minimum, a moratorium
on sex work-related arrests.
South Africas HIV & AIDS and STI Strategic Plan (2007-2011) recognises that several
higher-risk groups, such as sex workers and drug users, face barriers to accessing
HIV prevention and treatment services, and explicitly recommends the decriminalisation
of sex work.It would have been prudent for these processes to have been concluded
before the 2010 World CupSouth Africa has missed an important opportunity:
Germany, by contrast, proactively reformed its laws on sex work in 2002 four years
before hosting the FIFA World Cup.260 Marlise Richter, Forced Migration Studies
Programme, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

Given the heightened security and surveillance around international sporting events, sex workers
rights allies in Vancouver (2010 Winter Olympics), Johannesburg (2010 World Cup) and London (2012
Summer Olympics) have all proposed a moratorium for laws that persecute and victimise sex workers
or an amnesty period for sex workers in preparation and during the event.261 262 263 This was proposed
as a strategy to prevent violence and harassment (by police, but also by clients) and increase sex
workers access to services. Calls for a moratorium were not accepted by governments or city officials
in Vancouver and Johannesburg. However, the Vancouver City Police Department agreed to continue
their usual practice of not arresting women for working as sex workers:
[U]nless they receive a complaint, the Vancouver Police Department usually gives
sex workers a wide berth to conduct business. During the [2010 Olympic] Games,
they honored their commitment to continue the no-arrest routine.264 Vancouver sex
workers had an amazing two weeks, AOL News

Respectful partnerships between sex workers and law

enforcement to assist anti-trafficking efforts
At a 2009 South African consultation, sex workers had dreams for 2010 that included respectful
relationships with the police265:
Co-operation from community, police, etc.
Safety, police alert and visible aim to protect everyone.
The police wont arrest us because of 2010.
To work with the police because we are not criminals.
To be able to do business perfect and professional without being disturbed by criminals,
violent clients and police.
The Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG) established by the Vancouver Police
Department in 2007 is one example of police collaborating with sex workers rights groups and other
community stakeholders. The SIWSAG mandate is to create, informed strategies to reduce violence
and increase health and safety for sex industry workers, inclusive of gender identity, and sexual
orientation266. Law enforcement in Vancouver also valued the information provided by sex workers
rights groups: Monthly bulletins provided by a sex worker run organization support our investigations
against those who are violent toward sex workers.

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Adult sex workers are best placed to become aware of cases of forced prostitution or
child prostitution that may occur as a result of trafficking. However, since they are
also likely to experience (or have experienced) harassment, judgement or abuse at
the hands of police and other government officials, it makes it very difficult for sex
workers to report cases of abuse.267 Dr. Chandr Gould, Institute for Security Studies,
South Africa
Sex industry workers deserve to live as safely as anyone else in VancouverThe
VPD [Vancouver Police Department] is committed to working with industry and
community organizations to keep everyone safe.268 Inspector John de Haas
Sex workers rights groups in Vancouver and Johannesburg also recommended sensitivity training for
law enforcement as a mechanism to build trust around violent date reporting for all workers within the
on-street and off-street sex industry and to train police to respond specifically to calls from sex
industry workers and who will pursue perpetrators of violence against workers.269

DECRIMINALISE SEX WORK

Since its inception, GAATW has supported sex workers rights and valued the role sex workers rights
groups have in the anti-trafficking movement. Given the diverse contexts in which our members operate,
GAATW has not promoted any specific legislative approaches to sex work, but GAATWs membership
does agree that:
Sex workers have the right to organize;
Sex workers have the right to safe working conditions;
Violence against women in sex work is a grave human rights violation;
Trafficking is distinct from sex work; and
Anti-trafficking policies must factor in sex workers concerns and knowledge.
Decriminalisation of sex work is the removal of criminal penalties around consensual adult sex work
only; criminal penalties for forced prostitution, trafficking and underage prostitution would remain.
Decriminalising sex work has been recognised as a practical strategy that can aid anti-trafficking
efforts, boost HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, reduce violence against sex workers, and strengthen the
rights of sex workers.270 271 272 273 (for more information, see GAATWs Beyond Supply and Demand
Catchphrases: Assessing the uses and limitations of demand-based approaches in anti-trafficking.)
Arguing for decriminalisation of sex work does not have to mean endorsement of sex
work it shows awareness of the dangers of the criminal law criminalising wont
eradicate the industry, nor alter the set of power relations that may be associated with
it. It recognises that the laws that criminalise sex work punish women and particularly
women living in poverty, and women of colour most severely and create a dangerous
environment for working and living.274 World AIDS Campaign

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Stakeholders working on anti-trafficking and related issues should be clear about their countrys laws
on prostitution and trafficking. This is particularly important when dealing with the media and public
perceptions. A countrys prostitution laws, for example, could indicate how sex workers would be
vulnerable to exploitation or harassment. The countries listed in the first section of this guide (see
Looking at the Evidence, page 11) have different legal approaches to sex work:
South Africa: totally criminalised, including the purchase and sale of sex as well as related
activities, e.g. brothel keeping.
Canada: it is not illegal to buy or pay for sex but many related activities are illegal, e.g.
living off the earnings from sex work, negotiating with a client in a public place.
Germany: sex work is legalised and is subject to regulations. Sex workers are considered
workers and are entitled to social benefits.
Greece: sex work is legalised and subject to regulations, e.g. brothels must be located a
certain distance from schools, limit to number of employees in one workplace.
US: laws are specific to each state, with most states criminalising both the sale and
purchase of sex.
Decriminalise sex work.Police action does not seem to alter demand and supply
for sex work, only puts an already vulnerable group of women at greater risk. The
current criminal legal framework increases sex worker risk to violence and exploitation
and should be reformed.276 Marlise Richter and Wim Delva, South Africa
Decriminalisation may also help prevent misuse of anti-trafficking laws. A study of migrant sex workers
in London found that anti-trafficking laws were sometimes used to punish women who helped other
women travel to the UK for sex work.277 When sex work is criminalised, victims of violence in the sex
industry can end up being treated as criminals. For instance, Sheila Farmer is a sex worker in the UK
who has been charged with brothel-keeping after working with other sex workers for safety:

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

In 1994 I was viciously raped and attacked by a punter. I never worked alone again.
I started working with other women. We kept our own money and all paid towards the
rent and advertising. The flat was in my name because I had good credit. In 2005, we
were robbed by a gang which had been terrorizing women for months. My friend had
a gun held to her head. It took the police nine months to catch these violent criminals
because most women couldnt report due to fear of being prosecuted themselvesIn
2010 I was raided by police. Since the Proceeds of Crime Act I know of many more
women who have been raided, arrested, prosecuted and convicted because under
that Act the police and prosecutors can seize womens money and goods and then
they get to keep a percentage of that money. Talk about pimping.278
Decriminalising sex work has the potential to assist anti-trafficking efforts by fostering cooperation
between police and sex workers.279 Sex workers would be more empowered to practice their rights and
be free to report concerns to police without fear of arrest or harassment.
Police are no longer required to go undercover to entrap sex workers and brothel
managers; police can no longer intrude into the personal and working lives of sex
workers; and they are no longer required to diligently record the names of sex workers
on a register and monitor them as criminals.280 New Zealand Prostitutes Collective,
on the impact of the Prostitution Reform Act (2003)
The most common reasons for not reporting violence were that women fear not being
taken seriously by the police or did not want to bring attention upon themselves.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that women are often concerned their experience will
be trivialised by the police and assailants are unlikely to be convicted.281 - Charlotte
Woodward (Queensland University of Technology) and Jane Fischer (University of
Queensland), Australia

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BASE ANTI-TRAFFICKING EFFORTS ON EVIDENCE, NOT

SENSATIONALISM
Use an evidence-based approach when adopting anti-trafficking measures and ensure
that measures taken are appropriate and proportionate to the patterns of abuse that
are occurring. Recommendation from GAATWs Collateral Damage: The Impact of
Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights Around the World (2007)282
Given its covert and politically ideological nature, trafficking statistics may be unsubstantiated and
should be analysed cautiously. While even one trafficking victim is too many, it is crucial to analyse
information carefully and use sound evidence in order to respond with appropriate proportionality to the
problem.
Many of the media articles on the supposed link between sporting events and trafficking for prostitution
appeared to only report on NGO campaigns (rather than actual trafficking issues) or repeat misleading
claims by prostitution abolitionist groups. For example, the unfounded predictions of 40,000 prostitutes/
trafficked persons were repeated in various articles without any examination into the plausibility or
source of those figures. In addition, particular quotes by politicians were also repeated uncritically
(see page 70, to the Whats the evidence section).
While finding reliable data on trafficking remains a challenge, there is an increasing number of lessons
learned from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and stakeholders that have engaged in antitrafficking efforts around previous sporting events (see page 70, useful contacts sections). We encourage
stakeholders to reach out to these groups, in order to learn from their successes and challenges in
previous host cities. During previous sporting events, sex workers rights groups have been one of the
groups that have tried to insert an evidence-based approach and rights-based approach into antitrafficking discussions.
The Experts Group would like to highlight the need for facts-based and differentiated
information as the basis for effective policies, avoiding to feed the myths specifically
on the numbers of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in connection with this
event - circulating in the public.283 - Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of
the European Commission
A Canadian report also suggested using the unique opportunity presented by international sporting
events to inform anti-trafficking discourses, through community-based research led by sex workers
and their communities.284 This could include documenting the impact of anti-trafficking measures,
monitoring human rights abuses, and tracking complaints about police and/or security.285 In South
Africa, the UN Population Fund commissioned research from the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy
Taskforce (SWEAT) which trained sex workers as fieldworkers on a project assessing the impact of
the 2010 World Cup on sex work.286

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204
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Goldsmith, J.E. (2010, June 14). Olympics 2012: Visitors or victims? Open Democracy. Available online at: http://
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Magnay, J. (2010, March 27). London 2012 Olympics: vice girls hope to strike gold. The Telegraph. Available online at: http:/
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206
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United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2002). Recommended Principles and Guidelines on
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223
Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
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and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://
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and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://
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Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) & South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). (2009,
November 26-27). Consultation on HIV/AIDS, Sex Work and the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Cape Town, South Africa.
Available
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Consult_Meet_Report_2009.pdf
266
Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments
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www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/06/11/bc-olympics-sex-workers.html
269
Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments
and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://
www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
270
Richter ML, Chersich MF, Scorgie F, Luchters S, Temmerman M, Steen R. Sex work and the 2010 FIFA World Cup: time
for public health imperatives to prevail. Globalization and Health 2010; 6: 1-6.
271
Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments
and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://
www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
272
World AIDS Campaign. (2010). Sex Work and the Law: The Case for Decriminalisation. Available online at: http://
www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/Sex%20Work%20&%20the%20Law.pdf
273
New Zealand Government. (2008). Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution
Reform Act 2003. Wellington: Ministry of Justice. Available online at: http://www.chezstella.org/docs/NZProstitutionLawReview.pdf
274
World AIDS Campaign. (2010). Sex Work and the Law: The Case for Decriminalisation. Available online at: http://
www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/Sex%20Work%20&%20the%20Law.pdf
275
i.e. Sections 210-213 of the Canadian Criminal Code. For more information, see http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/
C-46/
276
Richter, M. & Delva, W. (2010). Maybe it will be better once this World Cup has passed: Research findings regarding
the impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on sex work in South Africa. Johannesburg: UNFPA. Available online at: http:/
/www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/sweat_report.pdf
277
Mai, N. (2010). Migrant Workers in the UK Sex Industry: Final Policy-Relevant Report. Available online at: http://
www.londonmet.ac.uk/fms/MRSite/Research/iset/Migrant%20Workers%20in%20the%20UK%20Sex%20Industry%20
Policy-Relevant%20Findings2.pdf
278
Farmer, S. (2011, June 11). Sheila Farmers speech at Slutwalk. Available online at: http://www.prostitutescollective.net/
Sheila_Farmer_speech_Slutwalk_London.htm
279
New Zealand Government. (2008). Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution
Reform Act 2003. Wellington: Ministry of Justice. Available online at: http://www.chezstella.org/docs/NZProstitutionLawReview.pdf
280
New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC). (2009, November 26-27). New Zealands legal framework in relation to sex
work. Presentation at Consultation on HIV/AIDS, Sex Work and the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Cape Town, South Africa.
Available online at: http://www.womensnet.org.za/sites/womensnet.org.za/files/resources/Consult_Meet_Report_
2009.pdf
281
Woodward, C. & Fischer, J. (2005). Regulating the worlds oldest profession: Queenslands experience with a regulated
sex industry. Research for Sex Work, June, 16-18. Available online at: http://www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/research-

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for-sex-work-8-english.pdf
282
Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/Collateral%20Damage_Final/singlefile_CollateralDamagefinal.pdf
283
Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission. (2006). Opinion of the Expert Group on
Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission In Connection with the World Football Cup 2006 in Germany
and the Related Assumption of Increased Trafficking Activities Around this Event. Available online at: http://
lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/350%20opinion_expert_group_WorldCup.pdf
284
Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments
and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://
www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
285
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) & South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). (2009,
November 26-27). Consultation on HIV/AIDS, Sex Work and the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Cape Town, South Africa.
Available online at: http://www.womensnet.org.za/sites/womensnet.org.za/files/resources/Consult_Meet_Report_
2009.pdf
286
Richter, M. & Delva, W. (2010). Maybe it will be better once this World Cup has passed: Research findings regarding
the impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on sex work in South Africa. Johannesburg: UNFPA. Available online at: http:/
/www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/sweat_report.pdf

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To sum up
As a global anti-trafficking organisation, GAATW is concerned that international sporting events are
being linked with increases in trafficking for prostitution, without evidence. This has been promoted
most heavily by prostitution abolitionist groups, who argue that large numbers of men automatically
results in a greater demand for commercial sex which can only be met through trafficking women into
prostitution.
As a result, massive amounts of resources, law enforcement, media publicity and government attention
have been channelled to address this supposed risk, yet all the attention and resources have failed to
turn up any compelling evidence that large sporting events increase trafficking for prostitution. Yet the
idea still captures governments and media attention, for several reasons, including its utility to frame
prostitution abolitionist and/or anti-migrant sentiments in a more humanitarian guise.
Human trafficking is a very serious human rights violation that demands a sustained and holistic
response based on real evidence. One of our concerns has been that valuable resources and public
momentum are being channelled towards a falsely constructed issue, resources that are otherwise
very needed to genuinely tackle trafficking.
Another concern is that linking trafficking and sex work in this way has resulted in collateral damage287,
that is negatively impacting some of the groups who are affected by anti-trafficking policies, particularly
sex workers. For instance, law enforcement and government officials who propose crackdowns and
further restrictions on migrants and women in sex work, in an effort to protect..migrants and women
in sex work.
Fortunately, more stakeholders are increasingly becoming aware that there is no evidence to support
the claim that large sporting events and trafficking for prostitution are linked. During previous sporting
events, sex workers rights organisations in particular have worked hard to insert an evidence-based
approach and rights-based approach into anti-trafficking discussions.

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

We hope the information in this guide has helped readers to critically evaluate the messages and
information they receive about trafficking and sporting events. Its unlikely that short-term hype can
fuel long-term efforts, but there are ways for people to effectively engage in anti-trafficking not as
saviours, but as allies.

287
E.g. See GAATW. (2007). Collateral Damage: The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights Around the
World. Bangkok: GAATW. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/Collateral%20Damage_Final/
singlefile_CollateralDamagefinal.pdf

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Useful contacts and suggested

resources
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (2014 WORLD CUP AND 2016
OLYMPICS)
Brazilian Observatory of Human Trafficking, a coalition of:
Associacao de Defesa da Mulher, da Infancia e da Juventude or the Brazilian Association
for the Defense of Women, Children and Youth (ASBRAD)
Centro Humanit rio de Apoio Mulher or the Humanitarian Center to Support Women
(CHAME)
Cedeca-Emmaus / Projeto Jepiara
Colectivo Leila Diniz (CLD)
Sociedade de Defesa dos Direitos Sexuais na Amaz nia or the Society for the Defense of
Sexual Rights in the Amazon (Sodireitos)
Instituto Brasileiro de Inovacoes pro Sociedade Saudavel or the Brazilian Institute of
Innovations for a Healthy Society (IBISS-CO)
Centro de Apoio ao Migrante (CAMI)
Projeto TRAMA
Email: observatoriobr@yahoo.com.br
Facebook: Observatorio Brasileiro do Trafico de Pessoas

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (2012 OLYMPICS)

CONTACTS
Georgina Perry, Open Doors
Email: Georgina.Perry@chpct.nhs.uk
UK Network of Sex Work Projects
Email: admin@uknswp.org.uk
Website: http://www.uknswp.org

MEDIA ARTICLES
1. Doward, J. (2011, April 10). London 2012 Olympics: Crackdown on brothels puts sex
workers at risk. The Observer. Available online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/
apr/10/brothel-crackdown-london-olympics-risk
2. Paterson, S. (2009, July 29). Trafficking, the Olympics, and the bill. An Anthology of
English Pros: Prostitution Law in the UK. Available online at: http://
stephenpaterson.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/traffickingtheolympicsandthebill/

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SOUTH AFRICA (2010 WORLD CUP)

CONTACTS

Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), Website: www.sweat.org.za

Marlise Richter, International Centre for Reproductive Health, Ghent University, Email:
marlise.richter@gmail.com
Dr. Chandr Gould, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa, Email: cgould@issafrica.org
Dr. Loren Landau, African Centre for Migration and Society, University of the Witwatersrand,
South Africa, Email: loren@migration.org.za
Dr. Wim Delva, University of Ghent, Belgium, Email: wim.delva@ugent.be
Sex work, health & human rights (e-group moderated by Marlise Richter): http://
groups.google.com/group/sex-work-2010-reference-group

REPORTS, JOURNAL ARTICLES, DOCUMENTS

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

3. Gould, C. (2010). Human trafficking and the World Cup: How big is the threat? ISS News
(website). Available online at: http://www.iss.co.za/iss_today.php?ID=953
4. Harper, E., Massawe, D. & Richter, M. (2010). Report on the 2010 Soccer World Cup and
Sex Work: Documenting Successes and Failures. FMSP Research Report. Johannesburg:
Forced Migration Studies Programme (University of the Witwatersrand). Available online
at: http://www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/reports/2010/
Report_on_the_2010_Soccer_World_Cup_and_Sex_
Work_-_Documenting_Successes_and_Failures.pdf
5. La Strada International. (2010). Questions and answers on La Strada Internationals Opinion
on the FIFA World Cup 2010 and Human Trafficking. Available online at: http://
lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/Q%20&%20A%20human%20
trafficking%20and%20FIFA%20WORLD%20CUP%202010.pdf
6. Richter, M. (2009). Pimp my ride for 2010: Sex work, legal reform and HIV/AIDS. Gender
and media Diversity Journal, 7, 80-88. Available online at: http://www.genderlinks.org.za/
article/pimp-my-ride-for-2010-sex-work-legal-reform-and-hiv-and-aids-2010-01-05
7. Richter ML, Chersich MF, Scorgie F, Luchters S, Temmerman M, Steen R. Sex work and
the 2010 FIFA World Cup: time for public health imperatives to prevail. Globalization and
Health 2010; 6: 1-6.
8. Richter, M. & Delva, W. (2010). Maybe it will be better once this World Cup has passed:
Research findings regarding the impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on sex work in
South Africa. Johannesburg: UNFPA. Available online at: http://www.migration.org.za/sites/
default/files/sweat_report.pdf
9. Richter, M. & Gould, C. (2010, March 23). The Need for Evidence to Assess Concerns
About Human Trafficking During the 2010 World Cup. Available online at: http://
www.iss.co.za/iss_today.php?ID=917
10.Richter, M. & Massawe, D. (2010). Serious soccer, sex (work) and HIV will South Africa
be too hot to handle during the 2010 World Cup? South African Medical Journal, 100 (4),
222-223. Available online at: http://www.samj.org.za/files/2.pdf
11.Richter, M. & Monson, T. (2010). Human trafficking & migration. Migration Issue Brief 4.
Available online at: http://www.migration.org.za/sites/default/files/reports/2010/
FMSP_Migration_Issue_Brief_4_Trafficking_June_2010_doc.pdf
12.Rubin, M. (2009). The offside rule: Womens bodies in masculinised spaces. In U. Pillay,
R. Tomlinson, & O. Bass (Eds.), Development and dreams: The urban legacy of the 2010
football World Cup (266-280). Cape Town: HSRC Press. Available online at: http://
www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2259&freedownload=1
13.Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) & South African National AIDS
Council (SANAC). (2009, November 26-27). Consultation on HIV/AIDS, Sex Work and
the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Cape Town, South Africa. Available online at: http://
www.womensnet.org.za/sites/womensnet.org.za/files/
resources/Consult_Meet_Report_2009.pdf
14.Walter, D. (ed.) (2009). Gender, media and sport [issue]. Gender and Media Diversity
Journal, 7. Available online at: http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/the-southern-africanmedia-diversity-journal-issue-7-2010-01-12
15.Weekes, A. (2006). South African anti-trafficking legislation: A critique of control over
womens freedom of movement and sexuality. Agenda, 70, 29-37. Available online at:

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http://www.docstoc.com/docs/72478610/focus-fiona

MEDIA ARTICLES
16.Ajam, K. (2010). Trafficking of people, the Cup crisis that never was. IOL News. Available
online at: http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/trafficking-of-people-the-cup-crisis-thatnever-was-1.490109
17.Bialik, C. (2010, June 19). Suspect estimates of sex trafficking at the World Cup. Wall
Street
Journal.
Available
online
at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052748704289504575312853491596916.html
18.Carpenter, L. (2010, June 10). Debunking World Cups biggest myth. Yahoo! Sports.
Available online at: http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/debunking-worldcups-biggest-mythfbintl_lc-prostitutes061010.html
19.Kelto, A. (2010, July 6). World Cup avoids flood of sex workers. National Public Radio.
Available online at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128342077
20.Robertson, D. (2010). SA report: World Cup human trafficking warnings exaggerated.
Voice of America. Available online at: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/
southern/World-Cup-Human-Trafficking-Warnings-Exaggerated-96886959.html
21.Sapa. (2010, March 4). World Cup trafficking exaggerated. JacarandaFM. Available online
at:
http://www.jacarandafm.com/kagiso/content/en/jacaranda/jacarandanews?oid=583277&sn=Detail&pid=6102&World-Cup-trafficking-exaggerated
22.Soccer/Football Legends Revealed #4. Available online at: www.legendsrevelead.com/
Sports/2010/06/21/Soccerfootball-legends-revealed-4/
23.Wyatt, B. (2010, July 10). Soccer fans shun hookers for arts sake. CNN. Available online
at: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/07/09/prostitute.gallery/index.html

VANCOUVER, CANADA (2010 OLYMPICS)

CONTACTS
FIRST, sex worker ally group, Vancouver, Canada
Contact: Joyce Arthur, jharthur@shaw.ca
Website: www.firstadvocates.org
GAATW Canada
Contact: Dr. Annalee Lepp, alepp@uvica.ca

REPORTS, MAGAZINE ARTICLES, DOCUMENTS

24.Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting. (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and
the 2010 Games: Assessments and recommendations. Vancouver: Sex Industry Worker
Safety Action Group (SIWSAG). Available online at: http://www.straight.com/files/pdf/
sextraffic2010games.pdf
25.Lepp, A. (2010). Gender, racialisation and mobility: Human trafficking and the 2010 Vancouver
Winter Olympic Games. Alliance News, 33, 47-51. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/
publications/Alliance%20News/Alliance_News_July_2010.pdf
26.Shannon, E. (2010). Sex workers rights and Olympic anti-trafficking rhetoric. Alliance
News, 33, 27-31. Available online at: http://www.gaatw.org/publications/Alliance%20News/
Alliance_News_July_2010.pdf

MEDIA ARTICLES
27.Arthur, J. & ODoherty, T. (2007, December 12). A 2010 Deadline for Prostitution. Vancouver
Sun. Available online at: http://www.firstadvocates.org/press/first-op-ed-dec-12-2007
28.Drummond, K. (2010, March 3). Vancouver sex workers had an amazing two weeks.
AOL News. Available online at: http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/03/vancouver-sex-workershad-an-amazing-two-weeks/
29.FIRST. (2009, September 24). Rights Not Rescue: An Open Letter to the Salvation Army.

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Available online at: http://www.firstadvocates.org/rights-not-rescue-open-letter-salvationarmy

30.Kardas-Nelson. M. (2010, February 25). Human trafficking and the Games. Rabble.ca.
Available online at: http://rabble.ca/news/2010/02/human-trafficking-and-games
31.Little, N. (2008, December 22). Salvation Army plays into the fear and paranoia around
sex work. Xtra. Available online at: http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/
Salvation_Army_plays_into_the_fear_and_paranoia_around_sex_work-6057.aspx

BERLIN, GERMANY (2006 WORLD CUP)

CONTACTS
Ban Ying, anti-trafficking organisation, Berlin, Germany
Contact: Dr. Nivedita Prasad, info@ban-ying.de
Website: www.ban-ying.de
La Strada International, anti-trafficking network,
Contact: Suzanne Hoff, info@lastradainternational.org
Website: www.lastradainternational.org
Dr. Sanja Milivojevi , University of New South Wales
Email: s.milivojevic@unsw.edu.au
Resources:

REPORTS, JOURNAL ARTICLES, DOCUMENTS

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

32.Ban Ying. (2006, July 11). Where are the 40,000? Statement on Trafficking during the
World Cup. Available online at: http://www.ban-ying.de/pageeng/start.htm
33.Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission. (2006). Opinion
of the Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission In
Connection with the World Football Cup 2006 in Germany and the Related Assumption of
Increased Trafficking Activities Around this Event. Available online at: http://
lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/350%20opinion_expert_group_WorldCup.pdf
34.Hennig, J., Craggs, S., Laczko, F., & Larsson, F. (2007). Trafficking in human beings and
the 2006 World Cup in Germany. IOM Migration Research Series, No. 29. Available online
at: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/
published_docs/serial_publications/mrs29.pdf
35.Loewenberg, S. (2006). Fears of World Cup sex trafficking boom unfounded. The Lancet,
368(8), 105-106.
36.Milivojevi , S. & Pickering, S. (2008). Football and sex: the 2006 FIFA World Cup and sex
trafficking. TEMIDA, 21-47. Available online at: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/14506637/2008/1450-66370802021M.pdf
37.Milivojevi , S. (2008). Womens bodies, moral panic and the world game: Sex trafficking,
the 2006 Football World Cup and beyond. Proceedings of the 2nd Australian & New
Zealand Critical Criminology Conference, 19-20 June 2008. Sydney: Crime & Justice
Research Network and the Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Network.
Available online at: http://www.cjrn.unsw.edu.au/critcrimproceedings2008.pdf
38.Prasad, N. & Rohner, B. (2006). Dramatic increase in forced prostitution? The World Cup
and the consequences of an unscreened rumour. Ban Ying. Available online at: http://
www.ban-ying.de/downloads/Worldcup&Trafficking.pdf

MEDIA ARTICLES
39.Arnold, C. (2006, June 13). A red card for hype on World Cup trafficking story. Project
Hope International. Available online at: http://preventhumantrafficking.org/storage/article-

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downloads/RedCardForHype.pdf
40.Waterfield, B. (2007, February 14). Exposed: The myth of the World Cup sex slaves.
spiked. Available online at: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/2850/

SUPER BOWL (US)

MEDIA ARTICLES
41.Kotz, P. (2011, January 27). The Super Bowl prostitute myth: 100,000 hookers wont be
showing up in Dallas. Dallas Observer. Available online at: http://www.dallasobserver.com/
2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitute-myth-100-000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-indallas/
42.Lee, E. (2011, February 3). Super Bowl hyperbole and prostitution. The Star. Available
online at: http://www.thestar.com/sports/football/nfl/superbowl/article/932794super-bowlhyperbole-and-prostitution
43.Whitely, J. (2011, January 31). Super Bowl prostitution forecast has no proof. WFAA.
Available online at: http://www.wfaa.com/sports/football/super-bowl/Super-Bowl-prostitutionprediction-has-no-proof114983179.html

GENERAL
JOURNAL ARTICLES, STATEMENTS
44.Hayes, V. (2010). Human trafficking for sexual exploitation at world sporting events. ChicagoKent Law Review, 85(3), 1105-1146.
45.International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW). (2009). The Way Forward: A Call for Action to
End Violence Against Women in the Sex Industry. Available online at: http://www.iusw.org/
2009/07/a-call-for-action-to-end-violence-against-women-in-the-sex-industry/
46.Jordan, A. (2011). Fact or fiction: What do we really know about human trafficking? Program
on Human Trafficking and Forced Labour, Issue Paper 3. Washington, D.C.: American
University Washington College of Law. Available online at: http://rightswork.org/wp-content/
uploads/2011/09/Issue-Paper-3.pdf

MEDIA ARTICLES, BLOGS

47.Agustin, L. The Naked Anthropologist [blog]. Available online at: www.lauraagustin.com
48.ONeill, B. (2010, March 18). Stop this illicit trade in bullshit stories. spiked. Available
online at: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/printable/8324/
49.Ozimek, J.F. (2010, October 7). Have hordes of sex workers snubbed the Commonwealth
games? The Register. Available online at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/07/
olympic_workers/
50.Paterson, S. (2010, September 29). Sexual enslavement at the Ryder Cup? spiked.
Available online at: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9712/

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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the following individuals, who generously provided insightful critiques of earlier drafts:
Noushin Khushrushahi, Tamara ODoherty, Stephen Paterson, Marlise Richter, Esther Shannon, Mary
Shearman. Thanks also to Georgina Perry and Catherine Stephens for sharing their insights on the
community-level impacts of this issue in London.
This project was supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. We thank Heather Doyle
and the Open Society Foundations for their support and their recommendations throughout the project.

ACTING EFFECTIVELY

Finally, thanks to the GAATW Executive Board and International Secretariat colleagues for their critiques,
recommendations and encouragement.

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The JVTA: Not Just Bad For

Trafficking Victims
By Kate Zen for TitsandSass

On Wednesday, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 [S. 178] passed
through the Senate by a unanimous vote of 99-to-0. It is being celebrated as a heroic
example of bipartisan cooperation for humanitarian advancement. However, if the
bill continues to pass through the House, it will be delivering its system of
protection over tapped wires, via an increasingly militarized police force.

Introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), the majority whip, the Justice for Victims
of Trafficking Act of 2015 is nothing short of a carceral mandate. Its primary
function is to allocate funds and special privileges to law enforcement and
immigration control and to legitimize the adoption of new surveillance technologies,
purportedly in order to combat child exploitation.
Democratic opponents delayed the bill in committee for six weeks, debating over
whether fines collected from criminal offenders could go towards funding abortion
services for trafficking survivors. They argued that Republican lawmakers were
trying to throw an anti-abortion rider into the bill, extending the Hyde Amendment
of 1976 (which prohibited federal funding of abortion), to apply to non-taxpayer
funds. To break the stalemate, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) put
pressure on Democrats to pass the bill by asserting that until the legislation has
gone through the Senate, he would not schedule the confirmation of Loretta Lynch,
the first black woman to be nominated for Attorney General.

On Tuesday, given much pressure on both sides to move the bill along,
a compromise was reached in which a separate pool of money would be created for
survivor health services, in addition to money collected from criminal offenders for
non-health-related services. The fund stream for survivor health services would
already be covered by the Hyde Amendment, and thus could not be used for
abortions for trafficking survivors. However, the language of the bill as it was passed
ensures that the Hyde Amendments reach will not extend further to private
funding.

While Democrats in support of reproductive justice and civil liberties have been
vocal on the legislations language about abortion, they have paid less attention to

the ways in which this bill also promotes the militarization of police, expands the
carceral system, and funds the use of wiretapping and
other surveillance technologies by immigration control, with little transparency or
oversight. The amended legislation contains some benevolent provisions for
increasing victim compensation and funding social services for survivors of human
trafficking. However, in addition to these victim-centered services, there is a clear
law-enforcement-centered strategy in the bill for addressing human trafficking,
which prioritizes the expansion of funding for law enforcement and immigration
control.
Several sections of the bill demonstrate the way in which the bill is designed to
enhance the militarization of police:
1) Recruiting wounded and retired veterans into special Hero Corps to
rescue child trafficking victims[Sec. 302]Former combatants, who have been
trained to kill on sight with deadly firearms, and experience a high incidence of
post-traumatic stress disorder, will now be exposed to highly sensitive and complex
situations, predominantly in neighborhoods already vulnerable to police brutality.
Furthermore, these heroes are misinformed by Hollywood tropes about pimps and
victims, and egged on to perform rescue missions with frustrated fantasies of
military heroism. They will be patrolling communities that are not their own, where
more often than not it is shared economic coercion, not violent abduction, which
links the pimp or trafficker to his or her victim, revealing a much more nuanced
picture of exploitation than the one in which these heroes may be prepared to
intervene.

2) Funding wiretapping initiatives [Sec. 203] and a Cyber Crimes Center [Sec.
302] specializing in computer forensics and internet surveillance technologies
to be used by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which will
be authorized to collaborate with the Department of Defense to monitor the
telecommunications and activities of immigrants, border residents, and foreign
nationals, allegedly in search of foreign viewers of U.S. child pornography. According
to the bill, the Cyber Crimes Unit (CCU) also enhances ICEs ability to combat cyber
economic crime, digital theft of intellectual property, [and] illicit e-commerce,
among other economic crimes on the internet.
The use of moralizing language to justify increased funding for policing and
surveillance is not a new phenomena laws banning pornography in the UK coincide
with increased government surveillance of the private lives of its citizens over
webcam. The many clauses related to child pornography in the JVTA bill also
allocate funding to investigative capacity building in the cybersecurity units of

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as funding for enforcement

operations and training for Federal, State, local, tribal, and foreign law
enforcement agency personnel upon request. The Child Exploitation Investigations
Unit, which will be created for this function, is tasked with data collection, and
required to collaborate with immigration control through the Department of
Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense through the Hero Corps. [Sec.
890] Whether or not JVTS ultimately passes with this language intact, it introduces a
precedent for funding for the next wave of militarized surveillance to be justified
through the moral panic of child pornography, riding quietly on politically popular
bills on issues like human trafficking.

3) Prioritizing funding for paying law enforcement salaries and creating new
units of judicial prosecutorsequipped with the authority, resources, and expert
training to investigate and monitor potential victims of human trafficking, in
partnership with health and social service organizations that are encouraged to
collaborate with law enforcement, sharing information to enable the ongoing
supervision of people involved in trafficking cases, regardless of criminal charge.

The bill would also federalize End Demand measures against child prostitution by
charging underage sex workers clients as human traffickers, whether or not they
know their sex worker is a minor. The Justice For Victims of Trafficking Act as it
passed in the Senate also includes the language of another federal trafficking bill, the
Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation (SAVE) Act, including advertising as a
severe trafficking crime [Sec. 118]. It will charge advertising venues with soliciting
and promoting trafficking whether or not the venues know theyre hosting ads for
underage workers, thus attacking spaces sex workers use to find clients, potentially
driving the industry further underground. Furthermore, it treats all crimes related
to human trafficking as violent crimes, including instances where the trafficker is
another youth engaged in the sex trade over the age of eighteen, who may be giving
advice or protection to the minor. The bill mandates that law enforcement monitor
all human traffickers as violent criminals. Those who will be monitored under this
bill will for the most part be poor people of color with complex relations to
engagement in informal markets for survival who are already subject to
disproportionate criminalization and surveillance.
Youth of color, migrants of varying status, homeless women and trans people in low-
income communities of color make up the vast majority of people who are arrested
for or rescued from street-based activities, including engagement in the drug
trade, sex trade, or human trafficking. According to participatory action research

conducted by the Young Womens Empowerment Project in Chicago, it is often law

enforcement that is most exploitative and harmful to youth who may otherwise be
classified as trafficking victims. Furthermore, there is a dire lack of non-
discriminatory, consistent, and caring social services, especially for queer and trans
youth who are homeless and/or engaged in street trades. Sadly, Senator Patrick
Leahys (D-Vermont) amendment to the JVTA, which would have added funding for
services for runaway and homeless youth, was overturned, falling short of the 60
votes needed to pass. This amendment contained the sort of funding that would
have actually addressed the issue of domestic human trafficking, providing
preventative care to youth who are most at-risk.
Rather than allocating additional money to law enforcement, a better measure
would be to improve existing social services for youth and all people who have to
engage in informal economies to survive, including child welfare and protection
services, which are notorious for abuse; a better foster care system that addresses
such abuses; supportive housing for the chronically homeless and disabled; better
domestic violence shelters; and support for migrants of various status who
encounter labor abuse.

The story of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act is a familiar one. After 9/11,
the Bush administration was quick to use national tragedy to push through the
Patriot Act, which increased military power and police surveillance and resulted in
grave violations of civil liberties and privacy in the name of counterterrorism. The
first round of federal anti-trafficking legislation under the Bush administration came
hand in hand with anti-terrorism funding. It supported a common federal agenda of
expanding U.S. military funding, while lending a moral gloss of humanitarianism to
the project by painting the U.S. as a heroic leader in the fight against global crime.
Time and time again, since 2004, federal legislation aimed towards expanding
military operations has been couched in the heroic imagery of anti-trafficking, while
at the same time these xenophobic laws exacerbate labor conditions for immigrants
and thus actually increase the incidence of exploitation and trafficking. The
simultaneous dismantling of welfare safety nets also serves to push low-income
youth into the survival sex trades, while the expansion of mass incarceration splits
apart the low-income communities they call home. The expansion of the carceral
state directly contributes to human trafficking, exacerbating the socioeconomic
conditions which force some youth to engage in survival sex.

Rather than focusing on these economic push factors that lead to trafficking, the
Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking Act, like most other Republican-sponsored
anti-trafficking legislation, focuses on a simplistic narrative of villainy and heroism,

whereby the state legitimizes the expansion of its police power in order to rescue
innocent victims from sadistic criminals. Sadly, the real picture of underaged
survival sex work is much more complicated, requiring social service-centered
funding that promotes economic justicejust the kind of legislation that failed to be
passed by amendment in the current bill.

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Research Team

Jazeera Iman: Research Development Coordinator

Naima Paz: Research Intern and cover design
Dominique McKinney: Social Justice Coordinator
Daphnie W: Administrative Support and Graphs
Outreach Workers (2007-2009): Stephany, Precious, Skitlz, Danielle, Amber, Isa,
Veronica Bianca, Daphne, Naima, Dominique, Jazeera and Jacque
Girls in Charge- our weekly leadership group of nearly 60 different girls participated
in this project between 2007-2009.
The research report was written by Jazeera Iman, Catlin Fullwood, Naima Paz,
Daphne W and Shira Hassan
Art work by Young Women's Empowerment Project Membership
Acknowledgements
Young Womens Empowerment Project would like to thank Cricket Island
Foundation for teaching us how to do Participatory Evaluation Research and for
introducing us to Catlin Fullwood. Simply put, without Catlin we would not be who
we are as researchers.
YWEP would also like to thank the Crossroads Fund for helping us fund this project.
There are many allies who helped push us in our learning process and supported us
along the way: Andrea Ritchie, Cara Page, Adrienne Marie Brown, INCITE! Women
of Color Against Violence, Isa Villaflor, Claudine OLeary, Amber Kutka, Laura
Janine Mintz, Ilana Weaver, Xandra Ibarra, Kim Sabo, Johonna R. McCants and
Teresa Dulce.
Young Womens Empowerment Project is especially grateful to our funders: Third
Wave Foundation, Cricket Island Foundation, Chicago Foundation for Women,
Chicago Community Trust, Polk Brothers Foundation, AIDS Foundation of
Chicago, Crossroads Fund, Comer Foundation, The Funding Exchange, Astrea
Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Peace Development Fund and Michael Reese Health
Trust.
2009 YWEP Leadership
Dominique McKinney, Social Justice Coordinator
Jazeera Iman, Research Development Coordinator
Cindy Ibarra, Communications Coordinator
Shira Hassan, Co Director

Naima Paz, Research Intern

Stephany C, Outreach Intern
Precious M, Girls in Charge Intern
Daphne W, Communications Intern

YWEP Board Laura Janine Mintz, Natalie D. Smith, Tanuja Jagernauth, Lara S. Brooks, Teresa Dulce, Xandra
Ibarra and Adrienne Marie Brown

Table of Contents
Youth Activist Summary .......................................................................................... 5
About YWEP ............................................................................................................. 6
Our Research............................................................................................................13
The Learning Questions .........................................................................................15
Research Design & Data Collection.....................................................................18
Demographic Information.....................................................................................26
The Findings.............................................................................................................29
Our thoughts ............................................................................................................39
Next steps .................................................................................................................40
Tool Kit.....................................................................................................................42
What you need to know about girls in the sex trade..........................................47
Vocabulary ................................................................................................................48

Dedication
This research is dedicated to all girls, including transgender girls, and young
women, including trans women who do what they have to do to survive every
day. The world may call us victims- but we know differently- we know we are
our own heroines. This work is personal to us- it is about our lives.

"If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you
recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, then let
us walk together."
-Lila Watson

Youth Activist Summary

This research is for US. Its for YOU and for all girls, including transgender
girls, and young women, including trans women involved in the sex trade and
street economy.
This research study was created by girls, collected by girls, and analyzed by girls.
We did this because this is OUR LIVES. Who knows us better than us?
We did this to prove that we care--that we are capable of resisting violence in a
multitude of ways.
We take care of ourselves and heal in whatever way feels best for uswhether
society approves of it or not.
This research study honors all of the ways we fight back (resistance) and our
healing (resilience) methods.
We proved that we do face violence but we are not purely victims. We are
survivors. We can take care of ourselves and we know what we need.
This research is a response to all of those researchers, doctors, government
officials, social workers, therapists, journalists, foster care workers and every
other adult who said we were too messed up or that we needed to be saved
from ourselves.
The next time someone tells you that you don't know whats best for you, look
towards our tool kit for inspiration. We wrote the tool kit with the intent of
giving you ideas about how girls have survived this lifenot to tell you what to
do.
We did this. We did the research. And now we are sharing it with you so that
you know that girls do what they have to do to survive.

About Young Women's Empowerment Project

The Young Women's Empowerment Project was founded by a collective of
radical feminists and harm reductionists. In 1998, as a group of young women
and girls with lived experience in the sex trade and street economy and our
allies, we began doing activism and talking through what we believed about the
root causes of the sex trade. We wanted to
create an activist organization (not a social
service) that would give girls a chance to learn
the leadership skills necessary to change the
conversation and play an active role in the
dialogue about our lives.
Our goal is to build a movement amongst girls,
including transgender girls, and young women,
including trans women who trade sex for
money, are trafficked or pimped and who are
actively or formerly involved in the street
economy. We are activists, artists, mothers,
teachers, and visionariesour vision for social
justice is a world where we can be all of these
things, all the time.
Over the last three years, Young Womens
Empowerment Project has reached over 2,000
girls involved in the sex trade through our peer
to peer outreach and an additional 105 through
our syringe exchange. We have also done
presentations, workshops, and offered
assistance to nearly 3,000 adults working with youth involved in the sex trade.
We have been focusing on building our internal leadership so that young
people who begin as members can move up our leadership ladder and become
a part of our executive team as Co Directors.

What are the Sex Trade and Street Economies?

To us, the sex trade is an umbrella term that describes any way that we can
exchange our sex or sexuality for money, gifts, drugs, or survival needs.
Sometimes, this can be by choice but we can also be forced into the sex trade
by someone else. There are many ways that girls can be involved in the sex
trade and we believe that our experiences, though all uniquely different, are
united by the way we experience the intersections of misogyny, racism,
classism, transphobia and homophobia.
YWEP defines the sex trade as any form of being sexual (or the idea of being
sexual) in exchange for money, gifts, safety, drugs, hormones or survival needs
like housing, food, clothes, or immigration and documentationwhether we
get to keep the money/goods/service or someone else profits from these acts.
The girls that we know have a wide range of experiences in the sex trade. Some
of us have been forced to participate, some of us have chosen to participate in
the sex trade, some of us have had both kinds of experiences. Others feel that
the question of choice is irrelevant or more complicated than choice/no
choice.
Regardless of what people think about choice, what we know is that real girls
are really trading sex for money. Right now. At YWEP we seek to build
community among girls who have been forced and/or trafficked, who trade sex
for survival, who choose to participate in the sex trade on their own terms, and
every reality in between. We never use the word "prostitute" because we are
concerned with the entire range of the sex trade (not just the illegal part) and
because this word is a label that dehumanizes us and make us into those other
girls. Likewise, we don't use the term sex worker because it doesn't include
the experience of girls who have been forced into the sex trade and who don't
relate to the term "work" to describe their experiences.
The street economy is any way that girls make cash money without paying taxes
or having to show identification. Sometimes this means the sex trade. But other
times it means braiding hair, babysitting, selling CDs/DVDs, drugs or other
skills like sewing and laundry.
We say street economies because there is more than one kind of economy
playing out on our street at any given time. These economies are complicated
7

and a part of the lives of the membership and outreach contacts of Young
Women's Empowerment Project.
Social justice for girls and young women in the sex trade means having the
power to make all of the decisions about our own bodies and lives without
policing, punishment, or violence. Our community is often represented as a
"problem" that needs to be solved or we are portrayed as victims that need to
be saved by someone else. We recognize that girls have knowledge and
expertise in matters relating to our own lives that no one else will have. We are
not the problemwe are the solution.
Young Womens Empowerment Project is like a political organization in that
we try really hard to create unity and power among girls and help them to
navigate hostile systems and life crises. We provide training to providers about
what girls need and how girls should be treated when trying to access systems
and services. When leaving isn't an option or what a girl might want, YWEP is
here to encourage and facilitate safety planning, harm reduction ideas, and offer
support and resources. Unlike programs that focus on exiting the sex trade
which usually exclude girls who aren't ready, able, or wanting to exitYWEP
meets girls where they are and helps them make the next steps they choose.
Empowerment means that girls are in charge of their decisions and have power
over what they want to do even if that means something different than what
adults think is safe or appropriate. YWEP believes that the more often girls are
in charge of the choices in their liveswhether that choice is about food, sleep,
relationships, housing or the sex tradethe more power they take in their lives
as a whole. We celebrate every decision girls make and honor all of our choices.
Who are we?
Young Women's Empowerment Project is made
up of girls, including transgender girls, and young
women, including trans women ages 12-23 who
have current or past experience with any part of
the sex trade and street economies. We are 99%
girls and women of color. Most of us are African
American, Latina and Mixed Race. About 70% of
our constituency also identifies as Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual. Transgender girls
represent approximately 20% of our constituency. We are led by our
8

membership through weekly leadership meetings where girls make important

decisions about our programming. We have nearly 60 members across Chicago.
Of these 60 members, about 15-20 of us regularly participate in weekly
meetings at YWEP. Our leadership is made up of our membership and is
responsible for the daily running of our organization.
Many of us are undocumented, have been incarcerated/detained, and/or are
current or former drug users. At any given point, roughly 85% of our
membership and leadership are homeless or precariously housed. We estimate
that nearly 25% of us have completed high school or gotten our GEDs.
Another 5% of us have taken college classes or gone to trade schools. During
2009, the number of our girls accessing our syringe exchange tripled. We now
have 85 girls per month receiving clean works (including hormone needles)
from our outreach workers.
Our Guiding Principles
Self Care: Self care means taking care of your body, mind and spirit whenever
and however you can. It means checking in with yourself in a regular way to see
how you are doing with your job, your relationships, your health and your
overall well being. We know what is best for our bodies and how to take care
of ourselves. We practice self care at YWEP by providing food, as well as
clothes at the clothing exchange, practicing aromatherapy, and encouraging
ourselves as well as others to take "self care time" (time away from YWEP
work to take care of our needs).
Empowerment Model: We believe that girls are experts in their own lives. We
value youth leadership and work to create it as
much as possible in our space. We dont tell
girls what to do, we dont give advice, and
adults dont take control of youth-led projects.
We create as many opportunities as possible for
girls to be in leadership positions and adults
DO NOT do all of the important work and
DO NOT make all of the important decisions.
Being empowered means that girls are active in
the decisions they make about their lives. We
believe that a girl is capable of being a leader as soon as she comes into our
9

project. A girl can come to YWEP and immediately take leadership, no matter
where she is at in her life. One of the immediate ways a girl can take leadership
is in GIC (Girls in Charge), our weekly leadership group where girls learn
political education, work on projects to benefit YWEP, and make decisions
that directly impact how YWEP is run.
Harm Reduction: Harm reduction means any positive change. We do not
force anyone to stop participating in any risky behavior. Instead, we work with
them to come up with options that work for them to stay safer when engaging
in that risky behavior. We apply this to the sex trade, but also to any other high
risk behavior as well. Harm reduction means practical options, no judgment,
and we respect choices that girls make.
Popular Education: is a way of talking about ideas that helps to get people
thinking critically about things so that they can act together as a community to
address inequalities and injustices. At YWEP we strive to expand our
knowledge about each other and about the stories of social justice movements.
For example, our stories about our experiences in foster care might sound like
someone elses story too. When we share our stories, we can find common
ground to begin to work together to resist and fight back.
Social Justice: At YWEP we bring social justice into
our work by acknowledging and supporting resistance.
We encourage girls to look closely at the way things like
racism, classism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia
play out and affect girls involved in the sex trade and
street economy. We understand that the sex trade is not
about one person, but about a system of things that all
work together to oppress women, people of color,
lesbian and transgender people, and others too.
Our Work
Young Womens Empowerment Project is a member based social justice
project for girls, transgender girls and young women ages 12-23 who have
current or past experience in the sex trade and street economy. Our mission is
to offer safe, respectful, free-of-judgment spaces for girls impacted by the sex
trade and street economy to recognize their hopes, dreams, and desires.
10

The goal of our work is to build a movement of girls with life history in the sex
trade and street economy. To do this, we consciously engage in political
education and leadership development as holistic themes for our work.
Young women at YWEP run our programs. In addition to running and
supporting our office three days per week, YWEP also conducts three weekly
meetings for outreach, Girls in Charge, and social justice teams. YWEP staff
and members also provide popular education workshops all over the country.
Girls in Charge: Girls in Charge is the leadership group that makes all of the
major decisions at YWEP. Girls receive stipends to make leadership decisions
about our project, learn political education, and create materials valuable to the
project and other young women impacted by the sex trade (such as guides,
fliers, trainings, etc.). GIC created zines about drug harm reduction and sex
trade harm reduction, as well as a training that teaches social workers about
how to positively interact with youth in the sex trade. GIC also completed a
political education training course, where girls learned about systems of power
and oppression and the ways that this affects young women of color in the sex
trade.
Outreach work: Girls at our project go through a
48-hour training over 8 weeks to learn how to
reach out to and support other girls in the sex
trade. Girls learn about sex trade safety and harm
reduction, female reproductive health,
reproductive justice, drugs and drug harm
reduction, legal rights. We also learn more
outreach skills, such as active listening,
supportiveness, and practicing good boundaries. Upon completion of this
training, girls reach out to girls and young women in the sex trade. Outreach
workers attend a weekly outreach worker group. Outreach Group is a place for
girls to discuss any issues that came up during the outreach session, as well as
trade information and support each other. Our outreach workers reach 500
girls per year and an additional 85 or more through our syringe exchange each
month.
Popular education trainings: Popular education is more than making sure
that everyone participates in workshops. Activists for decades have been using
11

popular education practice to work together as educators and learners to open

up problems and ask critical questions like: Who benefits, why is it this way and
what can be done to change the systems that affect us? Our workshops on the
sex trade with girls offer practical information on myths and realities of the sex
trade. We are engaged in a process with young people across the city to
question why the sex trade exists, why girls are involved, and what can be done
about it.
Our skill building workshops offer training to girls inside our project to
improve their knowledge and ability to take on leadership. We also offer
workshops to organizations and collaboratives that want to improve their
ability to work with girls and young women impacted by the sex trade.
Social Justice and Transformative Justice: At YWEP we value the rebellion
of girls impacted by the system. We offer education and support to girls so that
they can begin to unpack what social justice means to women and girls
involved in the sex trade. To some girls, this might mean working for rights, to
other girls this might mean working to abolish the sex trade, and to other girls
it might mean both.
One way that we incorporate social justice into our daily work is by working to
build community. We do this by helping girls find connections with each other,
by looking closely at how we might play out sexism (like by calling girls hos)
and by creating a respectful, free of judgment space where girls can get
information about how to change the world.
We believe that social justice and empowerment go hand and hand.
Empowered girls who are active in their own lives are making social change just
by being in charge of their choices and destiny.
Transformative justice is a model that acknowledges that state systems and
social services can and often do create harm in the lives of girls. Transformative
Justice supports community-based efforts for social justice beyond the
government or other state-sponsored institutions. This means that we do not
work on making new laws or policies because we don't believe that the law can
bring fast and positive change to ALL girls in our community. Instead of
following models for social change that talk about us without including us, we
seek to create a movement for social justice that recognizes and honors our
talents as leaders and innovators with us at the forefront.
12

At YWEP we work together to come up with our own alternatives to shelters,

housing, violence and support that do not continue to mire us in the systembut instead make change that we can sustain and sustains us.
Our research
YWEP began our first experience with
Participatory Evaluation Research in 2006. With
a grant through the Cricket Island Foundation's
Capacity Building Initiative, we met Catlin
Fullwood, an activist, researcher, and trainer.
Catlin taught us a research method in which all
members of the community could be involved in
the development, data collection, and analysis of
the research.
Our 2006 research project had three learning questions. We wanted to find out
(1) what effect harm reduction was having on our outreach contacts. We also
wanted to find out (2) who our allies were and werent as a harm reductionbased, youth-led social justice project. Lastly, (3) we wanted to learn more
about how girls respond to other girls in positions of leadership. For this
research project, we did a literature review, several focus groups with YWEP
leadership and membership, and we collected over 300 surveys from our
outreach contacts across Chicago and Illinois.
2006 Research Findings
Finding 1: As a result of our study, we realized that sometimes girls dont
believe that people like us can be leaders. This is when we began to look closer
at how internalized racism, sexism and colonialism play a role in our
organization and in our lives. This led us to work more on developing our
solidarity with each other. Through retreats, team building exercises, sister
healing circles and developing an internal analysis, we workedand continue
to workto achieve our goal of building solidarity and leadership as a whole
with our youth membership.

13

Finding 2: One key component we learned through our research was the
effect of harm reduction in the lives of our girls. We learned that girls who have
been with us for a year or more, whether that be through outreach, or through
more direct involvement in the project or YWEP activities, incorporated harm
reduction in all aspects of their lives. Not only did these young women apply
the principles of harm reduction to the sex trade and staying safe, they applied
it to many other aspects of their lives, from safer drug use to eating habits.
Finding 3: We figured out that our allies were people who recognized our
abilities to be leaders no matter what our present or past involvement in the sex
trade may be. We also realized that our allies were people or organizations who
believed in our ability to achieve empowerment and who were willing to work
outside of mainstream systems to support us in our goals. We discovered that,
for YWEP, being an ally means recognizing that girls work hard every day to
live the life they have.
During the 2006 research study, YWEP saw girls and young women in the sex
trade and street economy making positive changes in their lives, fighting back
against multiple harms, and finding innovative ways to bounce back and/or
heal. While we saw violence happening, we also saw that girls were surviving
every day and getting stronger and smarter all the time. The 2006 findings
prompted us to take a closer look at how girls were resisting and bouncing back
from violence. We became determined to find studies done on/about girls
involved in the sex trade that purely focused on our survival. We discovered a
gap in the research. Every study we found showed us as powerless.
Why we started this research
We do not deny the fact that girls in the sex trade face violence. We decided
that we would do this research to show that we are not just objects that
violence happens to- but that we are active participants in fighting back and
bouncing back. We wanted to move away from the one-dimensional view of
girls in the sex trade as only victims to look at all aspects of the situation:
violence, our response to the violence, how we fight back and heal on a daily
basis. We want to build our community by figuring out how we can and do
fight back collectively and the role of resilience in keeping girls strong enough
to resist.
14

We want to show that girls in the sex trade face harm from both individuals
and institutions. Nearly all the research we could find about girls in the sex
trade only looks at individual violence. Many people seem to think that more
institutions or social service systems is the solution. YWEP agrees that
institutions can be helpful at times, but we also wanted to show the reality that
we face: every day girls are denied access to systems due to participation in the
sex trade, being drug users, being lesbian, gay or transgender or being
undocumented. We know institutions and social services can and do cause
harm in our lives. We present this research to show that the systems that claim
to help girls are also causing harm. We want to show that girls in the sex trade
are fighting back and healing on their own- within their communities and
without relying upon systems.
We also wanted to show how girls in the sex trade fight back against the
institutional violence they experience so we could share what working. With the
data we collected, we discovered that girls face as much institutional violence
(like from police or DCFS) as they do individual violence (like from parents,
pimps, or boyfriends).
We wanted to show how girls bounce back and heal from individual and
institutional violence. We wanted this information so that we can collectively
build a social justice campaign to respond to broad systemic harm.
From this, YWEP's first youth developed, led, and analyzed research project
was born.
The Learning Questions
A learning question is a question that helps us learn and explore more about a
specific topic. A learning question cant be answered purely by data collectionits also about the process and analysis of the entire research project. Learning
questions are never just quantitative. They always must be qualitative as well.
YWEP met for three months in weekly research meetings to discuss what
topics we wanted to include in our research. We thought about what impacted
us and our constituency. We thought about what the goals of this research
would be and how we wanted it to impact us. We knew that research was a
powerful tool and we wanted to use it bring us together and build community.
This is why we decided to use the research to shape our social justice campaign.
15

We looked at all the existing research we could find about girls in the sex trade
and didnt feel our truth represented. We spoke to YWEP outreach workers
and Girls in Charge Members and noticed themes about how we were fighting
back and healing. We brainstormed all of these topics and themes and we color
coded all the patterns until we had a visual representation.
To develop the learning questions further we brainstormed all possible
questions we could ask. Some questions we asked were How do girls work the
system, how do girls heal from daily violence and how can girls support
each other. We narrowed the questions down slowly.
From this collective process the following learning questions were decided:
1) What kinds of institutional and individual violence are girls in the sex trade
experiencing?
2) How are they resistant to this violence?
3) How are they resilient to this violence?
4) How can we unite and fight back?
We agreed on these questions because we wanted to bring out how girls in the
sex trade take care of themselves without relying on systemswithout
someone else deciding what is best for us.
We also chose these questions as a way of uniting our community. This
research is kind of a "toolkit" that shows how girls rely on each other as
opposed to systems. This is about more than just studies or findings. This is
about girls uniting. Our data shows girls ideas about how to be resistant and
resilienthow to continue taking care of themselves and community and how
to add new methods to their self care.
This story is important to tell
Resilience and resistance-focused research shows girls that we can and do fight
back. It shows girls in the sex trade from an empowering perspective. We want
to show that we are capable of helping ourselves without relying on the systems
that sometimes harm and oppress us.
16

We want to honor all of the traditional and non-traditional ways girls are taking
care of themselves and healing from violence. We are survivors. We find our
own unique and individual ways to fight back, whether violent or non-violent.
We resist. We also heal. We find ways to take care of ourselves in order to
continue our struggle, whether those ways are traditional or non-traditional.
This research is unique because it does not just focus on individual violence in
our community. It is also unique because it is the only study that we know of
that was developed and conducted by girls ages 12-23 in the sex trade and
street economy. We are able to tell our story from the inside.
Preparing for the Research
Getting ourselves ready to do this project was a big deal. We started meeting to
talk about the research ideas about 6 months before we started collecting the
data. We tried at least three versions of all the tools we used (the tools are
attached at the back of the report) because we would try them out on each
other first. If someone was uncomfortable or didnt like any part of the tool we
would start again until we were all on the same page.
Early in the data collection process we realized that the research was going to
be super deep and sometimes a bit sad and overwhelming. The girls who were
in charge of collecting and coding the data had to read lots of different stories
that were both painful and uplifting. We decided to always check in with each
other as we were reviewing the data, to do sister circles and healing circles, to
take breaks while we were working with it, to use sage and aromatherapy to
help us stay clear and honor every story we read. We observed that we were
using resilience methods even while we were doing the research.
Why qualitative research?
Qualitative data describes quality, the properties of something, or how
something is. If we are talking about fruit, some qualitative information would
be: the apple is green. It has a small rotten spot near the stem.
Quantitative data often describes how many or how much. Quantitative
information about fruit would be: there are two apples and one orange on the
table.
17

Our data is more qualitative because for us the "how and the why is more
important than the "how many." We are looking to show something that can
not be measured in numbers. Our research is complex, and could not be
reduced to counting how many times a girl was resistant. We need to know
how the girl was resistant. How else could we share ideas and empowerment? It
is impossible to talk about how we heal with numbers. It is impossible to share
how we avoid violence with quantitative data. Our research is more then just
numbers or data. It is our personal stories about ourselves, our lives.
Data collection methods
We had four data collection methods:
1) Because our outreach workers reach 500 girls per year, we added four
questions to the outreach worker booklet because we wanted to reach girls that
did not come to YWEP's offices. Since this was an
ethnographic observation tool, meaning that the
outreach worker was writing about what her contact
was experiencing, we felt that this was a good space
for questions about violence. In our experience, we
found that girls had difficulty talking or writing about
violence they experienced. This was an opportunity to
explore the kinds of violence girls were experiencing
without having them actually have to write about it
themselves.
2) Our popular education workshops involve hundreds of girls every year. Girls
talk about violence young women in the sex trade experience in our popular
education workshops. This was another way to reach a different set of girls. We
looked back at the 2007 workshop notes from participants who wrote down
anything having to do with violence, resilience, or resistance. We also added a
question to the 2008 workshops about violence. We did not ask anyone to talk
about their own individual experiences with violence, we asked about violence
girls in the sex trade experience collectively. We also asked how girls in the sex
trade collectively fight back against violence. Girls wrote the answers to these
questions down anonymously on large poster paper. Later, we collected their
answers and coded them.
18

3) We created "Girls Fight Back" journals, a purely resilience and resistance

focused fill-in-the-blank style zine for girls to write about ways that they fought
back and healed. We wanted this data collection tool to focus on resistance and
resilience because the girls would be filling it out themselves and talking about
individual violence experiences can be triggering. We also wanted to make sure
that we were getting information about resilience and resistance not pertaining
to violence. The "Girls Fight Back" journal could be used as a healing and
empowering tool. We heard many times from girls who filled it out that they
never thought about what they did before they used the zine. Many girls filled
the zines out multiple times because they found the process of writing in them
healing. Outreach workers, Girls In Charge members and outreach contacts all
filed out this journal.
4) The last data collection method we used was focus groups. We did two focus
groups in Outreach Group and two in Girls in Charge. The focus groups
allowed us to explore more deeply what was talked about in the Girls Fight
Back Journal and Outreach Booklets. It also allowed girls to talk about ideas
that were not put on paper. The latter of the two focus groups looked at how
we could collectively unite when practicing resilience or resistance. It also
looked at themes that came up in the data we had already collected. This served
to give us ideas for possible social justice campaigns. Focus groups were not
open to the public, but were especially for our outreach workers and members
only.
Impact of the research on the peer researchers and participants
Working so closely with other peoples truths and experiences has really proven
how important the community that YWEP is creating helps with the survival
and healing of our constituency. Working so closely together during the
research development, data collection, and analysis gave peer researchers an
opportunity to shape the research into something they really cared about. It
shows that we can and will have a voice when the subject matter is our lives. It
was empowering to do research on a topic close to us, as well as to have the
results be accurate to our truths.
Participants got to take part in a research study in an empowering and positive
way. They got to talk about how they fought back. This research was our
collective work. Many issues that girls were facing were being talked about in
19

YWEP, but breaking down common issues through research was extremely
important so we could get a clearer view of the issues. We could see that some
issues affected all of us, and some issues affected just some of us. The process
of doing the research ourselves was also important because we knew that we
were going to get the story right. In the past, researchers have come in to
YWEP and asked us for information about our lives. We would share the same
stories over and over and we would still be shocked when we read their reports.
No matter what we said to the researchers, their reports always said the same
thing: we were victims who needed police and social workers to save us.
Doing research ourselves helped us to say No to outside researchers. From
this process we came to consensus that we will not work with any other
researchers unless they share our values as allies.
Doing this research was empowering because it shows that girls in the sex trade
do care about our lives. It promotes a sense of community. We care about
fighting back. We care about helping each other and we have each others back.
The Research Design and Implementation
YWEP decided to have one main person be the contact person for all
questions and thoughts about the research. Jazeera Iman made sure that
Research Groups were meeting regularly and stayed in contact with our
professional research consultant, Catlin Fullwood. She was also responsible for
making sure that all of our data methods were being carried out as we stated in
our plan and that the data was kept confidential. Jazeera also co-led us through
our development, implementation and analysis of the research. Our research
intern, Naima Paz, assisted with focus group co-facilitation, did our typing,
culling and coding and also attended and supported all our research meetings.
Daphnie, our communications intern, helped with typing and created graphs.
She also helped coordinate the research releases.
We began implementing the data collection tools in January 2008 and stopped
in February 2009.
Before we even began collecting new data we looked at the data we already had
from our 2007 popular education workshops. Each year, YWEP does
workshops with girls in group homes, drop-ins, shelters and foster care
settings. We also do workshops at conferences and meetings. YWEP has
20

careful records of the questions asked and discussed during our workshops
because the participants always write their answers down on big flipchart paper.
We were able to go through our notes and identify what girls were saying about
violence and resilience and resistance without being prompted. This was very
helpful because we were able to see the thoughts girls were having about these
subjects. We used this information as the starting off point for our focus
groups.
We asked questions about the violence girls are facing. We also asked ways that
girls in the sex trade are resistant or resilient. The flipchart paper asking about
violence always had many answers. However, the question asking about
resistance always had very few answers. We realized this was because girls were
doing things to take care of themselves that they didnt identify as resilience or
resistance. This is why we started using the words fight back and heal
because those words made more sense to our constituency. We had many
conversations outside of focus groups about the different things girls do to take
care of themselves. The researchers kept an open mind so that we could track
all the ways girls were fighting back and healing.
We started off with focus groups to get people thinking about things. Then we
added the questions to the outreach booklet. Next we started collecting the
Girls Fight Back Journal. We ended our data collection with a final round of
focus groups to make sure that everyone had a final chance to add something.
Because the research process was so long, girls came in and out of the process.
A core group of researchers came every Thursday at 3pm for the research
meeting. We regularly had 3-4 participants in the meeting and sometimes we
had as many as 10 girls coming to our research meetings.

Phase 1- Focus Groups

The first focus group was conducted by Jazeera Iman. We developed the focus
group questions during our research meeting together. We then offered
stipends to our weekly membership group to participate in the discussion. All
of the focus group members were between the ages of 14-21. Of the ten girls,
six were African American while the remaining four were Latina. This focus
group was 45 minutes long. We talked about ways girls were experiencing
institutional and individual violence in our communities.
21

The second focus group was during Outreach Group. This focus group was
also facilitated by Jazeera Iman. A total of eight outreach workers attended this
group. Of the eight outreach workers five were African American and two were
Latina.
This group asked the outreach workers to observe the violence their outreach
contacts were experiencing and also asked questions about how girls were
bouncing back and fighting back against that violence.

Outreach Questions Added

Once we completed the two focus groups, we added four questions to our
outreach booklet (our outreach booklet is attached at the back of this book).
We created the questions during our weekly research meeting and with the
outreach workers too. The four questions we asked were:
1) Is your contact experiencing one-on-one violence Individual

Violence like being beat up, raped, girl on girl violence or fighting,
gang violence, or hate crimes? For example your contact got beat up by
a white person and she is a girl of color, or a girl got beat up by guys (or
girls) for being in the sex trade. These are just a few examples, but there
are many more. Please describe in detail:
2) Is your contact experiencing violence from an authority or
establishment? This doesn't necessarily mean physical violence. It can
be emotional (mental) sexual, verbal, financial, or anything else. This
can mean racial or gender discrimination by a school or clinic, or social
service facility, lack of resources or care from DCFS, clinics, rehab or any
other establishment. These are a few examples; we need you to find
more.
3) How has your contact been resilient to violence? (Bounced back or
healed from the violence like through meditation, therapy, journaling,
talking to other girls, medicinal drug use, self harm, or any other way
imaginable a girl can help herself feel better.
4) How has she been resistant to violence (fighting back this doesn't
necessarily mean physically fighting back, It can mean any way of
resisting violence, like always making sure to walk in a group when
22

coming home late at night, leaving her pimp, trading sex for money with
people you know are safe, or meeting with other girls to learn legal rights
when dealing with the police. Please be as detailed as possible, and
make sure to specify if it is resistance or resilience.
Each week, our outreach workers answered these questions about their
outreach contacts and gave the answers to our researchers. We collected this
information between March 2008 and February 2009. All of the information
was kept in a folder and every week during our research meeting we would look
at the new typed data and talk about how we could code the answers we were
getting.

Girls Fight Back Journal

After we had been collecting data from our outreach workers for six months,
we began distributing and collecting the Girls Fight Back Journal. This journal
is a fill in the blank style zine that we made together during our research
meeting. Before we implemented the Journal, we tested it in one of our weekly
membership meetings. We had to make several versions of the Girls Fight Back
Journal before we felt satisfied that the tool was respectful, empowering and
asked the right questions.
We handed out the Girls Fight Back Journal to all of our membership, outreach
workers and any young woman who came to our space. Our outreach workers
filled them out themselves and also had their outreach contacts fill them out.
We also had a few Journals come back to us by way of service providers in the
Chicago Area who had received copies of the Journal from outreach workers.
We collected 107 Girls Fight Back Journals between August 2008 and February
2009. We typed the responses up and reviewed the data each week to see if we
could find themes in what we were seeing. We talked about our observations
each week in our research meeting too.

Phase II- Focus Groups

The goals of both of these focus groups were to ask questions about what we
were seeing in the written data from the Girls Fight Back Journal and the
outreach booklet. We also wanted to ask bigger picture questions about how
we could unite girls to fight back together against the violence we are
experiencing.
23

Our first focus group had 14 girls and took place during our weekly
membership meeting. Of the fourteen girls who attended, nine were African
American, two were Latina and three were Mixed Race.
The group was an hour and a half. First we talked about the resilience and
resistance methods girls were using to respond to individual violence. Next we
talked about the resilience and resistance methods girls were using to confront
institutional violence.
In the final phase of the focus group, girls discussed how the current resilience
and resistance methods they were using could be applied to our social justice
campaign. We also looked closely at the topics girls were identifying as
potential targets of our campaign based on the information we were getting
about institutional violence.
Who Participated
We had three groups of respondents
1. Girls who were a part of YWEP who come to our offices regularly
2. Girls who are outreach contacts who may or may not come to the space
3. Girls who got a Girls Fight Back Journal from a YWEP member or a
service provider who was giving them out.
We chose to reach these three groups because we wanted to hear from as many
girls as possible.
These graphs show exactly who responded to our questions from our outreach
booklet and from our Girls Fight Back Journal. YWEP chose to allow girls to
respond multiple times in both our outreach and Girls Fight Back Journal.
Therefore we don't know the exact number of girls we spoke with (although we
know we spoke with over 120 girls).

24

This demographic information is based on the number of total responses and is a combined number for both
our Outreach and the Girls Fight Back Journal.

Outreach Demograpics: 205 Total Responses

41

Race and/or Ethnicity

31

19

109

20

40

Unknown
Mixed

60

Asian
Latina

80

100

120

African American
White

Other demographic data we collected showed that 18 responses were from

transgender girls, while 44 responses were from pregnant girls with another 52
responses coming from girls who said they were mothers. Finally, 54 responses
were from homeless girls.

25

All girls we spoke to were involved in the sex trade and street economy. The chart below shows how girls who
responded were involved.

How Girls Were Involved In the Sex Trade

Pimped
Lingerie Modeling

Stripping
Escorting

Dancing
Survival Sex

Street Based

In exchange for gifts

Trafficked
In exchange for
drugs

140

120

How many responses

100

80

60

119

40

70
58
42

20

30

36

12
0

26

13

62

Analysis
We were overwhelmed and amazed by the amount of data we collected.
Once we had all the data together and typed up (which took two months or
more!) we asked Catlin Fullwood to meet with us regularly to help us make
sense of all the information. Every Thursday we would meet and look at the
findings. We made categories so that we could code the data. After the coding,
we wrote a narrative for each code. For example, if the code was harm
reduction we would find all the examples of harm reduction in the data. Next
we would write a few paragraphs using the respondents words.
After we had written narrative paragraphs for every code we had four meetings
that focused entirely on understanding the data. We had nearly 10 people in
each meeting. We all read the narratives very carefully. Next we identified
themes and categories that we saw coming out of the data. We called these
categories a set of findings Once we had a set of findings, we reflected on the
information and asked ourselves these questions:
1. What is the most important thing(s) that I learn about girls and resistance
and resilience from this set of findings?
2. Did I have an AhHa moment while I was reviewing it? If so, what was it?
3. What surprised you about this set of findings?
4. Are there contradictions in this set of findings? If so, what are they and why
do you think they exist?
5. What do you want to make sure that young women and others reading about
this research will understand about the real lives of young women in the sex
trade?

27

Who participated in the analysis?

Our analysis group consisted of our youth staff, as well as youth membership,
interns, outreach workers and girls in charge members. Our adult staff attended
some meetings too.
In groups of two, we reviewed our set of findings and answered each question
and wrote our answers down. When we came back together to share what we
wrote we typed everything up and sat with the data for a few weeks.
After we had all read and re read the answers and reflections we had a debate.
We used the data to prove our points and have a discussion about the findings.
Once we completely discussed our findings, debated our thoughts and wrote
everything down, we agreed on the findings identified below.
FINDINGS SECTION: OVERVIEW
As a part of the research conducted by YWEP to better understand the ways in
which girls in the sex trade fight back or resist violence, it was necessary to
define all the ways that they experience violence at the individual and
institutional levels. As the researchers recounted the forms of violence
experienced by girls from the data collected in the fighting back journals,
from the outreach workers booklets, and from the focus groups, as well as
from the experiences of the researchers themselves the question of how girls
who suffer so much trauma can be resilient enough to resist kept coming up.
The phrase resilience as a stepping stone for resistance resonated for all.
We realized also that there is a universality to
the experience of girls in the sex trade that
mirror the experiences of all poor women .
As young women of color involved in the sex
trade, we are being oppressed on multiple
levels. We are female, of color, involved in
the sex trade, poor. the limitation of choices
and access, mistreatment and neglect by
helping systems, police surveillance and abuse of power, partner abuse,
sexual abuse and exploitation, family violence and economic
28

disenfranchisement. They are also young girls, many of color, so racism and
ageism are ever present factors in how they are treated in addition to being in
the sex trade. Girls also identify their sexual orientation and gender
identification along a broad spectrum including lesbian and transgender as well
as bisexual or heterosexual. Homophobia is an additional factor that defines
how the world sees and treats them in addition to being in the sex trade.
In examining the data sets, we found the threads of violence and trauma
throughout. But these girls dont see themselves or want to be seen as victims.
They are survivors of violence and they resist the systems of oppression that
define their lives, and use their own methods of resiliency. The more they resist
by standing up for themselves with police or service providers getting to
know their rights the more resilient they become in all aspects of their lives.
And the more they engage in self care and harm reduction and building support
networks- the more they are able to resist the violence that permeates their
lives.
FINDINGS: INDIVIDUAL VIOLENCE
The predominant stories of individual violence told by the girls involved
boyfriends, johns, pimps, family members, foster care families.
1. There were recurrent themes of sexual abuse in the forms of gang rapes
by johns, being raped and trafficked at a young age, being raped and
exploited by pimps, and being stalked and raped by johns. These girls
identify trauma that has resulted from these experiences of sexual
violence.
2. The theme of control and manipulation was related to pimps and
boyfriends who would withhold financial resources necessary for the
girls and for their children. Threats of having their children taken away
were used to control them and keep them in line.
3. Physical violence is a reality in girls lives perpetrated by boyfriends,
pimps and johns. Most often it goes unreported for fear of further
violence and based on a belief that the police will not believe them and
will, in fact, blame them for the violence they experience. The beatings
they experience are also a threat to their children, further cutting off
access to help.
29

4. Girls also report violence by other girls not so much in terms of direct
physical violence, but being involved in girl on girl hating that at times
leads to isolated fights between girls.
FINDINGS: INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE
The individual violence that girls experience is enhanced by the institutional
violence that they experience from systems and services. The violence included
emotional and verbal abuse as well as exclusion from, or mistreatment by,
services. Traditional places of safety and protection are not available to them.
1. Girls are denied help from systems such as DCFS, police and the legal
system, hospitals, shelters, and drug treatment programs because of their
involvement in the sex trade, because they are trans girls or because they
are queer, because they are young, because they are homeless, and
because they use drugs. "Girls in the sex trade face exclusion and neglect
when accessing shelter and other services."
2. There are particularly a lot of examples of police violence, coercion, and
refusal to help. Police often accuse girls in the sex trade of lying or don't
believe them when they turn to the police for help. Many girls said that
police sexual misconduct happens frequently while they are being
arrested or questioned. One journal respondent wrote Girls recognize
that they need advocates when dealing with these systems, whether it is
from their peers, or a trusted adult. Stories about police abuse
outnumbered the stories of abuse by other systems by far. In the words
of a youth researcher "Girls need advocacy when dealing with
institutions and public services."
3. Abuse in foster care is both systemic and personal as girls reported
being physically and emotionally abused by foster parents and being
threatened that DCFS will take their children away.
4. Pimps also present an institutional threat because they are organized, and
have weapons and bodyguards who watch girls. This sense of
omnipotence is part of the psychological abuse that pimps use to keep
girls afraid. Whether they are an institutional force or not, they are
certainly perceived to be by the girls under their control.
5. We were surprised by the number of girls who are being denied help
from various institutions who claimed to be for, and to help, girls in the
sex trade. Some examples of institutions denying girls help are police,
hospitals, and especially social service agencies.
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FINDINGS: RESISTANCE
Resistance for the purposes of this research has been defined as the means and
the methods used by girls to fight back. It has many meanings and
applications by girls who experience individual and institutional violence. It can
mean avoiding violence by taking another way home or educating herself and
another girl about her rights in dealing with the police. There are creative ways
of engaging in self-protection that are not judged here from finding good
places to hide your stash when being harassed by the police to getting over
on a system that refuses to help you. All of these acts of resistance are critical
and meaningful for these girls. It gives them a feeling of power in a culture that
wants to keep them powerless.
HARM REDUCTION
Harm reduction is one of the primary tenets of YWEP program work. It is not
just about harm reduction in terms of drug use or safer sexual practices. It is
applies to all aspects of girls lives and how they negotiate an unsafe world and
keep themselves physically, emotionally and spiritually intact. Girls use harm
reduction to safety plan and stay safe. Girls talked about practicing it in all areas
of their lives, from creating safety plans, to avoiding violence, to safer drug use.
A YWEP member looking at the data concluded "Girls apply harm reduction
to their lives broadly to reduce harm in multiple areas."
Girls also talked about self care as a form of harm reduction. Soothing self care
helps girls recharge, and find the strength and energy to continue practicing
resilience and resistance in their lives. One girl stated "They think we don't take
care of us, but girls use baths, showers, aromatherapy, and journal writing as
ways to sooth." When systems completely fail them, girls use harm reduction
strategies to get what they need. "Hospitals are discriminating against girls for
bring in the sex trade and not giving full care." On the other hand, some girls
talk about using harm reduction to make systems work for them. "Girls talk
about carefully choosing what information to share and what not to." We were
surprised to find that girls use harm reduction as a transformative justice
approach relying upon each other for the help that the institutions claimed to
provide but did not.
31

Girls talk about safety planning as a way of relying upon each other to keep
safe when working in the sex trade. Girls also report that they are learning
alternative medicine, and how to take care of their bodies without the aid of
medical practitioners. Girls talk about turning to each other for shelter/ safe
housing instead of relying on institutions.
Girls also use harm reduction with themselves to work on not judging
themselves and letting go of self hate. An example of this would be a girl in the
sex trade showing herself love by taking a bath a friends and treating herself to
a good meal.
Speaking Out/Standing Up
Whether its knowing your rights, speaking up with authority figures, using
the legal system to fight back, or participating in a dyke march, girls in the sex
trade take direct action on their own behalf or on behalf of others. Girls resist
institutions by insisting on making their case despite the threat of
repercussions. As one girl wrote in her Girls Fight Back Journal I resisted by
fighting the court case and appealing the schools decision (to expel her), by
proving them wrong and not letting them underestimate me. Girls teach each
other their street law rights. One girl cautioned that you can still be arrested
for using drugs or having sex with a cop even if the cop consented. Another
girl reported that he told me he would let me go if I gave him some, but then
he still took me down to the station Some girls use the system for their
benefit, such as putting a restraining order against an abuser, or using the legal/
judicial system to press charges against someone. One girl talked about
reporting her pimp to the sex trade in order to be free of him. I called the
police and told them I was being forced into the sex trade.
A lot of girls talk about having to fight against the systems, like DCFS or the
legal system. Laws or not there's ways around it. Girls talk about having to
fight the cops to prove themselves right. When girls do try to use systems like
the police to stop the violence they are experiencing, they are often made to
feel like liars or provocateurs. When they are the victims of sexual violence they
find themselves having to prove that they were raped. One respondent wrote
I took the police with me to the hospital after they called me a liar, and had
doctors look at me so I could prove them wrong."
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Girls also talk about fighting for their rights. One girl's journal stated DCFS
tried to keep my daughter from me, and I wouldn't let them. And another girl
wrote in her journal I fought the police system, because I wouldn't let them
send me to jail for murder, when it was in self defense. Sometimes just the act
of speaking up is an act of resistance as one girl told us, dont be afraid to use
your voice, its your strongest weapon.
Building Critical Awareness
A very important thing that is happening is girls are gaining Critical Awareness.
This critical awareness means that girls are realizing that they are not to blame
for institutional violence and are looking at the bigger picture, and realizing the
need for advocacy when dealing with systems and the role that institutional
oppression plays in what they are going through. Girls are practicing critical
awareness by examining patterns in their lives as one YWEP researcher
concluded "Girls are learning that it's a whole system of oppression, not just
their fault that bad happens.
Developing critical awareness also helps girls find their greatest resources one
another. YWEP researchers defined Breaking Isolation involved "talking to
someone you trust." YWEP researchers concluded that "Thinking about
change is an important change in itself. "When they do not allow themselves to
be turned against one another, they can build collective power as a group. Girls
talked about the importance of having someone to watch your back as a
protective factor in their lives. As they become increasingly aware of their
shared struggles, it becomes less important to be separate because of race or
sexual orientation or what aspect of the sex trade youre involved in. We may
be from different backgrounds, but we share a lot of similarities. What is
critical is that girls share the violence and challenges that define their lives and
that creating solidarity and collective wisdom with other girls is the greatest act
of resistance.

33

FINDINGS: RESILIENCE
Resilience, for the purpose of this study, refers to ways to bounce back or heal
whether they be conventional or unconventional. Some forms of resilience are
personally soothing like aromatherapy, medicinal drug use, bubble baths, or
food. Other forms are about connection hanging out with girlfriends, reading
books about the movement, or educating younger girls about how to protect
themselves.
Empowering Self Care
Girls are empowering themselves with self care by educating themselves on
other radical women and activists and survivors. Sometimes girls work to
become educated on any subject they feel good and empowered about. Girls
are doing things to physically stay empowered in their bodies such as yoga,
running, dancing for fun and other exercises. Some girls are writing in journals
and diaries as a way to take care of themselves. Some girls are using projects
such as making their own clothes or singing to feel empowered. Many girls also
found it empowering to take care of their children every day. Girls are also
working hard to embrace their bodies as they are and reject racist and
misogynist media messages.
Soothing Self Care
Many girls are making an attempt to find things that
they find soothing to comfort themselves with when
dealing with fatigue, anxiety or stress. Girls are using
different methods to physically comfort their bodies;
some of the ones that are common are baths,
meditation, aromatherapy, and using other drugs to
help relax and sooth their bodies like weed, drinking and other medicinal drugs.
Some girls are finding it soothing to be around friends or family that feels safe
to them, which seems to bring comfort because of a break in isolation and
seems to bring normalcy to their lives. Some are also using religion and talking
with God. Some are simply giving themselves the chance to zone out and do
mindless activities like watching TV and playing video games or listening to
music. Girls are also using reading a book as a soothing way to take care of
themselves.
34

Aromatherapy is used very commonly and also in very different forms. Some
girls are burning incense, sage and candles and some girls are using the smell of
baby wash they like, weed or foods that smell soothing.
Some girls also find cutting or injuring themselves as a soothing form of self
care. This led us at YWEP to re name what some people call "self injury or self
mutilation". We now call it "Self Harm Resilience". We call it this because so
many girls who filled out the Girls Fight Back Journal said that using controlled
self injury was a practice that they said was an important form of coping. Girls
said that they weren't doing this to hurt, they wrote they were doing it to feel
better. Many girls wrote stories of body modification, like giving themselves
and their friends tattoos and piercings. Respondents talked about reclaiming
their body through body modification. "Body modification can mean body
autonomy to girls" according to one journal writer. Other girls wrote about
more complicated forms of self harm resilience like breaking bones or making
cuts or burns on their skin. Rather than judge this as "bad" or "dangerous", we
decided to use harm reduction as a way to understand this. We respect that girls
wrote these stories of self harm resilience in the section of our journal that
asked "how do you heal or take care of yourself".
Its important to remember that everyone uses Self Harm Resilience for
different reasons. For example, Self Harm Resilience was identified as a way for
girls to be in control of their own bodies. One girl talked about self harm
resilience as being empowering because she was hurting herself as opposed to
someone else hurting her. Self Harm Resilience can be a way to prevent or
come out of disassociation. Some girls said that it can be a way to deal with
being triggered because it draws you back into your body and into the present
moment.
Girls talk about soothing self care as something that they have control of, and
feel good about making the attempt to sooth themselves in big or even small
ways. Girls also talked about self care as a form of harm reduction. Soothing
self care helps girls recharge, and find the strength and energy to continue
practicing resilience and resistance in their lives. After reviewing the data from
this section one YWEP researcher noted "They think we don't take care of
ourselves, but girls use baths, showers, aromatherapy, writing as a way to
sooth."
35

BREAKING ISOLATION/CREATING COMMUNITY

Girls are also reaching out to other girls in the sex trade to break isolation.
Girls in the sex trade get peer to peer support, especially around the issues or
sexual assault or survivorship.
It is a misconception that all girls in the sex trade dislike each other and do not
reach out to each other for support. In this data set, we found many examples
of girls in the sex trade reaching out to each other for support, friendship, and
safety. Girls identify turning to their peers as a form of self care. Girls talk
about turning to each other as a support system, as well as networking with
each other for education and self care. One YWEP researcher observed "She
breaks isolation by talking to a girl she trusts."
However, girls also talk about experiencing girl on girl violence, such as
stealing, talking badly about each other, physically fighting, and setting each
other up. Although these things seem contradictory, they are both true in a
culture fraught with contradictions about protecting children, yet sexually
exploiting them. There is more conversation about girls as violent predators,
but little about their incredible loyalty and ethic in their efforts to be there for
one another.
SURPRISES IN THE DATA
When we were reviewing the data a few points struck us over and over again.
First, we were surprised how many stories we heard from girls, including
transgender girls, and young women, including trans women about their violent
experiences at non profits and with service providers. This was upsetting
because adults and social workers often tell us that seeking services will
improve our lives. Yet when we do the systems set up to help us actually can
make things worse. This was clear when looking at the foster care system. We
heard many stories about how foster care settings would deny girls privileges
like bus fare or clothing. This left girls to find their own ways to replace those
items. This is a cycle of violence that begins with the institution - not with the
girls.
We were also surprised by how often police refused us help, didn't believe us,
or forced us to trade sex to avoid arrest and then arrested us anyway. Health
care providers were also identified by girls as being unethical. We heard many
36

stories from girls going to the emergency room or to a doctor and being placed
in psychiatric units just because they were in the sex trade, transgender or were
thought to be self injuring.
There were times when we were all blown away and stunned into silence while
reading the extreme and impressive measures girls took to protect themselves,
their children and their community. It is absolutely a myth that girls in the sex
trade do not take care of themselves or other girls in their neighborhood. It is
also a myth that the violence we experience prevents us from being leaders or
making positive changes in our lives. We saw over and over again that girls are
excited and inspired about making changes and practicing self care. We have
now have proof that unconventional resilience methods are a stepping stone to
resistance.
Behaviors that have often been condemned by greater society, such as self
harm or drug use, are ways that girls in the sex trade take care of themselves,
and therefore, build their resilience and resistant to violence.
Transgirls
One area of our research that needs improvement for next time is that our
methods did not track whether or not the violence transgender girls were
experiencing was different or the same as non transgender girls.
We did notice three trends that were specific to transgirls experience of
violence:
A) Girls had trouble in school often because teachers were transphobic and
allowed classmates to harass them and teachers/administration participated in
harassment
B) Non profits that were specifically for the gay and lesbian community were
discriminatory against transgender girls who were there to get help or
participate in programming.
C) Health care providers and shelters are not doing a good job of working with
transgirls. We face stigma, confusion on the part of service providers and
violence when trying to find help taking care of our bodies.
37

As YWEP continues our research, we will be more clear in our questions so

that we can be sure to identify the specific experiences of violence transgender
girls are experiencing.
Thoughts and Recommendations:
After doing all of this research, we came up with a few recommendations for
others to think about.
1. Resilience is a stepping stone to resistance. Meaning, when we take care of
ourselves we generate the power to fight back. Our recommendation is that we
give girls as many opportunities as possible to take care, that we believe that all
girls do want to take care, and that we dont judge the way girls take care of
themselves, their children and their community.
2. Understand that the sex trade is much easier to get into than it is to get out
of and that we all have unique and valuable ways of soothing and fighting back.
3. Encourage and respect girls right to think for themselveseven if its
different than what adults think is OK. Empowerment means taking control of
our choicesevery girl has the power, even if it's in the smallest waysto
make a decision that can positively affect our lives.
4. If you run a non-profit organization, think about having NO police or
security guards on site. Girls involved in the sex trade are targets for
unethical law enforcement and will be less likely to confide in your staff if they
think you are working with the law. Furthermore, we heard a number of stories
of security guards who worked at social services soliciting sex, sexually
harassing girls, or being homophobic and transphobic towards girls. These
cases do not seem to be specific to certain officers or guards or social services.
We believe this problem is happening to girls all over Chicago.
5. Be aware that young women who identify as lesbian or queer may be
involved in the sex trade and have sexual contact with men. LGBT programs
need comprehensive pregnancy prevention programs, too.
6. Any program that is open to girls needs to be open to transgender girls.

38

7. Transgirls need information about taking care of their bodies when they can't
get to a doctor or clinic. YWEP is working to develop a tool that we can share
with girls in our outreach and also with other service providers so that we can
all do self exams on our own terms.
8. Think critically about the law before advocating for a policy. Will the law
really help girls trading sex for money right now? Or will it just lead to an
increase in police presence? Will removing a law decrease girls risk for violence
or abuse?
9. Allow girls to seek medical care without an ID, without payment and without
risk of being turned over to the police or foster care.
10. Harm Reduction is a philosophy that girls need access to. Learn Harm
Reduction. Teach Harm Reduction. Practice Harm Reduction.
YWEPs Next Steps:
Young Women's Empowerment Project will be taking steps as a result of this
research. Our goal is to launch a social justice campaign that will solidify the
movement we have been striving to build in Chicago among girls and
transgender girls involved in the sex trade and street economy.
We have five objectives:
1) We will distribute the tool kit we made, describing methods other girls in the
sex trade have used to be resilient or resistant that comes directly from these
research findings
2) We want to hold a formal press release for adults and youth, detailing our
findings and conclusions. This release will also give people a chance to use the
data to figure out how girls in their communities are resilient and resistant to
violence and how they can unite
3) We will launch a social justice campaign based on the research findings. This
campaign will be led by the Youth Activist Krew at YWEP and will have the
support of our allies across Chicago and the country.

39

4) We will make more health options available to girls who are a part of
YWEP. We want to do this in three ways:
a) We will train our outreach workers to have more knowledge about women's
health and transgender health through developing a relationship with a
women's health clinic that is queer and trans-friendly
b) We want to invite allies who practice alternative medicine and acupuncture
to provide regular information and care so that our constituency can access
holistic health care without ID, money or fear of judgment related to the sex
trade or drug use.
c) With the help of a health-based resource, we will develop a guide for self
exams for girls and transgirls. This guide will help girls know their bodies, know
how to take care of their bodies and identify when they should go to the doctor
if needed.
5) We will address violence and police misconduct , as well as other bad
encounters from social service agencies in our community by using the YWEP
BAD ENCOUNTER LINE to track violent men, including police. We also
hope that this tool will track how girls are fighting back so that we can continue
to share resilience and resistance methods with our girls.
Our social justice campaign.
We will use this information to pinpoint the violent issues that girls in the sex
trade face the most. We will also look at ways that the youth fought back. Our
focus groups, as well as in the Girls Fight Back journals, explored possible
campaign ideas. Our latest focus group examined which of our campaign ideas
was the most possible and the steps we need to take to turn the idea into
action.
Creating our Social Justice Campaign has had a lot of steps:
1) Our social justice coordinator launched a political education curriculum to
train our membership.
2) We formed a new activist group called YAK (youth activist krew) that is
meeting every week to work on our building our campaign.
40

3) We invited folks from Rukus and Detroit Summer to come for a weekend to
school us about building a campaign from our research findings.
4) We are hosting a Youth Activist Camp for the YAK members to go more in
depth about becoming activists and creating our campaign in January 2010.
We have already completed the first three goals on this list. We have also begun
our first action using this research. Our action is to create a Bad Encounters
Line. This is a tracking tool that any girl, including transgender girls, and young
women, including trans women involved in the sex trade and street economies
can use to report a discriminatory experience with any system or individual. For
example, girls can report an experience with a dangerous man soliciting sex or
report a hospital who is refusing them care. By September 24th, 2009 we will
have collected 75 responses from our constituency. These responses will help
us become clear about a target for our campaign because we will learn what
specific service providers, precincts, wards and neighborhoods are most
affected by institutional violence.
A social justice campaign that is based in transformative justice means that we
will not be targeting a policy or law. Instead we will be working within our
communities to increase our resilience and resistance to violence. For example,
The Bad Encounters Line also tracks how girls are fighting back and healing
from experiences of individual and institutional violence. YWEP will distribute
the information that we collect from our constituency about what girls are
doing to fight back and heal. This way, girls who may never have met will be
able to support each other about dealing with systems or danger.
Our tool kit is another example of transformative justice. We took the stories
and explanations of how girls were fighting back and healing very seriously.
Our tool kit was a way for us to share our resistance methods with other girls.
Youth from our project contributed their survival tools. The YWEP toolkit is a
way for us to spread our message to girls that dont come to our space.
The first page is about building sisterhood. This directly relates back to the
breaking isolation theme. We also included information about drug harm
reduction, reproductive justice, information on knowing your legal rights, ways
to spot a pimp, as well as how to spot an abuser. We have two versions one
that is adult friendly which has less graphic information and one that is just for
41

young people surviving. We included a few pages from our tool kit so that you
can see how the research is impacting us. The full toolkit is over 55 pages long.

42

43

See our tool kit for the rest of these tips

44

45

46

What you need to know about the real lives of girls in the sex trade and
street economy:
We are survivors and we heal by building community with other girls in the
sex trade and street economy.
We develop unique ways that work for us to heal and or bounce back, even if
they may or may not be viewed as positive to others.
Harm reduction is a major way we take care of ourselves and an important
philosophy. We apply it to our whole lives, from sex trade safety, safety
planning, safer drug use, safer self injury, better eating, dating and relationship
violence and much more.
We want it to be known that even if are not currently focused on exiting the
sex trade, we can still find ways to create positive change in our lives and to
keep ourselves safe.
You can go to the police, hospitals and shelters, but keep in mind that if they
fail you, you might have to take matters into your own hands.
Don't blame girls in the sex trade for being in the sex trade or say we can't
help ourselves, because when we go to systems or services we are denied help
or judged.
Girls are taking care of themselves through healing and being resilient and
taking steps to create positive change in their lives.
Girls are fighting to make decisions about their own bodies, controlling their
own choices when they can.
We are more than our trauma- we are fighters with real strength that needs to
be honored and respected.

47

Vocabulary
Violence: YWEP uses the term violence to mean any kind of harm that can
happen to a girl in the sex trade. It can include, but is not limited to physical
violence. It can also be emotional violence, abuse, or threats. For example,
being kicked out of a shelter because you are using drugs is a form of violence
because you are being denied your right to safely sleep indoors.
Institutional Violence: We use the term institutional violence to mean any
violence from an institution or agency, such as DCFS or the police. An
example of institutional violence is DCFS refusing to give you the benefits you
are entitled to.
Individual Violence: We use the term individual violence to mean any
violence that happens from one person to another, such as a parent, boyfriend,
or pimp. An example of individual violence is a girl's sister punching her.
Resistance: We use the term resistance to mean any way of fighting back. It
can mean avoiding violence by taking another way home to educating yourself
and the youth in your neighborhood about your legal rights.
Resilience: We use the term resilience to mean any way to bounce back or
heal, either conventional or unconventional. Some examples are therapy,
aromatherapy, medicinal drug use, bubble baths, or food choices.
Data: Data means the information we collect
Data Collection Method This is what we did to gather data or information.
Some examples of data collection methods are focus groups, used outreach
worker booklets and used a journal.
Focus Group This is special meeting where the researchers ask questions to
the girls. The girls have a discussion about the questions and then the
researchers write down what the girls say. We did 4 focus groups: two in our
weekly leadership group Girls in Charge, and two in our Outreach Group. We
used these focus groups to learn more about information written in outreach
booklets, Girls Fight Back Journals, as well as draw upon experiences not
48

recorded in other data collection methods. We also used these focus groups as
an opportunity to discuss how we can unite and fight back.
The Girls Fight Back Journal This is a fill in the blank style zine we made
that had questions in it about girls fighting back and healing (it is attached at
the end of the report). We spent a long time making this journal. We tested it
before we used it and no one liked it so we had to re do it. We collected 107
Journals from girls all over Chicago. Some girls filled journals out more than
one time.
Outreach Booklet The outreach workers at YWEP fill out outreach booklets
every week where they write down their outreach experience. We added a
bunch of questions to the outreach booklet to track how our outreach contacts
are fighting back and healing. We added two questions about violence; one
about individual violence, the other about institutional violence. We also added
a question about resistance, and another about resilience.
Data Analysis This is when we look at all the information we collected and
think about what it tells us. It took us three months to analyze this data. First
we typed it all up, then we made codes so we could find themes in the story of
the data, and then we had meetings where 8 different girls looked at all the
information. From this we came what we thought the story from the data is
telling us.
Data Set A data set is the group of information that comes from a data
method. For example, we would call the information we wrote down during a
focus group a data set. Or we call the information we collected from our
outreach booklets a data set.
Narrative A narrative is a story. We would write narratives for each data set
so that we could see what the story was. Then we compiled all of our narratives
to see the big story all together.
Ethnographic observation This means what you see about your people or
your hood. For example, when you are at a bus stop in your hood and you look
around- how many grocery stores are there with fresh vegetables? How many
police officers do you see? How many cameras are posted on poles? Asking
and answering these questions is a data collection method that we used during
our outreach.
49

Harm reduction offers the largest range of possibilities of preventing HIV

and other STDs. Simply put, harm reduction means figuring out how to
reduce the danger in your life one piece at a time, without necessarily changing
your whole life at once. Harm reduction teaches that all girls deserve real life
options without judgment. Harm reduction means that all girls involved in the
sex trade need to be in charge of their own decisions. Sometimes, YWEP is the
only place that girls are able to make choices and decisions for themselves. We
are often asked why we dont force or demand that girls exit the sex trade. The
sex trade is a system, and if we created demands on young women that didnt
acknowledge that the sex trade is much easier to enter than it is to exit, we
would stop being a place that respected young womens realities. We protect
and honor girls right to make up their own mind and choose the best option or
strategy for improving the quality of their livesincluding supporting exit from
the sex trade. We don't need to be rescued-- we need the resources and support
to change our lives and change the world.
Empowerment means having the tools and resources you need to live the life
you want. To reduce the sex trade to one girl's experience, or to make blanket
statements about the sex trade based on some girls' experiences, good or bad, is
to dis-empower and erase the realities of girls whose experiences are different.
Girls in the sex trade are members of many communities, including the ones
we create with each other for support and survival. Empowerment means the
ability to make community, to make change, and to make decisions.

50

Young Womens Empowerment Project

Chicago, Illinois
Http://www.youarepriceless.org

51

ADOLESCENTS AND YOUT H

RESEARCH REPORT

Surviving the Streets of New York

Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex
Meredith Dank

Jennifer Yahner

Kuniko Madden

Isela Bauelos

URBAN INSTITUTE

URBAN INSTITUTE

URBAN INSTITUTE

URBAN INSTITUTE

Lilly Yu

Andrea Ritchie

Mitchyll Mora

Brendan Conner

URBAN INSTITUTE

STREETWISE AND SAFE

STREETWISE AND SAFE

STREETWISE AND SAFE

February 2015

ABOUT THE URBAN INSTITUTE

The nonprofit Urban Institute is dedicated to elevating the debate on social and economic policy. For nearly five
decades, Urban scholars have conducted research and offered evidence-based solutions that improve lives and
strengthen communities across a rapidly urbanizing world. Their objective research helps expand opportunities for
all, reduce hardship among the most vulnerable, and strengthen the effectiveness of the public sector.

Copyright February 2015. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to
the Urban Institute. Cover image from Will Anderson.

Contents
Acknowledgments

Highlights

Terminology and Definitional Considerations

Youths Engagement in the Commercial Sex Trade for Survival

Current Study Goals and Methodology

Findings

12

What Are the Characteristics of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex in New
York City?

12

Gender

12

Sexual Orientation

13

Race

15

Age and Children

15

Education

15

Birthplace

15

Living Situation

16

Money Debt

17

What Are LGBTQ Youths', YMSMs, and YWSWs Pathways into the Survival-Sex Trade?

17

Age of Entry

18

Reasons for Involvement

19

Experiences of Young Men Who Have Sex with Men (YMSM) and Young Women Who Have Sex
with Women (YWSW)
What Are the Characteristics of the Commercial Sex Market?

22
23

Frequency of Trading

23

Getting Customers

23

Number of Clients and Regulars

27

Customer Demographics

29

Locations

31

Profiling by Police

32

What Do Youth Earn, and How Do They Spend Earnings?

33

Payments and Exchanges

33

How Youth Spend Their Earnings

35

Sharing Earnings with Others

36

What Are the Physical Risks, and How Do Youth Protect Themselves?
Arguments and Fights

39
39

Physical Protection

41

How Do Others Help Youth Find Customers?

44

How Many Youth Are Involved in Exploitative Situations?

46

How Youth Met Exploiters

48

Nature of Exploitative Situations and Relationships with Exploiters

49

Others Working for Exploiters

51

Leaving Their Exploiters

53

What Do Youths Networks Look Like?

54

What Are Youths Perceptions of Engaging in Survival Sex?

56

Positive Perceptions of Engaging in Survival Sex

56

Negative Perceptions of Engaging in Survival Sex

57

Does Engaging in Survival Sex Define Who Youth Are?

60

Desire to Stop Engaging in Survival Sex

61

Concluding Personal Statements

65

Discussion and Summary

67

Policy and Practice Recommendations

70

Main Findings

79

Notes

81

References

83

About the Authors

86

Statement of Independence

88

Acknowledgments
This project was funded by award 2011-JF-FX-0001, awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. We are grateful to our
funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. It is important to note that funders do
not determine our research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts.
The authors would like to thank (1) the brave and resilient youth who participated in this study; (2)
the staff of Streetwise and Safe who assisted us in identifying appropriate youth and conducting
interviews for this study, especially Kimi Lundie, Jonathan Gonzalez, and Bhavana Nancherla; and (3)
the Urban Institute full-time and temporary staff who assisted throughout various stages of data
collection, transcription, and coding: Pam Lachman, Dwight Pope, Doug Gilchrist-Scott, Andrea
Matthews, Emily Tiry, and Rachel Goldberg.
We would also like to thank those who provided a careful review of project findings:
representatives of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, especially Barbara Tatem
Kelley and Karen Bachar, Dr. Janine Zweig of the Urban Institutes Justice Policy Center, Rhodes Perry,
and Deanna Croce. In addition, we are grateful for the editorial support of Ashleigh Andrews Rich and
Fiona Blackshaw at the Urban Institute, as well as the ongoing support of Nancy La Vigne and Kate
Villarreal of Urbans Justice Policy Center.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Highlights
In 2011, researchers from the Urban Institute launched a three-year study of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and
young women who have sex with women (YWSW) engaged in survival sex in New York City. Working in
partnership with the New York Citybased organization Streetwise and Safe (SAS), researchers trained
youth leaders to conduct in-depth interviews with a total of 283 youths who engaged in survival sex in
New York City and identified themselves as LGBTQ, YMSM, or YWSW. During these interviews, youth
were asked a wide range of questions about their backgrounds and experiences. The information they
shared paints a vivid picture of how they survive in the face of adversity, often dealing with issues
rooted in poverty, homophobia, transphobia, racism, child abuse, and criminalization. Using a
multimethod analytic approach, we identified a number of key findings, highlighted below and
described further throughout this report:

Youth reported experiences of social and familial discrimination and rejection, familial
dysfunction, familial poverty, physical abuse, sexual abuse and exploitation, and emotional and
mental trauma.

The experiences of youth engaged in survival sex are not static; they change over the course of
youths involvement in exchanging sex for money and/or material goods. For example, young
people might be recruited by an exploiter but then eventually trade independently to meet
their basic needs, or vice versa.

LGBTQ youth tend to have large peer networks, which include youth who engage in survival
sex. Many young people are introduced to the survival-sex economy through such networks.

LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW lack access to voluntary and low-threshold services,
including short- and long-term housing, affordable housing and shelter options, livable-wage
employment opportunities, food security, and gender-affirming health care. Many of the youth
who are able to access these services experience institutional barriers. Among the few service
providers and public benefits programs that exist, LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW report
high rates of service denial, as well as violence from breach of confidentiality and unsafe and
discriminatory treatment by staff and other recipients of these services, on the basis of their
sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and age.

HIGHLIGHTS

Many youth engaged in survival sex experience frequent arrest for various quality-of-life and
misdemeanor crimes, creating further instability and perpetuating the need to engage in
survival sex. In custody, many youth experience violence on the basis of their perceived sexual
orientation and gender identity.

Youth experience violence and abuse from multiple sources, including families, exploiters,
clients, strangers, peers, and law enforcement. Youth also experience violence at the hands of
staff and clients at social service organizations and other locations that are intended to be safe.

Many youth report disappointing or frustrating experiences with social service systems and
providers, which often fail to meet their need for safe housing, reliable income, and adequate
mental and physical health care, as well as for freedom, independence, and self-expression.

Youth are extremely resilient in the face of external challenges (such as violence and lack of
housing and employment) and internal challenges (such as emotional and physical trauma and
gender and sexual identity issues). They find ways to survive, often relying on their informal
networks, street savvy, and quick learning abilities to share resources and skills and to adapt to
difficult and often dangerous situations.

This study is among the first to focus on the experiences of LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW who
have self-reported engagement in survival sex in New York City. Despite a recent increase in studies
concerning the commercial sexual exploitation of children and survival sex, there has been a paucity of
research focused on the experiences of YMSM, YWSW, and LGBTQ youth engaged in survival sex
(Dennis 2008). Some of the existing literature assumes that young men and transgender youth who
engage in survival sex do so voluntarily or as a by-product of a deviant homosexual subculture; others
argue that unlike female youth, male youth take only pleasure from engagement in the sex trade or
approach such engagement as a coming-of-age rite (Dennis 2008). However, few existing studies of
youth engaged in survival sex use peer-to-peer interviews to explore LGBTQ youths perspectives on
their own experiences, circumstances, service needs, and desires for individual and social change
(McIntyre 2005, 2006, 2008a, 2008b; YWEP 2009, 2012). A main goal of this study is to describe and
quantify these youths experiences and characteristics to gain a better understanding of their
engagement in survival sex and how the support networks and systems in their lives have both helped
them and let them down.

HIGHLIGHTS

Terminology and Definitional Considerations

Before we discuss the studys findings, it is important to address and define the terms we choose to use
throughout this report. Some of the terms we use reflect the word choices of the young people we
interviewed. These terms describe the youths behaviors and experiences, as opposed to labeling them
based on these behaviors and experiences.

Cisgender: Individuals whose experiences of their gender match the sex they were assigned at birth.
Gender expression: The aspects of behavior and outward presentation that may (intentionally or
unintentionally) communicate gender to others in a given culture or society. These aspects include
clothing, body language, speech, hairstyles, socialization, interests, and presence in gendered spaces
(e.g., restrooms, places of worship, etc.), among others. A persons gender expression may vary from the
gender norms traditionally associated with the persons sex assigned at birth. Gender expression is
separate from gender identity and sexual orientation (Perry and Green 2014).
Gender nonconforming: People who have or are perceived to have gender characteristics or
behaviors that do not conform to traditional or societal expectations. Gender nonconforming people
may or may not identify as transgender. While gender nonconforming people are often assumed to be
lesbian, gay, or bisexual, sexual orientation cannot be determined by a persons appearance or degree of
gender conformity (Perry and Green 2014).
Sexual orientation: Whom a person is physically and emotionally attracted to. Sexual orientation is
distinct from gender identity; transgender people may identify as heterosexual, bisexual, gay, lesbian, or
any other sexual orientation.
Transgender: People whose gender identity (internal sense of being female, male, or another
gender) is incongruent with their sex assigned at birth (physical body). Transgender is also used as an
umbrella term to refer to communities of people that include all whose gender identity or gender
expression do not match societys expectations of how they should behave in relation to their gender
(e.g., transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, and other people whose gender
expressions vary from traditional gender norms) (Perry and Green 2014).
Young men who have sex with men (YMSM): Young men who may identify as heterosexual but have
sex with members of the same sex, often in exchange for money and/or material goods.
Young women who have sex with women (YWSW): Young women who may identify as heterosexual
but have sex with members of the same sex, often in exchange for money and/or material goods.

HIGHLIGHTS

Exploiter: An individual who uses tactics involving force, fraud, and coercion to control a young persons
involvement in the commercial sex market.
Peer facilitator: A peer, who may or may not be engaged in survival sex, who provides
nonexploitative support to someone engaging in survival sex, such that the person engaging in survival
sex does not have limited mobility; decides what they do and what they trade sex for; and is not subject
to force, fraud, or coercion.
Youth engaged in survival sex: The terms youth engaged in survival sex and youth who exchange
sex for money and/or material goods (e.g., shelter, food, and drugs) are used here to reflect young
peoples experiences of involvement in the commercial sex market in their own terms. These terms
describe a behavior as opposed to labeling the youth themselves.

HIGHLIGHTS

Youths Engagement in the

Commercial Sex Trade for Survival
Population estimates of youth who trade sex for survival vary considerably. Curtis and colleagues
1

(2008), using respondent-driven sampling methods, estimated that as many as 4,000 individuals under
age 21 were engaged in New York Citys commercial sex market. A much lower estimate by Gragg and
colleagues (2007), generated with interview and service data from law enforcement and youth service
providers in New York City, indicated a population of approximately 2,250 youth who exchanged sex
for money and material goods.
Regardless of the exact number, the limited literature on LGBTQ youth engagement in survival sex
reveals that such youth are likely to share several common experiences before exchanging sex for
money and/or material goods. These experiences may include racism; family poverty; homelessness and
its associated stigma; lack of adequate or safe housing options; lack of access to gender-affirming
medical care; and rejection and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity by
families, communities, and employers (Bigelsen and Vuotto 2013; Gwadz et al. 2009; Lankenau et al.
2005; NYCAHSIYO 2012; Rees 2010; Wilson et al. 2009). Additionally, LGBTQ youth experience
homophobic and transphobic harassment, discrimination, and physical violence within the child welfare
and foster care systems and emergency and short- and long-term shelters, and from health care
providers, social services, law enforcement, and other government institutions (NYCAHSIYO 2012; Ray
2006; YWEP 2012).
Homelessness is one of the most common drivers of youth engagement in survival sex (Institute of
Medicine and National Research Council 2013; Weber et al. 2004). Nationally, estimates of the
proportion of runaway and homeless youth involved in survival sex range from 10 percent to as high as
50 percent (Greene, Ennett, and Ringwalt 1999; Halcn and Lifson 2004; Haley et al. 2004; Tyler 2009;
Weber et al. 2004). Studies focused on New York City consistently report that homeless youth often
trade sex for a place to stay each night because of the absence of available shelter beds (Freeman and
Hamilton 2008), and that approximately a quarter of homeless youth in New York City have traded sex
at some point (Bigelsen and Vuotto 2013; Clatts et al. 1998; Rotheram-Borus et al. 1992).
These figures are even more striking for LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW in New York City.
According to a survey of nearly 1,000 homeless youth in New York City, young men were three times
more likely than young women to have traded sex for a place to stay, and LGBTQ youth were seven

YOUTHS ENGAGEMENT I N THE COMMERICAL SEX TRADE FOR SURVIVAL

times more likely than heterosexual youth to have done so (Freeman and Hamilton 2008). Transgender
youth in New York City have been found eight times more likely than nontransgender youth to trade
sex for a safe place to stay (Freeman and Hamilton 2008). Nationally, 48 percent of transgender people
reporting involvement in sex work also report homelessness (Grant et al. 2011).
The number of homeless youth who report trading sex for shelter corresponds to the number of
youth involved in the sex trade who report having experienced homelessness. The vast majority of
young men and transgender youth interviewed by Curtis and colleagues (2008) reported being
homeless, including a significant proportion of young men who reported engaging in survival sex while
living on the streets. An earlier ethnographic study of YMSM who traded sex for money or material
goods in New York City found that 9 out of 10 interviewed youth were homeless at the time they began
trading sex (Lankenau et al. 2005). Further, another study found that over half of transgender youth
interviewed in Chicago and Los Angeles who had traded sex had spent one or more nights in a shelter,
had a precarious housing situation, or were living on the street (Wilson et al. 2009).
Homelessness is thus a driver for involvement in survival sex and an ongoing issue for a significant
proportion of youth who trade sex for money and/or material goods, especially LGBTQ youth who
experience exclusion, discrimination, and abuse within their families, schools, shelters, and social
services (Bigelsen and Vuotto 2013; Curtis et al. 2008; Gaetz 2004; Gwadz et al. 2009; Maitra 2002;
McIntyre 2005, 2006, 2008a, 2008b; NYCAHSIYO 2012; Thukral and Ditmore 2003; Thukral, Ditmore,
and Murphy 2005; Tyler 2009; YWEP 2009, 2012).
According to the Center for American Progress and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a
disproportionate number of homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer
(Quintana, Rosenthal, and Krehely 2010; Ray 2006). Further, youth service providers report that
2

LGBTQ youth prefer to engage in survival sex or couch surfing that involves sexual exchange, rather
than risk experiencing the abuse and potential violence they sometimes face in youth shelters or foster
care (NYCAHSIYO 2012). Transgender youth in particular report a lack of access to transition-related
treatment centers and to safe shelter in sex-segregated facilities (Rees 2010). Transgender youth in
New York City have been found eight times more likely than nontransgender youth to trade sex for a
safe place to stay (Freeman and Hamilton 2008). Nationally, 48 percent of transgender people
reporting involvement in the commercial sex market also report homelessness (Grant et al. 2011).
While each individuals life circumstances differ and many factors contribute to engagement in
survival sex, the explanations given by LGBTQ youth often highlight survival and economic need.
LGBTQ youth who exchange sex for money and/or material goods in New York City report endemic

YOUTHS ENGAGEMENT I N THE COMMERICAL SEX TRADE FOR SURVIVAL

race- and gender-based job discrimination and limited to nonexistent economic choices resulting from
discrimination from families, police, and social services (Gwadz et al. 2009; Maitra 2002; Rees 2010). A
national survey of transgender people found that 61 percent of those engaged in sex work had
experienced employment discrimination (Grant et al. 2011).
While transgender youth report active efforts to find alternative sources of income, few manage to
get even an initial interview, and many report direct discrimination on the basis of gender identity and
expression (Rees 2010). Similarly, more than two-thirds of transgender youth who had engaged in
survival sex in Chicago and Los Angeles reported experiencing problems getting a job because of their
gender identity or presentation, and consequently earning less than $12,000 a year (Wilson et al. 2009).
Transgender youth whose gender expression was perceived as gender nonconforming reported
absolutely no employment options (Rees 2010). Many transgender youth saw trading sex as a more
ethical option than others available to them; as one youth said, Its better to try and make money on the
street than to have to steal off people; at least Im doing this for myself (Rees 2010).
Prior engagement with child welfare and juvenile justice systems is also a predominant theme in the
literature (Freeman and Hamilton 2008; Lankenau et al. 2005; Wilson et al. 2009). Gragg and colleagues
(2007) found that the overwhelming majority of youth engaged in survival sex had prior child welfare
involvement, typically in the form of child abuse and neglect allegations or investigations (69 percent)
or foster care placements (75 percent). Further, over half had a prior juvenile justice placement, and 45
percent had a prior persons-in-need-of-supervision placement.
Childhood sexual abuse experiences have also been hypothesized to be among the factors
contributing to youth involvement in the sex trade (Estes and Weiner 2001). One study of New York
City homeless youth found that 78% of those who engaged in commercial sexual activity reported
histories of childhood rape or molestation (Bigelsen and Vuotto 2013, 5). However, other researchers
have found that controlling for other variables has eliminated any statistically significant correlation
between sexual abuse and engagement in survival sex (Tyler 2009).
The relationship between childhood sexual abuse and involvement in the sex trade has been found
to be indirect. A 2001 study found that childhood sexual abuse was more closely correlated with
running away from home at a young age to escape the abuse, which was, in turn, positively correlated
with trading sex to meet survival needs (Tyler et al. 2001). Weber and colleagues (2004, 592) came to
similar conclusions in research they describe as the only prospective analysis of antecedents to
prostitution among female street youths. Other factors the research has linked to youth who exchange
sex for money and/or material goods include alcohol use, drug use, and pregnancy history (Edwards,

YOUTHS ENGAGEMENT I N THE COMMERICAL SEX TRADE FOR SURVIVAL

Iritani, and Hallfors 2006; Estes and Weiner 2001; Halcn and Lifson 2004; Walls and Bell 2011;
Weber et al. 2004).
Economic difficulties related to housing and the lack of available employment and health care
options are among the predominant factors driving LGBTQ youths engagement in survival sex. Given
this backdrop of extreme hardship, this study aims to document the characteristics, experiences, and
backgrounds of LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW who exchange sex for money and/or material
goodsusing their own words.

YOUTHS ENGAGEMENT I N THE COMMERICAL SEX TRADE FOR SURVIVAL

Current Study Goals and

Methodology
With funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Urban Institute
researchers set out to accomplish two primary goals: (1) to describe and quantify the characteristics
and needs of the LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW populations engaged in survival sex in the New York
City commercial sex market; and (2) to assess their interactions with governmental and nonprofit
service providers, law enforcement, prosecutors, and court personnel. This study is based on the
premise that in-depth, peer-to-peer interviews are needed to fully explore and understand the
experiences of LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW who exchange sex for money and/or material goods.
We use a multimethod (quantitative and qualitative) approach to address the studys goals.
3

The Urban Institute project team partnered with Streetwise and Safes (SAS) program to conduct
in-depth interviews with approximately 300 youths recruited using a respondent-driven sampling
4

(RDS) strategy. Urban researchers trained SAS youth leaders to identify RDS seeds and conduct
interviews with LBGTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW. Seven youth leaders were trained over the course of
the data collection period, which lasted approximately one year, though one youth leader conducted a
large number of the interviews.
Respondent-driven sampling was used to recruit and survey successive waves of youth through
their social networks. We set out to recruit approximately 300 LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW
involved in the commercial sex market, and ultimately recruited and interviewed 283 young people.
One of the strengths of the RDS strategy is that it employs study participants as recruiters of additional
participants in consecutive waves of survey interviewing. A small number of research subjects ( n = 13),
considered the first wave of recruits or initial seeds, was carefully selected with the help of local service
providers and SAS youth leaders.
In targeting LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW involved in the commercial sex market, we set
specific eligibility criteria for inclusion in the sample. These eligibility criteria included an age of 1321
5

years old; identification as LGBTQ, YMSM, or YWSW; and involvement in the commercial sex market
in New York City (i.e., receives cash or in-kind payment in exchange for sex, and trades in the New York
City area). To ensure that sample and social network attributes reached equilibrium, four or more
waves of chain-referral sampling were achieved (Heckathorn 1997, 2002; Wang et al. 2005). Further, to
reduce any bias in the initial seeds, we sought out demographically varied participants with a large

CURRENT STUDY GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

number of relationships with youth involved in the commercial sex market, in addition to the motivation
and ability to recruit participants like themselves. Using these RDS methods, we were able to interview
a demographically diverse and representative sample of the LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW
population involved in the commercial sex economy in New York City.
The initial seed participants were given paper business cardsized coupons with a toll-free 24-hour
number that youths could call to arrange an interview appointment. Both Urban and SAS staff
monitored incoming phone calls to screen prospective research subjects for study eligibility; those who
appeared eligible were given an interview time and the address of the SAS office where the majority of
6

the interviews were conducted. Upon arrival, subjects were rescreened for eligibility, appropriateness
for recruitment into the study (e.g., youth who exhibited signs of severe mental health or cognitive
disabilities were not interviewed), and any other referrals or interventions that might be required.
7

Those who did not identify as LGBTQ, YMSM, or YWSW; were too old; or were not engaged in the
commercial sex economy were deemed ineligible for the interview but were given referrals to youthoriented service agencies and made aware of the services those organizations provided. Those who
were deemed ineligible for other reasons, including perceived negative impact on mental health or wellbeing, were not interviewed. Researchers documented all efforts to provide appropriate referrals or
assistance in special incident reports.
Youth who were rescreened and deemed eligible and appropriate for the study were subsequently
8

recruited and interviewed after the researchers obtained their informed assent. At the end of the first
interview, each respondent received $20 in cash, in addition to three unique, coded coupons that they
were instructed (through a brief education session) to pass to other YMSM, YWSW, or LGBTQ youth
who were part of the commercial sex market. Youth participants were paid an additional $10 per
successful referral. Unique numeric codes on the front of each coupon allowed the researchers to
prevent duplication, to identify which youth recruited subsequent participants, and to keep track of
overall recruitment patterns. These methods also ensured research transparency for study participants
and helped maintain participant confidentiality while taking advantage of peer network referrals. The
participants referred by the initial seeds made up the first wave of the sample and were given three
coupons to pass along to potential new recruits. After this, the process was self-sustaining and resulted
in recruitment of a large sample.
The majority of interviews were audio-recorded and later transcribed by a professional
transcription company, which allowed detailed descriptions of the youths experiences in the
commercial sex market, including their interactions with law enforcement and service agencies, to be

CURRENT STUDY GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

10

fully documented. Urban Institute researchers extracted a large amount of quantitative and qualitative
data from the transcribed interviews, which ranged from 20 minutes to over two hours in length.
Researchers coded quantitative data directly into a data collection instrument, which was designed
using Checkbox survey software and had inputs that directly followed the interview protocol questions.
For many questions, the data collection instrument included a series of yes/no responses based on
those most commonly given by youth, though any other responses were also coded exactly as they
appeared. Every key quantitative question (e.g., how does youth obtain customers?) was also
accompanied by a qualitative coding of the evidence supporting that data; such evidence consisted of
direct quotes from the interview itself.
Ultimately, over 700 variables of quantitative data and over 200 variables of qualitative data were
extracted from the interviews. Quantitative data were transferred to and analyzed in the SPSS
statistical software program. Qualitative data were examined thoroughly and individually using
Microsoft Word; quotations were codified into a series of themes so relevant quotes could be easily
identified for inclusion in this report and subsequent study deliverables. Quantitative analyses were
primarily descriptive (e.g., frequencies, means, proportions), but also consisted of chi-squared crosstabulations and t-tests to identify significant differences based on participants gender, sexual
orientation, race, and LGBTQ versus YMSM or YWSW status. Qualitative data were analyzed
separately, as described above, and the two types of information were subsequently integrated within
this overview report.

CURRENT STUDY GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

11

Findings
This report is the first in a series to present findings from our study. It focuses on providing an overview
of the characteristics and pathways that lead LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW into the New York City
commercial sex market, as well as an overview of youths experiences with and perceptions of engaging
in survival sex. Youths were asked how and why they first engaged in survival sex, who also exchanged
sex for money and/or material goods within their peer network, and their self-reported risks and
benefits. We also describe the youths involvement with the criminal justice system, though future
briefs, reports, and articles will present a deeper look at their experiences with the criminal justice and
child welfare systems, their health-related issues, their service needs and experiences with service
providers, and their experiences with violence and victimization.

What Are the Characteristics of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM,

and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex in New York City?
In this section, we describe the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the youth
respondents, as well as their living situations and financial debts. Given the importance of gender,
sexual orientation, and race to youths overall self-identities and life experiences, we report these
characteristics first. Throughout the report, we note any significant (<.05) differences in key findings
by youths gender, sexual orientation, and race.

Gender
Past studies have described varied demographic characteristics of youth who trade sex in exchange for
money and/or material goods. Gragg and colleagues (2007) report that 85 percent of commercially
sexually exploited youth are young women, which is consistent with predominant narratives
surrounding youth involvement in survival sex. However, researchers speaking directly with youth
identified through respondent-driven sampling found that over half (54 percent) of youth engaged in
survival sex in New York City were young men, while 42 percent were young women and 4 percent
were individuals who identified as transgender (Curtis et al. 2008). These results appear to be
consistent with those of a study based on surveys of homeless youth in New York City, which found that
young men were three times more likely to have traded sex for a place to sleep than young women

FINDINGS

12

(Freeman and Hamilton 2008). Transgender youthwho may identify as women, men, or neithermake
up an important part of the population of youth and adults trading sex in New York City and beyond.
Researchers and advocates have found that a large number of transgender youth have traded sex at
some point, and that transgender youth are more frequently involved in the sex trade than
nontransgender youth (Ray 2006; Walls and Bell 2011).
As shown in figure 1, most youth in our sample identified their gender as male (47 percent) or
female (36 percent). In addition, more than one in ten identified as a transgender woman (11 percent),
transgender man (3 percent), or simply transgender without specifying any additional gender identity (2
percent). Individuals also reported being queer and questioning (0.4 percent) or of another gender
identity (3 percent), including androgynous, femme, gender nonconforming, and genderless.

10

FIGURE 1

Gender of Youth Respondents

Male

47%

Female

36%

Transgender female
Transgender male

11%
3%

Transgender other

2%

Queer and questioning

0.4%

Other

3%

Note: Other includes androgynous, femme, gender nonconforming, and genderless.

Sexual Orientation
Researchers have found that LGBTQ youth make up a large number of youth engaged in survival sex in
New York City, nationally, and across the continent. LGBTQ youth are estimated to make up only 5 to 7
percent of the youth population but 20 to 40 percent of the homeless youth population (Quintana et al.

FINDINGS

13

2010). Authors of a multiphase, multiyear, multimethod transnational study estimate that 25 to 35

percent of young men in the sex trade identify as gay, bisexual, or transgender (Estes and Weiner 2001).
Some researchers have found that, compared with their heterosexual counterparts, LGBTQ youth
are more likely to have traded sex. A 2008 study found that LGBTQ youth in New York City were seven
to eight times more likely to have traded sex to meet survival needs than their non-LGBTQ
counterparts (Freeman and Hamilton 2008).
The majority of existing research addressing the experiences of LGBTQ youth engaged in survival
sex focuses on the experiences of transgender women, gay men, and young men who have sex with men,
and frequently excludes the experiences of young lesbians, bisexual women, young women who have
sex with women, and transgender men, who are generally assumed to not be engaged in the commercial
sex market (Dennis 2008; Rees 2010; Weber et al. 2004).
Figure 2 shows the sexual orientation of youth in our sample: well over a third identified as bisexual,
almost a quarter identified as gay, and nearly one in six identified as lesbian. Thirteen percent
11

characterized themselves as heterosexual, while 3 percent described themselves as queer and

12

questioning and 9 percent identified another sexual orientationwhich included open, pansexual, no
preference, and no label.
FIGURE 2

Sexual Orientation of Youth Respondents

Bisexual

37%

Gay

23%

Lesbian

15%

Heterosexual

Queer and questioning

Other

13%

3%

9%

Note: Other includes open, pansexual, no preference, and no label.

FINDINGS

14

Race
Researchers have consistently found that the majority of youths engaging in survival sex in New York
City are people of color (Curtis et al. 2008; Gragg et al. 2007; Gwadz et al. 2009). This finding is
consistent with research across the United States, which finds that African American and Latino or
Latina youths are significantly more likely to be engaged in survival sex than their white counterparts
(Edwards, Iritani, and Hallfors 2006; Grant et al. 2011; Tyler 2009; Walls and Bell 2011; Wilson et al.
2009; YWEP 2009).
Virtually all the youth in our study were of racial minorities, with 37 percent identifying as African
American or black, 22 percent as Latino or Latina, and 30 percent with more than one race or
13

ethnicity. Other respondents identified as white (5 percent), Native American (1 percent), or another
race (4 percent).

Age and Children

Youth ranged in age from 15 to 26 and were, on average, 19.5 years old. Although the interviews did not
explicitly ask about children, a very small percentage (5 percent) of the sample mentioned having
children; of these, 87 percent reported having just one child.

Education
Most youth (76 percent) were not currently enrolled in school, although almost half (48 percent) had
neither graduated high school nor obtained a general equivalency diploma. Of those currently enrolled
in school, 39 percent reported not having attended class within the year before their interview. There
were no significant differences in high school graduation or GED rates by youths gender, sexual
orientation, or race.

Birthplace
Nearly all respondents were born (93 percent) and raised (99 percent) in the United States, with two in
three born (63 percent) or raised (65 percent) in New York City. Approximately three-quarters were
born (72 percent) or raised (75 percent) in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

FINDINGS

15

Living Situation
Nearly half of the youth had lived in New York City their entire lives (49 percent); those who did not
grow up in New York City had lived there for an average of four years. Fifty-five percent of the youth
currently lived in Manhattan, 23 percent lived in Brooklyn, and 16 percent lived in the Bronx.
Given the high correlation between homelessness and engagement in survival sex, it is not
surprising that nearly half the youth we interviewed (48 percent) reported living in a shelter, and
another 10 percent said they lived on the street. In addition, one in ten youth said they lived in a family
home (11 percent), a friends home (10 percent), or in their own place or apartment (9 percent). One
youth reported living with an individual who, based on information disclosed in the interview, appeared
to be an exploiter. There were no significant differences in youths likelihood of living in a shelter or on
the streets based on gender, sexual orientation, or race.
Young people reported being forced out of their family homes as a result of their families
unwillingness to accept their sexual orientation or gender identity. One young man described his
experience of how he came to be homeless, commenting,
My father didnt respect me for who I am because he dont like bisexual people or gay people so
from there I came out to him and I told him and then he just kicked me out, because he couldnt
take it. (Respondent 5112, 19 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

In addition to hostile home environments, homophobia was a factor contributing to youths

homelessness. One gay youth explained that the perceived threat that he may influence his siblings and
spread his sexual orientation to others resulted in his removal from his home.
My mom kicked me out . . . she didnt want me being gay, she wanted grandchildren, she didnt
like my lifestyle, she didnt pretty much accept it. She still loved me but she just didnt want me
being there. And plus I have a little brother so she didnt want me pretty much influencing him in
any form or fashion. (Respondent 531, 19 years old, black, gay, male)

Others were forced to run away from threatening, abusive, and insecure home environments.
When asked about her experience becoming homeless, a young woman recounted her journey from the
foster care system to the streets of New York, explaining,
When my parents had me they was crack heads and stuff, so I eventually got taken away from
them and then I was adopted and my adoptive father was basically raping me. So I went to the
cops and they told me to leave the house and stuff like that. And then after that there was
nowhere else to go because I didnt know my real family. I just knew all my adopted family. And I
knew they wasnt going to believe me. So I was at a friends house till I ran out. I couldnt go
anywhere else. (Respondent 522, 19 years old, Native American, lesbian, female)

FINDINGS

16

Most of the youths current living arrangements were relatively short-term: over 37 percent had
lived at their current residence for less than one year, 23 percent for less than one month, and 11
percent for less than one week. Eighteen percent of youth had lived at their current residence for a year
or more, while 15 percent had lived at their current residence for several years or their entire life.
Virtually all youths lived with other people, most commonly shelter coresidents (55 percent),
friends (22 percent), or family (16 percent). Very few lived with a client (2 percent) or exploiter
(0.4 percent).
The majority of respondents did not have regular bills or rent payments because of their
homelessness. Of the 114 respondents (40 percent) who reported paying bills, most either shared
responsibility for paying bills and rent (31 percent) or were on government or public assistance (28
percent). Others reported that their parents or guardians (16 percent) or friends (13 percent) paid the
bills and rent. Eight percent reported being the sole provider for their own living expenses.

Money Debt
Over one in five youth (21 percent) owed money to another individual or organization. These 59 youths
owed money to friends or peers (35 percent), lending institutions (22 percent), family members (11
percent), peer facilitators (2 percent), clients (2 percent), exploiters (2 percent), and other people such
as drug dealers and owners of local stores (22 percent). They owed money for food (31 percent),
institutional loans (14 percent), drugs (12 percent), legal fees or fines (4 percent), and other items or
services such as transportation. Youth reported owing amounts as low as $3 and as high as $15,000,
with the average amount owed being $856.

What Are LGBTQ Youths, YMSMs, and YWSWs

Pathways into the Survival-Sex Trade?
Past studies have shown that the majority of youth who engage in survival sex do so through same-sex
peers who are already engaged in the commercial sex market (Estes and Weiner 2001). Similarly, in this
study, the most common way youth reported first becoming involved in trading sex was through friends
or peers (figure 3); however, over a quarter reported being approached by a customer their first time
trading, and one in five reported beginning on their own initiative. Approximately 6 percent of youth

FINDINGS

17

started trading sex and/or material goods through an exploiter (exploitative situations are described in
a section starting on page 47), and 4 percent became involved through a family member.
FIGURE 3

How Youth Became Involved in Trading Sex

Friends or peers

46%

Someone approached me

26%

Own initiative

20%

Exploiter

6%

Family
Peer market facilitator
Given something, not free
Other

4%
1%
3%
3%

Cisgender women were significantly less likely than cisgender men to report first trading sex on
their own initiative: 11 percent of cisgender women reported first trading on their own, compared with
24 percent of men. Transgender women (6 percent), transgender men (2 percent), and youth who
14

identified as nonbinary transgender (5 percent) were the least likely to indicate initially trading sex on
their own. By contrast, cisgender women were more likely to report becoming involved because of an
exploiter (13 percent) than cisgender men (2 percent), transgender women (3 percent), and nonbinary
transgender individuals (8 percent). No transgender men reported being recruited by an exploiter.
Forty-four percent of LGBTQ youth and 58 percent of YMSM or YWSW reported becoming involved in
trading sex through their friends or peersa difference that approaches significance. There were no
other significant differences in the method by which respondents of different races or sexual
orientations became involved in trading sex.

Age of Entry
On average, respondents started exchanging sex for money and/or material goods at age 17, though age
of entry ranged from 7 to 22 years old. Average age of entry differed significantly by gender. Cisgender

FINDINGS

18

women started at the youngest age (16) while cisgender men, transgender women, transgender men,
and nonbinary transgender individuals started a year older (17). There were no significant differences in
age of entry by sexual orientation or race.
Respondents had been trading for two and a half years on average at the time they were
interviewed, though they reported a few months to 14 years of involvement in survival sex. On average,
transgender women and cisgender women had been involved in trading sex for money and/or material
goods for approximately one year longer than cisgender men, transgender men, and nonbinary
transgender respondents (three years versus two years). The differences in the length of time spent
trading sex approached significance.

Reasons for Involvement

Tyler and colleagues (2001) noted that many studies have found that approximately 25 percent of
homeless youth have engaged in survival sex. Past research located in a large shelter in New York City
found that almost 50 percent of youth had traded sex because they had no place to stay and would not
have done so if they had alternative options for shelter (Bigelsen and Vuotto 2013).
Youth in this study shared experiences that are similar to those revealed in past studies: there were
a number of points of entry (as shown in figure 3) and they became involved for various reasons, most of
which revolved around survival and obtaining basic necessities such as food and shelter. When asked to
explain how he first became involved in the sex trade, one respondent explained,
I dont remember it that vividly, all I know is just that I was starving. . . . My friend was like, Come
to the stroll trust me, youll get somebody. I was hungry, I was cold, so I did it. (Respondent 199,
21 years old, black, gay, male)

Other youth reported engaging in survival sex after being kicked out of their families or being
15

denied services at homeless shelters. A young bisexual man described how he was forcibly removed
from his familys and friends homes before finding himself trading sex in return for shelter:
The first time I got kicked out from my grandmothers house and I went to a friends house and I
was staying and I messed up with my friend and I was high and I got kicked out and I had nowhere
to go for the weekend. So a boy that I knew he was like oh, you going to come chill with me. I said
alright. So we went there, I went to his house in the Bronx on the Grand Concourse. We started
drinking, we started smoking, and he asked me if I want to stay in the weekend. I was like, yeah.
So then he asked me, he said, you know its gonna come at a cost, and Im like, like how? And he
said like, have sex with me. So at first I didnt want to but I didnt want to stay in the streets and it
was cold so I just did it . . . like I regret it, but it took me out from the streets for the weekend.
(Respondent 637, 19 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

FINDINGS

19

Some transgender youth also saw trading sex as a way to secure the money needed for costly
gender-affirming medical treatment, with one respondent stating, Sex work just became the next step
to helping having the resources, the disposable income to transition (Respondent 25, 26 years old,
white and Latino, heterosexual, trans female). Others had drug or alcohol habits or dependencies and
saw trading sex as a way to continue purchasing drugs. One young woman explained that her girlfriend
was a key figure in her entry into the sex trade:
I was really getting serious with her and we had a similar cocaine problem. So we decided [to do
it] in order to just maintain our habit, do whatever, party, do what we want. (Respondent 145, 19
years old, white, bisexual, female)

Youth became involved in the commercial sex market in a variety of ways that ranged from actively
seeking involvement, to being unexpectedly propositioned, to being forced into trading sex. Almost half
of the respondents (46 percent, figure 3) first engaged in survival sex with the help or facilitation of a
peer or friend, who may have played a passive or active role. For some respondents, witnessing their
friends exchange sex for money and/or material goods was an impetus to do the same. As one male
respondent said,
My best friend was doing it and I saw like he was living the quote, unquote, the life. And it was
like, oh, well hes getting good money and for about 30 minutes, hed get a good 300 [dollars]. . . . I
was like, well, I might as well do it too. (Respondent 434, 19 years old, black, bisexual, male)

Young people also had peers and friends who played an active role in showing them how to
exchange sex for money and/or material goods. Respondents described how their friends taught them
the day-to-day details associated with trading sex, such as what prices to charge, where to find
customers, and how to set up an online advertisement or profile. One gay young man described how his
16

gay family served as a resource:

I used to hang out in [neighborhood in Manhattan] a lot like late at night and being on [street in
Manhattan] and the back streets and things of that nature. I had a gay sister. She pretty much
knew, like, how to do things, and getting the cars, how much to cost the rates and things of that
nature. And I used to spend nights with her to just be there to make sure that shed be okay, and
then I kind of needed money too, and so she put me on and we became a skillful trade.
(Respondent 531, 19 years old, black, gay, male)

Other friends referred the respondent directly to clients or contacts who would assist them in
finding clients. As one young woman explained,
I needed the money and my friend hooked me up with a guy who she said would give me money
and all I had to do is go out with him on a date. And it turns out that wasnt all he wanted. But he
offered me $500 and I really needed the money to pay my phone bills, and pay for school books
and everything. (Respondent 146, 18 years old, white, bisexual, female)

FINDINGS

20

However, as will be discussed later, those who played an active role in recruitment did not
necessarily expect or require their peers to pay a fee for their assistance. When a fee was charged, it
often only consisted of the cost of posting an ad online or of travel expenses.
As shown in figure 3, over a quarter of youth found themselves presented with the opportunity to
trade sex, typically through a client who approached them and offered money, shelter, or other
resources in exchange for sexual acts. A fifth of the individuals described their initial engagement in
survival sex as an active decision they made after assessing their economic and living situations. One
transsexual individual explained,
[I didnt really think about], you know, trading sex for anything whenever I first moved here. And
then whenever I got here, I realized that it was just so popular because there were so many
people in my situation that were unemployed and they needed money and that it was just so
widely, you know, it was so easy to get into. So I was a very conservative person. I didnt really
think about doing that but times got really, really hard and I didnt eat for about a week and I
didnt have anywhere to stay. I was sneaking on the train and so I decided that I was going to
clean myself up a little bit. Decided to go out there and do what I have to do. (Respondent 5175,
21 years old, white, transsexual, trans female)

Six percent of youth started trading sex through an exploitative third party. While some actively
agreed to an exploiters terms when they were approached by or referred to one, others found
themselves unknowingly or forcefully under the influence of an exploiter. Additionally, even if they
were not initially recruited by one, there were some youth who were controlled by an exploiter at some
point during their experiences engaging in survival sex. As will be discussed later, youths experiences
engaging in the commercial sex market are not static, and their involvement takes on different forms
over time. For example, someone might initially become involved through an exploiter, and then over
time leave that person and engage independently for survival, and vice versa. A young woman described
her own changing trajectory exchanging sex for money and/or material goods, which she initially
started doing on her own as a means for survival:
I met a girl who was doing the same thing I was. But, she was affiliated with the Bloods, and she
was like, oh, you know if you come do this, they do the same thing, but youll make so much more
money. When I was 15, that is when I went and got involved with the Bloods and they told me,
oh, you already have experience doing the sex trade thing? Okay, you going to keep doing that
with us and I was doing that up until last summer before I moved to New York. (Respondent
5030, 18 years old, Middle Eastern and white, bisexual, female)

Four percent of respondents became involved in trading sex at a very young age through family
members. Some youth were exploited by foster parents or foster siblings, while others were exploited
by members of their family of origin. As one black bisexual male explained,

FINDINGS

21

The person that raised me, my stepfather, he helped to sell my body. He [would] have clients
come by like seventen times a day or two days a week or something like . . . its similar to a
schedule he had so. . . . It started at 16 going into 17. (Respondent 475, 18 years old, black,
bisexual, male)

Experiences of Young Men Who Have Sex with Men (YMSM) and Young Women
Who Have Sex with Women (YWSW)
Only 17 people in the study identified as cisgender heterosexual individuals engaging in sex with
members of the same sex (YMSM and YWSW), and their involvement in the commercial sex market also
stemmed from a need to survive. YMSM and YWSW reported facing economic challenges as a result of
drug abuse in their families, insecure access to housing, and the death of one or both parents; many
were living in shelters at the time they first exchanged sex for money and/or material goods.
One young man described engaging in survival sex at a young age. His trade was facilitated by
family members, who normalized trading sex with other men as a way to make money:
I like females. I want a wife, I want kids, all that. But for me, Ive been doing all that [having sex
with men] for money. And then, you know what Im saying. It started from young, you know what
Im saying, like my family used to be on that all, like, You could do this, get this on, walk down the
street with this on, and money, alright, whatever. And then its like boom, here I am. It was all so
fast, confusing. (Respondent 454, 21 years old, Haitian, heterosexual, male)

One heterosexual male described the important role engaging in survival sex played in helping him
support himself and his new family.
It came to the point where my mother had kicked me out of the house, and I was staying with
him. So pretty much he was paying everything for me, so I really didnt really have a choice. I
didnt know how to handle it, because he was still basically giving me my financial needs, so I
couldntI would say no then he just came like, I know you need to take care of your girlfriend
and stuff like that and I couldnt . . . I couldnt say no, because at the time she was pregnant . . . I
figured I am sacrificing myself, my body for somebody elseI felt like Im doing a good thing.
(Respondent 507, 20 years old, black, heterosexual, male)

Other YMSM and YWSW echoed similar sentiments and said that they had to set aside any
conflicting feelings about engaging in survival sex in order to provide for their loved ones. As this
heterosexual young man explained, trading sex was his only option:
Im a heterosexual male but I do this for my son; Id do anything for him. . . . The only thing I dislike
is that you know I had to come to this, come down to that to help provide for my son. I feel like I
should have a full-time job, but since I have felonies on my record its like theyll give me the
interview but then once they pull up the background they throw it in your face. I went to one
interview and they was like Oh why should we hire someone like you? What do you mean
someone like me? . . . You judge me because of my color or because of my background. You cant

FINDINGS

22

stay a day in my shoes, you cant walk in these shoes; you cant. (Respondent 379, 21 years old,
multiracial, heterosexual, male)

What Are the Characteristics of the Commercial

Sex Market?
Frequency of Trading
At the time of the interviews, 41 percent of youth had last exchanged sex for money and/or material
goods during the last week and 26 percent had last traded a few weeks to a month before the interview.
Others reported last engaging in survival sex a few months before being interviewed (14 percent), 6 to
12 months before being interviewed (11 percent), or over a year before being interviewed (8 percent).
Respondents said that they traded an average of four to five days a week. They reported engaging in
survival sex for an average of 12 to 14 hours during the one-week period before their interview.

Getting Customers
As shown in figure 4, youth reported using a wide array of methods to find customers. The most
17

common method was on the street or stroll (48 percent), followed by posting ads on the Internet (40
percent). Eighteen percent of young people had customers approach them while they were hanging out
either with friends or alone in certain neighborhoods. Other common sources included social
networking sites (15 percent) and referrals (14 percent). Peers and peer facilitators helped 14 percent
of respondents find customers, while 6 percent of youth had customers who had been identified by
their exploiters.
Youth of different genders, sexual orientations, and race were equally likely to turn to the street to
find customers. However, bisexual respondents were the least likely to post ads online: 29 percent of
bisexual youth had posted online ads, compared with 50 percent of heterosexual youth, 45 percent of
gay and lesbian youth, and 46 percent of other youth. When it came to finding customers through an
exploiter, no transgender youth and only 3 percent of males found customers this way, compared with
13 percent of females. The fact that an exploiter did not help a young person find customers did not
mean that the youth was not or had never been in an exploitative situation. In many cases, exploiters
expected youth to find their customers through whatever means possible without their assistance.

FINDINGS

23

FIGURE 4

How Youth Get Customers

Street

48%

Post ads online

40%

Customers approach/around

18%

Social networking online

15%

Referral

14%

Peer or peer market facilitator

14%

Exploiter

6%

Internet, unspecified
Parties/sex clubs
Other

4%
2%
9%

Note: Other includes bars, strip clubs, peep shows, regular clients only, and rest stops.

TRADING IN THE STREETS

Almost half the youth found customers on the streets or strolls at the time of the interview (48 percent),
while 16 percent had done so at some point in the past. Of those who used strolls to find customers at
the time of the interview, most worked in Manhattan (52 percent), followed by the Bronx (17 percent)
and Brooklyn (14 percent). Of the few respondents (16) who were asked and reported regularly
switching strolls, most did so nightly (31 percent), weekly (25 percent), or every few days (13 percent).
Several respondents did not frequent a specific stroll, but described strolling as walking around
attracting clients.
Like I feel like Ive never, I havent, I never clocked out in three years, I mean every day, where I
could be walking and especially in Brooklyn when I used to stay at [name of youth shelter] in
Brooklyn, me and my bitch would walk down the street and get dates cause its like look at me
like, for one, I look crazy I dont have too much makeup on, but yeah like Im fab and look at my
hair like, Im messy X I give off that energy. (Respondent 775, 20 years old, black, bisexual,
gender nonconforming)

Youth who were familiar with specific strolls described the other individuals trading sex and clients
on the strolls as diverse. They often made distinctions between strolls based on specific racial or ethnic
community populations, and the gender and sexuality of those trading sex (for example, if a particular

FINDINGS

24

stroll was more accepting of transgender people), and the presence of drug use. One 21-year-old
woman explained, I like [neighborhood in Manhattan]: there is more people there; there is more of my
kind there, to be comfortable with (Respondent 5037, Latina, lesbian). This sentiment was echoed by
other transgender youth in reference to neighborhoods they perceived to be safe for them.
Respondents described the strolls as dangerous places. The risk to their physical safety and health,
along with the risk of encountering law enforcement and arrest, made finding customers on the strolls
particularly frighteningespecially for those who went to the strolls when they were very young. One
young man explained the difficulties of navigating the streets as a young teenager:
It was scary, it was a bit scary because I was . . . the youngest. Now I see younger, Ive seen a 14 or
13 or a prostitute, but at the time I was the only one doing it. So it was kind of scary, but I had a
whole bunch of home girls and they always had my back. But what is a 14-year-old doing out on
the street from 12:00 till 5:00 in the morning, you understand? . . . I was working everything up as
much as I can, there was a lot of stress, it was overwhelming. Im a strong person so I could kind of
like deal with things like that. But you know, to another person it would have been hell to be up
all night, and then be working all night and take your shitty ass to school, and get that done and
then go home and take a shower and sleep three and a half hours and get up and go about your
day. (Respondent 446, 19 years old, Spanish and Indian, bisexual, male)

Youth also viewed strolls as competitive and potentially territorial locations, particularly if
exploiters were involved. One young man described the danger of encroaching on an exploiters
territory on the stroll:
You wouldnt know [another workers] pimp is like sitting right across the street or in the building
on the second floor or in a car right here or whatever. . . . If you entering somebody elses
territory unbeknownst to everything that came with it, which was not cool at all, it was very
dangerous. . . . I heard a couple of stories, like you know, the pimps running people from out of
here because they already have their strip locked down. (Respondent 1346, 20 years old, Latino,
bisexual, male)

While some youth with exploiters worked the strolls under their exploiters rules and guidelines,
others had exploiters who would not allow them to work the strolls for safety reasons. When asked if
she ever worked the strolls, one young woman responded, No, because that was easy for the cops who
would stop us, and they would take us in and we would lose money and hed hit us (Respondent 5029,
20 years old, black, bisexual, female).
Young people who found customers on the strolls selected and switched neighborhoods for various
reasons. While the lucrativeness of an area was important, youth also noted safety considerations as a
reason for switching neighborhoods. Safety considerations included avoiding dangerous situations with
other individuals trading sex, law enforcement, clients, and individuals in the neighborhood. They also

FINDINGS

25

switched for other reasons, such as boredom with a neighborhood or because they were working for an
exploiter who decided to make the switch.
POSTING ADS ONLINE
Researchers and service providers have noted that youth who exchange sex for money and/or material
goods increasingly consider the Internet a somewhat safer, more anonymous, and more convenient way
to find and screen customers without interference from law enforcement (Curtis et al. 2008;
NYCAHSIYO 2012).
In this study, 56 percent of respondents had posted an ad online to find clients at least once. Of
these 154 youths, almost three-fourths (74 percent) posted the ads themselves, while one in five had
friends or peers post ads on their behalf and 5 percent had ads posted by an exploiter. Fifty-two percent
of these respondents never paid to post ads; the others paid sometimes (24 percent) or always
(24 percent).
Of the youth who posted ads, 34 percent did so because they felt it was safer. As one female
respondent explained,
The Internet is safer in a way. No, nothing is 100 percent safe, but you can kind of get a feel of the
person, who you are talking to on the phone and everything versus on the street, right, like you
really cant have a conversation with them for that long, because you have to hurry up and get in
the car and get the money and then leave, so because theres so many other distractions and you
dont want get snatched by this pimp. You dont want your pimp to beat you, you know for this
and that. (Respondent 5280, 19 years old, black, free sexuality, female)

Another respondent similarly explained how posting ads allowed her to screen customers,
ultimately increasing her comfort level:
I feel more comfortable doing it. Like sometimes I feel a bit shy when its confrontational like, the
boom, like right there. So most of the time I feel more comfortable just meeting online talking for
a little and then you know, talking about whats going to be happening, what needs to be done
and you know. (Respondent 267, 20 years old, Latina, heterosexual, trans female)

Avoiding law enforcement detection and the risk of arrest was also important. Some youth, such as
the respondent below, perceived themselves at less risk for police stings online:
I felt like the stroll was very dangerous and it was highly populated by the police, whereas you
know some . . . I dont know, like when you work things on the Internet it kind of save you almost
from entrapment in some ways. (Respondent 470, 20 years old, multiracial, pansexual, female)

Over a quarter of young people who posted ads (26 percent) felt that posting advertisements was
easier or more efficient. One young man explained why convenience was important to him:

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26

I felt the need to be a little more discreet when I work. Its more risky when you hit the streets;
people and law enforcement are pretty much taken more serious when youre on the streets. So I
feel like cyberspace and Internet was way more . . . convenient for me. (Respondent 654, 22 years
old, multiracial, bisexual, male)

Twenty-four percent who posted ads reported they could ask for more money online. As one young
woman explained, online interactions allow for prices to be established in the beginning:
I would actually make more because you actually have the time to negotiate before you meet up with
the person and tell them the exact spot. (Respondent 313, 21 years old, Latina, lesbian, female)

Thirteen percent of respondents felt they had a more diverse customer base online, and other
respondents who posted ads reported doing so because the Internet allowed for increased anonymity,
sexual freedom, and privacy, or because it was too cold or harsh on the streets. As one white gay man
summarized, online ads allow individuals to continue trading despite poor weather conditions:
Thats just when business is slow or something like that, like if Im not getting customers or
anything like that, or if its raining for a long period . . . its never really good to go out, you know
so then kind of [makes sense] to go online. (Respondent 182, 19 years old, white, gay, male)

Number of Clients and Regulars

On average, youth saw 3 to 6 customers each day or night they exchanged sex for money and/or
material goods, and 11 to 18 clients a week. Of these, 85 percent of respondents had at least one client
they considered a regular customer; on average, respondents had seven such regular customers. Over
half (55 percent) of these 221 respondents considered their regular clients important for money, onethird (34 percent) felt they were important because they provided a reliable form of economic and
social support, 15 percent considered their regulars friends or providers of emotional support, and 14
percent did not consider their regular clients important.
While some youth expressed indifference toward their regulars, most distinguished regulars from
other customers as sources of extra money. For those who saw their regulars only as sources of higher
income, such as this woman, the relationship was simple:
They are the ones with the money, they are the ones who got bigger prices on it; like when I see
those regulars I see dollar signs. (Respondent 5019, 20 years old, multiracial, lesbian, female)

Youth also depended on their regulars as a more reliable and safer stream of income. One
respondent explained,
The scattered unpredictable nature of like, you know, sex work, its really nice to have some
semblance of something reliable. Can I call it that? Because when youre making a ton of money

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27

one week and then youre fresh out the next, its really nice to have something to fall back on. Even
if its not always there. And its also that I dont have to go through the same screening or I have to
freak out any time whenever I find some woman on the doorstep. I can work better with them
because I know what they are into. Im more inclined to get tips that way if they like me. A variety
of reasons regulars are really helpful. (Respondent 1342, 20 years old, white, queer, genderqueer)

Regular clients also served as a source of money, shelter, or other resources during emergencies, as
this youth described:
I know that youre not going to try to fuck me over, like I only have five people that I really, really
trust. Like if I was in trouble right now, I can call them and they like yo, stay right there, Im on my
way. Or, I got the key under the mat so if you need a place to stay for the night, go to the house
and Ill meet you there and so on. (Respondent 196, 20 years old, black and Puerto Rican, open
sexuality, male)

Respondents, such as the Latino man below, also described having a different type of relationship
with their regularsone that was more enjoyable than their relationships with other clients:
Sometimes they dont even want sex, sometimes they just crave the attention, and sometimes
they just want that person to be next to them. I guess they just like, feed off of the attraction or
whatever but, its cool, like they, theyre very nice, take me out to eat, chill, watch a movie,
sometimes of course there have been sexual encounters, but like it doesnt reallyits not so
strong. Not like how regular dates would be if you wanted to just have sex, you just want sex and
then money and thats it. (Respondent 531, 19 years old, Latino, gay, male)

While depending on regulars was generally discussed in a neutral or positive way, some youth
perceived the support they received from regulars as negative because access to a reliable source of
income impeded their ability to fully stop engaging in survival sex. This bisexual woman discussed why
she thought it would be hard to quit:
Interviewee: They are important to me because those are the people that like no matter even if I
stop for a certain amount of time once I go back those are the first people Ill hit up. Like those
are the first people Ill look for that I know that will get me back in. Like I feel like sometimes I
always tell myself Im giving up on the trade of sex work because I think of it as a trade but then
once I think about like those regulars and once I see them sometimes because sometimes theyll
be, Oh really are you going to do that? And its so easy to go back like theyll make up offers first
and theyll make usually some of the best offers. . . .
Interviewer: So you could say that theyre important to you because theyre there like when you
need to go back, they know who you are?
Interviewee: Okay, you know like kind of an artist has a fan base, I kind of feel like theyre my fan
base. (Respondent 274, 18 years old, Latina, bisexual, female)

Youth also cultivated emotionally supportive relationships with their regular customers, expressing
that they received meaningful communication or friendship, or just had more pleasant interactions with
their regulars than with the average customer. This gay man explained,

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28

The regular guys, they tend to be like loners or like guys that have been through shit or whatever
and they want the real action, not the relationship like were about to get married but a
relationship like lets talk, lets communicate. . . . Because I have gotten guys that didnt pay me
with like money or stuff, but paid me with a good time, a good conversation, I got a little bit
fucked up or whatever and we just talk. And he hasnt had sex like in 13 years and its like no sex
involved, its just like. . . . So its like they feed you good stuff and they are not just talking bullshit
and they are talking real stuff. (Respondent 29, 16 years old, Latino, gay, male)

A gay black man shared similar sentiments:

Yeah like I feel I can talk to him about anything, you know, have somebody elses outlook on
important things, and hes like older. So its like hes a friend hes like an older hes been through
things in his life since I find to talk to him about stuff like school or anything else like that.
(Respondent 128, 17 years old, black, gay, male)

Finally, many youth felt that the benefits of regular clients were familiarity and the regular clients
understanding that the youth are often not interested in getting personal. This young woman explained,
I dont want to talk to you. I dont care about your life problems Im not your fucking therapist.
You know and the regulars already know that so they are just kind of like hey, good, price, pay,
done. You know, the new people they want to be like so, where did you grow up? Dont ask me
shit. You should ask me price and are we done, the only two things you need to say to me, how
much, where do you need me to drop you off at. I sound so terrible. (Respondent 284, 21 years
old, multiracial, pansexual, female)

Customer Demographics
While there is no way to generalize about the respondents clients based on this study, respondents
offered a wide range of insights about their clients and how they navigate and assess their potential
client pool. When asked what kind of people their clients were, many youth stressed the diversity of
their client base. As one Latino transgender man stated,
All colors, all kinds they were old guys, young guys, executive guys, all of them, all of them, white,
black, American, African, all of them. (Respondent 5025, 20 years old, Latino, trans male)

Some respondents, such as this bisexual female, took this sentiment further, and said that they did
not care who the client was as long as the client had money:
I dont discriminatemoney is green. (Respondent 190, 20 years old, multiracial, bisexual, female)

Youth observed that customers who would pay them money and/or material goods often belonged
to one of two high-income populations: professionals, or gang members and drug dealers. While a few
respondents spoke primarily to their clients class or wealth, these observations often overlapped with

FINDINGS

29

discussions of the clients race. Youth also said that they avoided black customers because they
received better compensation from white customers, based on a real or perceived difference in income.
Most of the time they are Caucasian, and Im pretty racist when it comes to that, like I dont like
messing with black guys because from my experience they are always cheap, and cheap to me is
like they are always questioning something and they are also trying to get over it. Like they have
the same mentality as you to me, with . . . I hate the fact that I like have to tell the truth
about. . . . This is stereotypical, but it is statistical for a prostitute you know. What Im saying is,
most of them are Caucasian. When it comes to white guys, right; you can say oh its 200 for the
hour, right? You can get them to come over 200 for the hour, and then you can have then in there
for 15 minutes. A black guy will be like; no I paid you for an hour. (Respondent 1095; 21 years old;
Dominican, Puerto Rican, and black; gay; male)

Youth also identified safety concerns as reasons to choose certain clients based on class or race. As
this white woman articulated, wealthier, white clients were often perceived as safer:
Ill try to stick to like white . . . I dont know. Normal looking clean-cut, job everything, everything you
would have, just for my safety reasons. (Respondent 607, 19 years old, white, open sexuality, female)

A few of the youth expressed that the demographics of their clients were driven by the way clients
perceived them. This queer male youth explained:
At the end of the day, I usually get white or black. I get a lot of black ones too because a lot of
dudes like light-skinned girls. Or get a lot of white ones because Im like black but Im exotic or
Im like, you know they think that you just, if youre a dark skin youre a thief but if youre light
skinned . . . (Respondent 755, 20 years old, black, queer, male)

The range of youths preferences for certain clients and the reasons behind their preferences were
best expressed in discussion of client gender and age. Sexual orientation clearly played a role in
preferred customer gender. Most preferred to trade with customers who aligned with their sexual
orientation, yet some, such as this youth, explained that trading could bring out complexities in their
sexual orientation.
I only have sex with men because women to me are a little more secret so like I fall in love with
women but not who I get as clients. (Respondent 168, 19 years old, Native American and Irish,
bisexual, genderless)

On the other hand, being YMSM or YWSW could introduce feelings of distress and confusion
regarding sexuality. Even in the context of trading to obtain basic necessities, this perceived challenge
to heterosexual youths identity was often painful in itself. A young man described this sentiment:
I only had that one experience. And I was like, honestly I was more ashamed than confused
because I know like thats not what my preference is . . . its just like I was very desperate for
money. And I was like I still, I still think about it. I dont really talk about it. Like I never brought
that up. None of my friends even know that that actually happened. You know so I just . . . I just
kept it to myself. . . . He asked me like do you really need the money? At that moment I thought I

FINDINGS

30

did. I felt I did and . . . like it was just like he grabbed me by like my waist and he just started doing
it. And it was like . . . and I just like, try to close my eyes. Just try to think about something else.
(Respondent 5194, 20 years old, black and Asian, heterosexual, male)

In terms of age, many youth preferred clients they perceived as older, usually because they saw this
as an opportunity to ask for more money. However, others refused to trade with older clients because
they felt they were unattractive and difficult to relate to.
The reality of married clients was also a recurring theme, along with youths interpretations of why
they had so many married clients. One female explained,
Most of the people I kind of mess with are married and they have like careers, like a banker or
[inaudible], and stuff like that. Reason why because, I guess the more married people you get to
deal with, the more tired they get because they are with the same person every time. And you
can see in their face when they have, like a troubled marriage or something like that. They always
talk about their wife or kids and the temptation . . . they just simply just drift away from reality to
fantasy. So when they realize their fantasy can become reality they just take the chance no
matter what, no matter if they can get caught or anything. (Respondent 127, 18 years old, black,
gay, female)

Some individuals, such as this young man, avoided married clients for moral reasons:
I dont really like to do married men too much I dont want to feel like a home wrecker or
anything that I need to. (Respondent 5016, 20 years old, black, gay, male)

Another youth insisted on not having married clients and said that he screened clients for clues of
marital status:
Interviewee: I would not, not a married person I would never ever, I would rather sleep outside
than mess with a married person.
Interviewer: So do you look for a ring when you?
Interviewee: Yes thats the first thing. (Respondent 635, 19 years old, black and Spanish, bisexual,
female)

Locations
Youth typically traded with customers at the customers residence (64 percent) and at hotels (57
percent), with the next most common places being cars (22 percent) or parks and alleys (17 percent).
Locations varied by transaction and depended on customers preferences and access to buildings. One
woman explained that services were delivered in a multitude of sites.
As crazy as it sounds you know you have customers that say, Just come back to my car, you
have customers say, Well theres a nice spot right there, or you have some customers just
saying, I have a house, I have an apartment, or [they say] lets go to a motel. They take you all
over. (Respondent 5231, 19 years old, Latina and white, bisexual, female)

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31

Young people also talked about the precautions they had to take while trading in diverse settings.
One respondent shared the insecurity he felt trading in various locations, explaining:
Some people might want you to go in the car when I get out I make sure I bring mace with me. I
always carry mace with me and make sure nothing is wrong, and make sure everything is okay. So
when they say well I want it done in the car whatever you know so I have to make sure I have my
mace in my pocket all the time, I always check myself to make sure I had it with me. And then Im
like then make it quick and you know blah, blah I have other people to talk to. You know I try to
make it seem like I have an urgent place to go to, because I dont like staying in peoples cars for
too long. I feel like safer you know like in their houses or wherever not in the car, because you
never know they can drive you off and throw you in the ditch. I always think of the worst in
everything. (Respondent 350, 19 years old, white, gay, male)

Others shared a laissez-faire attitude toward location. As one young man expressed, such youth
often experienced a lack of agency when their clients chose the location.
They take me where they want to take me. They got a place some customer theyve got a
customer they got a place where to take me, sometimes in a corner, sometimes like at a park
most likely. So yeah sometimes in the hallway . . . somebodys hallway. (Respondent 399, 19 years
old, black, gay, male)

Profiling by Police
Of the 70 percent of youth who reported being arrested, only 9 percent reported being arrested for
prostitution. The majority of the prostitution-related arrests (53 percent) led to prostitution charges,
while 18 percent of youth were charged with soliciting, 12 percent with loitering for the purposes of
prostitution, and 18 percent were not charged at all.
Of the 107 respondents (38 percent of sample) who were asked, less than a quarter (23 percent)
reported being profiled by police as trading sex, but all of them reported being profiled by the police.
There were no statistically significant differences in the likelihood of being profiled by gender, sexual
orientation, or race, but there was a tendency for white and (to a lesser extent) black individuals to be
more likely to report being profiled than Latino or Latina individuals.
Many young people who reported being profiled for prostitution stressed that they were not
profiled while trading but while they were spending time in the neighborhoods where they or others
traded sex. Frequenting parts of the city known for the sex trade made profiling more common. As a
white gay male described, spending time in such areas set the stage for police interrogation:
When I was on the stroll, they saw me and they said, I saw you talking to somebody? and I was
like, Okay, yeah, I talk to people. He is like, No, no, no, I know what you guys do. I was like,
Okay, where is this going? Are you going to arrest me or something, do something, Im waiting.

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32

And he was like, Have you ever been arrested? Like he started asking me a million questions.
(Respondent 350, 19 years old, white, gay, male)

Others recounted similar stories and expressed feeling angry and frustrated by the assumptions
that were made of them when they were walking through certain parts of the city. One young
transgender woman explained,
I remember when I first moved here I was at the [area in Manhattan] and I was like walking
around and the cops must have like been watching me, because like when I came back around he
was like, Hey, what are you looking for? And Im like, Im just walking around. And hes like,
You better not be out here like on a stroll. And at first when I first moved here I didnt
understand what that word meant and Im like, No, Im not on a stroll. And he was like, I got my
eye on you, and then I was like, What the hell? Like I cant just walk around a block and you just
say . . .? Even though I was on a stroll but like you cannot just make assumptions. (Respondent
759, 20 years old, Dominican and black, trans female

While several youths shared anecdotes of being stopped by the police while hanging out on or near
known strolls, some reported being profiled while they were trading. One respondent, a Latina female,
recalls how her client intervened and prevented her from being charged:
I remember leaving one clients house and there was a cop who stopped me and they said, How
did you get that money? you know. Luckily, the guy came out and said, No, its okay you know
she actually cleaned my house and I gave her the money. So after that I mean they harassed me
a little more about trying to get the truth out but because he said what he said. They were just
like, You can go. (Respondent 313, 21 years old, Latina, lesbian, female)

What Do Youth Earn, and How Do They Spend Earnings?

Payments and Exchanges
Nearly all respondents (95 percent) had received money in exchange for a sexual service, while 31
percent had received shelter, 18 percent had received food, 15 percent had received drugs, and 11
percent had received clothing. Nearly two-thirds of youth decided the price of the exchange, while one
in five negotiated with their clients. For 18 percent, the clients decided the price, and for others prices
were set by either their peer facilitator (3 percent) or their exploiter (6 percent).
As shown in figure 5, the average price that the youth reported charging per encounter ranged from
$91 to $231; this amount did not vary significantly by respondents gender, sexual orientation, or race.
The average amount each youth made each day or night ranged from $356 to $734, and the average
amount made the previous week ranged from $484 to $549.

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33

OTHER WAYS OF OBTAINING MONEY

Between 40 and 60 percent of youth in past studies reported other sources of income, including
panhandling, a legitimate job, public benefits, and dealing drugs (Curtis et al. 2008; Gwadz et al. 2009).
Similarly, in this study over half of youth had ways of receiving money other than trading, though these
options were limited. The most common income sources were jobs (23 percent), government benefits or
public assistance (23 percent), family (20 percent), and selling drugs (15 percent).
FIGURE 5

Payments to Youth for Sex

Minimum

Maximum
$734

$549

$484
$356
$231

$91

Average per encounter

Average per day

Amount last week

The youths experiences echo past studies findings that reveal the difficulty of obtaining regular,
legal employment while homeless. Employment discrimination and lack of living-wage employment
opportunities have been reported as powerful driving forces of involvement in the sex trade (Bigelsen
and Vuotto 2013; Curtis et al. 2008; Grant et al. 2011; Maitra 2002; Rees 2010; Wilson et al. 2009).
Conversely, a study focused on the Midwest found that youth who had been employed full-time were
80 percent less likely to have traded sex than those who had not (Tyler 2009). These barriers are
further compounded by employment barriers related to age and lack of education and experience
(Gwadz et al. 2009).
Many of the youth in this study held irregular or informal jobs, such as seasonal work and
panhandling. A young man described how he made money through a variety of informal jobs:
Whatever money I make like Ill do like a home job, because I have skills in different areas. You
know like little bit of carpentry, or like if you need your dresser to be fixed or something like that

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34

I will come along and I fix it they are like well you do this to me, like I would do it for like no charge
if I know you, but whatever but people, like my friend will still give me money. (Respondent 506,
20 years old, Jamaican, heterosexual, male)

Another respondent, a young male, also worked a series of irregular jobs, often contacting
individuals he used to know:
I usually go back to my own neighborhood and I talk to my super that I grew up with and I ask him
maybe if I can help with the garbage he will give me $20, $30. If not that, I go to a store ask them
if they need any help stocking, make another $20. Yeah I try to save it up so I can buy food like for
the week. (Respondent 637, 19 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

Respondents also discussed how homelessness made it difficult to find and maintain jobs. One
youth explained how his lack of stable, long-term shelter made it impossible to go to work regularly:
I had a job. I have my security license but due to the fact I was discharged from foster care
because I had a good job; I was supposed to be getting an apartment with New York City Housing
Authority through foster care through ACS [Administration for Childrens Services], but because
of my hardship and because of me getting discharged from, I couldnt keep my job, because I had
no place to stay, so . . . I resigned, I was like I cannot work for you if I dont have a place to sleep,
because Im not going to be sleeping outside, on a train, on a bus and then coming to work, so I
had a good job when I, when I first turned 18. (Respondent 472, 19 years old, black, gay, male)

A young woman shared a similar experience of turning to informal work after losing her job because
she lacked stable shelter:
If I have like clothes that I dont want, I will sell those or I will pull a scheme or do
something. . . . Yeah. Because I lost my job. I was working three jobs when I was homeless and
going to school and then the shelters, I started going to the shelters and shelters started not to
give me late passes and stay for work. So I lost all jobs. . . . Now Im looking again. It sucks.
(Respondent 726, 19 years old, Puerto Rican and black, bisexual, female)

Individuals who did find legal jobs still faced difficulties obtaining a living wage. As one lesbian
respondent explained:
I worked sometimes. Im the security but thats on call, so sometimes it doesnt add up and
especially like if youre trying to get housing. Housing out here is a lot of money. (Respondent
273, 20 years old, other race, lesbian, female)

How Youth Spend Their Earnings

Over half of youth (54 percent) used their earnings to buy food as their first priority. Thirty-six percent
bought clothing as their first priority, 21 percent paid their cell phone bills, 16 percent bought
marijuana, 13 percent bought cigarettes, and 10 percent bought toiletries or necessities.

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35

Overall, youth spent the most money on food (41 percent) and clothing (43 percent), followed by
marijuana (18 percent).

Sharing Earnings with Others

One-third of respondents never shared their earnings with others, and slightly fewer (31 percent) only
shared their earnings sometimes. The other third shared their earnings always (23 percent) or most of
the time (10 percent).
Among 164 respondents who responded to the question about whom they shared earnings with, 59
percent shared less than half of their earnings, 17 percent shared most of their earnings, 15 percent
shared half of their earnings, and 11 percent shared all their earnings.
Nearly half (48 percent) of the 164 youth shared their earnings with friends or peers, followed by
family (19 percent), a significant other (15 percent), and/or a peer facilitator (7 percent). Eleven percent
of respondents shared their earnings with their exploiter, while 6 percent shared with anyone they
thought was in need.
Those who never shared their earnings felt that doing so would be a large personal sacrifice. They
viewed their independence as particularly important. A young black woman stated,
No one owns me or controls me, dont tell me because I dont share my money; its not like Im going
to go sell myself to give you money, no. (Respondent 235, 17 years old, black, heterosexual, female)

When asked if he shared any of his earnings, another respondent expressed similar sentiments:
No, I figure Im doing it for myself and Im not working for some, nobody Im just trying to maintain
myself. You know what Im saying, its a cold world and to be honest I learned the hard way you
cant save everybody, you cant. (Respondent 527, 20 years old, Puerto Rican, bisexual, male)

Those who did share their earnings did so in various ways. Youth generously shared resources and
money without expecting anything in return, participated in trading or mutual exchanges of resources,
or shared things of value with other individuals. Some youth were expected to give money to their
exploitersa dynamic that will be explained later in the report.
Youth, such as this young man, also shared money or things of value with other individuals in need,
even if it sometimes meant giving away what little money they had:
Sometimes I will go and like try to give out to other people, like I see all the people out here, you
know, just like starving and everything, I just give them a little money. . . . Because theyre
starving, they dont have anything to eat. (Respondent 463, 18 years old, black, bisexual, male)

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36

One male respondent who was otherwise reluctant to share expressed empathy for others in need:
Well somewhat I will, say if I meet you and you are hungry Im not going to be eating in front of
you when you are starving because I know how it is to be hungry out there. I would say yeah I
would Id share. But I wont just say take a piece of mine, thats not happening. (Respondent 197,
20 years old, black, bisexual, male)

Youth who shared with members of their families of origin, their children, or members of their gay
families frequently gave money and resources without expecting anything in return. One multiracial gay
man described how he would take care of his gay family financially:
Interviewee: I was just the, we call it BQID, Butch Queen in Drag, so I was like a boy but I was just
dressing up for work. My gay family, like my nieces, they were actually transitioning. So they
were going from the boy to girl phase and stuff like that and I was aunty or whatever. So I used to,
they were going through that whole family rejecting them, them being on their own. So I would
give them money and I would try to take care of them as much as I could, so thats as far as my
money went to.
Interviewer: But you never split your money with someone?
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: And how much money were you giving them?
Interviewee: It depends, normally I wasnt like handing them money, like I would give the money
in cash like a $100 and Id be like hold that for two weeks . . . because they were in high school so
my thing is you dont really need much money because you should be in school. (Respondent 528,
21 years old, multiracial, gay, male)

Other youth shared their earnings with family members in need or served as financial providers for
their families. One young woman frequently sent money to an incarcerated sibling:
Interviewee: I made about $350, that whole week and then I sent it to my brother.
Interviewer: Can you tell me a little bit about your brother, why hes in jail?
Interviewee: Because he had shot somebody, due to self-defense but, they didnt see it as selfdefense . . . theyd seen as him doing a crime and I think that was because of his skin color because
its the whole racial thing and it was just kind of getting to him. So he had like so many people in his
trial that he got it for eight years, so I put $300 each week whenever I make it in his commissary
just to make sure hes good. (Respondent 722, 19 years old, West Indian, gay, female)

Respondents family members did not always know the origin of the shared money. A young man
described how he kept the origin of the money, and sometime even the fact that he was sharing, a secret
from his mother:
Interviewee: I mean my mother she doesnt even know what Im doing.
Interviewer: How much do you share with your mother?
Interviewee: Whatever she needs, Ill ask how much she wants. She says she needs 200 Ill give
her 400; she doesnt ask questions or anything of that nature. Sometimes she doesnt even know
she has the money either I done put it in her purse and just walked out the house.
Interviewer: And how often do you do that?
Interviewee: Pretty often. (Respondent 5016, 20 years old, black, gay, male)

FINDINGS

37

In contrast to respondents who sometimes shared earnings and resources without expecting
anything in return, other youth only shared with others if the exchanges were mutual and reciprocal.
Respondents established mutual exchanges with friends, significant others, roommates, and
coresidents of shelters and other housing services. One transgender woman saw sharing with friends as
a continuation of sharing their experiences:
Yes my friends that do it with me, because my thing is, if you dont, you know if you broke bread
with me Im going to break bread with you, if you starve with me, Im going to starve with you, its
self-explanatory. (Respondent 5260, 20 years old, black, trans female)

Another youth, a transgender female, explicitly stated that she would not share unless the other
person was willing to share as well:
No, Im the type of person, I will share with you, but my thing is I have to feel like youre going to
be willing to share with me. Because I know if I dont have it, and you got it and you wont give it
to me, why should I have it and you want it and give it to you? So I would share but only if you are
the type of person who is going to give me some if you have it. (Respondent 221, 19 years old,
black, heterosexual, trans female)

Collective use of money and resources was often reserved for friends and significant others. One
respondent, a bisexual black male, described how he and his friends contributed money to a common
resource pool when they could afford to:
Interviewee: I know I have a few group of people that are homeless too that I hang out with you
know what Im saying. So we break bread with each other . . . You understand we try and pull it
together for each other. . . . I share with them, I break bread with them plus I have like little
siblings occasionally I got to go see who I have to you know look out for even now. Im not really
saying I have to feed a whole bunch of mouths but you know you share the role.
Interviewer: You share.
Interviewee: Every once in a blue moon which leaves me sometimes Im broke and sometimes it
leaves me so caring that I cant often care for myself.
Interviewer: But you since you are sharing with others, the other young people that you share it
with do they also contribute to the pot? So if you have you know you dont bring in money for a
couple of days and do theywill they contribute money so you can eat, you can all eat. Is that
how it works?
Interviewee: Yes. Sometimes. I mean sometimes they do and sometimes we tend to carry our
own. Because everybody needs a lesson that everybody is not going to be able to support
everybody all the time. You know what Im saying? (Respondent 194, 19 years old, black,
bisexual, male)

FINDINGS

38

What Are the Physical Risks, and How Do Youth

Protect Themselves?
Arguments and Fights
Nearly half (46 percent) of the youth who responded to a question about whether they had experienced
trouble with people in the neighborhood they traded in indicated experiencing trouble. Of these 89
youths, 58 percent had trouble with a client, 28 percent with another person trading sex, 19 percent
with a neighborhood resident, 9 percent with the police, 5 percent with an exploiter, and 4 percent with
a peer facilitator. Although these experiences did not vary significantly by gender or sexual orientation,
there was a tendency that approached significance for Latino and Latina (57 percent) and multiracial
(53 percent) youth to be the most likely to experience trouble. Meanwhile, 40 percent of black youth
reported experiencing such trouble, and whites, at 25 percent, were the least likely to experience it.
Most respondents described the neighborhoods where they traded as supportive and collaborative
communities with everyone looking out for each others safety. Some youth reported facing
competition from others trading sex and tension within neighborhoods, but, by and large, they did not
report experiencing substantial trouble with people in the neighborhoods. One transgender woman
explained how others in the area who traded sex for money and/or material goods initially helped her:
Ive never had any trouble, they actually tried to school me on the game. And because I was real
brand new Im never going to forget. I was brand new I had a pencil skirt on with no tuck . . . my
tuck was just out, no breast, no nothing I was just hard Im not going to lie. I was hard its a break
and Im not going to lie. So they basically taught me a lot so basically once I started gradually
learning my clientele started coming up so that was more money in my pocket. (Respondent 272,
21 years old, black, bisexual, trans female)

Youth reported supporting others as well. One man described how he watched out for other
individuals engaging in survival sex:
Sometimes like when I wanted to like calm down a little bit I would help the girls and the trannies.
Like Ill be in like the backseat or whatever, making sure theyre not getting disrespected or
whatever or Ill be like a little ways away from the car . . . kind of like security and theyll pay me a cut
on what they make. (Respondent 196, 20 years old, black and Puerto Rican, open sexuality, male)

Overall, 56 percent of youth who responded to the question about fights they experienced while
trading reported experiencing at least one verbal or physical fight. For these 101 youths, the fights
included an argument (68 percent), a beating (24 percent), theft (13 percent), rape or sexual assault (10
percent), or a physical fight (7 percent). The likelihood that youth reported having been in a fight did not

FINDINGS

39

vary by gender, sexual orientation, or race. Of these respondents, 69 percent had been in a fight with a
client and 24 percent had been in a fight with another person trading sex. Others reported fights with
exploiters (10 percent), neighborhood residents (9 percent), peer facilitators (2 percent), and the police
(2 percent).
Youth reported having altercations with customers as a result of customers withholding payments,
disagreeing about prices, refusing to wear condoms, and overstepping physical boundaries. The degree
of these altercations covered the full spectrum of violence and ranged from verbal arguments to threats
at gunpoint and rape. One multiracial bisexual man described a violent altercation with a customer:
He walked in. He already was taking off his belt. He was getting his clothes undone. I was like not
ready to get like, get it as fast as that, you know what I mean like hold up, let me see if you have
the money on hand. So, he wasnt trying to hear that, threw me against the wall. I said, get out,
get out now or Ill call the cops. He got mad, he threw one of my vases and just left and I just sat
on the floor like next to the broken vase like what am I getting into? Like some people think
its . . . the money is easy. Its not easy to get because youre going to suffer a loss at the end
sometimes. (Respondent 654, 22 years old, multiracial, bisexual, male)

Another youth, a bisexual male, described a dispute with a client over money. The fight escalated
until he almost contacted law enforcement:
Ive been in one physical fight with this dude . . . I told him 200, and he wrapped 20 on a whole
bunch of ones. And he thought I wasnt going to count the money after I got out of the car, and I
counted the money, I opened it up and I saw it and I said this is one of my 20 dollars. And he was
like well I dont have it, and I picked up the phone and I started calling the police, and I said well
were both going to jail. He grabbed my phone, he threw my phone out the window and after that
I just and you know what, I got out the car and I didnt want to get into an altercation. I mean we
tussled a little bit, but you cant really tussle when you in a car. So I just got out of the car, my
phone was done it was over. (Respondent 262, 19 years old, multiracial, bisexual, male)

Some youth, however, reported not engaging in altercations or fights with clients because of safety
concerns or fears. For example, one respondent described being too afraid to speak out to a client:
Fights about condoms are a big thing, I have one john who fucked me without a condom without
asking I didnt realize that actually happened more than once. . . . I felt really unsafe with him
physically and he was really aggressive and it was bad . . . when I did realize he wasnt wearing a
condom I didnt feel like I was in any position to stop it and thats happened more than
once . . . Ive had clients stiff me and I havent really felt like I was in a position of like talking back
to them because they were aggressive but thats really the extent of it basic boundary or stuff
like that. (Respondent 1342, 20 years old, white, queer, genderqueer)

Violence was also perpetrated by exploiters. Youth reported being raped, beaten, and threatened at
gunpoint by their exploiters. A handful of youth engaged in survival sex also reported having fights with
others who were trading as a result of market competition and stealing of clients.

FINDINGS

40

Physical Protection
Most youth (78 percent) had some way of protecting themselves physically when trading sex. As shown
in figure 6, over one-third of respondents protected themselves with a blade or knife, nearly one in four
used mace, and one in five relied on their fists. Just over a fifth said they had no means of physically
protecting themselves.
There were no differences in methods of physical protection or likelihood of using physical
protection across sexual orientation or race. The only significant gender difference was that
transgender women, cisgender women, and nonbinary transgender individuals were more likely to
carry mace than cisgender men. Only 13 percent of cisgender men carried mace, compared with 38
percent of transgender women, 34 percent of cisgender women, and 25 percent of nonbinary
transgender individuals.
Another trend that approached significance was that cisgender women (15 percent) were half as
likely as transgender women (31 percent), and nonbinary transgender individuals (17 percent) were half
as likely as transgender men (43 percent), to report not using any means of physical protection.
Cisgender men were in the middle; 25 percent reported not using any means of physical protection.
Youth recounted concealing their weapons in creative ways. One female respondent described how
she relied on bobby pins as a makeshift weapon:
I carry like a bobby pin in my hair, I always have a bobby pin inside my hair in the night, because I
can easily just pull off the rubber tip and stab somebody really quick in the eyes. (Respondent
236, 20 years old, Latina, bi-curious, female)

Those who did not carry any form of protection employed other methods to ensure safety, including
getting to know their clients before meeting them and bringing friends along to the trading location. As
one gay white male explained,
III let my friends know the addresses of the places that I go and I try to get to know the clients a
little bit first beforehand. I dont want to be a total stranger to them and them be a stranger to me
and yeah . . . I usually talk to them for a couple of days first. . . . Then normally what we do is go,
and hang out maybe. There is one time I actually went on a walk with one of my clients through
the south part of Central Park and I just like to do that so that I have a better sense of who they
are. I dont want to get into anything dangerous. (Respondent 166, 19 years old, white, gay, male)

Another male youth described depending on his own instinct and social skills to protect himself
when he did not have a weapon:
I usually have something sharp on me but there has been times I stepped in blind like with
nothing but I usually have been okay because I know how to like talk to people, I know how to

FINDINGS

41

read people and if they ever came up to that I would be able to like kind of just avoid it.
(Respondent 29, 16 years old, Latino, gay, male)

Although youth felt a need to carry physical forms of protection, many were concerned about the
repercussions of carrying a weapon and being stopped by the police. As a result, many youth abandoned
their methods of protection. As a transgender woman described,
I dont carry anything with me, especially on the block . . . but sometimes Im scared to simply
because you do have to deal with clients and deal with people but you also have to deal with
cops. And if cops, you give cops any reason to take you to jail, theyre going to. Like so I dont
want to be one that carry, so Im trying to figure how to work that out because it is getting a little
dangerous and maybe Ill just probably get something like pepper spray or something thats not
going to be so. . . . Yeah. (Respondent 374, 21 years old, black, fluid sexuality, trans female)

Another respondent, a gay black male, explicitly identified his fear of being stopped and frisked by
law enforcement as the reason he no longer carried a weapon:
I used to carry a knife, I dont anymore. I just had a pretty big pocket knife so I dont carry that
around anymore because I live in a highly stop-and-frisk area and I dont want to be frisked with
it. So if I had to protect myself I can use my hands, thats about it. (Respondent 472, 19 years old,
black, gay, male)

Many youth told others about their appointments as a form of protection. Forty-two percent of
youth never told someone before meeting a customer, 42 percent always told someone, and 16 percent
sometimes told someone. Of the 155 respondents who told someone, most (70 percent) told a friend or
peer. These youth primarily communicated the meet-up location (64 percent), while others relayed a
meet-up time or when to expect them back (17 percent), the customers physical description (12
percent), or simply that they were meeting a customer (11 percent). Ten percent of youth had the
person they told come with them to see the customers.

FINDINGS

42

FIGURE 6

How Youth Protect Themselves Physically

Knife/blade

36%

Mace

24%

Fists

19%

Homemade weapon

7%

Friend/companion

5%

Gun
Run away
Other

3%
1%
10%

Do not protect myself

22%

Note: Other includes Tasers, whistles, disguise/deception, and God/religion.

Among those who responded to the question about whether someone helped them stay safe while
trading, 119 respondents (47 percent) reported that someone helped them stay safe. Of these, 69
percent were helped by friends or peers. Twenty-four percent turned to another person who trades sex,
8 percent to an exploiter, and 7 percent to a peer facilitator.
Youth took many precautions when trading. In some cases, friends came along but did not
participate in trading. Some friends came along regularly, while others came only when the young
person felt unsure about the situation. One young woman described how she would bring a friend
equipped with mace when engaging in survival sex:
Sometimes Ill take my friend and she will come with me, my best friend, like well go and Ill be
like, hey can my friend come? She doesnt have anywhere to go. And shell be there and shell
have like pepper spray on her or something, it all, it depends. (Respondent 450, 17 years old,
black, bisexual, female)

Friends proximity to the transactions varied. Some waited outside while others were actually
present in the same room, hiding in bathrooms or closets. This Puerto Rican woman described how her
friend would act as security when she traded:
The guy I live with right now hed go with me and tell the person up front: You have to give me the
money up front. You guys do what you have to do and then afterwards were leaving. You know,

FINDINGS

43

so hell literally stand outside the door and I would literally tell him if something is wrong hell
literally just come in and take me. (Respondent 313, 21 years old, Puerto Rican, lesbian, female)

Respondents, such as this young man, also reported paying their friends for serving as security:
The same people that I look after, they do the same. Like theyll be outside standing around
whatever, making sure that Im leaving that room, that Im not bruised, Im good and Ive got the
money. I give them a little cut whatever and thank you for making sure that Im good and stuff.
(Respondent 196, 20 years old, black and Puerto Rican, open sexuality, male)

Although these respondents were paying a small amount of money to their friends to act as
security, neither the young people nor the research team viewed these exchanges as exploitative. In
addition to bringing friends along, youth shared tips and warned each other of clients to avoid.
In other cases, youth screened people independently. This was a common experience for those who
did not have a friend who helped them stay safe. Some respondents did not share their experiences
engaging in survival sex with anyone and therefore had no one to confide in. One young man explained,
I actually need to talk on the phone with you and get comfortable and then meet. And then I dont
even do nothing the first time I meet people, because Im not going to go to jail for this, so I have to
make sure Im all the way comfortable. . . . So usually, well go have lunch or meet at a park or
whatever for our first meeting. (Respondent 202, 20 years old, black and white multiracial, gay, male)

How Do Others Help Youth Find Customers?

Although many peer relationships were exploitative or contained exploitative elements, the vast
majority involved a complex system of mutual support. Many youth described becoming homeless,
without money or familial support. Through friends or acquaintances, they learned how to exchange sex
for money and/or material goods as a way to survive. These friends and acquaintances shared
information on where and how to get clients, what prices to charge, and how to stay safe while trading.
Many youth described having a friend, who was often also engaging in survival sex, come along to
meetings with clients. Some youth discussed placing ads for one another, usually because one youth was
able to place better ads or had frequent access to a computer. Many of the youth interviewed shared
money and resources; sentiments like if I have money, we all have money were expressed frequently.
Sharing their telephone numbers, clients numbers, addresses, meet-up locations, times to check in, and
Internet passwords all served as ways for youth engaged in survival sex to keep each other safe.
Of the 240 respondents not in an exploitative situation, nearly half (47 percent) reported that they
had someone help them find customers; 38 percent reported sometimes having help, and 9 percent
reported always having help. These percentages did not differ by sexual orientation or race, but they did

FINDINGS

44

differ significantly by gender: cisgender women (64 percent) and nonbinary transgender individuals (50
percent) were most likely to have someone providing referrals, while transgender women (29 percent)
and transgender men (33 percent) were the least likely. Cisgender men were in the middle; 42 percent
had help finding customers.
Among youth who had a nonexploitative person helping them finding customers, half met that
person through friends or peers, 18 percent met at a shelter establishment, and 17 percent met while
trading sex. For 5 percent, the person was a family friend. Twenty percent reported meeting the peer
facilitator at parties, online, on the streets, or at school.
Of the 113 youth with a person who helped them find customers, 41 percent had a female peer
facilitator, 35 percent had a male peer facilitator, 9 percent had a transgender peer facilitator, and 14
percent had multiple peer facilitators of different genders. The average age of the people who helped
respondents find customers was 24.
Most respondents who had such assistance considered the person who helped them find customers
important for monetary reasons (38 percent) or because they felt it was safer to meet customers
through someone else (16 percent). Forty percent considered this person a friend or partner. Most got
along well (81 percent) or satisfactorily (9 percent) with the person who helped them find customers;
only 9 percent said they got along poorly.
The level of support and expectations of monetary compensation for referrals varied. In some
cases, youth were referred to customers through friends who were also engaged in survival sex.
Customers might request an additional person to engage in sexual activities or ask the individual to
bring along friends for their colleagues. In other cases, respondents relied on the support of friends only
during their introduction to exchanging sex for money and/or material goods. Friends who were also
engaged in survival sex introduced these youths to their initial customers and showed them how to
begin trading, as this young man explains:
When I first started, there were people who had already been involved in you know the
profession before so they helped me out. Some of them like I have gone to their customers like
its because you know theyre good friends of mine. They would help me like find [street in
Manhattan] you know, show me how to do everything, they kind of show you the ropes. Other
than that I mean like yeah its just like trading customers kind of and like you know experience.
(Respondent 182, 19 years old, Italian and Greek, gay, male)

One female respondent reported sharing her earnings with a peer facilitator who taught her how to
exchange sex for money and/or material goods. She did not share a specific percentage of her earnings
at the end of each day. Rather, she shared her earnings when her peer facilitator did not have money:

FINDINGS

45

Interviewee: I think what Ive experienced was just them teaching how to do it, and how to be
mature about it. Because it was just like you have to do this, and then if not, you are going to end
up in the street.
Interviewer: And who was that?
Interviewee: The one that taught me.
Interviewer: Okay. But was she taking any of your money?
Interviewee: Actually when she was, when she didnt have stacks, I was paying for her food,
whatever she wanted taxi, hotels, and pretty much. (Respondent 5230, 19 years old, Latina
bisexual, intersex woman)

Not all friends who helped youth get customers were engaged in survival sex. Some friends simply
pointed out customers but were not trading themselves. In some cases, this exchange of information
was seen as an act of kindness, with no monetary compensation expected.
Experiences with people who helped the youth find customers varied. Some youth, such as this
young lesbian woman, reported positive experiences with the people who helped them find customers
and viewed them as business partners.
We would play video games go out chill, eat, do stuff bang chicks together and do projects . . . we call
it projects because its a project to us. (Respondent 273, 20 years old, other race, lesbian, female)

Some respondents also demonstrated immense gratitude toward the people who helped them find
customers. This woman explained:
Shes more like my big sister . . . so she already knew what I was going through and because she
went through something similar when she was on my age it was very understandable. So one of the
reasons why she did put me onto it and helped me get clients in a way before I started get on my
own because she understood. (Respondent 669, 17 years old, black multiracial, bisexual, female)

Youth who worked with peer facilitators were unclear as to how many other people the person was
assisting. However, in the few cases where they did know other individuals working with the facilitator,
86 percent reported getting along well with those individuals.

How Many Youth Are Involved in Exploitative Situations?

In this section, we discuss how many youth had been involved in exploitative situations (i.e., situations
involving force, fraud, and coercion, typically through an exploiter) and what these situations entailed.
According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, anyone under the age of 18 who engages in a
commercial sex act is considered a victim of sex trafficking. However, not all the youth we interviewed
were engaged in commercial sex under an exploitative third party, and only 15 percent (n = 43) of the
youth had experienced an exploitative trading situation at some point during their involvement.

FINDINGS

46

It is necessary to describe the youths experiences in a nuanced way that accounts for their
experiences both in survival sex and in third-party exploiter situations, as well as their access to
services and resources based on whether or not they had an exploiter. As a result, Urban researchers
used a strict, prespecified set of guidelines to determine, based on how youth described their own
experiences, whether youths involvement in the commercial sex market was exploitative. The
guidelines were based on the existence of force, fraud, and coercion and also took into account the
content and context of youths relationships with different kinds of market facilitators. In coding the
interviews for exploitative situations, we looked for clear instances of force, fraud, and coercion where a
third-party exploiter was involved. The majority of youth who reported being in exploitative situations
were no longer in those situations at the time of their interviews.
Of the youth who had experienced an exploitative trading situation, most (82 percent) were
involved with one exploiter. Seventy-eight percent were in the exploitative situation for a year or more,
22 percent were in the situation for several months, and just under one in ten were still involved with
18

the exploiter. Although there were no differences by sexual orientation or race in youths likelihood of
experiencing exploitation, there was a highly significant gender difference.
Cisgender women had the highest percentage of exploitation (34 percent), compared with
transgender women (10 percent), nonbinary transgender individuals (8 percent), and cisgender men (4
percent). These findings are similar to what previous studies have discovered: New York City studies
have generally found few instances of recruitment of young men and transgender youth by an exploiter
(Bigelsen and Vuotto 2013; Curtis et al. 2008; Gwadz et al. 2009; Rees 2010). That said, there were
young men and young trans women who had been recruited by exploiters; further research is needed to
understand these dynamics. Overall, four out of five exploited individuals (81 percent) were female; one
such young woman reported,
I was supposed to be going to meet up with a guy from Backpage and he told me that he wanted
to manage me and it was in the Bronx so I said, Okay, fine, you know being naive. So I went and I
met up with him, and . . . all I hear is materialistic things, he drove a BMW at the time, he was
really popular, you know . . . he was also Hispanic like me and so I trusted him, I know it sounds a
little off to trust somebody because of his ethnicity but its just reminding me of home. So I felt
like I was comfortable with doing that so he got me in the car and took me to a location, he said
youre going to work here and . . . it was a drug building . . . he called it you know a trap house. And
so he took me there and he was just like drop everything and I mean like basically like have sex
with me right now; and we did use protection but he was just, he told me that he was breaking me
in and so I didnt understand what that meant, still naive, okay Im all like, Money, yay, and hes
like, Oh now youre my Bitch, like basically Im his property. And I dont know what was wrong
with me maybe because I was missing my mom and I didnt have the support that I wanted or
needed from my dad and at first I was sad, I was sad through the whole thing then it was just like I
thought I was starting to fall in love with him.

FINDINGS

47

I was what they call a bottom, which makes a lot of money. A bottom is like the main girl, the
girl who brings in the most money and I mean quotas and I was meeting my quota, it was $4,000.
It went from being $150 every half hour to being $1,000 every night to being $4,000 every day.
So the money came to me and I wasnt paying attention to it. Like okay your focus is to be here
for your brother and then youre scared when you get enough, get that much money to disappear
with it because of the consequences or repercussions but youre like, okay well the money still
going to come. (Respondent 470, 20 years old, multiracial, pansexual, female)

How Youth Met Exploiters

Of the 43 youths in an exploitative situation, 34 percent met their exploiter through a friend or peer, 27
percent on the street, 20 percent through a family member, and 16 percent in their neighborhood or at
service provider facilities.
Youth frequently met their exploiters while they were homeless and living on the streets. One
youth met an exploiter after running away from a residential treatment program and being approached
at night on the street:
Interviewee: Honestly okay that night I had been away from [location in New York State]. I used
to live in [residential treatment program]. I had run away from there so I had nowhere to go and I
happen to be roaming around the street because one of my friends stood me up. So walking in
the street cold as hell and I see its a school night and I see a little boy outside and in my mind Im
like its a school night what are you doing outside?
Interviewer: How little or how old?
Interviewee: At least 9, 10.
Interviewer: Oh yeah.
Interviewee: So Im looking at you, its 12:00 in the morning what are you doing outside. So I
started I had this small boy fight with him a little whatever then told the boy to ask his father to
come outside. So as I was talking to the father I realized that he was a pimp and he was all about
money and in my mind I needed money, I said why not.
Interviewer: And how did he tell you that he is?
Interviewee: Actually he came out flat out to me and said he was a pimp and I was just like, oh
okay thats nice, and then in the back of my head what I see is thousands. (Respondent 5024, 18
years old, Latino, lesbian, gender nonconforming)

Twenty percent of the youth met their exploiters through family members, including several whose
family members served as the actual exploiters. One lesbian woman described how her mother served
as her exploiter when she was only 9 years old:
Interviewee: My mother was basically my pimp, I started very young when I was in Trinidad, I lost
my virginity when I was 9 to a guy who basically paid my mom to have sex with me. And it was a
lot of money and she liked that idea of it. I didnt but it made my mom happy, so I did what I did
whatever it took but you know I was just you know that.
Interviewer: Did you ever get any of the money that your mother got, did it ever go to clothes or
anything for you?

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48

Interviewee: I mean after that she did buy some things when I got older but usually those things
would go for her benefits because thats what she wanted, she wanted that luxury and using me
to get that, that was her way, but.
Interviewer: And when you started back up again, was it by yourself?
Interviewee: It was by myself. (Respondent 5281, 20 years old, black and Dutch, lesbian, female)

Another respondent, a young woman, shared a similar story of being exploited by her mother:
Yeah usually like because my mother was a crack whore so usually she would like . . . I didnt
know, because she would like dress me up, put makeup on me and she would like, she started
making me look very pretty and she would just have these guys come in and I, she would be
trading stuff, I didnt even know them or what it was and I always just sat there, I dont know
every time I usually have a blackout. I dont know why. And when I wake up, Im in my room, I
have no clothes on, Im lying in my bed, so Im like, oh my gosh, what just happened? (Respondent
191, 21 years old, black, heterosexual, female)

One young woman explained how she met her exploiter after her sister was initially involved with
him after leaving the child welfare system.
My sister met him, because she was a foster child too and they sent her to some juvenile thing.
And when she got out her friends helped her and she met him through a friend. It was one of
those. Met through a friend and she got hooked on him. She thought they were going to be lovers
and it turns out he wanted. . . . There was just that. (Respondent 726, 19 years old, Afro-Latina,
bisexual, female)

Nature of Exploitative Situations and Relationships with Exploiters

Thirty-four percent of youth in exploitative situations were required to give all their earnings to their
exploiter, 24 percent gave their exploiter most of their earnings, and 21 percent split their money with
their exploiter. Thirteen percent of respondents received most of their earnings, and 8 percent received
all of their earnings.
While the majority of youth did receive some percentage of the money they earned, youth who
received none or very little of the money they earned formed the largest proportion of respondents
who had been in exploitative situations. As a gay Afro-Latino man explained, he could make as much as
$1,500 in a week but would ultimately receive very little of it because of his exploiter:
Interviewer: Yeah, so when you were like younger, like maybe 13 to 15 or something, like how
much do you think you were making in a week?
Interviewee: Oh my goodness like $1,000, $1,500. . . . But people were taking it from me. Like my
friend he used to . . . I was dating him so, while I was working them [the customers], he was
working me.
Interviewer: Can I ask how old he was?
Interviewee: He was 17.

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Interviewer: Is this the guy who was setting up the appointments?

Interviewee: Yeah. . . . And when I turned 17 I started dating a new guy, and it was almost the
same situation.
Interviewer: When he was living off of you, or like actually physically taking your money?
Interviewee: Well he was like basically pimping me, because even though he did help me out and
helping meet a lot of different types of people. He changed the game for me though, I have to
admit. (Respondent 1095, 21 years old, Afro-Latino, gay, male)

Another youth, a transgender woman, revealed that she kept only 20 percent of her earnings and
gave the other 80 percent to her exploiters in return for drugs and necessities:
Interviewer: And about how much would you share with them?
Interviewee: If I had somebody I was working for I would give them all my money, but like the
first couple of times going to pull and then coming back then I would not give them all the money
right up. I would give them probably like if I had a $60 day then I would give them 40.
Interviewer: So you would give them basically, like 80 percent of what you made?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Okay, and what did this person provide for you?
Interviewee: Supports my drug habit, shelter, clothes, food. (Respondent 5286, 20 years old,
black, gay, trans female)

For one youth, having an exploiter meant she could not always make her own decisions regarding
when or how frequently to work:
Interviewee: I worked every night, maybe I will take the weekend off, you know sometimes, but I
mean . . .
Interviewer: Could you, could you not work if didnt want to or?
Interviewee: If I wanted to, yes, but that is not always the case, because most pimps they do force
females to work. You know, they beat them, they threaten them, or they say they have no other
options. Where are you going to go? They bring down you know, their hope and especially if you
are young, thats why the young are vulnerable, because they are quick to hope, so they prey on
young girls. (Respondent 5280, 19 years old, black, free sexuality, female)

Another youth echoed similar sentiments regarding the limits her exploiter placed on her ability to
make decisions. This young woman explained that her exploiter did not let her come and go from his
apartment until he had built up trust:
Interviewee: He had one apartment, which had four bedrooms.
Interviewer: So you guys were doubling or tripling up each room and were you kind of in shifts
where some will be working and some will be sleeping and that sort of thing?
Interviewee: I mean it was kind of shifts, but for the most part you know like there was there a
period when I couldnt leave and people would just come and visit me, so then you have your own
room for that but once youre allowed to leave and do different things, you kind of leave and get
that time to sleep.
Interviewer: So when you werent allowed to leave, is that in the beginning when he was kind of
showing you what to do and things of that sort, try to build it like get your trust in, things like that?
Interviewee: Yeah I dont know if he was building a trust or building a fear, you know. (Respondent
470, 20 years old, multiracial, pansexual, female)

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50

Of the 43 respondents in an exploitative situation, 24 were asked about travels with their exploiter.
Of these 24 youth, over a third (37 percent) said they had traveled with their exploitermost commonly
in the tristate area. One black woman explained how she disliked traveling in New York State more than
other states because of the dependency that her exploiter fostered:
I will have to say the worst is New York. Because New York is very real, your eyes are opened
quickly like I dont know but the other states they are okay, they are slow and then you come to
New York and everything is fast. And then its like oh you know and I dont know but here, its
kind of hard not to find like other options and not to be isolated because everything is always
around you. But what they are trying to do is keep you isolated, so they keep you in a hotel room,
you cant go outside, youre just in there, so that you can be dependent on them, so that you
wont leave. But all the other states like down south, is very quiet, is very open so, you are very
isolated, but then, yeah you are in New York, it is not, it was very open. (Respondent 5280, 19
years old, black, free sexuality, female)

Another respondent described going on cruises with her exploiter and traveling as far as Florida:
Interviewee: I went to Orlando City that was the furthest I went.
Interviewer: And were you working there or?
Interviewee: It was in hotels and getting them to come to the hotels.
Interviewee: And did he?
Interviewee: Sometimes we went on cruises.
Interviewer: Those booze cruises kind of thing like out on the Hudson or cruises like on the
Caribbean?
Interviewee: No, like the booze, like the booze cruises
Interviewer: And did he ever get customers for you or were you the one that had to get them?
Interviewee: I would get them.
Interviewer: You would get them, he just wanted the money?
Interviewee: Yeah. (Respondent 706, 19 years old, black, bisexual, female)

Many youth who had been involved in exploitative situations reported receiving shelter (73
percent), food (49 percent), and clothing (42 percent) from their exploiter; only 12 percent said they
received protection. One youth received not only shelter, but also more than the basic necessities:
Oh yeah, oh yeah he made sure we ate, he made sure our hair was done he made sure we were in
the house you know, I had my own apartment at one time with him. (Respondent 606, 20 years
old, Latina, bisexual, female)

Others Working for Exploiters

Most exploiters (88 percent) had other youth working for them, at least some of whom identified as
LGBTQ; respondents reported that these youth were demographically similar to themselves in age and
racial breakdowns.

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One woman described how her exploiter recruited other young women at the homeless shelter
where she stayed:
Interviewee: Yeah, he did, and mostly young girls they look young but theyre old, he brought
them to the [homeless shelter] to pick out different females, who like one of the females.
Interviewer: So he would, so he kind of was recruiting within [the homeless shelter] and he
brought the girls who were already working for him to help him recruit?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: So how many girls was he able to recruit in [homeless shelter]?
Interviewee: At least five, one of them was. . . . She was like she was young, she was only 16. He
actually sold her to a guy and the guy killed her. And then he told us that she committed suicide
but we know he was lying. Because she was tired and she like two years she came and she went
away and then he brought her back though, and then the next day we didnt see her and we knew
whats up so . . . (Respondent 5029, 20 years old, black, bisexual, female)

Another young woman explained that after she ran away from her family because of issues at home,
she met her exploiter through someone she considered a friend. She was under the impression that this
friend was also trading for the exploiter, but it turned out that she was just recruiting other girls for him:
Interviewee: I had a lot of issues with my family and we were almost estranged so I had been like
youth shelters, and staying with friends and everything and thats kind of how my the person I
knew that introduced me to him kind of knew my situation.
Interviewer: Where you at all involved in any ACS or anything like that at time?
Interviewee: No because for the most part like our issues I never want [to] like cause my family
harm because Ive like younger siblings. . . . And its unfortunate because I found out that she [my
friend] wasnt really working for him she was more like recruiting for him.
Interviewer: Wow so was she working for herself or not even trading sex?
Interviewee: She was someone I was going to school with and obviously it somebody like she
knew and everything.
Interviewer: From the neighborhood or . . . ?
Interviewee: Yeah or something like that and so he obviously like kind of paid her to kind of get
girls and everything but she made it seem like it was just like a simple situation and that he was
more like a john. So when you got with him and everything and hes like well, this how its going to
go, and it got really scary from there and you dont see her anymore. (Respondent 470, 20 years
old, multiracial, pansexual, female)

Another respondent, a lesbian woman, explained how her exploiter had approximately 50 other
women working for him, including one young woman she had recruited herself:
Interviewee: He had his own business first of all like it wasnt even, like I mean a legitimate
business like a New York City Governmentstamped business of his own, and the girls, it was a
whole bunch of us and we never used our real names. He knew my real name only because of the
situation that he had put me in, but so many girls, beautiful girls.
Interviewer: Like would you say like 5, 10?
Interviewee: Try 30, 50 or more. No it was a lot us.
Interviewer: And did you know any of them?
Interviewee: I recruited one girl and I feel so horrible about it, like but yeah I only knew one girl
personally. I got to know them personally, I got to know their numbers just because I was a

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52

bottom. There was two of us, it was only two bottoms out of all those girls, because they had
been with him long, but they were like, he just wasnt sure about them, he knew there was still
fear in my heart, so he knew that he could trust me because I wouldnt do nothing to get him
upset. (Respondent 642, 20 years old, Latina, lesbian, female)

This woman said that the other youth who were controlled by the same exploiter were also LGBTQ.
But similarly to the previous respondent, she did not know the other youth well because of the number
of individuals he controlled:
Interviewee: Two of them were transsexual, two of them were lesbians, other ones were bisexual
and gays, but it was like 20 or 30 of us.
Interviewer: Okay that were working for him? And did you know all of them?
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: But how did you know that there were so many people working for him?
Interviewee: Because when it was time for us to work, he would do an in call or an out call, thats
what I guess it was called, and hell have everybody in a room and for the guy to pick all of us have
to line up and if he likes what he sees then we have to do it.
Interviewer: And where would this be happening at?
Interviewee: In the house.
Interviewer: In his house?
Interviewee: Yeah it was a homestead. You know some girls stayed there, some of them didnt.
(Respondent 681, 19 years old, black, lesbian, female)

Leaving Their Exploiters

The majority of youth who were an exploitative situation at some point were no longer in that situation
at the time of the interview. Those respondents spoke about the difficulty of leaving their exploiters,
which often took several attempts. One young woman discussed how she went back to her exploiter
after being arrested on several occasions, starting at the age of 14:
Interviewee: My pimpI met him when I was 12. I was out there and I went to a party one night.
And it was like underground strip club party. So you know there, you know you dance. But most
of the time you go to the back and you do like a VIP.
Interviewer: And how old were you when this . . . ?
Interviewee: I was 12. And I met him and just like nobody at that point in time cared or anything
about me so it was like he was there . . . I mean five years, we were really close, but hes kind of
like if I leave, see we have this episode where Ill leave him and hell find me and snatch me up and
take me and you know hell be like why do you keep trying to leave me, because like Im trying to
change but . . . hes not a bad guy.
Interviewer: Were you living with him at these points?
Interviewee: Yeah, I lived with him.
Interviewer: For how long were you living with him, once you first met him?
Interviewee: When I first met him I stayed with him for two years straight then I got arrested
then I came home I stayed with him again until I got arrested again then I came home got
arrested again.

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53

Interviewer: And you say came home you mean to him?

Interviewee: Yeah. . . . Like you know home.
Interviewer: And when was the first time you were arrested?
Interviewee: When I was 14. (Respondent 450, 17 years old, black, bisexual, female)

Another transgender male explained that being under an exploiters control caused him to
ultimately leave the situation; however, he remained in contact with his exploiter after leaving:
Interviewee: It was a struggle because he turned violent; he turned violent more towards the end
and thats when I left. . . . Because he was beating on the other girls . . . he wasnt hitting me
because Im more of a structured person, and I wouldnt let him tell me what he thought I was
going to do or anything. Because I had to grow up early, so Ive already had that kind of structure,
so he knew he wasnt going to play the game he was playing with them on me. He would take
their money and I seen it, and I seen how he would beat them, hell never put his hands on me, I
think I would have never let it get that far.
Interviewer: And then how did you leave that situation or why did you leave that situation?
Interviewee: I left. I just packed up and left. He wasnt home, I took my stuff, I left and I called him,
when I got to the . . .
Interviewer: You were living there permanently for that year?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: And you just left and did he ever try to get a hold of you, did you ever contact with
him again or that was it?
Interviewee: I called him that night and I spoke to him like three weeks after that, like we spoke
on and off and I would call him like yeah, Im okay. And hell be like do you have money or
whatever, and he would make sure I was okay but I didnt go back because I knew the kind of
attitude I have was going to lead us to get violent and I didnt want it to go that far. (Respondent
446, 19 years old, multiracial, bisexual, trans male)

What Do Youths Networks Look Like?

Almost all respondents (94 percent) knew other young people between the ages of 13 and 21 who
engaged in survival sex in New York City. The size of their networks ranged from 0 to over 400;
respondents indicated knowing a median of 9 to 10 other youth who exchanged sex for money and/or
material goods. They reported that approximately 30 percent of these contacts were cisgender male, 22
percent were cisgender female, 10 percent were transgender male, 13 percent were transgender
female, 20 percent were transgender unspecified, and 5 percent were an unspecified gender.
As shown in figure 7, the large majority of respondents networks of other young people engaged in
survival sex were made up entirely (62 percent) or mostly (20 percent) of youth who identified as
LGBTQ. Seventy-one percent of respondents reported that their networks included black individuals,
67 percent that their networks included Latino or Latina individuals, and 22 percent that their networks
included white individuals. Youth also said that multiracial (8 percent), Asian/Pacific Islander (4

FINDINGS

54

percent), and Native American/Alaskan Native (2 percent) individuals were part of their networks. Most
respondents (58 percent) saw the individuals in their networks frequently, 18 percent saw them
occasionally, and 25 percent saw them rarely.
FIGURE 7

Share of Network Identified as LGBTQ by Respondents

None, 4%
Some, 8%

All, 62%

Half, 6%

Most, 20%

Some youth who no longer engaged in survival sex expressed concerns about associating with
individuals who still did. As one young woman explained: Im not going to lie. Ever since I got out of this
situation, I try to stay away from people that have that issue because I dont want to be wound up back
in the situation for helping somebody else (Respondent 483, 20 years old, black, lesbian, female).
Another respondent shared his sentiments by explaining how his new focus on school did not mix well
with others who still trade sex (Respondent 434, 21 years old, black, bisexual, male).
Youth also described trying to mentor or help younger people who trade by encouraging them to
leave the trade or helping them decrease risk and stay safe while trading. One man described the
difficulty of trying to protect a 15-year-old from engaging in survival sex:
Im like, wow, like youre 15, what are doing out here? I cant take this because shes bothering me
very much, so it got to the point where I had to constantly watch her. And, like, I would scream at
her and like it got really, really bad. Because Im like, listen, I have little sisters, I have nieces and
nephews, but I cant physically put in my mind about a female being out here, okay? A little guy, a
feminine boy, whatever like that, I can slightly deal with it because its in [neighborhood in
Manhattan], whatever. But a girl? Women go missing all the time. Women get raped and theres
no defense. Youre out here in these clothes and you expect me as a guy not to like, you know
what Im saying, be overprotective and stuff like that. (Respondent 196, 20 years old, black and
Puerto Rican, open sexuality, male)

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55

Other respondents expressed similar sentiments and said that they saw others face situations that
were frequently violent and exploitative at the hands of clients as well as exploiters.
Youth in the shelter system or heavily involved with service providers reported knowing others at
the shelters and drop-in centers who traded, and certain respondents who traded on the strolls
reported regular interactions with other youth on the strolls.

What Are Youths Perceptions of Engaging in

Survival Sex?
Positive Perceptions of Engaging in Survival Sex
More than 8 in 10 youth (82 percent) said there were positive things about engaging in survival sex
with most of these 225 respondents citing income (68 percent) or the fact that trading sex helped fulfill
their basic needs for food and shelter (25 percent). Eleven percent of respondents reported that
exchanging sex for money and/or material goods helped foster a sense of community, and 12 percent
reported that they enjoyed the sex act itself.
Respondents most frequently said that the ability to get money to survive was a positive aspect of
engaging in survival sex. As one bisexual man explained,
Theres only two positive things that I found, the fact that it helps you survive and the second
thing is that I felt that it made me stronger because its like Im able to go through these tough
situations while being in the streets and able to live with it throughout my whole life, but it shows
how much I am willing to determine to keep living and surviving and not let death take a hold of
me. (Respondent 5094, 21 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

Many thought of their participation in trading sex as a character-building experience and

considered trading their best choice given their limited options. As one bisexual female expressed,
Its not as bad as sleeping under the bridge, its not as bad as going without food, its not as bad as
walking around slanging [selling cocaine or other narcotics]. Its not as bad as being that person
without, period. (Respondent 635, 19 years old, Spanish and black, bisexual, female)

Another youth, a gay male, expressed similar sentiments:

There are many positive things for trading something of value. You can trade sex for the life of
your kids, you can trade sex to keep your apartment, you can trade sex to feed yourself, you may
be on the verge of losing an arm and you might not have any money to pay the doctors, you know,

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56

to pay any way and that can be a last resort and it can get you far. You can, some people think
that sex trade is the worst thing to do cause youre selling yourself, who people believe God gave
you but its like when it boils down to it, if you have no food in your stomach, if you have no
transportation, but you have a man in your face willing to give you money for a half hour. You put
your pride to the side, you throw everything out the window and you forget who you are and you
forget what youre doing and you learn to be someone else. You have to teach yourself these
things. (Respondent 1, 19 years old, Latino, gay, male)

Youth also reported feeling a sense of accomplishment since trading allowed them to meet basic
needs and they did not have to rely on others to have those needs met. They were able to take care of
themselves with the limited options afforded to them, as this lesbian female was able to do:
Even though its not like a job on the books, it still kind of feels good to like be able to say I made my
own money. I have money. Or I did this. And I did it by myself even though its not like not approved
by a lot of people. Or its not basically legal, and all this other stuff. It still feels good to like. . . . Yeah
I have money. I made money. (Respondent 1011, 18 years old, Latina, lesbian, female)

Negative Perceptions of Engaging in Survival Sex

The things youth in the study by Curtis and colleagues (2008) most disliked about involvement in the
sex trade included sex (26.1 percent), everything (15.7 percent), customers (13.7 percent), and being
homeless (10 percent). Danger and feeling degraded were reported to be among the top downsides of
trading sex in other studies (Gwadz et al. 2009). In this study, the large majority of youth9 in 10said
that there were things they disliked about engaging in survival sex.
As shown in figure 8, most of these 250 respondents disliked how trading made them feel (31
percent) or specifically stated that it made them feel dirty (7 percent). Others said they disliked being
with strangers or the clients themselves (17 percent), and/or dangerous or unsafe conditions (12
percent). Eighteen percent said that they disliked everything about trading sex.
Many youth who reported feeling dirty after engaging in survival sex used the word degrading to
describe the experience. They also struggled with a great sense of stigma that came with engaging in
survival sex and reported feeling judged and alone. One youth described the difficulty of social stigma:
I mean the violence as a whole whether its coming from a john or anyone else. The ostracism
from your peers from your family and society at large. And fucking STIs. Yeah I mean the high
volume of like sex partners can be something tricky to navigate but thats something thats really
miniscule in comparison. Really a lot of it is the social stigma that I find really difficult. I think
thats primarily it actually. (Respondent 1342, 20 years old, white, queer, genderqueer)

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Other youth reported feeling frustrated that they had lost the intimacy that comes with sex. Many
respondents, such as the young man below, talked about the safety concerns and health risks they had
to confront daily:
I mean I like sex. I like money but I dont like to have sex for money because it just kind of
cheapens the whole experience. Like with sex, Im more intimate and I like to get into it but when
were on the clock, Im not that person so it kind of makes me a bit stale . . . if you will.
(Respondent 349, 20 years old, black, gay, male)

Respondents also disliked having to work with clients with poor hygiene or people they were not
attracted to or who were verbally disrespectful to them. As one young man expressed,
How the way people treat you, how degrading it is, emotionally disturbing it is. . . . They talk
down, they get physical, they hit you and you got to learn to defend yourself. (Respondent 350,
19 years old, white, gay, male)

The greatest frustration reported by youth was the reality of knowing they had no choice but to
exchange sex for money and/or material goods to survive. Youth, such as the bisexual man below, had
strong opinions about this reality and talked at length about how limited employment opportunities and
familial support had forced them into sex work.
It makes me feel like less of a person . . . because, its I was raised to treat my body as a temple and
I dont do that anymore . . . Now I just, its just an object of getting money it is, its not something I
would, like I said its not something I would suggest somebody to do. Its not something I
encourage people to do. But you have to do what you must do to survive. (Respondent 491, 19
years old, West Indian, bisexual, male)

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FIGURE 8

What Youth Dislike about Trading Sex

How it makes me feel

31%

Everything

18%

Strangers/clients themselves

17%

Dangerous or unsafe

12%

Having to do sexual acts

8%

I feel dirty

7%

Stigma

6%

Having no other option

6%

Having sex against sexual preference

Other

4%
9%

Notes: N = 250 respondents (91 percent of sample) who disliked trading sex. Other includes demands of the job, fear of police,
clients contraception preference, and dependence on fast money.

Things I dislikethere are a lot of things. First theres the safety issue; you dont know whats
going on, you dont know where you like you dont basically have control over the situation in a
way, so you never know if this person might physically abuse you or because of the riskiness you
never know if he might chop you up and stuff, like you have things going on in your head. Second
thing is the fear of not getting paid. So its like you feel like you did this and getting nothing out of
it. . . . Theres also the publicity, because I always feel like everybody is looking at me or like I feel
like something is going to happen and also just to have fear that something might happen,
because theres such a lot of things that its like that I ended up disliking because it lowers down
my self-esteem . . . because its like I had to go this far just to get money and survive. It also like
brings out your fear because you never know whats going to happen. Theres also the
nervousness about what will happen if your friends find out, how they will look at you or stuff like
that. . . . its like a whole a lot of emotional aspect to it and thats because its like its a memory
thats scarred in to your life and its hard to cope with it especially how like you have to keep
things away from friends or family, and its like its hard and even if you open up to some people,
its like you dont know how they are going to react and its something you always want to
release, so its really hard. (Respondent 5094, 21 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

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59

Does Engaging in Survival Sex Define Who Youth Are?

Fifteen percent of the youth reported feeling defined by their engagement in survival sex. For some of
these youth, participation in the commercial sex market was a form of empowerment. As the bi-curious
Latina woman below indicated, exchanging sex for money and/or material goods allowed her to have a
sense of control over something in her life. The agency she derived from trading gave her strength:
I feel as though [survival sex] defines who I am or how I deal with people. I also feel as though
sometimes I use it as an excuse . . . to feel in control sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I got a lot of
ego. And certain days Ill go out there just out of spite . . . just because I can do it. I feel in control.
(Respondent 236, 20 years old, Latina, bi-curious, female)

Many respondents, however, saw survival sex as an occupation that they were driven into and not
something they wished to identify with because of societal stigma. A bisexual woman explained,
It doesnt define who I am, because I am a woman first, but it helps me to live on the basics. Thats
just like somebody telling you what you should and should not do, and you know what they are
saying is right but they are not with you, holding your hand, walking in your shoes. You know,
they are not crossing that old lady across the street, yeah shes got two feet, she can walk, shes
not even walking with a cane. But all these cars, its terrifying. Why not take your hand and grab
hers and walk across the street instead of telling her you can go now. Yeah she know, shes going
to walk, but whos going to help? A lot of people are talking but nobodys helping, thats the
problem today. Why everybody out here doing what they need to do for themselves regardless
whether its safe or not. (Respondent 635, 19 years old, Spanish and black, bisexual, female)

Many voiced concerns about being judged for their engagement in survival sex and wished for more
understanding and less judgment from others. As one bisexual Latino man expressed,
Who I am, is a person, my actions shape how I look at the world or how I still keep living in this
world. It shapes how I live, but it doesnt define who I am. What defines who I am is basically how
I see through things and how I do things and how I do whatever it takes to survive because I
know if people were placed in the same situation, especially if they havent eaten for like about
week or so and they had no place to live and their clothes are smelling like piss. They will have no
choice. To some its like no choice, but to do its either that or live in a life where your clothes are
dirty every day, people are looking at you with a weird look, youre hungry, you are about to die
its like thats all you have. (Respondent 5094, 21 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

Other youth, such as this black man, echoed similar sentiments, advocating against reducing people
to their occupations.
Would you define a person that works as an exterminator and stuff like that or that cleans shit up
all day? Can you define him? Hes just trying to make money. At the end of the day its a job.
(Respondent 456, 19 years old, black, heterosexual, male)

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Desire to Stop Engaging in Survival Sex

Almost all youth wanted to stop trading sex: three-quarters of respondents wanted to stop at some
point (67 percent) or immediately (5 percent), while another 21 percent said they had already recently
stopped. As one youth stated, I would like to stop completely. Hopefully I get a job soon, get back on my
feet (Respondent 200, 18 years old, Latino, heterosexual, male). Only 7 percent of respondents said
that they had no desire to stop trading. Past studies revealed similar findings: the vast majority (86.8
percent) of youth, particularly transgender youth (94.7 percent) interviewed by Curtis and colleagues
(2008) reported that they would leave the sex trade if provided the opportunity.
In past studies, some transgender youth reported that limited social and economic options led them
back to sex work in spite of their desires or attempts to stop trading sex to avoid risks of HIV, violence,
or jail time, or to fulfill personal goals for their future (Rees 2010). Almost half of young men in the sex
trade interviewed in Western Canada reported that they remained in the trade because they felt they
had no choice and that there were no other options or safety net available to them. They identified the
need for a better job and for residential support services for young men in the sex trade (McIntyre
2005, 2006, 2008a, 2008b).
While the majority of youth reported wanting to stop engaging in survival sex and needing support
to leave, others talked about their internal dilemma with leaving the commercial sex traderecognizing
that they needed to exchange sex for money and/or drugs to survive, but wishing they could stop. One
youth, a heterosexual female, explained just how difficult it was for her to stay away from trading sex:
I actually stopped for a while I was employed and then I got laid off and its like when you go
fromI call it pulling when you go from pulling to working and you dont really want to get back
into the workforce just yet, but you know you need the money . . . I would say the only hard part
about being in the workforce is the fact that, you dont get to see your money as readily as you do
when you are pulling. (Respondent 5190, 20 years old, multiracial, heterosexual, female)

Youth also cited their limited skill-sets and opportunities as hindering their ability to stop engaging
in survival sex. A young Latino man explained,
Yeah, there will be a day like Ive got a job like everybody else and shit but like for now is like this
is all I know how to do. As a 16-year-old . . . its not a good thing to do at the time but this is all I
know. (Respondent 29, 16 years old, Latino, gay, male)

Not all youth saw exchanging sex for money and/or material goods as a long-term experience. Some
youth thought they would stop trading in the near future and viewed their participation in the
commercial sex market as transitional. As this transgender male who identified as lesbian said,

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I wont be doing this forever, but in the meantime until I can get to that point where I see the light
and I can actually go from there, its just for a short period of time. (Respondent 1029, 21 years
old, multiracial, lesbian, trans male)

Another respondent, a bisexual man, indicated that he was waiting for the right weather conditions
to leave the trade:
Im retiring from it, I cant do this like I have dignity, Im not going just trade myself for something
else but it beats sleeping in trains sleeping in parks, and plus its the winter and its cold.
(Respondent 637, 19 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

Others, such as this Latino man, recognized that even if they stopped, they may have to engage in
survival sex again in the future:
I really had stopped because ever since I started working on myself I started getting away from it
because its something that I dont want to do, its something that I did because at the time I had
nothing but now that Im in a shelter I have at least an off-the-books job. At least Im able to help
myself like at least Im able to work on myself and work towards something so I could get out of
that situation, but I know that if I ever get back into this situation, I will be tempted to go back
when I dont have nothing. But now that I have at least something, at least a bed to stay and
money I use currently even though its not a lot, I know that if I end up losing all that I might
eventually go back to it, but its not unless I have something, I know that Im able to stay away
from it because Im able to work on myself, and I also want to live a life, a life that . . . I dont know
how to explain its like I want to live a decent life and not go back to that life because it affects
me, like emotionally and mentally and I dont want to live depressed all the time. I dont want to
be physically scared. (Respondent 5094, 21 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

Many of the youth who voiced a desire to stop trading also expressed a need for support:
I would love to [not] have . . . to worry about like you know an appointment, if it goes wrong then I
cant eat or something like, to know that Im doing something Ive got to consistently turn
out. . . . I feel like I just need guidance like you know if somebody could like sit with me and show
me how to do an application. Because I feel like I have skills and stuff but I just get a lot of anxiety,
I get very self-conscious when it gets to like interviewing and meeting people. (Respondent 470,
20 years old, multiracial, pansexual, female)

Past studies reveal that youth identify steady employment (60.2 percent), education (51.4 percent),
stable housing (41.4 percent), and quitting addiction (11.2 percent) as most important to making the
changes they want in their lives (Curtis et al. 2008; Maitra 2002). When asked about life changes or
services that would help make their lives better, the youth in this study described needing to find
employment (44 percent), obtain any or better housing (29 percent), and improve their education (21
percent). As this male respondent explained, housing was seen by some as the beginning of stability:
I just need my own apartment and stuff, I need my own apartment a stable job like not even a stable
job, I will take you know should I work at Burger King if it meant like it could pay my rent, and pay my
little expenses and this time like a little some left over yeah, I would do that Im not very like a
complex person Im very content with my life. (Respondent 199, 21 years old, black, gay, male)

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Other respondents reported needing self-improvement (9 percent) or some type of counseling (7

percent) or support (5 percent). Two in five respondents said they needed other types of changes or
services, including obtaining documents, such as personal identification and birth certificates, applying
for public assistance (food stamps, in particular), and changing their social environmentincluding
moving out of New York City. Many youth said they needed different kinds of assistance and did not
have a hierarchy of priorities. A bisexual woman described what she needed to stop trading sex:
For me to stop trading sex I need to have a continuous and comfortable job, have a place to stay,
just have my own stuff, then I wont need to have to do it, have food, continuously. And not
having somebody over my shoulder you know, telling me what I should do, I want to be able to do
it myself as a woman. So as Im continuously doing this Ill also start saving my money, little bit by
little bit. It might take a little while but everything count. When youre trying to go for it you need
to take some steps. And thats what Im going to do, try to save some money, you know, Im just, I
just want a job, something. (Respondent 635, 19 years old, Spanish and black, bisexual, female)

Two-thirds of those who described services or changes that they needed to improve their lives also
said they needed help obtaining those services or making those changes. Of these 122 respondents, 44
percent wanted help from service providers, 23 percent from family, 19 percent from anyone, 10
percent from friends or peers, and 7 percent from the government.
One young man who had positive experiences receiving services from various providers
recommended that other youth use these services to improve their lives:
Basically like with a lot of programs out here you definitely need to look into it because they offer
a wide range of services that can help you in your specific what you need like some places help
out with like legal services. So many different things so I definitely encourage people to check
those things out. And they could definitely if you are honest with them they could help you step
by step whats the right road to like choose so. And I dont know like for anybody else but for
some people there is definitely they need to look at it as a temporary situation because you cant
be like 80 years old still on the stroll so yeah. Just move on from that. (Respondent 301, 21 years
old, Latino, bisexual, male)

Another youth, a bisexual man, explained how his own family members disapproved of his life.
Ultimately, the fact that his family could not provide him with any financial, educational, or other
support rendered their opinions less relevant:
This is, kind of felt good, it is like a therapy session or something. . . . Being able to talk about it
because like I dont really talk about it much. Its just kind of like, Ill do what Ill do and like thats
it. And its like my mum, shes kind of like, I dont like what you do, I dont like the lifestyle you live,
but is like, youre not helping me . . . like, youre not putting money in my pocket, youre not
feeding me or that youre not making sure I get to school. (Respondent 434, 20 years old, black,
bisexual, male)

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Notably, 11 percent of respondents said they did not need to make any life changes or receive any
services to improve their situations, and of those respondents who did cite changes or services that
they needed, a third did not want any help obtaining those changes or services. Often, young people
who reported not needing external support referenced disillusionment with social services. As the
quote from the young man below demonstrates, youths poor experiences with social service providers
made them hesitant to seek such support:
I dont really think these services really exist to help people, I think they just exist to help
themselves but. . . . Its about numbers, getting your numbers out so that you can get your
funding, it doesnt really matter about the individual story. They are meant to be a revolving
door. If there was real like follow-up on the individual and concern then Im sure it would be more
successful. (Respondent 414, 19 years old, black, gay, male)

For other youth, hesitance to seek support also derived from histories of disillusionment and
abandonment by former systems of support. As the quote below from a young man illustrates, youth
felt they had no one to rely on because they had been conditioned to survive on their own:
I guess, I dont know, since my mom kicked me out and stuff like I felt like my mom that was her
responsibility and I felt like if she cant do it then no one else can do it for me but myself so.
(Respondent 1329, 19 years old, black and Latino, gay, male)

Another woman described the difficulty of surviving without any support or stability at a young age:
The system needs to change themselves. They just need to say hey and look at the reviews like
what people actually going through. And like to get something done like so they can provide
themselves is hard. Especially if you are really young and you have nowhere to go. You have no
place. I dont have my family, I dont have nothing else but a shelter and to have sex to get money
so its hard. A lot of people dont understand that. And they dont see the real picture of life, they
see, oh, shopping, having fun with your friends, but these people they got to struggle and make
money. (Respondent 1012, 18 years old, Jamaican, lesbian, female)

Youth also felt that those who did not share their experiences, particularly institutions that should
be supportive and helpful, could not empathize, and therefore were ultimately unhelpful. One
transgender man explained,
I think this survey is a great way for people to comment and get their voices heard about whats
really going on because a lot of time when we face a lot of institutions they dont really . . . they
dont take a walk in our shoes and if they did they dont acknowledge it. And thats the whole
reason they got there in the first place, and its really sad that a lot of times people get shafted and
theyre just trying to do the thing, and its like I didnt want to have to sell sex. It was like my family
wasnt helping me and Im an only child, my mum was just sick its like what was I supposed to do, I
aint gonna no sell no drugs. (Respondent 5164, 20 years old, multiracial, lesbian, trans male)

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Concluding Personal Statements

Before we concluded each interview, we asked the youth if they had any last thoughts that they wanted
to share with us. While the majority did not, a few took the opportunity to talk freely and candidly about
their lives and what led them to where they were today. Below are two very powerful final statements
that, while not necessarily representative of the experiences and views of all respondents, offer
individual perspectives on youth involvement in survival sex:

Interviewee: The sex trade that I was doing was for money, was for weed, was for cigarettes and it was just to
make me feel like I had something like, I had to be an adult, I had to take care of myself. I didnt know how but I
knew my looks was gonna get me somewhere or get me something, so I did . . . at a certain age you do have to, at
a certain age, there is only but so much that you can do at a certain age because you have no experience, you
have no resumes, you barely have anything at a certain age in life, youre still being taken care of by your
parents. So, for you to stop the sex trade, its never really possible to stop it unless you have a legit job and you
have a stable home and you have things to keep you good besides selling yourself for money, the only way to do
that is to, you have to think positive. And you can think positive about sex trade but its a, its just a certain level,
its a certain level that youre on. If youre doing sex trade its because, it could only be for a few reasons, not
only a few reasons, its because we all have something in life. Either were alone, either we have no one, or either
we have nothing, what other reason are you gonna want to sell yourself? I mean, unless, my reason for stopping
is because I stopped being lazy, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and telling myself oh, my mom isnt here for
me. I stopped feeling like I needed my parents. I stopped waiting on parents signatures. I started speaking up for
myself. I started being honest and telling the truth which was I didnt have my parents. I wasnt being supported.
I wasnt eating. I spoke to my school, Im still in high school, so I spoke to my school about it, they set me up for
group homes and things like that, that I didnt wanna do, cause they knew I was alone. They didnt know until I
told them but after I told them that they set me up to group homes and shelters and things like that. And then
they told me about walk-in centers. I had no idea that there were people to help us.
Interviewer: So, you chose the walk-in center and they were able to help you to a degree. Do you wish they were
other people who could help you or other services?
Interviewee: I didnt know, I didnt know it could be this good, I didnt know they could help us like this. Because
if that was the case, I would have never done the sex trade to begin with but I didnt know that. . . . So ever since I
did the walk-in center, they set me up for like shelter, the group homes, and things like that, to get my health
benefits. So, I did the health benefits, I did the welfare. I sat in the welfare for days, waiting for them to approve
my food stamps, it didnt work. I did it over and over and over. In the time of doing welfare and trying to get my
health benefits, I was still doing sex trade. And even when it worked, I still had to do sex trade cause it was too
much. Its like its not enough food, its not enough money. Life was too fast for me. I still need my parents and
they werent there. Thats all I knew. (Respondent 1, 19 years old, Latino, gay, male)

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65

Interviewee: A lot of girls that do this lifestyle, it starts off with being promiscuous and their promiscuousness
mostly comes from their fathers not being in their lives. You cant love; you cant really honestly care about the
next human being without having that structure in your face. The ultimate type of love is the family love. If they
dont come from a good household, theyre going to try to go find it on their own and they are going to have to
go through a lot of storms and a lot of tornadoes. And if they dont have a good father, that they can look back
and cry on, when that boy, that girl done broke their heart, its not going to work. And not only just that, theyve
got to be able to believe in themselves. If they dont have accepting people in their lives, theyre going to try to
find some people that will accept them no matter what the cost is. It dont matter if theyve got to get on their
knees every night. If they accept what they do and who they are, sometimes these girls only need somebody to
tell them that they are beautiful. And thats why they go to all these men, because one thing that they do, do
with you prostituting, they always compliment you, always. They either compliment you or tell you they like the
way you do something, and thats always good to hear. Thats why a lot of girls go back and keep doing what
they are doing because its not as bad. Because the world we live in alone, because people these days dont care
about other people, they care about themselves getting ahead. . . . Nobody reaches their hand out to help no
more and when they do reach it out for help, they always get their hands smacked back down, so whats the
sense of asking. Nobody gets help, but I guess it just starts with how they got brought up in their household, and
beyond that. Theres another big thing too, everybody thinks that its safe to send their kids to school, half of the
time thats where they are getting turned out, thats where they are getting bullied, thats where everything
that you would not even imagine your child going through, thats where they go through it. And you force them
to go there too.
Interviewer: Do you feel like there is nobody in schools that can help?
Interviewee: You know why there is nobody in school to help? Because they dont have the same protection
program that you have. Theres a lot of kids that want to say something, to speak up, but they wont do it
because they know that it leads to the next thing and the next thing somebody is going to call a social worker.
CPS is going to be involved. They love their families; they just want something to change about them. That does
not make it better to send people to their house. It doesnt. It actually makes it worse because you know what?
You dont stay in that house with them. So you dont know what theyve got to go through on a daily basis. They
might, you know, shoot, soon as you close that door, they might get beat with a frying pan just because you said
something. How does that make you feel at the end? You know what Im saying? You came to help a situation,
but a child just got brutally beaten, almost died, because you wanted to send these workers. Why couldnt you
just help that child individually?
Interviewer: If you dont mind me asking, is that something that youve experienced? Social workers coming to
your house?
Interviewee: Of course thats something that I did experience, I experienced that probably three times, three
times and it never gets better. Thats why kids cant open up to people, they cant open up to them because
there is always a, they say oh I wont judge and its all about you but its not about them you know what Im
saying. Its about themselves and their job, they want to make you feel better, make you feel safe but you cant
even express yourself to them how can you do that? Sometimes you just need somebody to understand but they
dont understand how can you understand if the course that you understanding is everybody knowing. I thought
this was confidential, they say confidential but really what is the meaning to it. There is no meaning in this
school, they dont have any no protection program, not at that. They dont know what their life is like. . . . There
some kids that actually go through that type of stuff, when they come back home their family member be
disowning them. They dont want to be involved with them, Im not doing nothing for you. (Respondent 635, 19
years old, black/Spanish, bisexual, female)

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Discussion and Summary

The experiences of LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW who are engaged in survival sex are best
understood when they are not viewed in black and white terms. As this report illustrates, the 283 young
people we interviewed shared an array of stories about why and how they became involved in survival
sex, which often involved complicated and difficult situations. It was important for us to describe their
experiences using their words and to avoid using labels to explain their behaviors and circumstances.
What we found echoes past research findings: LGBTQ youths past experiences are drivers for their
current situations. These experiences include racism; family poverty; homelessness and its associated
stigma; lack of adequate or safe housing options; lack of access to gender-affirming medical care; and
rejection and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity by families, communities,
and employers (Bigelsen and Vuotto 2013; Gwadz et al. 2009; Lankenau et al. 2005; NYCAHSIYO 2012;
Rees 2010; Wilson et al. 2009). Many of the young people we interviewed were kicked or thrown out of
their homes because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, or ran away because of abuse they
were experiencing at home, in foster care, a program or shelter, or in their community. Others left or
were left because of economic problems or other factors.
Youth also reported abuse at the hands of those charged with their protection, including
discrimination and abuse by law enforcement or staff at residential treatment programs and shelters.
These findings are consistent with those of studies that have documented how LGBTQ youth
experience ongoing homophobic and transphobic harassment, discrimination, and physical violence
within the child welfare and foster care systems and emergency and short- and long-term shelters, as
well as from health care providers, social services, law enforcement, and other government institutions
(NYCAHSIYO 2012; Ray 2006; YWEP 2012).
Almost half (49 percent) of the young people we interviewed had lived in New York City their entire
lives and nearly half (48 percent) reported living in a shelter, while another 10 percent reported living
on the street. What we can glean from these statistics is that many of the young people who are
engaging in survival sex are homeless in their hometown: they do not have a familial support system or
19

normative social capital they can rely on to help them through a difficult time. With only about 300
shelter beds available to homeless and runaway youth in New York City, the likelihood that they will be
provided immediate shelter and assistance after leaving home is small. This lack of support greatly
increases youths vulnerability and sense of urgency when it comes to meeting their basic needs.
However, not all the youth were homeless: 11 percent of our sample lived with family members while

DISCUSSION AND SUMMA RY

67

engaging in survival sex. Many of those young people described living in abject poverty and felt pressure
to contribute to household bills and ensure that their siblings were properly clothed and fed.
Although some research has reported that the average age of entry into the survival-sex economy
is as low as 11 years old (Estes and Weiner 2001; Smith, Vardaman, and Snow 2009), we found the
average age to be between 16 and 17 years old. Based on the narratives we heard, this tended to be the
age when youths felt comfortable coming out to their parents, which led to them being kicked or thrown
out of their homes. This age was also important for those in the foster care system because it marked
when they started to realize that they were close to aging out of the system and would soon be forced
to figure out how they would survive on their own.
Forty-two percent of our respondents began to learn about trading sex in exchange for money
and/or material goods through the peer networks they formed by socializing in certain areas of the city,
or by visiting drop-in centers and after-school community programs. Some of these peers, the majority
of whom were engaged in survival sex themselves, played a passive role in introducing others into the
survival-sex economy by providing tips on where to find customers and how to stay safe, while others
played a more active role by posting ads online on behalf on youth, introducing them to prospective
clients, and going with them on dates to act as a lookout. These situations were not exploitative in
nature, and these individuals did not profit or expect to profit from assisting their peers. They simply
were trying to help others survive in the same way they were surviving.
Although the majority of youth first engaged in survival sex with the assistance of a peer, 6 percent
of the young people were initially recruited into the survival sex economy by an exploiter. That said, 15
percent of the youth experienced a situation involving force, fraud, and/or coercion at the hands of an
exploiter at some point during their lives. The likelihood that a young cisgender woman would be
involved in an exploitative situation was greater than that of a young man, transgender woman, or
transgender man; however, several young men and transgender woman we interviewed described
being forced and coerced into trading sex by an exploiter.
It is important to note that the experiences of the young people we interviewed were not static. The
fact that they might have been initially recruited by an exploiter did not mean that this was their only
experience engaging in the survival sex economy. The experiences and the situations many of these
youth found themselves in were fluid. They might be under the control of an exploiter one week and
trading independently the next. Several youths described their feelings toward their exploiter as
complicated, as he or she was often the only person in their lives to ever give them any kind of
emotional support and love, in addition to shelter, food, and clothes.

DISCUSSION AND SUMMA RY

68

The overwhelming majority of young people we interviewed (72 percent) wanted to stop engaging
in survival sex, and 21 percent had already stopped trading. However, most youth said that engaging in
survival sex seemed their only viable means for meeting their basic needs. These youth expressed a
need for alternatives that would enable them to stop trading sex for money and/or material goods. The
needs they identified included job training; educational opportunities, food security, mentorship,
gender-affirming health care, assistance with legal documents and benefits, mental health care and
counseling, livable-wage employment opportunities, and short-term and long-term voluntary and lowthreshold affordable housing options. Among the few service providers and public benefits programs
that exist, LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW reported service denial, as well as breach of confidentiality
and unsafe and discriminatory treatment by staff and other clients. Although the youth found several of
the service-provision programs in New York City helpful, especially those that are low-threshold and
voluntary, these programs were not sufficient and were often underfunded and underresourced.
Youth weighed benefits, such as survival and financial independence, against the known and
perceived risks of involvement in the sex trade, including incarceration; sexually transmitted infections;
unwanted pregnancies; drug use; profiling and policing; feeling devalued and stigmatized; risks related
to using unregulated hormones and other transition interventions to pass sufficiently to be successful
in the trade; and the possibility of being arrested and forced back into families, foster care, or the
juvenile facilities they were running from; in addition to the risk of death or physical and sexual violence
at the hands of customers, exploiters, police, or other participants engaged in the commercial sex
market. That said, the youth we interviewed demonstrated an extraordinary level of resilience and
resistance (YWEP 2009, 2012), taking many affirmative steps to take care of themselves and others
and turning their skills to making changes in their own lives and in society.

DISCUSSION AND SUMMA RY

69

Policy and Practice

Recommendations
Our interviews with young people engaged in survival sex highlight the reality that there is no universal
or typical narrative among youth who exchange sex for money and/or material goods. The interviews
also point to the importance of providing individualized services and support. Nonjudgmental,
voluntary, and low-threshold services that meet the basic needs of youth without necessary criminal
justice system involvement are among the primary recommendations of past national and local studies
(Institute of Medicine and National Research Council 2013; NYCAHSIYO 2012; Walls and Bell 2011;
YWEP 2009, 2012). Our studys findings echo these recommendations and further support the creation
and expansion of services for LGBTQ youth. While some states and municipalities specifically reference
gender-specific, separate, or gender-responsive services in their laws to protect youth who have
been exploited for sex and labor purposes (also known as Safe Harbor laws), no program has defined
gender-supportive or culturally competent care in the context of LGBTQ youth. Our study illustrates
the importance of strengthening and expanding such services so they are not only gender responsive
but also culturally competent, age-appropriate, and supportive of LGBTQ youth.
Our recommendations include the following:

Develop peer-led outreach and accessible street-based and comprehensive drop-in services.

Improve safe and supportive short-term shelter, long-term affordable housing, and familybased placement options subject to periodic review.

Create safe and supportive housing and placement protocols specific to transgender and
gender-nonconforming individuals.

Broaden access to and improve gender-affirming health care.

Adopt nondiscrimination, confidentiality, and complaint procedures in shelters, programs, and

out-of-home placements.

Develop living-wage employment opportunities.

Improve food security among LGBTQ youth.

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

70

Design police training curricula to improve relationships with LGBTQ youth and decrease
profiling, harassment, and abuse.

Include uniform sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE) questions
on screening tools and intake forms.

Encourage federal, state, and local government interagency coordination.

Develop Peer-Led Outreach and Accessible Street-Based

and Comprehensive Drop-In Services
The services I would say like more of an awareness to prevent . . . where kids have a place to go,
even on weekends, Saturday and Sundays so they dont have to be in that situation. So they could
reach out to the homeless kids because if they dont learn about [services] then theyre going to
eventually get into that lifestyle and its something that is really hard. Because when I grew up I
never knew about [services] until like a year after. So I feel like, there should be like a lot of
advertisement, especially on the subway about all these places for homeless youth. You have
advertisements about all these like 110,000 homeless kids, but you dont advertise about drop-in
centers or shelters, its like why are you even advertising if there is 110,000 kids homeless and
[you] give a website knowing that most people dont know where to access a computer. So I feel
like these places should be more broadly advertised because its something that is really
proactive. (Respondent 5094, 21 years old, Latino, bisexual, male)

Throughout our study, youth overwhelmingly reported needing the support of others to stop trading.
Two-thirds expressed interest in receiving external support; 44 percent of these cited service providers
as the external support they were interested in receiving help from. Youth also shared what they
specifically needed help with: finding employment (44 percent), obtaining any or better housing (29
percent), and furthering their education (21 percent).
Mobile street-based services in locations where youth engage in survival-sex work would allow
them to conveniently receive the services they need. Additionally, creating drop-in services and
providing comprehensive or full-service support in a safe and accessible location that integrates various
programs, including LGBTQ-affirming and inclusive health services, would allow youth to receive the
large majority of the services they need without visiting a large number of service providers. When
creating programming, it is important to offer a wide range of voluntary services, including legal,
medical, and psychiatric services; individual and group counseling; case management; advocacy;
stipends; transportation reimbursement; help obtaining identification; emergency and crisis housing;
GED preparation and support; help obtaining Medicaid and other benefits; hot meals; showers; clothes;

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

71

wellness activities including acupuncture, yoga, nutritional counseling, and HIV prevention counseling;
parenting groups; drop-in groups; and the opportunity to socialize in a safe, nonjudgmental setting.

Improve Safe and Supportive Short-Term Shelter, LongTerm Affordable Housing, and Family-Based Placement
Options Subject to Periodic Review
Interviewee: I have friends that are 12, 11 years old that have nowhere to go because they are gay
and their family wont accept them. So they are sleeping [outside], they are getting beat up, they
are getting raped. And I felt like they should have more shelters for younger ones and like just like
they make older [youth] go to welfare, Social Security office . . . make them go to school make them
get a job. I feel like that.
Interviewer: So just creating more like an environment like a kind of a one-stop shop where they
can kind of get the care and love they need and not have to deal with a lot of prejudices out there.
Interviewee: Yeah. (Respondent 186, 20 years old, West Indian, heterosexual, transgender female)

Youth engaged in survival sex in New York City have consistently identified access to housing as
necessary for their care and support (Curtis et al. 2008; NYCAHSIYO 2010, 2012). Housing may be
even more crucial for LGBTQ youth, as they lack appropriate and acceptable shelter options (Institute
of Medicine and National Research Council 2013) and, even if admitted or placed, LGBTQ youth in outof-home care are particularly vulnerable to failed placements, resulting in multiple rejections and
frequent changes (Wilber, Ryan, and Marksamer 2006).
Youth in our study expressed frustration over the limited number of beds available in youth
homeless shelters and the stringent policies that shelters enforce. Many also credited the instability and
rules associated with emergency housing with driving them back to the street. Nearly half the youth we
interviewed (48 percent) reported living in a shelter, and another 10 percent reported living on the
street. LGBTQ youth engaged in survival sex often experience strained relationships with caretakers,
especially when they reside in new foster homes, escape abusive parents, or are moved to and from
various housing situations. Findings from our study further illustrate how intermittent access to shelter
increases the likelihood that a young person will engage in survival sex. Improved housing options that
are responsive to the needs of LGBTQ youth could enhance their quality of life and prevent young
people from having to trade sex for shelter and other basic needs.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has recognized the critical need for housing for
homeless youth engaged in survival sex, as well as the importance of providing a continuum of services.
Such services include transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, guest homes, and rental

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

72

assistance. For LGBTQ youth in particular, these services should be culturally competent and trauma
informed, should incorporate positive youth development principles, and should be coupled with case
management support (Able-Peterson and Mueleners 2009). In addition to congregate care, it is equally
important to create in-home placement options. The Child Welfare League of America recommends
that agencies intentionally reach out to LGBTQ families and communities when recruiting foster
parents and consider in-home placement as an alternative to secure detention for youth adjudicated as
20

juvenile delinquents (Wilber, Ryan, and Marksamer 2006, 43). We recommend the expansion of such
housing services, including housing for LGBTQ youth ages 16 and younger.

Create Safe and Supportive Housing and Placement

Protocols Specific to Transgender and GenderNonconforming Individuals
The needs of transgender youth should be considered during the development of LGBTQ-sensitive
programming. Transgender youth in our study frequently shared anecdotes about being forced into
spaces that were incongruent with their gender identity:
Interviewee: When I went to [name of shelter] I was the first transgender in like a very long time.
So it was really hard.
Interviewer: Like was it like physically abusive or something?
Interviewee: No just boys really treated like . . . it was a lot of mental abuse.
Interviewer: They were calling you names and stuff?
Interviewee: Yeah. But, I was fine with them like as long as you dont put your hands on me, you can
say whatever you want. (Respondent 364, 21 years old, Trinidadian, heterosexual, trans female).
Interviewee: I really want to go to [name of program]. I really, really want to go there but I believe
they are denying me because Im transgender.
Interviewer: What kind of [place is it]?
Interviewee: Its a coed place. They told me that I have to come up as a boy and like I have breasts
already. Before I even told them I was transgender everything was going well. I went for the
interview, did the intake, once I identified myself because they had this male or female, and I told
them Im transgender, she gave me that look like . . . (Respondent 186, 20 years old, West Indian,
heterosexual, trans female)

In congregate care such as group homes and shelters and detention, it is especially necessary to
create safe space for transgender and gender-nonconforming youth. Staff must appropriately address
LGBTQ identity during the intake process and ensure LGBTQ youth are not treated differently from
heterosexual youth in such determinations (Lambda Legal et al. 2009; Wilber, Ryan, and Marksamer

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

73

2006). In making housing or classification decisions, personnel must not isolate or segregate LGBTQ
youth from other participants, and should not automatically place youth based on their assigned sex at
birth but rather in accordance with an individualized assessment that takes into account their safety,
gender identity, and preference (Lambda Legal et al. 2009; Wilber, Ryan, and Marksamer 2006).
Proactive steps should be taken to accommodate transgender youth, including (1) arranging for
some youth to sleep in a private area if they do not feel comfortable in a male or female dormitory, (2)
offering private rooms to all youth, and (3) establishing a written agency policy specifying that youth are
to be assigned to dormitories based on their gender identification or offered the option of a private
room if safety is a concern (Burwick et al. 2014).

Broaden Access to and Improve Gender-Affirming

Health Care
Interviewee: Like working wise, like because how, if Im dressed like a transsexual woman, its
very hard. And most of the time I do, and if I dont its just like one of those off days . . .
Interviewer: Now what do you mean like when you say its really hard?
Interviewee: Like being a transsexual and most transsexuals havent changed, from male to
female . . . they [dont have access to] hormones and something like that so, I just felt like its
harder, like when I go and ask for a [job] application, I feel like people are looking at me. . . . But, I
get put down, they are like no, but I already know what it is, why are they saying Especially when
I go to an interview, theyre like what is your name, and Im like I know what my name is, and
theyre like but youre . . . and then they just gag. I understand how they feel but Im like, you have
to also understand, like what Im doing, Im not trying to do this to play around . . . (Respondent
312, 19 years old, black and Spanish, gay, trans male)

It is critical that transgender and gender-nonconforming youth receive gender-affirming health care,
whether in or out of state custody. The lack of adequate medical and mental health care for these youth
is a recognized barrier to positive outcomes (Burwick et al. 2014; Lambda Legal et al. 2009). The lack of
free or affordable care leaves transgender youth with few choices but to seek street hormones without
medical supervision (Majd, Marksamer, and Reyes 2009; NYCAHSIYO 2010). As the youth quoted
above shares, another negative outcome for youth without access to gender-affirming health care is the
inability to find employment, particularly when they are not perceived to pass as the gender they
identify with.
For transgender youth engaged in survival sex, such care is often reported as necessary to conform
to enforced gender binaries and stay safe in the face of violence and discrimination in public spaces and
gender-segregated shelters and programs (Rees 2010). For this reason, lack of transition-related care

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

74

drives transgender youth to meet their medical needs through involvement in the commercial sex
market and other underground economies.

21

Adopt Nondiscrimination, Confidentiality, and Complaint

Procedures in Shelters, Programs, and Out-of-Home
Placements
Nearly a decade ago, the Child Welfare League of America recognized as a best practice the adoption
and dissemination of written nondiscrimination, grievance, and antiharassment policies prohibiting
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (Lambda Legal et al. 2009; Wilber, Ryan,
and Marksamer 2006). It is critical that facilities train personnel in competency with LGBTQ youth,
establish sound recruitment and hiring practices, collect and evaluate data, and monitor personnel in
charge of institutionalized children and those who come in contact with them, including police (Conner,
Mago, and Middleton-Lee 2014; Lambda Legal et al. 2009).

Develop Living-Wage Employment Opportunities

A job would make my life just a little bit better. Just a nice stable place with no remnants of what
Ive been doing . . . I guess in a sense to make the past two years go away, and just have a job.
(Respondent 258, 18 years old, black, gay, male)

Past studies have shown that some youth engaged in survival sex have prior employment experience
but may have left jobs because of employer harassment and abuse, wage theft, low wages, or failure to
pay salaries on time (Conner, Mago, and Middleton-Lee 2014). Our study had similar findings: over half
of youth (53 percent) received money other ways besides trading, with 23 percent working legitimate
jobs. However, the income received from these other sources was often not enough for youth to
survive. The comparatively high remuneration offered by exchanging sex for money and/or material
goods, structural barriers to alternative employment, and low barriers to entry into the trade all act as
incentives to engage in survival sex in some contexts (Conner, Mago, and Middleton-Lee 2014). The
barriers to employment faced by LGBTQ youth, including workplace harassment and discrimination in
hiring and promotion, are well documented (Burwick et al. 2014; Ray 2006; Wilber, Ryan, and
Marksamer 2006). Transgender youths engagement in survival sex has been linked to limited economic
choices resulting from harassment and discrimination (Rees 2010).

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

75

Creating job training programs with a practicum component would allow youth to receive
supervised, hands-on application of their newly acquired skills. This approach would afford youth the
opportunity to make contact with potential employers and secure employment. Paid practicum
opportunities would also allow youth to have independence and experience employment stability.
The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development maintains a Summer Youth
Employment Program that provides New York City youth between the ages of 14 and 24 with summer
employment and educational experiences. The agency recently announced that 40 slots would be set
aside to specifically serve youth in specialized foster care placement for the sexually exploited. Such
programs must be exponentially expanded to meet demand, disconnected from any requirement of an
adjudicated placement, and made voluntary and low-threshold, and employment providers must be
screened for affirming policies and practices and cultural competency with LGBTQ youth.

Improve Food Security among LGBTQ Youth

I dont think [trading sex] makes me a bad person. I think it gives people the option. . . . Its helpful,
because I mean its not like you are just doing it for the hell of it, you are like doing it so you have
like food to eat, so you are not starving to death and so you are not like freezing to death.
(Respondent 152, 18 years old, white, bisexual, female)
Im 17. ACS wont take me. Im looking for a job, no jobs are calling me back, I cant get food
stamps because Im 17, they will not give me food stamps at all and Im telling them like I have
nowhere to go I have nowhere to eat and you guys well you are all denying to feed me because of
my age. How is that okay? (Respondent 450, 17 years old, black, bisexual, female)

Limited access to food forced many youth into engaging in survival sex. Youth reported difficulty
acquiring food stamps based on age limits for those under 18, as well as hardship retaining public
benefits because of their lack of a consistent place of residence, programs onerous work requirements,
and discrimination and service denial from city agencies and contractors. Over half of youth, 54 percent,
reported that food was their top priority when it came to spending their earnings. Further, 31 percent
of respondents reported receiving food in exchange for a sexual service. Throughout interviews, youth
said that the limited avenues they had to obtain food led many of them to trade sex. Improved access to
food would reduce the pressure on young people to obtain their basic needs through survival sex.
Access to food could be improved through food pantries, food trucks, and initiatives that enable youthserving organizations to provide daily meals.

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

76

Design Police Training Curricula to Improve

Relationships with LGBTQ Youth and Decrease Profiling,
Harassment, and Abuse
Honestly like that they need to get rid of stop and frisk; they need to like not have that stupid law
about the condoms. I think thats ridiculous because like if people have to do what they have to
do to survive, then why should you then punish them for trying to be safe, like I dont understand
that. (Respondent 156, 19 years old, white and Native American, gay, androgynous male)

Although the City of New York has taken steps to strengthen relationships with the LGBTQ community,
including creating LGBTQ liaison positions within the agency, these efforts have not been enough.
Youths experiences of police harassment and profiling highlight the importance of continuing efforts to
increase their safety. Twenty-three percent of youth who said they were profiled for engaging in the
commercial sex market were profiled by law enforcement. Further, youth who were arrested were
frequently charged for soliciting (18 percent), loitering (12 percent), and prostitution (9 percent).
Police departments should adopt policies, practices, and training that address the needs and
protect the rights of LGBTQ youth engaged in survival sex.

Include Uniform SOGIE Questions on Screening Tools

and Intake Forms
As this report demonstrates, LGBTQ youth are at a high risk of engaging in survival sex. Inclusive intake
forms will provide evidence of the scale of their representation in the sex trade compared with nonLGBTQ youth. Government agencies like New York Citys Administration for Childrens Services have
incorporated SOGIE questions on their juvenile justice and foster care intake forms to connect LGBTQ
22

young people to affirming services and programs. We can better understand the scope and
characteristics of LGBTQ youth engaging in survival sex by including uniform SOGIE questions on
screening tools and key intake forms.

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

77

Encourage Federal, State, and Local Government

Interagency Coordination
Addressing the challenges faced by LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW engaged in survival sex requires
the involvement, coordination, and resources of key government leaders at all levels. When developing
a plan, whether at the federal, state, or local level, agencies should consider leveraging existing
structures to improve communication, coordination, and resource allocation to effectively address this
issue. For example, work focused on addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of youth in New
York City includes representation from the Mayors Childrens Cabinet, the Interagency Coordinating
Council, and the City Council. Such approaches convene key government leaders to listen to the
concerns of community members, advocates, and other interested parties, and to take appropriate
action when possible.

POLICY AND PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

78

Main Findings
We hope this report addresses some of the important knowledge gaps surrounding the experiences of
LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW who engage in survival sexin their own words. We believe that the
findings will help promote a better understanding of these youths experiences and needs to ultimately
support policies and practices that will serve them better. As stated at the beginning of this report, the
main findings are as follows:

Youth reported experiences of social and familial discrimination and rejection, familial
dysfunction, familial poverty, physical abuse, sexual abuse and exploitation, and emotional and
mental trauma.

The experiences of youth engaged in survival sex are not static; they change over the course of
youths involvement in exchanging sex for money and/or material goods. For example, young
people might be recruited by an exploiter but then eventually trade independently to meet
their basic needs, or vice versa.

LGBTQ youth tend to have large peer networks, which include youth who engage in survival
sex. Many young people are introduced to the survival-sex economy through such networks.

LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW lack access to voluntary and low-threshold services,
including short- and long-term housing, affordable housing and shelter options, livable-wage
employment opportunities, food security, and gender-affirming health care. Many of the youth
who are able to access these services experience institutional barriers. Among the few service
providers and public benefits programs that exist, LGBTQ youth, YMSM, and YWSW report
high rates of service denial, as well as violence from breach of confidentiality and unsafe and
discriminatory treatment by staff and other recipients of these services, on the basis of their
sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and age.

Many youth engaged in survival sex experience frequent arrest for various quality-of-life and
misdemeanor crimes, creating further instability and perpetuating the need to engage in
survival sex. In custody, many youth experience violence on the basis of their perceived sexual
orientation and gender identity.

Youth experience violence and abuse from multiple sources, including families, exploiters,
clients, strangers, peers, and law enforcement. Youth also experience violence at the hands of
staff and clients at social service organizations and other locations that are intended to be safe.

MAIN FINDINGS

79

Many youth reported disappointing or frustrating experiences with social services systems and
providers, which often fail to meet their need for safe housing, reliable income, and adequate
mental and physical health care, as well as for freedom, independence, and self-expression.

Youth are extremely resilient in the face of external challenges (such as violence and lack of
housing and employment) and internal challenges (such as emotional and physical trauma and
gender and sexual identity issues). They find ways to survive, often relying on their informal
networks, street savvy, and quick learning abilities to share resources and skills and to adapt to
difficult and often dangerous situations.

MAIN FINDINGS

80

Notes
1.

Including the lead author of this report, Meredith Dank.

2.

Couch surfing is when a person frequently moves from one friends home to another over short time periods.

3.

Streetwise and Safe is a multistrategy initiative working to build and share leadership, skills, knowledge, and
community among LGBTQ youth of color who experience criminalization, particularly in the context of the
policing of poverty, quality-of-life offenses, and involvement or perceived involvement in survival economies.

4.

As part of the Streetwise and Safe program, youth leaders are trained to develop and implement online and inperson outreach strategies designed to share know your rights information with their peers, many of whom
may not be in the position to directly access services or legal assistance.

5.

There were a handful of respondents older than 21 who we decided to keep in our sample because they first
engaged in survival sex under the age of 18 and because they had a large network of peers they were willing
and able to recruit into the study.

6.

A handful of interviews were conducted in a public space because of space constraints at SAS; however, the
youth consented to be interviewed in these public spaces and the researchers ensured confidentiality while
the interviews were being conducted.

7.

A few exceptions were made with respect to age, particularly in the beginning of data collection when we were
trying to achieve waves of recruitment into the study.

8.

Urbans Institutional Review Board waived parental consent for study respondents under the age of 18. It was
impractical to seek parental consent since many of the youth were no longer in contact or affiliated with
their parents.

9.

Five respondents chose not to be recorded; detailed interview notes were taken instead.

10. We did not ask the youth in our study to choose from a list of gender and sexual identities; instead, we asked
them to self-identify however they wished.
11. This share includes youth who are either cisgender male or female or transgender male or female and are
sexually attracted to someone of the opposite sex.
12. Pansexual refers to someone who is sexually attracted to anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or
gender identity.
13. During the interviews, youth were asked to identify their racial and ethnic backgrounds. Many youth who
identified with more than one race or ethnicity did not specify whether they were claiming Hispanic ethnicity,
multiple racial backgrounds, or other forms of mixed heritages that included familial nations of origin. As a
result, the 30 percent of our population who self-identified with more than one race or ethnicity includes a
diverse body of racial, ethnic, and national identifications, including multiracial youth and youth who are
racially black and ethnically Latino or Latina (Afro-Latino/Latina).
14. Nonbinary transgender refers to someone who is on the transgender spectrum but does not identify as
female or male.
15. Although we dont have an exact number for how many youth were kicked out of their homes since it was
considered a triggering question by the project team, a significant number of youth disclosed that they had
no choice but to trade sex for survival after being kicked out of their homes.
16. A gay family is a network of close peers who identify as LGBTQ and help provide support and, in some cases,
resources to one another.
17. A stroll is a known area where individuals engaged in the commercial sex market find customers.
18. Although a small percentage of youth were still involved with their exploiters, almost all of them were
connected to service providers. The research team provided all youth with a list of organizations and agencies
that they could seek assistance from, and offered to call these agencies on their behalf.

NOTES

81

19. For more information about normative social capital, see Dank (2011).
20. Avenues for Homeless Youth, in Minneapolis, provides emergency shelter and transitional living programs for
16- to 21-year-olds. The organization runs an LGBTQ Host Home Program that recruits, trains, and supports
volunteer hosts who open their homes to LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness (Burwick et al. 2014, 7,
38). Volunteers commit to hosting for a year while youth participants receive support from their hosts and
case managers (see Avenues for Homeless Youth GLBT Host Home Program brochure 2014, p. 2,
http://www.avenuesforyouth.org/images/glbt_HHP_022714_2.pdf).
21. The Health & Education Alternatives for Teens (HEAT) program at SUNY Downstate Medical Center focuses
on heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adolescents and young adults ages 13 to 24 living with
or at risk for HIV (New York City Administration for Childrens Services 2013). The HEAT program operates a
low-threshold, one-stop, full-service clinic that is set in a youth-friendly, discrete, and easily accessible
location. The clinic offers services regardless of youths ability to pay while maintaining client confidentiality:
youth ages 13 and older do not need parental permission for exams and testing, and they may be
undocumented (New York State Department of Health 2011). HEATs clinic offers a full range of medical,
mental health, supportive, and preventive services, including HIV treatment and hormone therapy at no
charge (New York City Administration for Childrens Services 2013). The program also integrates youth by
helping them develop leadership skills through paid and volunteer positions with the HEAT program (New
York State Department of Health 2011).
22. The Administration for Childrens Services SOGIE questions were informed by the US Centers for Disease
Control and Preventions Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Systems optional SOGIE questions. They may be
found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/acs/downloads/pdf/lgbtq/Respectfully%20Asking%20SOGI
%20Questions.pdf.

NOTES

82

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YWEP (Young Womens Empowerment Project). 2009. Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Illuminating

Methods Used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and HealA Participatory Action
Research Study of Resilience and Resistance. Chicago: YWEP.

. 2012. DENIED HELP! How Youth in the Sex Trade & Street Economy Are Turned Away from Systems Meant
to Help Us and What We Are Doing to Fight Back. Chicago: YWEP.

REFERENCES

85

About the Authors

Meredith Dank is a senior researcher at the Urban Institute. Her areas of focus include human
trafficking, teen dating violence, LGBTQ issues, and victimization. She serves as principal investigator
on several research studies examining labor and sex trafficking both domestically and internationally.
An expert in human trafficking, Dank has conducted research in eight countries and took part in a White
House stakeholder meeting on victim services for survivors. She is the author of The Commercial Sexual

Exploitation of Children (LFB Publishing, 2011).

Jennifer Yahner is a senior research associate in the Urban Institutes Justice Policy Center with over 15
years of criminal justice research experience, including studies of teen dating violence and bullying,
human trafficking, LGBTQ youth, and intimate partner violence. Her victimization work has led to
publications in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Criminology and Public Policy, Journal of Youth

and Adolescence, and Violence and Victims.

Kuniko Madden is a researcher whose work focuses on prison and jail reentry, LGBTQ issues, human
trafficking, and effective criminal justice interventions. After her time as an Urban Institute research
assistant, she followed her interest in practicing direct services with disadvantaged populations through
a social work internship with Engaged Behavioral Health. She is currently cowriting an informational
pamphlet on police body cameras in Asheville, North Carolina and pursuing a masters in social work.
Isela Bauelos is a research assistant in the Urban Institutes Justice Policy Center, where her research
focuses largely on understanding the experiences of marginalized populations with the criminal justice
system and evaluating juvenile reentry programs and violence prevention efforts in low-income
communities of color. Her portfolio includes both qualitative and mixed-method research projects.
Before joining the Urban Institute, Bauelos was involved in gender-focused antipoverty efforts and
LGBTQ-sensitive sexual health education programs.
Lilly Yu is a research assistant in the Urban Institutes Justice Policy Center, where she provides
qualitative and quantitative research support to justice-related projects. Her research focuses on the
victimization, human service, and criminal justice experiences of vulnerable youth, and also on a variety
of human trafficking issues. Additionally, she supports projects related to the federal corrections
system and victims service provision.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

86

Andrea Ritchie is an attorney and researcher whose work focuses on policing of women and LGBT
people of color. Over the past five years she helped found and coordinate Streetwise and Safe. She is
coauthor of Roadmap For Change: Federal Policy Recommendations to Address the Criminalization of

LGBT People and People Living With HIV, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the
United States (Beacon Press, 2011), and Amnesty International's Stonewalled: Police Misconduct
Against LGBT People in the United States (2005). She is currently senior policy counsel at Streetwise
and Safe and a senior Soros Justice Fellow.
Mitchyll Mora, researcher and campaign staffer at Streetwise and Safe, is a youth advocate who works
to end violence faced by young people who are homeless and involved in survival economies, and to get
young people the things that they say they need. Mora is currently working on a newly formed national
network of LGBTQ youth-serving organizations that do or want to begin doing Know Your Rights work
(www.getyrrights.org).
Brendan Conner, staff attorney at Streetwise and Safe, provides civil legal representation and policy
support to LGBTQ youth of color who experience policing and criminalization, including youth who
trade sex for survival needs. He has served as technical advisor to the HIV Young Leaders Fund and has
worked both independently and in partnership with the Fremont Center on projects for clients such as
Safe Horizon, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Agency for International
Development, and the Open Society Institute.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

87

STATEMENT OF INDEPENDENCE
The Urban Institute strives to meet the highest standards of integrity and quality in its research and analyses and in
the evidence-based policy recommendations offered by its researchers and experts. We believe that operating
consistent with the values of independence, rigor, and transparency is essential to maintaining those standards. As
an organization, the Urban Institute does not take positions on issues but it does empower and support its experts
in sharing their own evidence-based views and policy recommendations that have been shaped by scholarship.
funders do not determine our research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts. Urban
scholars and experts are expected to be objective and follow the evidence wherever it may lead.
The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its
funders.

2100 M Street NW
Washington, DC 20037
www.urban.org

H U M A N
R I G H T S
W A T C H

Sex Workers at Risk

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities

Sex Workers at Risk

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities

Copyright 2012 Human Rights Watch

All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 1-56432-914-3
Cover design by Rafael Jimenez

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the
world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political
freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to
justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.
We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and
respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international
community to support the cause of human rights for all.
Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries,
and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg,
London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto,
Tunis, Washington, DC, and Zurich.
For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org

JULY 2012

1-56432-914-3

Sex Workers at Risk

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1
Key Recommendations .............................................................................................................4

Methodology...................................................................................................................... 6
Background........................................................................................................................ 8
Findings: Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities ...................................... 12
New York City ......................................................................................................................... 12
Washington, DC ...................................................................................................................... 33
Los Angeles ............................................................................................................................ 43
San Francisco ......................................................................................................................... 55

Human Rights Obligations................................................................................................. 71

Right to HIV Prevention and Access to Condoms ...................................................................... 71
Right to Liberty and Security of the Person and Freedom from Arbitrary Detention .................... 75
Right to be Free from Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment ........................... 77

Recommendations............................................................................................................ 80
New York ............................................................................................................................... 80
New York City ........................................................................................................................ 80
Washington, DC ...................................................................................................................... 81
California ...............................................................................................................................83
Los Angeles ........................................................................................................................... 84
San Francisco .........................................................................................................................85
To the United States Government ............................................................................................87
To the United Nations .............................................................................................................87

Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 89
Appendix A. New York City Criminal Court Prostitution Complaint Forms ........................... 91
Appendix B. Letter from the Latino Commission on AIDS to the NYPD .............................. 100
Appendix C. San Francisco Resolution Re: Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution ............. 102
Appendix D. San Francisco Criminal Court Prostitution Complaint Form ...........................105

Summary
If I took a lot of condoms, they would arrest me. If I took a few or only one, I
would run out and not be able to protect myself. How many times have I
had unprotected sex because I was afraid of carrying condoms? Many times.
Anastasia L., sex worker, New York City, March 22, 2012
Felicia C. is a sex worker in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. When
Human Rights Watch met Felicia, it was 2 a.m. on a cold and windy morning. Felicia ran
over to an outreach van to get a warm cup of coffee from the volunteers. She took the bad
date sheet that warns of recent attacks on sex workers, and was offered some condoms.
She would not take more than two. When asked why, she said she was afraid to be
harassed by the police. She said that a month earlier, she had been stopped and
questioned by police and told to throw her condoms into the garbage. She said shed held
her ground and refused, but she didnt want to be harassed again.
Felicias story is not unique. In four of the nations major citiesNew York, Washington, DC,
Los Angeles, and San Franciscopolice stop, search, and arrest sex workers using
condoms as evidence to support prostitution charges. For many sex workers, particularly
transgender women, arrest means facing degrading treatment and abuse at the hands of
the police. For immigrants, arrest for prostitution offenses can mean detention and
removal from the United States. Some women told Human Rights Watch that they
continued to carry condoms despite the harsh consequences. For others, fear of arrest
overwhelmed their need to protect themselves from HIV, other sexually transmitted
diseases and pregnancy.
Alexa L., a New York City sex worker, said, I use condoms. I take a lot of care of myself.
But I have not used them before because I was afraid of carrying them. I am very worried
about my health. Carol F., a sex worker in Los Angeles who had been arrested partly on
the basis of carrying condoms, had a similar story: After the arrest, I was always
scaredThere were times when I didnt have a condom when I needed one, and I used a
plastic bag.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Prostitutionthe exchange of sex for money or other considerationis illegal in 49

states and in all of the cities addressed in this report. Law enforcement agencies in these
jurisdictions are charged with enforcing laws, including those relating to prostitution.
Enforcement, however, must be compatible with international human rights law and
governments should ensure that police policies and practices do not conflict with
equally important public health policy imperatives, including those designed to curb the
HIV epidemic.
Police stops and searches for condoms are often a result of profiling, a practice of
targeting individuals as suspected offenders for who they are, what they are wearing and
where they are standing, rather than on the basis of any observed illegal activity. In New
York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, many people, particularly members of the
transgender community, told Human Rights Watch they were stopped and searched for
condoms while walking home from school, going to the grocery store, and waiting for the
bus. Vague loitering laws invite interference with the right to liberty and security of the
person, permitting police to consider a wide range of behavior and other factors
suspicious, including possession of condoms and being known as a sex worker. The
anti-prostitution loitering laws in New York, California, and Washington, DC are
inconsistent with human rights principles prohibiting detention or punishment based on
identity or status and should be reformed or repealed.
Sex workers in New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles described abusive and
unlawful police behavior ranging from verbal harassment to public humiliation to extortion
for sex, both in and out of detention settings. Transgender women described being
defaced by police who removed their wigs, threw them on the ground, and stepped on
them. Police subjected transgender women to a constant barrage of vulgar insults,
mockery, and disrespect. Most disturbing were reports in both New York and Los Angeles
that some police regularly demanded sex in order to drop charges or coerced women into
sex while in detention. Few of these women filed complaints, fearing further abuse and
having lost faith in police to respond with fairness and integrity. Police officials in each of
these cities should take action to increase accountability, restore community trust, and
end an unacceptable cycle of impunity for human rights abuses against sex workers and
transgender persons.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 persons for this report, which focuses on
police use of condoms as evidence to enforce prostitution and sex trafficking laws, as part
of an investigation into barriers to effective HIV prevention for sex workers in the four cities
covered by this report. Those interviewed included nearly 200 sex workers and former sex
workers as well as outreach workers, advocates, lawyers, police officers, district attorneys,
and public health officials. In New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles our
investigation focused on complaints of police using condoms as evidence while targeting
sex workers on the street. In San Francisco, condoms were used as evidence for street
enforcement to some extent, with police photographing rather than confiscating condoms,
in what appeared to be a dubious nod to public health concerns. In San Francisco, much of
the anti-prostitution enforcement using condoms as evidence targeted women working in
businesses such as erotic dance clubs, massage businesses, and a nightclub with
transgender clientele.
Police use of condoms as evidence of prostitution has the same effect everywhere: despite
millions of dollars spent on promoting and distributing condoms as an effective method of
HIV prevention, groups most at risk of infectionsex workers, transgender women, and
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youthare afraid to carry them and
therefore engage in sex without protection as a result of police harassment. Outreach
workers and businesses are unable to distribute condoms freely and without fear of
harassment as well.
Sex workers and transgender women are highly vulnerable to HIV infection as a result of
many factors including stigma, social and physical isolation, and economic deprivation. In
San Francisco one of three transgender women has HIV; in Los Angeles the Department of
Health has identified HIV prevention for transgender women as an urgent priority. It is
not surprising that those on the front lines are confused about the message city
governments are sending on condom use. Maria, a sex worker in Los Angeles asked, Why
is the city giving me condoms when I cant carry them without going to jail? Ironically, if
Maria went to jail in Los Angeles or any of the cities addressed in this report she could get
a condom, as condoms are available in detention settings for prevention of HIV and other
sexually transmitted diseases.
Police and prosecutors defended the use of condoms as evidence necessary to enforce
prostitution and sex trafficking laws. However, the use of any type of evidence must be
3

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

determined by weighing the potential harm that occurs from its use and the benefits
provided. In legal systems everywhere, categories of potentially relevant evidence are
excluded as a matter of public policy, with laws excluding testimony regarding a rape
victims sexual history providing but one of many examples. Law enforcement efforts
should not interfere with the right of anyone, including sex workers, to protect their health.
The value of condoms for HIV and disease prevention far outweighs any utility in
enforcement of anti-prostitution laws.
In the summer of 2012, Washington, DC will be hosting the 19th International AIDS
Conference. As more than 30,000 delegates from all over the world converge on the nations
capital, the US response to the epidemic will be in the spotlight. This is an extraordinary
opportunity for the city of Washington, DC as well as the cities of New York, Los Angeles, and
San Francisco to enact policies that protect those at risk of HIV and to eliminate those that
undermine HIV prevention such as the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution.
Strong federal leadership is also needed. The US government provides millions of dollars
of funding to each city addressed in this report to prevent HIV among groups at high risk of
HIV infection. Condoms as evidence of prostitution should be identified as a barrier to
implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and federal, state, and municipal agencies
should work together toward its elimination. Most importantly, the US recently pledged at
the United Nations Human Rights Council to protect the human rights of sex workers, a
commitment that should begin without delay. A critical step towards meeting this
obligation would be to call for the end to the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution, a
policy that endangers the health and lives of sex workers, transgender persons, LGBT
youth, and all members of the community.

Key Recommendations
To the Police Departments and District Attorneys of New York City, Washington, DC, Los
Angeles, and San Francisco

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest,

question, or detain persons suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of
prostitution and related offenses. Issue a directive to all officers emphasizing the
public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and sexual and

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

reproductive health. Ensure that officers are regularly trained on this protocol and
held accountable for any transgressions.

To the Legislatures of New York State and California and the District of Columbia Council

Enact legislation prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Reform or repeal overly broad laws prohibiting loitering for purposes of prostitution
as incompatible with human rights and US constitutional standards.

To the United States Government

The Office of National AIDS Policy and the federal agencies charged with
implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy should:

Recognize that human rights abuses such as interference with a means of

HIV prevention are significant barriers to reducing HIV among sex workers,
transgender persons, LGBT youth, and other vulnerable groups and
prioritize structural interventions to address those abuses;

Ensure the inclusion of sex workers and transgender women in the efforts
of the Working Group on the Intersection of HIV/AIDS, Violence against
Women and Girls, and Gender-related Health Disparities;

Ensure that HIV research and surveillance data adequately reflects the
impact of HIV on sex workers and transgender persons;

Call upon states to prohibit the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution

and related offenses, and develop a plan to provide guidance, technical
assistance, and model legislation to accomplish this objective.

The Department of Justice should investigate the treatment by police of sex

workers and transgender persons in New York City, Washington, DC, and Los
Angeles. The Department should provide ongoing review, enforcement and
oversight to ensure that policies and practices comply with human rights and US
constitutional standards.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Methodology
This report is based on research conducted in New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco,
and Los Angeles by a five-member team from the Health and Human Rights Division of
Human Rights Watch between October 2011 and July 2012. Research began with inquiries
to sex worker organizations and sex worker advocates, transgender, harm reduction, and
HIV advocates, and public defenders in more than 15 cities throughout the United States
about whether police or prosecutors were using condoms as evidence of prostitution. From
this preliminary investigation New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco
emerged as cities consistently reporting the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution.
Human Rights Watch interviewed an estimated 197 current and former sex workers for the
report, including 77 in New York and 40 in each of the other cities. Interviews were
conducted both individually and in groups, in a variety of settings that included the offices
of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working with sex workers, outdoors as part of
street outreach shifts, in restaurants and other public spaces, in the offices of Human
Rights Watch, and on the telephone. It is difficult to ascertain an exact number of sex
workers interviewed in the course of conducting the research for this report because not
everyone self-identified as such and there was often overlap among outreach workers,
advocates, and others. The majority of sex workers and former sex workers interviewed
were female or transgender persons, primarily transgender women.
All persons interviewed were informed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature,
and the ways in which the information would be used. All interviewees provided oral consent
to be interviewed. Pseudonyms are used for all current and former sex workers and others
requesting anonymity in order to protect their privacy, confidentiality, and safety.
Human Rights Watch also interviewed more than 110 outreach workers, advocates, lawyers,
public defenders, prosecutors, judges, public health officials, and police officers in the
four cities. Documents were obtained through Freedom of Information Law and public
record requests and shared with Human Rights Watch from multiple sources, including the
Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, the Legal Aid Society of New York, and
the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. All documents cited in the report are
publicly available or on file with Human Rights Watch.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

Human Rights Watch sought the perspective of government officials in each city including
the police, prosecutors, and public health officials. Official responses in each city are
detailed in the Findings section of the report.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Background
HIV continues to pose a major public health threat in the United States, where 1.2 million
people are living with HIV, with one in five unaware of his or her infection. Approximately
50,000 people are newly infected with HIV each year, with racial and ethnic minorities
bearing a disproportionate burden of the disease.1 Thirty years into the epidemic, it is well
established that interventions targeted at individual behavior are insufficient without
attention to social, economic, legal, and other structural factors that influence
vulnerability to HIV.2 Addressing the epidemic among vulnerable populations requires
understanding the risk environment in which they exist, and designing structural
interventions in response. As Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS,
Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), wrote,
Though individually based interventions have had some success, it is clear
that their success is substantially improved when HIV prevention addresses
broader structural factors such as poverty and wealth, gender, age, policy,
and power.3

Sex workers and transgender persons share many elements of an environment that shapes
their risk of acquiring HIV. These include physical, social and cultural isolation, stigma,
and a legal and policy environment that criminalizes their behavior and often their status.4
Transgender persons, for example, face widespread discrimination, family rejection,
stigma, and poverty, factors that illuminate the limited data that exist regarding HIV

1 Though African-Americans constitute just 14 percent of the US population, 46 percent of people living with HIV are AfricanAmerican, and 64 percent of new infections are among blacks or Latinos. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
HIV/AIDS in the United States Fact Sheet, http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/us.htm (accessed April 26, 2012).
2 CDC, Establishing a Holistic Framework to Reduce Inequities in HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STDs, and Tuberculosis in the United

States, 2010, http://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/docs/SDH-White-Paper-2010.pdf (accessed July 7, 2012); CDC, CDC

Health Disparities and Inequalities Report-United States 2011, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 60, Supplement,
January 14, 2011; Human Rights Watch, Rights At Risk: State Response to HIV in Mississippi, March 2011,
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2011/03/09/rights-risk, p. 51 (outlining environment of risk for low-income persons in Mississippi).
3 Hazel D. Dean and Kevin Fenton, Addressing Social Determinants of Health in the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS, Viral

Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Tuberculosis, Public Health Reports, vol. 125, Supp.4 (2010), p.1.
4 See, e.g. Human Rights Watch, Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia, July

2010, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cambodia0710webwcover_2.pdf; Human Rights Watch, Not Worth a

Penny: Human Rights Abuses Against Transgender People in Honduras, May 2009, http://www.hrw.org/node/83449.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

prevalence among this group. Transgender advocates recently released Injustice at Every
Turn, a survey of nearly 6,500 transgender persons in the United States.5 The report
indicated pervasive discrimination, a poverty level four times higher than the general
population, and twice the unemployment rate of non-transgender people, often leaving sex
work as the only option for survival. Each of these factors was even more marked in
transgender persons of color, as was vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. Among those surveyed,
the self-reported HIV prevalence rate was four times higher than that in the US general
population, with rates for those who had engaged in sex work higher than 15 percent.6
The consequences of arrest are harsh for sex workers, transgender women, and other LGBT
people, who face high levels of abuse, harassment, and violence in police custody and in
prison.7 Sex workers who are immigrants have additional reason to fear arrest as the US
government targets criminal aliens for removal.8 For both documented and
undocumented immigrants, prostitution and solicitation are potential grounds for removal
and inadmissibility under federal immigration law.9 As a crime of moral turpitude, a
conviction for prostitution, loitering with intent to commit prostitution, or solicitation can
be grounds for removal from the US, but there is also a separate provision that establishes
prostitution as a removable offense.10 Under this provision a criminal conviction for
prostitution is not required for a finding of inadmissibility, if immigration authorities
determine on other grounds that one has engaged in prostitution.11 A conviction of
prostitution or a determination that one has engaged in prostitution can render one
inadmissible, meaning that those in the US cannot return if they leave the country and may

5 National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Injustice At Every Turn: A Report

of
the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, February 3, 2011, http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/ntds
(accessed May 21, 2012).

6 Ibid.
7 Urban Justice Center, Revolving Door: An Analysis of Street-Based Prostitution in New York City, 2003; Human Rights

Watch, Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia, July 2010,
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cambodia0710webwcover_2.pdf; National Center for Transgender Equality
and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Injustice At Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination
Survey; Amnesty International, Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender people in the United States, AI Index No.: AMR 51/122/2005, September 21, 2005.
8 US Department of Homeland Security, Written Testimony of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John

Morton for a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Homeland Security Hearing on the Presidents Fiscal
Year 2013 Budget Request for ICE, March 8, 2012, http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/testimony/20120308-ice-fy13-budget-requesthac.shtm (accessed May 11, 2012).
9 Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended,(INA), secs. 212 and 237.
10 INA, sec. 212.
11 INA, sec. 212 (a) (2) (D) (i).

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

have difficulty adjusting their legal status. These are also grounds that can trigger the
mandatory detention requirements of the immigration laws for both documented and
undocumented immigrants.12
Condoms are a proven method of preventing transmission of HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases, demonstrated to substantially reduce the risk of HIV transmission
and endorsed by international and US health authorities as an essential component of HIV
prevention programs.13 In many jurisdictions, including the United States, condoms are
provided as an essential HIV prevention method among populations whose actions are
criminalized or for whom sex is prohibited such as prisoners.14 Indeed, in each of the four
cities addressed in this report, millions of condoms are distributed by the public health
department each year as part of highly visible HIV prevention campaigns, and in each city,
condoms are made available to inmates of the citys jails.15
Prostitutiondefined as the exchange of sex for money or other considerationis illegal in
49 states in the US and is prohibited in every city addressed in this report.16 The police are
charged with enforcing laws, including laws against prostitution. But enforcement must be
consistent with human rights obligations, including the rights to health, to liberty and
security of the person, and to freedom from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
Governments can and do take measures to ensure that the criminal laws do not impede
human rights protection and public health, most notably by promoting harm reduction
12 INA, sec. 236 (c).
13 See, e.g. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),

World Health Organization (WHO), and Joint United Nations Programme

on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Position Statement on Condoms and HIV Prevention, March 18, 2009,
http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/condoms/20090318_position_condoms.pdf (accessed July 7, 2012); CDC, Male Latex
Condoms and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.htm (accessed April 26,
2012); US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Workshop Summary, July 2001, p. 14.
14 International Harm Reduction Association, Global State of Harm Reduction 2010, April 2010; United Nations Office on

Drugs and Crime (UNODC), HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care, Treatment and Support in Prison Settings: A Framework for an
Effective National Response, October 2006.
15 John P. May and Ernest Williams, Acceptability of Condom Availability in a US Jail, AIDS Education and Prevention, vol. 14,

supp. B; Mary Sylla et al., The First Condom Machine in a US Jail: the Challenge of Harm Reduction in a Law and Order
Environment, 100 American Journal of Public Health, vol. 100, no. 6, June 2010, pp. 982-985; Arleen A. Liebowitz et al.,
Condom Distribution in Jail to Prevent HIV Infection, AIDS Behavior, May 4, 2012; AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Condom
Distribution in US Correctional Facilities and Canada, Fact Sheet 2011.
16 Nevada permits counties to regulate sex work in licensed brothels. See Nevada Revised Statutes, sec. 244.345. Nevada

law mandates that sex workers require patrons to wear condoms in all licensed sites of prostitution. See Nevada Revised
Statutes, sec. 441A.805. Prostitution is also a federal crime, including when committed outside of US borders. See
Transportation for Illegal Sexual Activity Act, 18 USC. secs. 2421-2428. For a summary of state and federal anti-prostitution
laws, their enforcement, and implications for human rights, see Alice M. Miller, Mindy J. Roseman, and Corey Friedman,
Sexual Health and Human Rights: United States and Canada, Working Paper for the World Health Organization, 2010.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

10

programs for drug users including syringe exchange and safe injection sites.17 Each of the
cities addressed in this report has syringe exchange programs that operate under
exceptions to state drug paraphernalia laws. These programs are aimed at promoting
treatment of drug addiction and preventing the sharing of needles, a mode of HIV
transmission, by protecting drug users from police action in specific situations. They
reflect collaboration between affected communities, law enforcement, and public health
officials, an approach that should be applied to the issue of condoms as evidence of
prostitution.

17 International Harm Reduction Association, "Global State of Harm Reduction, 2010; British Columbia Ministry of Health
Services, Insite Supervised Injection Site, http://supervisedinjection.vch.ca/ (accessed May 11, 2012); North American
Syringe Exchange Network, Syringe Exchange Program Database, http://www.nasen.org/programs/ (accessed May 22, 2012).

11

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Findings: Condoms as Evidence of

Prostitution in Four US Cities
New York City
HIV in New York City
New York City is the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, with more than
110,000 people living with HIV and an AIDS case rate that is three times the national
average. AIDS is the third-leading cause of death for New Yorkers between the ages of 35
and 54. African-Americans bear a disproportionate burden of HIV in New York, with an HIV
diagnosis rate four times that of whites. Though HIV historically affected mostly males in
New York, nearly a quarter of new HIV diagnoses are among women, with 92 percent of
these in African-American or Latina women.18 Young men who have sex with men,
particularly young men of color, are increasingly at risk of HIV infection. In 2009, for the
first time, HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men aged 13 to 29 surpassed
those among men 30 years and older.19 Among transgender persons in New York City, there
were 183 new HIV diagnoses between 2006 and 2010. Most of these occurred among
African-American or Hispanic transgender women. Of the transgender women newly
diagnosed with HIV, eight percent reported having engaged in sex work, a figure likely to
be low given that it was based on the number of people who felt comfortable disclosing
this fact to a medical provider.20

18 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), HIV/AIDS Information,

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/ah/ah.shtml (accessed April 10, 2012); New York City Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene, New York City HIV/AIDS Surveillance Slide Sets, March 2012,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/dires/epi_surveillance.shtml (accessed April 10, 2012).
19 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, HIV/AIDS Among Youth and Older Adults 2006-2010, New York

City HIV/AIDS Surveillance Slide Sets, March 2012, http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/dires/epi_surveillance.shtml

(accessed April 10, 2012).
20 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, HIV/AIDS Among Transgender Persons in New York City 20062010, New York City HIV/AIDS Surveillance Slide Sets, March 2012,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/dires/epi_surveillance.shtml (accessed April 10, 2012). HIV surveillance among
transgender persons remains incomplete due to lack of reliable data concerning the size of transgender populations and
collection methods that have not consistently identified transgender persons as a separate population. The CDC recently
issued new guidelines for data collection among transgender persons intended to improve completeness and accuracy of
HIV surveillance in the US for this population: CDC, Guidance for HIV Surveillance Programs: Working With Transgender
Specific Data, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

12

A recent study in New York City among people who exchange sex for money or other goods
(a category broader than those who self-identify as sex workers21) found that 14 percent of
the men and 10 percent of the women were HIV-positive.22 This is dramatically higher than
the 1.4 percent HIV prevalence in New York City generally and the 0.6 percent prevalence in
the United States overall.23
New York State and City have devoted enormous resources to curbing the HIV epidemic,
targeting prevention efforts to many of these vulnerable populations. A cornerstone of these
prevention efforts is promoting universal access to condoms. The New York City Department
of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) expanded an already-existing condom distribution
program in the mid-1980s in response to the AIDS crisis, and in 2007 launched the New York
City Condom Campaign, the first condom to be branded by a municipality in the United
States. Within six months of the launch, the citys condom distribution increased to more
than three million condoms per month in the five boroughs (36 million per year). New York
City currently distributes more than 40 million free condoms annually.24 DOHMH states in its
condom promotion materials, Its Your Right: No onenot even a spouse or intimate
partnercan take away your right to use condoms, or your right to refuse sex.25

Anti-Prostitution Enforcement in New York City

New York State law prohibits the offenses of prostitution,26 a misdemeanor, and
loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense, a violation (punishable
only by a fine) and a possible misdemeanor (punishable by a fine, jail time, or both).27
Other prostitution-related offenses include patronizing prostitution,28 promoting
prostitution,29 and sex trafficking.30
21 Samuel M. Jenness et al., Patterns of Exchange Sex and HIV Infection in High-Risk Heterosexual Men and Women, Journal

of Urban Health, vol. 88, no. 2 (2011), pp. 329-341. Jenness stated, commercial sex work is a sub-category of exchange or
transactional sex, defined as the trading of sex for material goods, p. 329.
22 Ibid, p. 338.
23 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City HIV/AIDS Surveillance Slide Sets, March 2012.
24 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City Condoms,

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/condoms/condoms.shtml (accessed April 11, 2012.)

25 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene,

Health Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 1, http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/hb/dohmhnews6-01.shtml (accessed April 11, 2012).

26 New York Penal Law, sec. 230.00 et seq.
27 New York Penal Law, sec. 240.37.
28 New York Penal Law, secs. 230.02-06.
29 New York Penal Law, sec. 230.15 et seq.
30 New York Penal Law, sec. 230.34.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

From January through November 2011 the New York City Police Department (NYPD) made
4,054 arrests for prostitution-related offenses.31 This included 1, 899 prostitution cases
(targeting the alleged provider of sex) and 1,192 arrests targeting alleged patrons of
prostitutes. Six hundred and nineteen arrests were made for loitering for the purpose of
engaging in a prostitution offense.32 The vast majority of these arrests are disposed of
without trial, primarily through plea bargaining or proceeding under a conditional discharge,
usually requiring participation in a substance abuse or other diversion program.33
In 2011, for example, there were five acquittals in New York City for prostitution-related charges.
Of cases showing a disposition, 85 percent showed sentenced or sentence pending,
indicating a judgment of guilt. One of three persons convicted spent time in jail for the offense.
In 2011 there were 35 arrests for sex trafficking in New York City (see Tables 1 and 2 below).34
Table 1. Prostitution Related Arrests in New York City in 2011*
CHARGE

ARRESTS

PL 230.00

Prostitution

1,899

PL 230.04

Patronize Prostitute 3rd

1,188

PL 240.37

Loitering for Prostitution

691

PL 230.20

Promoting Prostitution 4th

119

PL 230.25

Promoting Prostitution 3rd

92

PL 230.34

Sex Trafficking

35

PL 230.40

Permitting Prostitution

10

PL 230.30

Promoting Prostitution 2nd

PL 230.33

Compelling Prostitution

PL 230.06

Patronize Prostitute 1st

PL 230.05

Patronize Prostitute 2nd

PL 230.32

Promoting Prostitution 1st

PL 230.03

Patronize Prostitute

4th

* as of 11-22-11
Source: DCJS, Computerized Criminal History system.

31 New York Department of Criminal Justice Statistics, Prostitution-Related Arrests in New York City, through November 22, 2011.
32 Ibid.
33Human Rights Watch interview with Kate Mogulescu, Legal Aid Society, New York City, November 2, 2011.
34 New York Department of Criminal Justice Statistics, Prostitution-Related Arrests in New York City, through November 22, 2011.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

14

Table 2. Dispositions of Prostitution Related Arrests in New York City in 2011*

ARRESTS
Total Arrests

4,054

Dispositions Reported

2,460

Open, No Disposition Reported

1,594

Total Dispositions

2,460

Convicted: Sentenced

2,053

Dismissed

228

DA Declined to Prosecute

127

Convicted: Sentence Pending

41

Acquitted

Other

Covered by Another Case

Total Sentences

2,053

Conditional Discharge

859

Fine

527

Jail

348

Time Served

314

Probation

Other

Jail and Probation

Prison

Unconditional Discharge

* as of 11-22-11
Source: DCJS, Computerized Criminal History system.

Prosecutors have attempted to use condoms as evidence in some of the few cases that
proceeded to trial. Kate Mogulescu, a public defender with the Legal Aid Society of New
York, has spent the last two years defending prostitution and loitering for purposes of
prostitution cases in Manhattan and serving as a consultant on prostitution trials in other
boroughs. Mogulescu said that in that time period, Prosecutors tried to introduce

15

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

condoms in two of the ten cases that went to trial, and in both of those the judge refused
to admit them as evidence.35
In a case tried by Mogulescu in June 2010 Judge Richard Weinberg of the Criminal Court of
the City of New York had this exchange with the prosecutor:
Judge Weinberg: I dont care about the condoms. This is the 21st Century.
Prosecutor: The People would like to voice their objection. This is
circumstantial evidence of defendants intent.

Judge Weinberg: And every other woman and man who wants to protect
themselves in the age of AIDS.36
In New York loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense is defined as
when a person remains or wanders about in a public place and repeatedly beckons to,
or repeatedly stops, or repeatedly attempts to stop, or repeatedly attempts to engage
passers-by in conversation, or repeatedly stops or attempts to stop motor vehicles, or
repeatedly interferes with the free passage of other persons, for the purpose of
prostitution.37 The loitering for purposes of prostitution law has long been considered
unconstitutionally overbroad by civil liberties advocates in New York State. In 1978 it was
challenged as too vague to provide adequate notice of what conduct was illegal, a
violation of the right to due process of law under the 5th and 14th Amendments, but the
law was upheld by the New York Court of Appeals.38 The Court specifically upheld the use
of circumstantial evidence for the loitering charge, including the location of the defendant
in a known prostitution zone, the officers prior arrests of other people for prostitution in
that location, and recognition of the defendant as a previous prostitution offender.39
According to the New York Police Department Patrol Guide, police officers are permitted to
include the suspects location, conversations, clothing, conduct, associates, and status as

35 Human Rights Watch interviews with Kate Mogulescu, Legal Aid Society, New York City, August 30, 2011 and November 2, 2011.
36 Trial Transcript, People of the State of New York v. (redacted), Criminal Court of the City of New York, June 22, 2010, on file
with Human Rights Watch.
37 New York Penal Law, sec. 240.37.
38 People v. Smith, New York Court of Appeals, 44 NY 2d 613 (1978).
39 Ibid.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

16

a known prostitute in order to establish that someone is loitering for the purpose of
engaging in prostitution.40 This and similar loitering laws are problematic from a human
rights perspective, in that they grant police wide latitude to engage in unjustified
interference with lawful activities short of actual solicitation. Such laws enable arbitrary
and preemptive arrests on the basis of profile or status, rather than criminal conduct.41
Under federal and state law, police may stop an individual on a reasonable suspicion of
criminal activity.42 Police may conduct a search if there is probable cause to believe that
the person committed a crime.43 The expansive grounds for suspicion under New Yorks
loitering for the purposes of prostitution statute permit police to stop and search
individuals for a wide variety of reasons and it is during these searches that condoms may
be discovered and seized. Condoms may also be seized as evidence of non-loitering
prostitution charges such as those based on solicitation of an undercover police officer or
other grounds.44 In Brooklyn criminal courts condoms are one item listed as an option as
additional evidence of prostitution on forms filled out by police officers in support of
prostitution and loitering charges. On forms used in Manhattan criminal court, officers
have added condoms to the narrative as additional evidence to support prostitution
charges. Examples of forms filed in Brooklyn and Manhattan criminal courts identifying
condoms as evidence of prostitution are included in Appendix A.

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution

Human Rights Watch interviewed sex workers in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.
In each borough sex workers told Human Rights Watch that they were frequently stopped by
police and searched. In many instances police seized the condoms and routinely commented
on the number of condoms they were carrying when condoms were found as part of a search.
Police Stops and Seizure of Condoms
Tanya B., a Latina transgender sex worker in Queens, stated,

40 New York Police Department (NYPD) Patrol Guide, secs. 208-44 and 208-45.
41 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.
GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976. See arts. 2, 9, 21.
42 Terry v. Ohio, United States Supreme Court, 392 US 1 (1968); People v. Debour, New York Court of Appeals, 40 NY 2d 210 (1976).
43 Virginia v. Moore, United States Supreme Court, 553 US 164 (2008); People v. Cooper, New York Court of Appeals, 241 AD 2d

553 (1997).
44 Human Rights Watch interviews with Kate Mogulescu, Legal Aid Society, New York City, August 30, 2011 and November 2, 2011.

17

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

I was stopped and threatened. The cops said empty your purse. I cleared out
everything but left the condoms at the bottomI got caught. They said how
come you didnt pull out the condoms? I can arrest you because of this. I said
its not a problem, I have no weapons, no drugs and the police officer said
next time I will arrest you because this is evidence you are a prostitute.45
Pam G., a woman who has Multiple Sclerosis and is a sex worker, told Human Rights Watch
of her experience in Coney Island, Brooklyn:
The cops say, what are you carrying all those condoms for? We could arrest
you just for this. They use it to push the issue of searching me. It happens
all the time around here. I may be carrying eight condoms. If you have more
than three or four on you, they will take them, they will be disrespectful.46
Alysha S., an African-American sex worker in Hunts Point, Bronx, stated,
I have been picked up because I have condoms, it happened to me. I had
five. I was by McDonalds, I was walking down the street, he [policeman]
went into my pocket, I always have them in my pocket.47

Misinformation about the Legality of Condoms

For some sex workers the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution leads to confusion
about how many they can carry and a perception that condoms are illegal. Sienna Baskin is
a lawyer and co-director of the Urban Justice Centers Sex Worker Project. Baskin said that
sex workers frequently ask, How many condoms it is legal to carry in New York City?
Baskin informs them that it is legal to carry as many as one wishes.48
Lynn A. had just moved to New York from the Midwest. She said, I didnt know this was
happening at all, I didnt know carrying a condom was a crime. I just came from Minnesota
and in Minnesota they give out condoms.49
45 Human Rights Watch interview with Tanya B., New York City, December 9, 2011. Pseudonyms are used in this report for the

sex workers interviewed, in order to protect confidentiality.

46 Human Rights Watch interview with Pam G., New York City, March 19, 2012.
47 Human Rights Watch interview with Alysha S., New York City, March 23, 2012.
48 Human Rights Watch interview with Sienna Baskin, Urban Justice Center, New York City, November 2, 2011.
49 Human Rights Watch interview with Lynn A., New York City, February 21, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

18

Police Profiling as Sex Workers

Many people complained of being stopped, searched, or arrested while engaging in legal
activity, many just while walking in their own neighborhoods. Along with appearance,
being known to officers as a sex worker, or being in an area known for prostitution
activity, condoms could lead to women being identified by police as sex workers. Lola N.,
an African-American sex worker in Hunts Point, Bronx said,
One day I was walking with a boyfriend and a vice cop pulled up, jumped
out. My boyfriend, he had weed on him and they let him go. They arrested
me. They found condoms on me. They say I was arrested for solicitation.50
Many members of the Queens Latina transgender community experienced being stopped
and searched by the police on suspicion of prostitution while walking in their own
neighborhoods. Alexa L., a transgender woman from Mexico, said,
Eight days ago I wasnt working because I was sick. I left my house to get a
coffee, and had two condoms in my pocket. The police stopped me and said
what are you doing? I said I was getting coffee. They searched me and found
two condoms. They asked what are you doing with two condoms, what are
they for? I said they were for protection. They took the condoms. I couldnt
get coffee, I was so scared. I felt very bad. Im not a delinquent, I didnt steal.
When they searched me and found them, I was shaking, I was so scared.51
Selena T., told Human Rights Watch,
They have emptied out my whole purse. The cops assume Im a prostitute,
they stop me, open my purse, check if I have a certain number of condoms.
They are always looking for condoms when they open your purse.52
Yanira C. was at the movies before she was arrested:

50 Human Rights Watch interview with Lola N., New York City, March 23, 2012.
51 Human Rights Watch interview with Alexa L., New York City, December 9, 2011.
52 Human Rights Watch interview with Selena T., New York City, December 9, 2011.

19

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

I was with a friend on 82nd and Roosevelt. We came out of a movie theater.
Some cops in a van came over, said I was being arrested. The cops said I
was too beautiful. The charge was that I had more than one condom in my
bag. They locked me up for two days for solicitation and prostitutionthey
said I had condoms, it was on the report.53
Mona M. is from El Salvador and has lived in Jackson Heights, Queens for ten years. She is
a transgender woman who takes it upon herself to provide condoms to other sex workers.
She said, To the police, all transgenders are prostitutes.54
Juan David Gastolomendo is executive director of the Latino Commission on AIDS, a
nongovernmental organization providing support and outreach services to Latina
transgender women in Queens. According to Gastolomendo their clients are regularly
targeted as prostitutes by law enforcement:
The false arrest is mainly on loitering charges, including loitering for
prostitution. It ends up boiling down to being a trans woman in a place
where known sex work is happening. The arrest is based on the clients
identity and where the arrest happens. These are places where prostitution
happens, but they are also places where people socialize.55

Police Interference with Outreach Activities

Several women who often engaged in peer outreach and education described how police
interfered with these activities. Anna E., a 32-year-old former sex worker from Mexico, said,
I went back to the clubs in Jackson Heights, not to be a prostitute, but just
to go back to the clubs. I cant walk on Roosevelt Avenue between 72nd
Street and 82nd Street because the police are there and they immediately
think Im a prostitute. I cant carry condoms like I used to and give them to

53 Human Rights Watch interview with Yanira C., New York City, December 9, 2011.
54 Human Rights Watch interview with Mona M., New York City, February 9, 2012. Two transgender women of color successfully
challenged their arrests for loitering for the purposes of prostitution in New York City in 2008 (Lamot v. City of New York et al.,
District Court of Southern District of New York, 08cv5300 (SDNY)) and 2011 (Combs v. City of New York et al., District Court of
Southern District of New York, 11cv3831 (SDNY)) but for the most part this type of police profiling occurs with impunity.
55 Human Rights Watch interview with Juan David Gastolomendo, Latino Commission on AIDS, Queens, New York, November 23, 2011.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

20

my friends. I have a terror about it. I am panicked especially since now I

have a job as a stylist. I feel I cant give out condoms to my friends because
I am afraid to carry them.56
Mona M. sits in a neighborhood restaurant at a regular time so that she can provide
condoms to women who are afraid to carry condoms when they are working:
The majority have fear, they dont carry condoms. Im an outreach worker.
They know Mona will be in the cafe. They will only come when they have a
client, get one condom, then leave with the client. For me its a risk to have
the condoms in my purse. But Ive worked as an outreach worker, and I feel
obligated to carry condoms because if someone comes up and asks me,
and I dont have one, what are they going to do?57
Police also have harassed outreach workers from service organizations despite workers
explanations and presentation of identification issued by their employers.58 In Queens and
other boroughs the Latino Commission on AIDS gives each outreach worker a printed form
to carry explaining to police why they are carrying and distributing condoms in the
neighborhood. A copy of this form is included as Appendix B.

Immigration Consequences of Arrest for Prostitution

The immigration laws put undocumented sex workers in a serious dilemma. According to
public defenders in New York, they are acutely aware of the untenable situation their
clients face and often must advise their clients to plead guilty to an offense in order to be
released from custody. They want to avoid going to Rikers Island Correctional Facility
where federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents screened arrivals for
immigration violations.59 As Barbie M., an undocumented sex worker, described it, I pled
guilty to prostitution, my lawyer said to plead guilty, I had no other option because if I
didnt plead guilty I would stay in jail and be deported.60

56 Human Rights Watch interview with Anna E., New York City, March 22, 2012.
57 Human Rights Watch interview with Mona M., New York City, February 9, 2012.
58 Human Rights Watch interview with Juan David Gastolomendo, Latino Commission on AIDS, New York City, November 23, 2011.
59 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Josh Saunders, Brooklyn Defender Services, New York City, November 11,

2011 and Kate Mogulescu, Legal Aid Society, New York City, December 29, 2011.
60 Human Rights Watch interview with Barbie M., New York City, January 31, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

However, as of May 15, 2012, avoidance of immigration screening will no longer be

possible, as ICE began to implement the Secure Communities Program. Under this program
the fingerprints of all persons arrested by local police are sent to federal immigration
authorities for review to determine whether they should be detained for immigration
purposes.61 For sex workers who are undocumented and transgender this development is
particularly disturbing as deportation can mean a return to countries where they have
endured life-threatening abuse and discrimination. Juan David Gastolomendo of the Latino
Commission on AIDS said,
We see mainly false arrest, profiling. Latino immigrants, trans, MSM. This
has immigration implications, which is a major concern. They will be
deported to the situations they were fleeing from. The trouble with this is
that a lot of individuals who are deported could file for asylum if we had
the resources for this.62

Fear of Carrying Condoms as a Result of Police Action

Many sex workers reported that they continued to carry condoms despite fear of arrest.
For others, however, fear of arrest, jail time, and conviction on prostitution charges
overcame their need to protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases. Anna E. said,
Am I afraid to carry condoms? Yes I was for a long time. When I was
working on the street, I felt like I could only carry two or three, not a lot
when I went out63
Nola B. explained that transgender sex workers may need more than one condom during
an exchange:

61 Julia Preston, Despite Opposition, Immigration Agency to Expand Fingerprint Program, New York Times, May 11, 2012;

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Secure Communities Program, http://www.ice.gov/secure_communities/

(accessed May 27, 2012).
62 Human Rights Watch interview with Juan David Gastolomendo, Latino Commission on AIDS, Queens, New York, November
23, 2011. Human Rights Watch has documented high rates of violence against transgender people in Honduras, South Africa,
Kuwait and other countries, see, e.g. Human Rights Watch, Not Worth A Penny: Human Rights Abuses Against Transgender
People in Honduras, May 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/05/29/not-worth-penny-0.
63 Human Rights Watch interview with Anna E., New York City, March 22, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

22

For sex workers who are transgender, sometimes the transgender has to put
on a condom, so does the client. So you need two. Or they could break. One
to two is not enough.64
Outreach workers who provide harm reduction services on the street confirmed that sex
workers were often reluctant to take condoms for fear of arrest. An outreach worker in the
Bronx and East Harlem said,
We usually hand out two packs [of condoms] at a time. Ive had girls give
one pack back and say well share. Sometimes they are not carrying
anything to carry them in, and with them getting stopped so often, they
dont want to have a lot on them.65
Lorena Borjas, an outreach worker for the Latino Commission on AIDS in the Queens Latina
transgender community gave a similar testimony:
The police are arresting a lot of people in Jackson Heights. The girls are afraid
to carry condomsThe Department of Health says protect yourself, you see
their advertisements on TV, on the radio, on the subway. But the police in
Queens are either not well trained, or dont know better that they are doing
things wrong. They are arresting girls and using condoms as evidence.66
Mito Miller, an outreach worker in the West Village in Manhattan told Human Rights Watch,
I have never had any young men afraid to take condoms, only black and
Latina trans women who have refused to take them. Ive had people not
take condoms, people who do go through a rigorous routine of hiding them.
They were wrapping them in paper, so they were gift-wrappedThey took a
couple, but consciously limit themselves, even though they know they are
working and would need more, because they couldnt hide them.67
64 Human Rights Watch interview with Nola B., New York City, December 9, 2011.
65 Human Rights Watch interview with Jonathan Marrero, CitiWide Harm Reduction, New York City, March 23, 2012.
66 Human Rights Watch interview with Lorena Borjas, Senior Outreach Worker, Latino Commission on AIDS, Manhattan, New

York, March 22, 2012.

67 Human Rights Watch interview with Mito Miller, PROS Network, New York City, February 16, 2012.

23

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Several sex workers stated that because of police practices they had no choice but to
engage in sex work without condoms as a result. Alexa L. said,
I use condoms. I take a lot of care of myself. But the police affect our ability
to carry them. Sometimes Im afraid and have not used them. I am very
worried about my health.68
Tanya B. said she runs out of condoms but has to keep working:
[Police action] affects my ability to carry condoms. A lot of girls carry one to
two condoms but some nights are very successful and you have to do the
last one [client] without one.69
Anastasia L., a transgender woman from Mexico who did sex work in Queens until 2007, said,
If I took a lot of condoms, they would arrest me. If I took few or only one, I
would run out and not be able to protect myself. How many times have I had
unprotected sex because I was afraid of carrying condoms? Many times.70

Police Abuse, Harassment, and Misconduct

Sex workers reported that whether condoms played a role or not, interaction with police
frequently was accompanied by verbal and physical abuse. This was particularly true for
transgender women, as reported by Victoria D.:
All my arrests always came from just walking on the street, coming out of a
club, or just because a cop identified me as transgender. They would
always look for condoms. They dont care about you, they take your purse,
throw it on their car, your stuff they throw it on the floor, they pat frisk you,
they ask if you have fake boobs, take them off right there, if you have a wig,
take it off. Its humiliating. Right there in the street, they take your identity

68 Human Rights Watch interview with Alexa L., New York City, December 9, 2011.
69 Human Rights Watch interview with Tanya B., New York City, December 9, 2011.
70 Human Rights Watch interview with Anastasia L., New York City, March 22, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

24

right there. When they find condoms, they say what are these for how
many dicks did you suck today? How much money did you make today?71
Alexa L. told Human Rights Watch,
Five months ago, I was going to see my partner, my husband. A police van
stopped and four police officers came out. They stopped me, put me in
handcuffs, and asked what I was doing. I said I was going to see my partner,
and they said I was lying, that I was prostituting myself. They pushed me
against the wall and I scraped my knee and my cell phone fell down. They
were saying fuck you gay That time they arrested me and I had one
condom in my breast. They found it and took it and threw it away.72
Transgender women described abuse by law enforcement officers in Queens Central
Booking, The Tombs detention complex in Manhattan and at Rikers Island Correctional
Facility. Tara A. was in Queens Central Booking in April of 2011:
I spent 24 hours in Central Booking in Queens. Just 24 hours in hell, the
psychological side is affected because you have to go in an area with men.
Its not just being arrestedIn front of me men were insulting me, saying
faggot. I felt discriminated when they took my fingerprints, they put on
gloves, like they were disgusted. They made fun of me, the police officers.
Sometimes Id walk by the men and theyd say youre pretty. The police
officer would say shes not a woman, shes a man.73
Transgender women described many incidents, including extortion for sex, which, if
perpetrated by policemen, would constitute criminal activity or misconduct. Some
occurred several years ago but there were recent incidents as well. Brenda D. told Human
Rights Watch about an incident in December 2011:

71 Human Rights Watch interview with Victoria D., New York City, January 20, 2012.
72 Human Rights Watch interview with Alexa L., New York City, December 9, 2011.
73 Human Rights Watch interview with Tara A., New York City, February 9, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

I went into a car with a person. He said he was a police officer and said if
you help me Ill help you. He said he wanted oral sex. He showed me a
badge. He said if I didnt have oral sex with him he would call the police
and arrest me for prostitution. 74
Valerie S., a transgender sex worker from Queens described an incident she said occurred
three months earlier:
An Asian police officer came up. I thought it was a client, I went into his car.
I put my hand on his, he didnt let me and we kept driving. I started leaving
the car at the red light. He said stop, Im police and showed his badge. He
said he wanted oral sex. I said what do I do? Looking at the badge, I didnt
want to get arrested.75
Mona M., a former sex worker who now does outreach in the Queens transgender
community told Human Rights Watch,
Ive heard from some of the girls that they have an agreement with the
police. It means if you have sex with me, your charges will disappear.76
None of these individuals complained to the police or other authorities. Anna E. was forced
by a New York City police officer to have sex with him in Queens in 2006. She explained
why she never reported the incident:
No, because I was too terrorized by all the other interactions with the police,
I havent reported it until now [that I am sharing it with Human Rights
Watch]. I have faced so much discrimination and trouble with so many
cases, and so many psychological problems with the case, I didnt want any
more trouble. But if I had the psychological state to do it, I would, because I
think its important.77

74 Human Rights Watch interview with Brenda D., New York City, February 21, 2012.
75 Human Rights Watch interview with Valerie S., New York City, February 21, 2012.
76 Human Rights Watch interview with Mona M., New York City, February 9, 2012.
77 Human Rights Watch interview with Anna E., New York City, March 22, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

26

NYPD mistreatment of transgender people has been documented by Amnesty International

and others.78 On June 12, 2012, the NYPD announced reforms to the official patrol guide
intended to improve interaction between police and members of the transgender
community.79 This is a step forward but the testimony of individuals interviewed for this
report indicates much work remains to protect the human rights of sex workers and
transgender persons in New York City.

LGBT Youth Affected By Condoms as Evidence

Men who have sex with men and LGBT youth are at high risk of HIV infection in New York
City. In 2009, HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men aged 13 to 29 surpassed,
for the first time, those among men aged 30 and older.80 In New York City between 2006
and 2010, new HIV infections among young men who have sex with men, particularly
young men of color, were consistently higher than in any other transmission category.81
One in four LGBT teens runs away or is forced to leave home, and between 20 and 40
percent of homeless youth self-identify as LGBT.82 Many may not identify as sex workers
but may exchange sex for money, food, and other necessities. LGBT youth report being
harassed for possessing condoms by police enforcing anti-prostitution laws.
Streetwise and Safe (SAS) is an advocacy organization for LGBT youth of color focused on
challenging harmful criminal laws, policies, and practices that target this population. In 2011
SAS participated in research conducted by the PROS (Providers and Resources Offering
Services to sex workers) Network and the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
(DOHMH) by surveying peers in their age group and others about police harassment for

78 Amnesty International, Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender

people in the United States, AI Index No.: AMR 51/122/2005, September 21, 2005; Joey Mogul, Andrea Ritchie, and Kay
Whitlock, Queer (In)justice: the Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States (Boston: Beacon Press, 2012).
79 Speaker Christine C. Quinn, NYPD Commissioner Kelly, Council Members and Advocates Celebrate Patrol Guide Reforms

to Protect Transgender New Yorkers, New York City Council press release, June 12, 2012,
http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/061312trans.shtml (accessed June 21, 2012).
80 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, HIV/AIDS Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in New York City

2010, New York City HIV/AIDS Surveillance Slide Sets, March 2012,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/dires/epi_surveillance.shtml (accessed April 10, 2012).
81 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, HIV/AIDS Among Youth 12-29 and Older Adults (50 and over) in

New York City 2006-2010, New York City HIV/AIDS Surveillance Slide Sets, March 2012,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/dires/epi_surveillance.shtml (accessed April 10, 2012).
82 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth: An Epidemic of Homelessness,

2006, http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/HomelessYouth.pdf (accessed July 7, 2012).

27

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

condoms. Of those surveyed by SAS members, 60 percent had been stopped and searched
by a police officer, and one-third said police had taken condoms away from them. Half of the
survey participants said they feared carrying condoms because of trouble with the police.83
Outreach workers to LGBT youth told Human Rights Watch about a young girl in Manhattan
who refused to take more than one condom out of fear of arrest:
I was handing out condoms in Tompkins Square Park. One lady came up and
took two condoms. I said you can take more but she said no, theyll arrest
me. She was scared to take them she might have been 18 [years old].84
In May 2011 SAS co-hosted a forum with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance to
address criminal justice issues. Nearly 50 LGBT youth testified about the practice of police
confiscating condoms and using them as evidence of prostitution and loitering for
prostitution charges.85 According to Andrea Ritchie, civil rights lawyer and activist and cocoordinator of SAS,
LGBT youth are primary targets of HIV prevention efforts, including condom
distribution in schools, drop-in centers, and communities. At the same time,
they make up a disproportionate number of homeless youth and are subject
to intense policing practices in public spaces as a resultThey are routinely
profiled as being engaged in prostitution-related offenses and subjected to
NYPD stop-and-frisk practices. This all adds up to a lethal combination where
condoms are confiscated and used in evidence, undermining public health
efforts and criminalizing LGBT youth.86
Although not the focus of this report, police interference with condom possession among
LGBT youth in New York City merits further investigation.

83 Streetwise and Safe, Memorandum in Support of Bill Number A-1008 and S-323, submitted to the New York State Legislature March

2012, http://www.streetwiseandsafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/SAS-legislative-memo-FINAL.pdf (accessed April 26, 2012).

84 Human Rights Watch interview with Renee R., Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, New York City, February 2012.
85 Human Rights Watch interview with Sharon Stapel, executive director, Anti-Violence Project, March 12, 2012.
86 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Andrea Ritchie, May 27, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

28

Documentation of Condoms as Evidence

from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
and the Urban Justice Center/PROS Network
In the summer and fall of 2010 the Sex Worker Project of the Urban Justice Center and the
PROS Network assisted the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
(DOHMH) in conducting a survey of sex workers in New York City to assess the prevalence of
the practice of police using condoms as evidence of prostitution. The findings of this survey
were not released publicly, even to the PROS Network, until Human Rights Watch obtained a
redacted version in February 2012 by filing a request under the New York Freedom of
Information Law. The results indicated that of 63 individuals surveyed, 81 percent had been
stopped and searched by a New York City police officer; 57 percent had had condoms taken
away from them by a New York City police officer; and 29 percent said they had at one time
not carried condoms because they were afraid of trouble with the police. When this group
was asked to explain what about the police made them fear carrying condoms, statements
ranged from their own experiences with arrest, hearing that condoms could cause you to be
marked as a prostitute, and the potential embarrassment of having condoms seized.87
On the basis of this report, DOHMH included the issue of using condoms as evidence in
their 2011 Enhanced Comprehensive HIV Prevention Plan (ECHPP) submitted to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in March 2011, noting their support for current
legislation pending in the New York State legislature that would prohibit the use of
condoms as evidence of prostitution, and stating that discussions with the New York City
Police Department about the issue were underway.88 However, in an interview with the
New York Times published on April 24, 2012, a spokesperson for the DOHMH stated that
the department had reversed its position:
After the Commissioner reviewed the study, which found that the current
law has not resulted in sex workers consistently failing to carry condoms
because of fear of arrest, he decided not to support the legislation. We

87 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, A Report to the New York City Commissioner of Health prepared

by Paul Kobrak, December 8, 2010 (on file with Human Rights Watch).
88 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Enhanced Comprehensive HIV Prevention Plan PS-10-10181,

March 15, 2011, pp. 21-24.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

have seen no evidence that the current law undermines the public health
aims of condom distribution.89
The Sex Worker Project of the Urban Justice Center and the PROS Network followed up on
these findings with additional surveys taken in the fall of 2011. In a report released on April
17, 2012, the two organizations reported that 74 percent of the 35 sex workers surveyed had
been stopped and searched by the police, and 46 percent of sex workers surveyed had at
one time not carried condoms due to fear of the police. Fifteen sex workers reported having
had condoms confiscated by the police, with six of these individuals reporting that they
continued engaging in sex work after the confiscation. Of these six sex workers who
engaged in sex work after the confiscation, three did not use protection.90

Response of New York City Public Officials

Human Rights Watch requested interviews with the New York City Police Department, the
District Attorneys in each of the four boroughs addressed in this report, and the New York
City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The NYPD respectfully declined to meet with Human Rights Watch.91 The New York City
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene did not respond to repeated written requests for
an interview.92 As of May 2012, only the Manhattan and Queens District Attorneys had
granted our request for interviews, though the Manhattan District Attorneys office has not
scheduled an interview as of this writing. The Bronx District Attorneys office replied that,
we have not seen cases where such evidence [condoms used as evidence of prostitutionrelated offenses] was collected or used. Accordingly, at this time there seems to be no
reason for a meeting, but failed to respond to subsequent requests to clarify this
statement.93 The Brooklyn District Attorney failed to respond to a request for an interview,
89 Jim Dwyer, Giving Away, and then Seizing Condoms, New York Times, April 24, 2012.
90 PROS Network and Urban Justice Center Sex Workers Project, Public Health Crisis: the Impact of Using Condoms As

Evidence in New York City, April 2012, http://sexworkersproject.org/downloads/2012/20120417-public-health-crisis.pdf

(accessed June 19, 2012).
91 Human Rights Watch telephone communication with Cesar Bonila, administrative sergeant, New York City Police

Commissioners Office, April 19, 2012.

92 Letter from Human Rights Watch to Commissioner Thomas Farley, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene,

May 1, 2012, detailing repeated requests for an interview with representatives of the NYCDOHMH, including email and
telephone communications March 28, and April 3, 9 ,11, and 13, 2012, on file with Human Rights Watch.
93 Email communication to Human Rights Watch from Anthony J. Girese, counsel to the Bronx District Attorney, April 24, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

30

but has publicly expressed its opposition to proposed legislation prohibiting the use of
condoms as evidence.94
In the view of the office of the Queens District Attorney, condoms are useful items of
evidence in prostitution-related offenses, and banning condoms as evidence would
seriously damage our cases.95 The office emphasized the importance of using condoms as
evidence in sex trafficking and promoting prostitution cases in which the alleged
prostitutes, mostly women, are victims of criminal exploitation. Lois Raff, Counsel to the
Queens District Attorney, stated,
We spend a lot of focus on going after pimps and sex traffickers for
promoting prostitution, kidnapping, and sex trafficking. In that context as
well, condoms may be one way the pimp will facilitate prostitution, by
providing them.96
The Queens District Attorney stated that condoms were useful in efforts to close brothels
and other businesses engaging in prostitution such as nail salons, hotels, and residences.
A large number of condoms will be evidence in these cases, said Ms. Raff.97 Their office
currently has seven sex trafficking cases and 65 cases for promoting prostitution, internet
crimes, and illegal massage parlors pending disposition. With regard to sex trafficking and
promoting prostitution, they estimated that condoms were part of the evidentiary basis for
the prosecution in two of these cases.98

94 Freeman Klopott, Prostitutes Push for N.Y. Law Banning Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution, Bloomberg News,
April 17, 2012.
95 Human Rights Watch interview with Lois Raff, Counsel to the Queens District Attorney, New York City, March 27, 2012.
96 Ibid.
97 Ibid.
98 Human Rights Watch interview with Lois Raff, Counsel to the Queens District Attorney and Anthony Communiello, Chief of

the Special Proceedings Bureau, Queens District Attorney, New York City, March 27, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

The NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Policy

In New York City, police stops and searches of sex workers, and those profiled to be sex
workers, can be placed in the larger context of questionable police policies for stopping and
searching persons without suspicion of criminal activity. The US Constitution and New York
State Law permit an officer to stop an individual temporarily if the officer has reasonable
suspicion that the individual is committing or has committed a crime, and to frisk the
individual for a weapon if the officer reasonably suspects that he is in danger of physical
injury.99 A pending federal lawsuit, Floyd v. City of New York, challenges the NYPDs stopand-frisk practices, claiming that a substantial number of the nearly 700,000 annual stops
and frisks by the police lack adequate grounds for reasonable suspicion, are racially
motivated, and are unlawfully targeted toward black and Hispanic New Yorkers.100
Although not specifically focused on stops and frisks enforcing anti-prostitution or
loitering laws, plaintiffs in Floyd have submitted extensive evidence that an NYPD
policing policy based on quotas for stops and arrests is a driving force behind many of
the stops and frisks.101 This policy, described officially by NYPD as minimum thresholds
for performance, but as quotas by current and former officers, rewards a certain
number of street stops per week.102 It is not clear how many stops on suspicion of sex
work are recorded as stops and frisks, but many of the neighborhoods where stops and
frisks occur on a regular basis are the same neighborhoods where sex workers are
frequently stopped. Jackson Heights, Queens, for example, the location of much of the
harassment of Latina transgender women documented in this report, has the thirdhighest rate of stops and frisks in the city.103 In New York City, failure to respect the right
of sex workers, transgender women, and LGBT youth to liberty and security of the person
is part of broader human rights concerns raised by practices of the NYPD.

99 Terry v. Ohio, United States Supreme Court, 392 US 1 (1968); People v. Debour, New York Court of Appeals, 40 NY 2d 210

(1076); New York Criminal Procedure Law, sec. 140.50.

100 Floyd et al v. City of New York, District Court of Southern District of New York, 08 Civ. 01034 (SAS).
101 Report of Jeffrey Fagan, Ph.D., filed October 15, 2010 in the case of Floyd v. City of New York.
102 See, e.g. NYPD Operations Order dated October 17, 2011, attached as Exhibit 12 to the Declaration of Darius Charney filed
in opposition to defendants motion for summary judgment in Floyd v. City of New York. Al Baker, Bronx Police Precinct
Accused of Using Quota System, New York Times, February 23, 2012; Michael Powell, No Room for Dissent in a Police
Department Consumed by the Numbers, New York Times, May 7, 2012.
103 New York Civil Liberties Union Stop and Frisk database, http://www.nyclu.org/content/stop-and-frisk-database

(accessed May 7, 2012).

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

32

Washington, DC
HIV in Washington, DC
The HIV epidemic in Washington, DC is one of the most severe in the United States. The
overall prevalence of HIV in the District is three times higher than the one percent designated
by the World Health Organization as a generalized epidemic.104 Washington, DC has the
highest AIDS diagnosis rate and the second-highest rate of new HIV diagnosis among major
metropolitan areas in the United States.105 Half of the District of Columbia population is
African-American.106 Of the 17,000 persons living with HIV, however, 75 percent are AfricanAmerican. Most people living with HIV in Washington, DC are males (72 percent), but black
women in DC are 14 times more likely to be living with HIV than white women.107 Sex between
men is the most frequent mode of transmission, responsible for 38 percent of all living cases
of HIV/AIDS, with 27 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS reporting infection through
heterosexual contact and 16 percent through injection drug use.108
The District of Columbias response to HIV came under heavy criticism in the last decade.
In 2005 the non-profit public policy organization DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice
released a comprehensive critique of the citys failure to adequately budget, plan, and
confront the HIV epidemic in the District. The report called for sweeping reforms in
infrastructure, coordination, and resources for surveillance, prevention, care, and
services.109 That same year the HIV Prevention Planning Council for the District appealed to
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to intervene in the city HIV and AIDS
office as it was missing federal deadlines for developing and reporting crucial
epidemiological data for the city.110
Major changes followed these reports, including a new director for the HIV program and an
organizational restructuring in the District of Columbia Department of Health. Every year
since the initial report, DC Appleseed has issued a report card on the Districts efforts in

104 District of Columbia Department of Health, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration (HAHSTA) Annual Report, 2010.
105 Kaiser Family Foundation, US HIV/AIDS Policy Fact Sheet, December 2011; H. Irene Hall, et al., Epidemiology of HIV

Infection in Large Urban Areas of the United States, PLoS One, vol. 5, no. 9, 2010, Table 1.
106 US Census Bureau Quick Facts District of Columbia 2010.
107 District of Columbia HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB (HAHSTA) Annual Report 2010.
108 Ibid.
109 DC Appleseed, HIV/AIDS in the Nations Capital: Improving the District of Columbias Response to a Public Health

Crisis, August 2005.

110 E. Weil-Greenberg, District AIDS Strategy Slammed By Two Groups, Washington Blade, August 12, 2005.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

the battle against AIDS. The most recent report card indicates that substantial progress
has been made in many areas, confirmed by Department of Health data showing a
decrease in the HIV prevalence to the current figure of 3.2 percent, a decrease in new AIDS
cases, a testing program that nearly doubled the number of HIV tests, and a significant
decrease in deaths from AIDS.111
City government in the District of Columbia has demonstrated a commitment to improving
its response to the HIV epidemic, and HIV remains a focus of the current administration. In
2011, Mayor Vincent Gray appointed a Mayors Commission on HIV and AIDS in order to
help end the HIV epidemic in the District of Columbia by focusing on treatment, the needs
of people living with AIDS, and the prevention to stop new infections.112 The Commission
will bring together medical providers, academics, faith-based community members, and
members of government to make recommendations on best practices for improving care,
services, and prevention programs. In July 2012 the city will host the 19th Annual
International AIDS Conference, where the epidemic and the response of the District will be
in the spotlight.
One area of marked improvement is condom distribution in the District of Columbia, where
four million condoms were distributed in 2010 compared to 115,000 in 2006.113 The Rubber
Revolution, part of the District of Columbias HIV prevention program, uses the internet and
other social media to encourage condom use. The Rubber Revolution website says,
Today is the day that you join the Rubber Revolution, a new movement in
DC to take condoms out of hiding. We want to get those rubbers out of your
wallet, remove them from your purses and pull them out from under the
beds of every ward in the city. We want condoms in the hands of the men
and women of DC to use for responsible and good sex. We are creating a
movement of people who are committed to getting and using condoms. No
longer will we have to hide condoms.114

111 DC Appleseed, HIV/AIDS in the Nations Capital, Report Card No. 6: October 2009 to February 2011; District of Columbia
HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB (HAHSTA) Annual Report 2010.
112 Mayor Gray Announces Commission on HIV and AIDS, Office of the Mayor press release, February 25, 2011.
113 DC Appleseed, HIV/AIDS in the Nations Capital, Report Card No. 6, p. 3.
114 District of Columbia Department of Health, Join the Rubber Revolution, http://www.rubberrevolutiondc.com/ (accessed

April 20, 2012).

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

34

Anti-Prostitution Enforcement in Washington, DC

Washington, DC law prohibits engaging in or soliciting prostitution, an offense defined as
a sexual act or contact with another person in return for giving or receiving a fee.115
Penalties range from a fine of not more than US $500 and/or 90 days in jail for a first
offense to a possible two year jail sentence for the third offense.116
In 2005 the DC Council enacted the Omnibus Public Safety Act that provided for the
declaration of Prostitution-Free Zones (PFZ) by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Under this statute, the MPD may designate an area a PFZ on the basis of disproportionately
high arrests for prostitution or calls for police service related to prostitution in the locale in
the previous six month period, or objective evidence or verifiable information indicating
that a high incidence of prostitution is occurring in that locale.117
Within the PFZ police may arrest or disperse persons determined to be engaging in or
soliciting prostitution, based on a range of behaviors and factors similar to those
enumerated in New York Citys loitering for prostitution laws. These include not only conduct
such as flagging down cars and conversing with passers-by, but being a known participant
in prostitution or prostitution-related offenses.118 In addition, in the PFZs police may arrest
two or more persons who are reasonably believed to be congregating for the purposes of
prostitution and who fail to disperse when ordered to do so.119 The declaration of a PFZ can
last as long as 480 consecutive hours after notice is posted in the area by the MPD.120
Although prostitution is unlawful throughout Washington, DC, the broadly drawn
loitering laws that permit arrest based on a range of circumstantial evidence are
enforceable only within an officially declared PFZ. This statute was immediately
controversial, drawing opposition from a broad spectrum of community groups and civil
liberties advocates.121 No legal challenge, however, has ever been filed, primarily
115 District of Columbia Official Code, secs. 22-2701 and 2701.01. Related offenses include pandering (District of Columbia

Official Code, Sec. 22-2705); receiving money for arranging prostitution (District of Columbia Official Code, sec. 22-2707);
operating a house of prostitution (District of Columbia Official Code, sec. 22-2712) and others.
116 District of Columbia Official Code, sec. 22-2701.
117 District of Columbia Official Code, sec. 22-2731.
118 Ibid.
119 Ibid.
120 Ibid.
121 See, e.g. Testimony of Stephen M. Block of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Omnibus Public Safety Act of 2005

presented at Council hearing June 20, 2005.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

because MPD has never made an arrest for failure to disperse under the PFZ statute,
leaving its legality untested in the courts.122
The MPD practice of dispersing people from the PFZs was the subject of advocacy in the
sex worker and transgender community. Police profiling of transgender persons as
prostitutes was a significant factor in organizing the transgender community to push for
the addition of transgender and non-gender conforming people to the citys Human Rights
Act in 2005.123 After two years of negotiation between the transgender community and the
MPD, the MPD issued guidelines for members of the police force addressing their
interaction with transgender individuals that includes a prohibition on profiling
transgender persons as sex workers:

Members shall not solely construe gender expression or presentation as

reasonable suspicion or prima facie evidence that an individual is engaged
in prostitution or any other crime.124
In January 2012 the DC Council considered a bill sponsored by Councilwoman Yvette
Alexander to expand the prostitution-free zones.125 The new bill would have permitted the
MPD to declare a PFZ on a permanent basis for an unlimited period of time. Between 2009
and 2012, arrests for prostitution-related offenses decreased by nearly 50 percent, from
1,695 in 2009 to 845 in 2011.126 In testimony before the Committee on the Judiciary
regarding the bill, Assistant Chief of Police Peter Newsham opposed expansion of the PFZs,
explaining that they had little to do with the drop in prostitution arrests in recent years.
Chief Newsham stated that the PFZs had not reduced prostitution in the District in a
meaningful way, rather subjecting it to temporary displacement.127 He noted that
prostitution complaints from citizens as well as arrests had steadily decreased in the last
several years, a decrease he attributed to several factors other than the PFZs, including the

122 Testimony of Ariel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel to the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, before the
Committee on the Judiciary, January 24, 2012; Testimony of Fritz Mulhauser, director of ACLU of Washington, DC, before the
Committee on the Judiciary, January 24, 2012.
123 Alliance for a Safe and Diverse DC,

Move Along: Policing Sex Work in Washington, DC, p. 21; District of Columbia Official

Code, sec. 2-1401.01.

124 Metropolitan Police Department, General Order 501-02 October 2007, IV (d).
125 Prostitution Free Zone Amendment

Act of 2011, Bill 19-567, Council of the District of Columbia.

126 Information provided by MPD to Human Rights Watch, April 12, 2012.
127 Written testimony of MPD Assistant Chief of Police Peter Newsham, January 24, 2012, Committee on the Judiciary, DC Council.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

36

movement of many prostitution activities indoors and onto the internet. With regard to
street prostitution, he stated that in his experience, many people engaging in this type of
prostitution are drug dependent or have mental health problems, and this is not a
problem we can arrest our way out of. Chief Newsham urged an increase of social services
to the population engaged in prostitution.128
The Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia also testified against
expansion of the PFZs, noting that the original PFZ legislation was vulnerable to
constitutional challenge and the expansion bill was even more likely to be found
unconstitutionally vague.129 The proposed legislation was returned to the Committee by the
Council as whole for reconsideration and as of June 2012 had not been enacted.130 The
original PFZ legislation remains in place.

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution

In Washington, DC, sex workers told Human Rights Watch that condoms were used as part
of police stops on suspicion of prostitution.
Stops and Searches for Condoms
In Washington, DC as in other jurisdictions a lawful stop requires reasonable suspicion of
criminal activity and lawful searches must be based on probable cause for arrest on a specific
charge.131 Every stop, however, does not result in arrest, and most stops reported to Human
Rights Watch consisted of police questioning, searching, and demands to move along
without resulting in an arrest. It was during these encounters that sex workers were most
frequently targeted for carrying condoms during enforcement of the anti-prostitution laws.
Annie P., an African-American transgender woman who used to be a sex worker told
Human Rights Watch,

128 Oral testimony of

MPD Assistant Chief of Police Peter Newsham, January 24, 2012, Committee on the Judiciary, DC Council.

129 Written testimony of Ariel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel to the Attorney General for the District of Columbia,

Committee on the Judiciary, DC Council, January 24, 2012.

130 A legislative history of the Prostitution Free Zone Amendment Act of 2011 is available at:

http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/legislation/prostitution-free-zone-amendment-act-of-2011 (accessed July 7, 2012).

131 Terry v. Ohio, United States Supreme Court, 392 US 1 (1968); New York v. Belton, United States Supreme Court, 453 US

454 (1981); United States v. Christian, United States Court of Appeals, 187 F.3d 663 (DC Circuit, 1999).

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

I stopped tricking three years ago. But when I walk through the old
neighborhood where my boyfriend still lives, I get stopped by the police who
think I am still working. A few months ago I had been visiting my boyfriend
and I had three condoms still on me. The police stopped me, asked me to
empty my pockets, and asked me why I was carrying so many condoms. I said
cuz thats how many times me and my boyfriend do it. But he didnt believe
me, and made me wait while he looked to see if there were prostitution
charges against me. Since I didnt have any recent ones he let me go.132
Cassandra A., a transgender woman and sex worker, stated,
I was stopped at 4th Ave and Rhode Island Avenue. I and a friend had
gotten a ride to the store, and we were stepping out of the car when some
vice cops rode up. They were looking for drugs or something so they patted
us down and asked me why I was carrying a condom and asked was I
tricking? Are these guys your pimps? And I said no and we didnt have any
drugs so they let us go. This happens all the time that they ask about the
condoms you are carrying, if you are a known prostitute it is one of the
basic questions asked by the cops when they stop you.133
Lee H., an African-American sex worker, also said that police frequently target condoms
during stops:
Three months ago in the downtown area I was stopped by the cops. They
told me to put my hands on the police car and they searched my purse.
They asked me why I had so many condoms. I had 15 condoms in my purse,
and if you have more than two condoms they think you are a sex worker. I
told them it was not their business how many condoms I had. I said I might
be out here giving it away but Id rather have too many than not enough. Its
not for them to tell me how many condoms I can have This was the 3rd or
4th time this happened to me in DC.134

132 Human Rights Watch interview with Annie T., Washington, DC November 17, 2011.
133 Human Rights Watch interview with Cassandra A., Washington, DC, November 17, 2011.
134 Human Rights Watch interview with Lee H., Washington, DC, November 17, 2011.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

38

Zinnia F., a transgender sex worker in the downtown area said,

Yes it happens, they say why do you have so many condoms? No one
walks around with a lot of condoms because of it. It happened to me two
times, once last summer. This was in the K street area.135
Felicia C., a sex worker in Columbia Heights, told Human Rights Watch,
Oh yes, at 14th and Perry, on the 26th of December, the cops harassed me
and told me to throw my condoms in the garbage. I told them no I am not
throwing them in the garbage! I dont want to die!136
Outreach workers also said that sex workers express a fear of being found by police in
possession of condoms. Jenna Mellor, Director of Outreach for HIPS (Helping Individual
Prostitutes Survive) runs the mobile outreach van that provides condoms, clean syringes,
and other harm reduction materials to sex workers several times per week. Mellor told
Human Rights Watch,
Fear of taking condoms is a real problem. Clients take fewer condoms
than they need because they fear the police. They also hide condoms in
their clothes, their wigs, their cleavage, in order to avoid being hassled by
the police.137
Mellor also said that generally police are tolerant of the outreach van, but there have been
occasions when police cars have followed the van. Recently, a police car waited for a
transgender individual to visit the van, and then the officers got out of the car and stopped
and searched her: Some police are supportive and leave us alone, but it is by no means
100 percent supportive.138

135 Human Rights Watch interview with Zinnia F., Washington, DC, January 27, 2012.
136 Human Rights Watch interview with Felicia C., Washington, DC, January 27, 2012.
137 Human Rights Watch interview with Jenna Mellor, HIPS, Washington, DC, November 17, 2011.
138 Human Rights Watch interview with Jenna Mellor, HIPS, Washington, DC, November 17,

39

2011.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Monica B. facilitates the transgender support group at HIPS and does outreach to sex
workers to let them know about the group:
Three months ago I was in the downtown area doing outreach. I give out
condoms and let people know about the [HIPS] program. The cops stopped
me and went through my bag, asked me what am I doing with all these
condoms? I explained that I was an outreach worker and promoting my
group. They did not arrest me but they sure gave me a hard time.139
Lina C., an African-American transgender sex worker, described a recent experience while
on the stroll (an area where sex work regularly occurs):
Last summer I was on the stroll. I had just left the [HIPS] truck and they asked me why I had
so many condoms. I said I had just come from the truck. They asked me my history,
whether I had ever been arrested in the past. They also approached the truck to verify my
story. They didnt arrest me but they harassed me for 45 minutes.140
Some sex workers referred to a 3-condom rule in the District of Columbia. Nila R. told
Human Rights Watch that she received that information from a police officer:
In 2011 they locked me up in the 5th district. The cop told me I could have
three condoms and threw the others out, I had ten altogether. Also, an open
condom is a charge. Ive been locked up for it, the cops told me they were
locking me up for an open condom.141
Madison M., a sex worker interviewed at a motel in the northeast section of the city, stated,
I havent been hassled myself, but I heard there was a rule that you can
only carry three condoms.142

139 Human Rights Watch interview with Monica B., Washington, DC, January 26, 2012.
140 Human Rights Watch interview with Lina C., Washington, DC, January 26, 2012.
141 Human Rights Watch interview with Nila R., Washington, DC. January 26, 2012.
142 Human Rights Watch interview with Madison M., Washington, DC, January 27, 2012.

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40

Abuse of Transgender Women by Police

Transgender women were the majority of those we interviewed who complained about stops
and searches for condoms, and their testimony described abusive behavior by police.
Jody B., a 23-year-old female-to-male transgender person stated,
The police ask constantly, how much are you charging? In October I was
coming out of the China theater in Chinatown on a date with my boyfriend.
They stopped both of us, searched me, I had condoms in my purse. We
talked our way out of it so they did not arrest us. Us transgenders, we get
used to not reporting these things. Its hard; Im stepping back from being
full-on transgender, because its hard.143
Lina C. said that police encounters were often traumatic:
I was arrested last year and it was humiliating. They defaced me. They took
off my wig and stomped it on the ground, then handed it back to me when
they put me in the car.144
Monica B. stated that in her outreach work she has observed this defacing behavior and
other abuse occurring during police stops:
The police are often extorting for sex, taking out peoples falsies and dropping
them on the street, this does not happen every day but it happens regularly.145

Response of Washington, DC Public Officials

Assistant Chief of Police Peter Newsham expressed concern that the police were
discouraging the use of condoms among sex workers or any other member of the public.
He said that condoms could be used as supplemental evidence collected incident to
arrest. He explained that in Washington, DC, prostitution cases are not a high priority and
that arrests that are made are usually complaint-driven, meaning members of the public
have complained about activity in their neighborhoods. According to Chief Newsham, the
143 Human Rights Watch interview with Jody B., Washington, DC, January 26, 2012.
144 Human Rights Watch interview with Lina C., Washington, DC, January 26, 2012.
145 Human Rights Watch interview with Monica B., Washington, DC, January 26, 2012.

41

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

emphasis is now on pimping and human trafficking cases, and the priority is to charge
those who are exploiting the women involved. Chief Newsham asserted that condoms may
be helpful as supplementary evidence in these cases and will continue to be collected at
the scene.146
Further, Chief Newsham emphasized that searches must be made only if there exists
probable cause for arrest. He was concerned to hear that people reported being stopped
and searched in circumstances that suggested a lack of probable cause. He also
expressed concern that transgender individuals were alleging profiling and other abuse,
and asked if they had filed complaints. When hearing that people often feared filing police
complaints, he emphasized that there were anonymous ways to make complaints and
agreed to ensure that community members were aware of these methods.147
Chief Newsham expressed his concern that police were editorializing about condoms in
a manner that conveyed a threat to arrest sex workers for possession of condoms.
Newsham agreed to consider issuing guidelines prohibiting such commentary and to
underscore for MPD officers the importance of encouraging condom use. He agreed to
meet with public health and other city officials and members of the sex worker community
to discuss steps that can be taken by MPD to address all of these issues.148
Judge Linda Kay Davis, the judge in the special prostitution docket of the Criminal Court
said that in two years of presiding over individual prostitution cases she had never
encountered condoms presented as evidence in her court.149
The US Attorney had no comment on the issue of condoms, or any other evidence in their
cases, as a matter of policy.150

146 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Assistant Chief of Police Peter Newsham, Metropolitan Police Department,

Washington, DC, March 30, 2012.

147 Ibid.
148 Ibid.
149 Human Rights Watch interview with Judge Linda Kay Davis, Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC,

November 16, 2011.

150 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with William Miller, public information officer for the US Attorney for the District

of Columbia, Washington, DC, April 24, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

42

The Washington, DC Department of Health responded with concern to the findings of this
report and agreed to consider proposals from community organizations for action before
the International AIDS Conference.151

Los Angeles
HIV in Los Angeles
Los Angeles County is a sprawling area that is home to nearly 10 million people.152 The
County includes the City of Los Angeles and numerous smaller cities. Los Angeles County
is the entity for which HIV and AIDS statistics are collected by the Los Angeles County
Department of Public Health (LADPH) and the entity to which HIV funding is provided by the
federal government.153 In Los Angeles County, 59,500 persons are estimated to be living
with HIV.154 Forty percent of people living with HIV in Los Angeles County are Latino.155 In
2012, 80 percent of new HIV diagnoses occurred in men who have sex with men and 11
percent in those who reported heterosexual contact. Among women, Latina women had the
most new HIV infections (42 percent) compared to 39 percent in African-American women
and 14 percent in white women.156
According to LADPH there are an estimated 926 transgender persons living with HIV in Los
Angeles County.157 The rate of HIV infection is difficult to determine because the size of the
transgender population as a whole is uncertain.158 Nevertheless, Los Angeles has a large and
vibrant transgender community, and HIV infection is one of its greatest concerns. In 2001
several community organizations partnered with the LADPH to publish a study of transgender
health.159 The authors noted the lack of data concerning the health of a marginalized and
underserved population and surveyed 244 male-to-female transgender persons.160
151 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Nestor Rocha and Michael Kharfen, Washington, DC Department of Health,

April 12, 2012; Human Rights Watch email communication with Cyndee Clay, HIPS, April 10, 2012.
152 US Census Bureau, State & County QuickFacts: Los Angeles County, California, 2011,

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06037.html (accessed July 7, 2012).

153 Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH), Enhanced Comprehensive HIV Prevention Planning (ECHPP)

Report, 2011, http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/aids/PPC/ECHPP/ECHPPExecutiveSummary.pdf (accessed May 20, 2012.)

154 Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH), 2011 Annual HIV Surveillance Report, February 2012, p.1.
155 Ibid.
156 Ibid.
157 Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH), HIV Prevention Plan 2009-2013, undated, p. 47,
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/aids/PreventionPlan.htm (accessed July 7, 2012).
158 LADPH, 2011 Annual HIV Surveillance Report, p. 17.
159 Cathy J. Reback, et al., Los Angeles Transgender Health Study: Community Report, May 2001.
160 Ibid.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

The 2001 LADPH report found a 22 percent HIV prevalence among the group, many of
whom were not aware of their infection. Half of the participants had an annual income of
less than $12,000, and half also noted that their primary income was derived from sex
work. Despite a high level of knowledge about HIV transmission, condom use was
inconsistent, with 29 percent of people who had exchanged sex for money or other goods
in the last six months stating that they did not always use a condom. Thirty-seven percent
reported verbal abuse or harassment by the police. The report concluded, among other
recommendations, that HIV prevention programs tailored to transgender women in Los
Angeles were urgently needed.161
Another transgender needs assessment conducted by LADPH in 2007 found that of 80
transgender persons surveyed, one in five was HIV-positive. Numerous factors associated
with high HIV risk were identified, including sex work, unemployment, and transphobia.
One-third of transgender persons surveyed had traded sex for money or other goods. The
needs assessment was cited in the LADPH HIV Prevention Plan for 2009-2013, with the
conclusion that transgender persons were a priority and critical target population for HIV
prevention in Los Angeles.162
Increased condom distribution to high-risk groups is also a top priority for Los Angeles
County Department of Public Health. Along with New York, Washington, DC, and San
Francisco, Los Angeles is a participant in a funding initiative of the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), focusing on high prevalence urban centers as part of its
implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. (Although the program is called the 12cities program, the entity receiving federal funding is the County of Los Angeles).163 One of
the required HIV prevention interventions for all 12-cities program participants is
increased condom distribution to high-risk populations. Los Angeles plans to accomplish
this goal by increasing distribution to high-risk populations and by marketing a Los
Angeles-branded condom.164

161 Ibid.
162 Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, HIV Prevention Plan 2009-2013, pp. 4-15.
163 CDC, Enhanced Comprehensive HIV Prevention Planning (ECHPP) Program, 2011,

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/strategy/echpp/index.htm (accessed May 2, 2012); LADPH, Los Angeles ECHPP, 2011,

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/aids/echpp.htm (accessed May 2, 2012.)
164 LADPH, Los Angeles ECHPP, http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/aids/echpp.htm (accessed May 11, 2012).

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44

Public health officials have worked with the Los Angeles Police Department in the past to
address law enforcement practices that were impeding efforts to prevent HIV. In 2005 Chief
of Police William Bratton issued what has become known as the Bratton Declaration, an
example of a best practice in bringing law enforcement, public health agencies, and HIV
advocates together to ensure that drug users had access to syringe exchange programs
without police interference. The Bratton Declaration established clear guidelines for all
members of the LAPD to follow that emphasized the role of the citys syringe exchanges in
HIV prevention and prohibited officers from seizing syringes as evidence of drug
possession from syringe exchange participants.165

A History of Police Abuse of Transgender People in Los Angeles

Public health and human rights advocates have documented a disturbing history of police
abuse and harassment of transgender people in Los Angeles. The 2001 Transgender Health
Study found that 37 percent of transgender persons surveyed had endured verbal abuse or
harassment by the police. Amnesty Internationals 2005 report Stonewalled: Police Abuse
and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in the United States
documented Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) police profiling of transgender persons
as sex workers, verbal and physical abuse in the street, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading
treatment in police custody.166 A recent book co-authored by Andrea Ritchie, who served as a
consultant on the Amnesty report, reported numerous incidents of police abuse in Los
Angeles, including an alleged rape of a transgender woman by an officer of the LAPD.167
In April 2012 the Latino advocacy organization Bienestar released the results of a survey of
Latina transgender women about their interactions with law enforcement in Los Angeles
County.168 Bienestar interviewed 220 Latina male-to-female transgender persons, 95
percent of whom were born outside of the United States and half of whom were
undocumented. One in three described her employment status as sex worker, while
nearly half reported currently exchanging sex for food, money, shelter, or drugs. The report
found that the majority had been verbally harassed by the police, one in five had been
165 Notice number 3.3.1 from William Bratton, chief of police, Los Angeles Police Department, to all department employees,

July 8, 2005.
166 Amnesty International, Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender

People in the United State, AI Index No.: AMR 51/122/2005, September 21, 2005
167 Joey L. Mogul, Andrea J. Ritchie and Kay Whitlock, Queer (In)Justice: the Criminalization of LGBT People in the United

States, (Boston: Beacon Press, 2012).

168 Bienestar, Interactions of Latina Transgender Individuals with Law Enforcement, April 2012.

45

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

physically assaulted by law enforcement, and one in four had suffered sexual assault by a
law enforcement officer. For most survey participants, being profiled as a sex worker was a
routine occurrence as people reported being stopped by police while waiting for the bus
and coming back from the grocery store. Most incidents were never reported as people
were afraid of further police abuse or immigration intervention. The report recommended
improved trainings for officers interacting with transgender individuals, enforceable
policies prohibiting abuse and misconduct, and appointment of a liaison between law
enforcement and the transgender community.169
In April 2012 the Los Angeles Police Department issued new guidelines for interaction with
transgender individuals.170 Included in the guidelines is the recognition that non-traditional
gender identities and gender expressions do not constitute reasonable suspicion or prima
facie evidence that an individual is or has engaged in prostitution or any other crime.171
Though issued less than three weeks after the Bienestar report, the new guidelines represent
the culmination of several years of negotiation between city agencies, the transgender
community, and HIV advocates. In 2009 the HIV Prevention Planning Council established a
transgender task force that recommended numerous criminal justice reforms including a
reconsideration of the practice of using condoms as evidence of prostitution.172 This report
was followed by formation of the Transgender Working Group (TWG), a coalition of community
and legal organizations, city agencies, and the LAPD working to improve treatment of
transgender persons in the citys criminal justice system. The TWG also issued
recommendations for criminal justice reforms that included ending the possession of
condoms as evidence of prostitution.173 The LAPD adopted some of these recommendations
including guidelines for police interaction with transgender individuals, new procedures for
assigning transgender persons to jail, and a transgender unit to be established in the
womens jail rather than assignment to male or female facilities according to biological sex.174

169 Ibid.
170 Notice number 1.12 from Charlie Beck, chief of police, Los Angeles Police Department, to all department personnel,

(undated) http://learningtrans.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/lapd-transgender-policies.pdf (accessed May 11, 2012.)

171 Ibid., p. 2.
172 Transgender Task Force, Los Angeles County HIV Prevention Planning Committee Transgender Task Force

Recommendations, October 21, 2009.

173 City of Los Angeles Human Resources Commission, Recommended Model Policies and Standards for the LAPDs

Interactions with Transgender Individuals, July 2010.

174LAPD to House Transgender Arrestees in Separate Section, Los Angeles Times Newsblog, April 12, 2012,

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/lapd-jail-transgender.html (accessed May 11, 2012).

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

46

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution

In 2010 the LAPD arrested 4,775 adults and 123 juveniles for prostitution-related
offenses.175 Arrests are most common under the statute prohibiting prostitution (Penal
Code Section 647(b)) that makes it a misdemeanor offense to solicit[] or agree[] to
engage in or [to] engage in any act of prostitution. The statute requires that there be
an act in furtherance of the crime in order to convict.176 A loitering statute also
prohibits the act of loitering with intent to commit prostitution. Like New Yorks law,
Californias loitering statute is broadly drawn, permitting arrest on the basis of
circumstantial evidence that includes beckoning passers-by, stopping vehicles, being in
an area known for prostitution activity, and having engaged in any of these behaviors
or in any other behavior indicative of prostitution activity in the six months prior to
the arrest.177
In addition, California state law requires mandatory HIV testing for anyone convicted of a
prostitution charge for the first time and anyone arrested with a prior prostitution-related
conviction.178 If arrested on prostitution charges again after testing positive for HIV,
charges can be elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony charge, carrying a possible
sentence of up to three years in prison.179 Enhanced penalties for recidivism per se are not
problematic, but here no sexual activity is required by the statute; the felony charges can
be imposed solely on the finding of intent or agreement to commit prostitution after a prior
prostitution conviction and a positive HIV test.180 No data were available on the numbers of
prosecutions in California under this statute. In one case, however, the defendant was
convicted of felony prostitution, and the evidence against her included a previous positive
HIV test and the condoms in her purse.181
According to sex workers in Los Angeles, condoms are commonly used as one of the bases
for arrest for prostitution.

175 Los Angeles Police Department, Statistical Digest 2010, 2011, pp. 3.2., 4.2.
176 California Penal Code, sec. 647(b).
177 California Penal Code, sec. 653.22.
178 California Penal Code, sec. 1202.6.
179 California Penal Code, sec. 647f and sec. 1170(h).
180 Ibid.; California Penal Code, sec. 647(b).
181 People v. Hall, California Court of Appeals, WL 2121912 (2007).

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Kathy B., 46, is a transgender Latina woman who works in her husbands skateboarding
business. She was a sex worker until one year ago, and she told Human Rights Watch,
Yes Ive had incidents with the police. The last one was December 2010 at a
hotelThey searched my bag. I never consented to a search. And they
found condoms in my bag, about four condoms. And they pulled them out,
mocking me, and said look what we have here.They gave me a ticket for
escorting without a license.182
Alessa N., a transgender woman from Mexico, described an arrest that occurred in June 2010:
I was carrying condoms. They took the condoms out of my bag I had six,
and the condoms were part of the evidence. I went to jail.183
Outreach workers have also been harassed for distributing condoms. Bamby Salcedo works
with the Transgender Service Provider Network in Los Angeles and is a long-time transgender
activist. Ms. Salcedo told Human Rights Watch that the outreach workers on her staff had
been stopped and questioned several times by the police for distributing condoms.184
The Three-Condom Rule
A belief that it was illegal to carry more than three condoms was pervasive among sex
workers in Los Angeles.
Violet T., a sex worker who works indoors, asked Human Rights Watch,
The three condom rule, is it state law? Ive literally been walking around
believing this. If theres something on the books supporting this rule than
thats one thing. But if none of this is written in the law, how can they use
condoms as evidence against us?185

182 Human Rights Watch interview with Lola L., Los Angeles, March 14, 2012.
183 Human Rights Watch interview with Alessa N., Los Angeles, March 13, 2012.
184 Human Rights Watch interview with Bamby Salcedo, Transgender Service Provider Network, Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.
185 Human Rights Watch interview with Violet T., Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

48

Jamie G., a sex worker, said,

Everyone knows...more than three condoms and youre a whore.186

Many people stated that the source of the widespread belief in the three-condom rule
was the police.
Lola L., 53, a sex worker who also does street outreach, said,
The police have told me, when youre in a high risk area, dont carry more
than three condoms on you because we can arrest you. And Ive said, how
do I know what is a high risk zone?187
One outreach worker stated that according to sex workers stopped by the police, two
condoms was the limit:
I am an outreach worker. When I go hand out condoms, there are some girls
who say to me give me enough for the whole week. Others say they dont
want more than two, because if they have more than two, then I can be
arrested for prostitution. This is what the police tell them, that if they have
more than two condoms in their purse, they can be charged with an act of
prostitution.188

Police Profiling as Sex Workers

Transgender women told Human Rights Watch that they were constantly stopped and
harassed by the police on suspicion of sex work, often in the neighborhoods where they
live, work, or go to school. Marsha P. said police used condoms to support the inference
that she was engaging in sex work:

186 Human Rights Watch interview with Jamie G., Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.
187 Human Rights Watch interview with Lola L., Los Angeles, March 14, 2012.
188 Human Rights Watch interview with Bella M., Los Angeles, March 14,

49

2012.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

I work in a restaurant. And I have been stopped on the way home from work.
Ive been accused of being a prostitute because I am walking with two
condoms in my pocket. And its not a crime.189
Bamby Salcedo from the Transgender Service Provider Network described police profiling
as a serious and ongoing problem:
Weve done protests in front of the police department about the continuous
harassment to the community because some of the community members
live in areas that might be high risk or hot areas but they have to go to
the store, they have to take a bus, and just because they are walking they
get stopped and harassed and sometimes arrested just because of where
they are and who they are.190
Shayla Myers is a staff attorney at the LGBT Access to Justice Project in Los Angeles. Ms.
Myers has been representing low-income transgender women for two-and-a-half years,
primarily on a project dedicated to expunging criminal records in order to permit LGBT
people to increase employment opportunities. Myers stated that condoms make it easy to
arrest transgender women for prostitution under the loitering statute:
Being trans, walking, and carrying condoms: thats enough to establish
probable cause for arrestPolice need to stop profiling people. I have
clients with 12, 13 convictionsIve heard folks say they are afraid of
carrying condoms or they wont take condoms.191

Immigration Consequences of Arrest for Prostitution

For undocumented sex workers, the immigration laws that penalize prostitution result in
removal and other serious consequences. Joseph Weiner, staff attorney at the Immigrants
Rights Project of the Public Counsel Law Center of Los Angeles, has had numerous
transgender clients removed from the US as a result of prostitution convictions. In addition,

189 Human Rights Watch interview with Marsha P., Los Angeles, March 13, 2012.
190 Human Rights Watch interview with Bamby Salcedo, Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.
191 Human Rights Watch interview with Shayla Meyers, LGBT Access to Justice Project, Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

50

some of his transgender clients who have obtained relief, such as asylum or relief from
removal, have lost their status after conviction for prostitution while HIV-positive.192
As the Bienestar report noted, many incidents of police abuse and misconduct are not
reported from fear of further bad treatment or deportation. Elaine A. explained,
I never filed a complaint against [a policeman] because I was afraid, I was
afraid of getting deported. Many of the chicas dont have papers.193

Fear of Carrying Condoms as a Result of Police Action

Many sex workers reported that they continued to carry condoms despite fear of arrest.
Marsha P. stated,
Have I ever been afraid to carry condoms? No, because I know my rights in
this country. Just because the police are not educated, that does not make
me afraid. I always carry condoms in my bagI am more afraid of getting
sick than of the police.194
For many others fear of arrest, jail time, and conviction on prostitution charges overcame
even the need to protect their health. Kathy B. stated,
When I was a sex worker, there was a time when I wouldnt carry condoms
because if the police found them, they could use them as evidence against me.
In the past, when I was still a sex worker, I was afraid of carrying condoms.195
Iris L., a 47-year-old woman from Mexico said:
I only carry one or two condoms with me. Im afraid of carrying condoms.196

192 Human Rights Watch email communication with Joseph Weiner, May 4, 2012.
193 Human Rights Watch interview with Elaine A., Los Angeles, March 16, 2012.
194 Human Rights Watch interview with Marsha P., Los Angeles, March 13, 2012.
195 Human Rights Watch interview with Kathy B., Los Angeles, March 14,

2012.

196 Human Rights Watch interview with Iris L., Los Angeles, March 13, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Carol F., 28, is a transgender woman from Guatemala who does sex work. She was first
arrested for prostitution when she was 13, in an incident in which Los Angeles police
used condoms as evidence against her. Traumatized by that experience, she was afraid
to carry condoms:
After that arrest, I was always scared. The condoms, I always found a place
to hide them. And I stopped carrying three. I started carrying one or two
and then there were nights that I did have to work and I didnt have a
condom on me. There were times when I didnt have a condom and needed
one, and I used a plastic bag.197
Several sex workers told Human Rights Watch that fear of arrest due to immigration issues
made them less willing to carry condoms. Serena L., a former sex worker who is now in
school, said,
Condoms in purse was on my arrest report. I dont carry condoms because
this happened to meif I get condoms, I keep them in a separate bag. I
dont keep them in my purse. Especially now that I am trying to fix my
[immigration] status.198

Police Abuse, Harassment, and Misconduct

Sex workers reported verbal and physical abuse and neglect of duty on the part of the
police. This was particularly true for transgender sex workers.
Kathy B. told Human Rights Watch of her arrest by two officers in a hotel:
I was wearing a jacket and blouse. And they opened my blouse and started taking pictures.
He violated my privacy. But the main official told me shut up unless you want to go to jail.
I said I know my rights. He doesnt need to take pictures like that. So he closed my blouse
and continued taking pictures.199

197 Human Rights Watch interview with Carol F., March 15, 2012.
198 Human Rights Watch interview with Serena L., Los Angeles, March 14, 2012.
199 Human Rights Watch interview with Kathy B., Los Angeles, March 14,

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

52

2012.

Bamby Salcedo of the Transgender Service Provider Network described several incidents of
ill treatment of her clients by LAPD. She said that a few weeks before Human Rights Watch
interviewed her in March 2012, she had assisted one woman who had been arrested and
had condoms used against her as evidence of prostitution:
[A few weeks ago], she was actually arrested because she was on a
particular corner and she had condoms on her[but] it was more about how
she was treatedThe arresting officers kept calling her sir The way the
police talk to people in general when it comes to a trans person, they have
no respect.200
Ms. Salcedo explained that she helped this woman file a complaint, but often the victims
are reluctant to do so:
We help them, sometimes we will go to court with them. But a lot of times they
dont want to out of fear of retaliation. Because the same officers are the ones
out patrolling, and the girls dont want to continue to deal with that.201
Carol F. told Human Rights Watch that she had been sexually assaulted by someone from
her church. Although she reported the assault to the police, the case was not pursued.
Carol stated,
The police officer said Im just a little suspicious because you have a
history of prostitution.....I said you mean I can be sexually assaulted
because I was arrested when I was 13?202
Brenda del Rio Gonzalez, a health educator and outreach worker with Bienestar, works
with Latina transgender sex workers in Los Angeles. Brenda said that when these women
are crime victims, they are afraid to complain for fear of ill treatment and deportation. One
woman told Brenda,

200 Human Rights Watch interview with Bamby Salcedo, Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.
201 Human Rights Watch interview with Bamby Salcedo, Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.
202 Human Rights Watch interview with Carol F., Los Angeles, March 15, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

I dont trust the police. Because when you try to report a crime against you,
they mock you and call you names. ... They say, youre a hooker. Do you
have a penis? Do you have a dick? Do you have documents?203

Response of Los Angeles Public Officials

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) told Human Rights Watch that they maintain a
strong enforcement campaign against prostitution, largely in response to citizen
complaints about the activity occurring in their neighborhoods. Lt. Patrick Shields, officer
in charge of the Special Enforcement Section, stated that condoms are useful in proving an
act in furtherance under 647(b) and in supporting charges under the loitering statute. He
expressed concern about the public health issues raised by the practice and stated that
the department did not want to discourage anyone from carrying condoms. Lieutenant
Shields denied that there was a two or three condom rule to guide official practice.
However, Lieutenant Shields defended condoms as targets of stops and searches of
persons suspected of prostitution, stating that the average citizen isnt walking around
with condoms in their pocket.204
With regard to complaints regarding profiling and interaction with transgender persons,
Lieutenant Shields stated in a written response that the LAPD takes an active role in
continually working with the community and those individuals that may change their
gender identity, gender expression, and/or sexual orientation.205 Shields indicated that
there is a class at the Police Academy to sensitize officers to the issues faced by
transgender people, as well as a department liaison to that community, stating that LAPD
takes a strong stance against discrimination.206
The Office of the City Attorney of Los Angeles stated that they did not wish to discourage
people from carrying condoms, but they had seen no evidence that this was occurring
among those arrested for sex work. According to Mary Claire Molidor, deputy chief of the
Safe Neighborhoods and Gang Division, it is rare that persons arrested for prostitution
do not have condoms in their possession.207 Deputy Chief Molidor stated that condoms are
203 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Brenda del Rio Gonzalez, Los Angeles, July 2, 2012.
204 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lt. Patrick Shields, LAPD, Los Angeles, May 2, 2012.
205 Email communication to Human Rights Watch from Lt. Patrick Shields, LAPD, May 3, 2012.
206 Ibid.
207 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Mary Claire Molidor, Los Angeles City Attorneys Office, Los Angeles, May 17, 2012.

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54

not a focal point for filing prostitution charges, but they are routinely catalogued as
evidence and would be introduced at trial in support of these charges as probative
evidence. According to Chief Molidor, condoms would be particularly probative evidence
where there were a large number of condoms in someones possession or at a business
site such as a massage parlor.208
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health declined to comment, stating that
LADPH does not comment on activities or policies of the Los Angeles Police Department.209

San Francisco
HIV in San Francisco
San Francisco has played a unique and profound role in the history of the HIV epidemic in
many respects. The city reported its first AIDS diagnoses in 1981, cases now recognized to
be among the earliest incidents of HIV to be reported in the United States.210 A history of
gay activism that included the election in 1977 of the countrys first openly gay municipal
official, Harvey Milk, provided the foundation for a strong civic response to HIV in the next
decade. The Kaposi Sarcoma Foundation, founded in 1983, was one of the first grassroots
organizations formed in response to HIV. A candlelight vigil held in San Francisco in
October 1983 was the first public gathering of people living with HIV.211
Before the advent of combination anti-retroviral therapy in the mid-1990s, San Francisco
was devastated by the disease. Nearly 20,000 people, mostly gay men, have died from
AIDS since the epidemic began, approximately 1 in 40 residents of the city.212 The epidemic
in San Francisco has stabilized, with a slight decline in the total number of new infections
in 2009.213 In January 2011 there were 18,576 people living with HIV in San Francisco, 2.3
percent of the population. HIV in San Francisco remains concentrated in men who have sex
208 Ibid.
209 Email communication from Kyle Baker, Chief of Staff and Director of Government Relations, LADPH, to Human Rights

Watch, May 8, 2012.

210 CDC, First Report of AIDS, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 50, no. 21, June 1, 2001; San Francisco Department of

Public Health, Historical Progression of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, 1981-2000, undated,
http://www.sfdph.org/dph/files/reports/RptsHIVAIDS/SFAtlasHIVAIDS19912000/web02progression.pdf (accessed April 23, 2012).
211 See, Benjamin Shepard, White Nights and Ascending Shadows: A History of the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic (London:

Cassell, 1997); San Francisco AIDS Foundation, 10 Moments that Changed History, undated, http://www.sfaf.org/hivinfo/hot-topics/from-the-experts/10-moments-that-changed.html (accessed April 24, 2012).
212 San Francisco Department of Public Health, HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Annual Report 2010, July 2011.
213 Ibid.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

with men, injection drug users, and men who fall into both categories. In 2010 three
percent of persons living with HIV in San Francisco were heterosexual, and two percent
were transgender.214
Racial disparities in relation to HIV are less evident in San Francisco than in the United
States generally. In San Francisco the majority (63 percent) of persons living with HIV are
white, and 16 percent are African-American.215 These figures still indicate a
disproportionate impact of HIV on the African-American community, however, as AfricanAmericans comprise only 6 percent of San Franciscos population.216 Latinos are 15 percent
of the population and 14 percent of people living with HIV.217
Overall, new infections in San Francisco have declined, but the epidemic is moving
fastest among transfemales, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health,
with new infections occurring at a rate of 2.5 percent.218 Overall, more than one in three
transgender women in San Francisco is estimated to be infected with HIV. The San
Francisco Department of Public Health conducted a targeted study in 2010 on HIV
prevalence among transgender women and found that 40 percent of participants were HIVpositive. Compared with all HIV cases diagnosed during the same period, transgender
women with HIV tended to be non-white (71 percent were African-American) with higher
rates of injection drug use. Only one in five transgender women with HIV participating in
the study had an income greater than US$21,000 per year.219

Condoms Barred As Evidence of Prostitution in 1994

Since the early years of the epidemic, San Franciscos approach to HIV prevention has
been characterized by a mobilized, pro-active community of people living with HIV working
in partnership with the Department of Public Health and other city agencies. This
collaborative approach became known as the San Francisco Model, emphasizing
communication that is positive and non-judgmental about sex and harm reduction rather
214 Ibid.
215 Ibid.
216 US Census Bureau, State & County QuickFacts: San Francisco County, California, 2011,
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06075.html (accessed July 7, 2012).
217 San Francisco Department of Public Health, HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Annual Report 2010; State & County QuickFacts:
San Francisco County, California, 2011.
218 San Francisco Department of Public Health, HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Annual Report 2010.
219 Ibid.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

56

than abolition of risky practices. Importantly, structural change has always been an
important component of this approach, exemplified by early and consistent involvement of
the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and other city institutions in the fight against AIDS.220
In this environment of activism and sexual tolerance, Margo St. James and other advocates
for sex workers first addressed the issue of condoms as evidence of prostitution in the late
1980s. The organization Call Off Your Tired Old Ethics (COYOTE), founded by St. James,
campaigned during this period for greater education of sex workers and their clients about
the developing AIDS epidemic and fought to prevent the scapegoating of sex workers for
spreading the disease. In 1993 St. James and other advocates pushed to create a Task Force
on Prostitution in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for the purpose of separating fact
from fallacy about prostitution and recommending social and legal reforms that best
respond to the Citys needs while using City resources more efficiently.221
As it does today, California Penal Code Section 647(b) made it a misdemeanor offense to
[solicit] or.[agree] to engage in or [to] engage in any act of prostitution. The statute
required that there be an act of furtherance of the crime in order to convict.222 It was in
proving an act of furtherance that condoms were being used as evidence by police and
prosecutors. In May 1994, in response to a proposal submitted by the Task Force, the
Board of Supervisors enacted a non-binding resolution urging that the San Francisco Police
Department and the District Attorney shall no longer confiscate and/or use the fact of
condom possession for investigative or court evidence in prostitution-related offenses.223
Among the grounds cited in support of the resolution were findings that using condoms as
evidence discourages condom use and undermines city policy for HIV prevention. The
resolution also found that the law enforcement value of condoms was outweighed by the
value of condoms for HIV prevention. The resolution cited the fact that the District Attorney

220Benjamin Shepard, White Nights and Ascending Shadows: A History of the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic (London: Cassell,

1997); Jane T. Bertrand, Diffusion of Innovations and HIV/AIDS, Journal of Health Communication, vol 9., suppl 1., (2004)
pp. 113-121; US Department of Health and Human Services, San Franciscos New Approach to HIV Prevention, blog.aids.gov,
http://blog.aids.gov/2011/03/san-franciscos-new-approach-to-hiv-prevention.html (accessed April 24, 2012).
221 Alexandra Lutnick, The St. James Infirmary: A History, undated, http://stjamesinfirmary.org/?page_id=3 (accessed July

7, 2012); Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution, Final Report 1996,
http://www.aplehawaii.org/Resources_For_Prost_Law/Additional_Materials/SFTask_Force_Prost.pdf (accessed April 9,
2012); See also, Carol Leigh, A First Hand Look at the San Francisco Task Force Report on Prostitution, Hastings Law Journal
vol. 10, (1999), pp. 59-90.
222 California Penal Code, sec. 647(b).
223 San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Resolution 548-94: Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution, June 20, 1994.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

had made similar accommodation for syringe exchange programs for reasons of public
health.224 See Appendix C for full text of the resolution.
District Attorney Arlo Smith responded to the resolution by agreeing to suspend the
utilization of condoms as evidence for a trial period, noting in a letter to the Director of Public
Health that, in some of our cases currently, condoms are needed as an element to prove the
act of furtherance in order to prove the case. We will be working with the Police Department
to develop other evidence to prove the act of furtherance. Smiths letter concluded, With
this new policy we are trying to balance public safety and public health.225 The final report of
the Task Force notes that in March of 1995 Smiths office announced that they would
permanently cease using condoms as evidence of prostitution, but no other information was
available regarding the District Attorneys implementation of this policy.226

Anti-Prostitution Enforcement in San Francisco

In addition to California Penal Code Section 647(b), California law also prohibits loiter[ing]
in any public place with the intent to commit prostitution.227 Other prostitution-related
offenses in California include pimping, prevailing upon a person to visit a house of
prostitution, and violations of the commercial-business regulations.228 The majority of
people arrested for prostitution in San Franciscoboth the alleged providers as well as the
patronsare offered participation in diversion programs.229 These programs may offer
alternatives to incarceration, but arrest still has negative consequences, particularly for
immigrants for whom arrest can trigger removal, inadmissibility, or mandatory detention.230
According to the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), prostitution arrests are not a
priority for the Department: As a city, were pretty morally open, and we dont get a lot of
complaints about prostitution. We dont have a lot of tracks where prostitution occurs, said
Lt. Jason Fox, supervisor of the Special Victims Unit of the SFPD.231 Prostitution is still enforced

224 Ibid.
225 Letter from District Attorney Arlo Smith to Sandra Hernandez, director of public health, September 6, 1994, on file with
the Human Rights Commission of the City of San Francisco.
226 Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution, Final Report 1996.
227 California Penal Code, sec. 653.22.
228 California Penal Code, secs. 266h and 266i.
229 Abt Associates Inc., Final Report on the Evaluation of the First Offender Prostitution Program San Francisco, March 2008.
230 INA, secs. 237 and 212.
231 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lt. Jason Fox, SFPD, April 4, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

58

in San Francisco, however. Complete data on prostitution arrests for San Francisco are not
available, as the SFPD does not maintain centralized or complete records for this offense.232
However, from May through August 2011, 168 people were arrested for prostitution under
Penal Code Section 647(b) or loitering with intent to commit prostitution under Penal Code
Section 653.22.233 These arrests were supported by a federal stimulus grant focused on
combatting sex trafficking. The broad language of the grant promoted street prostitution
arrests in order to decrease demand for human trafficking in the San Francisco Bay Area.234

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution

In San Francisco, notwithstanding the 1994 Board of Supervisors resolution, condoms are
used as evidence to support prostitution arrests. This practice is not pervasive, but it does
occur on a regular basis. Naomi Akers is the executive director of the St. James Infirmary,
the first and still the only occupational health clinic offering a continuum of health care
and social services to sex workers in San Francisco. According to Akers,
Much of the sex work in San Francisco has moved to inside locations or the
internet. We dont have a huge problem with police using condoms as
evidence of prostitution as compared to other cities, but the problem has
been increasing since about 2005. The end result has been sex workers [are]
more reluctant to take more than a few condoms at a time.235
Police photograph condoms in connection with a stop or an arrest. Cyd Nova, a peer
counselor for sex workers at the St. James Infirmary, stated,
I have been a peer counselor for sex workers for three years, and during
that time numerous sex workers have told me about being harassed for
condoms and having condoms photographed as a basis for arrestEight

232 Email response from Maureen Conefrey, Legal Department, LAPD regarding Human Rights Watch public records request
March 8, 2012; Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lt. Jason Fox, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco,
May 2, 2012.
233 Data provided by LAPD in response to public records request March 8, 2012, on file with Human Rights Watch.
234 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lt. Jason Fox, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, May 2, 2012;

Jason Winchell, Bay Area Agencies Improvise Tactics to Battle Trafficking, San Francisco Public Press, February 15, 2012;
Jason Winchell, After Anti-trafficking Team Shifted Focus to Prostitution Arrests, Police Retool Investigations, San Francisco
Public Press, November 30, 2011.
235 Human Rights Watch interview with Naomi Akers, St. James Infirmary, San Francisco, March 8, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

months ago I was in the Tenderloin [district] and I was with a woman who
was stopped for suspicion of sex work. She was searched and the police
photographed her condoms, I saw this. They did not end up arresting her.236
Lt. Fox stated that SFPD will, on occasion, photograph condoms as part of a prostitution
arrest.237 Photographs of condoms help with the act in furtherance or intent part of the
crime, but we dont want to confiscate them because we are aware of the public health
concerns, so we photograph them, Fox told Human Rights Watch.238
Attorneys from the citys Public Defender Office, however, told Human Rights Watch that
the use of condoms in prostitution cases is more than occasional, as the office defended
at least eight cases involving condoms as evidence of prostitution in the last year.239
Copies of documents filed in two cases relying on condoms as evidence, including
photographs of condoms, may be found in Appendix D.
Reports about condoms as evidence in the transgender community are mixed. Jessi Ross,
outreach coordinator for St. James Infirmary, stated that transgender sex workers in the
Polk Street area have refused to take more than a few condoms, telling her that they fear
police harassment.240 However, other people said that harassment or arrest for condoms
was not a problem. Maryanne P., a sex worker who does HIV prevention outreach to
transgender sex workers, stated,
The police harass transgenders who are in prostitution zones, but condoms
arent involved. They harass them anyway and move them along whether or
not they have condoms.241
Human Rights Watch interviews at a transgender support group, a transgender advocacy
center, and an LGBT youth health clinic resulted in no reports of police harassment or
arrest for condoms.242

236 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Cyd Nova, St. James Infirmary, San Francisco, March 14,

2012.

237 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lt. Jason Fox, SFPD, San Francisco, April 4, 2012.
238 Ibid.
239 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Kimberly Lutes-Koths, San Francisco Public Defender, San Francisco, May 3, 2012.
240 Human Rights Watch interview with Jessi Ross, San Francisco, March 5, 2012.
241 Human Rights Watch interview with Maryanne P., San Francisco, March 7, 2012.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

60

Police in San Francisco are photographing condoms in order to avoid destroying or

confiscating them out of a concern for the public health. But the photographs are still used
as evidence, and this can have the same effect as a deterrent to condom use. Peer
counselor Cyd Nova explained,
Harassing people for condoms, photographing condoms, word gets around.
It doesnt take a lot of incidents to make people fearful of carrying
condomsI have a client now who wont carry any at all for fear of police
activity. We have been working on various ways to help her deal with her
fear, like how to hide them and things like that, but as of now she isnt
carrying any while she is working.243

Targeting Businesses
Human Rights Watch found that in San Francisco, police targeted businesses such as
erotic dance clubs, massage parlors, and a transgender nightclub for anti-prostitution
enforcement. In some cases this interfered with their willingness to make condoms
available on the premises.
Multiple state laws regulate and prohibit prostitution in a commercial setting, including
The Red Light Abatement Law (declaring any premises where prostitution occurs to be a
public nuisance),244 keeping a disorderly house which includes prostitution,245 and
keeping or residing in a house of ill-fame.246
The Business and Professions Code Section 24200 regulates licensing to serve alcohol in
California. Prostitution is specifically identified by this statute as grounds for revocation of
a liquor license as the definitions of activities such as those contrary to public welfare
and morals, any public offense involving moral turpitude, and permitting an
objectionable condition on the premises all include prostitution.247 The Department of

242 Human Rights Watch interviews at

Transjustice Center, Trans:Thrive, and the Tri-City Health Project, March 6, 2012.

243 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Cyd Nova, peer counselor at St James Infirmary, San Francisco, March 14,

2012.
244 California Penal Code, sec. 11225.
245 California Penal Code, sec. 316.
246 California Penal Code, sec. 315.
247 California Business and Professions Code, secs. 24200 (a) (d) and (f).

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Alcohol and Beverage Control (ABC) operates with independent police powers conferred by
the Constitution of California which gives ABC the exclusive authority to enforce these
provisions and to adjudicate license revocation cases.248 California courts have granted
ABC broad discretion to revoke or suspend liquor licenses for good cause if continuing
the license would be contrary to the public welfare or morals.249 ABC can make arrests for
prostitution on commercial premises, and then suspend or revoke the license of the
premises on the basis of these arrests. The use by ABC of decoy undercover agents to
enforce anti-prostitution provisions has a long history and has been consistently upheld
by the courts.250 In addition California law strictly regulates premises where topless or
nude dancing occurs, whether they serve liquor or not.251 Undercover agents are used
routinely to enforce these regulations.252
In 2005, 11 erotic dance clubs in San Francisco were the targets of a federal lawsuit
alleging violation of the anti-prostitution laws. Six individual dancers and an erotic dance
club in San Francisco sued a company that, at that time, owned multiple erotic dance clubs
in the city, for numerous labor and employment violations in the United States District
Court in San Francisco.253 The complaint alleged, in part, that clubs owned by this company
were engaging in unfair labor practices and unfair business competition by permitting, and
in some cases encouraging, prostitution on the premises of clubs they owned and
operated in San Francisco. The dancers alleged that prostitution was encouraged at the
clubs while the competitor club claimed that its own compliance with state antiprostitution laws was damaging its ability to compete in the city.254
The pleadings filed in this lawsuit were replete with references to condoms as evidence of
prostitution activity. The complaint cited reports from SFPD undercover agents and
affidavits filed by individual plaintiffs describing their experiences working at the clubs.
These documents contained 16 references to condoms and revealed a pattern of use of

248 California State Constitution, art. 20 , sec. 22.

249 Martin v. Alcoholic Beverage Control, 52 Cal. 2d. 238,240 (1959); Provigo Corp. v. Alcoholic Beverage Control, 7 Cal 4th 561 (1994).
250 See, e.g. Nelson v. Alcoholic Beverage Control, 166 Cal. App. 2d. 783 (1969); Kirby v. ABC, 25 Cal. App. 3d 331 (1972);

Coleman v. Alcoholic Beverage Control 71 Cal. App. 3d 336 (1977); Alcoholic Beverage Control v. Alcoholic Beverage Control
Board and Renee Vicary, 99 Cal. App. 4th 880 (2002).
251 California Code of Regulations, sec. 143.3
252 See, e.g., Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control v. Alcoholic Beverage Appeals Board, 100 Cal. App. 4th 1094 (2002).
253 Jones et al v. Dj Vu Inc. et al., case number C-05-0997 BZ, (USDC SDCA), filed September 7, 2005; 419 F. Supp 1146 (2005).
254 Jones et al v. Dj Vu.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

62

condoms as evidence by SFPD for prostitution charges at clubs throughout the city.255
According to Naomi Akers, executive director of the St. James Infirmary, the clinics
outreach workers have found that some erotic dance clubs, including some owned by this
company, are reluctant and in some cases unwilling to accept condoms for delivery to the
women working in the club. In December 2008 and February 2009 outreach workers from
St. James reported these incidents to Ms. Akers in writing:

The bouncers almost did not take the outreach bag, because of the
condoms, and expressed concern that we as outreach workers were
condoning prostitution in their club Apparently the owner had told many
[of his] clubs to forbid outreach workers from entering the clubs.256
Jessi Ross, outreach coordinator for St James Infirmary, stated that some of the erotic
dance clubs continue to refuse to take condoms:
Our outreach has focused mostly on businesses in the last year. We go in
with bags of safe sex materials including condoms as well as outreach
information about the clinic and other materialsSome businesses either
wont let us in at all or wont take condoms because of fear of the police.
There are strip clubs where we have to take the condoms out of the bag
before they let us in to take the bags to the girls that work there.257
Renee K., an erotic dancer at a club included in the lawsuit, told Human Rights Watch,
Even though it is not supposed to, sex does happen at some of the clubs in
the city, some much more than others. The clubs that serve liquor are
stricter about not letting the girls do sex work on site, and they dont want
condoms because it would send a mixed message. Youre not supposed to
be doing that, so why have condoms around?258

255 Jones et al v. Dj Vu.

256 Strip Club Outreach Report to Naomi Akers, February 2009, on file with Human Rights Watch. Human

Rights Watch was

unable to reach owners or employees of Dj Vu despite repeated attempts. Counsel for Dj Vu at the time of the lawsuit
had no comment. Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Linda Toutant, Los Angeles, April 27, 2012.

257 Human Rights Watch interview with Jessi Ross, St. James Infirmary, San Francisco, March 5, 2012.
258 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Renee K., May 8, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

In 2005 another San Francisco business was subject to anti-prostitution enforcement that
relied on the use of condoms as evidence. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage
Control conducted numerous undercover operations at Divas, a nightclub that welcomed
transgender clientele, making several arrests for prostitution. These arrests were then
cited as the basis for suspending the clubs liquor license on the basis that the bartenders
had failed to prevent prostitution activity at the club. The owner appealed and the license
was conditionally reinstated, but the ABC Appeals Board opinion contains multiple
references to condoms as evidence of the bars complicity in permitting prostitution.259
Alexis Miranda, manager and show director of Divas nightclub, described her response to
the charges brought by ABC:
We are the only transgender-specific nightclub in California. They [ABC]
have targeted us many times in the past. When they suspended our license,
I had to go in and say why is every gay bar and every straight bar allowed to
distribute condoms and we are not? Why are transgenders promoting
prostitution when we use a condom? I asked the judge that.260
Miranda stated that ABC has not bothered Divas lately and she insisted that the
proceedings have not deterred Divas from making condoms available on the premises: It is
not against the law to distribute condoms, and we have not let it change our approach.261
According to outreach workers at St James Infirmary, however, Divas willingness to take
condoms was not consistent.262 In addition, one patron told Human Rights Watch,
There used to be condoms at Divas but not recently, not on the bar or on
the counters. I heard theyve been hassled by the cops, Im not sure why.263

259 Berkey v. ABC, AB-8331 (June 20, 2005).

260 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Alexis Miranda, San Francisco, April 10, 2012.
261 Ibid.
262 Human Rights Watch interview with Naomi Akers, St. James Infirmary, March 8, 2012; Human Rights Watch interview with

Jessi Ross, San Francisco, March 5, 2012.

263 Human Rights Watch interview with Amanda R., San Francisco, March 7, 2012.

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64

Massage businesses also have been the target of law enforcement activity that included
the use of condoms as evidence. In San Francisco the Municipal Health Code establishes
requirements for obtaining permits for the operation of massage businesses, including
certification of practitioners, hours of operation, and required sanitary facilities.
Although primary responsibility for regulating massage operations lies with the
Department of Public Health, Section 1929 of the Code states that the director shall work
with the chief of police on issues of common concern affecting the massage industry,
such as trafficking.264
Californias human trafficking law prohibits false imprisonment or violation of the personal
liberty of another for the purposes of coercive labor, sexual services, or compensation.265 In
July 2005 federal and state agents arrested 45 people as part of a smuggling and human
trafficking ring alleged to be operating out of massage businesses in San Francisco and
Los Angeles. This operation, called Operation Gilded Cage, seized $3 million in illegal
proceeds and closed more than 100 Korean massage parlors in the two cities.266 Following
Operation Gilded Cage, the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, made targeting
massage businesses for sex trafficking crimes a hallmark of his administration. Mayor
Newsom created a Massage Parlor Task Force in 2005 to unite city agencies, including the
Department of Health, in a focused effort to identify sex trafficking in the citys massage
industry. According to the mayors 2009 Report to the Board of Supervisors, his
administration took multiple steps intended to eliminate sex trafficking in San Francisco,
including a joint city task force for monthly inspections of massage businesses, resulting
in the closing of 36 massage establishments between 2006 and 2009. Under Mayor
Newsom the city also increased civil penalties and fines for violation of the public health
codes and stepped up the use of the Red Light Abatement Law to evict massage
businesses.267
By 2010, 70 massage businesses had been shut down in San Francisco, but Mayor
Newsom expressed his frustration at the inability to impact illegal activity:

264 San Francisco Health Code, art. 29, sec. 1929.

265 California Penal Code, secs. 236, 237, and 266.
266 California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery Task Force, Human Trafficking in California: Final Report, October

2007, p. 26; US Department of Homeland Security and US Department of Justice press releases, July 1, 2005, reproduced at
http://calcasa.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/HT_Final_Report_ADA.pdf (accessed April 27, 2012).
267 San Francisco Mayors Accountability Report, September 30, 2009, p. 181.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Its a bit of a whack-a-mole- as soon as you shut down two or three here,
they open up someplace else under another name.268
According to news reports, condoms were used as evidence by the Massage Parlor Task Force:
All three parlors inspected Wednesday had double or twin-size beds,
authorities said. Inspectors said they had found a used condom under a
bed in one of the parlors. You don't find ruffled beds and condoms in real
massage parlors, said Lane Kasselman, a policy analyst for Newsom who
was along for the inspection.269
Naomi Akers recalled that a representative of the Massage Parlor Task Force gave St James
Infirmary a presentation on their activity:
A few years ago a police officer from the Task Force gave us a slide show
about their inspections of massage parlors, which he called raids. He had
a slide showing a picture of a bleach container that the owners had hidden
under a table, it was filled with unwrapped condoms and he described it as
evidence of illegal activity.270
San Francisco Police Department continues to accompany Department of Health
Environmental Health Unit employees in unannounced inspections of massage
businesses. SFPD stated that prostitution arrests are no longer routine, and condoms are
not the focus of the current inspections, which were described as educational and
health oriented and designed to identify health code violations and inform potential
trafficking victims of their rights and the services available.271 According to Lt. Jason Fox
of the SFPD, who accompanies the health department on these inspections,

268 Erin Sherbert, Illegal Massage Parlors Skirting City Regulations San Francisco Examiner, August 27, 2010.
269 Marsha Ginsburg, Alleged Code Violations at Three Massage Parlors, San Francisco Chronicle, September 15, 2005.
270 Human Rights Watch interview with Naomi Akers, St. James Infirmary, San Francisco, March 8, 2012.
271 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lt. Jason Fox, SFPD, San Francisco, April 4, 2012.

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66

Were very victim-oriented in our human trafficking work. We are not looking
for prostitution at the massage parlors. We want women who might be
trafficked to know they can come forward.272
But the legacy of the Massage Parlor Task Force is a fear of law enforcement on the part of
the massage business owners, a fear that makes many unwilling to have condoms on the
premises. A 2003 study of HIV risk among women working at Asian-owned massage
businesses in San Francisco showed that women exchanged sex for money on the premises
but that owners consistently made condoms available on site.273 This is not the case today.
Massage business owners and employees declined to speak with Human Rights Watch, but
outreach workers who regularly communicate with the massage parlor owners and
employees told Human Rights Watch that owners fear taking condoms due to the raids.274
Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, deputy health officer for the city of San Francisco from 1998-2010,
described his experience working with owners of massage businesses:
Under Mayor Newsoms push for anti-trafficking enforcement, the heat on
the massage parlors increased and became very public, with the Mayor
accompanying news media on the raids, and all that. I have spoken with
many massage parlor owners who have told me they fear having condoms
on the premises due to the environmental health inspections and that they
hide condoms because of this. We know that sex happens in some of these
businesses, so we need to practice harm reduction. From a public health
perspective, fear of condoms is not what we want.275

Response of San Francisco Public Officials

Marshall Khine, assistant District Attorney in charge of the sex crimes unit, told Human
Rights Watch that he had not heard of the 1994 agreement to refrain from using condoms
as evidence. According to Mr. Khine, the agreement, hasnt passed down through the

272Ibid.
273 Tooru Nemoto et al., HIV Risk Among Asian Women Working at Massage Parlors in San Francisco, AIDS Education and

Prevention, vol. 16, no. 3, 2003, pp. 245-256.

274 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Kim Le, January 15, 2012; Human Rights Watch interview with Jessi Ross,

San Francisco, March 8, 2012.

275 Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, San Francisco, March 8, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

generations of District Attorneys.276 Mr. Khine, who stated that he prosecutes

approximately 20 pimping, pandering, and human trafficking cases per year, may have
two cases that involve condoms collected by police at the scene. In these cases condoms
are usually not primary, but supplemental evidence. Mr. Khine told Human Rights Watch
that he understands the public health issue with using condoms as evidence of
prostitution, but would have to think about whether the Office of the District Attorney
would support a prohibition on use of condoms as evidence.277
The San Francisco Police Department acknowledged the department policy to photograph
condoms to support loitering for prostitution charges. Lieutenant Fox said that the SFPD
does not want to discourage condom use, but was not concerned that owners of
businesses where sex might be occurring were reluctant to make condoms available:

Maybe someone running an illegal brothel might fear having condoms

around, thats on them.278
The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control issued the following statement in response
to an inquiry from Human Rights Watch, and declined further comment:
It is assumed each case involving prostitution is unique. While the display or
distribution of condoms in a bar or nightclub setting may in some case be an
indicator of prostitution activity, it is also recognized by the ABC and
California law enforcement in general that such open display/distribution is
accepted among business owners in many communities for health-related
reasons, to help prevent sexually transmitted diseases. Condoms can be
purchased at drug stores, grocery stores, vending machines, gas stations,
bars and the internet, and are distributed free at many STI and HIV clinics.
However, in prostitution cases, when undercover law enforcement officers do
request sex acts and conduct money talk as part of their enforcement work,

276 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Marshall Khine, Assistant District Attorney, San Francisco, April 13, 2012.
277 Ibid. The Assistant District Attorney in charge of prosecuting misdemeanor prostitution cases failed to respond to Human

Rights Watchs repeated requests for an interview. Email and telephone communications with R. Breal, San Francisco District
Attorneys office, April 13 and 19, 2012.
278 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lt. Jason Fox, SFPD, San Francisco, April 4, 2012.

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and if the suspected prostitute has a condom as part of the furtherance of the
crime after the solicitation is made, the condom might be used as evidence.279
Israel Nieves-Rivera, director of policy and HIV prevention for the San Francisco
Department of Health, was not aware of the 1994 Board of Supervisors resolution, but
expressed concern about the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution. Mr. NievesRivera stated,
We need universal access to condoms in the city so all businesses feel
comfortable and encouraged to make condoms available.280
Mr. Rivera stated that the San Francisco Department of Health HIV Prevention Plan for
2012-2015 identified heavy alcohol use as one of the primary drivers for HIV risk as it
increases the likelihood that individuals will engage in risky practices. Promoting a
structural response to this problem, the HIV Prevention Planning Council recommended
passage of legislation requiring condoms at all places that serve liquor in the city, and
proposed working with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control on this issue.281
With regard to the massage businesses, Mr. Nieves-Rivera stated,
As far as the massage parlors, we believe we need a coordinated response
among the sections of the health department such as HIV and STD
prevention and Environmental Health. We also need to continue our
partnership with the SFPD, since we are all public safety officers. We are
open to building on our success with syringe access and meeting with the
SFPD, the District Attorney, and the Human Rights Commission to discuss
this further and develop a plan.282

279 Email communication to Human Rights Watch from John Carr, information officer, California Department of Alcoholic

Beverage Control, April 17, 2012.

280 Human Rights Watch interview with Israel Nieves-Rivera, San Francisco Department of Health, San Francisco, March 8, 2012.
281 San Francisco Department of Health, HIV Prevention Plan 2010-2015, 2010.
282 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Israel Nieves-Rivera, San Francisco Department of Health, San Francisco,

May 8, 2012.

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The Human Rights Commission of San Francisco is concerned about the use of condoms as
evidence of prostitution. Former Commissioner Cecelia Chung and current Executive
Director of the Commission Theresa Sparks plan to convene an inter-agency meeting and
public hearing to address the issue.283

283 Human Rights Watch interview with then Human Rights Commissioner Cecelia Chung, San Francisco, March 7, 2012.

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Human Rights Obligations

Right to HIV Prevention and Access to Condoms
HIV is a potentially fatal disease, and other sexually transmitted diseases increase the
likelihood of HIV infection. Police interference with the ability to access means of HIV
prevention, whether in the form of information from peers or condoms, impedes the rights
to life and to health and is incompatible with human rights standards.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees to every person the right to health
and well-being as well as life, dignity, and the right to be free from discrimination.284 The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a treaty signed and ratified by
the United States, guarantees to every person the right to life, a fundamental right that is
implicated in any policy that interferes with the prevention of HIV.285 Indeed, the treaty has
been interpreted to require states to take positive steps to curb epidemics and other
threats to the public health.286 Police action that undermines HIV prevention efforts by
impeding condom use is incompatible with essential protections guaranteed by the ICCPR.
The right to access condoms and related HIV prevention services is also an essential part
of the human right to the highest attainable standard of health. The International Covenant
on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) obliges state parties to take steps
necessary for... the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic... diseases, including
HIV.287 United Nations bodies responsible for monitoring implementation of the ICESCR
have interpreted this provision to include access to condoms and complete HIV
information.288 The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the UN body
responsible for monitoring implementation of the ICESCR, has interpreted article 12 as
requiring the establishment of prevention and education programmes for behaviour284

Universal Declaration on Human Rights, (UDHR) adopted December 10, 1948, G.A.Res. 217A(III), UN Doc A/810 at 71
(1948), preamble, arts. 1, 2, 3, 25.
285 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.

GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976.
286 UN Human Rights Committee, CCPR General Comment No. 6, art. 6, The Right to Life, April 30, 1982, para. 5.
287

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A
(XXI), UN GAOR (no. 16) at 49, UN Doc. A/6316 (1966), 99 UNTS 3, entered into force January 3, 1976, signed by the US on
October 5, 1977.

288 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14, The Right to the Highest Attainable

Standard of Health, UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, adopted August 11, 2000, paras. 15, 16.

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related health concerns such as sexually transmitted diseases, in particular HIV.289 The
committee notes,
States should refrain from limiting access to contraceptives and other
means of maintaining sexual and reproductive health, from censoring,
withholding or intentionally misrepresenting health-related information,
including sexual education and information, as well as from preventing
peoples participation in health-related matters.... 290
According to the committee, the ICESCR not only obliges governments to establish these
programs expeditiously and effectively, it also prohibits them from interfering directly
or indirectly with the enjoyment of the right to health.291 Policies that frustrate HIV
prevention by limiting access to condoms fit this description. Further, ICESCR protects
against discrimination in health prevention on the basis of gender, social status, or other
factors and obligates governments to protect the health rights of marginalized members of
society. Indeed, the committee deems the right of access to health facilities, goods and
services on a non-discriminatory basis, especially for vulnerable or marginalized groups,
to be a core obligation essential to the right to health.292 In the United States ICESCR has
been signed but not ratified. However, the government is not without obligation under the
ICESCR, as a signatory must refrain from taking steps that undermine the intent and
purpose of the treaty.293
International law also protects the right of all women to control their reproductive and sexual
health. The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW), a treaty the US has signed but not ratified, clearly establishes the right to make
informed decisions about safe and reliable contraceptive measures, to access family
planning information, education, and the means to enable them to exercise these rights.294

289

ICESCR, General Comment 14, para. 16.

ICESCR, General Comment 14, para 34.
291 ICESCR, General Comment 14, para 33.
292 ICESCR General Comment 14, paras. 18, 21, 43.
293 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), adopted May 23, 1969, entered into force January 27, 1980,
art. 18.
290

294 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted December 18, 1979,G.A. res.

34/18034 UN GAOR Supp. No. 46 at 193,UN Doc. A/34/46,entered into force September 3, 1981, art. 16 (1) e.

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The International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, non-binding but authoritative
interpretations of human rights law applicable to HIV, address the fact that marginalized
populations, including sex workers, have experienced discrimination and been denied
equal access to HIV prevention services:
HIV prevalence has grown among groups most marginalized, such as sex
workers, drug users, and men having sex with men. Coverage of
interventions to educate people about HIV; to provide them with HIV
prevention commodities, services, and treatment; to protect them from
discrimination and sexual violence; and to empower them to participate in
the response and live successfully in a world with HIV is unacceptably low
in many parts of the world.295
Law enforcement agencies are charged with enforcing anti-prostitution laws. But
enforcement must be consistent with international human rights obligations, including the
right to health, which is also an element of public safety that is the province of the
police.296 Noting that sex workers frequently suffer human rights abuses due to the legal
status of their work, the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) recommends,
With regard to adult sex work that involves no victimization, criminal law
should be reviewed with the aim of decriminalizing, then legally regulating
occupational health and safety conditions to protect sex workers and their
clients, including support for safe sex during sex work. Criminal law should
not impede provision of HIV prevention and care services to sex workers
and their clients.297
The UN Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work references the vulnerability to HIV infection
among sex workers, a fact that reflects the failure to adequately respond to their human
rights and public health needs.298 The UN Guidance Note states,

295 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), International Guidelines on HIV and Human Rights, 2006, p. 5.
296 United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, adopted December 17, 1979, G.A. res. 34/169, annex, 34
U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 186, U.N. Doc. A/34/46 (1979), art. 1, para. (c).
297

UNAIDS, International Guidelines on HIV and Human Rights, para. 21(c).

298 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, 2009, p. 2.

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Condoms, both male and female, are the single most effective available
technology to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases. Condoms must be readily available for sex workers
and their clients, either free or at low cost, and conform to global quality
standardsharassment by law enforcement officers reduces the ability of
sex workers to negotiate condom use; governments and service providers
should address such factors to maximize the impact of condom
programming focused on sex work.299
Access to information and services for HIV prevention is protected by article 19 of the
ICCPR which is binding on the United States and which guarantees the freedom to seek,
receive and impart information of all kinds300 The Committee on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights has similarly stated that information accessibility is an essential element
of the right to health. Some of the most effectiveand indeed sometimes the only
outreach workers for HIV prevention to marginalized people are their peers. When laws and
policies equating condoms with criminal activity interfere with the efforts of sex workers to
distribute condoms to their peers, access to health is significantly undermined.
Police and prosecutors claimed that condoms are necessary tools to enforce antiprostitution laws. In legal systems everywhere, however, rules of evidence reflect
considerations of public policy. The rape shield laws provide an example. These statutes,
codified as Federal Rule of Evidence 412 and in the laws of every US state, exclude evidence
in a rape trial that relates to the sexual history of the victim.301 This exclusion represents the
determination of Congress and state legislatures that encouraging rape victims to report
sexual assault and other policy goals outweigh any probative value of this type of
testimony.302 Similarly, evidence is regularly excluded on grounds of the physician-patient,
attorney-client, and other privileges, exclusions that have been explained by legal
authorities as reflecting a principle or relationship that society deems worthy of preserving
299 UNAIDS, Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, p. 12.
300 ICCPR, art. 19.
301 See, e.g. Federal Rule of Evidence 412, New York State Criminal Procedure Code 60.42, and California Evidence Code 782.
302 See statement of NY State Representative Elizabeth Holtzman, sponsor of the Privacy Protection for Rape Victims Act of

1978, 124 Congressional Record 34, 913 (1978); Harriet Galvin, Shielding Rape Victims in the State and Federal Courts: A
Proposal for the Second Decade, Minnesota Law Review, vol. 70, (1986), p. 763. For further discussion of the policy
principles underlying the rape shield laws, see, C. Wright and K. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure, Vol. 23, 5-381-393
and Joseph Biden, Violence Against Women: the Congressional Response, American Psychologist, vol. 48, no. 10 (1993),
pp. 1059-61.

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and fostering, despite the potential probative value of such evidence.303 Here public policy
considerations include not only advancing public health and HIV prevention efforts but also
protecting the right to use and possess contraceptive devices, a right guaranteed to every
person by the US Supreme Court as part of the fundamental right to privacy.304

Right to Liberty and Security of the Person and Freedom from

Arbitrary Detention
The right to health is closely related to and dependent upon the realization of other human
rights. In addition to protection of all persons from discrimination on the grounds of sex,
race, or other status, the ICCPR guarantees the rights to liberty and security of the
person and to be free from arbitrary arrest or detention.305 The 4th Amendment to the US
Constitution protects the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure by police.
Broadly drawn loitering statutes such as those in New York, California, and in the
prostitution-free zones in Washington, DC are problematic under these human rights
standards.306 The circumstantial evidence that permits police to stop, search, and arrest
under these statutes (such as clothing, location, and being known as a prostitute), also
enables unjustified interference with lawful activity and arbitrary and preemptive arrests
on the basis of profile, or status, rather than criminal conduct.307
Persons interviewed for this report testified to being stopped and searched while doing
nothing illegal, including walking home, returning from school, and waiting for the bus.
Profiling of transgender persons as sex workers is specifically prohibited by police
guidelines in both Washington, DC and Los Angeles, but the vague and sweeping language
in the loitering and anti-prostitution statutes appear to promote this discriminatory

303 Graham C. Lilley,

An Introduction to the Law of Evidence, 3d Ed., (St Paul: West Publishing 1996), p. 438.

304 Eisenstadt v. Baird, United States Supreme Court, 405 US 438 (1972).
305 ICCPR, arts. 9, 26. Sex is increasingly understood to encompass gender and gender identity, see, e.g. Macy v. Holder,
appeal number 0120120821, Agency Number ATF 2011-00751, April 20, 2012, a case in which the US Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission held that failure to hire a transgender woman despite her qualifications violated Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.
306 In New York City, loitering laws similar to the loitering for prostitution statute have been struck down by state and federal

courts on due process grounds. In the case of People v. Uplinger, 460 NYS2d 514 (1983) the New York Court of Appeals struck
down a statute prohibiting loitering for the purposes of engaging in lewd sexual conduct. In People v. Bright, 526 NYS2d 66
(1988) the New York Court of Appeals struck down a statute prohibiting loitering in a transit facility without sufficient
explanation. In Loper v. New York City Police Department,999 F2d 699 (2d Cir. 1993), the federal court struck down a statute
prohibiting loitering for the purpose of begging.
307 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.

GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976. See arts. 2, 9, 21.

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practice. The Yogyakarta Principles, standards endorsed by independent legal experts

from 25 countries that apply existing international human rights law to sexual orientation
and gender identity, call for an end to laws that promote profiling and other inequality
before the law:
States shall take all necessary legislative, administrative, and other measures
to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no
circumstances be the basis for arrest and detention, including the elimination
of vaguely worded criminal law provisions that invite discriminatory
application or otherwise provide scope for arrests based on prejudice.308
In 2011 the United States government investigated complaints of police profiling
transgender persons as sex workers in New Orleans. The Department of Justice reported,
We also found reasonable cause to believe that New Orleans Police
Department (NOPD) practices lead to discriminatory treatment of LGBT
individuals. In particular, transgender women complain that NOPD officers
improperly target and arrest them for prostitution, sometimes improperly
fabricating evidence of solicitation for compensation.309
The Department of Justice concluded that the New Orleans Police Department failed to
implement adequate policies and provide adequate training on how to identify and
articulate suspicion based on behavior and other permissible factors.310 Similar federal
oversight is required for police interactions with transgender persons in New York,
Washington, DC, and Los Angeles.
Another problematic law affects sex workers in San Francisco and Los Angeles. California
law mandates HIV testing for anyone convicted of prostitution.311 Mandatory HIV testing is
incompatible with international human rights standards and undermines, rather than
promotes, the public health. Compulsory testing is counterproductive as it frequently
308 Yogyakarta Principles on the application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity, March 2007, Principle 7 (a).
309 US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Investigation of New Orleans Police Department, March 16, 2011, p. 10.
310 US Department of Justice, Investigation of New Orleans Police Department, p. 9.
311 California Penal Code, sec. 1202.6

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drives sex workers away from essential public health services.312 International guidance,
including by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, has explicitly rejected mandatory
HIV testing in all forms.313 As stated in the UNAIDS Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human
Rights, these laws are often imposed upon the most vulnerable people in society:
Compulsory HIV testing can constitute a deprivation of liberty and a violation
of the right to security of the person. This coercive measure is often utilized
with regard to groups least able to protect themselves because they are
within the ambit of government institutions or the criminal law, e.g. soldiers,
sex workers, prisoners, and men who have sex with men. There is no public
health justification for such compulsory HIV testing.314
A related California statute provides that when a person is found to be HIV-positive after a
prostitution conviction, their charge on a second arrest for prostitution can be enhanced
from a misdemeanor to a felony.315 This law discriminates against people with HIV and is
particularly unjust in light of police interference with sex workers rights to protect
themselves from HIV infection.

Right to be Free from Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment

International and domestic law prohibits abusive and corrupt police practices including
verbal harassment, humiliation, and demand of sex in exchange for leniency. Article 16 of
the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment (CAT),
and article 7 of the ICCPR, both treaties signed and ratified by the United States, protect
against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in police custody.316 Non-binding
declarations adopted by the UN General Assembly, such as the UN Code of Conduct for
Law Enforcement Officials, the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of Persons under
Detention, and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners have also
become universal norms by which police behavior is evaluated.
312 UNAIDS, Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, p. 8; Center for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalization, Rights-Based
Sex Worker Empowerment Guidelines, July 2008, p, 12.
313 UNAIDS Global Reference Group on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, WHO/UNAIDS Policy Statement on HIV Testing, June 2004.
314 UNAIDS, International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, 2006, p. 95.
315 California Penal Code, sec. 647f.
316 Convention Against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), adopted December 10,
1984, GA Res. 39/46, annex, 39 UN GAOR Supp. (no. 51) at 197, UN Doc. A/39/51 (1984) entered into force June 26, 1987,
ratified by the US on October 15, 1994.

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Under the terms of these UN declarations on policing, law enforcement officials should
treat all persons with compassion and respect for their dignity, and should not inflict,
instigate, or tolerate any act of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.317
Effective mechanisms must be established to ensure the internal discipline and
supervision of law enforcement officials.318 Rape and sexual assault perpetrated or
permitted by state officials in detention is considered torture.319
Sex workers, particularly transgender women in New York and Los Angeles, testified to
multiple instances of police conduct that constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading
treatment and violates the right to liberty and security of the person.320 Police stops
involving condoms as evidence frequently took place in a context of verbal harassment,
physical abuse, humiliation, and extortion for sex both in and out of detention settings.
Human Rights Watch found that for some we interviewed, fear of further ill treatment or
removal from the United States if arrested for prostitution prevented the reporting of police
abuse and misconduct. The UN special rapporteur on issues of torture has condemned
discrimination against sexual minorities in detention, including sexual abuse and rape,
and the lack of police accountability that surrounds these offenses.321
In March 2011, as part of its Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council,
the US accepted recommendation 86 of the Council report, stating, We agree that no one

317

Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, G.A. Res. 34/169, annex, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (no. 46) at 186, U.N. Doc.

A/34/46 (1979), art. 2; Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under any Form of Detention and Imprisonment,
G.A. res. 43/173, annex, 43 U.N. GAOR Supp. (no. 49) at 298, U.N. Doc. A/43/49 (1988), prin. 1; United Nations Standard
Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners (Standard Minimum Rules) adopted by the First United nations Congress on the
Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social
Council by its resolution 663 (XXIV) of July 31, 1957, and 2076 (LXII) of May 13, 1977, para. 26.
318 Ibid.
319 The UN special rapporteur on torture has stated that rape and other forms of sexual assault in detention are a

particularly despicable violation of the inherent dignity and right to physical integrity of every human being; and accordingly
constitute an act of torture. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Summary Record of the 21st Meeting, UN ESCOR,
Commission on Human Rights, 48th Session, paragraph 35, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1992/SR.21 (1992).
320 Report of the special rapporteur on the question of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, U.N. General Assembly, U.N. Doc. A/56/156, July 3, 2001, Section IIA (finding that fear of physical torture may
constitute mental torture, and that serious and credible threats to the physical integrity of the victim or a third person can
amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or even to torture, especially when the victim is in the hands of law
enforcement officials). In its 2006 recommendations for the United States, the Committee Against Torture expressed concern
about reliable reports of sexual assault in detention and that persons of differing sexual orientation are particularly
vulnerable. Conclusions and Recommendations: United States, CAT/C/USA/CO/2, para. 32, May 18 2006.
321 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or

Punishment, UN General Assembly E/CN.4/2002/76, December 27, 2001.

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78

should face discrimination in access to public services or violence based on sexual

orientation or their status as a person in prostitution.322 This is the first public recognition
by the US of its obligation to respect the human rights of sex workers. Unfortunately, the
testimony of sex workers and transgender people in this report confirm that there is much
work to be done before these human rights are realized.

322 US Department of State, US Response to UN Human Rights Council Working Group Report, March 10,

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Recommendations
New York
To the New York State Legislature

Enact legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution

and related offenses.

Reform or repeal New York Penal Law Section 240.37, the statute prohibiting
loitering for the purposes of prostitution as incompatible with human rights and US
constitutional standards.

New York City

To the New York City Council

Enact legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution

and related offenses.

Enact the Community Safety Act, legislation prohibiting and providing a remedy for
profiling that disproportionately impacts individuals and communities based on
race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other prohibited grounds.

To the Mayor of New York City

Support legislation to prohibit the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution and

related offenses.

Issue an executive order prohibiting the use of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses by the New York City Police Department.

Provide the necessary policy, oversight, and disciplinary action to ensure that the
New York City Police Departments interactions with sex workers, transgender
persons, and LGBT youth in New York City comply with human rights and US
constitutional standards and are conducted with respect and professionalism.

To the New York City Police Department

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest,

question, or detain persons suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of
prostitution and related offenses. Issue a directive to all officers emphasizing the
public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and sexual and

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

80

reproductive health. Ensure that officers are regularly trained on this protocol and
held accountable for any transgressions.

Support legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Adopt policies, guidelines, and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that

interactions with sex workers, transgender persons, and LGBT youth comply with
human rights and US constitutional standards and are conducted with respect
and professionalism.

Adopt policies, guidelines, and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that all stops,
searches, and frisks of individuals comply with human rights and US
constitutional standards.

To the District Attorneys for the City of New York

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to prosecute

prostitution and related offenses.

Support legislation to prohibit the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution and

related offenses.

To the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Support legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Call upon the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to immediately cease using
the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest, question, or detain persons
suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of prostitution and related
offenses. Conduct trainings and engage in other collaborative efforts with the NYPD
emphasizing the public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and
sexual and reproductive health.

Washington, DC
To the Council of the District of Columbia

Enact legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution

and related offenses.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Reform or repeal anti-prostitution statutes that are vague, overbroad, and that
invite discrimination and arbitrary arrest as incompatible with human rights and US
constitutional standards.

To the Mayor of Washington, DC

Support legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Issue an executive order prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Support reform or repeal of anti-prostitution statutes that are vague, overbroad and
that invite discrimination and arbitrary arrest as incompatible with human rights
and US Constitutional standards.

Provide the necessary policy, oversight, and disciplinary action to ensure that the
Metropolitan Police Departments interactions with sex workers and transgender
persons in Washington, DC comply with human rights and US constitutional
standards and are conducted with respect and professionalism.

To the Metropolitan Police Department

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest,

question, or detain persons suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of
prostitution and related offenses. Issue a directive to all officers emphasizing the
public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and sexual and
reproductive health. Ensure that officers are regularly trained on this protocol and
held accountable for any transgressions.

Adopt policies, guidelines, and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that

interactions with sex workers and transgender persons comply with human rights
and US constitutional standards and are conducted with respect and
professionalism. Ensure compliance with MPD guidelines for interaction with
transgender individuals, including those that prohibit profiling transgender
persons as sex workers.

Adopt policies, guidelines, and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that all stops
and searches of individuals comply with human rights and US constitutional
standards.

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To the Department of Health of the District of Columbia

Support legislation prohibiting the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution and

related offenses.

Call upon the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to immediately cease using
the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest, question, or detain persons
suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of prostitution and related
offenses. Conduct trainings and engage in other collaborative efforts with the MPD
emphasizing the public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and
sexual and reproductive health.

California
To the California State Legislature

Enact legislation to prohibit possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution

and related offenses.

Repeal California Penal Code Section 1202.6 mandating HIV testing for all persons
convicted of prostitution and California Penal Code Section 647f providing for
enhanced penalties for persons convicted of a second prostitution offense while
HIV-positive as discriminatory, unnecessary, and incompatible with human rights
and US constitutional standards.

Reform or repeal California Penal Code Section 653.22, the statute prohibiting
loitering with intent to commit prostitution, as incompatible with human rights and
US constitutional standards.

To the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Board

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest,

question, or detain persons suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of
prostitution and related offenses. Issue a directive to all officers emphasizing the
public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and sexual and
reproductive health. Ensure that officers are regularly trained on this protocol and
held accountable for any transgressions.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Los Angeles
To the Los Angeles City Council

Enact legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution

and related offenses.

To the Mayor of Los Angeles

Support legislation prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Issue an executive order prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Provide the necessary policy, oversight, and disciplinary action to ensure that the
Los Angeles Police Departments interactions with sex workers and transgender
persons in Los Angeles comply with human rights and US constitutional standards
and are conducted with respect and professionalism.

To the Los Angeles Police Department

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest,

question, or detain persons suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of
prostitution and related offenses. Issue a directive to all officers emphasizing the
public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and sexual and
reproductive health. Ensure that officers are regularly trained on this protocol and
held accountable for any transgressions.

Adopt policies, guidelines, and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that

interactions with sex workers and transgender persons comply with human rights
and US constitutional standards and are conducted with respect and
professionalism. Ensure compliance with LAPD guidelines for interaction with
transgender individuals, including those that prohibit profiling transgender
persons as sex workers.

Adopt policies, guidelines, and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that all stops and
searches of individuals comply with human rights and US constitutional standards.

To the City Attorney of Los Angeles

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to prosecute

prostitution and related offenses.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

84

Support legislation prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Support repeal of California Penal Code Section 1202.6 mandating HIV testing for
all persons convicted of prostitution and California Penal Code Section 647f
providing for enhances penalties for persons convicted of a second prostitution
offense while HIV-positive as discriminatory, unnecessary, and incompatible with
human rights and US Constitutional standards.

Support reform or repeal of California Penal Code Section 653.22, the statute
prohibiting loitering with intent to commit prostitution, as incompatible with
human rights and US constitutional standards.

To the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

Support legislation prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Call upon the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to immediately cease using
the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest, question, or detain persons
suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of prostitution and related
offenses. Conduct trainings and engage in other collaborative efforts with the LAPD
emphasizing the public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and
sexual and reproductive health.

San Francisco
To the Board of Supervisors of the City of San Francisco

Enact legislation to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution

and related offenses.

To the Mayor of San Francisco

Support passage of legislation prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence

of prostitution and related offenses.

Issue an executive order prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses by the San Francisco Police Department.

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To the San Francisco Police Department

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest,

question, or detain persons suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of
prostitution and related offenses, including photographing condoms for this
purpose. Issue a directive to all officers emphasizing the public health importance
of condoms for HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health. Ensure that
officers are regularly trained on this protocol and held accountable for any
transgressions.

To the San Francisco District Attorney

Immediately cease using the possession of condoms as evidence to prosecute

prostitution and related offenses.

Support legislation prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Support repeal of California Penal Code Section 1202.6 mandating HIV testing for
all persons convicted of prostitution and California Penal Code Section 647f
providing for enhanced penalties for persons convicted of a second prostitution
offense while HIV-positive as discriminatory, unnecessary, and incompatible with
human rights and US constitutional standards.

Support reform or repeal of California Penal Code Section 653.22, the statute
prohibiting loitering with intent to commit prostitution, as incompatible with
human rights and US constitutional standards.

To the San Francisco Department of Public Health

Support legislation prohibiting the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses.

Call upon the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to immediately cease using
the possession of condoms as evidence to arrest, question, or detain persons
suspected of sex work, or to support prosecution of prostitution and related
offenses. Conduct trainings and engage in other collaborative efforts with the SFPD
emphasizing the public health importance of condoms for HIV prevention and
sexual and reproductive health.

Ensure that the work of the Environmental Health inspectors is coordinated with
that of the HIV/STD Prevention unit on issues of HV prevention and the importance

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

86

of promoting access to condoms in business establishments in San Francisco,

including massage parlors, erotic dance establishments, and other venues.

Support the proposal of the HIV Prevention Planning Council for a city-wide
ordinance mandating access to condoms and lubricant in all businesses that sell
liquor in San Francisco.

To the United States Government

The Office of National AIDS Policy and the federal agencies charged with
implementing the National AIDS Strategy should:
o

Recognize that human rights abuses are significant barriers to HIV

prevention for sex workers, transgender women, LGBT youth, and other
vulnerable groups and prioritize structural interventions to address those
abuses;

Call upon states to prohibit the possession of condoms as evidence of

prostitution and related offenses, and develop a plan to provide guidance,
technical assistance, and model legislation to accomplish this objective;

Ensure the inclusion of sex workers and transgender women in the efforts
of the Working Group on the Intersection of HIV/AIDS, Violence against
Women and Girls, and Gender-related Health Disparities;

Ensure that HIV research and surveillance data adequately reflects the
impact of HIV on sex workers and transgender women.

The Department of Justice should investigate the treatment of sex workers and
transgender persons by police in New York City, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles
and provide ongoing review, enforcement, and oversight to ensure that policies
and practices comply with human rights and US constitutional standards.

To the United Nations

To the United Nations Committees on Human Rights, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
and Racial Discrimination; the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the United Nations
Special Rapporteurs on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health and
Questions of Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and
the United Nations Human Rights Council:

Call upon the United States to ensure that police and prosecutors cease using
condoms as evidence of prostitution and related offenses.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Call upon the United States to reform or repeal overly broad loitering statutes that
invite discrimination and punishment based on identity or status rather than
criminal behavior.

Call upon the United States to protect the human rights of sex workers, transgender
persons, and LGBT youth by police, both in and out of police custody.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

88

Acknowledgements
This report was written by Megan McLemore, senior researcher for the Health and Human
Rights Division. The research was conducted by a team from the Health and Human Rights
Division that included advocacy director Rebecca Schleifer, research consultant Katherine
Todrys, associate Alex Gertner, and intern Margaret Wurth. The report was reviewed at
Human Rights Watch by Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Division,
Rebecca Schleifer, advocacy director for the Health and Human Rights Division, Katherine
Todrys, research consultant, Antonio Ginatta, advocacy director for the US Program,
Graeme Reed, director of the LGBT Program, Meghan Rhoad, researcher for the Womens
Rights Division, Dinah Pokempner, general counsel, and Babatunde Olugboji, deputy
program director in the Program Office. Research assistance was provided by Aretha
Chakraborti, Theresa Cheng, and Claire Gunner, interns in the Health and Human Rights
Division. Production assistance was provided by Margaret Wurth, associate, Grace Choi,
publications director, Kathy Mills, publications specialist, Ivy Shen, multimedia assistant,
and Fitzroy Hepkins, administrative manager.
Human Rights Watch gratefully acknowledges the invaluable assistance of individuals and
organizations in each of the four cities addressed in this report.
In New York City Human Rights Watch would like to thank Sienna Baskin at the Urban
Justice Centers Sex Workers Project, Rachel Thomas and Sara Hahn at the Open Society
Foundation Sexual Health and Rights Project, Josh Saunders at Brooklyn Defender Services,
Kate Mogulescu at the Legal Aid Society of New York, Andrea Ritchie at Streetwise and Safe,
Socheatta Meng and Daniel Mullkoff at the NYCLU, Darius Charney at the Center for
Constitutional Rights, Mito Miller, Lorena Borjas, Juan David Gastolomendo, the Latino
Commission on AIDS, Lambda Legal, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, Lower East
Side Harm Reduction Center, FROST'D, CitiWide Harm Reduction, the LGBT Center, Queens
Pride House, the Positive Health Project, additional members of the PROS Network, and
many others whose invaluable assistance supported this project.
In Los Angeles we gratefully acknowledge Bamby Salcedo at the Childrens Hospital Los
Angeles, Victor Martnez, Roberto Melendez, Brenda del Rio Gonzalez, and Sandra
Esqueda at Bienestar, Shirin Buckman and Karina Samala at the Transgender Working

89

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2012

Group of the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, Shayla Myers at Bet Tzedek
Legal Services, Alessandra Moura at the Los Angeles Police Department, Laurie Aronoff,
Joseph Weiner, the Transgender Service Provider Network (TSPN), and the Sex Workers
Outreach Project of Los Angeles (SWOP-LA).
In San Francisco we gratefully acknowledge the staff of the St. James Infirmary, Carol Stuart,
Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, the staff at Trans:Thrive, and Nadia Babella and Cecelia Chung at the
San Francisco Human Rights Commission.
In Washington, DC we gratefully acknowledge the staff of Helping Individual Prostitutes
Survive (HIPS), Darby Hickey, and Ruby Corado.
Most of all, Human Rights Watch thanks the courageous sex workers and transgender
persons who shared their experiences for this report.

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

90

Appendix A. New York City Criminal Court

Prostitution Complaint Forms

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SEX WORKERS AT RISK

92

93

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SEX WORKERS AT RISK

94

95

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SEX WORKERS AT RISK

96

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SEX WORKERS AT RISK

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Appendix B. Letter from the Latino Commission

on AIDS to the NYPD

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Appendix C. San Francisco Resolution

Re: Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution

SEX WORKERS AT RISK

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SEX WORKERS AT RISK

104

Appendix D. San Francisco Criminal Court

Prostitution Complaint Form

105

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SEX WORKERS AT RISK

106

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SEX WORKERS AT RISK

108

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Sex Workers at Risk

Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 people, including 200 current and former sex workers, in New York, Los Angeles,
Washington, DC, and San Francisco as part of an investigation into barriers to effective HIV prevention for sex workers. The
findings are shocking: city public health departments spend millions of dollars promoting and distributing condoms as an
effective method of HIV prevention. Meanwhile, police departments undermine these efforts by harassing and threatening sex
workers for carrying condoms and using possession of condoms as evidence to support prostitution arrests.
For many sex workers, particularly transgender women, arrest means facing degrading treatment and other abuse at the hands
of the police. For immigrants, arrest for prostitution offenses can mean detention and removal from the United States. Some
women told Human Rights Watch that they continued to carry condoms despite the harsh consequences. For others, fear of arrest
overwhelmed their need to protect themselves from HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy. An alarming
number of sex workers told us they were afraid to carry the number of condoms they needed, and some had unprotected sex with
clients as a result.
Police and district attorneys should stop using condoms as evidence of prostitution. The value of condoms for HIV prevention far
outweighs any utility they might have in the criminal justice system. Strong federal leadership is also needed. The US
government provides millions of dollars of funding to each of the cities addressed in this report to prevent HIV among sex
workers, transgender women, and other groups that it has targeted because of their high risk of infection. That investment should
not be undermined by police officers telling sex workers to throw their condoms away or risk arrest.

2012 Human Rights Watch

hrw.org

Basis of
conclusion that
defendant was
loitering for
the purpose of
prostitution

Sex Workers Demonstrate

Economic and Social
Empowerment

regional Report:

Asia and
thePacific

Contents
Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and
Social Empowerment Regional Report:
Asia and the Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Case Study 1: India

Usha Cooperative, Durbar Mahila
Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Case Study 2: Cambodia

Womens Network for Unity (WNU). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Case Study 3: Myanmar

AIDS Myanmar Association (AMA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Case Study 4: India

Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Case Study 5: Indonesia

OPSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Case Study 6: Indonesia

Yayasan Kerti Praja/Melati Support Group, Bali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Case Study 7: Thailand

SWING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Case Study 8: Thailand

Can Do BAR, EMPOWER, Chiang Mai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Case Study 9: Thailand

Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), Bangkok . . . . . . . 45

Conclusion: HIV, aid and a sustainable paradigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Appendix 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Appendix 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Appendix 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Sex Workers Demonstrate

Economic and Social
Empowerment Regional
Report: Asiaand thePacific

Executive Summary
The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) received funding from the
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Stepping Up, Stepping Out Project by
Aids Fonds to support the development of advocacy tools around rights-based
economic empowerment for sex workers. The first year of this three-year
project was coordinated by the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW),
whose office is in Bangkok, Thailand. Over the last 20 years, with the catalyst
of HIV decimating our ranks, India and Southeast Asia have been home to
some of the most progressive sex worker-led networks in the world. We
advocate and struggle for self-determination and equal rights in work and life,
asdocumented here.
For this project, NSWP worked with APNSW members to:
1 develop background material for advocacy tools that will strengthen
regional networks and member organisations work; campaign for the rights
of sex workers of all genders; and amplify the voices of sexworkers globally;
2 document good practice examples of sex worker-led economic
empowerment projects (described in the case studies) to inform
the development of advocacy tools that will help sex
worker-led groups ability to engage effectively with
policy makers andprogrammers;
3 document the lived experiences of sex workers
and the impact of programmes that focus
on rehabilitation, that require sex workers
to exit sex work (see the accompanying
BriefingPaper).
This report focuses in detail on two key good
practice studies: the Usha banking cooperative
originating in the Sonagachi sex work area of
Kolkata, India, and the informal school and community
legal services at WNU in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. These
are followed by seven other studies (AMA, VAMP, OPSI, Melati
Support Group, SWING, Can Do Bar and APNSW) and field
research with sex workers and NGOs across the region.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

We believe that money is power: when sex workers have secure money
they can choose their clients and there are many reasons that they
need this choice. If sex workers have money, they can avoid violence,
forced sex without a condom, police arrest, and look after their health
care. Economic empowerment means that sex workers can be a good
role model as heads of their families. When sex workers have money,
other members of society are more inclined to respect them and not
stigmatise their occupation. Therefore economic empowerment leads to
less discrimination
Kay Thi Win, AMA, Myanmar

Introduction
Economics impact the lives of sex workers on a global, local, household and
individual level. Sex workers marginality as migrants, single mothers, and
sexually and gender-diverse people influences their choice of work over
formal unskilled occupations. But the main issue is the money. For many, sex
work earns more money in less time than other available occupations. The
aim of economic empowerment, and the good practice models outlined here,
is for sex workers to retain control of our income: the initial and essential step
towards sex workers organising together.
Sex workers need to work together for economic and social justice. By forming
organisations, sex workers can help one another to earn and keep more
money.

Current economics of sex work in Asia

Sex work as an industry appears to be going through a bad period in the
region. In the late 1980s, sex work generally declined due to the AIDS scare,
and more recently has been threatened by US policies demonising and
criminalising sex work. Other influences, including fundamentalist Islam
particularly in Indonesia and the global financial crisis, all seem to have hit
those engaged in sex work quitehard.
Comparisons show that street, bar and brothel-based sex workers still make
substantially more than those in other unskilled occupations. Factory and
domestic service jobs average less than $5, or as little as $12 per day, often
with very long hours and strict conditions, such as limited toilet breaks.
Domestic servants can find themselves almost permanently on call and
subjected to sexual exploitation by theiremployer.
Contrary to the situation of formal-sector workers who must battle with
employers for better wages and conditions, sex workers receive relatively high
earnings from their clients but then have to battle with management and
other Third parties that may take a higher percentage of earnings from sex
workers particularly in contexts where they face criminalisation and security
forces demanding fines and bribes 1, to retain as much as they can of their
original earnings.

1 Law enforcement authorities often use soliciting, indecency and public order statutes to arrest, detain
or threaten sex workers. Hence sex workers report paying bribes to escape arrest or prefer to pay fines
on being arrested.

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

The internet and the ubiquity of smartphones means that a large part of the
sex industry is now invisible, and it is hard to estimate the incomes being
earned. Based on information from sex workers in various countries, incomes
are still much higher than in other available occupations. But, at the same
time, a dichotomy has opened up between these net-based workers and those
working in traditional locations such as the street, bars and brothels. In these
places, negative influences have caused the industry to decline. For instance,
in Indonesia where many localities have been closed, options are being
reduced for working on the streets and in short-stay venues like cinemas.
This has resulted in reduced incomes for sex workers, while at the same time
the private side of the industry has been expanding rapidly on the internet.

Economic disempowerment: the anti-prostitution

and sex worker rehabilitation movement
Anti-sex work fundamentalist feminists have quite the opposite
interpretation of economic empowerment: they believe that sex workers
are empowered when they exit sex work and are placed in programmes with
alternative employment opportunities, regardless of whether the sex worker
finds the work empowering or not. However, other occupations are often less
appealing than sex work, as many involve long hours, violence, dangerous
conditions, and sexual violations2. Our research repeatedly indicates that
supposed alternatives pay far less and are entirely inadequate if the worker
has dependants, as many do.
Sex workers with dependants require a significant income to afford
schooling, health care and living costs for themselves and their families. This
is the basis of the Womens Network for Unity (WNU) slogan: We are proud
to feed our families! This is why rescue and rehabilitation programmes
cannot work, and this becomes clearer once actual figures on income start to
be tallied.

Sex worker-led organisations and

international NGOs in Southeast Asia
International NGOs such as Population Service International (PSI) and Family
Health International (FHI 360) continue to work with sex workers in the
region and provide technical support and clinical services. Most areas now
have independent sex worker groups, but there is still a role for organisations
such as Poro Sapot Project in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (the basis
for the Friends Frangipani network of sex workers, and funded by Save the
Children) and Yayasan Kerthi Praja in Bali, Indonesia (funded by FHI 360),
which provides clinical services for sex workers and people living with
HIV and also runs a support group for sex workers living with HIV (Melati).
In Indonesia, where the anti-trafficking discourse is dominant and wellfunded, the situation is not conducive to sex worker-led projects. Therefore,
OPSI, based in Jakarta, works on a relatively limited basis and most sex
worker support projects are led by Indonesias family planning network and
international NGOs such as FHI 360.

See Dendoung & Dendoung, 2013.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

However, sex worker programming must continue to be led by sex workers

themselves. Numerous non-sex workers and organisations have threatened
to take over the discourse on sex work, especially when equating it with
trafficking and denying the agency of sex workers. This has contributed to
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in the US with itsimplications for
Southeast Asian countries and aid funds 3, 4.
At the same time, a range of models in practice across the region also
demonstrate a rights-based approach towards sex work. Scarlet Alliance,
based in Sydney, Australia, supports Friends Frangipani and Scarlet Timor
Leste, through an onsite support model; AVID places an Australian volunteer
with a group, such as SWING in Bangkok and YKP in Bali, to provide sex
worker-based mentoring and leadership across the region. APNSW has
provided mentoring and support for fledgling groups emerging from INGObased groups, notably AMA in Myanmar, while EMPOWER in Thailand and
Scarlet Alliance have run various innovative programmes through their
Migration Project. VAMP in Sangli, India, has empowered sex workers to
reduce violence through collective strategies and improve the conditions for
sex work.

Best and worst practices in sex worker programming

Examples of best practices and the issues surrounding sex worker
programming have been covered very well elsewhere 5. These reports
demonstrate the broad support for sex workers health and safety from all the
key global agencies. Crucially, this includes the acceptance and inclusion of
sex workers, via APNSW and NSWP, as partners in thediscussion.
At the same time, sex workers continue to face bad practice, epitomised by
the US PEPFAR pledge which forced aid recipients to oppose sex work from
20032013. The PEPFAR pledge, which demanded that recipients sign an antiprostitution pledge 6, has since been successfully challenged by recipients
in the US 7, as sex workers are more included in the discourse. However, the
anti-prostitution pledge continues to impact organisations based outside the
US, who work on HIV prevention programmes and receive PEPFAR funding 8.

See Bromfeld & Capous Desyllas 2012 analysis of the partnership between the hard religious right
and the hard feminist left that pushed through the TVPA. They argue that it is through creative and
artistic projects that sex workers can most effectively respond.

Capous Desyllas, 2013.

UNFPA, 2012; UNDP, 2012; NSWP, 2011; WHO et al., 2013.

Ditmore, 2005.

7 Provost, C., 2012.

8

Laws governing foreign assistance the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act
contained within it an Anti-Prostitution Pledge (APP). The APP requires public health groups that are
not based in the US but receiving US funds to pledge their opposition to sex work as a condition of
receiving funding for their HIV-prevention work. The APP states that no funds may be used to provide
assistance to any group or organisation that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution.
In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the APP was unconstitutional on the grounds that it
violated the right to freedom of speech for US organisations.However, all other recipients of US
government HIV/AIDS funding including international groups remain subject to the requirement
(forthcoming NSWP document).

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Focus on economic empowerment

What makes this study different from all the other good practice studies
that have been produced over the last 20 years? It focuses specifically
on aspects of sex worker-led programmes that can assist with economic
empowerment. We look at incomes, outgoings, savings options, and
comparisons with other occupations and rehabilitation programmes.
These economic issues are hugely important to sex workers but are not well
understood by us or by those who study us.
In the last 15 years of the trafficking debates and hype, it has gradually
become apparent that actual victims of coercive practices are far fewer than
thought. EMPOWER, APNSW and others have explained in detail the negative
effects of rescue and rehabilitation which aims to obliterate the political
economy of sex work.
This is the context of economic empowerment for sex workers, as opposed
to that espoused by NGOs that conflate sex work with trafficking and whose
rescue programmes tend to have their basis in morality rather than in
human rights.
As the Usha Cooperative (this reports primary example of ensuring
economic empowerment) describes it: We, the members of Usha, are very
emphatic that the Cooperative is not meant for economic rehabilitation of the sex
workers who are in the profession, but is designed to provide a financial support for us
to fall back upon in moments of crisis, and to minimise our economic desperation by
creating a space for negotiation. 9
WNU in Cambodia is also profiled, with its informal education programme
for children of sex workers and its legal aid programme. The third good
practice study, from AMA, Myanmar, illustrates a fledgling sex worker-led
organisation building on assistance from APNSW and the model of Usha. It
was actually hard to find other examples where sex worker-led programmes
are able to achieve very much, given the recent climate of trafficking moral
panic, and ten years of the US government insisting that recipients of its aid
make a commitment to not supporting sex work in anyway.
We study the strategies used by the VAMP collective, a rural sex workers
collective in Sangli, India, to focus on reducing violence and increasing their
earnings. We focus on the problems faced by sex workers in Indonesia under
a repressive ideological system, presenting OPSI as a good practice example
and YKP in Bali as a more typical example of large NGO funding directed
towards helping sex workers rather than directly funding sex workers. OPSI
in Jakarta functions as a network for the widely disparate community of
Indonesian sex workers, who have been struck by a double whammy of US
anti-prostitution policy and local Islamic vendettas. Next, two Thai projects
are profiled: SWING, for trans and male sex workers, and the Can Do bar,
Empowers sex worker-run entertainment bar. Finally, we take a look at the
region-wide work ofAPNSW.

DMSC, 2011, p.26.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

Acknowledgements
NSWP would like to thank Aids Fonds for financial support in producing
thisreport, and Robert Carr civil society Networks Fund for contributing to
the publication costs.
The following people are also thanked for their contributions to the
development of the project:
Global: Gillian Galbraith, Mitch Cosgrove, Nine, Anelda Grov; Asia and
thePacific: AMA: Mo Thandar, Kay Thi Win, Wai Wai Shein; APNSW: Aarthi
Pai, DrAly Murray, Andrew Hunter, ChutchaiKongmont, TraceyTully; CAN
DOBAR: Wi, Liz Hilton; DMSC: Nirmahla Ghosh, BarathiDey; OPSI: Ferraldo
Saragi; SWING: Surang Janyam, Thi, NicoletteBurrows; VAMP: Kamilbai,
MeenaSeshu; WNU: Keo Tha, Taree, Ros Sokunthy, Socheata Sim, Pisey Ly,
Dahlia; YayasanKerti Praja/MelatiSupport Group: Dr Aly Murray.

Methodology
Original research and fieldwork were conducted from July to December
2013. In early October we attended a Myanmar-wide sex worker consultation
in Yangon, organised by Targeted Outreach Project (TOP) and PSI in
collaboration with the new national sex worker-led network, AMA. With
the APNSW membership we also developed a set of questions related to
economic empowerment, income, opinions, experiences of raids and rescues,
and so on, that was used throughout the region (Appendix 1).
From 2125 October, APNSW organised a regional workshop in Phnom Penh,
which was attended by an Usha cooperative representative. The workshop
also included field visits to WNU, its school and its legal programme,
Community Legal Service (CLS). At this workshop, we held discussions on
how to establish a) good practice legal and banking services for sex workers
in the region, and b) education for children of sex workers. It was a very
productive cross-cultural exchange, given the different legal and social
situations of sex workers in different countries. We had further opportunities
for discussion at the two-yearly regional AIDS conference, ICAAP, and its
community programme, held in Bangkok in late November.
At our focus group discussion in Cambodia, it proved quite difficult
for sexworkers to reach a common understanding of the concept of
economicempowerment as it was translated through various languages.
It was easier to understand in practical terms of saving money in the bank,
but the Cambodian workers in particular were struggling even to make
theirrent.
The accompanying briefing paper on bad practice with sex workers is
based initially on interviews with sex workers who have had experience
of rehabilitation and/or rescue and retraining. These were sex workers in
Phnom Penh who had experience of Somaly Mams AFESIP, and young men in
Thailand. We were rebuffed in many attempts to enter the world of rescue
programmes in the Urban Light/Love 146 nexus of US, church-funded NGOs,
but were very fortunate that the coordinator of Urban Light foundation in
Chiang Mai, Thailand was willing to talk extensively to us.

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Case Study

1
India
Usha Cooperative, Durbar Mahila
Samanwaya Committee (DMSC)
Background
Sonagachi, Kolkatas largest red-light district, is an area of around one mile
radius with congested streets, haphazardly built houses and shops. An
estimated 10,000 sex workers work here in a variety of settings, from the
street to dingy brothels. A couple of centuries ago the area was used by the
Bengali feudal elite for maintaining concubines and mistresses, but now, in
the age of capitalist democracy, it is open to all who can pay hard cash. Even
today, Sonagachi, translated as Golden Tree, is famous throughout the eastern
parts of India and has several hundred multi-storey brothels and some 10,000
sex workers most of whom come from poor, rural and generally lower-caste
families. A large number of them are Muslim women, some from across the
border in Bangladesh.
In 1992, an HIV intervention programme was launched in the Sonagachi area
by All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH&PH), an institute
funded by the Indian government. The objective was to initiate an STI and HIV
prevention programme with three principal components: provision of health
services including STI treatment; information, education and communication;
and condom programming.
The programme was pivoted on the peer-based approach. Sex workers were
recruited from the community, trained in health and HIV and then promoted as
peers and outreach workers. Their role was to publicise HIV-related messages
among their colleagues and friends and also to help sex workers access clinical
services and condoms.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

However, over a period of time, the peer educators began to feel the limitations
of this approach. External factors, such as police raids, extortion by local
hooligans and other criminal elements10 as well as the negative attitudes of
certain service providers and researchers served as barriers to sex workers
trying to access preventive services.
Sex workers started recognising the need to change the programming
approach, from service provision to community empowerment. They felt a
strong need to include empowering strategies in order to address various
structural issues that the HIV project framework was unable to support in
thelong run.
In 1995, following several discussions and consultations, a unique body
was formed: Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), Indias first
organisation of sex workers, with the objective of creating solidarity and
collective strength among the sex worker community and other marginalised
groups. The Sonagachi intervention is promoted by UNAIDS as a best practice
to be emulated around the developing world. The project is credited with
keeping the HIV infection rate among the sex workers at five percent, much
lower than in other Indian red-light districts.

Structure, mission and activities

DMSC seeks to address the problem of exploitation and social discrimination
against sex workers. It promotes their agency and stresses their collective
bargaining power both in accessing services related to safe sex as well as
improving their working conditions. Moving beyond the moral/immoral
framework that dominates the popular discourse, DMSC works to promote
apositive image of sex workers.
DMSC has gone far beyond tackling HIV. Today, the Sonagachi project which
has spread its wings to all districts of West Bengal brings together over 65,000
sex workers and their children. It runs a hospital for sex workers, vocational
institutions, schools for children of sex workers and a cooperative bank with
a turnover touching 170 million rupees a year that provides microfinance to
itsmembers.
Apart from helping organise
similar sex worker unions in
other parts of India, DMSC
has also launched a national
organisation of Entertainment
Workers (EWs), which includes
any professional who, like sex
workers, is involved in selling
pleasure.

We are questioning the dominant

ethos of this country which says
that there is something wrong with
pleasure. Our social movements are
obsessed with the idea of martyrdom
we want to point out that no goals
are sustainable without joy.
S Jana

10 Toughs and/or hooligans, also known as goondas or mastaans in local parlance, in their more
benign incarnation are mere neighbourhood bullies, who make their living or find avenues of
recreation by extracting money or protection fees from local populations under threat of actual
potential violence. The more menacing among the goondas, from the sex worker perspective, are
those embroiled in theft, extortion, drugs and other criminal activities. Sex workers are particularly
vulnerable prey to all those goondas who seek to extract money from them, and non-compliance
frequently elicits the response of rape and other forms of physical violence, including torture, knifing
and arson (Gooptu, 2000)

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Future of DMSC
DMSC has demanded abolition of existing laws controlling the sex trade as
these laws have historically acted against the interests of sex workers rather
than penalising those who exploit them. Instead, DMSC aims to work towards
forming a self-regulatory body that will act as the principal arbitrator of
disputes and conflicts within the collective of DMSC. It will be constituted
solely of sex workers, and will be similar to other professional bodies such
as the Indian Medical Council or the Bar Association. This professional body
of sex workers would be responsible for ensuring that the industry abides by
some minimum guidelines to safeguard the interests of working sex workers
and also to prevent the forcible entry of unwilling women and minors into
the profession. As in other professions, this body would also stipulate some
minimum qualifications for entry into the profession, including age.

DMSC and economic empowerment

The formation and activities of DMSC have greatly impacted the economic
situation of sex workers in West Bengal. Here, two examples of successful
economic empowerment projects are examined: sex worker-run banking and
economic negotiating through collective means.

Example #1: Economic

empowerment through sex workerrun banking: The Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Society

One of the early issues that DMSC addressed was financial problems among
sex workers. Economic insecurity, coupled with extortionate moneylending
practices in red-light areas, had always been part of the lives of sex workers in
India. With few venues for saving money, sex workers often found themselves
getting into debt traps. A couple of years after its formation, DMSC took a very
significant step by registering a consumer cooperative society called Usha
Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, or Usha, run entirely for and by
sexworkers.

The problem
1 Opening bank accounts
To open an account, banks require identifying documents such as a rent
receipt, electricity bill or phone bill. However, sex workers often did not have
these documents because laws prohibited women from hiring rooms in their
own names to engage in their occupation. As a result, they couldnt possess any
valid rental agreement documents needed to obtain other identity documents,
and therefore could not open a bank account. There were additional barriers
to opening bank accounts: sex workers were asked to bring their husbands
along if they tried to open a bank account and were often ridiculed by the bank
employees the moment they were identified as sex workers.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

2 Financial mismanagement
Several structural barriers affected the way that sex workers managed their
funds. Because they couldnt open bank accounts, most sex workers put
their money in unauthorised financial institutions (e.g. chit funds) or kept
their money with their madams. A DMSC survey found that 99 percent of
the sex workers had been cheated by these agencies at least once. Whatever
money they could keep with them was usually taken away by their babus
(lovers/boyfriends). Additionally, snatching money from sex workers by local
hooligans and other criminal elements as well as extortion by police were
common phenomena. Due to this fear of losing money, some sex workers
stopped saving money altogether and spent everything they earned on the
same day.
3 Victims of moneylending
Sex workers were particularly vulnerable to unfair moneylending practices.
In emergency situations, many sex workers had to depend on a category of
moneylenders not linked with any financial institution. These moneylenders
used to regularly visit red-light districts looking for borrowers. They offered
various kinds of lending deals with a minimum rate of interest at nearly 300
percent per annum.
4 Financial insecurity
Ageing sex workers faced a gradual reduction in income from the sex trade.
They often had debts and no sustainable savings. Apart from sex work,
many had no other marketable skills to generate income from other sources.
Additionally, older sex workers had more financial obligations. With ageing
came an increase in health-related expenses and many had to support their
children.

The solution: Banking run for and by sex workers

To address the myriad financial issues that sex workers faced, DMSC
started Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited. Usha operates like
a cooperative financial institution and collects deposits regularly from its
sex worker members. In addition to basic banking, Usha runs a microcredit
programme for sex workers; creates alternative jobs for out-of-work or
retired sex workers; and engages in social marketing of condoms and other
consumables. Usha business ventures include organic farming, pisciculture
(fish farming) to protect biodiversity, and eco-friendly event management
services. Usha operates as the principal financial institution for the range
of sex workers organisations affiliated to DMSC and manages grants from
external agencies for them.
Today, Usha is the largest sex worker-run financial institution in Asia. As
a financial institution, it has one of the best recovery rates in the state of
West Bengal (>90%) and has an annual turnover of 2.7 million USD and
capital assets valued at more than one million USD. Usha currently has a
membership of 16,228 sex workers and around 4 to 5,000 members receive
loans every year. It also has the largest condom social marketing reach for
any community-managed organisation in the country and sells 3.5 million
condoms per year. In recognition of its work, Usha is highlighted as a success
story of the cooperative movement in West Bengal by the Department of
Cooperatives of the state government.

10

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Guiding principles
In establishing Usha, DMSC members came up with guiding principles for the
project. After a series of debates and discussions held among the sex workers,
it was decided that:

The cooperative should be exclusively of and for the sex worker

community;

Underlying factors that prevent sex workers from accessing financial

support should be addressed;

Community members should be in the policy-making bodies of the finance

management mechanism;

Communities needs and priorities should be respected while creating and

managing the financial institution.

Structure and management

Usha is run by a board of nine directors (all sex workers), all of whom
are elected through a two-tier electoral process. In the first phase, all
members elect 45 representatives by casting their secret ballots. The elected
representatives then elect the board members who run the office for a period
of three years. No board member can hold office for more than two terms.

Impact of Usha
Direct impact
Savings: First and foremost, the Usha Cooperative has provided sex workers
with a safe venue for saving their hard-earned income. As mentioned before,
saving money was challenging for several reasons. Now, large numbers of sex
workers are able to regularly save significant portions of their income. The rate
of deposits has been high due to a unique scheme by Usha, whereby every day
it sends its staff directly to the homes and workplaces of sex workers to collect
the money. This saves the sex workers the trouble of having to come to the
Usha offices for this purpose. Each cooperative member is issued an identity
card and account number against which the money is deposited as it comes in.
Most of the staff that collects the money also happen to be the children of sex
workers themselves, which enhances their credibility and trustworthiness.

Sex Workers speak

Most of the rehabilitation programmes that are being offered to sex workers
are simply too small in scale to be of any real use. There are organisations
offering training to sex workers in stitching, sewing, candle making and so
on, with which they can make only around Rs. 2000 3000 per month, but
a sex worker today, even without a family, needs a minimum of Rs. 5000 to
live in Kolkata.
We have not seen anyone in practice who is able to do proper rehabilitation
work. We have no examples anywhere else in the country either. There are
many tall claims but no working model that we can say is acceptable.
DMSCs position is that those who need rehabilitation should be given that
but those who dont want it should be given dignity. The problem with many
rehabilitation NGOs is that they approach sex work as a moral problem and
they seem to think that somebody who has been doing sex work should be
happy to escape and do almost anything else to make a living. Thatis simply
not true.
Bharati De, Secretary, DMSC

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

11

Loans: Probably the greatest attraction of being a member of the Usha

Cooperative for many sex workers is the possibility of obtaining loans at lower
interest rates and without any onerous conditions. As mentioned earlier,
prior to the launch of the cooperative sex workers were entirely dependent
on a number of opportunistic moneylenders. All that is history now with the
advent of Usha. According to data provided by Usha, thousands of sex workers
have already taken loans of varying sizes for diverse purposes, ranging from
purchasing land or other real estate assets to financing the education of their
children or for health care.
Asset creation: Usha loans have enabled thousands of its members to
purchase long-term assets such as land or houses. This boosts their returns
on investment and improves future income security. Prior to the availability
of these loans, it was impossible for an average sex worker to even dream of
buying land or a house to live in or even rent a decent place to carry out their
professional work. In 2010 11 around 4,892 Usha Cooperative members had
taken a loan for buying land or building houses, while in 201112 around 6,032
members had taken loans for the samepurposes.

Indirect impacts
State and social recognition: Usha has afforded sex workers respect and
recognition on local and national levels. More than a dozen major financial
institutions, including banks and insurance companies, have approached sex
workers and offered their support. Other marginalised communities, including
other Indian sex worker collectives, have hired Usha to help emulate the same
practice, and Usha has become a member of the National Cooperative Union
(the policy-making body of the cooperative societies in the country).
Contribution to the community: Usha provides financial support for various
activities to enable and empower sex workers and their family members. The
cooperative also creates educational opportunities for the children of sex
workers and supports women living with HIV by providing ART treatment
and food supplements. Moreover, through social marketing of condoms, even
in areas where DMSC does not have an organisational base, Usha acquaints
more and more sex workers with the aims and objectives of the sex workers
movement.
Improving the viability of sex work: By providing sex workers with the option
of freedom from the clutches of moneylenders or exploitation by babus and
madams, Usha has enhanced the economic viability of sex work. Greater
income security combined with savings for the future enables the sex workers
of West Bengal to pursue their profession without the high risks and poor
rewards that characterise the trade in other parts of India.

12

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Example #2: Economic

negotiating and social

justicethrough collective means
Before the creation of DMSC, a complex system of hierarchies of sex workers
and networks of managers and some exploitative individuals existed, which
resulted in many sex workers being exposed to violence and getting cheated
out of their money. DMSC used collective power to negotiate better financial
deals for sex workers and safer workingconditions.
Brothels in Sonagachi are run by madams who charge sex workers a daily,
hourly and/or monthly rent to use the rooms with clients. While the madams
are often non-sex workers joining forces with local hooligans to run the
brothels, in the last decade or so this has changed and now more and more sex
workers themselves are operating the brothels. DMSC officials estimate that
today over 60 percent of the brothels are run by older or retired sex workers or
in some cases even by younger ones who have made sufficient money to pay
the monthly rents. Additionally, a network of client procurers provides a steady
supply of clients to the sex workers, charging the clients a commission for
theirwork.

The problem
1 Madams and crippling commission fees
Around 20 years ago, under a system called hadiya, sex workers were forced
to give 50 percent of all that they earned to the landlady. Very often, the sex
workers, falling into debt for various reasons, would even be kept as bonded
labour and made to work almost for free. There was a lot of exploitation of sex
workers at that time, as the madams would not keep proper accounts of the
total money made and would sometimes keep all the money for themselves.
2 Violence
Madams, who controlled the entire sex industry in Sonagachi, worked hand in
glove with local hooligans and other criminal elements who would use violence
to enforce exploitative terms and conditions and intimidate sex workers.

The solution: Collective negotiation and taking on

human rights violations
After the formation of DMSC in the mid-1990s, norms of payment to the
madams were renegotiated and the mastaans were chased away or taken out of
the equation altogether. The DMSC systematically took up all cases of violence
against or cheating of sex workers by the madams and currently has a practice
of holding weekly meetings between sex workers and madams to sort out any
contentious issues.
Among the brothels now, there is a variety of systems of payments to
madams:

50 percent of brothels operate on a commission basis (for every client

brought in the sex worker has to pay around Rs. 10 15 to the landlady).

Another 30 percent of the brothels operate on a contract basis, whereby

the sex worker pays a fixed sum of Rs. 100 per day to the brothel and keeps
whatever money she makes above this for herself.

The other 20 percent still works on the basis of the old hadiya system,
whereby sex workers have to give 50 percent of all their earnings to the
madam. This practice persists because the DMSC has not been able to bring
about enough pressure to change the way some of the madamsoperate.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

13

Sex workers speak

Prabha Modak, Agartala, Tripura. Has been working in Rambagan for 16years.
I plan to stay here for another five to six years till I have enough savings to
retire. After that I will go back and stay with my son and daughter. On average
I earn Rs. 10,000 every month and with the income that I get from lending my
premises to other sex workers, I earn Rs. 55,000 every month. Income from
sex work is much better than working as a domestic servant or a construction
worker. In my village, I would have been an agricultural worker with little cash
income.
During festivals, which happen several times a year, the number of clients goes
down as they have to spend their money on various other rituals and gifts for
family etc. Again, I cannot work now and then due to health problems that
may arise. Usually loss of work days due to ill health averages two or three
days every month. My expenses include educating my children, their food,
clothing, cosmetics and medical expenses. The rest I save in deposits with Usha
Multipurpose Cooperative. I was able to save Rs. 6,000 last month.
Economic empowerment is essential for us. I could not dream of buying land or
a house with income from any other profession I may have taken up, given my
low skills. Sex work has definitely empowered me economically.
The presence of DMSC and its provision of various health services has
improved our working conditions over the last decade. We are no longer
harassed by goons and police, for example. It is difficult to increase payments
from clients, since it depends on the category of sex work you are in depending
on your income level. Usha Cooperative has provided us with access to nondiscriminatory moneylending services. DMSC also supports us when we need
access to legal aid, to challenge arrests, abuse or illegal detention by law
enforcement and rescue groups.
Usha Cooperative has given us both a safe place to deposit our money and also
provides easy access to credit. Over the years this has helped me escape the
clutches of moneylenders. With the money I have saved with Usha Cooperative
I bought 2 kathas of land on the outskirts of Kolkata for around Rs. 120,000.
I have also been able to rent a house of my own in Rambagan. I sub-let the
house to five other girls who use the premises for their own sex work and share
50 percent of whatever they make with me. This has added considerably to my
income. 16 years ago when I started out in this profession I could never have
imagined buying land or renting my own house and setting up my own brothel.
Prabha Modak

14

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Case Study

2
Cambodia
Womens Network for Unity (WNU)
The Womens Network for Unity (WNU) is a sex work collective working to
improve the lives of sex workers by empowering them to advocate for social
inclusion and freedom from stigma, violence and discrimination. WNU
is based in Cambodia, where sex work laws and policies are particularly
influenced by the international anti-trafficking movement. To address stigma,
WNU started a schooling programme for the children of sex workers to help
them enter and remain in the mainstream school system. WNU also runs
a programme for sex workers called Community Legal Services (CLS) which
helps sex workers with their legal issues.

Background
Sex work in Cambodia has been on the rise since the end of the Khmer Rouge
in 1979, when it was punishable by death. Since then, poverty and lack of
better employment have led many people to work as sex workers, as the
country continues to rank among the poorest in the world (Human Rights
Watch, 2010). Decades of state-sponsored persecution have historically
stigmatised sex workers and threatened their lives; more recently, national
and international policies have continued to perpetuate the stigmatisation
and isolation of sex workers. Amidst this environment, WNU works to
promote the human rights and civil liberties of all sex workers. WNU
was founded in 2002 as a national sex worker collective in Cambodia and
registered as a membership-based association in June 2004.
WNUs history has been affected by outside forces at every stage of
its evolution. In 2003, US policies forced a number of USAID recipient
organisations to withdraw their support for WNU, because of WNUs mission
of sex worker empowerment. An official cable stated that, Organisations
advocating prostitution as an employment choice or which advocate or
support the legalisation of prostitution are not appropriate partners for USAID
anti-trafficking grants and contracts, or sub-grants and subcontracts 11.

11 Ditmore, 2005.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

15

Commonly referred to as the anti-prostitution pledge, this policy has

led to the isolation of WNU, whose slogan Dont talk to me about sewing
machines, talk to me about workers rights emphasises the need to
address working conditions within the sex industry. Since the fallout
from the anti-prostitution pledge, WNU has continued to seek alliances
with other grassroots organisations that support the empowerment of
marginalisedgroups.
International pressure has also influenced national laws penalising
prostitution. In 2007, under international pressure, Cambodia introduced
the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation,
which effectively criminalises sex work. This has led to increased legal
troubles and abuse by police and government officials. US policy also strongly
influenced UNAIDS and its co-sponsors in the development of the Guidance
Note on Sex Work. Instead of addressing sex workers vulnerability to HIV, the
Guidance Note focused on addressing vulnerability to prostitution, giving de
facto support to Cambodias Anti-Trafficking Law, and failing to support sex
worker-led, rights-based HIVprogrammes12.

Structure, mission and activities

WNU calls for the recognition of sex workers rights as workers to earn a
livelihood free from exploitation, oppression and violence. WNU also works
to build networks capable of promoting dignity and justice for sex workers
and combating all forms of violence against sex workers including coercive
work practices, discrimination and HIV. WNU works to promote the human
rights and civil liberties of all sex workers by focusing on five programme
areas:
1 Policy and legal change, particularly in areas that cause adverse impacts
on human rights and access to HIV treatment, care and support for sex
workers, such as the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and
Sexual Exploitation (LSHTSE) which undermines the rights to work and
livelihood of sex workers
2 Rights-based HIV, sexual health prevention, care, treatment and support
programmes, and advocacy for members access to free health care
services through health equity funds13
3 Strengthening legitimate representation, leadership and membership
4 Human rights and legal assistance for sex workers and LGBT people
5 Operation of informal education and assistance for public enrolment of
children of sex workers14.

12 Womens Network for Unity, 2013b.

13 A Health Equity Fund (HEF) is any mechanism or fund that is used by a third-party payer to purchase
health care for poor people from a health care provider. The fund can also be used to pay for other
associated costs such as transport and food (Ministry of Health, n.d.). Households that are classified as
poor and poorest families (under Ministry of Planning objectives criteria) are entitled to an HEF card.
14 Womens Network for Unity, 2012.

16

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

WNU was founded at the end of 2002 by over 160 sex workers. In its first
election, WNU members elected seven representatives to form a secretariat
to work on behalf of WNU members with the aim of becoming a union
of 5,000 members nationwide. Over several terms, members of the WNU
secretariat were elected as a governance body, and team leaders have been
elected to implement activities in eight out of 13 provinces and in Phnom Penh
municipality. In the latest election in November 2013, WNUs members elected
five representatives of sex workers to be on the coordinating committee, which
works together with WNU staff members to strengthen membership and
ensure programme implementation.

WNU and economic empowerment

WNU has worked tirelessly towards the goal of economic and social
empowerment for sex workers and their communities. In 2006, WNU started an
informal education programme for the children of sex workers based in Phnom
Penh. The programme was designed especially to build self-esteem and ensure
that sex workers children are included in education and reintegrated into the
state education programme. Additionally, in its commitment to address the
basic needs of members in their pursuit for justice in their profession and daily
life, WNU set up the Community Legal Service (CLS) in late 2011. CLS is the first
legal aid service for sex workers in the world.
The following two examples highlight sex worker-led programmes and
the impacts they have made on the lives of sex workers and their children
in Cambodia. The case study illustrates how sex worker-led economic
empowerment programmes not only improve sex workers access to social and
legal services, but also impact other marginalised communities, including the
urban poor, people living with HIV, and slum communities.

Example #1. Informal

education programme
forchildrenof sex workers

In Cambodia, where the poverty rate in 2011 was 19.8 percent15, lack of
education leads many people to abandon the option to earn a living and
support their families. This cycle
is repeated for the children of sex
Every citizen has the right to access
workers. This is a major concern
qualitative education of at least nine
for sex workers who wish to see a
years in public school free of charge.
brighter future for their children
Article 31, Education Law, 2007
and hope that they will not end
up abandoning their education,
thus ending up with fewer
employment options. For many, sex work is the only option, or the least bad
one, in the face of discrimination and exploitation.

The problem
1 Lack of educational opportunity
Many children of sex workers or from other marginalised communities do not
go to school. Others start their education late and face difficulties catching up
with other children their own age in the education system.

15 UNDP, 2013.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

17

2 High cost of education

Generally, students have to pay
for annual enrolment in schools
and daily fees for teachers. A
study on the impact of informal
school-fees payment on the family
income found that in 2006 rural
families spent an average of 6.8
percent of their annual income to
send a child to school while urban
families spent 23.7 percent. The
cost increased by 50 percent for
the students to move from grades
13 to 4 6 (NEP, 2007, p.25). In
many cases, study materials and
uniforms constituted the biggest
expenditure for families.

Box I: Classes provided at WNUs DICs

Khmer literacy (writing,

reading, storytelling)
Arts and drawing, social
study,singing
Mathematics
English language (writing,
reading, speaking)
Breakdancing
(Source: WNU six-monthly
narrativereport, 2013)

3 Discrimination at school
Children of sex workers face increased discrimination and stigmatisation in
school due to their mothers occupation. This inhibits learning, and discourages
many from staying in school.

The solution: Informal education for children of sex workers

In 2006, WNU set up the informal education programme for children of sex
workers, designed to enhance equal opportunities for children to access basic
education. The programme has been operating classes for children aged
516 years old. Under this programme, WNU accepts not only children of sex
workers, but also children of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and families from
slum communities, where the programmeoperates.
The informal education programme is implemented through WNUs dropin centres (DICs) which are located in the areas where sex workers live and/
or rent rooms. The programme offers English, numeracy, arts and drawing,
and breakdancing classes. These classes aim to not only provide education
opportunities for children of sex workers but also build self-esteem and enable
the children to express themselves, their talents and creativity, all while having
fun and developing friendships among their peers in the community. This
helps eliminate division, discrimination and stigmatisation imposed upon sex
workers children due to their mothersoccupation.
Over the years, the curriculum has evolved to address the specific needs of
children, particularly after they have been reintegrated into the formal state
school system. Box I provides details on the subjects taught in classes. The
class timetable switches every month to adjust to state formal class in which
morning classes run from 710am and afternoon class from 2 4:30pm.

18

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Table 1: Coverage of informal education programme of WNU 16

Location of DICs

2010
Boy

Girl

2011

2012

Total

Boy

Girl

Total

186

98

94

192

Phe Thmmor

12

19

Kilometre 6

22

28

50

Sen Sok

14

23

141

143

284

Svay Pak

99

Railway Station

35

28

63

Tuol Kork

35

26

61

Total

169

141

310

Boy

Girl

Total

170

148

318

Table 1 illustrates the students covered by the programme in six DICs between
2010 and 2012. Besides in-class sessions, WNU organises out-of-classroom
activities. Students go on study tours, sightseeing and recreation activities and
engage with visitors at DICs.

Structure and management

Between 2006 and 2009, WNU engaged Tiny Toones Cambodia17 to run the
breakdancing and English classes for its students at the DICs. Subsequently,
the classes have been taken over by the senior talented students who are
able to teach breakdancing classes themselves. Presently, three children of
sex workers regularly teach breakdancing and four sex workers themselves
teach Khmer literacy classes. The remaining classes are run by WNUs
contractedteachers.

16 Womens Network for Unity, 2011; 2012.

17 Tiny Toones is an organisation set up by a group of Cambodian returnees who were deported back to
Cambodia by the United States government due to drug use and the perception that they were trouble
makers. It provides a safe environment for children in slum areas in Phnom Penh, with breakdancing,
English, Khmer, computer skills, song writing and music for children. See http://www.tinytoones.org/
for more information.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

19

Talented students from the breakdancing class formed a breakdancing team

called Black Star. The group gives public performances at various events to gain
publicity and generate income. This money contributes to emergency health
care support for other students, covers some study materials, and supports
teambuilding activities. Black Star entered a dancing competition on national
TV and was recognised and awarded fortheir talent.

Impact of the informal education programme

Direct impacts
Reintegration: A significant impact of this programme has been the
reintegration of children back into the formal state schools. Between 2009 and
2013, WNU reinstated 184 students into different classes in primary schools
(such as Chamreoun Roth and Bak Tuk Primary School)18.
Lessened financial burden for families: WNUs programme helped lift some of
the financial burdens for sex workers, PLHIV and poor families by advocating
for fee exemptions for children of sex workers and other marginalised groups.
WNU also provided school uniforms and study materials (bags, notebooks,
pens, and pencils) to students in the programme. This lessening of financial
burden was a determining factor for keeping students in school, as expressed
by parents during WNUs programme-monitoring visits.
Increased self-esteem and leadership: Children of sex workers demonstrated
that they have their own potential that can be brought out if they are provided
with opportunity and a nurturing space. The impact of breakdancing extends
beyond building the self-esteem of individual students; it has yielded
remarkable results for the children and the wider communities. This is clearly
demonstrated through the skills and creativity of Black Star. Another example
is the students who went on to become the teachers running classes at DICs
with and for their peers. Since 2010, four breakdancing teachers (three of whom
are sex workers children) who were formerly students themselves are now
running theclasses.

18 Womens Network for Unity, 2013b.

20

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Coverage of WNU non-formal education class,

reinstate into state school & hospitalisation

Student enrolled
at DICs class

Reinstated into
state school

Referred
to hospital
336

318
267

231

138

32

57

44

59

75
31

55

73
22

42

Improved behaviour: Both sex worker and non-sex worker parents have
observed that, as a result of engaging with classes in WNUs DICs, their
children attend class more regularly, help more with household chores, look
after the younger siblings, do homework and practise breakdancing athome.

Key challenges
The unstable nature of street-based sex work has presented considerable
challenges for the functioning of WNUs programming. Forced evictions in
urban slum areas (such as the Beoung Kak Lake), the high cost of room rental
and the search for better income opportunities all cause sex workers to
frequently change locations. Because WNUs DICs are usually located in areas
that best cater to the needs of the children of sex workers, the movement of
members often leads to less active DICs and subsequent closures. For example,
in 2011, WNU closed three DICs in Tuol Kork, Railway Station and Beoung Kak
Lake due to forced evacuation and relocation of the families. Meanwhile, two
DICs in Kilometer 6 and Phe Thmar have been re-opened 19.
Since September 2013, WNU has temporarily prolonged the vacation of the
non-formal education classes at DICs in an effort to address some challenges
faced in the programme. First, classes have to be restructured to be smaller
and more age-specific. They had previously consisted of students from
different age groups mixed in a large class. Teachers found it difficult to
manage these classes and encourage participation. Moving forward, class size
will constitute 25 students per class and there will be three separate grades.
Second, WNU will improve the quality of its lessons by reviewing the teaching
curriculum. While WNU motivates its members who can read and write to
teach the classes, challenges remain for them to effectively teach. This has
been particularly challenging in building teachers creativity and the talent
needed to work with small children. Thirdly, WNU will engage with NGOs
experienced in working with street and urban slum children such as Friend,
Empowering Youth Cambodia (EYC) in their arts, self-esteem building and
involvement in community work. Early engagement with the community will
be tailored as a platform for children to start recognising the common issues
faced by thecommunity.

19 Womens Network for Unity, 2012; 2013a.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

21

Example #2. Legal

support for sex workers:

CommunityLegal Service

Starting in 2002, Cambodia repeatedly ranked highly in the US governments

Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. After several years of these rankings, the
US exerted strong pressure on the government of Cambodia to enact a new
anti-trafficking law that was in line with US policies. This contributed to the
proposal of the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual
Exploitation (LSHTSE), which effectively criminalises prostitution in Cambodia.
The law was enacted in late 2007 and promulgated in February 2008.
Since the implementation of the LSHTSE, sex workers have increasingly
faced legal problems. WNU felt that the need for a legal service by and for sex
workers was vital to ensure access to legal representation for its members. The
Community Legal Service (CLS) was set up to provide legal aid to sex workers in
their pursuit of justice in civil and criminal cases.

The problem
1 Increased police and government

abuses after passageof LSHTSE

The enforcement of the new law has led to sex workers facing human rights
violations, incarceration, raids and rescues, and physical and sexual abuse.
Condoms are being used as evidence of providing sexual services or to classify
premises as a brothel. Even if sex workers were to open a coffee shop and use
the shop to do sex work at night, they could be shut down for investigation. If
they are found guilty of harbouring sex workers, the police will shut down the
shop. Some sex workers who were detained in rehabilitation centres were HIVpositive and could not obtain their ARVs when they were arrested. When sex
workers are imprisoned, family members who depend on their income suffer.
Children of sex workers are also locked up or forced to cope without protection
from their parents something that can drastically affect their lives. Many
brothels were shut down and the sex workers who were raided and detained
were sent to rehabilitation centres.
2 Lack of support from non-sex worker groups
Some human rights groups do not assist WNUs members in legal complaints
because they receive support from the anti-trafficking groups. Others are more
focused on human rights abuses in the areas of housing rights, land rights, or
economic land concessions. These human rights NGOs are not sensitised to
issues faced by sex workers and therefore are not very helpful.

22

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

The solution: Legal aid for sex workers

The Community Legal Service assists sex workers to use legal mechanisms to
protect their rights as workers; to raise awareness of legal rights, legal systems
and procedures, violence and discrimination against sex workers; and to assist
them in appropriate legal complaints. The programme also supports efforts by
police to respond appropriately to crimes against sex workers, entertainment
workers, and men who have sex with men (MSM) regardless of HIV or
migration status. CLS was set up by WNU and registered with the Ministry of
Interior at the end of 2011. Since 2013, CLS has been managed directly by WNU
on its premises 20.
CLS currently has three main programmes:

Legal education, representation and legal services for WNU members

Outreach programme
Counselling and social support services

CLS Legal representation of its clients on case officially

lodged at Police station and proceed to court
Ongoing

Closed case

Violence
from
gangster

Violence
from
monk

Violence
from
police

Violence
from
client

Rape case

The first programme focuses on providing legal education, representation

and legal services for sex workers who are members of WNU. Legal education
has included various trainings and awareness-raising workshops. Workshop
topics have included the Cambodian legal system; types of violence and its
causes and consequences; LSHTSE; crime and sentencing under the Penal Code;
debates in local newspapers on sex work and massage parlour issues; case
filing; and record keeping andmanagement.

20 CLS, 2013.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

23

Legal representation includes face-to-face and phone consultations with

victims, as well as assistance in lodging complaints at the police station and at
the court, and referrals to other organisations for specific services which CLS is
unable to deal with. CLS lawyers represent victims in cases involving divorce,
criminal charges, and violence against sex workers. They also use power of
attorney to release workers from wrongful arrest and jail. The graph below
provides a picture of the cases CLS has been working on up to October 2013:
CLS Achievements, 20112013
4214

988
283
Outreach to
WNUMembers

Hotline Calls

Case reached
through CLS

100
Legal Counselling
provided in
CLSOffice

(Source: CLS, 2013)

CLSs second programme is an outreach programme aimed at WNU members.

The outreach team provides information on CLS legal services and refers
people to CLS, WNU and other NGOs. As part of the outreach programme, CLS
also operates a 24-hour hotline, managed by CLSs Emergency Response Team
(ERT). Sex workers and entertainment workers (EW) can call the hotline for
legal advice and services. Common reasons for hotline calls include violence
from police, clients and partners; rape; raids; and detention in police stations21.
In the case of a raid and detention/rehabilitation, the ERT and WNU staff go to
the Department of Social Affairs, which manages the rehabilitation centre, to
take sex workers out. Once out of the rehab centre, CLS assists the sex workers
with whatever they need, including health care, food, and transportation back
to their house or rented room.
The third programme of CLS focuses on providing counselling and social
support services to sex workers. CLS staff provide counselling to victims of
a range of experiences, including sexual assault, trauma, different forms of
gender-based violence, procurement and trafficking.

Structure and management

Two technical teams of CLS are in charge of carrying out the programme
operation. The legal team consists of principal lawyers and paralegals. CLS is
responsible for overseeing legal education, representation and legal services
for the victims. The ERT manages the 24-hour emergency hotline, and provides
counselling and outreach to members of WNU.

21 CLS, 2013.

24

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Impact
Direct impacts
Legal justice: The legal representation of sex workers enables them to exercise
their human rights to life and employment. It is a new wave of change whereby
sex workers who are abused and violated, raped or raided, file legal complaints
against the perpetrators (which includes police, clients, and gangsters). These
steps have constituted a new testing ground for sex workers themselves to find
the courage to lodge the complaints, as well as testing the mechanism to hold
the perpetrators accountable for their abuse.
Financial gains: Monetary compensations are sometimes won through CLSs
legal representation. As a result, it is expected that more legal sanctions will be
brought against perpetrators.

Indirect impacts
Increased respect and collaboration with concerned stakeholders: Through
the legal and social services programmes implemented by WNU, there is a
general recognition of the organisations role among concerned stakeholders,
including government departments and local authorities. For instance, the raid
and rescue operations under LSHTSE cannot be supported by the Department
of Social Affairs, which does not have sufficient infrastructure to run the
rehabilitation services. Through its work with the Department of Social Affairs,
WNU has established a good partnership and it is subsequently contacted by
the department to come and take the arrested sex workers to WNUs DICs.
Recognition by other marginalised communities: Building on the education,
counselling, health care, and legal services that WNU currently provides to its
members and the poorest households in the communities makes WNU known
as the association to help poor people, particularly women, in the community.
The hotline service of CLS caters to the needs of sex workers, families in
slum communities, and beyond. An estimated up to 30 percent of the hotline
calls are from community and factory workers seeking CLSs legal advice and
counselling on issues of violence, assault, rape, and health. The CLS service is
seen as not only assisting sex workers, but also essential for poor communities
in urban slum areas.

Key challenges
CLS is the first legal service
that has been designed to
address the legal needs of
sex workers in Cambodia.
The current judiciary system
in Cambodia is corrupt and
lacks independence and
transparency. The loopholes
of the system offer little, if
any, justice to sex workers.
The outstanding key
challenges lie in the fact
that sex workers and EWs
do not trust the judiciary
system or the law enforcers
(particularly the police), who
in many cases perpetrated
the crimes against them.

An HIV-positive trans sex worker

was arrested during a police raid and
detained at a Phnom Penh police station.
She called the CLS hotline. CLS had
her released and also arranged for her
ARV medication during the detention
period. After release and consultation
with the CLS lawyer, she decided to file a
complaint against the police for wrongful
arrest. The police refused to accept her
letter and in fact verbally threatened the
sex worker saying she had filed the case
against the wrong person who would in
turn file a defamation case against her.
This scared her and she dropped the
case without consulting the CLSlawyer.
(CLS, November 2013)

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

25

Filing complaints with the legal authority is often a time-consuming process

and requires monetary bribes which they cannot afford. The process of
investigation at the police level is very slow and often victims do not know the
identity of the suspect, adding to the challenges in the police investigation.
Several challenges arise in representing clients. In a number of cases, sex
workers decided to drop the cases by themselves for fear of the consequences
or due to threats from the accused persons. Many times the process ends
abruptly with CLS not being informed of settlements or decisions to drop the
case by the client. It is also common that the settlement of the case happens
outside the court system with victims accepting monetary compensation from
the perpetrators.
Most victims who have
called the CLS hotline
number cannot be reached
afterwards22 if they do not
attend their appointment.
This makes the monitoring
of ongoing cases very
difficult.

A massage worker was abused by a

client. The following day, the client came
to the shop again and began hitting
her. The woman grabbed the motor key
and also filed a complaint at the police
station. Since she did not hear for four
days from the police she approached
CLS through the hotline. She agreed
to a compensation of $200 and paid
the police $100 for the support and
procedures. The case was sinceclosed.

Another challenge is
the lack of solidarity or
support from fellow sex
workers who are also
WNU members in terms
(CLS, November 2013)
of acting as witnesses for
any sex worker who is
wrongly accused of a crime.
Often, other sex workers who were present on the scene are not willing to be
witnesses for fear of threats and possible legal consequences and/or sanctions
against themselves. Threats come from the perpetrators and the police.

22 This is due to sex workers changing their mobile numbers very often, or calling from public
payphones.

26

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Case Study

3
Myanmar
AIDS Myanmar Association (AMA)
AMA, also known as AIDS Myanmar Association, is a membership-based
network of sex workers whose aim is to improve access to quality sexual
health services for sex workers, and to reach geographical locations not
currently covered by HIV programming, especially those in urban areas. AMA,
which is Burmese for big sister, is the only organisation in Myanmar to focus
on sex workers of all genders and with a specific focus on advocacy for sex
workers rights, particularly in relation to health.

Background
AMA was founded as the National Network of Sex Workers (NNSW) in 2007.
Created to be an independent sex worker-led network, initial meetings were
supported by the Targeted Outreach Programme (TOP), which is a programme
by Population Services International (PSI) and the largest sex worker
programme in Myanmar. Network meetings were held in 2009 and 2010 with
the support of UNFPA and UNAIDS as part of a National Consultation for
Female Sex Workers held biennially in Yangon. In 2010, the first board was
elected with sex workers present from TOP and other organisations that work
with sex workers. APNSW played a key role in the formative years in providing
technical support and mentorship toAMA.
AMA was created to give sex workers in Myanmar their own voice for
advocacy and rights. Sex workers developed the governance structure with
the aim of including a diverse cross-section of their community. This included
inviting sex workers from self-help groups, community-based organisations
and other NGOs.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

27

Aims and mission

Kay Thi Win, a founding member of AMA, writes, Our dream is of a sex
worker-led organisation: for the community, with the community and done by
the community. AMA is a fully sex worker-led organisation and we can make
our own decisions based on need. We are standing by our independence from
other organisations and we know best the problems and issues of our daily
life as sex workers. We dont want others making decisions about our lives, as
we are the ones who know. We can design our own way to prevent HIV and to
create a meaningful participatory sex workers community.

Activities
AMA engages in several activities to realise its aim of advocating for the right
to health of sex workers. It supports advocacy and advocacy training for sex
workers, which includes capacity building among sex worker communities
and leadership training. Throughout the country, AMA members distribute
condoms and provide information on health, HIV and sex workers right to
health. They also refer sex workers to health services for HIV testing and
counselling, STI testing and treatment, and sexual and reproductive health
services.
AMA supports sex workers living with HIV by providing accommodation in
Yangon for sex workers from outside the city. ART is not available in the small
cities so many sex workers have to come to Yangon to start ART and for followup appointments. Often, doctors require people starting ART to stay in Yangon
for a few days to stabilise and be monitored for any side effects. AMA provides
accommodation for these sex workers, and runs a laundry service for highway
bus blankets to financially support this endeavour.
AMA also provides support for sex workers in prison, as many are arrested
and imprisoned under prostitution law with a minimum sentence of 12
years. AMA helps imprisoned sex workers ensure their nutrition and maintain
contact with family and friends.

Economic empowerment initiatives

When asked about economic empowerment, Kay Thi Win says, We believe
that money is power: when sex workers have secure money they can choose
their clients and there are many reasons that they need this choice. If sex
workers have money they can avoid violence, forced sex without a condom,
police arrest, and look after their health care. Economic empowerment means
that sex workers can be good role models as heads of their families. When sex
workers have money, other members of society are more inclined to respect
them and not stigmatise their occupation. Therefore economic empowerment
leads to less discrimination.

28

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

In addition to its other activities, AMA provides training for sex workers who
want to learn better financial management and start saving money with a bank
account. These training sessions provide fundamental information on bank
accounts, which were previously considered to be unavailable to sex workers
due to perceived lack of status. During the sessions, many participants were
interested in the budgeting aspect of the workshops and developed household
budgets for themselves. They could see the value in planning ahead and
putting something aside in case they got sick, were arrested or wanted to send
their children to school. Trainings are run in partnership with bank staff, who
provide education on opening a bank account.
One major obstacle to sex workers getting a bank account is that many do not
have a National Identity card, which is required to open an account. AMA helps
sex workers obtain their National Identity cards, as well as the initial deposit
required to open an account. National Identity cards are also important for sex
workers economic empowerment, because sex workers who do not have them
must pay money to rent a card from someone else in order to go to a hotel or
guest house for work. AMA has organised four financial management trainings
with a total of 84 participants. From those workshops a total of 43 sex workers
have opened a savings account and 12 of them have gotten their National
Identity cards.
For the future, AMA is considering opening a banking cooperative for sex
workers, modelled on DMSCs Usha banking cooperative.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

29

Case Study

4
India
Veshya Anyay Mukti
Parishad(VAMP)
Veshya Anyay Mukthi Parishad, known as VAMP, is a sex work collective based
in the central Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Established in 1996,
VAMP grew out of the peer educator programme of local HIV NGO, SANGRAM.
VAMP was set up with the objective of establishing a common identity among
women in sex work with the ultimate aim of empowering them to assert their
rights. This rights-based approach was established to equip women to protect
themselves from HIV, violence, and discrimination.

Background
VAMP originated as an offshoot of a peer educator programme at SANGRAM,
a local NGO founded to address the growing HIV epidemic in western India.
In 1992, SANGRAM started its work in a small highway crossing town called
Sangli, with sex workers in the Gokalnagar area of town who were initially
suspicious, having been exposed to several HIV prevention efforts that had
treated them as vectors of disease. Eventually, several sex workers began
to engage with the programme, working as peer educators within their
communities. The peer educator programme was driven by two assumptions:
that insiders were more effective at reaching people in their own communities,
and that women in sex work can reliably enforce condom use for their own
protection. By 1995, the programme had over 150 peer educators. The women
began discussing the possibility of creating an independent, volunteer-based
collective that would expand the work of the peer educator programme.
VAMP was registered as an independent NGO in 1996 with the aim of building
solidarity and collective identity among sex workers.
Today, VAMP operates in 62 sex worker community sites across southern
Maharashtra and northern Karnataka. VAMP membership is not formalised;
the collective serves as a mechanism to build a sense of community and
solidarity among sex workers in their own areas. Because of this, there is no
official membership number, though there are an estimated 5,500 members
ofVAMP.
The VAMP staffing structure includes a director, coordinator, peer educators,
community workers and field workers. There is an executive board of seven
members, with elections held every three years.

30

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Aims and mission

VAMP was established to build collective identity among sex workers, thus
enabling them to advocate for their rights and protect themselves from
violence and discrimination. VAMP has shown that this rights-based approach
minimises the spread of HIV, decreases violence, increases access to health
services, and makes sex work safe and therefore moreprofitable.

Activities
VAMP is committed to making sex work safer and more enjoyable. Their
activities largely focus on HIV prevention and treatment, violence, and sex
workers rights. VAMPs HIV work is done mainly through peer education,
condom distribution and assistance with access to medical treatment. VAMP
also supports sex workers who are living with HIV, helping them with their
medical appointments, medication, and serving as de facto caregivers of
sickcolleagues.
Early on, violence against sex workers was identified as a major barrier to
women protecting themselves from HIV. This violence was often perpetrated
by police and local officials, or simply ignored by them. Much of VAMPs work
addresses the issue of violence and harassment by working or negotiating
with police, and educating sex workers on their rights when approached by
policeofficers.

Economic empowerment initiatives

Violence against sex workers not only impacts the spread of HIV among
sex workers; it affects womens ability to work in a safe environment,
and thus affects their earning potential. VAMPs work to prevent violence
against sex workers has been critical in protecting sex workers ability to be
economicallyactive.
Before the formation of VAMP, police harassment and violence against sex
workers in Sangli was common. Women were routinely abused and beaten by
police and clients; extortion
was a regular occurrence and
police mostly used the threat
Before, we were not aware of our
of soliciting charges, which is
rights. We were treated like slaves.
a crime under Indian law. Sex
We would cover our faces and suffer
workers could not do anything
in silence. We were thinking that
about these issues as the
sex work is not a good thing and
police provided no protection
anything wrong that happened to
and often made the situation
us we would accept it and cry. We
worse. Additionally, sex workers
learned that we deserve to be treated
experienced tremendous
not as good or bad but as women
violence, intimidation and
who need to know our rights.
harassment as part of raid and
rescue efforts by police and
Meenakshi, VAMP, Sangli
international and local antitrafficking groups23.

23 Save Us From Saviours, 2013.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

31

VAMP works to protect women against violence in several ways. First, VAMP
has worked to establish relationships with police agencies, so that instead of
raiding brothel areas, sex workers can serve as allies to help identify underage
sex workers who have been trafficked.
This minimises the massive collateral damage experienced in brothel areas
after a typical trafficking raid. VAMP has established tantamukti (conflict
resolution) committees at every mohalla (site) to act as a dispute redress
mechanism among sex workers. The tantamukti committee meets every week
and is an open house mechanism that works to address issues ranging from
violent lovers to abusive and/or exploitative brothel owners and loan sharks.
When a new person arrives in a VAMP area to do sex work, she must provide a
birth certificate or proof of age, copies of which are maintained by VAMP. VAMP
also works with minor girls who have gotten into sex work, to educate them on
their rights as children, and counsel them to discourage them from working in
the trade. The counselling is essential, since simply turning girls away would
only push them further underground. The committee then tries to determine
who sent the girls to the community. If it feels that a girl was trafficked, this
information is brought to the police. By working with police, VAMP offers a
culturally competent, non-violent intervention that confronts the issue of
trafficking while still protecting the lives and livelihoods of sex workers in the
area. This system is far better than the raid and rescue model which subjects
sex workers to harassment and violence, and pits sex workers and police
against each other. As such, sex workers are able to work and live in a peaceful
environment.
On an individual level, VAMP works to educate sex workers on their rights as
sex workers, thus empowering them to advocate for themselves with police
and government officials. This has equipped sex workers to negotiate with
authority figures and defuse threatening situations.
VAMP acknowledges that in many ways, sex workers are more economically
privileged than many women in their patriarchal society. AsMeenakshi
Kamble of VAMP states:
We do not allow men to sit on our heads. We are the earning heads of households.
Everything to do with the money we earn is decided by us. Wehave more power
within our families compared to other women.
We are the ones who run our families, take all the decisions about the
money,about the family members. In fact, we have more equal relationshipswith
the men in our lives.24
VAMP has shown that violence and harassment are the effects of stigma and
marginalisation and not inherent to sex work. By building the rights discourse
with the police, standing together to oppose violence against sex workers
from within and outside the communities, and educating women on their
rights, VAMP has helped sex workers to live and work more safely, thereby
making more money to support themselves and their families. This model of
economic empowerment has shown that additional income generation is not
needed if sex work is acknowledged as work and there is full decriminalisation
of sex work. Self-organisation and collectivisation helps create safe working
conditions for sex workers, which not only increases income but ensures
retention of income.

24 VAMP/SANGRAM Team, 2011.

32

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Case Study

5
Indonesia
OPSI
OPSI, or Organisasi Perubahan Sosial Indonesia (Indonesian Organisation
for Social Change), is a national network of sex workers based in Jakarta,
Indonesia. OPSI membership includes sex workers of all genders. OPSI
advocates for the economic empowerment and social inclusion of sex
workers as sex workers. They realise their goals by working alongside
other groups, including government agencies, HIV and STI prevention
organisations, human rights groups, womens organisations and the gay,
transgender and MSM Indonesia Network.

Background
In 2008, Indonesian sex workers formed a small network to address the
issues facing their community, including human rights violations, lack of
access to health care and other social services, and lack of inclusion of sex
workers in HIV programming that affected their lives. This group protested
outside the Lokakarya Nasional Penelitian II (Second National Symposium
of Research) to highlight these issues, and eventually founded a small
committee which advocated for sex workers to have a larger role in HIV
policy and programming. In 2009, this committee organised a sex worker
meeting in Jakarta, at which OPSI was officially launched as the national
voice for sex workers in Indonesia.
OPSI was founded by sex workers and continues to be led by sex workers:
seven of the 11 board members are sex workers from various regions of
Indonesia and 90 percent of the staff are also sex workers. Under OPSI
guidelines, the executive coordinator must also be from the sex worker
community. At present there are only two paid positions at OPSI, but the
organisation has managed to give Indonesia a regional presence at sex
worker forums.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

33

Aims and mission

OPSI opposes criminalisation and other legal oppression of sex work, and
supports the recognition of sex work as work. Its mission is to:

Establish critical awareness of human rights issues within the

mindsofIndonesian sex workers.

Remind the state of its responsibility to uphold human rights of

allsexworkers.

Ensure the involvement of sex workers in all policy making that

affectsthem.

Establish, promote, and strengthen solidarity among sex workers

throughout the country.

Ensure the active participation of sex workers in the management

measuresof HIV (personally).
OPSI critiques the trafficking paradigm that conflates representations of sex
work, migration, and mobility with concepts of coercion and victimisation.
However, OPSI acknowledges that sex workers start from adisadvantaged
position and generally have low bargaining power.

Activities
OPSI also advocates for universal access to health services, including primary
health care, HIV, and sexual and reproductive health services. Itspeaks out
about violence against sex workers, including violence from police, institutions,
clients, and intimate partners, while challenging the myth that sex work
inherently encourages gender-based violence. In terms of national policies
related to sex work and HIV, OPSI opposes coercive programming, mandatory
testing, raids and forced rehabilitation.
To realise its goals, OPSI tries to empower its members through education
on the myriad issues affecting sex workers lives. It believes that through
the empowerment strategy, it is easier to develop advocacy actions against
discriminative regulations. OPSI works with UN agencies and other civil society
organisations in Indonesia to accomplish its mission.

Key challenges
The current socio-political climate of Indonesia has made sex work and
sex work advocacy increasingly unsafe and challenging. The rise of Islamic
fundamentalism in Indonesia has filtered into Indonesian government laws
and policies surrounding sex work. The fundamentalist Islamic Defenders
Front (Front Pembela Islam) in Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia has been
attacking and destroying sex work areas and threatening outspoken sex
workersupporters.
Additionally, traditional brothel complexes have declined in numbers as
reformist or Islamic-influenced mayors and religious groups have encouraged
their destruction. For instance, Kramat Tunggak, near Jakartasport area, is
now an Islamic studies centre, and the most famousarea, Dolly in Surabaya, is
reduced and under threat. The number of bars to work from in Indonesia has
also declined, with only a few in areas like Mangga Dua surviving. As a result,
sex workers have been pushed in two directions: the poor into street work and
the better-off intointernetbasedwork.

34

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

More recently, Indonesias HIV prevention efforts have been guided by

abstinence policies. In December 2013, the president, Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, tweeted in support of these policies: The most important way
to prevent HIV is to restrain ones self from doing things that will get them
infected. 25 Indonesia is one of nine countries that have failed to curb the
spread of the virus, with the rate of new infections increasing by 25 percent
between 2001 and 2011.
OPSI has also identified its own capacity challenges: We need training in
management skills, funding applications, English language, theoretical
background on sex work, feminism and fundamentalism as well as global
politics and the politics of aidespecially around HIV! 26

Economics of sex work

In 2013, a focus group was held with OPSI members, who were asked about
their perspectives on the economics of sex work.
OPSI members reported a range of financial gains from sex work, ranging
from Rp. 300,000 (US$258) per month for trans workers at a bus terminal, to
Rp. 5,000,000 (US$430) a week for female sex workers with regular high-profile
clients. Sex workers report that their expenses vary, but average about Rp.
50,000 (US$4.50) for themselves.
A range of reasons was reported for getting into sex work. One person had
been sold into restaurant work at 14, but then couldnt leave because of the
debt she owed. A Malaysian client helped her pay off her debts and escape for
20,000 Ringgit (US$6,000). Another individual engaged in sex work in exchange
for food at a port, but later returned home.
Sex workers reported that they did not lend money to each other, but instead
relied on moneylenders, who charged 20 percent interest for a quick loan. This
situation is similar to that of sex workers in Kolkata, before the establishment
of the Usha collective.

25 Jakarta Globe, 2013.

26 Group discussion with author, 2013.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

35

Case Study

6
Indonesia
Yayasan Kerti Praja/Melati
SupportGroup, Bali
Melati Support Group (KDS Melati), based in Bali, is a support group for female
sex workers living with HIV. The group was founded to facilitate empowerment,
communication and learning among sex workers. The group is part of Yayasan
Kerti Praja (YKP), a large HIV NGO based in Bali. YKP works primarily with
female, non-transgender sex workers; similar work with gay and trans workers
is carried out by the partner organisation, Gaya Dewata (part of the Gaya
Nusantara network acrossIndonesia).

Background
The previous case study illustrates the difficulties of functioning as a
sex worker-led group in Indonesia. As a result, most sex worker support
in Indonesia still occurs under the umbrella of family planning or large
NGOs, such as YKP, established by the progressive HIV doctor Dewa
NyomanWirawan. In 2006, YKP staff and clients started KDS Melati for female
sex workers living with HIV, with the goal of providing support andeducation
to participants.
KDS Melati is run by YKP staff and partners with Spirit Paramacita, an
organisation that works with PLHIV. The group covers the Badung and
Denpasar area and has over 400 members, 100 of whom are active. Each week
around 10 15 women attend the group. The women are from all age groups, but
are mostly between the ages of 20 and 40. KDS Melati is the largest group of its
kind in Indonesia.
The majority of sex workers in Bali work in brothel-like clusters; as such, most
KDS Melati participants are brothel-based sex workers. In Bali, most female
sex workers come from other regions, predominantly East Java where there are
limited work opportunities. As a result, many women in the support group are
from East Java.

36

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Support group attendees are often different each week, mostly due to the high
number of female sex workers living with HIV using YKPs services (about 455).
Because of this large number, KDS Melati prioritises women who: 1) are newly
diagnosed as HIV-positive, 2) are pregnant, 3) are just starting ARV therapy, 4)
have low ARV adherence, 5) are hesitant to start therapy or 6) have a low CD4
count.

Aims and mission

The aims of KDS Melati are:

To promote the civil and human rights of sex workers living with HIV and
to work towards ending all forms of discrimination against them;

To support the right of sex workers living with HIV to work safely in streets,
brothels, and elsewhere as and when they need to;

To facilitate and promote safe sexual practices and access to pertinent and
accessible health services of female sex workers living with HIV;

To foster the empowerment of female sex workers living with HIV.

Many of the 6,000 sex workers in Bali are from other provinces. Many have
been brought to Bali as voluntary migrants using agents or with the assistance
of a friend and then find that they are cut off from social support and unable
to return home if they are unhappy with their situation. It was also the
case in Jakarta that many of the sex workers we talked to had entered the
industry as adolescents under the influence of another person, and often
described themselves as being rescued (usually by a client) from a situation
in which they were not making their own money (i.e. not sex work). The fact
that they then stayed in the sex industry as independent operators indicates
that the circumstances, enabled by illegality and stigma, are what need to be
addressed, rather than the sex work itself.

Activities
KDS Melati is one of YKPs most successful ventures. The support group is a
space for therapy, as well as sharing and disseminating information on HIV.
Group members participate in life skills activities such as yoga, reproductive/
sexual health education, aerobic exercises, and film discussions. The group
also puts on theatre productions based on their life stories, and has published
a collection of stories written by group members as an income-generating
activity.
Currently, sex workers are not compensated for attending KDS Melati
meetings. The group has reported good outcomes such as high rates of
participation and greater adherence to ART.
There has been criticism of KDS Melati and YKP, because the agenda is set by
non-sex workers, and sex workers do not receive funding for involvement in
the programme and often have to pay transport costs to attend events.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

37

Economics of sex work 27

The majority of sex workers in Bali have only an elementary school education.
Many have a number of dependants, and have limited options for employment.
Sex workers in the area earn much more than labourers and home helps
such as babysitters. For example, a housemaid earns AUS$80 per month and
a factory worker AUS$120 per month. Sex workers can earn up to AUS$500
per month, with street-based and brothel-based workers earning on average
AUS$150 and AUS$250 per month respectively.
Some sex workers leave the industry when they get married (often to a client);
some never leave the industry. Some try to find other work, but often come
back to sex work. Sex workers living with HIV often feel a greater impetus
to leave the industry, as the work hours and conditions can be detrimental
to their already fragile health. For those who stay in the industry, there is a
common pattern: start off in a brothel, and when too old, move on to street
work. Street-based sex work is often carried out on the edge of town where
sex workers are even more vulnerable to violence. Street-based sex workers
suffer high levels of stigmatisation and marginalisation with trans sex workers
bearing a particularly heavy burden as they face double stigmatisation due to
their sex work and trans status. These areas have extremely high rates of HIV.
In terms of savings, many KDS Melati members are trying to save some money
to open a food stall or small business in their home village, for example, for
when theyretire.

27 In 2013, the authors of this paper met with a volunteer from the Australian Volunteers for
International Development (AVID) programme who was placed at YKP. The information in this section
comes from that interview.

38

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Case Study

7
Thailand
SWING
SWING is a community-based NGO in Thailand that works with male and
trans sex workers as well as other MSM to educate and improve the quality of
life of sex workers in Thailand. SWINGs work includes engaging with highly
marginalised sex workers, including sex workers living with HIV, sex workers
who lack access to stable accommodation, sex workers who use drugs, and
migrant sex workers.

Background
SWING was founded in 2004 in Bangkok by Surang Janyam, who had
previously worked at EMPOWER (another Thai sex worker-led organisation,
featured in the next case study). The organisation was founded to address
the rise of STIs and HIV amongst male and trans sex workers as well as other
MSM, by offering testing, treatment and support services for thispopulation.
Since its founding, SWING has expanded its work. It now works in three
tourist areas of Thailand. SWING has several thousand members, all of whom
identify as current or former sex workers. Eighty percent of SWING staff also
identify as current or former sex workers.

Aims and mission

The mission of SWING is to provide education and improve the quality of life
of sex workers in Thailand, disseminating accurate and useful information
about sex workers and their needs to local and international government
agencies and authorities and among the local and global sex work community.
SWING also advocates for universal access to health services, including
primary health care, HIV and sexual and reproductive health services. SWING
challenges stigma and discrimination against sex workers, their families and
partners, and others involved in sex work, and advocates for the economic
empowerment and social inclusion of sex workers as sexworkers.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

39

Activities
To realise its goal, SWING engages in a number of activities. It carries out peer
outreach in sex work venues and offers peer-led educational programmes at its
drop-in centres (including English classes and high school certification). SWING
also runs support groups for sex workers living with HIV, and offers HIV testing
and counselling at two of its sites.

Key challenges
SWING reports several challenges for sex workers trying to get health care.
Many state-funded clinics are difficult to access because they are only open
in the daytime or are located in hard-to-reach areas. Migrant sex workers also
cannot get care under the Thai Universal Health Care Scheme, and therefore
cannot afford ARVs.

Economics of sex work

In early 2013, a focus group was held with members of SWING Bangkok about
their experiences as sex workers and their perspectives on financial planning
and sex work.
A range of types of sex work was reported. Some participants worked as
freelance workers, finding clients on the internet or on the street. Others
worked as escorts, masseurs, specialised cabaret dancers, and cinema sex
workers. A range of gender and sexual identities was reported. One participant
identified as heterosexual, but engaged in sex work with both men and women.
Another reported that they had formerly attempted to transition from male to
female, but then decided to stop the process because life in Thailand was very
difficult as a trans person. They now identify as femme gay.
When asked what would make their work more profitable, several participants
mentioned the importance of knowing several languages (French, German,
English, Japanese, and Italian) in order to communicate with clients and make
more money.
Participants reported that one major challenge for their work was that clients
were using internet boards to review sexual services provided by male sex
workers. They said that this created a lot of issues within the sex worker
community.
Participants reported different experiences with loans. One said that in the
trans community, people live communally and share many things with each
other, including makeup, clothing, and money, if necessary. Others reported
that they never borrowed money from friends because that created an
obligation to those friends in the future.
Participants had mixed experiences with savings. One participant said that he
spent money as soon as he made it, on various items motorbikes, watches,
clothes, drugs, etc. He felt that if he needed emergency money, he had friends
who would help him out. Others reported saving a set amount each month in a
bank account.
Many people reported that families played an important role in their personal
finances. Several participants said that they sent money home to their families
when they could. The same people said that they also expected their families
to send them money when they needed it.

40

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Focus group participants reported a range of desires after they got out of sex
work. One said they wanted to open a flower shop, noting that another SWING
member had opened his own massage studio. One participant simply said
they did not know. Another participant said that sex workers should be able to
access some type of insurance for two to three months after they finish doing
sex work. They also should have access to a larger pool of money to help them
start their own business.
Several participants discussed the option of someone else taking care of them
as a way out of sex work, or as a way to live comfortably as a sex worker. In
Thailand the phrase taking care in the sex industry context means a customer
who will send monthly money, pay for an apartment, pay for further education,
pay for the worker to open a business, or take the sex worker overseas
basically whatever the sex worker can negotiate from the customer in the name
of taking care of them. However, not all participants agreed that this was what
they wanted for themselves.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

41

Case Study

8
Thailand
Can Do BAR, EMPOWER, ChiangMai
EMPOWER is a sex worker organisation based in Thailand whose work
promotes the human rights of sex workers and provides a space for us to
own, belong, organize and assert our rights to education, health, access to
justice and political participation. 28 EMPOWER was started in 1984, has since
expanded to 11 provinces in Thailand, and has had over 50,000 members
since its inception.
Given the broad and impressive scope of EMPOWERs work in Thailand, this
section is focused on one EMPOWER project, Can Do, a bar collectively owned
and run by sex workers in Chiang Mai. The bar was created to provide an
alternative workplace for sex workers a bar that is safe, clean, fair and fun.

Background
Can Do was opened in 2006, when a group of EMPOWER workers got together
and decided to open their own space where they would have complete control
of the working conditions. Can Do is a collectively owned bar, meaning
that any sex worker can contribute to the community fund and become a
collective owner of the bar.
Can Do is a model for fair, safe, clean and positive working conditions for
sex workers. Serving as an example of fair labour practice, Can Do adheres
to Thai labour laws, which include paid overtime, minimum wage, and paid
sick leave. The bar is currently only open three nights a week during the slow
season. There is a mandatory testing law in Thailand, but the police rarely
enforce it.

28 Empower Foundation, 2012.

42

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Key challenges
While Can Do has been running for eight years and has been great for the sex
workers pride, serving as a model business to show funders and government,
it in fact has not done well financially, and has only recently started to make a
very small profit. Workers at Can Do report that it is a good place for workers
to train up, but lacks the hard-nosed drive of people out to make a profit.
The workers at Can Do have struggled with the concept of management,
which they associate with exploitation. A final challenge for Can Do is the
location. It is situated to the east of town and is not in a recognised strip
of bars, tourist area or other attractions, and therefore has a harder time
generating new business.

Economics of sex work

In 2013, the authors conducted a focus group with workers at Can Do about the
economics of sex work in Thailand. Five sex workers from Can Do participated
in the focus group.
Economic empowerment was translated as making the best of a bad job.
The workers from Can Do bar come from other provinces, Myanmar, Laos, and
China. It costs 356 Baht to come from the border, but without ID it will cost
7,500 10,000 Baht.
Participants reported that sex work earns more money than several other
occupations in the area. For example, the lowest brothel rate is 600 Baht/day in
Mae Sot, while in Chiang Mai bars there is no limit. A Mae Sot factory worker
makes 120 250 Baht/day and a Chiang Mai factory worker makes 300 Baht/
day. A 711 employee makes 365 Baht/day.
Sex workers may leave the industry if they reach their goal (e.g. house,
marriage), but do not feel pressured to do so. Many participants felt
that marrying a rich client was a way to achieve security in retirement.
Participants mentioned the dream of a sex workers retirement home,
complete with golf course.
Participants reported a complex relationship with government and police. In
the daytime, these agencies perpetuated stigma through laws, policies and
enforcement; at night, many were also clients. Migrant sex workers can end
up paying 25 percent of their income to police. Effectively, the sex workers are
also supporting the police and their families. In Thailand, there are 15 laws
applied to sex work, including the Prostitution Act 1996; Anti-Trafficking 2008;
Money Laundering 2008; Immigration 1979; Alien Worker 2008; drug use law;
Entertainment Place 1966; labour law; 100% Condom Use Policy; and zoning
laws.
Sex workers reported that several things could impact their personal finances:
pregnancy results in instant dismissal (its also seen as bad luck to have a
pregnant woman in the bar); STIs cause loss of income because they are not
covered by social security; ART is available for sex workers living with HIV
but there is heavy stigma if a persons HIV status is known. Sex workers also
pay a high interest rate on debts. Savings are a rarity but many said their goal
would be to have money for dependants, emergencies caused by job loss, and
retirement funds.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

43

Sex workers are now able to access Thai social security and health insurance;
they do not yet have trust in banking but migrants may save their cash with
EMPOWER. They also gamble, play pool and invest in magic to try and make
extra money, as well as more straightforward techniques like learning English
and offering themselves as tour guides to clients.
Some ways to improve incomes were suggested: enforce occupational health
and safety, reduce stigma so that clients feel more comfortable, and tighten
the laws so that sex workers can demand payment. These workers were not
convinced of the advantages of microcredit, accepting instead the existing
banks, and possibly being interested in some emergency community funds or
scholarships for specific problems. They also preferred to focus on law reform,
rather than use legal aid to tackle the current system.
The workers had been at the bar for an average of six months, with plans to
move on to another place in the next six months. Earnings began at 15 18,000
Baht per month (this seems low given the information already given, but may
reflect the low season and the bar only being open three nights a week).
Workers reported the following priorities for spending their money:

44

THAI

FOREIGN

Send to family

Police bribe

Entertainment

Send to family

Clothes, makeup, uniform

Monk, temple

Rent, food, transport

Clothes, makeup, uniform

Monk, temple

Rent, food, transport

Police bribe

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Case Study

9
Thailand
Asia Pacific Network of Sex
Workers(APNSW), Bangkok
The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) is the regional network of
individuals, organisations and groups working to promote the human rights
of sex workers of all genders and to reduce vulnerability to HIV, violence and
other abuses.

Background
APNSW was founded at the International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Yokohama
in 1994 as an informal alliance of sex workers and supporters throughout the
region. In time, and with the support of established member groups such as
DMSC (India) and Empower Foundation (Thailand), as well as Pink Triangle
Foundation (Malaysia), APNSW set up as an independent organisation and
was registered in 2007.
APNSW members are united by common core beliefs and values. APNSW
is committed to securing human rights and self-determination for sex
workers. It believes that stigma, discrimination and criminalisation are
the main drivers of sex workers vulnerability to violence, HIV and other
effects of social exclusion. Negative attitudes and moralising judgements by
policy makers, health care workers, police officers and community members
prevent the development and implementation of programmes and policies
focused on the betterment of sex workers health and wellbeing. APNSWs
work is supported by lasting relationships between sex workers and trusted
professional technical advisors who are committed to self-determination and
justice for sex workers.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

45

Structure and mission

With over 50 member organisations in 23 countries, APNSW members include
national sex worker networks, sex worker-led organisations and sex worker
projects. All APNSW members share the same core beliefs that sex work
is work and that sex workers should lead their organisations and projects.
APNSW is governed by a Sex Workers Forum made up of sex workers who are
elected or selected as representatives from each member country. The Forum
elects the Management Committee every two years.
APNSW aims to:

create solidarity and promote leadership among sex workers ofall

genders in Asia and the Pacific

advocate for sex workers rights, including demanding rights-based

policy and programmes, access to confidential and respectful HIV
prevention services, testing treatment, and support services and
protection from violence and exploitation

build regional mechanisms for the exchange of information andexperiences

challenge human rights abuses, stigma, discrimination and thenegative
portrayal of sex workers and their communities.
APNSWs core demands are:

an end to violence and discrimination and other human rights abusesof sex
workers and their families

decriminalisation of sex work and homosexuality

policy reform so that people of all genders can sell sex safely andfunction
fully as dignified citizens and family members

the inclusion of sex workers in all forums and decisions that affectthem
access to the same quality of health services available to others, including
universal access to services for sexual health, contraception,abortion, HIV,
TB, malaria, maternal and primary healthcare.

Advocacy
APNSW engages in a mixture of pro-active and re-active policy advocacy
to support rights and evidence-based approaches to human rights and HIV
prevention, treatment, care and support for sex workers of all genders. It has
advocated on several high-profile issues in recent years, including bringing
about a review and subsequent rethinking of 100% Condom Use programmes.
By ensuring the full participation of sex workers at policy forums nationally
and internationally, APNSW has been able to highlight human rights concerns
with 100% Condom Use initiatives that have led to compulsory testing,
deprivation of income and health care, and police harassment of sex workers.
As a result, a key recommendation from the Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation
on HIV and Sex Work was that a regional approach to condom programming
be developed collaboratively that is human rights based, evidence-informed,
and includes the lived experience of sex workers. This recommendation, along
with others, emerged from the first ever consultation in the Asia-Pacific on HIV
and Sex Work, for which APNSW partnered with the UN 29. The consultation
brought together over 150 delegates from eight countries in the region to
form partnerships and review policies and laws that keep sex workers from
accessing HIV services and sexual and reproductive health services.
29 APNSW et al, 2011.

46

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

In 2011, APNSW worked with its members to make detailed, evidence-based

submissions to UNDPs Global Commission on HIV and the Law, and based on
the strength of their submissions 30 was then invited to present at the AsiaPacific Dialogue of the Global Commission 31. The Global Commissions report,
in its recommendations on sex work, HIV and the law, including in its call for
decriminalisation and for an end to violence against sex workers, relied on the
documentation by APNSW of the experience of sex workers in Cambodia 32.
APNSW and its members also partnered with the UN on its report on sex
work laws in the Asia-Pacific, which was released in 2012. 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 organisations and other stakeholders. Representatives from sex work
community organisations and sex workers from 12 countries participated in a
regional consultation meeting held in Bangkok on 2223November 2011 which
was organised by the UN in collaboration withAPNSW.
Following the release of the UNAIDS guidance note on HIV and sex work in
2012 33, a consultative process led by NSWP and WHO brought together a large
contingent of sex workers from around the world to work with scientists and
policy makers on a Sex Workers Implementation Tool (SWIT) based on the
guidance note. This included APNSW staff and members. For consultations, sex
workers scheduled a pre-meeting to develop well-understood policy positions
and to strategise around the purpose of the document as a programming and
advocacy tool. The final document, released in November 2013 at ICAAP in
Bangkok, cited APNSWs approach to sex workers treatment literacy. The SWIT
is considered to be a revolutionary document as it highlights the importance
of collectivisation and politicisation as part of good community mobilisation
practice for sex workers programmes 34.
The advocacy of APNSW along with its members and partners has within the
last five years brought the voices of sex workers to the heart of international,
regional and national law and policy discussions, and their concerns are
now reflected at the highest levels of decision making in the international
sphere. Byensuring that the work is both community-led and bolstered by the
technical work of experts and advisors, APNSW has also been able to shape the
regional response to the recent attempts by certain anti-trafficking groups to
openly challenge the UN on its position on the decriminalisation of sex work.

Sharing and generating information

There is a lot of information available about the HIV epidemic, human
trafficking, sexual and reproductive health and human rights, but it is primarily
in English and not accessible. Sex work projects need access to this information
to adjust their interventions and approaches and to help them develop effective
advocacy, resource mobilisation and services. APNSW summarises relevant
information for use at grassroots level.

30 Global Commission on HIV and the Law, 2011.

31 See video of the APNSW presentation at the dialogue at http://vimeo.com/20822357
(accessed28May2014).
32 APNSW, 2008.
33 NSWP, 2012b.
34 WHO et al, 2013.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

47

For instance, in 2012 APNSW staff organised a two-day meeting on the Global
Funds New Funding Mechanism (NFM), involving representatives from all the
regional networks, and drafted a position paper that analysed the new model
and made suggestions for improvement. This was sent to the chair and vicechair of the fund and also formed the basis for the position of the Communities
delegation to the board 35.
As the Global Fund is currently rolling out the NFM, APNSW developed a
briefing paper for its membership. The first Country Dialogue took place
in Myanmar in March 2013 and APNSW assisted the new Human Rights
Coordinator to make links with community members.
APNSW has social networking platforms that are used to share information
within its network and beyond 36. The number of friends and followers of these
tools continues to increase.

Building capacity
Collaboration, training and skills building among members is a key APNSW
strategy. As well as general capacity building APNSW provides training
and support on specific topics such as legal analysis, use of information
technologies, etc. APNSW workshops and trainings on human rights 37 employ
arts-based advocacy techniques designed to work across 20 languages so
that policy positions are well understood by different sex workers in different
contexts across Asia and the Pacific. APNSW has conducted and facilitated
numerous national and regional trainings on sex work, trafficking, treatment
literacy and advocacy (including the use oftechnology) 38.
While advocating for sex workers to participate in crucial meetings that
determine legal and policy approaches to HIV and sex work, APNSW
ensures that the capacity of its members is also built to ensure a proper and
meaningful engagement. For instance, APNSW now makes it a point to request
that funders and international organisations fund a pre-meeting for sex
worker representatives before critical meetings, to ensure capacity building,
discussion, debate and a consensus position forthesemeetings.

Building leadership
APNSW works with sex workers at country level on programming and advocacy
and also provides support to sex worker representatives who deliver speeches
and sessions at regional and international events and conferences. APNSW
has actively supported from the beginning the formation and functioning of a
regional network of transgender activists (Asia Pacific Transgender Network, or
APTN) that will monitor and advocate on transgender health and human rights
issues. In 2012, APNSW worked with NSWP and APN+ to launch APNSW+ which
is an initiative to address issues for sex workers living with HIV in relation to
human rights, treatment, care and support.

35 APN+ et al, 2012.

36 These include email groups, homepage (http://apnsw.wordpress.com/),
Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/APNSW), Twitter (https://twitter.com/apnsw),
Tumblr (http://apnsw.tumblr.com/), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/apnsw)
and Blip (http://blip.tv/sexworkerspresent).
37 See APNSW, 2011 and n.d.
38 See APNSW, 2010.

48

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Building solidarity
Being a part of APNSW working in solidarity with tens of thousands
of sex workers in the region has allowed us to challenge the way the
authorities have applied this [trafficking] law in Cambodia, and to gain
strength to bring this issue to international attention.
Kao Tha, Womens Network for Unity, Cambodia

Since 1994, APNSW has represented sex workers in various policy and
educational forums, promoting the participation of sex workers in HIV
programmes and supporting dialogue between non-governmental
organisations, governments, and activists. Throughout Asia, the network has
been challenging gender-based violence, promoting access to health care for
sex workers, and advocating for the decriminalisation of sex work. APNSW
provides the critical platform for tens of thousands of sex workers across the
Asia-Pacific region to work in solidarity with each other in an environment
that is predominantly one of stigmatisation, social exclusion, and legal
marginalisation of sex workers resulting in grave human rights violations,
violence and increased risk of HIV infection. APNSW acts as the collective voice
of sex workers in the region highlighting the adverse impact of anti-trafficking
efforts and laws criminalising transactional sex that have resulted in violence
and human rights abuses against sex workers at the hands of law enforcement.
APNSW brings together a variety of sex workers rights groups with different
backgrounds and organisational histories. Some are sex workers groups,
some are small NGOs, and some are projects within national government
or international NGOs. Almost all work on health issues, and some work on
reducing vulnerability to HIV or addressing human rights. Some work with all
genders and some with only one of them. Several work with the children of
sexworkers.
Peer-to-peer engagement and capacity building has been a key strategy used
by APNSW to build solidarity as well as capacity among its members and
among sex work groups in the region generally. Sex worker-led initiatives have
been among the best in addressing the HIV epidemic. As part of its work on
creating and sharing information, APNSW has also partnered with UNFPA in
documenting case studies of how sex workers and their networks are leading
the HIV response 39.
APNSW also works on building solidarity across movements.

Impact
APNSWs recent successes have included its work on the UN policy on sex
work, and the 2012 Sex Workers Freedom Festival (SWFF).
Bringing the issue of the impact of anti-trafficking laws and policies to the fore
and having it placed on the UN agenda as a critical impediment to sex workerled HIV programming has been part of the core work of APNSW. Through its
determined and tireless efforts to bring the voices of sex workers to policy
makers, APNSW is now part of the Interagency Dialogue on Trafficking
Towards a Harmonised UN Position. APNSW has advocated with UN Women to
place violence against sex workers on its priority list, and the regional director
of UN Women has now expressed interest in working on this issue. With

39 See UNAIDS, 2012.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

49

APNSWs inclusion in the Asia-Pacific Interagency Task Team on Women, Girls,

Gender Equality and HIV, violence faced by sex workers is increasingly being
recognised as an area of concern, including in a discussion paper released by
the UN on the links between violence and HIV. Sex worker representatives were
also invited to speak at UN International Womens Day functions in Bangkok
in2013.
APNSW was a coorganiser of the SWFF in July 2012. The Festival brought in
140 international sex workers and about 800 sex workers from India at a cost
of US$490,000, and was video-linked with the International AIDS Conference
(IAC) in Washington, DC. The coordination and convening of a festival of this
size and scope was an ambitious goal. It was an important event, not just
historically in that it was the largest gathering of sex workers globally: it also
sent an important message about sex worker inclusion in the HIV response and
demonstrated their determination in being part of that response. The SWFF
was convened in response to US policies and restrictions that effectively kept
sex workers out of the IAC being held in Washington. The SWFF was a huge
success 40, constituting the largest ever global gathering of sex workers and
also bringing together the largest number of sex workers from the Asia-Pacific.
APNSW led on issues for sex workers living with HIV and was able to bring
together 20 sex workers living with HIV from the region. APNSW staff worked
for four weeks full time in the lead up to SWFF, and its media/web person
traveled to Kolkata five weeks before the conference to organise the video link,
session rooms, filming and audio visual equipment.
APNSWs work has received international recognition and in 2008, APNSW
was the recipient of the 2008 international Award for Action on HIV and
Human Rights, an award instituted by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
and Human Rights Watch. The award recognises outstanding individuals
and organisations that protect the rights and dignity of people living with or
affected by HIV.

Key challenges
Stigma is the main driver of sex workers vulnerability and the main obstacle
to effective HIV programming for sex workers. Challenging stigma and
discrimination is at the centre of APNSWs work and is likely to remain its
main long-term challenge. Policy developments such as current US policy and
anti-trafficking initiatives and laws based on them impact negatively on sex
workers health and human rights, on the work of individual projects in the
region and on APNSW as a network.
People who sell sex and who are living with HIV are key to epidemic
dynamics. As the age of large-scale treatment rolls out, access to treatment
for sex workers living with HIV is a crucial challenge. The barriers that
currently and historically limit sex workers access to sexual and other health
services, prevention technologies, social and economic justice and education
for themselves and their children need to be removed to ensure access
totreatment.
Despite being the largest group of people most vulnerable to HIV and related
human rights abuses, sex workers, unlike members of other networks, have
found it almost impossible to secure sustainable funding, partly perhaps as a
result of mistaken perceptions and prejudices about their capacity. APNSW and
its members are often challenged about the extent to which they represent sex
workers, or are accused of promoting or excusing abuse by communicating the
40 See NSWP, 2012a.

50

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

consensus view that sex work is work. As the network has strengthened, these
challenges have reduced and sub-regional and country-level activities ensure
the network is inclusive throughout the region.
However, despite the growth of APNSW and an increasingly inclusive
membership, funding remains at crisis point for the organisation. APNSW
survived 2013 on the commitment of its staff and membership, with personal
contributions of money, time and resources from the staff as well as friends
and allies in the region. Convincing donors that sex workers are best placed
to address their needs and those of their communities continues to present
significant challenges.
APNSW has been working towards a dialogue with feminists and womens
groups in the debate on sex work and trafficking. In a highly toxic environment
with extreme positions, APNSW has through consistent and evidence-based
advocacy forged alliances and understandings with womens groups on the
issue of rights of sex workers. A result of this growing dialogue was that the
Association of Womens Rights in Development (AWID) awarded APNSW
scholarships to take 20 sex workers to its International Forum, held in Istanbul,
Turkey, in April 2012. APNSW chairperson and founder of AMA (National
Network of Sex Workers of Myanmar) Kay Thi Win delivered an insightful
and emotive plenary to an audience of 2,000 development feminists, receiving
a standing ovation. In January 2013, in a historic departure for the largest
feminist development organisation in the world, Kay Thi became the first sex
worker to be elected to the board of AWID 41.
As noted above, APNSW has also been working to forge links with UN
Women to place the issue of sex workers rights on the agenda of the womens
movement. With the UN position increasingly reflecting the voices and
experiences of sex workers themselves, a backlash was to be expected. It has
come in the form of an Equality Now petition to the UN challenging its rightsbased position on sex work. As a community-led initiative which also ensures
that its work and positions are based on sound technical and legal grounds,
APNSW was able to respond effectively to this petition 42. The response to
Equality Now came not only from sex workers groups but also from womens
groups and anti-trafficking groups that endorsed the UN approach based on
health and human rights and collaboration with sex workers 43.
Additionally, APNSW has been working to integrate treatment advocacy
activism and literacy into its work. At the SWFF, APNSW+ launched a
Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers Living with HIV 44. This declaration
and the work of APNSW+ will focus on sex workers living with HIV, and HIV
prevention, treatment, care and support as part of a global initiative to be led
by a global sex workers treatment policy worker who will be based in Bangkok
with APNSW. In conjunction with NSWP+, APNSW is currently developing a
website to cover treatment literacy and treatment activism in recognition of the
urgent need to mobilise the community and reach out to other sectors affected
by ongoing free-trade agreement negotiations and the threat of loss of access
to affordable treatment. APNSW also works to integrate sex worker-specific
issues into treatment literacy and advocacy trainings conducted by groups
like the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC). The real-life
impact of side-effects of ARVs is examined and the reluctance of sex workers
to start ART is discussed. The sessions explore how best to integrate adherence
into sex workers working environment, e.g. for those who work in bars or
41 APNSW, 2013.
42 Tolson, 2013.
43 Misra, 2013; GAATW-IS 2013.
44 APNSW, 2012.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

51

work irregular hours. The sex worker-specific workshops aim to form better
relationships among at-risk populations, i.e. between sex worker groups and
other groups. APNSW also takes a high profile in treatment activism, especially
around threats to access to generic medicines. In 2013, APNSW partnered with
APN+ and ITPC in delivering training on intellectual property and access to
medicines, and has been incorporating these issues in training for its members.
As a result APNSW members have been vocal and active on issues related to
access to affordable generic medicines, FTAs, etc 45.

Social empowerment activities

At the outset of the epidemic many of us worked in urban centres, often
the most tolerant available settings. Since then experience has shown
us that as scale increases we increasingly work in more restrictive
environments and in settings where sex workers live and work in small
communities, often negotiating a delicate balance upon which their
survival depends. Working to scale requires large scale mobilisation.
Technical support cannot be aimed exclusively at sympathetic NGO
workers and sex worker leaders. Training, leadership development, help
to set up outreach and drop-in centres must address large numbers, many
ofwhom are new to working on sex work issues, and do so rapidly.
APNSW

APNSW has recognised and met the challenges of working at regional and
sub-regional level with NGO workers and sex workers who do not necessarily
share a language and have other issues that limit participation. APNSW has
developed a cultural approach based on developing films, posters, literature,
artwork and music. Through this method, grassroots-level sex workers have
built strong alliances, developed well-understood policy positions and produced
high quality IEC materials. Although sex workers lead this process, people who
are not sex workers are key. The productive working relationship between sex
workers and professionals they trust helps ensure the success and quality of
APNSWs work.
APNSW has made excellent use of technology in its work advocating for the
rights of sex workers. The use of videos as a tool through which sex workers
are trained and empowered to tell their own stories, as opposed to relying
on big media or other forms of communication, has been a crucial tool used
by APNSW and its members. Thus, APNSW members used digital video to
document abusive conditions and human rights violations 46 reported by sex
workers detained in rehabilitation centres in Cambodia that local media and
politicians claimed were set up to teach vocational skills. APNSW posted the
video on social media and presented it at a day of action for 500 sex workers in
Phnom Penh.
APNSW recognises the powerful force of humour, parody and music in
mobilising and empowering sex workers as well as in advocacy. APNSW
with its members has used the medium of music videos (in a karaoke style,
with lyrics of well-known songs altered to convey questions and concerns
on harmful laws and policies) to counter the most harmful myths and legal
responses promoted by some developed countries and some anti-trafficking
groups. APNSWs creative and unique use of videos and karaoke as an advocacy
and mobilisation tool is recognised for its unique contribution to advocacy 47.
45 See, for example, Womens Network for Unity, 2014.
46 APNSW, 2008.
47 See Tactical Technology Collective, n.d.

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GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Conclusion: HIV, aid and

asustainable paradigm

The case studies in this paper exhibit some ways that sex workers can
make the best of a bad job, maximise their income, and achieve economic
empowerment. The Usha Cooperative in Kolkata stands out as an inspiration
for banking and credit opportunities for sex workers, while WNUs CLS in
Cambodia highlights the necessity and value of sex worker-focused legal aid.
WNU also serves as a model for fighting against stigma and discrimination
for the next generation, in its informal schooling programmes for children of
sex workers. AMA, in Myanmar, serves as an inspirational model of a younger
sex worker-led organisation that is growing in size and power as it works to
promote sex workers economic and social rights. VAMP in Sangli demonstrates
a model of self-empowerment to reduce violence and fight criminalisation to
make sex work a safer income option. In Indonesia, OPSI and KDS Melati serve
as examples of sex work groups working towards economic empowerment
and social justice in particularly hostile environments. Finally, in Thailand,
SWING serves as a model for social and economic empowerment for male
and transgender sex workers, while EMPOWERs Can Do Bar has created an
innovative economic model as an alternative to the status quo, and APNSW
brings together sex workers and organisations across the region.
The nature of sex work varies from place to place and not all successful models
are directly transferable. However, these case studies serve as models that can
be adapted to different contexts.
The current model of development aid has been dominated by saviours with
the seemingly unintended consequence of returning sex workers to poverty
through rehabilitating them into lower-wage jobs such as domestic work or
garment factory work. This paper has underlined the findings of many sex
worker groups, and the common knowledge of sex workers that most of us
are earning far more than we could in other unskilled occupations and are
supporting elderly parents, putting kids through school, and planning for
ourfutures.
Our challenge as sex worker advocates is to realise that even with ideal
legal and human rights structures in place, sex workers face stigma and
discrimination by dint of what we do, and who we are as marginalised people,
migrants, sex- and gender-diverse people, drug users, and so on. Therefore our
goal should be to be accepted for who we are, rather than asking to be fitted
in to a heteronormative and hierarchical structure. We must fight for a new
paradigm of a society in which sex workers are recognised as different, and
respected for the income we generate anddistribute.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

53

If we are to rebuild, we need to be clearer about what our aims are. The
evidence produced here demonstrates that sex work remains a marginal
activity that requires an essential mental leap beyond current social mores.
Decriminalisation of sex workers is the ideal, but progress is slow. In the
meantime, we need to accept, even enjoy, our rebel status.
The era of HIV funding for sex worker groups is drawing to a close as the focus
shifts to HIV as a chronic illness, with test-and-treat aiming to both lower
transmission rates, and raise the income of big pharmaceutical companies.
This shift is crucial for many sex worker organisations: reductions in future HIV
funding could have a negative impact on sex worker groups (especially those
that were established with the help of funding directed towards sex workers
as a key affected population in the fight against HIV) establishing themselves
as organisations at the forefront of sex worker-led HIV programming. However,
while HIV funding is continuing, it is enabling the provision of sex worker-led
HIV programming frameworks such as the 2013 Sex Worker Implementation
Tool (SWIT). The SWIT has been a very welcome partial paradigm shift within
the HIV field, resulting in the channelling of funds directly to sex worker-led
groups rather than, or only in addition to, INGOs such as FHI 360.
The PEPFAR pledge in 2003 showed how funding can be affected by the whims
of outspoken moralists including anti-sex work fundamentalist feminists.
Most sex worker groups started out, to some extent, under the wing of an
international NGO, and have had to work with or against the neo-colonialism
that comes with it. Even our key example, DMSC, started out of the All-India
Institute of Public Healths SHIP project under the guidance of Dr Jana and has
since moved to a sustainable system with the Usha Cooperative.
As Pisey Ly of WNU has stated: NGOs are used as agents to reinforce
neoliberalism capitalism. Often they undermine communities struggle and the
peoples movement through their strategic framework required and supported
by donors. They are owned by the local and foreign middle class, playing roles
as experts in almost everything Real freedom from oppression from this
modern colonialisation of neoliberalism capitalism is needed. It takes times but
it is worthier than being controlled.
What is good practice? We think that the prism through which sex workers
are viewed needs to change no more victimisation, much more creativity,
strength and embrace of difference. In memory of the late Andrew Hunter, If
we work on principles based on the right to health then we can work together
instead of having to fight with all
the agencies and organisations
If we work on principles based
who should be working with us.
on the right to health then we can
The good practice examples of
work together instead of having
programmes identified in this
to fight with all the agencies and
report enables sex workers to
increase their own degree of
organisations who should be
economic empowerment which
working with us
ultimately puts the sex worker
Andrew Hunter
in control of their own lives.
Without solid principles such
as sex workers right to health or sex workers right to work and free choice
of employment, forming the basis of programming, sex workers social and
economic empowerment will not be realised.

54

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Appendix 1

Question set related to Economic empowerment ofsex

workers used during field research, JulyNovember 2013.
Title: Making the Most of Sex Work in Southeast Asia: Self-determination in
economic empowerment and the removal of discrimination (including political, legal
and moral prejudice)

QUESTION SCHEDULE
Sex worker organisation [name of organisation]:
Wed like to talk to someone with a good knowledge of this organisation,
thanks.

Part 1: Background:
Who started the group, and when?
What were the aims?
If you were funded, who by? Are you still funded, and are you linked to any
other organisation?

What area do you cover? Approximately how many sex workers are
involved, and what are their genders and ages?

What type of work is it: street, bar, brothel?

[A MAP would be helpful here, if possible]
Where do the workers in this area originally come from? Is it hard for them
to get here?

How does sex work compare with other kinds of weekly incomes in this
area, especially for unskilled people, or migrants such as in the garment
industry, or housemaids?

When people choose to leave sex work, what age are they usually? What do
they do then?

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Part 2: Economic disempowerment:

Which local laws and attitudes affect sex work?
How does law enforcement and discrimination affect sex workers incomes?
For example, is there loss of income due to authorities: through fines, bribes,
sweeps, raids ?

Is there loss of income due to people involved in the sex industry: through
paying some income to pimps, brothel owners, or repaying debts; can you
give examples?

Is there loss of income due to health issues, such as STIs and HIV: canyou be
specific [for instance, do you know the rate of HIV among sex workers here?]

Do you have experience, or do you know of other groups of sex workerswith

experience, of organisations trying to stop trafficking? Who arethey?

Part 3: Rescued sex workers:

Can you help us talk to some individuals with experience of raids, rescue,
detention and/or rehabilitation could we ask two or three people to
tell the story of what actually happened to them? [this will bea separate
session]

Part 4: Economic empowerment:

[These questions can also be asked with the focus group from Part 5]

What do you think economic empowerment means for sex workers, without
stopping sex work?

What are some things that might help?

Improving health? [including HIV prevention and treatment]
Improving working conditions
Increasing payment from clients how?
Reducing outgoings and expenses how?
Access to a non-discriminatory banking system for savings and credit,
and/or a microcredit system?

Law reform?
Access to legal aid, and challenging arrest, abuse and detention by
security forces and/or rescue groups?

Education for sex workers and their children?

Security in retirement: what would help?
Is there anything youd like to add, from your organisation?

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

59

Part 5: Questions for sex workers:

Can you help us talk to some current workers about their incomes?
Probably best in a focus group of about five.

Wed like to know: where are you from?

Where do you work?
How long have you been working here?
How long do you think you will keep working here?
What would you like to do after that?
How much did you earn last month?
What do you earn in an average month?
How do you think your income compares with sex workers in other
areas?

How does your income compare to other types of work a) in this area; b)
in your home area?

What things affect your income? [for instance, does income go down
after a raid, does it go up after monthly payday, how often are you too
sick to work?]

What do you do with your money, mainly?

Can you list your expenses?
What about savings, is that possible?
What are you saving for?
[this focus group can be combined with the ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
questions from PART 4]

If time permits, can we get one or more actual (not conjectural) brief stories
describing an individuals success in economic self-determination? For
instance, buying a house, and the key factors in that success.

In closing thank you!

We will use this information to advocate for sex workers: to be able to
organise themselves; to be funded to set up economic empowerment
projects; and to refuse inappropriate anti-prostitution programmes.

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GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Appendix 2

Game from EMPOWER Chiang Mai:

Where does the money go?
Aim: for sex workers to reflect together on where their income goes and what
would improve earnings/savings

Need
10 12 pieces of cardboard or cards cut into roughly 8cm x 12cm pieces
10 12 money containers (e.g. large plastic cups, boxes)
Pictures or drawings of predictable expenses (e.g. rent, food)
Fake/toy money representing the local currency in different denominations
Calculator
Tape and glue
Flipchart paper blank and also with pre-drawn table e.g. as below

Money taken out of bank at start ______________________________________________

Number of participants ______________________________________________________
Spending on

Amount

% of total money
withdrawn

Comment

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

61

Time
1 to 2 hours

Process
1 Intro and warm-ups
2 Ask people to say what they spend money on every month. As they do,
check with the group whether this is a common cost to most. If it is, draw
or paste the picture to symbolise this cost on a card. Make sure everyone
knows what this picture stands for (not everyone can read and write).
3 Attach the card with the picture to a money container and move on to
the next cost doing the same.
4 When most items have been named, try to work together to group similar
costs so there are no more than 12 expense categories: e.g. makeup and
clothes could form one category (work uniforms).
(Remember to leave container or add it as the bank/savings.)
5 Explain that in a minute people will go get money and start paying their
monthly expenses. At the same time everyone goes and takes the money
they earned last month. Be clear that it is not what they wished they
earned or should have earned, but what they really earned. When they
have the money they can begin paying according to what they really paid
last month (this is often chaotic and fun).
6 While they are paying their money out, calculate how much in total was
taken from the money supply. Put this total on the top of your chart along
with the number of participants.
7 When they have finished paying, check no one has any money left in
their hand. If they do, check what it is and try to find a useful place for it,
e.g. savings. You may have to create a whole new category if many people
have money left over for something that didnt come up at first, e.g.
lottery/gambling.
8 Now give out each money container, with picture attached, to different
people or 23 people to add up the money spent on that category.
9 Using your table, one by one stick the picture card in the expense column
and write down the amount.
10 Have a helper begin calculating percentage of total as you go along. Often
you may need to give the group a short break while you finish calculating
how much of the income is spent on each category.
11 Come back together and go through the chart, picking up interesting
points e.g. multiplying the bribe amounts paid by the number of sex
workers in the area. If you divide the total money by participants, is that
about how much they earn really? What would reduce their spending, in
what category? What about other workers, would their table look like this
one or would it be different? How?

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GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Appendix 3

EMPOWER exercise:
Where does the money go?
During the workshop in Phnom Penh, we were able to spend one afternoon
with the participants engaged in an exercise developed by EMPOWER, Where
does the money go? (see Appendix 2). All the participants found this a very
interesting and valuable exercise, as many had never considered their monthly
budget before, or the possibility of savings, although they had been much
inspired by the earlier presentation from Nirmala of the Usha Cooperative.
Participants were divided into groups and interpreted the game as they wished,
using butchers paper and then presenting back to the group as a whole. It was
quite a chaotic experience and didnt exactly follow the EMPOWER template,
but was also very enlightening and interesting. Due to the larger number of
Cambodian workers present, they were divided among the groups and this was
also interesting for workers from other countries who had not realised how
tough the local workers had it.
For example, one sex worker estimated her income at US$200 300 per month,
which seems like a fairly consistent estimate in Cambodia, and not much
more than alternative wages in factory or domestic employment which range
from around US$100 to US$300 across the Southeast Asian region, with statesanctioned minimum wages also starting at around US$100 or a little over US$3
a day (ILO figures). However, most people in alternative jobs are not supporting
dependants; they are more likely to be young women living at home, or living
with their employers.
This worker pays US$37.50 per month to rent a room and spends about US$5 per
day on food, or US$150 per month. Water and electricity cost US$10 per month
so she has already spent what she earns and needs to borrow, usually from
friends for beauty products, transport etc., before even starting to think about
being able to send remittances back to her family. Almost as an afterthought, at
the bottom of the page is the cost of a babysitter at US$2.50 per day and milk for
the baby costing US$1 per day. These figures clearly dont add up, and indicate
the difficulties that Cambodian workers face in the current political and
economic climate. A second worker estimated her monthly income as US$300,
and then added up her expenses to US$362, comprisingUS$82 on rent, US$150
on food, US$40 on child expenses, US$20 on health, US$20 for makeup and
clothes and US$50 for transport (clearly quite a large expense in Cambodia).
She needs to borrow to make up the shortfall, at an interest rate of 20 percent
per month. There are always people who are very happy to treat sex workers as
cash cows and this is precisely why sex workers standing together can make
more of their income.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

63

The next sex worker earns US$200 per month from sex work, but this is
supplemented by US$470 from her boyfriend and US$747 from a formal
job, totaling US$1147. Her outgoings are US$230 on rent, US$130 on utilities,
US$130 on food, US$280 on transport, US$65 to support her mother, US$47
on health and US$100 miscellaneous, coming to US$982; then there is
an EPF contribution of US$142 (insurance fund?). The maths on this paper
have another US$1000 floating around but it seems likely due to confusion:
basically the worker is still barely surviving despite a formal job and minimal
payments to a dependant (her mother).
A transgender worker earned some NGO money in addition to sex work,
totalling US$250 per month. She has her own motorbike and pays about
US$12 for petrol; food comes to US$150. She has her own house, spends
US$7.50 per month on medicine and gives her mother US$30. With clothes
costing about US$10/month, she is able to save around US$40. A second
transgender worker also earns a US$200 NGO salary and US$50 from clients,
spending US$75 on rent and utilities, US$150 on food, US$120 on transport
and an uncertain amount on medicine resulting in a shortfall of US$125 that
needs to be borrowed. These two parallel examples, and the others with high
transport costs, show how owning a bike, and possibly a home, can make a
huge difference to the workers ongoing situation, and this is something that
Ushas loans have started to alleviate for the workers of Kolkata who were
previously trapped in vicious cycles of debt repayment.
A worker from Myanmar estimated her monthly expenses at US$300400,
after which she is able to save around US$50. Rent is US$40, family expenses
US$90, school fees US$20, health US$20 (which she doesnt always have to
pay for, depending on circumstances). Makeup and clothing come to around
US$20 depending on the money available and what she needs; transport
US$50. Police fines or extortion regularly cost US$30, other emergencies and
social expenses may make up another US$50. So this worker was generally
ahead financially and able to support her children quite reasonably.
The representative from Kolkata then described her situation, in which she
earns US$100 per month. This may sound like little but the cost of living is
also lower in Kolkata; however, prior to DMSC and Usha, the money would
disappear into the pockets of boyfriends (babus) and occasional jewellery
purchases. She pays US$5 rent and US$30 for food and drink. Utilities cost
US$5, clothing US$5, medicine US$2. Finally she contributes US$2 to the
DMSC fund; thus she has US$51, or 51 percent of her income, left for savings.
Her children are now grown up so she no longer needs to support them;
nevertheless, she is justifiably proud of herachievements.
The final group was very organised and chose to make up a chart comparing
incomes and expenses across four countries (three sex workers from
Cambodia and one each from Indonesia, Timor Leste and India, including one
male and one transgender sex worker). This shows quite starkly how poorly
the workers do in Cambodia operating at a loss compared with elsewhere.
The figures for the male worker from Indonesia are high due to his having
a sugar daddy who provides a relatively very high income. A sugar daddy,
contract wife, or other long-term relationship with a Westerner or rich local,
is a key aspiration for many Southeast Asian sex workers.

64

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

Cambodia 1

Cambodia 2

Cambodia 3

Indonesia

Timor Leste

India

Earnings

260

200

70

1350

400

250

Food/kitchen

150

112.50

30

300

40

50

Clothes, personal items

80

15

100

200

33

Medicine/insurance

20

30.75

10

50

15

Family, education

195

130

50

67

Transport

75

50

130

30

33

Smoke, drinks, paan

45

100

16

Rent & utilities

70

18.50

35

150

10

Loan (bike/house)

250

Internet

40

EXPENSES

590

300.75

90

1250

330

215

SAVE/DEBT

-330

-100.75

-20

100

70

35

The workers were quite surprised by these results and the obvious huge
variation in circumstances of sex workers. This needs to be borne in mind
when developing any strategies with sex workers: the fact that conditions
vary so widely from one group to another, so their needs are therefore also
verydifferent.

Sex Workers Demonstrate Economic and Social Empowerment: Asia and the Pacific

65

66

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS

The Matrix, 62 Newhaven Road

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, EH6 5QB
+44 131 553 2555
secretariat@nswp.org
www.nswp.org
NSWP is a private not-for-profit limited company.
Company No. SC349355

project supported by:

Good Practice in

Sex Worker-Led
HIV Programming

Regional Report:

Asia and
the Pacific

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led

HIV Programming in Asia and the Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Voluntary Counselling and Testing Clinic
for Male and Female Sex Workers in Pattaya

Case Study 2: INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Accessing Rights and Entitlements Through
Collective Strategising and Advocacy

Case Study 3: MALAYSIA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bridging the Gaps

14

Case Study 4: MYANMAR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

AMA: The Transition from INGO
to Independent National Network

Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Case Study 1: Thailand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Contents

Good Practice in Sex

Worker-Led HIV Programming
in Asia and the Pacific

This document summarises the process for conducting the documenting

of good practices led by sex workers. Initiation, planning and delivery of
work took place between June and December 2013. This documentation
of good practices in HIV programming for sex workers includes access
to treatment and other priority issues that need to be addressed in each
region.
The consultation with sex workers, as part of inquiring and exchanging
the views of the community, took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

1 To support sex worker-led organisations so as to identify and document

examples of good practice at regional level, and
2 To conduct regional consultation with sex worker-led organisations
in identifying and documenting sex workers access to treatment,
including access to medicines and the impact of free trade agreements.
There are four case studies, based on country and produced by
in-country consultants.

Thailand Zashnain Zainal

India Aarthi Pai

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

It was coordinated and monitored by Khartini Slamah. The overall

purpose of the project is:

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Introduction

Malaysia Thilaga Sulathireh

Myanmar Tracey Tully

 Advisory group was identified.

Advisory group consulted on countries for case study and location
of studies to be conducted.

Consultants were hired with MOU signed.

Template for case study was drafted and advisory working group
was consulted before template was sent to consultants.

Consultation was planned and conducted.

Acknowledgements

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

NSWP would like to thank Robert Carr civil society Networks

Fund and Bridging the Gaps Programme for financial support in
producing this report. The following people are also thanked for
their contributions to the development of the project: Asia and the
Pacific: Khartini Slamah, Nukshinaro Ao, Rena Janamnnuaysook,
Chamrong Phaengnongyang, David Trynot; Global:Gillian Galbraith,
MitchCosgrove, Nine, NeilMcCulloch.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

The process consisted of the following crucial steps:

Case Study

Voluntary Counselling and Testing

Clinic for Male and Female Sex
Workers in Pattaya
SWING Foundation (Service Workers in Group)

Background
SWING Foundation, founded in 2004, is a community-based organisation
that provides care and support for sex workers. Based in Bangkok, the
organisation has branches in Pattaya and Koh Samui. Activities consist
ofVCT, outreach, drop-in centre and awareness campaigns.
SWING also provides educational opportunities for sex workers,
including English language classes and non-formal education as well as
vocational training. It runs a drop-in centre at each location, where sex
workers have a safe space and participate in safe sex awareness sessions
and discussions about human rights. The drop-in centre at Pattaya
also operates a VCT clinic where sex workers can come and receive
information on STIs and HIV, voluntary testing and counselling. SWING
works in collaboration with Sisters, a transgender-focused organisation,
which assists transgender sex workers with VCT services.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Name of NGO consulted

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Thailand

Staffing
Full-time: 1 manager, 2 full-time counsellors
Part-time staff: 2
Volunteers: 4 outreach workers for male sex workers and 7 outreach
workers for female sex workers.

Special project VCT: 3 nurses from nearby Banglamung Hospital.

CASE STUDY

Assessment of SWINGs VCT protocol, challenges faced and strengths, to

enable an understanding and replication of similar projects for sexworkers.

Process
The government of Thailand has adopted a strategic approach on HIV/
AIDS, and UNDP stated in 2004 stated that Thailand was one of the very
first countries to achieve the sixth Millennium goal, to begin to reverse the
spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015, well in advance of the target date. But in 2011,
Thailand was among the 11 countries in the Asia Pacific that had the most
people with HIV.
To date, it is challenging to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of
the national intervention scope of Thailands 76 provinces and over 66
million people.

FEMALE

MALE

NATIONALITY

3,000

3,000

Thai

20 25

Not Available

Migrants (mainly from Laos and Cambodia)

Medical cost info

Every Thai national has access to 30-Baht (US$0.97) medical consultations
at government hospitals and clinics. Services and treatment are seen as
free or heavily subsidised. This system also covers HIV testing twice a
year, and CD4 count testing twice a year. SWING does not support nor
advocate for home testing kits as they do not incorporate pre- or posttesting counselling and can be used inaccurately.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Number of sex workers in Pattaya (estimate by outreach workers):

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Rationale

SWINGs VCT Clinic

Opening Hours (4 times a week):

Female: Thursday and Friday, 1 4pm

Male: Tuesday and Wednesday, 5 8pm
New sex workers attended per month:

Female: 30 35
Male: 15
Repeat sex workers
attended per month:

Female: 10
Male: 57
Test Duration:

HIV Rapid Test: 45 minutes 1 hour

CD4 count (hospital): 1week

CASE STUDY

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

VCT Service at Drop-in Centre:

Pre-test Counselling

Testing

Post-test Counselling

Positive

C&S

Refer to
CD4Testing

STI
Screening

ART

Facilitating access to ART for geographically displaced clients:

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Hospital
Registration
Transfer for
Treatment
inc.ART

HIV-Positive

Help in hospital registration transfer for Thailands Universal

Access Programme coverage for medical treatment including ART

Help in submitting transfer application on behalf of clients

Wait for approval of transfer application (15 days)

Request access to medical

services, in case of emergency,
while waiting for approval of
transfer application

CD4 Test two times per year

ART CD4 > 350

CASE STUDY

Funding source:

Female: Global Fund

Male: USAID
Finances and resources needed to improve:

Equipment and safe sex supplies (condoms, lube, gloves, etc) for
VCTclinic.

Outreach activities (for mapping of sex worker groupings and covering

wider area).

Information, education and communication (IEC) materials

andactivities.

Staff wages and volunteer allowances.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Resources Required

Training and refresher course for counsellors (presently conducted

Facilitating Factors
There is an increase in knowledge of HIV and safe sex among sex workers.
Good response from users of VCT services: free, private (based on an
anonymously coded system) and personalised services (i.e. followup) from SWING. Private clinic charges are high, with estimated
costs being 500 Baht (US$16) per HIV test and 700 Baht (US$22.50) for
STItesting.

Distance of SWING from:

1 Government hospital: 15 kilometres

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

once every three months).

2 Private clinic: none within 5 kilometres

Pre- and Post-Testing Counselling: Mental health improvement and

positive behavioural change.

Outreach activities: People are ready to come to the clinic because

theoutreach workers raise awareness and build the rapport
Mr.Ton, VCTmanager.

SWING Centre

CASE STUDY

1 General public: satisfactory knowledge, but stereotyping persists

(e.g.associating sex workers with contagious diseases).
2 Police: very supportive, good rapport, but roundups are conducted of
freelancers (sex workers at beaches). Possession of condoms is also
used as evidence of trafficking.
3 District authority: Police, local municipal council and department
of public health are supportive. Once every three months, SWING
participates in a district-level meeting.
4 Ministry of Public Health: VCT does not undermine its work. SWING
complements the national HIV/AIDS agenda in areas of intervention
and care and support.
5 Sex industry in tourism: assists in developing the economy.

1 How to make service users trust that the quality of SWINGs service is
the same as that of services offered by public health agencies. Service
users view SWING either as a community-based NGO or their friends,
not [as] a physician or medical technician who has medical skills to
offer testing.
2 How to ensure that service users who become HIV-positive stay in the
care and treatment process continuously. Sex workers are afraid of
losing their jobs if they are diagnosed as HIV-positive and their HIV
status is disclosed. Therefore, those who become HIV-positive often
refuse to receive any services for PLWHA.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Challenges

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Attitudes towards SWING VCT services:

3 How to help migrant sex workers from neighbouring countries who

test positive for HIV get appropriate medical treatment (free of charge).
Migrant sex workers are unlikely to obtain HIV testing if there are no
welfare services offered should they test as positive.
4 SWING helps Thai male and transgender sex workers with their
hospital registration transfers for Thailands Universal Access
Programme coverage so that they can get appropriate services if they
become HIV-positive.
5 SWING coordinates with related groups, organisations and networks to
provide ARV drugs to migrant sex workers who become HIV-positive.
6 SWING is now in the
process of setting up a
fund for procuring ARV
drugs for sex workers
together with their
partners from the public
sector in Pattaya.

CASE STUDY

1 Service users benefit from ART because of the availability of the clinic
and services. Monitoring of service user adherence is carried out by
clinic staff.
2 Mapping of sex workers in the district helps outreach workers reach
out to the community. Information is regularly updated during
(de)briefings.
3 A safe dossier system has been introduced in anticipation of an
overload of service users. Service users files (similar to patient health
files kept by doctors) enable the updating of information (such as
CD4count) and ensure appropriate services are delivered.
4 Outreach activities are the strength of the VCT clinic as they build
rapport with the community and disseminate information and
education.
6 The telephone is an effective communication tool that supports the
work of counsellors.
7 Risky behaviour of sex workers is monitored and attempts at
reducing it are made by counsellors and outreach workers (usually
onWednesdays).
8 An anonymous (or coded) system is preferred by sex workers
fortesting.
9 More activities are needed for foreign sex workers.
10 Transportation costs from/to the clinic should be reimbursed.
Female sex workers are given transport allowances (specific
fundingallocation).

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

5 Workshops are needed to increase sex workers knowledge about VCT.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Lessons Learned

11 Incentives for coming to VCT: t-shirts are given out for free.

Contact name, email and

address of NGO Focal Point
Surang Janyam, Director
surangjanyam@yahoo.com
http://www.swingthailand.org/

Case Study

Accessing Rights and Entitlements

Through Collective Strategising
and Advocacy
establishing a union

Name of NGO consulted

Karnataka Sex Workers Union

Background
Trade union of sex workers of all genders in Karnataka, India.
Established in May 2006, KSWU has been functioning formally since
18July 2007.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

This case study shares lessons learnt from the experiences of

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

INDIA

Applied for registration under the Trade Unions Act in January 2008
butis yet to be registered.

KSWU is affiliated to the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), the

national federation of independent trade unions.

Union democratically run by sex workers and all the members and
office bearers are sex workers.

Headquarters is in Bangalore Rural District.

Collective advocacy with state, police and health care services.

CASE STUDY

In early 2001, members of SANGAMA, a collective working with gay

people, visited an organisation working with sex workers in Kerala. This
led to an early realisation of the need to establish a collective movement
for sex workers which would advocate for their rights and highlight their
complete alienation in policies, entitlements and government welfare
programmes.

The strategies adopted towards achieving the objectives include:

Organising sex workers to secure fair treatment and humane

conditions in their work and lives.

Assisting in the resolution of sex workers disputes in relation to their

work.

Providing support during sickness, unemployment, old age, accident

and death.

Providing access to legal assistance for matters arising out of their work
and ensuring appropriate access to justice.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

For example, in 2002, when sex workers were beaten and abused for
purchasing a piece of land in Nippani, Karnataka, the newly emerging
union members decided to join the protests with SANGRAM and VAMP,
the collective of sex workers in Sangli, and met with the National Human
Rights Commission and Chief Minister of Karnataka. Similarly, in 2004,
when sex workers were evicted from their homes at Baina beach by the
state government of Goa, KSWU came together with the national network
to voice their protest under the aegis of the Rainbow Planet, which was
a broader platform set up to fight injustice against both sex workers and
other groups marginalised due to their sexuality.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Rationale

Providing assistance for children of sex workers and their families

with facilities for educational, cultural, social, political and economic
development.

Liaising with local government bodies to ensure access to welfare

schemes and entitlements.

Structure
As per the by-laws, the union has an Executive Committee of 29 members,
comprising 13board members, 1president, 2 vicepresidents, 1 general
secretary, 6joint secretaries, 5organising secretaries and 1treasurer.

10

CASE STUDY

Obtaining buy-in through Consultations

with Trade Unions and other organisations working on
collectivisation for rights and better working conditions

Strengthening confidence and consensus

within the sex worker groups and among individuals
on benefits of collective model

Discussion on collectivisation model

that best strengthens the fight for sex worker rights
with leaders from other rights movements

Two meetings strengthened the idea and gave thrust to the formation of
the union. The first interaction in 2006 with representatives of the New
Trade Union Initiative provided a great deal of clarity on unionising and
addressing sex work issues through the union.
To strengthen awareness about the formation of the union, the first rally
took place in May 2006 and the Karnataka Sex Workers Union was publicly
launched. The rally went through hospital and park areas and known sex
work hot spots in the heart of Bangalore city, areas where no rallies had
taken place previously.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Addressing issues of sex workER rights

and their concerns beyond
better health services

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Process

Resources Required
The union required at least one full-time staff member who could give
dedicated time to the development of the union. They also needed semiliterate members who could monitor and maintain the membership data
and other records.
Basic financial support was required for organising protests, public
action programmes, crisis intervention and regular members meetings.
Support was also required to run crisis helplines and to circulate the
helpline numbers through publications. The union also required money
to attend national and international meetings like the NTUI, the National
Network of Sex Workers (NNSW) and the Asia Pacific Network of Sex
Workers(APNSW).

11

CASE STUDY

Trade Union Support

The New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) is a federation and national
consortium of unions from all over the country which are not affiliated
to any political party. Its guiding principles gave direction to the union
in realising its objectives.

Crisis Support
Strong and quick crisis intervention provided by the union created
a deep trust among the members that there is someone to come to
ourrescue.

No CBO or NGO was doing crisis intervention in Karnataka for female

Quick relief the union provides relief or reaches the victims in

about 30 minutes time. It is able to reach out to victims and provide
immediate relief as well as supporting them with legal assistance.

Crisis teams are well spread-out and well trained to deal with the
police, goondas and other elements.

Committed community activists

The union had a long list of committed community activists who were able
to provide full-time voluntary support in the initialyears.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

sex workers. The HIV CBOs only focused on condom distribution and
health care, but when a sex worker was in crisis, there was no one
tohelp.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Facilitating Factors

Challenges
Attracting sex workers for membership, due to their spread-out nature.
Retaining membership (there are 1400 members atpresent).

Bringing sex workers together on a sexwork is legitimate work platform.

Lack of proper finances.

Lessons learned
The union is an independent
organisation in the sense that it is
not dependent on any project or any
international or national funding
agency. The union is not constrained
by funding restrictions because it is an
independent body.

Usually with CBOs, funding is provided

by an external agency and the leaders
and members are not accountable
to the community. But in the union,
the members pay monthly fees and
the leaders and other members are
accountable and responsible for their
actions and answerable to the people
who pay those fees.

12

CASE STUDY

to the needs of sex workers in the course of their work. Funding for
HIV prevention among high risk populations was an opportunity.
Sex workers were targeted as a group and for the first time they came
together to avail themselves of services. However, the union made it
possible for them to realise that their needs are not just HIV-related,
but greater than that.

One of the major impetuses for the creation of the union was the lack
of recognition and dignity accorded to sex work. Union members said
that their work was like any other dhanda (work) and they deserved
dignity and respect as workers.

Union members stressed that since there are hardly any areas
earmarked in Karnataka for sex work (commonly referred to as redlight areas) most sex work takes place in very tenuous and unsafe
circumstances.

This model should be considered for countries where the CBOs are weak
and unable to take on governments and donor organisations.

Contact name, email and address of NGO Focal Point

The Karnataka Sex Workers Union
sexworkersunion@gmail.com
Ms. Nisha Gulur, President,
91 962088 9944

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Consultants Recommendation

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

The union is considered as a rights organisation primarily catering

13

Case Study

Bridging the Gaps

Name of NGO consulted
Transgender Programme of PT Foundation

PT Foundation is a community-based organisation situated in Kuala

Lumpur that provides HIV and STI-related services to the most at-risk
populations. It has four community-specific programmes: Positive Living
programme, MSM programme, Female Sex Workers programme and the
Transgender programme. In addition, it provides voluntary HIV testing
and counselling at its centre.
The Transgender (TG) programme was established in 1992, and is now
aided by the Ministry of Women, Community and Development. The
programme is led by women, including transgender women, but not all
ofthem are sex workers.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Background

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

MALAYSIA

Aside from providing the abovementioned services, it also runs skills

and knowledge-sharing workshops for all transgender people regardless
of their backgrounds. Furthermore, the programme is actively involved
in advocacy efforts, namely with government agencies working on
HIVrelated matters.
The programme has a drop-in centre (DIC) in the heart of the city, Chow
Kit, that is open 5 days a week (Wednesday to Sunday) from 9am to 6pm.
Clients can drop by to rest, do laundry, have a meal, seek referral services
(legal and social services), collect condoms or Information, Education,
Communication (IEC) materials, and attend the events that are organised
at the DIC, such as free classes on flower arranging and make-up lessons.
The DIC is located near the red light districts, and Chow Kit is home to
many homeless sex workers and transgender people.

14

CASE STUDY

While the TG programme at PT Foundation is only physically limited to

Kuala Lumpur, its ability to sustain its programme for 20 years has created
a strong rapport with members of the community beyond its geographical
constraints. Moreover, the TG programmes ability to adapt and creatively
reach out to members of the community has stretched its network to all
over the country. These efforts include usage of social media to reach
out to members of the community, and organising and participating in
community-organised events, such as beauty pageants. The networking
skills possessed by the TG programme allow it to expand its work beyond
the HIV/AIDS paradigm.

Rationale
The TG programme faces a two-pronged challenge from the government
and the trans community itself. The TG programmes networking skills
and ability to use creative methods to work through the cracks have made
the programme relevant to the community. This case study will focus on
the ability of the TG programme to work in a hostile environment, while
bridging the gaps between the stakeholders and within the community.
While the programme is essentially a government-funded one, the
state is a barrier in providing holistic services to the trans sex worker
community. The Malaysian government has placed significant importance
on combating HIV/AIDS and fulfilling the objectives of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG), UNGASS and Universal Access (UA) targets.
However, the strategies and priorities set by the government are
questionable. Its sole focus on achieving targets and numbers has blinded
it to the fact that an environment is needed which enables members of
the target group to seek services and encourage behavioural change.
The governments shortsighted efforts to merely cure symptoms are
evident with its recent funding cuts for HIV prevention through sexual
transmission, which left many social workers from the communityjobless.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

The managers of the TG programme and the female sex worker

programme are both transgender, and involved in regional and global
transgender and sex worker advocacy.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

The TG programme sees about 10 service users every day at the DIC
between the ages of 20 and 60 years old, of whom 7 are sex workers. Most
of the service users are Malays, followed by Indians and Chinese. 3 or 4 are
usually post-operative transgender women.

Although on the surface the government seems to be committed to

reducing HIV and related infections, the attitude and mentality of the
government agencies of working in trenches is worrying and continues to
be a barrier to providing holistic and friendly services to the transgender
sex worker community. Sex workers are still vulnerable to arbitrary
detention for carrying more than three condoms, as the number of
condoms in possession corresponds to the level of promiscuity. The
condoms that are distributed by the TG programme are funded and
distributed by the Ministry of Health, which could easily initiate a dialogue
to address this matter and reduce the threats faced by sex workers for
practising safe sex. Government agencies, especially one such as the
Ministry of Health, must take the lead in addressing the barriers they have
put in place by suspending efforts around prevention of HIV/AIDS.

15

CASE STUDY

The political Islamisation of Malaysia in the late 80s has adversely affected
the transgender community, and reduced the level of tolerance towards
gender non-conformity. Discriminatory laws that penalise trans people
still exist under both civil and sharia laws. As sex workers with increased
visibility and vulnerability, Muslim transgender sex workers face arbitrary
detention under the male person posing as a woman sharia laws,
regardless of status of transition. Additionally, transgender sex workers
are subjected to arbitrary detention for public indecency under Section 21
of the Minor Offences Act.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Members of the transgender community face double or triple persecution

because of their gender identity, on top of the persecution that they
face as sex workers. Sex work is criminalised in Malaysia. However, the
sex work laws are never applied to trans sex workers as the laws only
apply to women. Similarly, the rape laws do not apply to post-operative
transgender women.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

The Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM) is now a government

stakeholder that is actively working on reducing the transmission of HIV/
AIDS in Malaysia. As a religious policy-making department, it has initiated
the Mukhayyam Programme: Employment Training Programmes for
Most at Risk Populations, particularly for transgender Muslims, in an
effort to remove trans people from sex work and subsequently reduce
the transmission of HIV by economically empowering them. While the
programme may seem to have noble intentions, it is very corrective in
nature as the participants are also expected to undergo religious and
spiritual lessons and boot-camp training. Interestingly, too, it still does
not address the systemic problems that transgender people are subjected
to, which are created by some of these stakeholders. As a policy-making
agency, it would be far more sensible for JAKIM to at least review the laws
and policies that blatantly pose barriers to promoting and protecting
the rights of transgender people and sex workers, instead of developing
economic empowerment for transgender people.

Due to the political Islamisation, sex reassignment surgery (SRS) has been
specifically banned for Muslim transgender people, leading to difficulties
in changing details to correspond to reassigned gender for post-operative
trans people. While the religious edict only applies to Muslims, the SRS
services that were provided in a semi-government hospital prior to the
ban were shut down for all transgender people. The additional structural
discrimination and violence that the transgender community faces
constitute another barrier to providing services to the community and
advancing transgender advocacy.
The demonisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and
queer (LGBTIQ) individuals and advocacy by state agencies and actors and
the media is another barrier faced by
the TG programme in implementing
its work. The hostility trickles down
to family institutions and the wider
community. Many transgender
people leave their homes at a very
young age, and typically do not have
the opportunity to complete their
education. On the flip side, this has
taught transgender people to be
resilient and independent, notes
Nisha, programme manager of the
TG programme.

16

CASE STUDY

The social stigma and the structural discrimination and violence also
create gaps within the transgender community. Therefore, while the TG
programme addresses the larger gaps with the government agencies, it
also has to bridge the gap between the transgender sex workers and the
non-sex workers.

Process
MyNETRA Malaysian Network of Transgender People

As an online platform, it overcomes physical and visibility-related barriers.

MyNETRA facilitates conversations and interactions between members
of the community regardless of their backgrounds. One of its most
notable accomplishments is that it has encouraged the participation of
transgender men in transgender advocacy, which was largely dominated
by transgender women both on- and offline. In February 2012, MyNETRA
held its first workshop for the transgender community that was attended
by transgender women and transgender men. Following that, a retreat was
organised with the participants of the workshop.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

MyNETRA is a closed Facebook group that was started in 2010 by the

TG programme to reach out and mobilise the community, and to share
information within the transgender community. Currently, MyNETRA has
over 2,000 members from all over Malaysia, and the group is exclusively
for trans* people, although not all of them are active. It is a moderated
organic space that allows discussions on diverse issues, and acts as a
support group and news portal for the trans* community.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

The TG programme consistently continues networking and consultations

with government agencies, even if they are not as forthcoming. The team
feels it is still important to be involved in the conversations, to reduce the
damage to the transgender community even if it is minuscule.

MyNETRA has been especially useful in managing the panic, fear and
outrage experienced by the community in response to the media and
state. A case in point is the medias creation of panic when it reported
the decision of transgender women in Negeri Sembilan to file a judicial
review of the cross-dressing sharia law in Negeri Sembilan as a challenge
to Islam. The TG programme used MyNETRA to manage the panic by
providing accurate information regarding the challenge. MyNETRA
also became the platform for providing support to the applicants and
community in Negeri Sembilan.
The TG programme, prior to the funding cut, used to receive funding for
networking and outreach to members of the community outside of the
Klang Valley. MyNETRA somewhat fills that gap now. The TG programme
gathers and disseminates information via Facebook.
MyNETRA is focused, but limited to these three aspects: community
mobilisation, outreach, and networking. Nisha adds that MyNETRA has
created opportunities for needs-specific online platforms.
In terms of security, it was a smart move to create a different brand or
name for the group, as it shifts focus away from PT Foundation and its
staff. MyNETRA is a clandestine group with no face.

17

CASE STUDY

The networking that the TG programme has carried out with various
groups has helped its overall advocacy goals and mainstreaming of the
transgender discourse.
Its collaboration with Seksualiti Merdeka, a sexuality rights festival,
has allowed the programme to conduct three exclusively transgender
community empowerment workshops, and to reinforce transgender issues
and rights in the LGBTQ discourse. In December 2012, the TG programme
was invited by Seksualiti Merdeka to conduct a community empowerment
workshop in Sarawak. Over 15 participants attended the workshop, and
some of them were contacted through MyNETRA.

The TG programme is involved in the I AM YOU: be a Trans Ally

campaign that aims to highlight the issues faced by the transgender
community. The video campaign covers key areas of issues faced by
transgender people, including healthcare and employment, and addresses
the intersection with sex work.
The TG programmes close collaboration with feminist groups has enabled
issues to be mainstreamed in CEDAW and UPR.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Its collaboration and networking with the Legal Aid Centres, legal
aid groups and lawyers has assisted the TG programme in providing
comprehensive legal services to the transgender community. The TG
programme is actively and closely involved in the sharia challenges of
the men posing as women laws in Negeri Sembilan and Malacca. The
programme uses its resources to hold information sessions with clients
and lawyers. It also uses MyNETRA to disseminate accurate and clear
information and updates regarding the cases.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Networking and collaboration with

other NGOs and groups

Resources Required
1 Presence. The TG programmes strong rapport with the community
both on- and offline facilitated the growth of the network.
2 A diverse group of transgender people. Fortunately for the transgender
community in Malaysia, there are transgender people of many trades:
graphic designers, writers, managers, business owners, caterers,
performers and others who share a similar vision. Therefore, most of
the time, the transgender community mobilises resources internally for
its events and campaigns. This effectively cuts down financial cost.
3 Collaboration and network.
The TG programmes ability to
network and collaborate with
different groups has provided
it with many opportunities
to mainstream transgender
issues, and reach out to a
wider range of people.

18

CASE STUDY

It has been reported that about 13.3 million people, or approximately

45.5 percent of Malaysians, are Facebook users. With such high usage of
the platform, it was a no-brainer to take the advocacy to cyberspace.
Furthermore, Facebook has proven to be an effective advocacy tool.
Leadership within the TG programme is another facilitating factor to
the success that it has achieved. The TG programmes forward thinking
and multi-sectoral ability to go beyond its health paradigm and initiate
collaborations with other groups are key to its achievements.

Lessons Learned
1 Capacity building on how to maximise social media

Aside from that, the TG programme should also be equipped with

online security strategies to ensure it is protected online.
2 Additional resources to manage the TG programmes online arm
The TG programme, without realising it, has created an online division
of its programme through MyNETRA and the I AM YOU campaign,
among others. However, it does not have additional resources (human
and financial) to manage its online advocacy. With a dedicated staff,
the TG programme would be better able to manage its advocacy efforts.
3 The safe clinic model

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

While the TG programme is good at using Facebook to mobilise and

empower, the team lacks skills and knowledge of other social media
and networks. It needs capacity-building training on maximising
advocacy via social media.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Facilitating Factors

Voluntary HIV testing and counselling is not attractive to the

transgender community as there is still fear and stigma around taking
the test. The safe clinic was a community clinic in Brickfields that
provided comprehensive STI- and HIV-related services. In addition,
the clinic also provided hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for
transgender people, which attracted the community to the clinic. In
order to make voluntary HIV testing appealing to the transgender
community, clinics must provide additional services that are relevant
and desired, like HRT. The clinic is no longer in operation.

Contact name, email and address of NGO Focal Point

Nisha Ayub
nisha@ptf.org.my
PT Transgender Programme Manager
+60340444611

19

Case Study

AMA: The Transition from INGO

to Independent National Network
Name of NGO consulted

Background
The National Network of Sex Workers (NNSW), later more commonly
known as AMA, was founded in 2007. Between 2008 and 2010, NNSW
organised regular network meetings with the support of the Targeted
Outreach Programme (TOP) centre. At this time, NNSW held its inaugural
election during the female sex worker consultation which the TOP had
organised. Sex worker participants attended from TOP centres across
thecountry, as well as sex workers working for other CBOs and NGOs.
The NNSW received and continues to receive technical support from
APNSW, Asia Catalyst and the Myanmar Health and Development
Consortium (MHDC). Sex workers from INGOs, NGOs, CBOs and the
community, from the major regions of Myanmar, all had a presence at
thefirst election in Yangon.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

AMA (National Network of Sex Workers) Myanmar

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

MYANMAR

The NNSW works for sex workers of all genders. The name AMA was
chosen as a strategic move to improve the chances of getting registered.
Itmeans big sister in Burmese and is an acronym for the literal
translation of sex worker Aye Mya Ayake AMA.
The NNSW joined APNSW in 2009. In 2010 it became a member of the
NSWP. The sex worker groups spread across the states and regions in
Myanmar have been working in the field of HIV/AIDS and SRH at the TOP
since 2009, with active support from PSI/TOP, UNFPA, UNAIDS, USAID and
the Gates Foundation, and technical support from APNSW and the NSWP.

20

CASE STUDY

Rationale
AMA has been chosen as a good practice case study because it was
set up to become a self-determining, representative entity. It was a
transformative process facilitated by TOP/PSI, supported by UNAIDS and
UNFPA over several years, to set up a National Network of Sex Workers
expressly to move from the INGO structure to an independent one.

Most of the HIV programmes for sex workers are situated in urban
areas, thus creating a gap in services in the rural areas. Sex workers
in rural areas are unable to access services in urban areas. Stigma and
discrimination against sex workers in Myanmar is very high. AMA is for
sex workers, by sex workers, and includes transgender sex workers, which
is entirely new as transgender sex workers are invisibilised in current HIV
programming. The core funds for TOP come from USAID. Transgender
persons are classified under MSM programming, so transgender issues are
often subverted in favour of FSW or MSM programming.
Because of funding and the way the TOP had been conceived, male and
transgender sex workers were only included in the MSM programme.
This didnt meet their sex worker-specific HIV prevention needs. This
motivated sex workers of all genders from around Myanmar, to form an
organisation by sex workers for sex workers.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Process

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

The process of setting up an independent sex worker-led network was

facilitated by the Targeted Outreach Programme which is a programme
of Population Services International (PSI). The governance structure was
developed by network leaders, modelled on the APNSW structure. The
idea was to include as diverse a range of sex workers as possible. The
call for members invited sex workers from CBOs and NGOs that were
known to work with sex workers. Most of these NGOs sent sex workers
tothemeetings.

Community Mobilisation
In the first year of operation, AMA secured a grant from UNFPA to scale up
HIV/STI and Reproductive Health (RH) services to sex workers. Activities
include capacity building of Community Mobilisation Workers (CMWs),
outreach activities, distribution of preventative commodities and local
supplies for peer education;
provision of referrals to the
National AIDS Programme
(NAP), INGOs and LNGOs
for HIV pre- and post-test
counselling, STI diagnosis
and treatment; access to
ART for HIV-positive sex
workers; and monitoring and
supervision of activities.
The following report on
HIV/SRH activities covers
the period from 1 May to
31October:

21

CASE STUDY

prevention services for the most at-risk, key affected populations in

Myanmar.

Location: Yangon region (Latha, Kyee Myin Dine, Mingalar Taung Nyunt
and Hlaing Tharyar)

Start-up Date: 1 May 2013

Completion Date: 31 December 2013
Number of beneficiaries and participants
who receive health services
FEMALE

TOTAL

Capacity building

Number of people
who receive
free condom
distribution

64,178

1,128

65,306

IEC distribution

285

1,732

2,017

Distribution of
health education
game cards
for STI/HIV
prevention

To entertainment centres

15 sets

Peer education

325

1,850

2,175

Number of people
who received
referral services
for STI testing
and treatment

39

134

173

Number of people
who received
referral services
for HIV pre- and
post-counselling
and testing

34

88

122

43 Number of
MSM who know
their HIV status.
One of them has
tested positive
forHIV.

103 Number of
female sex workers
who know their
HIV status. Among
them, 7 have
tested positive. for
HIV and 3 have
received necessary
medical check-ups
for ART treatment.

Number of people
who received
referral services
for SRH

18

49

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

MALE

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Name: Ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and HIV

67

57 Number of
female sex workers
who received
family planning
services.

Among those sent for referral services for HIV pre- and post-test
counselling, there were 3 HIV-positive cases. AMA CMWs provided referral
services for their necessary medical checkups, CD4 testing and follow-ups
for receiving ARV treatment.

22

CASE STUDY

Capacity Building
Due to initial delay in project implementation, some capacity-building
activities were only conducted from the month of June onwards. Eight
peer educators (7 female, 1 male) were trained in HIV and STI education,
reproductive health information, basic counselling skills and using
teaching aids and games. This was done in collaboration with the AMA
sex workers network in four townships (Latha, Kyee Myin Dine, Mingalar
Taung Nyunt and Hlaing Tharyar) in the Yangon region.

Outreach

Distribution of preventative commodities

Through the AMA sex workers network in the four townships, peer
educators were able to distribute 64,178 male condoms and 1,128 female
condoms. The project peer educators also distributed a total of 442 IEC
materials on STI, HIV and PMTCT information through the AMA sex
workers network.

Peer education and referral for services

Peer education training was conducted in 53 entertainment centres,
including brothels, KTV karaoke bars, night clubs, guest houses and beauty
parlours (for transgender women) and restaurants, and in the cruising
places/streets frequented by sex workers in the four target townships. Peer
educator training sessions were attended by both new (those who had
never attended any previous training) and old sex workers (those who
had attended previous peer training conducted by other INGOs, NGOs or
NAP), as follows:

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Outreach activities were carried out in four townships. All peer educators
trained are actively undertaking peer outreach education for HIV and
STI testing and treatment, and sexual and reproductive health referral
services.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Results

Male and transgender sex workers: 11 new male and transgender sex
workers, and 274 old male and transgender sex workers.

Female sex workers: 118 new female sex workers and 1,614 old female
sex workers.
The peer educators team also provided referral services as follows:

Referral for STI testing and treatment: Male and transgender (30), and
female (96), with a total of 126.

Referral for VCT services: Male and transgender (34), and female (88),
with a total of 122; 3 tested HIV-positive and were given counselling
and referral services.

Referral for RH services: Male (18) andfemale (57) with a total of 75.

23

CASE STUDY

AMA was able to establish an office space with 4 full-time and 6 parttimestaff.
In the first round of funding, AMA received a seed grant of 14,000 euros
from the Red Umbrella Fund to set up the national network, to secure
registration and to strengthen aspects of its governance structure. This
included employment of a full-time coordinator. The grant expired in
December 2013 and, under the current RUF guidelines, is not renewable.
Concurrently, the Association of Women in Development (AWID)
awarded a number of one-off $5,000 grants to grassroots organisations
doing innovative work with women that had a specific focus on
economicempowerment.

For a traditionally marginalised group like sex workers, the ability to

open a bank account is not only a key tool of modern financing, but an
affirmation of identity, a sort of reclamation of status in society. With the
offer of setting up a service provision project at AMA, staff were quick to
mobilise to recruit peer educators who could carry out the task of engaging
sex workers in HIV prevention services as well as referral services for
others and sex workers who are diagnosed HIV-positive.
Currently, AMA has a rented apartment close to the office which can
accommodate sex workers who are diagnosed positive and must come to
Yangon to be stabilised on ART. Staff members attend appointments with
them and provide counselling and support throughout the entire process.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

In January 2013, AMA was awarded one of these grants to pilot a project
entitled Opening a Bank Account in Myanmar. The banking system
in Myanmar was still being established in 2013 and many people in
Myanmar do not have bank accounts nor understand international finance
management systems.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Resources Required

Facilitating Factors
Community cohesion is an important element of building a national
network from the ground up. It is clear that without the benefit of
already being a part of intricate networks of sex workers (both locally
and internationally), health professionals, United Nations players,
international development, feminists, and other key affected populations
(in particular key affected women), AMA could not have become as strong
as it has with very little funding in such a short time.
The success of AMA also rests upon
sex workers commitment to continual
movement-building activity which
involves a readiness to do more than
merely engage in NGO activities. It
requires an analysis of community
building and subsequent mobilisation.

24

CASE STUDY

The main challenge for AMA as a national network is to get funds to run
as a network when only money for programming is available.

Recommendations
HIV programmes should integrate sex workers of all genders from the
beginning. The best results are achieved when sex workers are involved at
every level of decision making in that process.
In October 2013, the TOP held a country-wide consultation of sex workers.
During that consultation, two informal feedback sessions were held, one
with eight service users and one with eight AMA staff. There was a short
workshop entitled How to write a case study which was intended to be
instructive and to provide some background on what was being sought for
inclusion in the study.

Recurring themes: feedback from workshop group

They prioritise community needs, and do not succumb to the orders
ofinternational NGOs.

The sex workers utilise the network by fostering relationships with

each other and building a movement.

AMA provides referrals and builds confidence within the community,

and they have realised that they have the expertise, they speak the
language, and they know the issues. This is evidenced by the change in
the governments attitude towards them. The government now engages
with AMA and together they work on issues to do with HIV and sex
work.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

Many comments were tendered by participants, but there were

recurringthemes.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

Challenges Overcome

Sex workers train other sex workers because they speak the same
community language.

Sex workers listen to each other.

When sex workers are arrested, there is no support from family
members, and they have no access to ART.

INGOs include trans women in the MSM cluster, but trans women
prefer to be part of the female sex worker group. This is where the
discrimination happens.

Sex workers mobilise other sex workers in ways that NGOs cannot.
They try to be democratic.
Sustainability of the project is important. They always reflect on what
will happen when the funding runs out.

Measurable advocacy outcomes. AMA staff identify strategic advocacy

opportunities and use them to lobby for legal and health reforms for
sex workers.

25

CASE STUDY

1 During the first six months of independent funding, AMA was able to
support 15 sex workers who were in prison, of whom seven were living
with HIV. They assisted incarcerated sex workers with access to ART;
OI medication for eight sex worker inmates; and nutrition support for
ten sex workers. In partnership with Myatter Innare (an emerging sex
worker organisation), AMA helped imprisoned sex workers to establish
contact with their families.
2 In the first half of 2013, AMA conducted a leadership, advocacy and
empowerment training with participants from Yangon, Mandalay
(Mandalay Empress), Pyay (Myatter Innare CBO) and new HIV-positive
sex worker groups from Meikhtilar (Pan Pyo Thu Self Health Group
SHG). In total, 23 participants attended.

4 Securing independent funding from the RUF fund enabled AMA to

develop a good relationship with local authorities at the township level,
and with the National AIDS Programme. This strengthening of the
relationship resulted in one AMA staff member from Pyay being offered
a seat in the NAP compound.
5 Additionally, AMA (NNSW) set up an office in Yangon with 12 staff.
AMA is fully sex worker-led, and this is a first in the history of the
sex workers rights movement in Myanmar. One member from Pyay
(Myatter Innare) has been provided with office space at the NAP
compound, and some Myatter Innare members secured part-time
employment at NAP.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

3 AMA conducted home-based care, nutrition support and nursing care

for sex workers with HIV who ended up in hospital. The cities were
Yangon, Mandalay, Pyay and Meikhtilar, totalling 81 people.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

AMA Activities 2013

6 AMA was able to negotiate for three sex workers to be released from
the police station after they had been arrested in their workplace. AMA
has three lawyers who are sex workers as well as network members
two are from Yangon and one from Meikhtilar; two are female and
one is male. The number of sex workers assisted is small, but the
outcome was positive and is an example of how important it is for
the community to advocate for its peers, who may currently not be
involved in AMA activities such as HIV prevention, treatment, human
rights, the right to health and so on.
7 The Red Umbrella Fund
provided a small core grant
and AMA subsequently
secured a small grant
from UNFPA to employ
two supervisors and six
community mobilisation
workers to work on HIV/
STI prevention and SRH.
AWID also awarded a small
grant for an economic
empowerment project
assisting sex workers to
open bank accounts.

26

CASE STUDY

9 AMA has translated CEDPAs training menu for leadership and advocacy
into Burmese to utilise as a tool for training sex workers. They have
also translated the briefing paper on the Global Fund New Funding
Model compiled by APNSW. The briefing paper provides instructions to
sex worker organisations on how to navigate the New Funding Model.
10 AMA staff took part in a consultation with regional representatives
and community leaders from different states and divisions before
submitting the registration.

12 AMA will be holding a national election for the Myanmar National

Network of Sex Workers in December 2013. Again, all sex worker groups
throughout the country will be invited to join the network and to take
part in the elections at that time.

Contact name, email and address of NGO Focal Point

Moe Thandar
No.757, Thumatter 19th Street, 1 Qtr,

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

11 In October, workshops were conducted with AMA staff that included

project management, financial management and legal training for sex
workers. 24 sex workers attended from different states and regions.

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

8 The process of registration has presented a number of challenges.

Myanmar is a country in transition with the borders open and markets
opening to international investors. There has been a lot of back and
forth querying on the registration application. It may take longer
than expected to obtain it, but AMA expects it will be able to secure
registration.

North Okkalapa Township, Yangon, Myanmar.

activeama@gmail.com

27

Recommendations

Good Practice in Sex Worker-Led HIV Programming

In accordance with the growing concerns of sex workers, a stronger

advocacy network within the region is needed, where human rights
are incorporated into the framework of internal mechanisms and
advocacy materials are readily made available to decision-making
components of the sex worker groups. A united voice, championing
not just localised issues but inter-country issues, would strengthen the
voice of the community. In this case, this would focus on the rights to
nondiscriminative health care and accountable public services to reduce
cases of stigmatisation.
Funding sources and accessibility is a concern affecting all four case studies.

Regional Report: asia and the pacific

28

The Matrix, 62 Newhaven Road

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, EH6 5QB
+44 131 553 2555
secretariat@nswp.org
www.nswp.org
NSWP is a private not-for-profit limited company.
Company No. SC349355

Sex Workers' Manifesto

First National Conference of Sex Workers in India
14-16 November 1997, Calcutta
A new spectre seems to be haunting the society. Or maybe those phantom creatures
who have been pushed into the shades for ages are taking on human form and that is
why there is so much fear. The sex workers' movement for last few years have made us
confront many fundamental questions about social structures, life sexuality, moral rights
and wrongs. We think an intrinsic component of our movement is to go on searching for
the answers to these questions and raise newer ones.
What is the sex workers' movement all about?
We came together as a collective community through our active involvement as health
workers, the Peer Educators, in a HIV/STD Control Project which has been running in
Sonagachhi since 1992. The Project provided the initial space for building mutual
support, facilitating reflection and initiating collective action among us, sex workers. Very
early in the life of the Sonagachhi Project, we, with the empathetic support of those who
had started the Project, clearly recognised that even to realise the very basic Project
objectives of controlling transmission of HIV and STD it was crucial to view us in our
totality as complete persons with a range of emotional and material needs, living
within a concrete and specific social, political and ideological context which determine
the quality of our lives and our health, and not see us merely in terms of our sexual
behaviour.
To give an example, while promoting the use of condoms, we soon realised that in order
to change the sexual behaviour of sex workers it was not enough to enlighten them
about the risks of unprotected sex or to improve their communication and negotiation
skills. How will a sex worker who does not value herself at all think of taking steps to
protect her health and her life? Even when fully aware of the necessity of using condoms
to prevent disease transmission, may not an individual sex worker feel compelled to
jeopardise her health in fear of losing her clients to other sex workers in the area unless
it was ensured that all sex workers were able to persuade their clients to use condoms
for every sexual act? Some sex workers may not even be in a position to try negotiate
safer sex with a client as they may be too closely controlled by exploitative madams or
pimps. If a sex worker is starving, either because she does not have enough custom or
because most of her income goes towards maintaining a room or meeting the demands
of madams, local power-brokers or the police, can she be really in a position to refuse a
client who can not be persuaded to use condoms?
And what about the client? Is a man likely to be amenable to learn anything from a
woman, particularly an uneducated 'fallen' woman? For him does not coming to a
prostitute necessarily involve an inherent element of taking risk and behaving
irresponsibly? In which case are not notions of responsibility and safety completely
contradict his attitude towards his relationship with a prostitute? Does not a condom
represent an unnecessary impediment in his way to 'total' pleasure?

In most case this male client himself may be a poor, displaced man. Is he in a position to
value his own life or protect his health?
Then again why does not a sex worker who is ready to use condom with her client,
would never have protected sex with her lover or husband? What fine balance between
commercial transaction and love, caution and trust, safety and intimacy engender such
behaviour? How do ideologies of love, family, motherhood influence our every sexual
gesture?
Thus, thinking about such an apparently uncomplicated question whether a sex
worker can insist on having safe sex, made us realise that the issue is not at all simple.
Sexuality and the lives and the movement of sex workers are intrinsically enmeshed in
the social structure we live within and dominant ideology which shapes our values.
Like many other occupations, sex work is also an occupation, and it is probably one of
the'oldest' profession' in the world because it meets an important social demand. But
theterm 'prostitute' is rarely used to refer to an occupational group who earn their
livelihood through providing sexual services, rather it is deployed as a descriptive term
denoting a homogenised category, usually of women, who poses threats to public
health, sexual morality, social stability and civic order. Within this discursive boundary
we systematically find ourselves to be targets of moralising impulses of dominant social
groups, through missions of cleansing and sanitising, both materially and symbolically. If
and when we figure in political or developmental agenda, we are enmeshed in discursive
practices and practical projects which aim to rescue, rehabilitate, improve, discipline,
control or police us. Charity organisations are prone to rescue us and put us in 'safe'
homes, developmental organisations are likely to 'rehabilitate' us through meagre
income generation activities, and the police seem bent upon to regularly raid our
quarters in the name of controlling 'immoral' trafficking. Even when we are inscribed less
negatively or even sympathetically within dominant discourses we are not exempt from
stigmatisation or social exclusion. As powerless, abused victims with no resources, we
are seen as objects of pity. Otherwise we appear as self-sacrificing and nurturing
supporting cast of characters in popular literature and cinema, ceaselessly ready to give
up our hard earned income, our clients, our 'sinful' ways and finally our lives to ensure
the well-being of the hero or the society he represents. In either case we are refused
enfranchisement as legitimate citizens or workers, and are banished to the margins of
society and history.
The kind of oppression that can be meted out to a sex worker can never be perpetrated
against a regular worker. The justification given is that sex work is not real work it is
morally sinful. As prostitution is kept hidden behind the facade of sexual morality and
social order, unlike other professions there is no legitimacy or scope for any discussion
about the demands and needs of the workers of the sex industry.
People who are interested in our welfare, and many are genuinely concerned, often can
not think beyond rehabilitating us or abolishing prostitution altogether. However, we
know that in reality it is perhaps impossible to 'rehabilitate' a sex worker because the
society never allows to erase our identity as prostitutes. Is rehabilitation feasible or even
desirable?

In a country where unemployment is in such gigantic proportions, where does the

compulsion of displacing millions of women and men who are already engaged in an
income earning occupation which supports themselves and their extended families,
come from? If other workers in similarly exploitative occupations can work within the
structures of their profession to improve their working conditions, why can not sex
workers remain in the sex industry and demand a better deal in their life and work?
What is the history of sexual morality?
Like other human propensities and desires, sexuality and sexual need are fundamental
and necessary to the human condition. Ethical and political ideas about sexuality and
sexual practices are socially conditioned and historically and contexually specific. In the
society as we know it now, ideologies about sexuality are deeply entrenched within
structures of patriarchy and largely misogynist mores. The state and social structures
only acknowledges a limited and narrow aspect of our sexuality. Pleasure, happiness,
comfort and intimacy find expression through sexuality. On one hand we weave
narratives around these in our literature and art. But on the other hand our societal
norms and regulations allow for sexual expression only between men and women within
the strict boundaries of marital relations within the institution of the family.
Why have we circumscribed sexuality within such a narrow confine, ignoring its many
other expressions, experiences and manifestations?
Ownership of private property and maintenance of patriarchy necessitates a control over
women's reproduction. Since property lines are maintained through legitimate heirs, and
sexual intercourse between men and women alone carry the potential for procreation,
capitalist patriarchy sanctions only such couplings. Sex is seen primarily, and almost
exclusively, as an instrument for reproduction, negating all aspects of pleasure and
desire intrinsic to it. Privileging heterosexuality, homosexuality is not only denied
legitimacy, it is considered to be undesirable, unnatural, and deviant. Thus sex and
sexuality are given no social sanction beyond their reproductive purpose.
Do we then not value motherhood? Just because our profession or our social situation
does not allow for legitimate parenthood, are we trying to claim motherhood and bearing
children is unworthy and unimportant for women? That is not the case. We feel that
every woman has the right to bear children with if she so wishes. But we also think that
through trying to establish motherhood as the only and primary goal for a woman the
patriarchal structures try to control women's reproductive functions and curb their social
and sexual autonomy. Many of us sex workers are mothers our children are very
precious to us. By social standards these children are illegitimate bastards. But at
least they are ours and not mere instruments for maintaining some man's property or
continuing his genealogy. However, we too are not exempt from the ideologies of the
society we live in. For many of us the impossible desire for family, home and
togetherness is a permanent source of pain.
Do men and women have equal claims to sexuality?
Societal norms about sex and sexuality do not apply similarly to men and women. If
sexual needs are at all acknowledged beyond procreation, it is only for men. Even if
there are minor variations from community to community and if in the name of modernity

certain mores have changed in some place, it is largely men who have had enjoyed the
right to be polygamous or seek multiple sexual partners. Women have always been
expected to be faithful to a single man. Beyond scriptural prohibitions too, social
practices severely restricts the expression of female sexuality. As soon as a girl reaches
her puberty her behaviour is strictly controlled and monitored so as not to provoke the
lust of men. In the name of 'decency' and 'tradition' a woman teacher is prohibited from
wearing the clothes of her choice to the University. While selecting a bride for the son,
the men of the family scrutinise the physical attributes of a potential bride. Pornographic
representations of women satisfy the voyeuristic pleasures of millions of men. From
shaving cream to bathroom fittings are sold through attracting men by advertisements
depicting women as sex objects.
In this political economy of sexuality there is no space for expression of women's own
sexuality and desires. Women have to cover up their bodies from men and at the same
time bare themselves for male gratification. Even when women are granted some
amount of subjecthood by being represented as consumers in commercial media, that
role is defined by their ability to buy and normed by capitalist and patriarchal strictures.
Is our movement anti-men?
Our movement is definitely against patriarchy, but not against all individual men. As it so
happens, apart from the madams and landladies almost all people who profit from the
sex trade are men. But what is more important is that their attitudes towards women and
prostitution are biased with strong patriarchal values. They generally think of women as
weak, dependent, immoral or irrational who need to be directed and disciplined.
Conditioned by patriarchal gender ideologies, both men and women in general approve
of the control of sex trade and oppression of sex workers as necessary for maintaining
social order. The power of this moral discourse is so strong that we prostitutes too tend
to think of ourselves as morally corrupt and shameless. The men who come to us as
clients are victims of the same ideology too. Sometimes the sense of sin adds to their
thrill, sometimes it leads to perversion and almost always it creates a feeling of self
loathing among them. Never does it allow for confident, honest sexual interchange.
It is important to remember that there is no uniform category as 'men'. Men, like women
are differentiated by their class, caste, race and other social relations. For many men
adherence to the dominant sexual norm is not only impracticable but also unreal. The
young men who look for sexual initiation, the married men who seek the company of
'other' women, the migrant labourers separated from their wives who try to find warmth
and companionship in the red light area can not all be dismissed as wicked and
perverted. To do that will amount to dismissing a whole history of human search for
desire, intimacy and need. Such dismissal creates an unfulfilled demand for sexual
pleasure, the burden of which though shared by men and women alike, ultimately
weighs more heavily on women. Sexuality which can be a basis of an equal, healthy
relationship between men and women, between people, becomes the source of further
inequality and stringent control. This is what we oppose.
Next to any factory, truckers check points, market there has always been red light areas.
The same system of productive relations and logic of profit maximisation, which
drivesmen from their homes in villages to towns and cities, make women into sex
workers for these men.

What is deplorable is that this patriarchal ideology is so deeply entrenched, and the
interest of men as a group is so solidly vested in it, that women's question hardly ever
find a place in mainstream political or social l movements. The male workers who
organise themselves against exploitation rarely address the issues of gender
oppression, let alone the oppression of sex workers. Against the interest of women these
radical men too defend the ideology of the family and patriarchy.
Are we against the institution of family?
In the perception of society we sex workers and in fact all women outside the relation of
conjugality are seen as threats to the institution of family. It is said that enticed by us,
men stray from the straight and narrow, destroy the family. All institutions from religion to
formal education reiterate and perpetuate this fear about us. Women and men too, are
the victims of this all pervasive misogyny.
We would like to stress strongly that the sex workers movement is not against the
institution of family. What we challenge is the inequity and oppression within the
dominant notions of an 'ideal' family which support and justify unequal distribution of
power and resources within the structures of the family. What our movement aims at is
working towards a really humanitarian, just and equitable structure of the family which is
perhaps yet to exist.
Like other social institutions the family too is situated within the material and ideological
structures of the state and society. The basis of a normative ideal family is inheritance
through legitimate heirs and therefore sexual fidelity. Historically, the structures of
families in reality have gone through many changes. In our country, by and large joint
families are being replaced by nuclear ones as a norm. In fact, in all societies people
actually live their lives in many different ways, through various social and cultural
relations which deviate from this norm, but are still not recognised as the ideal by the
dominant discourses.
If two persons love each other, want to be together, want to raise children together,
relateto the social world it can be a happy, egalitarian, democratic arrangement. But
does it really happen like that within families we see, between couple we know? Do not
we know 0f many, many families where there is no love, but relations are based on
inequality and oppression. Do not many legal wives virtually live the life of sex slaves in
exchange for food and shelter? In most cases women do not have the power or the
resources to opt out of such marriages and families. Sometimes men and women both
remain trapped in empty relations by social pressure. Is this situation desirable? Is it
healthy?
The whore and the Madonna divide and rule
Within the oppressive family ideology it is women's sexuality that is identified as the main
threat to conjugal relationship of a couple. Women are pitted against each other as wife
against the prostitute, against the chaste and the immoral both represented as
fighting over the attention and lust of men. A chaste wife is granted no sexuality, only a
de-sexed motherhood and domesticity. At the other end of the spectrum is the 'fallen'
woman a sex machine, unfettered by any domestic inclination or 'feminine' emotion. A
woman's goodness is judged on the basis of her desire and ability to control and

disguise her sexuality. The neighbourhood girl who dresses up can not be good, models
and actresses are morally corrupt. In all cases female sexuality is controlled and shaped
by patriarchy to reproduce the existing political economy of sexuality and safeguard the
interest of men. A man has access to his docile home-maker wife, the mother of his
children and the prostitute who sustain his wildest sexual fantasies. Women's sexual
needs are not only considered to be important enough, in most cases its autonomy is
denied or even its existence is erased.
Probably no one other than a prostitute really realises the extent of loneliness,
alienation, desire and yearning for intimacy that brings men to us. The sexual need we
meet for these men is not just about mechanical sexual act, not an momentary
gratification of 'base' instincts. Beyond the sex act, we provide a much wider range of
sexual pleasure which is to with intimacy, touch and companiability a service which
we render without any social recognition of its significance. At least men can come to us
for their sexual needs however prurient or shameful the system of prostitution may be
seen as. Women hardly have such recourse. The autonomy of women's sexuality is
completely denied. The only option they have is to be prostitutes in the sex industry.
Why do women come to prostitution?
Women take up prostitution for the same reason as they may take up any other
livelihood option available to them. Our stories are not fundamentally different from the
labourer from Bihar who pulls a rickshaw in Calcutta, or the worker from Calcutta who
works part time in a factory in Bombay. Some of us get sold into the industry. After being
bonded to the madam who has bough us for some years we gain a degree of
independence within the sex industry. A whole of us end up in the sex trade after going
through many experiences in life often unwillingly, without understanding all the
implications of being a prostitute fully.
But when do most of us women have access to choice within or outside the family? Do
we become casual domestic labourer willingly? Do we have a choice about who we want
to marry and when? The choice' is rarely real for most women, particularly poor women.
Why do we end up staying in prostitution? It is after all a very tough occupation. The
physical labour involved in providing sexual services to multiple clients in a working day
is no less intense or rigorous than ploughing or working in a factory. It is definitely not
fun and frolic. Then there are occupational hazards like unwanted pregnancy, painful
abortions, risk of sexually transmitted diseases. In almost all red light areas housing and
sanitation facilities are abysmal, the localities are crowded, most sex workers quite poor,
and on top of it there is police harassment and violence from local thugs. Moreover, to
add to the material condition of deprivation and distress, we have to take on
stigmatisation and marginalisation, the social indignity of being 'sinful', being mothers
of illegitimate children, being the target of those children's frustrations and anger.
Do we advocate 'free sex'?
What we advocate and desire is independent, democratic, non-coercive, mutually
pleasurable and safe sex. Somehow 'free sex' seems to imply irresponsibility and lack of
concern for other's well-being, which is not what we are working towards. Freedom of
speech, expression or politics all come with obligations and need to acknowledge and

accommodate other's freedom too. Freedom of sexuality should also come with
responsibility and respect for other's needs and desires. We do want the freedom to
explore and shape a healthy and mature attitude and practice about sex and sexuality
free from obscenity and vulgarity.
We do not yet know what this autonomous sexuality will be like in practice we do not
have the complete picture as yet. We are working people not soothsayers or prophets.
When for the first time in history when workers agitated for class equity and freedom
from capitalist exploitation, when the blacks protested against white hegemony, when
feminist rejected the subordination of women they too did not know fully what the new
system they were striving for would exactly be like. There is no exact picture of the 'ideal'
future it can only emerge and be shaped through the process of the movement.
All we can say in our imagination of autonomous sexuality men and women will have
equal access, will participate equally, will have the right to say 'yes' or 'no', and there will
be no space for guilt or oppression.
We do not live in an ideal social world today. We do not know when and if ever an idea
social order will come into place. In our less than ideal world if we can accept the
immorality of commercial transaction over food, or health why is sex for money so
unethical and unacceptable. Maybe in an ideal world there will be no need for any such
transactions where material, emotional, intellectual and sexual needs of all will be met
equitably and with pleasure and happiness. We do not know. All we can do now is to
explore the current inequalities and injustices, question their basis and confront,
challenge and change them.
Which way is our movement going?
The process of struggle that we, the members of Mahila Samanwaya Committee are
currently engaged in has only just begun. We think our movement has two principal
aspects. The first one is to debate, define and re-define the whole host of issues about
gender, poverty, sexuality that are being thrown up within the process of the struggle
itself. Our experience of Mahila Samanwaya Committee shows that for a marginalised
group to achieve the smallest of gains, it becomes imperative to challenge an all
encompassing material and symbolic order that not only shapes the dominant
discourses outside but, and perhaps more importantly, historically conditions the way we
negotiate our own locations as workers within the sex industry. This long term and
complex process will have to continue.
Secondly, the daily oppression that is practised on us with the support of the dominant
ideologies, have to be urgently and consistently confronted and resisted. We have to
struggle to improve the conditions of our work and material quality of our lives, and that
can happen through our efforts towards us, sex workers, gaining control over the sex
industry itself. We have started the process today in many red light areas in cities,
towns and villages, we sex workers have come to organise our own forums to create
solidarity and collective strength among a larger community of prostitutes, forge a
positive identity for ourselves as prostitutes and mark out a space for acting on our own
behalf.

Male prostitutes are with us too

The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee was originally formed by women sex
workers of Sonagachhi and neighbouring red light areas, and initially for women
prostitutes. However, within two years of our coming into existence male sex workers
have come and joined as at their own initiative. These male sex workers provide sexual
services to homosexual men primarily. As our society is strongly homophobic, and in
fact, penetrative sexual act even between consenting adult men can still be legally
penalised, the material and ideological status of male sex workers is even more
precarious. We therefore had welcomed them in our midst as comrades in arms and
strongly believe that their participation will make the sex workers' movement truly
representative and robust.
Sex workers movement is going on it has to go on. We believe the questions about
sexuality that we are raising are relevant not only to us sex workers but to every men
and women who question subordination of all kinds within the society at large and
also within themselves. This movement is for everyone who strives for an equal, just,
equitable, oppression free and above all a happy social world. Sexuality, like class and
gender after all makes us what we are. To deny its importance is to accept an
incomplete existence as human beings. Sexual inequality and control of sexuality
engender and perpetuate many other inequalities and exploitation too. We re faced with
situation to shake the roots of all such injustice through our movement. We have to win
this battle and the war too for a gender just, socially equitable, emotionally fulfilling,
intellectually stimulating and exhilarating future for men, women and children.

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NO END IN SIGHT: WHY THE END DEMAND

MOVEMENT IS THE WRONG FOCUS
FOR EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
STEPHANIE M. BERGER*
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I. Framing the Discussion: The Feminist Debates . . . . . . . . . . . .
A. What is Prostitution? Perspectives Behind Different
Legal Frameworks for Sex Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. What is Human Trafficking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. International and U.S. Law Set the Definition of
Trafficking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. The Problem with Conflating Prostitution and
Trafficking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
II. The Rise of End Demand Legal Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A. What is Demand? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Who Buys Sex? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Do Sex Buyers Drive Sex Trafficking? . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. Legal Frameworks and Programs that Punish Demand .
1. Legal Frameworks Embracing End Demand Efforts
Without Criminalizing the Actual Buying and Selling
of Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Criminalizing the Buyers and Decriminalizing the
Sellers: The Swedish Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. Growing Use of John Schools and Other Shaming
Methods to Curb Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
III. The End Demand Movement Gains Traction in the U.S. . . . .
A. U.S. Federal Laws Enshrining of End Demand Ideals .
B. End Demand Efforts End Legal Sex Work in Rhode
Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
C. New Trafficking Law in Massachusetts Focuses
Extensively on Ending Demand for Prostitution . . . . . . . .

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* J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School, Class of 2013. I would like to thank Professor Janet Halley for her support and inspiration. Thanks also to Professor Halleys Fall
2011 Trafficking & Labor Migration seminar and Professor Catharine MacKinnons Fall
2011 Sex Equality class. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Lisa Kelly, Anne
Gallagher, and Professors Aziza Ahmed and Ummni Khan for their invaluable suggestions and contributions to my research. Finally, thanks to the fantastic staff of the
Harvard Journal of Law & Gender for its hard work, dedication, and support, without
which this Article could not have been possible.

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[Vol. 35

IV. Demanding an End to the Rhetoric: Recommendations for a

More Productive Approach to Reducing Trafficking and
Improving the Lives of Sex Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A. Fighting Fire with Fire: The Need for Work Position
Feminists to Respond Directly to End Demand
Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. Refocusing the Lens: Moving Away from the Abolition
Versus Decriminalization Debate Toward Real
Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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INTRODUCTION
There is no dispute that human trafficking is a pervasive problem. The
International Labor Organization and the United States State Department estimate that there are more than 12 million people in forced labor and sexual
servitude worldwide.1 The State Department estimates that between 14,500
and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually.2 Sex trafficking, specifically, undoubtedly occurs in the United Statesall one needs
to do is read the local newspaper to find horrific accounts of women and
children3 enslaved and abused in major cities across the country.4 However,
1

U.S. DEPT OF STATE, BUREAU OF PUB. AFFAIRS, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS: COERTIME OF ECONOMIC CRISIS (2009), available at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/scp/
fs/2009/124871.htm.
2
U.S. DEPT OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 23 (June 2004), available
at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/34158.pdf.
3
This Article focuses on trafficking of adult women. Although men and transgender
people are also trafficked, the majority of data and scholarship available pertains to the
trafficking of women and children. See, e.g., Aziza Ahmed, Feminism, Power, and Sex
Work in the Context of HIV/AIDS: Consequences for Womens Health, 34 HARV. J.L. &
GENDER 225, 240 (2011) (describing the relative invisibility of transgender and male
sex workers). This Article therefore reserves commentary on male and transgender sex
workers for future scholarship. In addition, although the Author acknowledges that large
numbers of children are trafficked for both labor and sex work worldwide, this Article
focuses on adult women under the assumption that all sex work by children is forced.
However, the possibility of voluntary sex work by adult women can and has been
debated:
Although both adult and child prostitution are part of the commercial sex sector
and have strong economic and social foundations, the position on child prostitution is unequivocal, whereas there could be different considerations for adult prostitution. Children are victims of prostitution, whereas adults could choose sex
work as an occupation. International conventions all treat child prostitution as an
unacceptable form of forced labour; the goal is its total elimination. In the case of
adults, the position is less obvious because it is possible to make a distinction
between enforced and voluntary prostitution.
INTL LABOUR ORG., THE SEX SECTOR: THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BASES OF PROSTITUTION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 211 (Lin Lean Lim ed., 1998).
4
See, e.g., Editorial, Senate should move ahead on greater penalties for pimps, BOSTON GLOBE, June 21, 2011, at A10 (describing the arrest of a Dorchester man for abducting a 15-year-old girl and forcing her into prostitution); David Chanen, Woodbury
CION IN A

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there is no way to know exactly how many trafficking victims in general and
sex trafficking victims specifically exist in the United States, in part due to
the United States problematic conflation of human trafficking and prostitution.5 This conflation has enshrined the ideals of abolitionist feminists, who
believe that prostitution is inherently coercive and abusive, and has refused
to acknowledge the pro-work position that views prostitution on a spectrum
including both forced and voluntary sex work.6 Abolitionist ideals have
most recently taken hold in End Demand efforts, which focus on criminalizing, punishing, and shaming men who buy sex as purported solutions to both
prostitution and human trafficking.7 This Article takes a pro-work position
and aims to demonstrate the potential harms of End Demand policies. It also
proposes more productive methods for addressing human trafficking in the
United States.
Part I of this Article examines the fundamental feminist debates over
prostitution and human trafficking. It looks at the abolitionist versus prowork positions regarding prostitution and discusses how those viewpoints
have informed the development of international and U.S. definitions of trafficking. It then discusses the problem of conflating prostitution and all
forms of trafficking when attempting to develop a framework for dealing
with sex trafficking and labor migration. Part II.A examines End Demand
laws and programs, beginning with a discussion of conflicting studies on
whether men who buy sex are disproportionately deviant, violent, and abusive. It argues that sex trafficking cannot be reduced to a simple supply and
demand equation, but rather that sex trafficking requires complex analysis
man gets 11 years in sex trafficking case, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIB., Jan. 13, 2012, http://
www.startribune.com/local/east/137292453.html (describing the conviction of a man for
interstate sex trafficking); Elizabeth Aguilera, Human trafficking on the rise in border
region, SAN DIEGO UNION TRIB., Jan. 12, 2012, http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/
jan/12/human-trafficking-on-the-rise-in-border-region (describing a rise in women trafficked from Mexico to the U.S.); Annie Sweeney, Bolingbrook man charged in sex trafficking case, CHICAGO TRIB., Jan. 3, 2012, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-03/
news/chi-bolingbrook-man-charged-in-sex-trafficking-case-20120103_1_bolingbrookman-trafficking-case-federal-charges (describing a man who has been arrested for forcing
a 17-year-old to work in the sex trade).
5
See infra Part I.B.2.
6
See infra Part I.A. This Article uses the terms sex work and prostitution fairly
interchangeably, with sex work favored out of respect for the preference of many sex
worker rights organizations. See, e.g., GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST TRAFFIC IN WOMEN,
MOVING BEYOND SUPPLY AND DEMAND CATCHPHRASES: ASSESSING THE USES AND LIMITATIONS OF DEMAND-BASED APPROACHES IN ANTI-TRAFFICKING 11 (2011), available at
http://www.gaatw.org/publications/MovingBeyond_SupplyandDemand_GAATW2011.
pdf [hereinafter GAATW MOVING BEYOND CATCHPHRASES] (discussing the preference
for the term sex work over prostitution). Where appropriate, however, prostitution is used for clarity or to preserve the language used by the position or organization
being discussed. In addition, although this Article seeks to acknowledge that sex work
exists on a spectrum and that many women who enter the sex trade do so because of
undesirable and often dire circumstances including extreme poverty, see infra Part I.A,
this Article sometimes uses the terms voluntary and noncoercive to describe sex
work that is not forced by third parties.
7
See infra Parts IIIII.

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that does not lend itself to the conclusion that johns demand for sex directly
causes women to be trafficked for sexual abuse.8 Part II.B then examines
different End Demand legal frameworks and programs, including laws in
Canada and the United Kingdom that embrace punishing johns without
criminalizing the actual purchase and sale of sex, and the Swedish model,
which criminalizes the buyers but not the sellers of sex. This Part also examines the growing use of programs such as john schools, shaming methods, Dear John letters, and social marketing campaigns. This Part argues
that these efforts to target johns are not only ineffective in reducing sex work
and trafficking, but also actually harm women in sex work because these
efforts push sex workers activities further underground, where the potential
for safe sex decreases and for violence increases.
Part III of this Article addresses the growing popularity of the End Demand movement in the United States, beginning with the federal governments inclusion of anti-prostitution ideals in the 2005 Trafficking Victims
Protection Act Reauthorization, the 2003 Anti-Prostitution Pledge, the 2011
Trafficking In Persons Report, and the recent State Department literature.
This Part then studies current End Demand efforts at the state level, including abolitionists successful campaigns to make buying and selling sex illegal in Rhode Island and to create a definition of trafficking in Massachusetts
that is dangerously overbroad and has the potential to be ineffective due to
its strong focus on ending prostitution. As recent and well-publicized End
Demand efforts, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are strong examples of the
impact that abolitionist attitudes can have on problematic conflations of trafficking and prostitution in state laws.
Finally, Part IV of this Article makes recommendations for more productive approaches to reducing trafficking and improving the lives of sex
workers. It suggests ways in which pro-work feminists can respond directly
to End Demand advocates claims, using the example of the Work Rights
Initiatives recent letter to the State Department questioning its unsupported
acceptance of End Demand rhetoric. This Article concludes with suggestions for moving away from the abolition versus decriminalization debate on
sex work and toward more on-the-ground responses to trafficking and to
problematic conditions in sex work. It proposes that efforts be refocused on
identifying and reducing instances of exploitive labor practices, which in8
This Article often refers to men who buy sex as johns. Catharine MacKinnon
notes that referring to buyers of sex as johns gives them a common real mans name,
which she believes problematically gives buyers of sex the true privacy of anonymity.
Catharine A. MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, 46 HARV. C.R.-C.L.
L. REV. 271, 282 (2011) [hereinafter Mackinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality]. Different cultures have different slang for male sex buyersin the U.K., they are
called punters and kerb crawlers. Id.; see generally Rosie Campbell & Merl Storr,
Challenging the Kerb Crawler Rehabilitation Programme, 67 FEMINIST REV. 94 (2001)
(discussing the development of the U.K. Kerb Crawler Rehabilitation Programme).
Because john and sex buyer are both common terminology in literature surrounding
the End Demand movement in the U.S., this Article uses both interchangeably.

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clude both exploitive labor and sex work. It also suggests that advocates
focused solely on prostitution should consider the possibility of providing
aid to sex workers and education to sex buyers in an unbiased manner as a
means, albeit unconventional, of reducing the number of exploited women in
the sex trade.
I. FRAMING

THE

DISCUSSION: THE FEMINIST DEBATES

Efforts to end the demand for prostitution are based on an endorsement

of longstanding feminist theories that conflate sex work with trafficking and
view sex work as inherently harmful and exploitive.9 These theories have
been influenced by ongoing feminist debates that have played an important
role in shaping international law.10 These debates can largely be divided into
arguments made by two camps of feminists: abolitionists and pro-work advocates. As Prabha Kotiswaran articulates:
Abolitionists adopting a sexual subordination approach are against
the commodification of sex and view sex work as a paradigmatic
form of violence against women, embodying gender inequality.
For them, sex workers are victims and lack agency in the context
of pervasive institutional violence. Sex work advocates . . . are
agnostic to the commodification of sex per se and, while cognizant
of the circumstances under which women take to it, view sex
workers as agents with some ability to negotiate within the sex
industry. Thus, their emphasis is on protecting and promoting the
rights of sex workers.11
Kotiswaran calls this latter approach the work position.12 This Article advocates against End Demand strategies through the lens of acceptance
of the work position as the best approach to addressing the harms of sex
work while respecting womens agency. However, this Author acknowl9

See infra Part II.

The role of feminist perspectives in shaping international law has been called
Governance Feminism, defined as the incremental but by now quite noticeable installation of feminists and feminist ideas in actual legal-institutional power. Janet Halley,
Prabha Kotiswaran, Hila Shamir & Chantal Thomas, From the International to the Local
in Feminist Legal Responses to Rape, Prostitution/Sex Work, and Sex Trafficking: Four
Studies in Contemporary Governance Feminism, 29 HARV. J.L. & GENDER 335, 340
(2006).
11
PRABHA KOTISWARAN, DANGEROUS SEX, INVISIBLE LABOR: SEX WORK AND THE
LAW IN INDIA 10 (2011). See also Halley et al., supra note 10, at 347 (discussing abolitionist versus individualist or liberal/libertarian approaches that contemplate the possibility that some prostitution is consensual and therefore not slavery and not the result of
trafficking, and consequently . . . are amenable to greater decriminalization or
legalization.).
12
KOTISWARAN, supra note 11, at 10. This Article refers to the adherents of the work
position as pro-work advocates/feminists and work position/approach advocates/
feminists.
10

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edges that elevating the work position as an either-or choice over the abolitionist approach has inherent flaws, among them the risk of
oversimplification.13 Of course, no theory can exist in a vacuum: it [is a]
given that it would be rare to find any of the ideal typical sex work regimes
operating in its pure form, and inconceivable that [International Humanitarian Law] will ever operate as a pure sovereigntist command.14 For this
reason, this Article stops short of advocating specifically for decriminalization in all situations, arguing instead that efforts to reduce exploitive sex
work and trafficking should focus on providing assistance to those traditionally seen as victims instead of focusing on punishing sex buyers.15 In
addition, this Author acknowledges the deeply divisive and illuminating perspectives that can come from personal experience and interaction with trafficking victims, traffickers, sex workers, and sex buyersperspectives that
can also differ widely depending on where and when ones interactions
occurred.16
A. What is Prostitution? Perspectives Behind Different Legal
Frameworks for Sex Work
Legal schemes to regulate sex work have been divided into three major
categories. (1) Complete criminalization criminalizes all aspects of sex
work including penalties for the sale of sex by the sex worker, the purchase
of sex by the john, and third-party involvement by pimps, brothel owners,
and transporters.17 While there do not appear to be any feminist organizations that advocate for this model due to its imposition of penalties on sex
workers themselves,18 most countries and every U.S. state but Nevada follow
13
Id. Kotiswaran uses this language to describe the typical interaction between the
two feminist positions on sex work.
14
Halley et al., supra note 10, at 340 (explaining why Governance Feminism favors
examining complex law-in-action/law-in-the-books contingency instead of solely polarizing points of view).
15
See Part IV.B for an explanation of why this Author does not believe taking a
strong stance on partial versus full decriminalization is particularly helpful in reducing
harm to exploited people.
16
This Author has not yet benefitted from such personal experience in this area and
will save such reflection for future scholarship. Abolitionists have criticized pro-work
feminists for such lack of experience: Probably the most disturbing aspect of the international prostitutes rights movement is the way in which a hierarchy built on race and
class privilege informs its ideology. The overwhelmingly white leadership of this wellfunded movement is comprised of academics and attorneys who dont have to do sex
work . . . . Vednita Carter & Evelina Giobbe, Duet: Prostitution, Racism, and Feminist
Discourse, 10 HASTINGS WOMENS L.J. 4950 (1999).
17
Halley et al., supra note 10, at 338.
18
Id. at 339 (As far as we know, there is no [Governance Feminism] project in sex
trafficking/prostitution to promote complete criminalization); KATHARINE T. BARTLETT
& DEBORAH L. RHODE, GENDER AND LAW: THEORY, DOCTRINE, COMMENTARY 56364
(5th ed. 2010) (Most womens rights advocates and sex workers agree on two points:
criminal penalties for workers are not appropriate, and more strategies are necessary to
ensure their safety.).

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this model,19 with law enforcement typically focused on penalizing sex

workers.20 (2) Complete decriminalization removes all criminal penalties
surrounding the buying and selling of sex21 and sometimes includes regulating aspects of sex work.22 (3) Partial decriminalization, the model increasingly advocated by abolitionists,23 decriminalizes the activities of sex
workers but criminalizes the involvement of others, including the customers.24 This is the model used in Sweden25 and promoted by growing End
Demand efforts.26
Abolitionists argue that prostitution is intrinsically abusive . . . [because it] in and of itself is an abuse of a womans body.27 Abolitionists
claim that prostitution is necessarily physically and mentally damaging:
In prostitution, no woman stays whole. It is impossible to use a
human body in the way womens bodies are used in prostitution
and to have a whole human being at the end of it, or in the middle
of it, or close to the beginning of it . . . . And no woman gets
whole again later, after.28
Abolitionists, such as anti-prostitution activist Melissa Farley, have amassed
and summarized a great deal of research that supports these claims, including studies that demonstrate the following: sexual and physical abuse against
sex workers is common, severe, and widespread;29 sex workers suffer dev-

19

See BARTLETT & RHODE, supra note 18, at 559.

See id. at 560.
21
See Halley et al., supra note 10, at 339.
22
The typical options include labor law, employment law, zoning of sex businesses,
compulsory medical check-ups, licensing of sex workers, etc. Id. However, some sex
workers argue that any regulation of sex work is problematicrestrictions on sex worker
autonomy may lead to lower wages, higher stigma, an increase in unsafe underground
work by sex workers seeking to avoid these side effects, and trafficking by pimps seeking
to exploit unregistered workers. See BARTLETT & RHODE, supra note 18, at 564.
23
See MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at 276
(noting that abolitionists increasingly favor laws criminalizing sex buyers while
decriminalizing sex sellers).
24
See Halley et al., supra note 10, at 338.
25
See infra Part II.B.2.
26
See infra Part III.
27
Andrea Dworkin, Prostitution and Male Supremacy, 1 MICH J. GENDER & L. 1,
23 (1993) (further stating, Let me be clear: I am talking to you about prostitution per
se, without more violence.).
28
Id. at 3.
29
See Melissa Farley,Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart: Prostitution Harms
Women Even if Legalized or Decriminalized, 10 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 1087,
109496 (2004) (citing, inter alia, J. RAYMOND ET AL., A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WOMEN TRAFFICKED IN THE MIGRATION PROCESS 5475 (2002), available at http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=17062; Jody Miller, Gender and Power on
the Streets: Street Prostitution in the Era of Crack Cocaine, 23 J. CONTEMP. ETHNOGRAPHY 427 (1995); Susan Kay Hunter, Prostitution is Cruelty and Abuse to Women and
Children, 1 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 91 (1993) (discussing risks of violence against sex
workers)).

20

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astating effects on their physical and mental health;30 buyers of sex have
heightened violent inclinations and dangerous attitudes toward women;31 and
the vast majority of women enter prostitution as children because of abuse
and rape in their pasts32 and want nothing more than to leave prostitution.33
Abolitionists believe that a prostituted woman34 can never freely give consent for paid sex,35 and that if she believes she has consented, it is because
she has dissociated, or convinced herself that she is acting voluntarily in
order to survive.36 As a result of viewing sex work as inherently harmful,
abolitionists do not believe that decriminalization, even with extensive regulation, can remedy the problems associated with prostitution.37 However,
30
Farley, supra note 29, at 1097; see also id. at 109899, 110405 (citing, inter alia,
J. Potterat et al., Mortality in a Long-term Open Cohort of Prostitute Women, 159 AM. J.
EPIDEMIOLOGY, 778 (2004) (describing increased risk for cancer, sexually transmitted
diseases, HIV, traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder, and other health
problems)); id. at 110509 (describing increased risk for other mental health problems,
including sexual dysfunction and dissociation).
31
See id. at 1102 (citing Suzanne Daley, New Rights for Dutch Prostitutes, but No
Gain, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 12, 2001, www.nytimes.com/2001/08/12/international/12DUTC.
html) (A brothel owner in the Netherlands complained about an ordinance requiring that
brothels have pillows in the rooms: You dont want a pillow in the [brothels] room. Its
a murder weapon. . . . Familiar with how customers treated women in prostitution, this
Dutch pimp understood that johns are regularly murderous toward women.). See also
infra Part II.A.1.
32
See, e.g., MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at
27881 (describing when and why young girls enter prostitution).
33
See, e.g., id. at 28990 (Across cultures, at all levels of economic development,
whether street or house, when asked, What do you need?, the answer of 89% of people
in prostitution is to [l]eave prostitution. It is the most frequently mentioned reply.
They want to leave but feel they cannot or do not know how.).
34
Many abolitionists prefer to refer to sex workers as prostituted women, because
it implies that prostitution is something that is done to a woman against her will. See id.
at 273 (Prostitute, the noun, is seen to misleadingly and denigratingly equate who these
people are with what is being done to them; the past participle verb form, by contrast,
highlights the other people and social forces who are acting upon them.).
35
See, e.g., An Introduction to CATW: Philosophy, COAL. AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN
WOMEN, http://www.catwinternational.org/about/index.php (last visited Jan. 14, 2012)
(All prostitution exploits women, regardless of womens consent.); CATHARINE A.
MACKINNON, SEX EQUALITY 1240 (2d ed. 2007) [hereinafter MACKINNON, SEX EQUALITY] (citing JANICE G. RAYMOND, COAL. AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN, REPORT TO
THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 7 (1995) (money in prostitution merely redefines as prostitution the rape, sexual abuse and battery that [the customer] commits.)).
36
Farley, supra note 29, at 110709 (describing disassociation using the example of
Angie, a pro-sex work advocate who was the self-described poster child for
decriminalization until her repressed memories of sexual abuse surfaced).
37
See, e.g., id. at 1089 (When prostitution is understood as violence, however, unionizing prostituted women makes as little sense as unionizing battered women.); id. at
1094 (It is a cruel lie to suggest that decriminalization or legalization will protect anyone in prostitution.); id. at 110915 (citing, inter alia, Karim et al., Reducing the Risk of
HIV Infection Among South African Sex Workers: Socioeconomic and Gender Barriers,
85 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 1521 (1995) (arguing that public health programs encouraging
condom use among sex workers do not work and may even increase rates of infection by
increasing prostitution)); see also MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality,
supra note 8, at 28384 (arguing that the effect of decriminalization, which is to move
prostitution indoors, does not make it any safer); id. at 286 (criticizing decriminalization

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many anti-prostitution worksespecially those of Melissa Farleyhave

been criticized for their faulty methodology and sensationalism.38 Anti-abolitionist advocate Ronald Weitzer, for example, has called Farley and other
anti-prostitution activists work nonpeer-reviewed, stating that it contains
sweeping generalizations that tend to select or accent the most disturbing instances of abuse and present them as representative and indicative
of intrinsic problems.39 Weitzer also points out that anti-prostitution studies are often subject to selection bias due to the impossibility of random
sampling in surveys of sex workers and buyers, and that anti-prostitution
studies frequently utilize opaque and biased data collection and downplay
findings that do not match their preferred positions.40 Although criticism of
methodology is common in all polarizing debates, it holds particular weight
in this context because abolitionist feminists rely foremost on research demonstrating harms resulting from prostitution as the primary support for their
stance.
Pro-work advocates argue that sex workers enter prostitution for a variety of reasons and that an approach that looks at sex work on a spectrum
from the most involuntary and forceful (such as rape and enslavement) to the
more voluntary (influenced by extreme poverty, lack of other options, or
preference for sex work over other job options available41)better suits the
needs of sex workers.42 Pro-work advocates argue that treating all sex work
for harm reduction because [e]veryone supports less harm to the women. But harm
elimination is not part of the sex work agenda because it is inconsistent with sex for
sale.); id. at 30405 (arguing that decriminalization can make sex work more dangerous
because men who do not want to use condoms and who want to have violent sex will
simply create a market for these practices).
38
See, e.g., Ronald Weitzer, The Mythology of Prostitution: Advocacy Research and
Public Policy, SEX RES. & SOC. POLY 15, 17 (2010) (describing sensationalism and selective use of [a]necdotal horror stories in abolitionist writings).
39
Id. at 18; see also id. at 1822.
40
Id. at 1921; see also Janie A. Chuang, Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution and Antitrafficking Law and Policy, 158 U. PA. L. REV. 1655, 1707
(2010) (describing difficulties with accurate data collection on trafficking because countries and organizations define trafficking differently, some conflating trafficking with
other phenomena, including smuggling, illegal migration, and prostitution.).
41
For an example of an argument that sex work can be voluntary, see MACKINNON,
SEX EQUALITY, supra note 35, at 1266 (citing Melissa Ditmore, Addressing Sex Work as
Labour, in TRAFFICKING AND THE GLOBAL SEX INDUSTRY: NEED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
FRAMEWORK 34 (Geneva, June 2122, 1999) (Sex work is not inherently degrading or a
violation of a womans human rights simply because the work is distasteful to some.
Many people opt for sex work because it is less degrading, better paying, and provides
more freedom than other available options.)).
42
See, e.g., Weitzer, supra note 38, at 16, 26 (2010) (describing rigid abolitionist
views as an oppression paradigm, which depicts prostitution as the epitome of male
domination and exploitation of women regardless of historical period, societal context, or
type of prostitution, and advocating instead for what he calls a polymorphous paradigm, [which] holds that a constellation of occupational arrangements, power relations,
and worker experiences exist within the arena of paid sexual services and performances.); Elizabeth Bernstein, Whats Wrong with Prostitution? Whats Right with Sex
Work? Comparing Markets in Female Sexual Labor, 10 HASTINGS WOMENS L.J. 91,
10217 (1999). Bernstein discusses the wide variety of circumstances and conditions of

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as forced removes womens agency and infantilizes them.43 Although contemporary definitions of prostitution are typically gender-neutral, historically, regulation of prostitution was based on restrictive attitudes regarding
female sexuality, which aimed to prevent promiscuous unchastity.44 Antisex work advocacy has traditional roots in the belief that non-procreative sex
outside of marriage is immoral.45 These beliefs have been enshrined in U.S.
law for over one hundred years.46 Those opposed to criminalization argue
that:
[T]here are no good moral arguments for criminalizing consensual adult commercial sex, and that its punishment is a violation of
the rights of the person. . . . [Criminalization is] an illegitimate
vindication of unjust social hatred and fear of autonomously sexual women and their rights to define and pursue their own vision
of the good.47
Pro-work approach advocates believe that the harmful aspects of sex
work result not from selling sex in and of itself, but instead from external
factors.48 They believe they can minimize those factors by focusing anti-sex
trafficking efforts on locating the victims of truly forced prostitution and by
reducing the stigma against, providing services to, and improving the condisex workers in San Francisco, after having completed eighteen months of fieldwork and
interviews amongst San Francisco prostitutes working at a variety of levels. Id. at 93.
43
See, e.g., GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST TRAFFIC IN WOMEN, COLLATERAL DAMAGE:
THE IMPACT OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING MEASURES ON HUMAN RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD
130 (2007), available at http://www.gaatw.org/Collateral%20Damage_Final/singlefile_
CollateralDamagefinal.pdf [hereinafter GAATW COLLATERAL DAMAGE] (discussing
paternalistic efforts to restrict womens migration to prevent them from being trafficked); see generally David A. J. Richards, Commercial Sex and the Rights of the Person: A Moral Argument for the Decriminalization of Prostitution, 127 U. PA. L. REV.
1195, 1204 (1979) (explaining the roots of and arguing against a moralistic condemnation
of sex work). For an abolitionist response, see MACKINNON, SEX EQUALITY, supra note
35, at 1236 (Work for [prostitutions] abolition is no more insulting to prostitutes than
work to end any other form of discrimination insults victims. On this analysis, prostitution is a practice of gender inequality seldom so named and a violation of human
rights.).
44
See Richards, supra note 43, at 1204.
45
Id. at 121013 (discussing traditional religious views on sex outside of marriage).
46
See id. at 1219. The Court made this stance clear in its opinion in United States v.
Bitty:
[Prostitutes] are in hostility to the idea of the family, as consisting in and springing from the union for life of one man and one woman in the holy estate of
matrimony; the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civilization,
the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent
progress in social and political improvement.
208 U.S. 393, 401 (1908) (internal citation omitted).
47
Richards, supra note 43, at 1279.
48
Weitzer, supra note 42, at 16 (In contrast to the prostitution-as-violence notion,
an alternative, evidence-based perspective would characterize victimization differently
that is, as a factor that varies across time, place, and echelon. Violence is by no means
endemic throughout the sex trade.).

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tions and health of voluntary sex workers.49 Pro-work advocates frequently

reference research that refutes common abolitionist claims.50 Although not
all pro-work advocates call for decriminalization,51 a body of research exists
that supports decriminalization as an effective method for harm reduction.52
Many pro-work advocates argue that, although harms will always exist in
prostitution, efforts to eliminate prostitutionespecially outdoor/street sex
workdo not encourage women to leave sex work. Rather, it pushes the
most desperate women further underground into more dangerous, less controllable situations where harm is even more likely.53
However, it is important to note that anti-abolitionist advocates like
Weitzer are also criticized for not making their views transparent and for
examining sex work from the buyers point of view, which is more sympathetic toward legalization than the point of view of the prostituted woman
herself.54
B. What is Human Trafficking?
As Catharine MacKinnon notes, No one defends trafficking. There is
no pro-sex-trafficking position any more than there is a public pro-slavery
position for labor these days. The only issue is defining these terms so nothing anyone wants to defend is covered.55 Although differing feminist views
on prostitution have indeed helped shape the definition of trafficking in international and U.S. law,56 this issue is far from settled: the conflation of
prostitution and trafficking is still being debated57 and has played an important role in the recent prioritization of End Demand strategies.58

49
See generally Valerie Jenness, From Sex as Sin to Sex as Work: COYOTE and the
Reorganization of Prostitution as a Social Problem, 37 SOC. PROBS. 403 (1990) (discussing the history of pro-sex worker advocacy and positions taken by sex workers on prostitution); see also Elya Maria Durisin & Emily van der Meulen, Why Decriminalize? How
Canadas Municipal and Federal Regulations Increase Sex Workers Vulnerability, 20
CAN. J. WOMEN & L. 289, 310 (2008) (listing recommendations for improving sex workers conditions in Canada).
50
See, e.g., Weitzer, supra note 38, at 1718 (describing research refuting claims that
the majority of women enter prostitution as minors and desperately want to leave the sex
trade).
51
See, e.g., GAATW MOVING BEYOND CATCHPHRASES, supra note 6, at 42.
52
See, e.g., Weitzer, supra note 42, at 2325 (discussing research that finds that
decriminalization makes prostitution safer and helps reduce trafficking).
53
See Part II.B.1 and II.B.2 for discussions of the Canadian and Swedish anti-prostitution laws effects on outdoor sex work.
54
See Melissa Farley, Prostitution Harms Women Even if Indoors: Reply to Weitzer,
11 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 950, 952 (2005) (explaining that Weitzer claims to take a
neutral stance, when in reality, he is pro-indoor prostitution and views prostitution from
the communitys perspective.).
55
MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at 271.
56
See infra Part I.B.1.
57
See infra Part I.B.2.
58
See infra Parts IIIII.

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1. International and U.S. Law Define Trafficking

International, federal, and state laws govern the definition of human
trafficking in the United States.59 The United Nations Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
(Trafficking Protocol),60 to which the United States is a signatory,61 has
the stated purpose of prevent[ing] and combat[ing] trafficking in persons,
paying particular attention to women and children62 and protect[ing] and
assist[ing] the victims of such trafficking, with full respect for their human
rights.63 Trafficking in persons is defined as:
[T]he recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt
of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of
power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving
of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having
control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude
or the removal of organs.64
Consent to be trafficked is considered irrelevant if any of the means set forth
in the definition are used.65
Feminist groups played a large role in shaping this definition, with intense debates taking place over several aspects of the definition.66 Interestingly, social conservatives have also played a role in this debate, siding with
abolitionist feminists and creating an unlikely alliance to fight what they

59
See, e.g., Grace Chang & Kathleen Kim, Reconceptualizing Approaches to Human
Trafficking: New Directions and Perspectives from the Field(s), 3 STAN. J. C.R. & C.L.
317, 326 (2007) (discussing the United Nations Trafficking Protocol and the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)); Laura J. Lederer, Addressing Demand: Why
and How Policymakers Should Utilize Law and Law Enforcement to Target Customers of
Commercial Sexual Exploitation, 23 REGENT U. L. REV. 297, 30005 (2011) (discussing
state laws designed to address human trafficking).
60
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime, G.A. Res. 55/25 (II), Annex, U.N. GAOR, 55th Sess. Supp. No. 49
(Vol. I), UN Doc. A/45/49, at 53 (Dec. 25, 2003) [hereinafter Trafficking Protocol].
61
Signatories to U.N. Trafficking Protocol, U.N. OFFICE ON DRUGS & CRIME, http://
www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/countrylist-traffickingprotocol.html (last visited
Jan. 14, 2012).
62
Trafficking Protocol, supra note 60, at Art. 2(a).
63
Id. at Art. 2(b).
64
Id. at Art. 3(a).
65
See id. at Art. 3(b).
66
See ANNE T. GALLAGHER, THE INTERNATIONAL LAW OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
2542 (2010) (discussing the debates over the Trafficking Protocols definitions).

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label human trafficking.67 United States-based conservative and religious

organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, the Campus Crusade for
Christ, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and the Institute on
Religion and Democracy were active alongside abolitionist feminists during
the debates over the Trafficking Protocol and the U.S. Trafficking Victim
Protection Act (TVPA).68 This alliance has been limited to addressing sex
trafficking and prostitution; it does not extend to other forms of trafficking
or exploitation.69
According to Gallagher, while some nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) argued that any distinction between forced and voluntary prostitution was false and morally unacceptable70 and that an acknowledgement
that trafficking could occur irrespective of the consent of the person71
should be included, others countered that non-coerced adult prostitution was
possible and that the inclusion of means in the definition preserved this distinction.72 Advocates also differed over whether the end purposes of trafficking should include a specific reference to prostitution, with those in
favor calling for explicit mention that would confirm international legal
opposition to all prostitution.73 Their opponents were concerned that such
mention would divert important attention and resources away from real trafficking problems and toward efforts to abolish all forms of prostitution, including voluntary sex work.74 Gallagher argues that the United Nations
definitions clumsy handling of the consent issue has generated considerable confusion,75 and its reference to prostitution refrains from taking a clear
stance on whether voluntary sex work is possible.76 The Trafficking Protocols definition was initially hailed as a victory for abolitionists and a defeat
for pro-work advocates.77 But, both sides have since claimed that the lack of
clarity in the Trafficking Protocols definition should be interpreted as
favorable to their position: advocates for sex worker rights argue that the
definition should not include prostitution that is not forced,78 while abolition-

67
Jacqueline Berman, The Left, the Right, and the Prostitute: The Making of U.S.
Antitrafficking in Persons Policy, 14 TUL. J. INTL & COMP. L. 269, 272 (2006).
68
See Halley et al., supra note 10, at 357 (discussing conservative and religious
groups role in the trafficking debates).
69
See Berman, supra note 67, at 272; see generally id. for a comprehensive analysis
of how social conservatives and abolitionist feminists have worked together on antitrafficking policy in the United States.
70
GALLAGHER, supra note 66, at 26.
71
Id. at 27.
72
See id.
73
Id.
74
See id.
75
Id. at 28.
76
See id. at 29. The travaux preparatoires to the Trafficking Protocol clarifies that it
addresses the issue of prostitution only in the context of trafficking and is not meant to
prejudice how state parties address sex work in their domestic laws. Id.
77
See id. at 28.
78
See, e.g., GAATW COLLATERAL DAMAGE, supra note 43, at 13:

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ists claim that the definition includes all prostitution due to prostitutions
inherently coercive nature.79
According to Gallagher, the U.S. TVPA not only clarified what the U.S.
considers to be trafficking, but also helped set the tone for the international
definition of trafficking.80 Signed into law two months before the Trafficking Protocol,81 the TVPA applies only to severe forms of trafficking,
which it defines as:
(A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by
force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
(B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force,
fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.82
Sex trafficking is further defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial
sex act.83
Notably different than the Trafficking Protocol, the TVPA does not require the crossing of an international border,84 meaning that for the purposes
of sex trafficking in the U.S., a person who forces anyone into prostitution
regardless of whether the victim is a citizen or a migrantcan be prosecuted.85 In addition to establishing the criminal law under which traffickers

[E]ven in countries which have ratified the UN Trafficking Protocol, either the
law or instructions given to law enforcement officials imply that recruitment into
sex work is generally tantamount to traffickingeven when it does not involve
any acts of coercion or deception. . . . As the UN Trafficking Protocol does not
repeat the explicit condemnation of prostitution contained in the earlier UN Suppression of Traffic Convention, or suggest that prostitution should be stopped, it
seems reasonable to suppose that sex workers should suffer less ill-effect from
measures taken to implement the UN Trafficking Protocol than from measures
taken under the terms of earlier international agreements. However, there is little
evidence so far that this is the case.
79
See, e.g., MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at
299300 (arguing that the inherent aspects of prostitution necessarily meet the means
requirements of the Trafficking Protocols definition of trafficking).
80
GALLAGHER, supra note 66, at 22 (While a number of governments were debating
and passing trafficking legislation throughout the 1990s, it was the United States that had
the greatest single impact on the evolution of an international consensus on the definition
of trafficking.).
81
See id. at 23.
82
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, 22 U.S.C. 7101
(2000), 103(8)(a)(b).
83
Id. 103(9).
84
See GALLAGHER, supra note 66, at 23.
85
For example, the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report uses Victims Stories to
illustrate the many forms of trafficking and the wide variety of places in which they
occur. The story of Alissa demonstrates how the TVPAs trafficking definition can be
applied to citizens and does not require movement of the victim:

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may be prosecuted in the U.S.,86 the TVPA also establishes requirements for
victim assistance.87
Additionally, the TVPA creates an annual reporting system under which
the U.S. Department of State evaluates whether other countries meet the
TVPAs minimum standards for eliminating trafficking,88 a system that has
functioned largely as a shaming mechanism and has had a noticeable
(though not necessarily beneficial) effect on the dialogue around policies in
those countries receiving problematic evaluations.89
2. The Problem with Conflating Prostitution and Trafficking
Many work approach and human rights advocates take the position that
the Trafficking Protocol and TVPAs focus on sex trafficking conflates trafficking with prostitution90 and that this has produced a chilling effect on
the public discourse around sex work.91 Trafficking and prostitution are conflated when efforts to end human trafficking focus almost entirely on (1) sex
trafficking and (2) ending prostitution. This conflation does not adequately
acknowledge trafficking for other purposes (like labor exploitation) or the
possibility of non-coerced sex work.92 Abolitionists like MacKinnon believe
Alissa, 16, met an older man at a convenience store in Dallas and after a few dates
accepted his invitation to move in with him. But soon Alissas new boyfriend
convinced her to be an escort for him, accompanying men on dates and having
sex with them for money. . . . He rented hotel rooms around Dallas and forced
Alissa to have sex with men who responded to the ads. The man, who kept an
assault rifle in the closet of his apartment, threatened Alissa and physically assaulted her on multiple occasions. The man later pled guilty to trafficking Alissa.
Victims Stories: Trafficking In Persons Report, U.S. DEPT OF STATE (2011), http://www.
state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/164225.htm [hereinafter TIP Victims Stories] (last visited
Mar. 4, 2012).
86
See 22 U.S.C. 7101, 112.
87
See id. 107.
88
See id. 104, 108.
89
See Sabrina Feve & Christina Finzel, Recent Development, Trafficking of People,
38 HARV. J. ON LEGIS. 279, 287 (2001) (describing the Trafficking In Persons Country
Reports as shame sanctions); GALLAGHER, supra note 66, at 485 (identifying the indisputable contribution that the TIP Reports have made on the international dialogue
about trafficking, but noting that some of these responses have been highly problematic
in human rights terms, a side effect that is not explored or even acknowledged in the U.S.
Department of States reports themselves.).
90
See LENORA M. LAPIDUS, NAMITA LUTHRA & EMILY J. MARTIN, THE RIGHTS OF
WOMEN: THE AUTHORITATIVE ACLU GUIDE TO WOMENS RIGHTS 9495 (Eve Carey ed.,
4th ed. 2009) (offering a simplistic differentiation between sex trafficking and prostitution under the TVPA: [S]ex trafficking is any commercial sex act induced by force,
fraud, or coercion. Prostitution, however, is any commercial sex act that an individual
chooses to perform.); Chuang, supra note 40, at 1079 (discussing the problematic results of the current conflation between trafficking and prostitution).
91
Halley et al., supra note 10, at 370.
92
See generally LIN LEAN LIM, TRAFFICKING, DEMAND AND THE SEX MARKET (2007),
available at http://lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/334%20Lin%20Lean%20Lim%20
TraffickingDemand%20Sex%20market.pdf (discussing the complex relationship between
trafficking and prostitution and the problems with their conflation).

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that efforts to end trafficking and prostitution cannot be separated.93 Those

advocating for a human rights approach, however, believe that equating trafficking and prostitution is problematic because [p]rostitution per se as the
exclusive purpose of trafficking is an untenable definition as not all victims
are prostitutes and nor have all the prostitutes been trafficked.94 This Article embraces a more nuanced approach to examining sex work and trafficking in an effort to best address the non-monolithic character of the sex
industry and the multiplicity of players and diversity of harms and benefits.95
Lin Lean Lim of the International Labor Organization (ILO) identifies
two human rights approaches to addressing trafficking and sex work: (1)
viewing migration for sex work as existing on a spectrum encompassing a
variety of circumstances and eliminating the causes of exploitive trafficking:
The challenge we face is to address the real root causes of traffickingthe reasons why people migrate and are trafficked and the
reasons why other people are able to traffic them. It is not enough
merely to regulate the sex market; we need to address the areas of
vulnerability. At the same time, the relatedand perhaps more
difficultchallenge is to place the respect for and protection of
human rights at the centre of all measures to combat trafficking
and to disentangle human rights concerns from morality biases
concerning prostitution.96
And; (2) providing effective aid to sex workers: Even for those prostitutes
who have not been trafficked, the priority concerns should still be for the
protection of their human and labour rights, including safe and healthy

93
See, e.g., MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at
299300:
[A] strategic concession of the sex work approach has been to criticize trafficking while defending prostitution. But what is trafficking? . . . [It] is transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of a human being for purposes of sexual
exploitation: it is straight-up pimping. . . . The sine qua non of trafficking is thus
neither border crossing nor severe violence. It is third-party involvement. . . . You
cannot traffic yourself, which separates it from prostitution. Sexual exploitation
can also be slavery. Right there, in the international definition, is what is sometimes criticized as a conflation of slavery with trafficking. You cannot enslave
yourself either.
94
LIM, supra note 92, at 1.
95
See Halley et al., supra note 10, at 407:
[A Governance Feminism approach] allows the wide range of incentives (including those of the women themselves) to come into view. . . . As a methodology,
such an analysis can supply a fresh new realist and pragmatic vision of the regulation of sex work; it can induce [governance feminists] to break away from the
limited view of law as capable of either prohibition or permission . . . and enable a
complex, nuanced perception of choice, agency, and consent.
96
LIM, supra note 92, at 1.

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working conditions, freedom of association and the right to organize, access

to health care and social protection, etc.97
In addition, human rights advocates are identifying a growing need to
address exploitive trafficking for other purposes, especially for labor and
domestic work.98 Experts have estimated that at least one-third of those
trafficked are for economic purposes other than sexual exploitation.99 Although the U.S. State Department has recently recognized the need to focus
more attention on non-sex trafficking,100 this Article argues that more should
be done to redirect resources to these instances of migrant worker abuse that
have thus far largely been ignored.101
II. THE RISE

OF

END DEMAND LEGAL REFORM

Several kinds of partial decriminalization frameworks and programs exist internationally that focus, in varying degrees, on shaming and punishing
johns in an effort to discourage them from buying sex. These efforts often
refer to the pressing need to end demand for prostitution as the best way to
combat human trafficking: [T]he male demand for . . . prostitution is the
most immediate cause of the expansion of the sex industry without which it
would be highly unprofitable for pimps and traffickers to seek out a supply
of women. It is indisputable that a prostitution market without male consumers would go broke.102 Abolitionists makeand work approach advocates questionthese assumptions that underlie end demand efforts.
A. What is Demand?
1. Who Buys Sex?
Numerous studies have been completed in the last decade, both in the
U.S. and abroad, in an attempt to understand which men buy sex and why;
97

Id. at 9.
See id. at 12:
There is ample evidence of trafficking into construction work, agriculture and
food processing, fishing, domestic and care work, sweatshops in the manufacturing industry, hotels and hospitality and for the purposes of organized begging, the
exploitation of petty crime and benefit fraud. In activities or sectors prone to
exploitation, the demand is for employees who are invisible, unprotected, excluded, vulnerable and disempowered.
99
Id. at 2.
100
See, e.g., TIP Victims Stories, supra note 85 (including, out of fourteen total examples of international trafficking, eight stories about labor trafficking).
101
See infra Part IV for discussion of recommendations for the U.S. to redirect the
focus of trafficking enforcement on coercive labor abuses.
102
COAL. AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN, PRIMER ON THE MALE DEMAND FOR
PROSTITUTION 1516 (Ilvi Joe-Cannon

ed., 2006), available at http://action.web.ca/home/

catw/attach/PRIMER.pdf [hereinafter CATW, PRIMER ON THE MALE DEMAND FOR
PROSTITUTION] .
98

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these studies agree that men across all ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds buy sex.103 Estimates of how many men have bought sex vary dramatically based on geographic area and sample size104in some countries it
may be a small minority, while in other countries, up to two-thirds of men
have paid for sex at some point in their lives.105 Abolitionists like Farley cite
to studies demonstrating that men who buy sex are dangerous and violent.106
Not surprisingly, as is the case with research demonstrating harms to sex
workers, a conflicting body of research also exists that instead portrays johns
as buying sex for a variety of non-violent reasons.107 It is important to note
that most of the research on johns suffers from data limitations, since studies
of johns who voluntarily participate or who have been identified through
criminal sanctions may not be entirely truthful or representative of sex buyers at large.108
Research on demand for sex embraced by abolitionists portrays johns
as abnormal.109 They are more likely to be criminals,110 commit rape more
often,111 and use pornography more often.112 Johns are also unmoved by the
103
See, e.g., Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Bellwether Citizens: The Regulation of Male
Clients of Sex Workers, 37 J.L. & SOCY 145, 15153 (2010) (describing the wide variety
of characteristics that sex buyers possess).
104
See, e.g., id. at 15152 (discussing the variety in percentage of men who have
purchased sex across different geographic locations); BRIDGET ANDERSON & JULIA
OCONNELL DAVIDSON, SAVE THE CHILDREN, TRAFFICKINGA DEMAND LED PROBLEM?
A MULTI-COUNTRY PILOT STUDY 29 (2002) (noting a good deal of variation across
countries and regions in the percentage of men who admit to having paid for sex).
105
See ANDERSON & OCONNELL DAVIDSON, supra note 104, at 29.
106
See generally MELISSA FARLEY ET AL., PROSTITUTION RESEARCH & EDUCATION,
COMPARING SEX BUYERS WITH MEN WHO DONT BUY SEX (2011), available at http://
www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdf/Farleyetal2011ComparingSexBuyers.pdf [hereinafter
FARLEY ET AL., COMPARING SEX BUYERS] (comparing surveys of 101 men who buy sex
with 100 who do not and concluding that sex buyers have overall more violent tendencies); JAN MACLEOD ET AL., WOMENS SUPPORT PROJECT, CHALLENGING MENS DEMAND
FOR PROSTITUTION IN SCOTLAND (2008), available at http://www.prostitutionresearch.
com/ChallengingDemandScotland.pdf (concluding from surveys of 100 men who buy sex
that they have overall more violent tendencies).
107
See ANDERSON & OCONNELL DAVIDSON, supra note 104, at 2930 (discussing
non-violent reasons for buying sex).
108
See, e.g., Steven Sawyer et al., Attitudes Towards Prostitution Among MalesA
Consumers Report, 20 CURRENT PSYCHOL. 363, 375 (20012002) (These data are
self-report data and may be subject to response bias, particularly since the men surveyed
had been arrested and under legal scrutiny.); John Lowman & Chris Atchison, Men Who
Buy Sex: A Survey in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, 43 CAN. REV. SOC. &
ANTHROPOLOGY 281, 290 (2006) (Needless to say, we have no way of knowing if or
how much our respondents underreported their own violent behaviour.).
109
See FARLEY ET AL., COMPARING SEX BUYERS, supra note 106, at 4 (The common
myth that any man might buy sex (i.e., that a sex buyer is a random everyman, an
anonymous male who deserves the common name, john) [is] not supported.).
110
See, e.g., id. at 4 (discussing self-reported criminal status).
111
See, e.g., id. (discussing self-reported sexually coercive behavior by sex buyers);
MACLEOD ET AL., supra note 106, at 14 (discussing higher acceptance of rape myths
among sex buyers, including that once he pays for it, the customer is entitled to do
whatever he wants to the woman he buys.).
112
See, e.g., FARLEY ET AL., COMPARING SEX BUYERS, supra note 106, at 4 (discussing increased pornography use as problematic because [o]ver time, as a result of their

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plight of the prostitutes they buy sex from, acknowledging but not caring
that these women are homeless, drug-addicted, abused, and trafficked.113
This research portrays sex buyers as having damaging attitudes toward women, including the beliefs that they are entitled to have constant access to
sex114 and that pleasure comes from dominating women.115
In contrast, other research identifies that while some sex buyers may
suffer from psychological issues, the majority do not.116 Instances of violence by johns against sex workers may be limited in scope to a relatively
small proportion of very violent men who prey predominately on street sex
workers.117 Clients of sex workers may purchase sex for a wide variety of
reasons: because they are disabled,118 travelers,119 addicted to sex,120 or have
the desire for a particular kind of sexual experience; the desire for particular kinds of sexual partners; the desire for control over when and how to
have sex . . . [or are] in search of companionship and what they take to be
intimacy.121 There may be a link between the social constructs of masculine identity and sex work that leads men to buy sex when they feel their

prostitution and pornography use, sex buyers reported that their sexual preferences
changed such that they sought more sadomasochistic and anal sex.); MACLEOD ET AL.,
supra note 106, at 16 (One interpretation of this finding is that more frequent use of
pornography supports and stimulates men in their use of women in prostitution.).
113
See, e.g., CHICAGO COAL. FOR THE HOMELESS, BUYING SEX: A SURVEY OF MEN IN
CHICAGO 7 (May 2004), available at http://www.enddemandillinois.org/sites/default/
files/Buying_Sex.pdf (Large numbers of the men appeared indifferent to the plight of
the women from whom they are purchasing sex-acts.); FARLEY ET AL., COMPARING SEX
BUYERS, supra note 106, at 4 (Sex buyers had significantly less empathy for prostituted
women . . . .); id. at 5 (Sex buyers observed that a majority of women are lured,
tricked, or trafficked into prostitution. Many of the men had an awareness of the economic coercion and the lack of alternatives in womens entry into prostitution.).
114
See, e.g., MACLEOD ET AL., supra note 106, at 19; RACHEL DURCHSLAG & SAMIR
GOSWAMI, CHICAGO ALLIANCE AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION, DECONSTRUCTING THE
DEMAND FOR PROSTITUTION: PRELIMINARY INSIGHTS FROM INTERVIEWS WITH CHICAGO
MEN WHO PURCHASE SEX 18 (2008), available at http://www.sapromise.org/pdfs/deconstructing.pdf (Some interviewees believed that being born male provided them the right
to buy sex. When asked why he purchases sex, one interviewee looked the interviewer in
the eye and responded Because I can. ).
115
See, e.g., MACLEOD ET AL., supra note 106, at 20; DURCHSLAG & GOSWAMI, supra
note 114, at 18 (Men who expressed feeling powerless in their own lives described the
feelings of power they acquired when they bought sex.).
116
See Sawyer et al., supra note 108, at 37374 (identifying one-third of men studied
as having significant psychopathology).
117
Lowman & Atchison, supra note 108, at 293.
118
See Brooks-Gordon, supra note 103, at 153 (describing disabled clients).
119
See ANDERSON & OCONNELL DAVIDSON, supra note 104, at 29 (noting that
those who travel either for business or leisure are also more likely to buy sex).
120
See DURCHSLAG & GOSWAMI, supra note 114, at 2 (83% [of men surveyed]
considered purchasing sex an addiction [for them]).
121
ANDERSON & OCONNELL DAVIDSON, supra note 104, at 29; see also DURCHSLAG
& GOSWAMI, supra note 114, at 2 (discussing study results showing that men may
purchase sex in order to obtain sexual acts that they either typically feel uncomfortable
asking for or their regular partner will not perform, and because they seek to avoid
commitment).

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masculinity is threatened.122 It is unlikely that many johns specifically seek

out sex with trafficked women, as it is typically impossible for them to tell
whether a sex worker is selling sexual services voluntarily or is being
coerced.123
At the very least, the variety in outcomes of studies of sex buyers demonstrates that no accurate profile of a typical john exists. Efforts to end the
harms of prostitution by shaming and punishing men who buy sex therefore
suffer from their reliance on the faulty premise that allor at least the majorityof johns are deviants who either are complicit in or derive pleasure
from the exploitation of women.
2. Do Sex Buyers Drive Sex Trafficking?
Many abolitionists discuss End Demand efforts as obvious, logical outgrowths of efforts to end human trafficking. In their view, sex trafficking
specificallyand therefore the majority of human traffickingcould not
exist without a market for sex work, which in turn could not exist without
male demand for sex with prostitutes.124 These advocates make simplistic
statements about supply and demand to support their claims:
Without the demand for commercial sex, there would be no market
forces producing and sustaining the roles of pimps and traffickers
as distributors, nor would there be a force driving the production
of a supply of people to be sexually exploited. Supply and distribution are symptoms; demand is the cause.125
122
See ANDERSON & OCONNELL DAVIDSON, supra note 104, at 29. This may also be
linked to the social devaluation of women: [I]n the sense that the more a society devalues femininity, the more important it is for men to distance themselves from the feminine by asserting their masculinity. Id.
123
Id. at 31 (discussing how even within a single setting, it is often possible to buy
sex from both free and trafficked/unfree sex workers and that clients will not necessarily know the difference between them); see also LIM, supra note 90, at 4 (noting that
the majority of johns do not specifically demand sex with trafficked women and cannot
identify which women are trafficked and which are not).
124
See, e.g., MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at
28182 (I speak here of the demand . . . . [Johns] are why this industry exists. Because
of johns . . . women are in prostitution.); Kenneth Franzblau, What Governmental Policies or Practices Enable the Actions of Those Who Create Demand?, in DEMAND DYNAMICS: THE FORCES OF DEMAND IN GLOBAL SEX TRAFFICKING 67, 72 (Morrison Torrey
ed., 2004) (I fear that if we do not educate boys about the violence of prostitution and
pornography and how women are trafficked to satisfy the demand they create, we will
never defeat the form of slavery that is human trafficking.); DONNA M. HUGHES, BEST
PRACTICES TO ADDRESS THE DEMAND SIDE OF SEX TRAFFICKING 6 (2004) (The new
focus on the demand requires that we consider mens responsibility for the existence and
continuation of prostitution, and how they create the demand for women and children to
be used in prostitution.).
125
ABT ASSOCS. INC., DEVELOPING A NATIONAL ACTION PLAN FOR ELIMINATING
SEX TRAFFICKING 515 (2010), available at http://www.demandabolition.org/wp-content/
uploads/2011/07/2000_abtnatactplan.pdf [hereinafter ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION
PLAN] .

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Those who advocate for the End Demand strategy see increased law enforcement and rehabilitation programs for johns as the most effective method to
stop both prostitution and sex trafficking.126
A more nuanced view of trafficking rejects the economic supply and
demand model as applying to this complex problem. Human rights advocates find that a complex set of factors, not just male demand for sex, drives
sex trafficking.127 In the trafficking context, demand and supply factors are
closely intertwined,128 with strong supply-side factors playing a role. Demand may be fueled by an abundant supply of vulnerable women and girls
whose services and labour can be exploited.129 Due to poverty, chronic
unemployment, discrimination and inequality, these women may migrate
voluntarily, be trafficked involuntarily, or experience a combination of both
voluntary decisions and coercive circumstances that lead them to work in
abusive situations.130 Ignoring supply-side factors commodifies workers and
ignores the very real fact that trafficked persons, migrants and workers are
people who are trying to access labour and migration opportunities for themselves and their families, and who often try to resist or escape exploitative
situations.131
Demand-side factors are also more complex than just desire of the men
who buy sex. Demand in the context of trafficking is an ideologically
loaded term for which there is no precise agreed upon definition and understanding.132 Traffickers and some pimps desire for women who they can
exploitvictims who do not require wages, safe working conditions, or the
ability to choose their clientsmay more significantly contribute to the demand for trafficked women.133 Criminalization of sex work, as opposed to
decreasing demand, may create a stronger underground market that enables
trafficking:
The highly organized institutional structures, the networks of dependencies, the widespread linkages with many other types of le126
See Iris Yen, Comment, Of Vice & Men: A New Approach to Eradicating Sex
Trafficking By Reducing Male Demand Through Education Programs and Abolitionist
Legislation, 98 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 653, 686 (2008) (noting that because going
after actual sex traffickers is too difficult, the most effective way to drive immediate and
long-term change is to apply pressure on the weak link in the sex trafficking chain: the
male demand.); see generally Lederer, supra note 59 (discussing why and how policymakers should utilize law enforcement to target customers of sex workers).
127
See generally LIM, supra note 92 (discussing the need to understand the complex
factors that affect the demand side of trafficking and the sex market and explaining that
trafficking cannot simply be eliminated by controlling the demand side).
128
Id. at 3.
129
Id. at 34.
130
See id. (explaining the spectrum of conditions contributing to and inherent in trafficking and migration).
131
GAATW MOVING BEYOND CATCHPHRASES, supra note 6, at 16.
132
LIM, supra note 92, at 3.
133
See id. at 4 (discussing the much more direct role in trafficking of employers
and third parties).

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gitimate economic activities, [and] the many vested interests . . .

are not easy to dismantle. The powerful commercial and sometimes political as well as criminal elements will not willingly give
up this lucrative line of business. Clamping down on some segments of the sex market may only lead to less visible and harderto-regulate activities. Research has shown that the market can
adapt and adjust and that it is increasingly varied and
sophisticated.134
Despite this lack of certainty that ending demand for sex work is possible, desirable, or effective in reducing trafficking, an increasingly strong
movement to utilize End Demand strategies is mobilizing, especially in the
United States.135
B. Legal Frameworks and Programs that Punish Demand
Several countries have implemented legal frameworks that have served
as important models encouraging and popularizing End Demand efforts in
the U.S. in recent years, despite the lack of empirical evidence suggesting
that they are effective and despite the growing protests from sex workers and
human rights advocates that these policies harm the very women they are
designed to help.136
1. Legal Frameworks Embracing End Demand Efforts Without
Criminalizing the Actual Buying and Selling of Sex
Canada and the United Kingdom are two countries in which a vigorous
debate about End Demand policies exists and in which prostitution is technically legal, though many of the circumstances surrounding prostitution
such as brothel ownership and solicitingare not.137 In these countries, enforcement of laws prohibiting the activities ancillary to prostitution can be
used as a proxy for explicit anti-prostitution laws in order to punish sex
workers and johns.138
In Canada, although the actual buying and selling of sex is not illegal,
several sections of the federal Criminal Code regulate sex work activities,
including the following: bawdy-house or anti-brothel provisions which
134

Id. at 8.
See infra Part III.
136
See infra Part III.
137
See 100 Countries and their Prostitution Policies, PROCON.ORG, http://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000772 (last visited Jan. 16, 2012) (noting that in addition to the U.K. and Canada, countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and
Finland have legal prostitution but also have laws prohibiting activities surrounding
prostitution).
138
See, e.g., Durisin & van der Meulen, supra note 49, at 29596 (discussing how
Canadas laws are used against street-based sex workers); Brooks-Gordon, supra note
103, at 14650 (discussing how the U.K.s laws are used against clients).
135

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criminalize the habitual use of a fixed location (including a home or any

other indoor location) for engaging in prostitution;139 procuring or pimping laws that criminalize third parties who influence, support, or live off the
income of a sex worker;140 and a communicating law which prohibits
stopping a person or a car for solicitation as well as all other conversations
in a public place (or place open to public view) for the purposes of initiating
prostitution.141 Section 213 of the Criminal Code, the communicating law,
has been the most utilized, representing more than 90% of all prostitutionrelated offenses reported by police since the laws passage in 1985.142 Although arrests under the communicating law have been fairly gender-equal,
conviction rates and sentencing have not been: 68% of women charged have
been found guilty, while 70% of charges against men have been stayed or
withdrawn; men have been far more likely to be penalized with fines, while
women have been more likely to be given prison sentences.143
Canadian sex worker organizations argue that the existence and enforcement of the communicating law and the other sections of the Criminal
Code are not only disproportionate and unfair, but also make their work
more dangerous.144 Advocating for the decriminalization of buying and selling sex,145 sex worker organizations point to the negative effects that even
partial criminalization can have on sex workers: it makes their work less safe
by isolating them and therefore makes it difficult for them to evaluate clients
before agreeing to have sex;146 it leads to less police protection from abusive
clients and more harassment from police officers themselves;147 and it
removes sex workers ability to negotiate effectively for safe sex in a safe
environment.148 Pro-work advocates argue that the best way to aid sex work139

See Canada Criminal Code, C-46 210211 (Can.).

See id. 212.
141
See id. 213.
142
See ART HANGER & JOHN MALONEY, CAN. HOUSE OF COMMONS, STANDING
COMM. ON JUSTICE & HUMAN RIGHTS & SUBCOMM. ON SOLICITATION LAWS, THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE: A STUDY OF CANADAS CRIMINAL PROSTITUTION LAWS 52 (2006),
available at http://www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/SSLR-REPORT-06E.pdf.
143
See id. at 5253.
144
See generally PIVOT LEGAL SOCY SEX WORK SUBCOMM., VOICES FOR DIGNITY: A
CALL TO END THE HARMS CAUSED BY CANADAS SEX TRADE LAWS (2004), available at
http://www.plri.org/sites/plri.org/files/Voices_for_dignity.pdf [hereinafter PIVOT, VOICES
FOR DIGNITY] (discussing how the Criminal Code unfairly targets sex workers and explaining ways that partial criminalization makes sex work more dangerous for sex workers); Durisin & van der Meulen, supra note 49 (discussing how the Canadian Criminal
Code increases sex worker vulnerability).
145
See PIVOT, VOICES FOR DIGNITY, supra note 144, at 2.
146
See id. at 17 (discussing how the communicating laws require sex workers to
make arrangements with clients quickly without evaluating them for problematic signs);
HANGER & MALONEY, supra note 142, at 6265 (discussing how isolation leads to more
interaction with bad dates and other aggressors and an inability to assess clients).
147
PIVOT, VOICES FOR DIGNITY, supra note 144, at 1718, 2426 (discussing distrust
of, negative experiences with, and harassment by police leading sex workers to less frequently report violent incidents).
148
See id. at 19 (discussing how legal, indoor prostitution would enable sex workers
to better negotiate for condom use); HANGER & MALONEY, supra note 142, at 6566
140

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ers is not to target all of their clients,149 but to protect sex workers from
exploitation, violence and extortion by pimps150 and those clients who are
violent,151 and to:
[increase] access to fundamental benefits and services. Poverty,
inadequate housing, violence, poor health, addiction and [corrupt]
law enforcement are major areas of concern. There is an urgent
need for policy change in each of these areas as part of a comprehensive approach to improving the lives of sex workers and ensuring alternatives for those who wish to leave this occupation.152
Some Canadian sex workers also believe anti-prostitution laws are overly
moralistic, and they reject being seen as victims.153 They believe that antiprostitution stigma exposes them to violence and discrimination,154 and they
advocate for public education and law reform to reduce its negative
effects.155
Advocates for decriminalization in Canada have recently won at least a
temporary victory: the Ontario Superior Court ruled in 2010 in Bedford v.
Canada that the bawdyhouse and communicating laws, as well as the restrictions on living on the avails of sex work, violate three Sections of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and FreedomsSections 1 (guarantees of certain freedoms within reasonable limits), 2(b) (freedom of expression), and 7
(right to life, liberty, and security)because they materially contribute to
dangers for sex workers.156 Although this opinion has been stayed pending
the outcome of its appeal,157 it is important because it recognizes that the
constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in the
context of the effect those laws have on sex workers and that in a just
society a government is not entitled to jeopardize the health and physical
safety of sex workers for the sake of reducing public nuisance.158 Another
challenge to the Canadian Criminal Codes provisions on prostitution was
(discussing how bawdy-house provisions keep sex workers from working in secure
environments).
149
See PIVOT, VOICES FOR DIGNITY, supra note 144, at 12 (expressing a desire for
clients not to be prosecuted).
150
Id. at 10.
151
See id. at 12 (expressing a desire to be protected from those clients who are violent and exploitive).
152
Id. at 2.
153
See HANGER & MALONEY, supra note 142, at 31 (discussing sex worker attitudes
toward their work).
154
See id. at 67 (discussing sex worker perceptions of their work).
155
See PIVOT LEGAL SOCY, BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: SEX WORK, HUMAN
RIGHTS & A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR LAW REFORM 22224 (2006), available at http://
www.pivotlegal.org/sites/pivotlegal.org/files/BeyondDecrimLongReport.pdf (discussing
a call to action to reduce stigma against sex workers).
156
Bedford v. Canada, [2010] O.J. No. 4057 (Can. Ont. Sup. Ct.) (QL).
157
See Sam Pazzano, Anti-hooker laws still stand. . .for now, TORONTO SUN, June 17,
2011, http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/17/prostitution-still-illegalfor-now.
158
Elaine Craig, Sex Work By Law: Bedfords Impact on Municipal Approaches to
Regulating the Sex Trade, 16 REV. CONST. STUD. 97, 97 (2011).

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appealed based on standing issues to the Supreme Court of Canada159 where

it was heard in January 2012, and judgment was pending as of the publication of this Article.160
Abolitionists in Canada, however, advocate for End Demand strategies
including the Swedish model, which would further criminalize buying sex161
and increase the use of john school education programs for sex buyers.162
One vocal advocate of harsh criminal penalties for johns is Parliament Member Joy Smith, who calls for increased focus on tackling the demand for the
purchase of commercial sex.163 The Womens Coalition for the Abolition of
Prostitution (WCAP), an umbrella group of interveners in the Bedford
case, also filed a factum encouraging selling sex to be fully decriminalized
and buying sex to be fully criminalized.164 The WCAP makes the typical
simplistic arguments that sex buyers fuel a demand for trafficking: It is not
possible to completely separate trafficking from domestic prostitution. Trafficking into and within Canada is encouraged by the domestic demand for
prostitution.165 The 2011 Miss Canada, Tara Teng, even launched an abolitionist cross-country tour called Ignite the Road to Justice,166 which has
circulated a petition stating, the demand for commercial sex with women
and children is the root cause for prostitution and trafficking for sexual purposes and has called for criminalization of buying and decriminalization of
selling sex as the solution to end trafficking.167
In the United Kingdom, a similar fight between pro-work advocates and
abolitionists has occurred. Although buying and selling sex in the United
Kingdom are legal, activities such as soliciting and kerb-crawling (the act
of searching for and picking up a sex worker in car) are not.168 The Policing
and Crime Bill of 2009 also made it illegal to pay for services from a prostitute whom a third party has subjected to force, threats, coercion, or decep159
See Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence Socy v. Atty Gen.
(Canada), 2008 B.C.S.C. 1726 (Can.) (standing denied); Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence Socy v. Canada (Atty Gen.), 2011 B.C.C.A. 515 (Can.)
(standing granted on appeal); Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence
Socy v. Atty. Gen., 2011 SCC 19610 (Can.) (appeal to Supreme Court granted).
160
See Scheduled Hearings, SUPREME COURT OF CAN., http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/
case-dossier/cms-sgd/hear-aud-eng.aspx?ya=2012&ses=02&sr=Search (last visited
Mar. 26, 2012).
161
See infra Part II.B.2.
162
See infra Part II.B.3.
163
Joy Smith, Human Trafficking June 2011 Update, JOYSMITH.CA, http://www.joy
smith.ca/main.asp?fxoid=FXMenu,3&cat_ID=27&sub_ID=106&sub2_ID=45 (last
visited Jan. 17, 2012).
164
Factum of the Intervener Womens Coalition at 3, Bedford v. Canada, [2010] O.J.
No. 4057 (Can. Ont. Super. Ct.) (QL).
165
Id. at 8.
166
Press Release, Ignite the Road to Justice, Miss Canada, Tara Teng, takes the fight
for justice across Canada (Aug. 3, 2011), available at http://ignitetheroadtojustice.com.
167
Petitions, IGNITE THE ROAD TO JUSTICE, http://ignitetheroadtojustice.com/resources (last visited Jan. 17, 2012).
168
See Brooks-Gordon, supra note 103, at 14648 (describing British anti-prostitution laws).

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tion to perform those services. It is irrelevant whether the customer knew or

could have known about this exploitation.169 Although a 2010 bill to
criminalize the buying of all sex was rejected,170 abolitionists in the U.K.
have focused much effort on kerb-crawler rehabilitation programs and
other methods to shame sex buyers.171 Advocates against these programs
cite many of the same critiques mentioned by the Canadian groups, including the potential of End Demand efforts to push sex workers into more exploitive conditions,172 and the need to instead promote the health, safety,
civil and human rights of sex workers, including their rights to live free from
violence . . . to engage in the work as safely as possible, and to receive high
quality health and other services.173
2. Criminalizing the Buyers and Decriminalizing the Sellers: The
Swedish Model
In 1999, Sweden passed the Sex Purchase Act, which made it a crime to
buy sex but decriminalized selling sex.174 The law also pledged money and
assistance for women who are victims of violence, including prostitution.175
Due to its explicit position on the need to combat violence against women
and its promotion of gender equality, the law was hailed as groundbreaking
at the time of its passage.176 Since then, a growing number of abolitionists
have called for adoption of the Swedish model in other countries,177 in part
due to Swedens aggressive marketing of its law as a model to be exported to
other countries.178 The laws focus on punishing johns and providing aid to
169

Policing and Crime Act, 2009, c. 26, 1415, (Eng.).

Simon Johnson, Plan to Criminalize Buying Sex from Prostitutes Rejected, THE
TELEGRAPH, Apr. 20, 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/7611369/
Plan-to-criminalise-buying-sex-from-prostitutes-rejected.html.
171
See infra Part II.B.3.
172
See Brooks-Gordon, supra note 103, at 166 (discussing how making it harder for
sex workers to find clients can make their economic situation worse and can lead them
into destructive relationships with pimps).
173
Our Mission Statement, U.K. NETWORK OF SEX WORK PROJECTS, http://www.
uknswp.org/about/our-mission-statement (last visited Jan. 17, 2012).
174
See Gunilla Ekberg, The Swedish Law That Prohibits the Purchase of a Sexual
Service: Best Practices for Prevention of Prostitution and Trafficking in Human Beings,
10 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 1187, 119192 (2004) (explaining the Swedish law).
175
See id. at 1192.
176
See id. at 118891 (discussing the principles behind the Swedish law); Iain McDonald, Current Developments, Criminalising Punters: evaluating the Swedish position
on prostitution, 26 J. SOC. WELFARE & FAM. L. 195, 195 (2004) (calling the Swedish law
noticeably bold).
177
See MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at 276
(In a growing list of jurisdictions, the Swedish model is one initiative that, having
shown promise, is increasingly favored by abolitionists at the principled and practical
forefront of this movement.).
178
STERGREN, THE SWEDISH SEX PURCHASE ACT:
SUSANNE DODILLET & PETRA O
CLAIMED SUCCESS AND DOCUMENTED EFFECTS 2 (2011), available at http://www.chezstella.org/docs/etude-suede-2011.pdf (discussing the marketing of the law as a model for
other countries at its outset).
170

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sex workers as victims of prostitution appeals to abolitionists who believe

targeting the demand side will best combat trafficking.179 But evidence on
the actual impact of the Swedish law is mixed. Studies conducted within a
few years of the laws passage, and scholarship that cite those studies, tout
the laws success in dramatically reducing the number of women in prostitution in Sweden180 and in decreasing trafficking into Sweden.181 They claim
that the law has persuaded more sex workers to come forward and seek
assistance to leave sex work, and has kept women considering sex work
from entering it.182
But other studies of the Swedish law have been skeptical of its purported success. These works have questioned the methodology of previous
studies of the Swedish law, claiming among other flaws that these studies
were not objective and were ideologically biased:183
When reviewing the research and reports available, it becomes
clear that the Sex Purchase Act cannot be said to have decreased
prostitution, trafficking for sexual purposes, or had a deterrent effect on clients to the extent claimed. Nor is it possible to claim
that public attitudes towards prostitution have changed significantly in the desired radical feminist direction or that there has
been a similar increased support of the ban.184
In addition, and even more alarmingly, a recent study claims that the
Swedish law has had serious adverse affects on the health and wellbeing of
sex workers.185 This study claims that the law isolates sex workers from
each other and makes it more difficult for health initiatives to reach them,
179
See, e.g., CATW, PRIMER ON THE MALE DEMAND FOR PROSTITUTION, supra note
102, at 1719 (discussing the success of the Swedish law in reducing demand).
180
See, e.g., Ekberg, supra note 174, at 1193 (2004 article noting a 3050% reduction in women in prostitution and claiming, as a result, there are only 500 women left in
the country in street prostitution and the recruitment of new women has come almost to
a halt).
181
See id. at 1200 (Sweden no longer is an attractive market for traffickers.);
CATW, PRIMER ON THE MALE DEMAND FOR PROSTITUTION, supra note 102, at 18 (2006
report stating, It is clear that the Law acts as a deterrent.).
182
See, e.g., Ekberg, supra note 174, at 1204 (describing an increase in former sex
workers seeking rehabilitative services).
183
STERGREN, supra note 178, at 2:
DODILLET & O
The criticism has primarily been focused on the evaluations lack of scientific
rigor: it did not have an objective starting point, since the terms of reference given
were that the purchase of sex must continue to be illegal; there was not a satisfying definition of prostitution; it did not take into account ideology, method,
sources and possible confounding factors; there were inconsistencies, contradictions, haphazard referencing, irrelevant or flawed comparisons and conclusions
were made without factual backup and were at times of a speculative character.
184
Id. at 3; see also ELIZABETH BERNSTEIN, TEMPORARILY YOURS: INTIMACY, AUTHENTICITY, AND THE COMMERCE OF SEX 142, 153 (2007) (claiming that the Swedish law
simply moved sex workers off the street and indoors, utilizing the Internet and cell
phones to solicit clients).
185
STERGREN, supra note 178, at 3.
See DODILLET & O

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increasing the likelihood that they will contract a sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS.186 Conducting their business even further underground makes street sex workers more vulnerable: with fewer women on the
street, buyers have more power to demand unsafe sex practices and lower
prices.187 When negotiations must be hurried and in secretive areas, sex
workers also have less time to evaluate clients in order to get a sense of
whether they seem dangerous, leading to an increase in violent encounters.188
Some sex workers have reported increased reliance on third parties like
pimps, since finding clients has become more difficult.189 The law may also
promote stigma against sex workers and stereotypes of them as weak and
passive victims.190 This study argues that the Swedish law has in reality lead
fewer sex workers to seek help due to distrust of authorities.191 Finally, some
scholars have criticized the laws true motivations, claiming that Swedens
focus on promoting homogeneity led it to pass the law as an effort to clamp
down on migration by foreigners, as opposed to the nobler goal of ending
trafficking.192
In the end, the debate over the success of the Swedish model and the
desirability of its extension to other countries appears to be as divisive as the
pro-work versus abolition argument itself, with a similar lack of definitive
empirical evidence to properly fuel the arguments of feminists on either side.
However, assuming studies citing adverse effects on sex workers are valid,
other locationsincluding the U.S.should be more hesitant to embrace
End Demand strategies as the best method to improve the conditions of women in the sex trade.
3. Growing Use of John Schools and Other Shaming Methods to
Curb Demand
In addition to laws that target buyers of sex, other programs have been
implemented in jurisdictions worldwide with the goal of educating the public about the problem of demand, and shaming johns into stopping their be-

186
See id. at 24 (discussing the possibility that more Swedish sex workers may now
have HIV/AIDS due to a decrease in preventative services reaching them).
187
See id. at 22.
188
See id. at 2223 (discussing the increase in these problematic side effects of the
Swedish law); McDonald, supra note 176, at 200 (discussing decreases in wages and
safety of sex workers for those continuing to work on the streets).
189
STERGREN, supra note 178, at 22 (demonstrating that making it
See DODILLET & O
more difficult for clients to buy sex does not lead women to leave the sex industry).
190
See id. at 21; BERNSTEIN, supra note 184, at 152 (noting that Swedish criminologists Toby Pettersson and Eva Tiby concluded that the Swedish law did little to remove
stigma from sex workers or place more stigma on sex buyers).
191
STERGREN, supra note 178, at 2122.
See DODILLET & O
192
See McDonald, supra note 176, at 19899 (discussing Swedens fear of the foreign); BERNSTEIN, supra note 184, at 15051 (discussing the passage of the Sex
Purchase Act as a reaction to Swedish fear of an incursion of foreign sex workers upon
its entry into the European Union).

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havior. The most common of these programs are so-called john schools,
pioneered in San Francisco in 1995,193 and now used in over 40 U.S. cities194
and several other countries including the U.K.195 and Canada.196 These education programs target first offendersmen who have been arrested for the
first time for soliciting a prostitute.197 Most of these programs operate similarly to drivers safety courses for those who have received tickets: for a fee,
a john attends a class or series of classes on the deleterious effects of prostitution, and in return, the charges against him are dropped.198 Some john
schools, as opposed to being diversionary programs, are conditions of sentencing.199 In class, johns learn about the health and legal consequences of
buying sex, and often learn about trafficking and hear from former victims
who talk about the horrors of their experience and the errors of the johns
ways.200 Although advocates admit that many john schools could rightly be
described as intending to humiliate or embarrass the men, or make them feel
ashamed of themselves, they claim that this shame is a natural extension of
the mens problematic behavior.201 In addition, advocates claim that john
schools help johns avoid the stigma that would be associated with a prostitution-related conviction.202 Critics counter that treating clients as dehumanized, dirty and animalistic . . . perpetuates stereotypes that obscure the
complex social, economic and cultural relationships in which commercial
sex takes place.203 They also take issue with the lack of involvement of
active sex workers in developing the curricula.204
Not surprisingly, feedback on whether john schools legitimately change
johns behavior is mixed. Only a few very small studies of john schools in
the U.S. have been conducted, and they have been inconclusive in determin-

193
See Lederer, supra note 59, at 305 (discussing the development of San Franciscos
First Offender Prostitution Program john schools).
194
Id.
195
See Campbell & Storr, supra note 8, at 9495 (discussing the development of the
U.K.s Kerb Crawler Rehabilitation Programme).
196
See Benedikt Fischer et al., The socio-legal dynamics and implications of diversion: The case study of the Toronto John School diversion programme for prostitution
offenders, 2 CRIM. JUST. 385, 38991 (2002) (discussing the development of john schools
in Canada).
197
See Lederer, supra note 59, at 305 (describing the typical john schools model).
198
See id. at 30506 (further describing the typical john schools model).
199
See ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 7-19 (noting that
two thirds of john schools are diversionary).
200
See Lederer, supra note 59, at 306; ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra
note 125, at 7-19 (discussing john school curricula).
201
ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 7-28 to 7-29.
202
See id. at 7-29.
203
Campbell & Storr, supra note 8, at 98.
204
See id. (quoting, as an example, one sex worker against such programs: A programme that taught clients about the problems women face and a true picture of sexual
health is what is really needed.); id. at 102 (noting that some sex workers oppose the
programs because they may dissuade more peaceful clients, leaving only more dangerous
and violent clients).

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ing whether attendees recidivism rates have declined.205 In addition, while

surveys of johns after completion of these programs seem to demonstrate a
change in attitudes toward prostitution,206 this may be due largely to the
johns being more aware of the correct answers to the questions after having participated in the program, regardless of whether their own attitudes
have really changed.207 Yet, these programs are gaining media attention208
and becoming more common in the U.S.,209 and have been encouraged as an
important tool by End Demand advocates.210
Many johns are recruited for john schools through reverse stings in
which female police officers act as decoys, arresting male customers after
they solicit them for prostitution.211 Beyond the basic arguments that johns
should not be arrested for buying sex, critics of reverse stings claim that they
make prostitution more dangerous for sex workers, who are pushed further
underground and into less safe situations because clients are afraid of being
arrested.212 Other End Demand methods for identifying and shaming sex
buyers include police releasing the names of accused johns. Media outlets
then run these lists in local newspapers, revealing johns identities to family,
friends, neighbors, and coworkers.213 In Omaha, Nebraska, the names of
men arrested for soliciting sex have even been posted on billboards.214 Buyers of sex who have been surveyed have reported that public shaming tactics

205
See ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 7-27 to 7-28 (discussing the inconclusive results of the only two small known U.S. studies).
206
See HUGHES, supra note 124, at 3840 (discussing self-reported changes in attitudes following john school attendance).
207
See Alexis Kennedy et al., Attitude Change Following a Diversion Program for
Men Who Solicit Sex, 40 J. OFFENDER REHABILITATION 41, 58 (2004) (describing potential limitations on drawing conclusions from self-reported attitudes).
208
See, e.g., Neal Conan, John School Teaches About Ills of Sex Solicitation, NATL
PUB. RADIO (May 24, 2011), http://www.npr.org/2011/05/24/136617710/john-schoolteaches-about-ills-of-sex-solicitation (discussing a Nashville john school); Stephanie
Chen, John schools try to change attitudes about paid sex, CNN (Aug. 27, 2009), http://
articles.cnn.com/2009-08-27/justice/tennessee.john.school_1_prostitutes-victimlesscrime-john-schools?_s=PM:CRIME (discussing a Nashville john school); Aina Hunter,
School for Johns, VILLAGE VOICE, May 3, 2005, http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-0503/news/school-for-johns/ (discussing a Brooklyn john school).
209
See ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 7-21 (On average, about four new programs have begun [in the U.S.] each year from 1997 to 2009.).
210
See generally id. (report, which lays out a comprehensive, nationwide End Demand strategy, frequently notes the importance and desirability of john school programs).
211
See id. at 7-9 (these operations are called reverse stings because they focus on
arresting male customers instead of traditional stings, in which male police officers arrest
female prostitutes after they are solicited); Lederer, supra note 59, at 30708 (describing
reverse sting operations in which police officers posing as customers seek sex for hire).
212
See Campbell & Storr, supra note 8, at 99100 (discussing policing and sex
worker safety).
213
See ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 7-12 to 7-13
(describing public shaming tactics); Belleville police to publish names of accused johns,
CBC NEWS (Aug. 26, 2008, 6:30 PM), http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/
2008/08/26/ot-belleville-080826.html (discussing a new shaming campaign in Ontario).
214
See HUGHES, supra note 124, at 4243.

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such as these might deter them from buying sex.215 However, there has been
no empirical evidence to demonstrate that this method really decreases sex
buying or recidivism among those reported.216 Civil rights activists have
also raised due process concerns about this method, as the names of accused
johns who have not yet had their day in court are typically released.217
Another End Demand tactic has been the use of Dear John letters,
which involves sending letters to the registered owners of vehicles that have
been seen cruising in known prostitution areas.218 The letters do not accuse the vehicle owners of engaging in prostitution, but rather warn them of
the dangers of prostitution.219 Other related tactics may include seizing the
vehicles of men found cruising for sex and geographic restraining orders
prohibiting these men from entering known areas of prostitution.220
Finally, End Demand public awareness campaigns have become increasingly common. Examples include a Swedish campaign in conjunction
with the passage of the Sex Purchase Act that placed posters in public locations around the country,221 a 2006 Dear John campaign in Atlanta, Georgia, that ran print ads in local media discouraging men from buying sex,222
and recent campaigns in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.223 As is the case
with all social media campaigns, while it is possible to estimate the number
of impressions that these campaigns have made and therefore hail them as a
success, it is not possible to determine whether they have made a tangible
impact on public opinion about prostitution and trafficking among former or
potential sex buyers.224
215
See ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 7-13 (noting that
although shaming methods are empirically unproven, 87% of men in one survey responded that the possibility of their name and photo being published in the local paper
would deter them from buying sex).
216
See id.
217
See id. (describing critiques of shaming methods).
218
See id. at 7-14 (describing Dear John letters).
219
See id. at 7-15.
220
See id. at 7-15 to 7-16 (discussing vehicle seizures and Stay Out of Areas with
Prostitution orders).
221
See Ekberg, supra note 174, at 120203 (describing the posters):
Poster #1 depicts a well-dressed man in a business suit and displays a prominent
wedding band on his hand. It asserts: Time to flush the johns out of the Baltic.
The specific reference is to Swedish men traveling as sex tourists to their favorite
prostitution havens in Baltic countries. Poster #2 is a close-up of 11 different men
looking directly into the camera, accompanied by the message, One man in eight
has bought sex. Poster #3 states, More and more Swedish men do their shopping
over the Internet. On this poster, a young man is surfing the Net on his computer,
supposedly to find pornography and Web sites that direct men to where they can
buy prostituted women.
222
See ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 6-38 to 6-42 (discussing the Georgia campaign); Lederer, supra note 59, at 30910 (discussing the same
campaign).
223
See infra Part III.BC.
224
See, e.g., Ekberg, supra note 174, at 120203 (estimating that more than one mil STERGREN, supra note 178,
lion people saw the Swedish posters). But see DODILLET & O

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IN THE

U.S.

Ever since the passage of the Swedish Sex Purchase Act and the early
implementation of john schools and other sex buyer-focused programs
blazed the trail, abolitionists have seized onto and promulgated End Demand
efforts as their primary focus. As discussed previously, the use of reverse
stings, john schools, Dear John letters, and social marketing campaigns
are on the rise in the U.S.225 This Part of this Article focuses specifically on
how End Demand sentiments have been incorporated into U.S. federal law
and then examines two statesRhode Island and Massachusettswhere
End Demand efforts have had a major influence on state lawmaking, to the
chagrin and detriment of human rights advocates and sex workers.
A. U.S. Federal Laws Enshrining of End Demand Ideals
The 2000 U.N. Trafficking Protocol requires state parties to adopt or
strengthen legislative or other measures, such as educational, social, or cultural measures . . . to discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially women and children, that leads to
trafficking.226 It was not until the 2005 Reauthorization of the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act (2005 Reauthorization), however, that the United
States interpreted this provision as support for inclusion of explicit End Demand sentiments in U.S. law.227 The 2005 Reauthorization adds to the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking measures to reduce the
demand for commercial sex acts and for participation in international sex
tourism by nationals of the country.228 In its section on prevention of domestic trafficking in persons, the 2005 Reauthorization establishes a program to reduce trafficking in persons and demand for commercial sex in the
United States.229 The program:
[A]uthorized a $50 million grant for local law enforcement and
social services agencies to develop and execute programs targeted
at reducing male demand and to investigate and prosecute buyers
of commercial sex acts. It also required the Secretary of Health
and Human Services and the Attorney General to research and pre-

at 1720 (noting that by several measures, attitudes did not change after the passage of
the Swedish law).
225
See supra Part II.B.3.
226
Trafficking Protocol, supra note 60, at Art. 9(5).
227
See Yen, supra note 126, at 664 (describing inclusion of End Demand provisions
in the 2005 Reauthorization as a real legislative breakthrough).
228
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-164,
104(b)(1)(A), 119 Stat. 3558, 3564 (2005).
229
Id. at 201(a).

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pare reports on the best practices for reducing demand for commercial sex acts.230
The 2005 Reauthorization noticeably conflates trafficking in persons
and demand for commercial sex, lumping them together as the same issue
and authorizing funding toward ending demand for sex work as a fulfillment
of the Trafficking Protocols requirement to take measures to discourage the
demand . . . that leads to trafficking.231 This conflation was made clear by
President Bushs comments upon signing the Act:
Yet we cannot put the criminals out of business until we also confront the problem of demand. Those who pay for the chance to
sexually abuse children and teenage girls must be held to account.
So well investigate and prosecute the customers, the unscrupulous
adults who prey on the young and innocent.232
Although abolitionists have encouraged these funds to be spent on End
Demand programs such as john schools, as of summer 2010, Congress had
not appropriated funds for the program established by the 2005 Reauthorization.233 However, the 2005 Reauthorization still serves as an important endorsement of abolitionist End Demand sentiments in U.S. law. This is
particularly problematic in light of the federal governments continued reticence in taking measures to identify and protect legitimate trafficking victims in the U.S.234 For example, the U.S. has lagged in providing T
Nonimmigrant Status Visas (T Visas) to trafficking victims. The T Visa
is designed to provide nonimmigrant status to victims of trafficking who
comply with reasonable requests from law enforcement in the investigation
and prosecution of their traffickers and can demonstrate that they will suffer
extreme hardship if they were removed from the United States.235 However,
victim advocates have argued that these standards are too stringent; they are
especially troubled by the requirement that the victim cooperate in the prosecution of her traffickers, which fewer than half of victims may be willing to

230

Yen, supra note 126, at 66465.

Trafficking Protocol, supra note 60, at Art. 9(5).
Press Release, White House, President Signs H.R. 972, Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, 2006 (Jan. 10, 2006), available at http://georgewbushwhitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060110-3.html.
233
See ABT ASSOCS. NATIONAL ACTION PLAN, supra note 125, at 7-23.
234
See generally April Rieger, Missing the Mark: Why the Trafficking Victims Protection Act Fails to Protect Sex Trafficking Victims in the United States, 30 HARV. J.L. &
GENDER 231 (2007) (discussing the failures of the TVPA and the need to provide better
assistance and social services to migrants coming forward as abused and exploited); Dina
Francesca Haynes, (Not) Found Chained to a Bed in a Brothel: Conceptual, Legal, and
Procedural Failures to Fulfill the Promise of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 21
GEO. IMMIGR. L.J. 337 (2007) [hereinafter Haynes, (Not) Found Chained to a Bed in a
Brothel] (discussing the flawed ideology behind the TVPA and the need for more flexibility in identifying and providing aid to victims of exploitive migration).
235
See Rieger, supra note 234, at 25253 (describing the process to obtain a T Visa).
231

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do due to fear and trauma.236 In addition, if victims cooperate but law enforcement decides not to go through with the prosecution, the T Visa is not
available.237
U.S. law enforcement also may not be adequately trained to identify
illegal immigrants as victims rather than criminals.238 This is especially true
when these immigrants are victims of forms of labor abuses other than sexual exploitation, since politicians and the media have sexified trafficking.239 Border control sentiments play into this lack of identification, as it is
easier to deport a non-citizen than to recognize her coercive conditions and
begin the process to provide her support and services.240 Interestingly, while
up to 5,000 T Visas are available each year241 and the Department of State
has estimated between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the
United States annually,242 fewer than 1,900 T Visas have even been requested between 20052009, and over 40 percent of these have been denied.243 If U.S. law enforcement were encouraged to reconceptualize their
idea of what a victim looks like, acknowledging that most trafficking does
not involve victims found chained to a bed in a brothel, but rather who toil
as indentured servants with no pay and in debt,244 it is likely that more T
Visas would be applied for and approved.
If there was any remaining doubt that the U.S. government was
staunchly anti-sex work, the 2003 United States Leadership Against HIV/

236
Id. at 25051. Tying victim assistance to prosecution is problematic because
many victims will refuse to cooperate due to fear of retaliation against them or their
family members. In addition, victims who cooperate may still be denied assistance if the
investigator or prosecutor decides not to move forward with the case. Id.
237
See Haynes, (Not) Found Chained to a Bed in a Brothel, supra note 234, at
35960 (explaining law enforcements discretion whether to certify a victim).
238
See Rieger, supra note 234, at 24547 (discussing the difficulty of initially identifying an immigrant as having been trafficked).
239
See Dina Francesca Haynes, Exploitation Nation: The Thin and Grey Legal Lines
between Trafficked Persons and Abused Migrant Laborers, 23 NOTRE DAME J.L. ETHICS
& PUB. POLY 1, 52 (2009) [hereinafter Haynes, Exploitation Nation]:
Not only are real victims of human trafficking shortchanged . . . but this false and
sexified vision of human trafficking then trumps and obscures the myriad
problems surrounding guestworker programs. Real victims of human trafficking do not look too different from exploited guestworkers. Neither politicians
nor the media have an interest in pointing that out, however, because both are
enamored of the vision of rescuing victims from horrible and sexualized crimes
while keeping the economy strong and the borders secure against the tide rising
up against the floodgates.
240
See id.
241
22 U.S.C. 7105(e)(2)(B)(2) (2000).
242
See TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT (June 2004), supra note 2.
243
See USCIS National Stakeholder January Meeting, U.S. CITIZENSHIP & IMMIGRATION SERVS., (last updated Jan. 27, 2010), http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menu
item.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=74adc3531a176210VgnVCM10
0000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=994f81c52aa38210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRC
RD (last visited Mar. 4, 2012).
244
Haynes, Exploitation Nation, supra note 239, at 52.

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AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act (Global AIDS Act)245 makes this
position clear. In pledging $15 billion towards addressing the global HIV/
AIDS epidemic, it prohibits the use of funds to promote or advocate the
legalization or practice of prostitution and sex trafficking and prohibits
funding for organizations that do not have a policy explicitly opposing
prostitution and sex trafficking.246 Known as the Anti-Prostitution Pledge,
this policystill formally in place todayhas been vehemently opposed by
pro-work organizations, and circuit courts are split on whether it violates the
free speech rights of U.S.-based organizations.247
Finally, the Department of States most recent Trafficking in Persons
Report lauds the United States End Demand efforts in its Country Narrative:
State and local jurisdictions also engaged in a number of efforts to
reduce demand for commercial sex. Some jurisdictions tested various combinations of arrests, shaming, and education of apprehended purchasers of prostitution. NGOs devoted to ending
demand for commercial sex developed school curricula, conducted
outreach campaigns, and worked with law enforcement. Reports
continued to reflect significant numbers of arrests for commercial
sexual activity.248
However, the report goes on to note that [d]ata continued to reflect the
arrests of more women than men for such activity; state and local law enforcement arrested 38,593 women versus 16,968 men for prostitution offenses and commercialized vice in 2009, the year for which the most recent
data is available.249
Recent literature released by the Department of State furthers its endorsement of End Demand ideals. In June 2011, the Department of States
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons published a fact
sheet titled Prevention: Fighting Sex Trafficking by Curbing Demand for
Prostitution.250 Without providing support for its claims, the fact sheet
makes several problematic statements:
245
United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of
2003, 22 U.S.C.A. 7601 (West 2010).
246
22 U.S.C.A. 7631(e)(f).
247
See DKT Intl Inc. v. U.S. Agency for Intl Dev., 477 F.3d 758 (D.C. Cir. 2007)
(holding that Prostitution Pledge did not violate a corporations free speech rights because
it did not compel advocacy of the governments position). But see Alliance for Open
Socy Intl, Inc. v. U.S. Agency for Intl Dev., 430 F. Supp. 2d 222 (S.D.N.Y. 2006), affd,
651 F.3d 218 (2d Cir. 2011), rehearing en banc denied, No. 08-4917-CV, 2012 WL
313988 (2d Cir. Feb. 2, 2012) (holding that the Prostitution Pledge does violate an organizations free speech rights by compelling speech). See also Ahmed, supra note 3, at
24252 (discussing these cases).
248
Country Narratives: Countries N through Z: Trafficking In Persons Report, U.S.
DEPT OF STATE (2011), http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/164233.htm (last visited Mar. 4, 2012).
249
Id.
250
U.S. DEPT OF STATE, OFFICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, PREVENTION: FIGHTING SEX TRAFFICKING BY CURBING DEMAND FOR PROSTITUTION

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But the fact remains: if there were no demand for commercial sex,
trafficking in persons for commercial sexual exploitation would
not exist in the form it does today. This reality underscores the
need for continued strong efforts to reduce demand for sex trafficking by enacting policies and promoting cultural attitudes that
reject the idea of paying for sex. . . . A prostituted person may
have initially consented, may believe that she or he is in love with
her or his trafficker, may not self-identify as a victim, may not be
operating in the vicinity of the pimp, or may have been away from
the pimps physical control with what seemed to be ample opportunity to ask for help or flee. None of these factors, taken alone or in
sum, means that she or he is not a victim of a severe form of
trafficking. . . . [R]educing demand for sex trafficking . . . can
only be achieved by rejecting long-held notions that regard commercial sex as a boys will be boys phenomenon, and instead
sending the clear message that buying sex is wrong. Lawmakers
have the power to craft effective anti-trafficking legislation, but
they also have a responsibility to represent values that do not tolerate abuses of commercial sex.251
These problematic conflations of trafficking and sex work and moralistic
condemnations of sex work typify the most recent efforts to End Demand in
the United States.252
B. End Demand Efforts End Legal Sex Work in Rhode Island
With federal law on their side, abolitionists set their sights on Rhode
Island, where until 2009similar to the legal framework in the United
Kingdom and Canadaprostitution was legal though associated activities
were not. Rhode Island and Nevada were the only states at the time without
criminal penalties for buying and selling sex indoors.253 After a vigorous
campaign by abolitionists facing vehement opposition by pro-sex worker organizations, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri signed legislation closing this loophole, making both buying and selling sex illegal on
November 3, 2009.254 Citizens Against Trafficking, a coalition co-founded
by well-known abolitionist and University of Rhode Island professor Donna
(June 2011), available at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/2011/167224.htm [hereinafter
STATE DEPARTMENT FACT SHEET].
251
Id.
252
For a more thorough critique of this State Department fact sheet by work approach feminists, see infra Part IV.A.
253
See Rhode Island: New Prostitution Law, N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 4, 2009, http://www.
nytimes.com/2009/11/04/us/04brfs-NEWPROSTITUT_BRF.html (discussing the passage of Rhode Islands new prostitution laws).
254
See id.; H.B. 5044 (R.I. 2009); S.R. 0596 (R.I. 2009) (codified as R.I. CODE R.
11-34.-1-2-13 (LexisNexis 2009)).

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Hughes, supported the law.255 Testifying on behalf of her organization in

front of the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee six days before the
bill became law, Professor Hughes cited the growing sex industry and sex
trafficking and encouraged the bills passage.256 Despite its creation of penalties for both sellers and buyers of sex, the law includes a provision creating
an affirmative defense for a sex seller against prosecution if he or she has
been forced to commit a commercial sexual activity by threats, physical
harm, physical restraint, or intimidation.257
Sex workers and organizations such as New Yorks Urban Justice
Center and the American Civil Liberties Union lobbied against the laws
passage.258 They argued that criminalization was in reality more likely to
harm trafficking victims than help them: [the law] is likely to cause severe
harm to victims of human trafficking by subjecting them to repeated arrest,
incarceration, and retraumatization, without increasing the likelihood of locating, identifying, or assisting trafficking victims.259 They also argued that
the law would harm women engaging in sex work because of extreme poverty by reducing their options further due to the stigma of a prostitution
conviction.260 The Urban Justice Center pointed out the problematic conflation of trafficking and sex work:
Advocates in support of the bill state that the goal is to end trafficking, but the real focus of the bill is clearly on prostitution. If
the goal of this bill is to end prostitution itself, we would caution
Rhode Island legislators to consider whether this goal will actually
be met. Criminalization of prostitution decreases choices available
to people engaged in sex work rather than increasing their options
to leave the industry or a trafficking situation.261

255
About Citizens Against Trafficking, CITIZENS AGAINST TRAFFICKING, http://www.
citizensagainsttrafficking.com/About.html (last visited Jan. 18, 2012).
256
Testimony on Prostitution B. Before the R.I. Senate Judiciary Comm. (Oct. 28,
2009) (statement of Donna M. Hughes, Co-Founder, Citizens Against Trafficking), available at http://www.citizensagainsttrafficking.com/uploads/Hughes__Testimony_Prostitution_Bill__Oct_2009.pdf.
257
See R.I. CODE R. 11-34.-1-2(d) (LexisNexis 2009).
258
See Steve Peoples, Prostitutes speak out against bill to close loophole, THE PROVIDENCE J., Oct. 26, 2009, at A1 (discussing Providence, Rhode Island sex workers advocating for sex work as a career choice); Memorandum in Opposition from the Urban
Justice Ctr. on Opposition to R.I. H.B. 5044 (June 8, 2009), available at http://sexworkersproject.org/downloads/2009/20090608-swp-hb5044a-memo-in-opposition.pdf [hereinafter Urban Justice Center Memorandum]; Press Release, R.I. ACLU, National Project
Joins Local Organizations in Opposing Legislative Effort to Further Criminalize Prostitution (June 10, 2009), available at http://www.riaclu.org/News/Releases/20090610.htm
[hereinafter R.I. ACLU Press Release].
259
R.I. ACLU Press Release, supra note 258 (quoting Andrea Ritchie of the Urban
Justice Center); Urban Justice Center Memorandum, supra note 258, at 1.
260
R.I. ACLU Press Release, supra note 258; Urban Justice Center Memorandum,
supra note 258, at 3.
261
Urban Justice Center Memorandum, supra note 258, at 3.

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They urged the state to utilize more productive methods:

Examples of effective responses to human trafficking include
community education campaigns and forging partnerships with
communities most affected, including immigrant communities and
sex workers themselves. Improving access to employment, housing, legal services, and other essential services, helping undocumented persons obtain immigration status so they can work
legally, and eliminating the barriers for transitioning out of sex
work and into living wage forms of work are all initiatives that get
at the root causes of trafficking in persons without penalizing its
victims.262
However, pro-sex work organizations pleas went unheard in light of typical
End Demand rhetoric. It should come as no surprise that by the end of 2009,
of fourteen arrests for prostitution in Rhode Island, six were of women, including one 17-year-old girl.263
In addition, since the passage of its new prostitution law, Rhode Island
has entrenched itself further in End Demand strategies by launching a 2011
Dear John social marketing campaign to shame johns.264 Four different
anti-prostitution messages plastered on the side of public buses all include
the tagline: Without you and your cash, sex trafficking would not exist!265
C. New Trafficking Law in Massachusetts Focuses Extensively
on Ending Demand for Prostitution
Abolitionists also focused efforts on Massachusetts, which, until November 2011, was one of only three states without a state law making trafficking a crime.266 The state received much criticism for its lack of an antitrafficking law from organizations such as the Polaris Project, which helped
bring attention to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakleys proposed trafficking legislation.267 Although a previous attempt to pass trafficking legislation had been unsuccessfulpossibly due to its lack of a strong
262

Id. at 4.
See Karen Lee Ziner & Tom Mooney, 14 nabbed for prostitution under new law,
THE PROVIDENCE J., Dec. 12, 2009, at A1.
264
See Gregory Smith, Campaign castigates the johns, THE PROVIDENCE J., Oct. 25,
2011, at A4.
265
Id.
266
See MASS. GOVERNORS COUNCIL TO ADDRESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & SEXUAL
ASSAULT, ASSESSMENT OF POLICIES & PROGRAMS TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING 10
(2011) [hereinafter MA TRAFFICKING REPORT].
267
See Press Release, Atty Gen. Martha Coakley, Massachusetts Given Negative National Ranking for Its Legal Tools to Combat Human Trafficking: Coakley Encourages
Passage of Human Trafficking Bill Currently in Conference Committee (Aug. 29, 2011),
available at http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/press-releases/2011/macriticized-in-human-trafficking-report.html (discussing the Polaris Projects negative 2011
ranking of Massachusetts and the Attorney Generals response).
263

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sponsor268Coakleys legislation was signed into law by Governor Deval

Patrick on November 21, 2011.269 Although the new law includes some important provisionsit treats juvenile prostitutes as victims instead of
criminals, creates a cause of action for victims to sue their traffickers, and
establishes a Victims of Human Trafficking trust fund to aid trafficking victims270it also contains some problematic End Demand provisions. These
include increased penalties for johns.271 Previously, both buying and selling
sex had carried the same criminal penaltiesone year in prison and a $500
fine.272 Now, soliciting a prostitute carries the potential of up to two-and-ahalf years imprisonment or a $1,000 to $5,000 fine.273 In addition, the law
creates the crime of trafficking for sexual servitude, defined as:
(a) Whoever knowingly: (i) subjects, or attempts to subject, or recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides or obtains by any
means, or attempts to recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide or
obtain by any means, another person to engage in commercial sexual activity, a sexually-explicit performance or the production of
unlawful pornography . . . or causes a person to engage in commercial sexual activity, a sexually-explicit performance or the production of unlawful pornography . . . or (ii) benefits, financially or
by receiving anything of value, as a result of a violation of clause
(i) . . . .274
Entice is defined as to lure, induce, persuade, tempt, incite, solicit, coax
or invite.275 The penalties for this crime of trafficking for sexual servitude are severe: imprisonment for five to twenty years and a fine of up to
$25,000.276 Even harsher penaltiesup to life in prisonare outlined if the
victim is a minor.277 A crime of trafficking for forced servicesor labor
traffickinghas also been created, and holds the same penalties as the crime
of trafficking for sexual servitude.278

268
See MA TRAFFICKING REPORT, supra note 266, at 10 (discussing potential weaknesses of the previous bill).
269
See Steve LeBlanc, Gov. Patrick signs bill against human trafficking, ASSOCIATED
PRESS, Nov. 21, 2011, available at http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/
articles/2011/11/2 1/gov_patrick_signs_anti_human_trafficking_bill/.
270
See id.; see also Press Release, Governor of Mass., Governor Patrick Signs
Anti-Human Trafficking Legislation (Nov. 21, 2011), available at http://www.mass.gov/
governor/pressoffice/pressreleases/2011/111121-antihuman-trafficking-bill.html (describing the bills provisions for assisting trafficking victims, especially children).
271
See LeBlanc, supra note 269 (discussing increased penalties for johns).
272
MASS. GEN. LAWS ch. 272, 8 (2011), amended by 2011 Mass. Legis. Serv. ch.
178, 2425 (2011).
273
Id.
274
Id. at ch. 178, 23.
275
Id. at ch. 178, 22.
276
Id. at ch. 178, 23.
277
Id.
278
Id.

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The new law has been hailed as an innovative success, with much
praise being given to its End Demand focus on increased penalties for johns.
In her testimony on the bill, Attorney General Coakley stated: To stem the
demand side, the bill increases penalties for current john crimes. Simply
put, if no one were buying sex, traffickers and pimps wouldnt be supplying
an endless stream of victims.279 Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel
Conley, a vocal advocate of the bill, also spoke of the focus on johns: We
have to lift the veil of anonymity that protects the pimps and johns who
exploit [women], and we have to commit ourselves to a long-term policy
that protects the true victims and holds the true offenders accountable.280 In
addition to these conflations of reducing demand for purchased sex with
reducing human traffickingpredictable because of the United States history of tying prostitution and trafficking together without distinguishing sex
trafficking from other forms of trafficking or acknowledging the possibility
of voluntary sex worknews stories have neglected to mention that despite
a claimed increased focus on sex buyers, selling sex remains a crime. Beyond statements of public officials like Attorney General Coakley that the
new law will be a real lens change, focusing on sex workers as victims
instead of defendants,281 this law does nothing to ensure that prosecutions of
sex workers will not continue.
In addition, perhaps because the law purports to be focused on trafficking as opposed to prostitution, there has been no critique of the laws vague
definitions. Although the crime of trafficking for sexual servitude could
clearly be used against the most abusive and exploitive of traffickers, its
references to recruit[ing], entic[ing], harbor[ing], transport[ing], [and]
provid[ing] 282 could also be used to target a variety of other activities and
players involved in sex work. These could include sex workers who encourage friends to join the sex trade or recommend a friend to a client (enticing and recruiting) or who help run a brothel (harboring). It could even
include johns (obtaining). The law provides no parameters for enforcement
beyond this vague definition, which should be a cause of major concern for
pro-sex work feminists who believe that some women in Massachusetts may
choose sex work out of preference or necessity. While local womens and
immigrants advocacy groups and organized labor backed the bill,283 very
279
Testimony on S. 827/H. 2850, An Act Relative to the Commercial Exploitation of
People, Before the Mass. Judiciary Comm., 2011 Leg. Sess. (Mass. 2011) (statement of
Martha Coakley, Atty Gen. of Mass.), available at http://www.mass.gov/ago/docs/
testimonies/ht-testimony-for-judiciary.pdf.
280
LeBlanc, supra note 269.
281
John J. Monahan, New law aims to shut down sex trade traffickers, WORCESTER
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE, Nov. 22, 2011, at A1.
282
MASS. GEN. LAWS ch. 272, 8 (2011), amended by 2011 Mass. Legis. Serv. Ch.
178, 23 (2011).
283
See Press Release, Atty Gen. Martha Coakley, Growing List of Supporters Back
Anti-Human Trafficking Bill (June 17, 2011), available at http://www.mass.gov/ago/
news-and-updates/press-releases/2011/supporters-back-anti-human-trafficking-bill.html.

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few critics have publicly voiced concern, and have done so only to say that
the law does not do enough to provide aid to women in prostitution and that
its penalties for johns will clog up local prisons.284 Although these are worthy concerns, they have been hard to evaluate seriously among the widespread praise for Massachusetts new law.
In addition, Massachusetts launched an End Demand public awareness
campaign in September 2011.285 A coalition of state and local government
officials, police, and advocacy organizations including the Family Justice
Center of Boston has placed posters in city trains and buses to raise awareness about human trafficking and the commercial exploitation of children.286 The four posters depict what look like Craigslist ads for sexual
services accompanied with messages from the victims being advertised.287
Although two of the four ads in the campaign focus on exploitation of children, one focuses on a former sex worker who escaped to a womens shelter and the fourth focuses on the need to crack down on johns.288 Its text
reads:
Im the sweetheart who placed this ad. Im an undercover detective and I arrest johns who respond to these ads. These guys meet
girls in nice hotel rooms. They never see the poverty, the pimps,
and the beatings the girls get when they dont meet their quotas.
Men who pay for sex support this criminal enterprise. Its that
simple.289
While there is nothing nefarious about seeking to reduce the number of
sex workers who are in violent and exploitive conditions, the campaign goes
too far in conflating abolitionist goals with efforts to end trafficking. Although the campaign is referred to as a human trafficking campaign, the
Family Justice Centers description of its purpose declares: The sex trade is
an industry that has no place in our City or in the many cities throughout the
Commonwealth where internet-based solicitation, street prostitution, escort
services, massage parlors, strip clubs, brothels in apartments, and local hotel
284
See Renee Loth, Human Trafficking Bill Stops Short, BOSTON GLOBE, June 11,
2011, at A11 (critiquing the law for stinting on help for the victimsalmost always
women and girls who are desperate, poor, abused, homeless, or addicted.); Editorial,
Senate Should Move Ahead on Greater Penalties for Pimps, BOSTON GLOBE, June 21,
2011, at A10 (While exposing those who use prostitutes to the threat of some prison
time is necessary for deterrence, they shouldnt be tying up prison space that could go to
violent offenders.).
285
See DA Conley and Partners Announce Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign,
SUFFOLK CNTY. DIST. ATTORNEY MASS., http://www.suffolkdistrictattorney.com/frontpage-highlights/da-conley-introduces-safe-harbor-bill (last visited Jan. 19, 2012).
286
See id.
287
Human Trafficking Campaign, BOSTON PUB. HEALTH COMMN, http://www.bphc.
org/programs/cafh/violenceprevention/fjc/humantrafficking/Forms%20%20Documents/
CampaignSigns.pdf (last visited Mar. 4, 2012).
288
See id.
289
Id.

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rooms are fronts for profit from sex crimes.290 District Attorney Conleys
remarks on the campaign reiterate its End Demand goals:
Ask any police officer and theyll tell youmaking prostitution
arrests is easy. We could make hundreds of those cases a week if
we approached it on the supply side. But this isnt a supply-side
industry. Sexual trafficking exists because of a demand. That demand is aided and abetted by websites and newspapers with advertisements for sexual services. . . . Sexual trafficking isnt a
victimless crime. Its not liberating or glamorous.291
These remarks demonstrate how second-nature and nonsensical the
conflation of sex work and trafficking has become in common usage: if
sexual trafficking was given its meaning under the TVPA, then pointing
out that it is not liberating or glamorous would be laughably obvious because those who are induced by force, fraud, or coercion292 clearly do not
fall into the category of voluntary sex workers that this description seeks to
demonstrate do not exist. If efforts to end sex trafficking focused, as they
should, on those cases in which women have been forced into prostitution
against their will or have been subjected to abusive and exploitive conditions
even if they initially consented, then declaring that [s]exual trafficking
isnt a victimless crime would be redundant to the point of absurdity. As
the jurisdiction with the newest law and campaign focused on trafficking and
sex work, Massachusetts demonstrates that End Demand strategies have
fully taken hold in the United States and continue to place us at serious risk
of moving even further away from productively confronting human trafficking in our country.
IV. DEMANDING AN END TO THE RHETORIC: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
MORE PRODUCTIVE APPROACH TO REDUCING TRAFFICKING AND
IMPROVING THE LIVES OF SEX WORKERS

This Part seeks to move beyond current ineffective End Demand strategies and arguments to provide suggestions for work approach feminists and
human rights advocates seeking to redirect anti-trafficking energies to more
productive methods for change.

290
Human Trafficking Public Awareness Campaign, FAMILY JUSTICE CTR., BOSTON
PUB. HEALTH COMMN, http://www.bphc.org/PROGRAMS/CAFH/VIOLENCEPRE
VENTION/FJC/Pages/Home.aspx (last visited Jan. 19, 2012).
291
DA Conley Remarks on Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign, SUFFOLK CNTY.
DIST. ATTORNEY MASS., http://www.suffolkdistrictattorney.com/?p=3566 (last visited
Jan. 19, 2012).
292
22 U.S.C. 7101 (2000), 103(8)(A).

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A. Fighting Fire with Fire: The Need for Work Approach Feminists to
Respond Directly to End Demand Strategies
Although work approach feminists have played a vocal role in the debate over decriminalization versus abolition and have spoken out against
conflating sex work with trafficking,293 we have not seen enough of their
response directed at the heightened focus on End Demand efforts. A good
example of a direct confrontation of the new End Demand movement is the
Rights Work Initiatives response to the Department of States highly problematic June 2011 fact sheet on Fighting Sex Trafficking By Curbing
Demand for Prostitution.294 Rights Work is a project of the Program on
Human Trafficking and Forced Labor at the American University Washington College of Laws Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law that
seeks to promote evidence-based research, rights-based policies and lively
debate on issues relating to human trafficking and forced labor.295 They
responded to the fact sheet in the form of a September 2011 letter to
Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, Director of the Office to Monitor and
Combat Trafficking in Persons.296 The letter, signed by fifteen prominent
researchers and policy advocates,297 asks for factual support for the State
Departments claims about End Demand strategies.298 It asks for a clarification of the State Departments uses of terms like sexual exploitation and
sex trafficking299 and evidentiary support for its endorsement of the End
Demand approach,300 and questions the assumptions that this approach will

293

See supra Part I.

See supra notes 250252 and accompanying text for a description of this fact
sheet. To read the response by The Rights Work Initiative, see Ann Jordan, US State
Department Fails to Produce Evidence for its Fact Sheet, RIGHTS WORK INITIATIVE
(Nov. 8, 2011), http://rightswork.org/2011/11/us-state-department-fails-to-produce-evidence-for-its-fact-sheet/.
295
About Rights Work, RIGHTS WORK INITIATIVE, http://rightswork.org/about-2/ (last
visited Jan. 19, 2012).
296
See Letter from Rights Work Initiative to Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca
(Sept. 22, 2011), available at http://rightswork.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Ambassador-CdeBaca.9.11.pdf.
297
Id. at 49.
298
Id. at 1 (pointing out the Obama Administrations commitment to the use of
rigorous evidence to drive policy.).
299
Id. at 23.
300
Id. at 34:
[The fact sheet] implies that there is a unique relationship between prostitution
and trafficking that does not exist between, for example, domestic work and trafficking, farm work and trafficking or fishing and trafficking. So, if you believe
that eliminating the sector is the best solution to ending trafficking into the sex
sector, is it not also logically the case that if there is no domestic work there can
be no trafficking into domestic work? Does your office propose criminalizing the
purchasing of services for domestic work (or farm work or fishing) in order to
stop trafficking?
294

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best aid sex workers301 and that trafficking is actually caused by a demand
for sex.302 It also points out evidence that End Demand strategies are not
effective.303
The State Departments October 2011 letter in response was predictably
void of any meaningful engagement with Rights Works critiques, and included boilerplate-type conciliatory language: I am grateful for your collective commitment to this issue, and I look forward to continued partnership in
our effort to fight this scourge.304 However, Rights Works efforts stand as
an important inquiry against the growing support surrounding End Demand
ideology. Their well-reasoned, point-by-point critique directly confronts the
faulty reasoning in the State Departments document, refusing to accept
wholesale claims made without empirical evidence. As abolitionists make
End Demand statements with increasing frequency, it has become important
for pro-work advocates to address these claims head-on in order to create
public debate on this issue.
B. Refocusing the Lens: Moving Away from the Abolition Versus
Decriminalization Debate Toward Real Progress
In order to make real progress toward combating human trafficking,
however, advocates should also expend less time and resources on tired, old
divisive debates. The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Womens
(GAATW) 2011 report on Moving Beyond Supply and Demand
Catchphrases provides a comprehensive assessment of End Demand efforts
and the complex link between trafficking, sex work, and exploitive labor
practices.305 The report encourages anti-trafficking efforts to move beyond
debating supply and demand to look more seriously at the conditions that
enable and encourage trafficking to occur, and the best ways to improve the
lives of sex workers and laborers while acknowledging these realities.306
This includes refocusing End Demand efforts on ending what GAATW calls
the demand for exploitative labour practices, defined as labor in both sex
work and other sectors that is: Low costincluding non-payment or underpayment; [e]asy to controlincluding keeping workers from leaving
abusive situations; and [u]nprotected[including] social attitudes that
301
See id. at 4 (What evidence supports the unstated assumption that sex sellers will
be able to find other means to earn a living?).
302
See id. at 56 (discussing the imperfect relationship between supply and demand
in human trafficking).
303
See id. at 34 (discussing the failure of the Swedish model); id. at 67 (discussing the lack of evidence to support the establishment of john schools).
304
See Letter from Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador-at-Large, Office to Monitor & Combat Trafficking in Persons, to Rights Work Initiative 3 (Oct. 28, 2011), http://rightswork.
org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Ambassador-CdeBaca.pdf.
305
See generally GAATW MOVING BEYOND CATCHPHRASES, supra note 6, at 43 (exploring the need to move beyond the prostitution debate to address exploitive labor in all
sectors).
306
See id. at 6768.

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normalise or justify exploitation and discrimination, [and] unregulated labour.307 Exploitive labor practices are undoubtedly widespread in the sex
work sector, but they also happen frequently in domestic, agricultural, and
sweatshop work, among other sectors.308 The ILO and some scholars advocate for this exploitative labor-focused approach.309 These advocates argue
that the majority of people suffering from exploitive labor practices do not
fit the mold of a perfect victim who can tell a story of being fully coerced
and forced.310 Coming to a consensus on the need to focus on exploitive
labor does not require taking a stance for or against decriminalization: It is
[ ] important to emphasize that legalization is not the same as legitimization; it is not about morally condoning or sanctioning.311 Feminists advocating for both abolition and decriminalization should agree that more
people in need of aid could be identified and assisted if advocates would
move beyond trying to rigidly define who has been trafficked.
For those who wish to focus their efforts exclusively on prostitution
reform, perspectives will continue to differ on which legal schemepartial
or full decriminalizationwill best protect sex workers from harm. The experiences of Canadian, British, and Swedish sex workers seem to demonstrate that legal sanctions against sex buyers cause further harm to sex
workers.312 Some studies have demonstrated that legalized sex work is
safer.313 However, abolitionists have pointed to studies that demonstrate that
full decriminalization has not shaped up to be the panacea that pro-sex work
feminists have suggested.314 This Article does not aim to guess which model
would work best in a perfect society where other factors such as sex inequality and poverty do not play a role. However, the End Demand focusin its
current formis incapable of addressing the real needs of sex workers.
Harm reduction and public health initiatives will make a bigger impact on

307

See id. at 8.
See supra Part I.B.2 (discussing the existence of exploitive labor in other sectors
as a reason why the conflation of trafficking and prostitution is particularly problematic).
309
See LIM, supra note 92, at 7 (advocating for a recognition of both sex work and
labor exploitation).
310
See generally Haynes, (Not) Found Chained to a Bed in a Brothel, supra note 234
(discussing how the Trafficking Victims Protection Act does not do enough to provide
aid for exploited workers who cannot tell the perfect victim story); Robert Uy, Blinded
By Red Lights: Why Trafficking Discourse Should Shift Away from Sex and the Perfect
Victim Paradigm, 26 BERKELEY J. GENDER L. & JUST. 204 (2011) (discussing the need
to move focus away from sex trafficking to labor trafficking and to create workable
solutions on the ground to help victims and prevent further trafficking).
311
See LIM, supra note 92, at 9 (explaining that the ILO does not take a stance on
decriminalization).
312
See infra Part II.B.12.
313
See, e.g., Barbara G. Brents & Kathryn Hausbeck, Violence and Legalized Brothel
Prostitution in Nevada: Examining Safety, Risk, and Prostitution Policy, 20 J. INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE 270, 2994 (2005) (discussing findings that indoor, regulated brothel
prostitution reduces the risk of violence against sex workers).
314
See, e.g., MacKinnon, Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality, supra note 8, at
305 (legalization is a failed experiment).
308

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improving the lives of women who sell sex.315 Promoting and engaging with
sex worker collectives provides the opportunity to reduce the incidence of
HIV/AIDS and other health problems among sex workers in a non-judgmental atmosphere.316
Even those feminists who oppose sex work and see it as intrinsically
harmful should support this approach. Imagine a setting in which non-coercive services were provided for women in sex work. Those expressing a
desire to leave sex work could be provided education, housing, domestic
violence and addiction counseling, and job services to make their desires a
reality. This model has been embraced by some programs, such as the Urban Justice Centers Sex Worker Project (SWP) in New York City, which
aims to provide unbiased legal services, legal training, documentation, and
policy advocacy for sex workers. Using a harm reduction and human rights
model, the SWP protects the rights and safety of sex workers who by choice,
circumstance, or coercion remain in the industry.317 Other programs, such
as Kims Project in Boston, offer non-coercive services, but operate under a
fundamentally anti-prostitution stance.318 By operating under this ideology,
these programs may alienate sex workers who do not perceive themselves as
being interested in leaving the sex trade. If abolitionists truly believe that
the vast majority of women want to leave sex work, then allowing them to
make the transition on their own terms with the full support of both current
and former sex workers would be their best method for accomplishing their
goal. Although identifying and assisting a womans authentic desires will be
difficult in light of the many factors playing into entrance into sex work, this
should not make a model that respects sex worker agency any less desirable.
This model would turn the supply and demand paradigm on its head: without
a supply of coerced sex workers, johns seeking sex would have to either go
without, or satisfy their desires in safe and fairly-negotiated ways with sex
workers who freely choose the profession.
315
But see generally Joanna Erdman, Access to Information on Safe Abortion: A
Harm Reduction and Human Rights Approach, 34 HARV. J.L. & GENDER 413 (2011)
(explaining, in the abortion context, the tension between harm reduction and human
rights approaches because of their underlying moral warrants. ). Id. at 416. Erdman
continues: Human rights are set against the normative neutrality of harm reduction,
which is characterized by a pragmatic (not principled) approach to health outcomes (not
social justice). Id.
316
See Ahmed, supra note 3, at 258 (explaining the benefits of supporting sex worker
programs).
317
Projects: Sex Workers, URBAN JUSTICE CTR., http://www.urbanjustice.org/ujc/
projects/sex.html (last visited Feb. 15, 2012).
318
See KIMS PROJECT, http://www.kimsproject.org (last visited Feb. 15, 2012)
(describing the goal of the program as: to provide positive alternatives, especially for
young adults, ensure their safety and raise awareness since engaging in prostitution or
related activities is often about poverty, as well as race and gender inequalities.). But
see Testimony at Online Sexual Exploitation Hearing (Oct. 19, 2010) (statement of Cherie
Jimenez, Kims Project Coordinator), available at http://www.mass.gov/ago/docs/community/testimony/kims-project.pdf (testifying on the cycle of abuse in prostitution and
against it as a vocational choice for most women).

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The question remains: what, if anything, should be done about johns?

If police and public officials were fully on board with an approach that
respected the autonomy of women, then the remaining pimps, johns, and
traffickers who are violent and abusive could be swiftly identified by sex
workerswho without stigma and fear, would be more willing to assist law
enforcement. These violent and exploitive men could then be dealt with by
the criminal justice system. In addition, laws that punish men who knowingly buy sex from trafficked and exploited women may be a beneficial tool
for combating the harms of prostitution. However, many of these laws as
they currently exist are dangerously overbroad, leaving sex buyerswho
typically will not know whether the women they buy sex from have been
trafficked319to the mercy of prosecutorial discretion.320 Because a prosecutor could likely convince a judge that the definition of trafficking in laws
like these cover women in any kind of coercive situationeven those at the
relatively harmless end of the spectrumsuch laws should be redrafted to
prevent the prosecution of men without genuinely malicious intent.
If we are willing to acknowledge that not all men who buy sex are evil,
perverted, or strange, then we can also refocus efforts to educate them.
Johns can be allies in identifying women in forced prostitution.321 Although
the success of public awareness campaigns is difficult to measure,322 efforts
to teach men signs to look for that indicate a woman may be selling sex
against her will would help bring anti-sex trafficking efforts to the forefront
in a productive way. General efforts to educate menstarting at a young
ageto respect womens autonomy and to obtain full and freely-given consent before any sexual contact would also reduce the number of men who
would be willing to buy sex from women who are exploited or coerced.
CONCLUSION
Efforts to combat human trafficking in the United States are fraught
with ideological divides that halt meaningful identification and provision of
aid to victims. Moralistic debates over sex work lead to a conflation of sex
work and trafficking that informs anti-trafficking efforts, to the detriment of
both true victims and voluntary sex workers, both of whom desperately need
319
See supra note 123 and accompanying text (explaining that most men cannot
identify whether a prostitute has been trafficked).
320
See supra Part III.C for a discussion of Massachusetts overbroad antitrafficking
law.
321
Cf. DODILLET & OSTERGREN, supra note 178, at 21 (discussing how the Swedish
law makes clients less willing to participate in prosecution of profiteers who exploit the
sexual labor of others); Brooks-Gordon, supra note 103, at 163 (discussing how full
criminalization of purchasing sex in the U.K. would lead the clients who currently contact the police if they have concerns about a sex workers situation [to] not do so for fear
of being criminalized.).
322
See supra Part II.B.3 (explaining that End Demand public awareness campaigns
have not had measurable results).

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assistance. The End Demand movement makes assumptions about sex buyers, characterizing them as deviants and the root of the trafficking problem.
Legal frameworks and programs designed to punish and shame these buyers
divert what scarce resources exist into unproven methods. Despite a lack of
reduction in either trafficking or sex work, abolitionists have continued to
push End Demand strategies, leading to changes in federal and state law
which will continue to at best maintain the status quo and at worst harm sex
workers by making their conditions worse. Although work approach feminists and human rights advocates have begun to respond directly to End
Demand rhetoric, an even stronger counter-effort will be necessary to prevent problematic policies focused on eliminating sex work and punishing
johns from taking further hold. In addition, work approach feminists should
make efforts to refocus anti-trafficking energies onto three main initiatives:
combating exploitive labor practices for people in all sectors of work, including sex work; providing comprehensive assistance to women in sex
work to help improve their health and conditions and enable them to leave
the sex trade if they so desire; and educating men on ways to avoid and
prevent the purchase of sex from exploited women. Although advocates will
likely face an uphill battle in convincing abolitionists that these goals are
most desirable, even small victories will give these efforts the attention they
need to gain traction against the current trend toward embracing End Demand strategies.

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MOVING BEYOND SUPPLY AND DEMAND CATCHPHRASES:

Assessing the uses and limitations of demand-based approaches in anti-trafficking
2011 Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)

Writer and researcher: Julie Ham

Contributing writer and researcher for chapter What is the link between trafficking and the demand for exploitative
labour practices?: Noushin Khushrushahi, Shareholder Association for Research & Education
Layout & design: Alfie Gordo
Cover: Photo Copyright RoyaltyFreeImages.net (http://www.royaltyfreeimages.net)
Printing: Suphattra Poonneam
Supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations
Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
P.O. Box 36, Bangkok Noi Post Office
Bangkok 10700 Thailand
Email: gaatw@gaatw.org
Website: www.gaatw.org

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction

................................................................................................................
What do we mean by the word demand in the anti-trafficking context? ........................................... 13
What do stakeholders usually say about demand? .......................................................................... 16

WHAT IS THE LINK BETWEEN TRAFFICKING

AND THE DEMAND FOR SEX WORK? ................................... 19
What does end demand mean in relation to sex work? ...................................................................
Why are end demand for prostitution approaches being promoted as an anti-trafficking strategy? ...
What consequences do end demand for prostitution approaches have on anti-trafficking efforts? ....
Which clients are impacted by end demand for prostitution approaches? .......................................
Are there any productive ways of looking at the demand for sex work that respects
sex workers rights? .........................................................................................................................
How would decriminalising sex work impact anti-trafficking efforts and demand? ............................

20
24
28
36
39
42

WHAT IS THE LINK BETWEEN TRAFFICKING

AND THE DEMAND FOR EXPLOITATIVE
LABOUR PRACTICES? ................................................................................ 47
What are exploitative labour practices? ............................................................................................
Why is there a demand for exploitative labour practices? .................................................................
Why is the demand for exploitable labour met by migrant labour? ....................................................
What approaches can reduce the demand for exploitative labour practices? .....................................

48
50
55
60

Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................
Suggested bibliography ....................................................................................................................
Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................
Endnotes .........................................................................................................................................

67
69
73
74

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Executive Summary
In the anti-trafficking sector, the concept of demand typically refers to consumers, employers and clients
demands for services provided by or products produced by trafficked labour. Although demand is widely
mentioned in the anti-trafficking literature (see page 16, What do stakeholders usually say about demand?),
most references to demand dont go beyond brief statements about:

Needing more research on demand;

Raising awareness to reduce demand;
Demand as a root cause of trafficking; and
Reducing demand as a trafficking prevention measure.

Generally, two different demand-based approaches are discussed as anti-trafficking strategies: (1) calling for
the elimination of the sex work sector, and (2) reducing the demand that enables exploitation in various
sectors where trafficking occurs.

The demand for sex work

End demand for prostitution approaches have been most heavily promoted by prostitution abolitionists, who
claim that penalising sex workers clients will help fight trafficking. Sex workers rights groups and some antitrafficking organisations (including GAATW) have strongly opposed criminal penalties against clients as this
approach:

Has not reduced trafficking or sex work;

Threatens sex workers income security and working conditions, such as by increasing competition
amongst sex workers, and increasing the vulnerability of sex workers who must negotiate with
nervous and scared clients (i.e. less time for workers to determine whether a potential client is
safe or not);
Has not stopped violent or abusive clients who are more experienced at evading law enforcement,
but has ended up impacting less experienced clients and good clients;
Dismisses and silences the concerns, priorities and knowledge of sex workers;
Muddles anti-trafficking efforts by confusing trafficking with sex work;
Increases polices power over sex workers; and
Increases stigma against women in sex work.

Sex workers rights groups and anti-trafficking allies have tried to shift the concept of demand in a more
rights-based direction by: trying to reduce the demand for unprotected paid sex (e.g. by empowering sex
workers to demand condom use), reducing the demand for exploitative labour practices within the sex work
sector, and increasing awareness among demand or clients about treating sex workers respectfully and
ethically. Many sex workers rights organisations also advocate for decriminalising consensual sex work while
retaining existing criminal penalties against violence in sex work. They and their allies argue that
decriminalisation of consensual sex work would:

Help prevent the misuse of anti-trafficking laws to punish women in sex work;
Impact the demand for commercial sex by increasing womens power to manage or negotiate
working conditions with clients;
Assist anti-trafficking efforts by fostering cooperation between police and sex workers;
Reduce police violence against sex workers by changing the amount of power police yield over
sex workers; and
Allow sex workers to report violence and exploitation to the police without fear of arrest.

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The demand for exploitative labour practices

Another anti-trafficking approach to demand focuses on tackling the demand for exploitative labour practices,
in any sector where trafficking can occur. In the sex work sector, re-framing demand-based efforts to reducing
the demand for exploitative labour practices in sex work may provide a more productive, rights-based approach
than the end demand for prostitution approaches currently touted by prostitution abolitionists.
The demand for exploitative labour practices (including, but not limited to the sex work sector) generally refers
to labour that is:

Low cost - including non-payment or underpayment;

Easy to control - including keeping workers from leaving abusive situations; and
Unprotected - social attitudes that normalise or justify exploitation and discrimination, unregulated
labour.

The demand for low cost, controllable and unprotected labour can stem from globalised economic processes
demanding increasingly flexible labour, and discrimination that can normalise or justify exploitation. Although
migrant labour isnt inherently exploitable, social and political processes can change migrant labour into
labour that can be exploited. Migrant labour becomes cheap, controllable and unprotected when:

Labour market demands are undermined by immigration policies;

Migrant workers are labelled or constructed as illegal; and when
Discrimination against migrants is normalised or justified.

Strategies to reduce the demand for exploitative labour practices include:

Creating legal migration channels for working-class migrant workers;

Ensuring coherence between immigration and labour policies;
Decriminalising migration and protecting migrants rights;
Enforcing labour standards and improving working conditions;
Reducing discrimination against migrants;
Raising awareness among investors and consumers on how they can help reduce demand.

Uses and limitations of demand-based approaches in

anti-trafficking
The usefulness of current demand-based approaches in anti-trafficking may be limited because:

The main focus on clients and consumers can mask significant structural factors that need to be
addressed, including poverty and restrictive immigration measures;
Simplistic economic analogies of supply and demand may not help to clarify complex social
issues, such as trafficking;
Demand-based approaches fail to acknowledge migrants and workers own demands, motivations,
aspirations, resistance strategies and recommendations; and
People talk about demand and supply as if theyre not connected.

Efforts to reduce the demand for exploitative labour practices may be more effective if stakeholders:

Recognise the different ways supply and demand can shape each other, e.g. a large supply of
cheap labour can increase the demand for domestic workers;
Focus efforts on reducing the ability of employers to demand vulnerable, exploitable labor, in any
sector, not just the sex work industry;
Listen to the supplys (i.e. workers) demands, such as the demand for safe migration opportunities,
and the demand for safe working conditions. It could well be that problems about demand would
be best met with supply-side solutions (i.e. strengthening workers rights). For example, how do
domestic workers organising efforts and labour protections change the expectations and behaviour
of employers?

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INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION
Do simple demandsupply equations assist
or impede our
understanding of
trafficking?

Moving beyond catchphrases

Demand is widely mentioned in the anti-trafficking sector
but few have looked at demand critically or substantively. It
is very common to hear urgent statements about reducing
demand but relatively few discussions about what demand
actually means (see page 16, What do stakeholders usually
say about demand?). The concept of demand can sound
legitimate enough to go unquestioned and familiar-sounding
enough to make catchphrases (e.g. trafficking is driven by
demand) sound credible. Everyone talks about it, but what
do we actually know about demand?

Incarceration and consumption

Weve structured this report into two sections. The first
section takes a closer look at approaches that call to end all
use of commercial sex services. End demand for prostitution
approaches have been most heavily promoted by prostitution
abolitionists who argue that penalising sex workers clients
will end trafficking in the sex industry. End demand for
prostitution approaches have been strongly opposed by sex
workers rights groups and their allies, for violating the rights
of women who make a living in sex work.
The second section explores the demand for exploitative
labour practices in a range of sectors in which trafficking
occurs, which can include but is not limited to, sex work.
End demand approaches for exploitative labour practices
have so far relied on consumer education strategies,
manufacturer codes of conduct and supply chain controls.

Assessing uses and limitations

of demand-based approaches
in trafficking
GAATW has for the most part, shied away from engaging in
or considering demand-based approaches. Since GAATWs
inception, our work has been grounded in the experiences,
knowledge and priorities of trafficked persons and their
communities. As such, most of our work has logically focused
on advocating for the rights of trafficked persons and migrant
women the concerns and rights of the supply, rather than
the demand. Demand-based discourses appear to recognise
migrant workers only as product to fit simplistic economic
analogies, rather than as persons with rights and aspirations.
A s s u c h , m i g r a n t r i g h t s o r g a n i s a t i o n s i n G A AT W s
membership have opposed using terms such as product and
supply because they reduce workers to commodities. In
addition, end demand approaches have been advocated most
strongly by prostitution abolitionist groups, which contradicts
GAATWs support for sex workers rights.
Do simple demand-supply equations assist or impede our
understanding of trafficking? Given the appeal of the demand

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discourse in some anti-trafficking circles, we decided to review

the current literature, to determine if it was possible to shape
demand-based approaches in a more rights-affirming direction.
We were also curious to see if it was possible to engage
productively on demand-based issues without perpetuating
some of its most problematic and troubling aspects, such as
the tendency to frame all sex workers clients as abusers.

Scope of our analysis

This guide is limited to

assessing the demand
for adult labour only;
analysis into the demand
for commercial sexual
exploitation of children
or child labour is beyond
the scope of this guide.

This information guide assesses the available online literature

on: (1) the demand for commercial sex, (2) the demand for
exploitative labour practices, and (3) the demand for migrant
labour, as they relate to anti-trafficking efforts. In addition to
accessing public online resources, we have also sought out
literature produced by GAATW member organisations. There
was a concerted attempt to seek out materials from a wide
range of sources, and materials gathered include literature
f r o m G A AT W m e m b e r o r g a n i s a t i o n s , a n t i - t r a ff i c k i n g
organisations, sex workers rights organisations, NGOs, UN
bodies, government offices, and academic researchers.
We have looked at English-language resources only, which
biases this report geographically and linguistically. In seeking
out materials (using trafficking and demand as main
keywords), a significant percentage of the literature
referencing demand comes from Western, English-language
sources. This is particularly the case regarding literature on
the demand for commercial sex, perhaps due to the rising
popularity of end demand for prostitution approaches in the
US, Australia, and parts of Europe. This bias may also be
partly due to the fact that discussions about demand in antitrafficking focus on countries of destination (such as Western
countries). As a result, this guide may read as particularly
Western-centric compared to other GAATW publications, as
most of the literature referenced here is from the UK, US,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
This guide is also limited to assessing the demand for adult
labour only; analysis into the demand for commercial sexual
exploitation of children or child labour is beyond the scope of
this guide.

A note about language:

Sex work and prostitution
The terminology around commercial sex can be very politically
loaded. Sex workers rights organisations typically refer to
commercial sex as sex work and some have argued against
using the term prostitution. Groups that are seeking to
eliminate all forms of sex work use the term prostitution and
reject the term sex work. Since its inception, GAATW has
supported sex workers rights and valued the role of sex
workers rights groups in anti-trafficking efforts. However, both
sex work and prostitution are used throughout this
document. In most cases, this is to maintain continuity

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between whose opinion is being stated; for example, prostitution is often used when abolitionist
efforts are being described, and sex work is used when sex workers rights groups are discussed.
In other instances, prostitution is used when discussing frameworks that use the term prostitution
rather than sex work, e.g. laws in many countries refer to prostitution rather than sex work.
Terms in quotes used in this document have also not been altered.

Abolitionist and prohibitionist

There is also contention around how to identify those who wish to eliminate all forms of sex work. Many of
those who wish to eliminate all forms of sex work identify themselves as abolitionists, i.e. working to abolish
prostitution. In this document, these groups are identified as prostitution abolitionists to differentiate them
from abolitionists in other movements (e.g. movement to abolish slavery). It should be noted that some sex
workers rights allies feel that prohibitionist is a more accurate description of these groups, as the measures
abolitionist groups call for are generally based on increasing criminal penalties around consensual sex work.
While prostitution abolitionists see their efforts as akin to abolishing slavery, sex workers rights allies and
others see them as prohibitionists and their efforts more akin to prohibiting a social vice.

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What do we mean by the word

demand in the anti-trafficking
context?
While accepting the need to address demand, it is important to acknowledge the limits
of a term that is not properly defined, is under-researched and is still subject to debate
and confusion.1 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Types of demand
The concept of demand in anti-trafficking is often ambiguous and ideologically loaded, particularly when
talking about sex work. Some have tried to clarify what demand can mean and how different definitions of
demand shape anti-trafficking efforts.
There are different types and different levels of demand2 3 4 5:

Third parties who recruit and traffic persons for forced labour or services;

Employers and businesses who use forced labour, whether its a specific demand for forced labour
or a demand for exploitative labour practices that is met with forced labour; and

Consumers of forced labour (e.g. employers of trafficked domestic workers) and/or products made
by forced labour.

In the highly polarised debates around sex work, prostitution abolitionist advocates define demand as: male
buyers of commercial sex services provided by female sex workers, persons who work in the sex trade industry
(e.g. receptionists, security, business owners), and states that tolerate prostitution.6 7
Demand in the anti-trafficking and labour rights context typically refers to the demand of employers for labour, or
the demand of consumers for cheap, available products (that may be manufactured by forced labour). Much less
is discussed about the demand from migrants for employment opportunities, womens demands for safe migration
options, or sex workers demands for better working conditions. This is one significant limitation of current demandbased discourses in anti-trafficking.
The International Labour Organisation has suggested that it may be more precise to talk about destination-side
factors rather than demand:
[D]emand refers to the desire and preference for a particular commodity, labour or
service while the demand side of trafficking refers to the nature and extent of
exploitation of the trafficked victims after reaching the destination point as well as the
social, cultural, political, economic, legal and development factors that shape the demand
and influence or enable the trafficking process.8
It is also important to acknowledge a distinction between the causes or factors that
shape demand and the demands themselves.9 - United Nations Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights
The concept of demand in anti-trafficking is sometimes seen as a way to talk about the complicity of countries
of destination in maintaining trafficking, and as a way to address the exploitation of workers in countries of
destination. However, the concept of demand may not be adequate to address all of the trafficking issues

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involving countries of destination. It also tends to ignore how globalization has resulted in the migration of work
beyond the migration of workers. For instance, the concept of demand in many contexts seems to bypass or
ignore governments human rights obligations by suggesting that the ultimate onus to stop trafficking lies with
individual consumers10, or bypass the global nature of companies which have relocated or outsourced to
countries with lower wages, and lower human rights standards.11

International documents that refer to demand

The UN Trafficking Protocol (or the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially
Women and Children), the foremost international tool on human trafficking, includes a very general reference
to demand:
States Parties shall adopt or strengthen legislative or other measures, such as educational,
social or cultural measures, including through bilateral and multilateral cooperation,
to discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially
women and children, that leads to trafficking.12
The Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking13 by the UN Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) references demand as a root cause of trafficking, and as
an area for trafficking prevention efforts, including: analysing the factors that generate demand for exploitative
commercial sexual services and exploitative labour and taking strong legislative, policy and other measures to
address these issues. In 2010, the UN OHCHR published a commentary to the Principles and Guidelines that
includes a useful overview of the opportunities and limitations of demand-based approaches in anti-trafficking.
The commentary:

Emphasises the need for clarity on what demand refers to;

Outlines states roles in reducing demand;

Analyses the links between demand and discrimination;

Discusses the use of criminalisation approaches to address demand; and

Emphasises the importance of labour protections in reducing the demand for trafficked labour.14

The African Unions Ouagadougou Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women
and Children calls for measures to reduce the demand for services involving the exploitation of victims of
trafficking in human beings.15 The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human
Beings and its Explanatory Report16, Article 6, identifies demand as a root cause of trafficking and calls for:
more research, more awareness, and targeting demand through prevention measures. The recent EU AntiTrafficking Directive, Article 25, states: Member States should establish and/or strengthen policies to prevent
trafficking in human beings, including measures to discourage and reduce the demand that fosters all forms
of exploitation.17
The US government has so far unfortunately taken a very narrow and ideological position on demand by
arguing, without citing any reliable evidence, that eliminating the demand for commercial sex will help fight
trafficking.18 This approach is reflected in the US governments annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report which
is used to influence anti-trafficking policy in various countries. In the annual US TIP report, countries that have
not increased criminal punishments against clients of sex workers (with no distinction between consensual
commercial sex and trafficked prostitution) are evaluated as not tackling demand adequately. This approach
has been strongly protested by sex workers rights groups, anti-trafficking organisations (including GAATW),
academics, researchers and other allies.19 They have protested that a narrow focus on demand for commercial
sex limits anti-trafficking efforts, simplistically confuses trafficking with sex work, results in human rights
violations against sex workers, and bases government policy on ideology rather than sound evidence.20

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Because it is known that the [US] State Department conflates all sex work with human
trafficking, it is often possible for a country to get off a watch list simply by enacting a
law which represses non-trafficked sex workers.21 Anna Weekes, Sex Worker
Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT)
We are deeply concerned that the [State Department document entitled Prevention:
Fighting Sex Trafficking by Curbing Demand for Prostitution] is illogical, misleading
and therefore potentially damaging to on-going efforts globally to prevent trafficking
and protect the rights of trafficked persons. The document moves policy away from
assessing actual factors contributing to human trafficking and evidence of what works
to end abuses, and towards programs and policies based on presumed associations
between male desires (so called demand) and the abuses of trafficking for forced
labor. The proposals and statements in the document threaten to divert precious
resources from protecting victims of trafficking who urgently need help into a politically
contested and futile anti-prostitution campaign.22 Rights Work Initiative

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What do stakeholders usually say

about demand?
Most mentions of demand dont extend far beyond what is mentioned in a few international anti-trafficking
instruments, such as the UN Human Trafficking Protocol, the UN OHCHR Recommended Principles and
Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, and the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against
Trafficking in Human Beings. This includes general statements that:

Research is needed to understand demand;

Awareness raising efforts can reduce demand;

Demand is a root cause of trafficking; and

Reducing demand as a prevention measure.

[W]ithout international consensus on the proper response to the consumption of

commercial sex, or the consumption of domestic services and labour within private
households, it is extremely hard to see how research on consumer demand in these
sectors is to provide a straightforward or politically neutral basis for policy
recommendations on trafficking.23 - Dr. Bridget Anderson and Dr. Julia OConnell
Davidson
Its puzzling to see how such an ambiguous concept like demand is used to simplify a complex issue as
trafficking. For instance, its common to read that trafficking is simply supply and demand or trafficking is
driven by demand, even though there isnt a lot of clarity on what demand actually means. The ambiguity
around demand can often make catchphrases such as trafficking is supply and demand more credible than
they might otherwise appear.
there is no international consensus on the central question behind any economic
analysis of trafficking24 - Commentary on Recommended Principles and Guidelines
on Human Rights and Human Trafficking
A simplistic supply and demand analogy often seems to rely on the idea of workers as products (e.g.
traffickers move victims like product). Ironically, one study found that trafficked persons would have more
rights as commodities under trade law than they may have as migrants.25
Defining trafficking as a simplistic supply and demand equation can miss other nuances that could help
clarify anti-trafficking strategies. Commodifying workers through demand-based discourses ignores the very
real fact that trafficked persons, migrants and workers are people who are trying to access labour and migration
opportunities for themselves and their families, and who often try to resist or escape exploitative situations.
It is the hidden interaction of demand and supply, desire and aspiration for a better life
that also makes them vulnerable to traffickers.26 International Labour Organisation
For instance, a study of sex worker recruitment along the Lao-Thai border found that the simplistic market
models used by the anti-trafficking sector were ultimately ineffective in reducing trafficking, as they did not
reflect the actual social processes that informed womens choices about work and migration.27 While the
simple supply/demand equation aided anti-trafficking organisations in organising their work, it didnt capture
the fact that womens motivations for entering sex work across the border also depended on womens desire
for anonymity.

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Several Lao sex workers who work in Nong Kai see their reason for working in Thailand
as such. Not only does it provide a taste of life in Thailand, but also allows them to
escape social policing and surveillance by community members at home. Several
informants said that if they worked in Laos they would be concerned that relatives and
friends would find out what type of job they were doing. Hence, working in Nong Kai
can be seen as a strategy to control information. Dr. Sverre Molland
Many casual references to supply/demand and trafficking seem to assume that demand creates the supply,
particularly in debates about prostitution. However, supply and demand can impact each other in various
ways; for example, supply can shape demand.28 For example, studies have found that a supply of cheap
domestic workers can create a need that wasnt otherwise there.29 30
Expatriate British employers who had managed with a weekly cleaner in the UK, found
that they needed to employ two live-in domestic workers in a similar sized house in
Bangkok. One interviewee stated that when she had lived in Indonesia, where domestic
workers were paid even less than in Thailand, she had employed eight domestic
workers. Similarly, client interviewees identified the visibility and affordability of
commercial sexual services as a factor influencing their decisions to buy sex.31 Dr.
Bridget Anderson

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18

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WHAT IS THE
LINK
BETWEEN
TRAFFICKING
AND THE
DEMAND FOR
SEX WORK?
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WHAT DOES
END
DEMAND
MEAN IN
RELATION TO
SEX WORK?

The idea of ending demand for the sex work sector has been most
promoted by prostitution abolitionists and strongly opposed by sex
workers rights groups. Prostitution abolitionists seek to eradicate
sex work or prostitution by reducing the number of men who pay
female sex workers for sexual services, or what they call the
demand for paid sexual services.32 33 In practice, this has typically
meant criminalising, incarcerating or shaming male clients who pay
for sexual services from women, and those who are perceived to
enable male clients to pay for sexual services (e.g. business owners,
culture, state).34
Simplistic solutions dont solve complex
problems: Prostitution is where sex and money
and gender and power all come together some
of the most actually and symbolically important
and complicated phenomena in our, or any,
society. Simple ideological solutions just dont
work.35 International Union of Sex Workers

What do we really know about

sex workers clients, or the
demand for commercial sex?
Research has found that sex work varies greatly across different
contexts, in terms of working conditions for sex workers, rates,
services provided, and what the buying and selling of sex means.36
37

The term prostitution does not refer to a

uniform experience. To describe as sex
slavery the condition of an adult woman who
works independently as an escort partly because
it satisfies her own personal interest in
anonymous sex and partly because she can earn
upwards of 2000 Euros per week from it is clearly
unsatisfactory, just as it would be unsatisfactory
to describe as a sex worker a teenager who
has been kidnapped, imprisoned and physically
forced to prostitute.38 Dr. Julia OConnell
Davidson

Research has found clients of sex workers to be a very heterogeneous

group with great diversity in their attitudes, behaviours, motivations,
preferences, and profiles.39 40 41 42 43 44 The research on sex workers
clients tends to be divided between studies that take an everyman
perspective where clients have not been found to be significantly
different than the general male population, and studies that have
taken a peculiar man perspective that frames paying for sexual
services as pathology or highly deviant.45

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In Scandinavia, social pressures to be a real

man seem to vie with strong social pressures
not to buy sex, turning prostitute-use into an
essentially private rather than public activity.
Conversely, our Thai respondents perceived
no tension between being a man and using
prostitutes, indeed prostitute-use was depicted
as normative masculine behaviour at certain
stages of the life-cycle and amongst certain
groups.46 Dr. Bridget Anderson and Dr. Julia
OConnell Davidson

The end demand for

prostitution approach
is based on certain
assumptions that are
strongly contested by
sex workers.

The cost of commercial sex can influence demand, with some

clients preferring lower prices and some clients seeking out higherpriced sex workers.47 48 In addition to cost, clients preferences
can also depend on age, attractiveness, personality and
character49, virginity50, body type, and racialised identities.
Another reason why Thai sex workers were
preferred by interviewees was simply that it is
easier for Thai clients to communicate with
them Its hard to have sex without talking,
because if you cant talk, you lose the feeling.
Questioned about the relative merits of local
and migrant sex workers, Danish interviewees
also stated that it is preferable to use a worker
who speaks the same language. They too
placed local workers at the top of the
prostitution hierarchy, arguing that Danish sex
workers offer a better service than migrant
women.51 Dr. Julia OConnell Davidson

What assumptions is the end

demand for prostitution
approach based on?
The end demand for prostitution approach is based on certain
assumptions that are strongly contested by sex workers, including
the following:

Demand shaping supply vs.

supply shaping demand
A few prominent prostitution abolitionists argue that supply (or
sex workers) is solely determined by mens demand for prostitution
and by those who are perceived to enable male clients to pay for
sexual services from female sex workers (e.g. business owners).52
53 54

Others have suggested that supply may be just as or more likely

to shape demand than the other way around.55 56 Visibility and
affordability of commercial sexual services also factor into clients
decisions to pay for sexual services.57

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It is not the number of customers but economic trends and social conditions such as
unemployment and a shortage of living wage opportunities that determine the number
of sex workers at any given time.58 Urban Justice Center Working Group on Sex
Work and Human Rights (New York City)
[T]he decision to buy sex is partly shaped by cost considerations. If the price of
commercial sexual services rose to one million dollars a piece, then demand would
certainly fall dramatically. In this sense, we can say that a supply of prostitutes who are
willing or forced to sell sex at affordable prices creates demand as much as the other
way about.59 Dr. Julia OConnell Davidson

Violence in sex work vs. sex work as violence

Violence against sex workers is identified as a priority by both sex workers rights groups and prostitution
abolitionists although they define the issue very differently. Prostitution abolitionists believe that sex work is
inherently about violence, and that all sex work constitutes violence against women.60 61
Sex workers rights groups have also identified violence as an urgent issue but argue that it is about addressing
violence that occurs in sex work. Sex workers rights groups have argued that violence by the police and by the
state is the greater threat to womens safety.62
Sex workers rights groups have also argued that client criminalisation measures have resulted in sex workers
having to accept more violent or abusive clients as the pool of good clients diminishes.63
sex work is to trafficking as sex is to rape: Just as we can work to end sexual assault
without trying to end all sex, we can work to end trafficking without trying to eradicate
sex work. And just as we can support survivors of sexual assault without blaming them
(although that certainly isnt how lots of people approach the issue), we can support
people who have been trafficked without criminalizing them.If you understand the
difference between sex and rape, then you understand the difference between sex work
and trafficking.64 Charlie Glickman

Sex workers right to consent and to have their

consent respected
One of the main disagreements between prostitution abolitionists and sex workers rights allies (apart from the
obvious) is the abolitionist belief that sex workers consent doesnt matter or that women are incapable of
consenting to a sexual interaction if there is money involved: This is not to deny that some women do consent
to their own exploitationwe maintain, however, that consent is not the issue.65
From a sex workers rights perspective, the idea that womens consent can be ignored perpetuates gender
inequality. The idea that it is okay to ignore a womans consent because she is in sex work is also puzzling
when women have rights based on multiple identities. If women are not allowed to have their consent
acknowledged as sex workers, is their consent allowed as migrant women, or as workers?

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This is not consistent with the ambition of empowerment that contemporary social
work perceives as an important platform for its work. To unilaterally proclaim someone
as an exploited victim or needy belongs to the so-called paternalistic tradition where
the experts have power to define the clients.66 Department of Social Work, University
of Gothenburg, Sweden

Sexual services vs. sexual commodities

Prostitution abolitionists continue to argue that women in sex work can only be commodities that clients can
use however they wish.67 68 Sex workers rights groups and their allies argue that sex work is about the
negotiation for sexual services not ownership of bodies, and that all sex workers should have the right to
determine what services they provide and under what circumstances, what clients they will see, and how
much they charge.

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WHY ARE END

DEMAND FOR
PROSTITUTION
APPROACHES
BEING
PROMOTED AS
AN ANTITRAFFICKING
STRATEGY?

Trafficking in the sex work

sector
End demand for prostitution advocates have sometimes
argued that because trafficking occurs in the commercial sex
sector, eliminating sex work will eliminate trafficking. 69 70 This
argument has been critiqued by anti-trafficking organisations,
including GAATW, and sex workers rights organisations for
being a simplistic and misguided solution. For instance,
feminists have also struggled to get domestic violence
recognised as violence. However, few have publicly argued
that the institution of marriage should be abolished to
eradicate domestic violence. Trafficking is about profit and
exploitation eliminating a whole sector wouldnt necessarily
eliminate trafficking, but would move it to another sector or
site where workers lack rights protection.
It would be nonsensical to abolish all forms
of garment manufacturing in which people
are trafficked; rather, states must monitor
recruitment practices, protect labour rights
of garment workers, ensure occupational
health and safety and like measures. 71
GAATW
The argument that trafficking occurs mainly because men pay
for sexual services ignores the significant structural factors
that cause forced labour and debt bondage in various sectors.
A demand-based focus hides the fact that
trafficking is not about prostitution but
about poverty. It blames clients instead of
putting the responsibility onto governments
to address these injustices. 72 English
Collective of Prostitutes
[C]lients demand for sexual services cannot
in general be understood as what causes
t r a ff i c k i n g i n t o t h e s e x s e c t o r. 7 3
International Labour Organisation
Anti-trafficking and anti-violence efforts need to distinguish
between seeking commercial sexual services from a sex
worker, and seeking out trafficked or exploited labour. There
is more research available on clients of sex workers than on
clients of trafficked women in prostitution. 74 There is no
evidence that the bulk of clients wish to receive services
provided by exploited labour, whether for ethical reasons and/
or selfish reasons. There is evidence that some violent
offenders seek out sex workers, partially because their
extremely marginalised status is unlikely to attract notice or
concern from authorities. 75 76

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Moreover, to insist that they do not buy

sex from unfree workers is a way in which
many clients claim social status. It
establishes the fact that they themselves
are
not
p o o r,
uneducated,
unsophisticated, immoral and/or migrant.
However, it was very clearly the case that
these clients were much less likely to pay
for sex with unfree workers than were
clients who imagined prostitutes as
objects of trade and/or who deliberately
sought out the most vulnerable sex
workers in order to exercise greater
control within the prostituteclient
t r a n s a c t i o n . 7 7 D r. J u l i a O C o n n e l l
Davidson
[W]hen interviewees spoke of the
immorality of forced prostitution, such
comments were invariably followed by, or
interwoven with, comments to the effect
that they personally would find it a sexual
turn-off to use a worker who they could
not imagine had freely chosen
prostitution, and/or that prostitutes
working in the poorest conditions are less
likely to be able to provide them with the
kind of service they prefer. 78 Dr. Bridget
A n d e r s o n a n d D r. J u l i a O C o n n e l l
Davidson

The Swedish model

The Swedish governments Sex Purchase Act (1999), or the
Swedish model is probably the most well-known example
of a law explicitly prohibiting the purchase of sexual
services, or a demand-based approach. Swedens Sex
Purchase Act is based on a view that defines prostitution
as a form of gender inequality and violence against women.
In this analysis, men who pay for sexual services are
perceived to be the main cause of trafficking and
prostitution. 79
Another unique aspect of the Sex
Purchase Act is how persistently the ban,
or the Swedish model, has been
marketed. One of the stated aims from the
very outset was to export it to other
countries. Both governments, authorities,
political actors and Non Governmental
Organizations (NGOs) have devoted time
and money to market it internationally.
Pamphlets, websites, articles, books and
movies have been produced and lobby
activities have been conducted towards

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the European Union (EU) and the rest of the world with the help of this material
and via workshops, seminars and debates. 80 - Susanne Dodillet and Petra
stergren
For more information, see What consequences do end demand for prostitution approaches have
on anti-trafficking efforts? (page 28).

US governments anti-prostitution pledge and

anti-trafficking rankings
The confusion between eliminating prostitution and tackling trafficking was institutionalised by the
US government under the Bush administration. 81 The PEPFAR pledge (or the US Presidents
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) requires all funding recipients to explicitly oppose sex work. 82
Therefore, sex worker-led organisations working on HIV/AIDS prevention and/or trafficking are unable
to access US funding.
Over the last six years, the broad scope of the U.S. anti-trafficking policy has
been gradually narrowed to fit an prostitution agenda that is based on the
unproven belief that all prostitution (even legal prostitution in Nevada) is
trafficking, and so criminalizing prostitution, as well as clients, is promoted as
a purported means to stop prostitution and to stop trafficking for prostitution.
This approach assumes that, once all men who buy sex are in prison, all women
in prostitution will magically disappear and find other means of support. 83
Ann Jordan, Director of the Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons, Global
Rights
The US State Departments annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report evaluates countries on their
anti-trafficking efforts and ties US aid or trade relations to countries rankings. One of these criteria
is whether countries have increased criminal punishments against clients of sex workers (regardless
of whether transactions are consensual or not). This approach has been strongly protested by sex
workers rights groups, anti-trafficking organisations (including GAATW), academics, researchers
and other allies. 84
Because it is known that the [US] State Department conflates all sex work with
human trafficking, it is often possible for a country to get off a watch list simply
by enacting a law which represses non-trafficked sex workers.85 Anna Weekes,
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT)
The USs approach is in direct contrast to the primary international instrument on trafficking, the
UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
(or the UN Human Trafficking Protocol):
The value of the definition of trafficking in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, is the
autonomy it gives to governments to take their own positions on consensual
prostitution, while requiring them to criminalise all coerced prostitution. 86
GAATW and La Strada International, a European anti-trafficking network and
GAATW member

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A more media-friendly guise for prostitution

abolitionist agendas
The prostitution abolitionist discourse has been criticised for relying on sensationalistic and hyperbolic
statements, misrepresenting or ignoring research, disseminating misinformation, and making
emotional generalisations about all sex workers as victims and all clients as predators. 87 88
However, the demand discourse as it relates to sex work still has great public appeal. Approaches
based on criminalization or incarceration approaches can be easily critiqued, particularly given the
increasing awareness of the prison-industrial complex and the impact of militarisation on womens
rights. Those who might otherwise question the idea of criminalising consensual commercial sex
transactions or threatening sex workers income security might be more willing to accept a softersounding approach about demand.

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WHAT
CONSEQUENCES
DO END
DEMAND FOR
PROSTITUTION
APPROACHES
HAVE ON
ANTITRAFFICKING
EFFORTS?

Human rights based anti-trafficking organisations (including GAATW)

and sex workers rights organisations have protested the use of end
demand for prostitution approaches or criminalising sex workers
clients as an anti-trafficking strategy. Criminalising all clients of sex
workers goes against several of the principles GAATW advocates
for in all anti-trafficking efforts89, including:

Anti-trafficking measures must be developed in

consultation with groups affected by trafficking and/or
anti-trafficking measures;

Groups such as sex workers have a valuable role to

play in formulating solutions and countering trafficking;

Anti-trafficking efforts must be based on evidence and

recognise all forms of trafficking in various sectors,
including the trafficking of men; and

Anti-trafficking measures should not result in further

human rights violations against stigmatised groups.

End demand for prostitution approaches tend to contradict these

principles. Evidence has shown that end demand for prostitution
approaches90 91 92 93:

dont reduce trafficking;

ignores trafficking into other sectors;

tends to rely more on ideology rather than sound

evidence;

confuses trafficking with sex work;

increases stigma against sex workers; and

is more focused on punishing men who pay for sexual

services, rather than protecting womens rights.

We maintain that the issue of demand should

be discussed in all its complexity and states
should not be led to believe that by criminalising
prostitution they can address the demand for
trafficked persons labour or cheap labour or
even exploitation within prostitution. States must
be held accountable for the model of
development they are adopting, which is
increasing the vulnerability of many women and
men.94 La Strada International, a European
anti-trafficking network and GAATW member
Several sex workers say that they feel used by
politicians, feminists and the media. They think
that sex workers are only listened to and being
paid attention to if they say the correct things,
i.e. that they find prostitution appalling, that they
are victims, that they have stopped selling sex

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and will never go back, and that they are

grateful to the current prostitution policy and
to the policy makersThey question whether
any other social group would have been so
consistently excluded from any relevant policy
making process.95 Petra stergren

The Swedish model has not

reduced trafficking for
prostitution
The Swedish governments Sex Purchase Act (1999), or the
Swedish model is generally known for purportedly punishing the
clients of sex workers only, and for defining all women in prostitution
as victims.96 In a 2010 official evaluation of the Sex Purchase
Act, the Swedish government claimed that increasing criminal
punishments against sex workers clients: reduced prostitution,
reduced trafficking for the purposes of prostitution, decreased the
number of clients, and reformed social attitudes.97
However, these claims have been strongly refuted by various sex
workers rights groups, sex work researchers, anti-discrimination
researchers, and policymakers, both inside and outside Sweden.98
The Swedish governments evaluation of the Sex Purchase Act
has been heavily criticised for:

Lacking a sound research methodology;

Uncertainty about quantitative estimates before and

after the legislation was passed;

Lacking an objective starting point, as it was stated

from the outset that the legislation would continue to
be in effect regardless of the evaluations findings;

Conflating trafficking and prostitution;

Using a very narrow understanding of prostitution;

Lacking analysis of confounding factors; and

Not consulting with sex workers: Since sex workers

had not been given enough opportunity to participate
in the official evaluation and influence the definition
of their own needs and their situation, it claimed that
the evaluation contributed to their disempowerment.99

After a close examination of the Swedish governments

evaluation of the Sex Purchase Act, the consensus among
sex workers rights advocates, anti-discrimination and sex
work researchers and other stakeholders (in Sweden and
internationally) is that the Sex Purchase Act100:

Has not reduced trafficking for the purposes of

prostitution

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Has not reduced sex work

Has not deterred clients

In Sweden, the consensus is that visible street-based sex work decreased by half immediately after the law
was introduced. However, levels of street-based sex work have been gradually returning to about 2/3 of the
extent prior to the legislation.101 There is also general agreement that sex work didnt decrease but moved
indoors and online.
Although the Swedish Police have claimed that the ban on purchasing sex has deterred criminals, the National
Council for Crime Prevention pointed out that the legislative ban can be perceived as either a barrier or a tool,
by increasing the price of sexual services in a criminalised climate.
On the one hand it can reduce the number of women used in trafficking but also
provide a reasonably good profit for those traffickers that have the capacity to provide
sexual services without being caught by the authorities. This in turn makes Sweden an
attractive country for the more sophisticated criminal.102
Sweden has not generally had great flows of trafficking for prostitution, either before or after the ban, with less
than 50 people reported for trafficking for sexual purposes per year, from 2003 to 2010.103
The international attention paid to Swedens efforts to combat trafficking for prostitution contrasts with other
trafficking and labour exploitation issues in Sweden which have received far less attention. For example, in
2010, the Lomsjo berry company refused to pay 156 Thai workers who had been recruited to Sweden to work
on farms.104 105
The growing abandoned worker phenomenon in Sweden is partly the result of a new
law, pushed through by immigration authorities last year. The law guarantees seasonal
workers a minimum monthly salary of two thousand five hundred dollars. That may
sound good. But recruiters and berry companies have used this law to lure Asian workers
to Sweden, getting them to lay out their own money for the plane fare. No one is really
sure if and when the government will pay out the salary guarantee to the cheated
workers.106
Swedens approach also confuses the distinction between trafficking women and women migrating to Sweden
for sex work. In 2006, the National Police Board introduced a new but vaguely defined term called traffickinglike prostitution which is foreign women who during a temporary visit to Sweden, offer sexual services.107
This can only confuse Swedens anti-trafficking efforts by defining trafficking as a crime of illegal migration,
rather than exploitation.

Demand-based approaches, i.e. criminalising clients,

muddles anti-trafficking efforts
Trafficking is a gross human rights violation which demands effective intervention. Given its seriousness and
complexity, its imperative that anti-trafficking measures actually impact trafficking rather than simply promoting
a particular ideology about sex work.108
La Strada International promotes the rights of sex workers, but does not promote a specific
legislation on prostitution. La Strada International does not advocate the abolition of
prostitution or the criminalisation of clients of sex workers. Human trafficking occurs both
in countries where sex work is legal and in countries where aspects of commercial sex are
criminalised. La Strada International is convinced that focusing the debate on the abolition
of sex work will not lead to the protection of the human rights of the women concerned.109
La Strada International, a European anti-trafficking organisation and GAATW member

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Anti-trafficking organisations have also pointed out that in some cases, clients can or have helped to identify
trafficked persons and helped women escape trafficked situations.110 111 112
Criminalising the client means that clients of sex workers are lost as potential sources
of information about the abuse, exploitation or trafficking of people in the industry.
Sex workers who are trapped or exploited have regular contact with clients, and these
clients are often the only people sex workers can confide in if they are being kept
against their will. If clients themselves were considered criminals they would certainly
be very reluctant to come forward to assist these women. Sex workers themselves are
often experts at identifying sources of exploitation.113 Nicol Fick, Sex Worker
Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT), South Africa

End demand for prostitution approaches dismiss and

silence the concerns, priorities and knowledge of sex
workers
One of GAATWs main messages over the years has been that anti-trafficking measures must be developed in
genuine consultation with groups that are most affected by trafficking and/or anti-trafficking measures, including
sex workers.114 The end demand for prostitution approach purportedly tries not to marginalise sex workers by
focusing on their clients. However, the end demand for prostitution framework threatens sex workers income
and ultimately relegates all women in sex work to the role of victims. This is reinforced by attitudes that argue
sex workers who do speak up are in denial, not in the right mind, self-hating or in effect, deserve to lose the
right of custody over ones body.115
We are saddened that the effort of sex workers themselves are not supported by many
feminists who in fact prefer to see us as victims or threats rather than as allies in the
fight for womens rights116
Since its inception, GAATW has valued the role of sex workers rights organisations in anti-trafficking efforts.
End demand for prostitution approaches not only threaten the effectiveness of anti-trafficking efforts, they can
often place sex workers at greater risk of violence and exploitation.

They harm those they supposedly seek to protect

Laws targeting demand (i.e. clients of sex workers) often end up endangering and victimising the supply (i.e.
sex workers), rather than decreasing demand.117
Efforts to reduce demand seem to have mixed results, although the evidence is weak. It
appears that the consequences of policy changes are often hidden or practically
immeasurable. Also the risk of displacement threatens to negate any gains of enforcement
activity making prostitution an even more hidden and secretive enterprise.118
End demand or criminalisation approaches not only fail to reduce trafficking and sex work, but they have also
resulted in further harms and human rights violations against sex workers (supposedly the group end demand
approaches are meant to protect).
The Committee considers all forms of criminalisation run the risk of driving prostitution
underground and producing negative health and safety consequences for sex workers.119
- Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform Act
2003, New Zealand

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The World AIDS Campaign argues that the criminalisation of sex work, including demand-based approaches
violates the following rights of sex workers:120

The right to dignity

The right to non-discrimination

Access to health care services

The right to bodily and psychological integrity

Freedom of thought, belief and opinion

The right to choose ones trade, occupation or profession freely

The Swedish model still includes laws against women in sex work
The general perception that the Swedish governments Sex Purchase Act (1999) only punishes sex workers
clients is a misinterpretation. Sweden still retains laws against pandering, which typically means pimping or
promoting anothers involvement in sex work, but which could also be used to criminalise sex workers partners
(e.g. spouses) and activities such as condom distribution. Sweden also retains laws governing the forced
eviction of tenants in apartments used for prostitution:
The overall implications of these laws is that no one can operate a brothel, rent an
apartment, room or hotel room, assist with finding clients, act as a security guard or
allow advertising for sex workers. This in turn implies that sex workers cannot work
together, recommend customers to each other, advertise, work from property they rent
or own or even cohabit with a partner (since that partner is likely to share part of any
income derived from sex work.).121 Susanne Dodillet and Petra stergren
Swedish law also allows the government to target women migrating to Sweden for sex work, through the Aliens
Act:
Foreigners who have residence permits may be refused entry if it can be assumed that
the person will commit a crime or that he or she will not support themselves by honest
means during their stay (Chapter 8, 2.2). This includes engaging in prostitution.122
Susanne Dodillet and Petra stergren

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Criminalising sex workers clients threatens sex workers income security and working
conditions
The criminalisation approach doesnt work because how do you empower people if
you threaten their livelihood?123 Dr. Nick Mai

One of the obvious harms of end demand for prostitution approaches

is that they seek to eliminate sex workers main source of income.
Some prostitution abolitionist and other organisations have set up
alternative livelihood options, which vary in their scope and in the amount
of autonomy given to workers. Programs that increase livelihood options
for women can be meaningful. However, anti-trafficking stakeholders
should be critical of any rehabilitation measures that attempt to turn
sex workers into another pool of available, cheap and easily exploitable
labour for manufacturing and production sectors.124 125
Although end demand for prostitution approaches are trying to eliminate
prostitution, they may end up entrenching women further in sex work
and increasing the risk of violence. Less demand or less business can
put sex workers in situations where they feel pressured to take on
more dangerous clients, work longer hours, lower their rates, or engage
in unsafe work practices. Sex workers may feel the need to work alone
and/or work in more isolated locations, in order to avoid detection by
law enforcement. 126 127 128 129

One social worker says, for instance, that she can see how some women take greater
risks, get into cars where there is more than one man and accept lower prices. Whereas
people in Stockholm say that the demand is always greater than the supply on the
street, the people in Malm say that the clients are so few that women have to accept
those they would have refused earlier, in order to make enough money for drugs.130 Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
[In Sweden] As a result of the law against procurement, sex workers must lie in order to
rent premises, or they have to pay exorbitant rent.The law also makes it difficult for
sex workers to cohabit with a partner, since it is illegal to receive any of a sex workers
income.131 FIRST, a sex worker ally group, Canada

Criminalising sex workers clients increases polices power over sex workers
Sex workers rights groups have identified police brutality and police harassment as one of the greatest threats
of violence against sex workers.132 133 Even if only one party is criminalised, transactions still have the potential
for police harassment and exploitation.
Increasing criminal penalties against sex workers clients reinforces polices power over sex workers134 and:

Entrenches the traditional mistrust between sex workers and law enforcement;

Does nothing to address abuse and exploitation by law enforcement (e.g. confiscating sex workers
money); and

Reduces the likelihood that sex workers will inform law enforcement if they need assistance, if
they experience violence, or if they encounter cases of trafficking.135 136 137

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The ISS [Institute for Security Studies]/SWEAT [Sex Worker Education and Advocacy
Taskforce] found that 47% of street-based sex workers had been threatened with violence
by the police, 63% had been sword at by a police officer, 12% had been raped by a
police officer and nearly a third had been asked for sex in exchange for being released
from custody. 138 Marlise Richter, University of Ghent, Belgium and Dr. Chandr
Gould, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa
[In Sweden] Instead of the police being a source of protection, sex workers feel hunted
by them, and are subjected to invasive searches and questioning. There is also a problem
in that they are in an unclear legal position they can be made to testify in a trial but
they neither enjoy the rights of the accused nor of the victim.139 Susanne Dodillet and
Petra stergren

Criminalising sex workers clients increases stigma against women in sex work
The stigma around sex work can make it harder for women to exit sex work and/or access health services, and
labour rights protections. In Sweden, there is general consensus that the Sex Purchase Act has endangered
sex workers health and well-being.140 Incredibly, the governments 2010 official evaluation argued that the
increased stigmatisation and vulnerability of sex workers was a positive result of the Sex Purchase Act; in
other words, endangering sex workers helps fight prostitution.
Its very easy for a prostitute to lose her children now in Sweden. If they know you are
prostitute, they have their eyes on you.141 Testimony by Swedish sex worker
Both UNAIDS and WHO [World Health Organisation] recognise criminalisation of sex
workers and clients facilitates disease transmission. When you criminalise prostitution,
you add stigma and discrimination, and you add vulnerability.142 Dr. Mariangela
Simao, head of the National AIDS Campaign at the Brazilian Ministry of Health
An Australian study found that legal approaches didnt affect the prevalence or number of sex work businesses
or clients, but that it did affect sex workers working conditions and access to healthcare. The study compared
the prevalence of commercial sex and sex workers access to health promotion services in three Australian
cities with different legal approaches to sex work: legalised with licensed and unlicensed brothels (Melbourne),
completely criminalised (Perth), and decriminalised (Sydney). Brothels in Perth had the lowest health and
safety levels, licensed brothels in Melbourne had higher health and safety levels than unlicensed brothels, and
sex workers in Sydney reported the greatest access to health and safety services.143

Prostitution abolitionist ideas can normalise violence against sex workers

Abolitionists supposedly do not intend to criminalise women in sex work but its possible prostitution abolitionist
perspectives can lead to the harms they are ostensibly against. Clients with similar attitudes as abolitionists
(e.g. women are commodities, it is impossible to rape a prostitute) may be more likely to be violent or abusive
than clients that subscribe to a sex workers rights perspective (e.g. sexual services should be negotiated
between a worker and client, sex workers have the right to work safely).
OConnell Davidson (2003) found that men who saw prostitution as just another sector of work were more likely
to be concerned about women trafficked into prostitution. Clients who were most likely to use the services of
trafficked persons shared abolitionist ideas that women were commodities and that payment signified ownership,
not exchange.144

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35

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WHICH
CLIENTS ARE
IMPACTED
BY END
DEMAND
FOR
PROSTITUTION
APPROACHES?

The notion of punishing all buyers in commercial sex transactions

may hold emotional appeal for those morally opposed to prostitution.
Others may be more troubled by the idea of policing or penalising
consensual sexual interactions that involve a commercial exchange.
Movements against the growing prison-industrial sector have also
articulated reasons against using incarceration and criminalisation
as the primary solution for social and economic issues.
Of course, it would be possible to extend the
logic of the penalise the buyer approach to
all forms of sex commerce: a total ban on all
forms of sexualised entertainment and
pornography involving actors/models; raids on
private homes and monitoring of private bank
accounts to ensure that people are not using
the internet to access sex workers; phone taps
to ensure that telephone sex is not being
consumed. But most would balk at the civil
liberties implications of such an approach.148
Dr. Julia OConnell Davidson
Research has found that John schools149 or educational programs
to rehabilitate male customers may change attitudes but not
behaviour, and have not shown to be a cost-effective strategy for
reducing prostitution.150 151
Criminalising the buying of sexual services may
represent a means of shoring up existing social
norms against sex buying in a country like
Sweden, but calls to penalise the buyer seem
rather less realistic in settings where prostitute
use is widely socially accepted as a normal
aspect of male sexual behaviour, and particularly
unworkable in settings where more than 70 per
cent of male police officers may themselves have
experience of buying sex. 152 Dr. Julia
OConnell Davidson
Others have expressed strong concerns that end demand for
prostitution policies would result in law enforcement targeting men
already under increased police surveillance, such as men in workingclass, immigrant, and visible minority communities or clients of streetbased sex workers.153 154
The possibilities for enforcing any ban were
viewed as limited since any measures would
operate against the market on the streets, but
the more hidden (luxury) prostitution would get
off free. This type of criminalisation is a classbased law.155 Working Group on the legal
regulation of the purchase of sexual services
The purchase of sexual services is a typical
surveillance crime. If resources are allocated,

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more crimes can be detected and penalized.

According to police officers interviewed in the
evaluation, the number of reported could be
multiplied if this crime was a priority in
everyday operations. With this reasoning,
one can get the kind of criminality one desires
(Christie 2004). The police activity itself
produces more and more crimes, which in turn
can justify why more resources are needed to
combat sex purchase via policing. 156
Department of Criminology, Stockholm
University
Using incarceration to address a moral opposition to prostitution
can have serious long-term effects on peoples access to
employment options and social integration. Approaches that call
for criminalising clients and other exploiters can also end up
criminalising women in the sex industry who are not sex workers,
e.g. maids, receptionists, business owners.
That conviction has ruined my life. I have
tried for all kinds of jobs since then and it has
always come up.Sometimes they dont tell
me outright its because of my record, but I
can tell by the way they look at me.157 a
maid who was charged with brothel-keeping
(UK)
Many respondents agreed that campaigns to
harass customers simply move the problem
from one area to another. In other jurisdictions,
these initiatives have been stopped after
accusations that they resulted in family breakups and divorces. Some participants who had
experience with these campaigns agreed that
they did not work and that, in most cases, the
media are not willing to participate in these
campaigns by publishing names of
customers.158
Working Group on Prostitution, Canada
(established by the Federal, Provincial and
Territorial Deputy Ministers Responsible for
Justice)

Are end demand for prostitution approaches at

least successful at stopping violent or abusive
clients?
End demand for prostitution approaches that seek to punish all
clients is an ineffective strategy of reducing violence against sex
workers, as sex workers still stress that they are unable to get
their concerns taken seriously by law enforcement and other
authorities.

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End demand for

prostitution
approaches can
sometimes also end
up validating social
attitudes that
tolerate violence
and social hatred
against sex
workers.

Sex workers rights groups and their allies have strongly advocated
to address violence against sex workers (mainly police violence,
but also including violent clients). The end demand for prostitution
or criminalisation approaches, however, argue that no distinction
should be made between what sex workers define as exploitative or
abusive behaviour, and what sex workers define as a consensual,
commercial transaction.
Ironically, even though so much of the so-called
training is about violence, the John School in
Britain specifically excludes clients who have
been reported as violent.159 Sabina Walker
They [the police] arrived where we were working
from, when they got there the client was on top
of me, when they got there they said [incomplete
statement]... the client was scared already,
because they were already here threatening to
arrest us, so they said to him Continue what
you have been doing. He did it in front of them
watching. Then they beat him up so bad. Then
they pulled him down the stairs and they took
his money. They told him that he doesnt give
them the money, they will arrest him, so he had
to take all the money he had in the wallet and
gave it to them. They went and left him like that
with nothing on him.160 female sex worker,
South Africa
End demand for prostitution approaches can sometimes also end
up validating social attitudes that tolerate violence and social hatred
against sex workers. Some have expressed concern that John
school curricula is used to nurture hatred against sex workers and
perpetuate myths about sex workers as violent and diseased.161 162
There are some sex workers organisations that have published
materials and information resources on how clients can act
responsibly and ethically (see page 40 for Encouraging clients to
act responsibly, increasing awareness about sex workers rights
among demand or clients); however, sex workers organisations
have typically not been consulted in the development of John schools.
Researchers observing Johns Schools in action
found that presenters cautioned participants that
drug addicted prostitutes have stabbed their
clients with AIDS infected needles as a way of
scaring men straight. Consequently program
participants were less sympathetic towards
women who are sex workers after they had
completed the program. These stigmatizing
attitudes can fuel violence towards sex
workers.163 Best Practices Policy Project, a
US sex workers rights organisation

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[T]here is a distinction between arguing for a

human rights approach that provides
individuals with the tools to fight exploitation
and abuse, a vital component in any antitrafficking strategy, and one that that argues
for or against the legalization of prostitution.164
- GAATW
The current focus on criminalising the demand in sex work
ultimately stems from the prostitution abolitionist movement, not
the sex workers rights movement or from human rights based
anti-trafficking organisations, for that matter.
However, the sex workers movement and human rights-based antitrafficking organisations have tried to shape the concept of demand
in a more rights-affirming direction by emphasising that efforts
should be directed towards increasing the power of women in labour
and migration, rather than punishing or incarcerating consumers.
GAATW submits that any approach to
trafficking cannot be confined to an analysis
of the criminalization and legalization of sex
work. It must begin from a human rights based
approach, sound research and dialogue with
all stakeholders, including prostitutes
themselves.165

ARE THERE
ANY
PRODUCTIVE
WAYS OF
LOOKING AT
THE DEMAND
FOR SEX
WORK THAT
RESPECTS SEX
WORKERS
RIGHTS?

Addressing these causes of the supply will

do far more to protect the rights of sex workers
and of trafficked persons than ineffective
attempts to curb demand.166 - Emilia Casella
& Irene Martinetti, Columbia University,
School of International and Public Affairs

Reducing the demand for

exploitative labour practices,
i.e. improving working
conditions for all sex workers
From a human rights as well as a business perspective, sex
workers are invested in stopping trafficking and forced prostitution.
Most sex workers would prefer to work in an environment where
safe working conditions are the norm; for example, work sites
where condoms are the norm, where there are no disputes over
payment, and so on. Sex work sites that tolerate abusive clients
and/or exploitative practices can threaten sex workers efforts to
establish safe health and ethical business norms. For more on
reducing the demand for exploitative labour practices, please see
the next section, What is the link between trafficking and the
demand for exploitative labour practices (page 47).

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Kham, an agent who collaborates with five mobile phone operated brothels, explained
that it is not newly recruited sex workers who have difficulties adapting to more restrictive
working regimes, but women who have previously worked in other venues with better
conditions. According to Kham, newly recruited women do not have anything to compare
their conditions with and more readily accept tougher working conditions.167 Dr. Sverre
Molland
Some [brothel] operators had their own in-house training but many preferred to send
their workers (particularly new ones) to NZPC [New Zealand Prostitutes Collective].
Poor managers are careful to try and isolate a sex worker keep them away from
places like NZPC where they might find out what is acceptable and what is not. The
poor brothel operators suggest that conditions are worse elsewhere. The girls dont
want to leave in case it is so and they cant get back to working where they were.168
New Zealand NGO

Sex workers advocating for reducing the demand for

unprotected paid sex
Efforts to reduce the demand for unprotected paid sex can help shift demand-based discourses away from a
punitive, moralistic focus towards a public-health and human rights oriented approach that reflects sex workers
expressed priorities. At the time of publication, the UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work, was
drafting a briefing paper calling for reducing the demand for unprotected paid sex, as an Annex to the UNAIDS
Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work (2009).
In research with migrant sex workers in London (UK), Dr. Nick Mai169 pointed that sex workers didnt talk about
their problems in terms of demand but by the presence or absence of good working conditions. Sex workers
said they hated places where they were asked to do unprotected sex or anal sex, and defined a bad workplace
as an establishment that tolerated bad clients. A good workplace was defined as one where protected sex was
the norm.
It all depends on how demand is seen: to put it simply, whether it is considered in a
neutral, positive, or negative sense. Demand can be seen as neutral, for example in the
case of HIV work. A non-judgmental approach to clients, as well as to sex workers, is
increasingly recognised as key to successful HIV prevention programmes. The idea of
demand as something positive is something that is barely ever articulated. If the question
of demand could be opened up to look at the organisation of desire and the forms of
its social control, it could represent an exciting new way to move beyond entrenched
and calcified political positions.170 Dr. Jo Doezema, University of Sussex

Encouraging clients to act responsibly, increasing

awareness about sex workers rights among demand
or clients
[T]he focus on demand has not come from sex workers themselves. Sex workers do
not, in the main, see their clients as the problem.171 Dr. Jo. Doezema, University of
Sussex

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Some argue that clients would be better able to assist victims and authorities if they didnt have to fear arrest
for commercial sex transactions.172 173 174 In a feminist participatory action research project by SEPOM (an
organisation led by returnee migrant women in Thailand), women shared stories about how clients had helped
them to escape a trafficked situation.175 On the other hand, clients good intentions to save or rescue women
can also lead to invading womens privacy and harassment, if clients rely on what they believe is best for a
woman, rather than on what women say they need.
Some sex workers rights organisations and anti-trafficking campaigns have produced materials to encourage
clients to recognise sex workers as workers with rights and how to act responsibly, including what to do if
clients encounter cases of trafficking:

Living in Communitys Tools for Customers: http://livingincommunity.ca/toolkit/tools-for-customers

Chez Stellas Dear Client: http://library.catie.ca/PDF/P42/22575.pdf

Prostitution without compulsion or violence, Rules for Punters (including guidelines for identifying
forced prostitution): http://www.verantwortlicherfreier.ch/en/index.html

British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC) For Our Clients: http://
tradesecretsguide.blogspot.com/search/label/For%20Our%20Clients

We all have a responsibility to try to combat human trafficking in the sex industry.
Unless we can identify and prosecute exploiters, we will never see safety in the sex
industry. British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Communities, a sex workers
rights coalition
Framing demand as a problem to eradicate can contradict how sex workers gauge how good business is.
When sex workers have the autonomy to choose who they see, what they charge and what they provide,
higher demand can mean potential for more income, less work and more choice. Some sex workers have
identified clients as one factor that determines the quality of a workplace, along with the amount of autonomy
sex workers have over demand.176
Most interviewees cited a stable workplace with regular clients as key to maintaining
good work conditions and improving safety. The majority of participants agreed that
working with others was crucial in dealing with problems that arise at work.177
x:talk, a migrant sex workers organisation, UK
It would be interesting to analyse how clients use the information they gain from various awareness raising
initiatives. The racialised imagery and stereotypes used in end demand for prostitution campaigns could
potentially benefit local sex workers to the detriment of migrant sex workers. Dr. Julia OConnell Davidson
found that some sex workers clients attempted to use a crude fair trade approach that relied on more on
racial stereotypes about migrant womens poverty and vulnerability:178 Women perceived to be locals were
seen as fair trade and women who were perceived to be migrant sex workers were seen as unfair trade. This,
despite the fact that many migrant sex workers are not trafficked, and that many sex workers who are perceived
to be migrants may in fact, be citizens or locals. In other contexts, women perceived to be migrant sex
workers were thought to be more flexible and cheaper, although this didnt necessarily make them more
desirable to clients.179 180
I prefer Thai sex workers because I feel more comfortable with them, and I dont feel
proud of myself if I go with migrant sex workers. Socially it is looked down on to be
with Burmese sex workers because they work in particular types of establishment which
are lower, and friends look down on it. In this male society, the place you visit makes
you look good or not. In places where migrants work, the conditions are poor. If you
can go to a massage parlour, it makes you look good. Having a university student is
good too.181 Thai government officer, public relations, single, aged 27

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HOW WOULD
DECRIMINALISING
SEX WORK
IMPACT ANTITRAFFICKING
EFFORTS AND
DEMAND?

GAATW has always supported sex workers rights and valued the
role sex workers rights groups have in the anti-trafficking movement.
Given the diverse contexts in which our members operate, GAATW
has not promoted any specific legislative approaches to sex work,
but GAATWs membership does agree that:

Sex workers have the right to organize;

Sex workers have the right to safe working conditions;

Violence against women in sex work is a grave human

rights violation;

Trafficking is distinct from sex work; and

Anti-trafficking policies must factor in sex workers

concerns and knowledge.

The decriminalisation of sex work is considered an important goal

for many sex workers rights organisations, including a number of
sex workers rights groups in GAATWs membership.182 As demandbased approaches typically mean criminalising the clients of sex
workers, this section will look at what impact decriminalising sex
work might have on anti-trafficking efforts and on demand.

What does decriminalising sex

work mean?
Decriminalisation of sex work is the removal of criminal penalties
around consensual adult sex work only; criminal penalties for forced
prostitution, trafficking and underage prostitution would remain.183
184

For example, in Canada, it is not illegal to buy or sell sex, but it is

illegal to:185

Own or occupy a bawdy house (a place regularly used

for sex work);

Live on the avails of prostitution (e.g. earnings);

Talk in a public place to arrange a commercial sex

transaction; or

Assist anyone to work in sex work (e.g. security,

receptionists, accountants, etc.).

Based on the above, decriminalising prostitution in Canada would

mean that a sex worker could work with other sex workers in a
shared apartment, keep her earnings, and take time to negotiate
with clients.186 Removing criminal penalties around consensual
prostitution would also mean that a sex worker could call the police
if she was abused without fear that she would be arrested for working
in sex work.
Decriminalisation should not be confused with legalisation.187
Decriminalisation focuses more on persons involved in the sex

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industry, whereas legalisation is associated more with structuring

the industry itself.

Arguing for decriminalisation of sex work

does not have to mean endorsement of sex
work it shows awareness of the dangers of
the criminal law criminalising wont
eradicate the industry, nor alter the set of
power relations that may be associated with
it. It recognises that the laws that criminalise
sex work punish women and particularly
women living in poverty, and women of colour
most severely and create a dangerous
environment for working and living.188 World
AIDS Campaign

Who endorses
decriminalisation?
UN bodies, researchers, sex workers rights groups, and trade
unions have argued that a decriminalisation approach is a practical
strategy that can aid anti-trafficking efforts, boost HIV/AIDS
prevention efforts, reduce violence against sex workers, and
strengthen the rights of sex workers.189
With regard to adult sex work that involves no
victimization, criminal law should be reviewed
with the aim of decriminalizing, then legally
regulating occupational health and safety
conditions to protect sex workers and their
clients, including support for safe sex during
sex work.190 21(c), Guideline 4, Office of the
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and
the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS.
Decriminalisation, along with the institution of
appropriate occupational health and safety
regulations, safeguards the rights of sex
workers. 191 Anand Grover, UN Special
Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health.

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New Zealand is the most visible example of a country that has decriminalised its laws around prostitution. In
2003, the New Zealand Parliament voted out or removed laws against:

brothel keeping (5 years imprisonment),

living on the earnings from sex work (5 years imprisonment),

procuring (e.g. operating a sex work business, transporting a sex worker to an appointment) (5
years imprisonment), and

soliciting or offering sexual services ($200 fine).192

A 2008 review of New Zealands decriminalisation policy 5 years after it was first implemented presents
important evidence of the benefits (and limitations) of a decriminalisation approach. 193 Successes of
New Zealands 2003 Prostitution Reform Act included:

No increase in the number of people entering sex work and enforcement of laws against
underage prostitution;

Improved working conditions: women were freer to negotiate safer sex, refuse clients or
sexual practices, choose safe working locations, and work with other sex workers to increase
safety. Under the policy, fines and fees imposed by employers decreased.

Increased feelings of safety: women felt more able to report abuse to police, police attitudes
towards sex workers improved, and safe sex was more widely promoted.

More efficient use of public resources.

Removing a barrier to exiting the sex work industry: Sex workers are no longer at risk of
getting a criminal record for working in the sex industry.

Safeguarding sex workers rights, such as:

The right for children under 18 not to be in sex work;

The right of adults not to be forced into sex work;

The right to refuse clients or sexual practices;

The right not to be subject to exploitative, degrading employment practices.

The enactment of the PRA (Prostitution Reform Act) has empowered sex workers
by removing the taint of criminality from their occupation, and part of that
empowerment is to take control over their employment relationships.194 New
Zealand Government, Ministry of Justice

How would decriminalising sex work impact antitrafficking efforts?

Decriminalisation may help prevent misuse of anti-trafficking laws to punish women in sex work. Laws targeting
demand in sex work can also lead to women in the sex industry being charged for trafficking:

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When I became pregnant of son I decided to open my own flat. Everything went ok for
5 years. I used to get between 3000 and 5000 per week. At first I worked with English
girls but I then started recruiting foreigners because clients find them sexier... So I put
an advert on a newspaper in Spain, through a friend, and I got lots of Brazilian, Italian
and Spanish girls replying. I used to pay for the ticket and then they would give me
of what they earned until they paid back the ticket, then I would get the usual, which
was much less. After 6 weeks I was charged with trafficking. I spent 19 months in jail,
my house was confiscated, my business, my savings, my jewels, they took
everything...and now I am also facing deportation195
Decriminalising sex work has the potential to assist anti-trafficking efforts by fostering cooperation between
police and sex workers. Sex workers would be more enabled to practice their rights and feel safer about
reporting concerns to police without fear of arrest or harassment.
In recent interviews, sex workers and those who advocate on their behalf in the capital
told the Post they would appreciate the chance to work with law enforcement officers
and NGOs, but they said their efforts to engage both groups in the past had not been
well received. Weve approached a number of NGOs running anti-trafficking and
rehabilitation programmes about incorporating sex workers into the conversation, as
well as law enforcement, but dont meet with much interest, said Ly Pisey, part of the
support staff at the Womens Network for Unity (WNU) [a sex worker-led organisation].196
Sex workers seek policy partners, The Phnom Penh Post
There is no more valid group of stakeholders in this debate than we who work in the
sex industry: we will bear the damaging consequences of ill-informed policy, however
well-intentioned.If this is not the case, the strategy builds in disrespect, exclusion
and unequal treatment of sex workers at a fundamental policy level.197 International
Union of Sex Workers
Anti-trafficking discussions would benefit from more clarity and precision by differentiating between trafficking
and prostitution. A 5 year review of New Zealands 2003 Prostitution Reform Act found little link between sex
work and trafficking in New Zealand, with 3.9% of sex workers in New Zealand reporting feeling forced into
sex work.198 Obviously, any percentage of women forced into prostitution demands a response; however,
gaining an accurate and clear scope of the problem helps develop effective, proportionate solutions.
[M]ost police officers are happy that prostitution is legal because it makes it easier to
crack down on serious crime, according to Rudat, who is also a detective-commander
in the Berlin police force. In Germany we chose a way so that we legalise prostitution,
but at the same time, we watch the Red Light districts closely, she says. It is better
when you can see the prostitutes, the pimps, and their clients. When prostitution is
forbidden, you cant see these things. And so the danger of crimes associated with
prostitution will be higher.199

How would decriminalising sex work impact demand

for commercial sex?
There hasnt been much analysis or research to date on whether decriminalisation increases or decreases
the demand for commercial sex. New Zealands 5 year review of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act only
measured the number of sex workers; the number of clients is not mentioned.
However, there is evidence that decriminalisation of sex work can increase womens power to manage demand.
Sex workers are more free to negotiate conditions with clients, more able to report violent clients to the police,
and more able to refuse a client or refuse providing particular services.200

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[F]rom the sex workers rights perspective it is not mens demand for womens services
or the existence of a market for commercial sex that leaves room for abuse and
exploitation such as in the case of trafficking, but rather the lack of protection and
labour rights for workers in the sex industry.201 Dr. Rutvica Andrijasevic

How would decriminalising sex work impact efforts to

address violence against women?
Decriminalisation could directly impact levels of police violence against sex workers by changing the amount
of power police yield over sex workers. Numerous sex workers groups have argued that police violence is an
urgent concern.203 The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) noted that in the bad old days when sex
work was criminalised:

Police enforced the law erratically, and with enthusiasm and sometimes took their clothes off.

Operators were licensed the Massage Parlours Act and colluded with the Police in this system to
keep sex workers under control.

Laws usually targeted sex workers rather than venue operators who didnt know what went on
behind the closed doors of rooms in massage parlours.

Employment malpractices, such as coercive techniques, bonds and fines, breached human rights
of sex workers, harming them in various ways financially, physically, sexually and emotionally.

Sex workers were still liable to pay tax and other government levies, but there was a chance the
Proceeds of Crimes Act would enable the State to seize their assets.204

Police violence is also a concern under legalised contexts (i.e. where some sex workers may be registered
and other sex workers may not be). In Queensland, Australia (which has both legal and illegal sex work),
workers in the illegal sector were much more likely to experience violence and harassment by the police, and
were much less likely to report violence to the police:205
New Zealands 2003 Prostitution Reform Act also resulted in better relations between sex workers and the
police. Sex workers, particularly street-based sex workers, now felt they could contact the police for assistance
when violence did occur.206
Decriminalisation has removed the fear of being prosecuted previously felt by many
sex workers (particularly the more visible street-based sex workers). The result is that
sex workers now feel more able to work during the day and in well lit, safer places.
Some street-based sex workers also feel Police now take reports of violence against sex
workers more seriously.207 New Zealand Government, Ministry of Justice
Instead of targeting clients indiscriminately, the violence women report should be acted
on, regardless of their occupation. An increase in the shamefully low conviction for
reported rape has to be a key priority.208 English Collective of Prostitutes

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WHAT IS THE
LINK
BETWEEN
TRAFFICKING
AND THE
DEMAND FOR
EXPLOITATIVE
LABOUR
PRACTICES?
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WHAT ARE
EXPLOITATIVE
LABOUR
PRACTICES?

The previous section looked at a demand-based approach specific

to the sex work sector, namely the call to eliminate all forms of sex
work as a strategy to reduce trafficking. Calling for the elimination of
an entire sector or the demand for an entire sector is not a strategy
that has been promoted outside of prostitution abolitionist circles.
Broader anti-trafficking and labour rights discussions (that include
but is not limited to sex work) generally talk about the types of
demand that fosters or enables exploitation. As mentioned before
(see page 13, What do we mean by the word demand in the antitrafficking context?), this can include209 210 211 212:

Employers and businesses demand for forced labour;

Third parties who recruit and traffic persons for forced

labour or services; and

Consumers demand for cheap, available products and/

or services (including those that may be manufactured
by exploited labour).

This section analyses the literature on how the demand for exploitative
labour practices affects trafficking and anti-trafficking efforts. This
section includes references to various work sectors, including but
not limited to, sex work. In fact, re-directing efforts to reduce the
demand for exploitative labour practices in sex work (as in other
sectors) may provide a more productive, rights-based approach to
demand than the end demand for prostitution approaches currently
touted by prostitution abolitionists.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), trafficking
operations range from the highly complex to small cottage industries,
and extend from the local to the global throughout a range of economic
sectors. Traffickers generally respond to market demand for cheap
and easily disposable labour, especially when industries are labourintensive, and rely on temporary work and cyclical cycles.213
It may be more productive to analyse the broader demand for
exploitative labour practices, instead of focusing solely on the
demand for trafficked labour. The category of exploitative labour
practices includes trafficked labour, as well as undocumented migrant
labour, forced labour, unprotected workers in the informal economy,
and so on. In some contexts, exploitation of labour may operate
well within a countrys laws.214 215 A broader focus on the demand for
exploitative labour practices may be able to assist more groups
experiencing exploitation (including those that dont fit the technical
definition of a trafficked person), as well as maintaining the focus on
tackling exploitation rather than the specific process through which
exploitation occurs (e.g. trafficking).
In looking at what makes a worker exploitable, the literature has
referred to labour that is:

Low cost - including non-payment or underpayment;

Easy to control - including keeping workers from leaving

abusive situations; and

Unprotected - social attitudes that normalise or justify

discrimination, work that is not included under labour

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protection laws, and systemic labour exploitation.216

217 218 219

Indicators of exploitation can include: being forced to work,

preventing workers from leaving their job, controlling workers
movements, retaining workers identification documents, violence,
non-payment or underpayment, long working hours, not providing
days off, and not providing written contracts.220
In some instances, the most desirable labour may not be the
most productive but simply the most controllable. Globalised
economic processes allow for more precarious, temporary or flexible
employment practices. In unregulated sectors, leaving abusive
employers may be one of the only recourses available to legally
unprotected workers.221 In exploitative or undesirable work
situations, the ability to retain workers (e.g. through force, through
coercion) becomes more urgent.222 223
It is a misperception that child labour is cheap
labour, however: children are generally less
productive than adults. Children are simply
easier to abuse: they are less assertive and less
able to claim their rights than adults; and they
can be made to work longer hours with less
food, poor accommodation and no benefits.224

A broader focus on the

demand for exploitative
labour practices may be
able to assist more
groups experiencing
exploitation (including
those that dont fit the
technical definition of a
trafficked person), as
well as maintaining the
focus on tackling
exploitation rather than
the specific process
through which
exploitation occurs (e.g.
trafficking)

Many states have enacted stripped down

versions of labour regulations relating to
temporary workers to ensure that employers
have a flexible labour pool as a buffer for
seasonal or other cyclic fluctuations in labour
demand.225 GAATW

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WHY IS
THERE A
DEMAND
FOR
EXPLOITATIVE
LABOUR
PRACTICES?

Lack of decent jobs pushes migrant workers to look

for opportunities outside their home countries. When
they arrive, in the countries of destination, they are
often confronted by xenophobia from those who fear
that the few jobs available will be taken by new
immigrantsAt the same time, governments desire
to boost their economies to be more competitive,
by banking on decreasing labour costs and
importing cheap and more compliant labour. These
dynamics mark the contemporary globalized labour
market and are major contributory factors to the
growth of a phenomenon we can only describe as
modern day slavery, not in its traditional forms, but
evident in supply chains of products and services
we, as consumers, all use.226 Sharan Burrow,
International Trade Union Confederation and Aidan
Mc Quade, Anti-Slavery International
There are two contexts within which to understand the demand for
exploitative labour practices: the migration of work (which this
section analyses), and the migration of workers (see the next
section, What makes migrant labour exploitable labour?, page 55).
Globalisation and trade liberalisation policies have caused profound
changes in the international division and global organization of labour.
In the current globalized economy, relocating or outsourcing to other
countries with lower wages, poor working conditions, and poorly
regulated human rights standards is one strategy companies use to
meet demand for high turnover of consumer products, lower
overheads and, consequently, higher profit margins.

Global economic competitiveness

There is a demand for the cheapest and most flexible
labour, certainly where profit margins are tight,
staffing costs form an important part of the
production costs and the work requires no
expertise.227 - C.E. Dettmeijer-Vermeulen, Dutch
National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human
Beings
Some have argued that the demand for exploitative labour practices
is the result of increasingly competitive economic markets that
prioritise increasing profit margins over stakeholders human rights
responsibilities.228 229 The demand for exploitative labour practices
can stem from outsourcing to reduce labour costs while increasing
productivity, the privatisation of recruitment agencies, reductions in
public spending, integrated and poorly regulated global supply chains
and unmonitored work recruitment schemes.230
For example, the garment industry has undergone major restructuring over
the past two decades. While smaller manufacturers would previously design
garments and produce the orders, the apparel industry in the current
globalized economy is dominated by giant retailers who design and

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contract out apparel production to manufacturing contractors

around the world. These retailers dictate the price of production
and turnaround time, and are constantly looking for opportunities
to have their clothes made at a cheaper cost. Contractors around
the world are forced to compete over who will accept the poorest
wages and working conditions and allow the lowest labour, health
and safety, human rights and supply chain standards.231
A recent study on exploitation in Chinese export
factories found that the secret to winning
contracts in an environment of intense
competition among supplier companies was to
offer the lowest price. Reducing production costs
would require squeezing Chinese workers (most
of whom were poor, rural migrants) by reducing
wages to the bare minimum. Since governments
set minimum wage levels at the lowest possible
level in order to attract foreign investment,
migrant workers must work more than forty hours
a week if they are to receive wages beyond the
amount needed for survival, saving or sharing
with family members. Most workers are therefore
willing to work more than forty hours a week,
despite the fact that most of them are paid for
overtime at the basic rate. Put simply, Suppliers
still have places where they can cut fat, but the
easiest fat to cut is workers wages.232

There are two contexts

within which to
understand the demand
for exploitative labour
practices: the
migration of work
(which this section
analyses), and the
migration of workers
(see next section).

Exploitation can also occur at an institutional and systemic level,

as in the case of Indonesias labour export policy.
Since the 1990s, the Indonesian government
has set Hong Kong as one of the placement
states for Indonesian Migrant Workers (IMW).
The number of IMW working in Hong Kong
has increased every year. IMW also have to
compete for work with migrant workers from
the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and other
countriesThis has led to the establishment
of various IMW mass organisations in Hong
Kong to fight for migrant workers rights,
including ATKI. After the organisation was
created, ATKI Hong Kong carried out a
campaign focused on underpayment of
migrant workers. A 2005 survey of 2,772 IMW
revealed the extent of the problem. 100% of
the IMW surveyed reported having their salary
deducted for 7 (seven) months or HK $21,000.
Job competition with migrant workers from
other countries also negatively impacted IMW.
Agencies promoted IMW to Hong Kong
employers as a cheaper solution for their
domestic work needs. Like a commodity,
Indonesian migrant workers represented good
quality at the lowest price.233 Asosiasi
Tenaga Kerja Indonesia or the Association
of Indonesian Migrant Workers (ATKI)

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Economic competitiveness may be a reason, but not a justification, for the use of exploitative labour practices.
Employers use of exploitative labour practices can be seen as shaping local and global markets, as much
as responding to them. CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy Union), an Australian trade union,
argues that their labour rights advocacy is as much an effort to protect ethical employers as it is about
protecting workers.234 They observe that exploitative employers can drive ethical employers out of some
sectors as they can no longer compete.
The trafficking of people to satisfy the competitive-edge need of employers has not
been sufficiently researched and the proportion of trafficked workers to legal migrants,
or even national workers, is not clear.235 International Labour Organisation
Decreased demand in certain sectors can also increase the risk of trafficking by limiting womens livelihood
options.
[Export Processing Zones or] EPZs can also create and destroy womens employment
opportunities, a factor that has been identified as contributing to traffickingIn EPZs,
business is export-oriented so a decrease in demand (e.g. due to change in consumer
preference or increased competition) or an economic crisis can result in massive layoffs
of female workers. For example, in Nicaraguas maquiladoras, women represented 85
percent of those laid off in the 2008 crisis.236 GAATW

Supply chain pressures

Unmonitored supply chain practices have the potential to enable human trafficking by suppliers or business
partners, including sub-contractors, labour brokers or private employment agencies.
The migration of work means that a supply chain can include dozens of firms in the process of making and
delivering a single product. For example, Li & Fund, a Hong-Kong based, mid-chain garment supplier to
major European and US retailers and brands may source fibre from Korea, dye and weave it in Taiwan, buy
zips from China, and send it all to Thailand for assembly. Given the global reach of such networks and the
constant drive to lower prices in order to remain competitive, contracts are easily broken if a better deal can
be found. Demand from company shareholders to deliver short-term returns and demand from consumers to
have year-round availability of produce at value prices results in pressures on cost, speed and quality without
the commitment of long-term supplier relationships. Employers pass on the pressures of such demand
through the supply chain by:

recruiting women and migrants who have few alternatives to fall back on and are, consequently,
more compliant;

hiring workers on temporary contracts or sub-contractors, setting wages, piece-rates and

production targets at levels that force workers to work overtime in order to survive;

intimidating unions and harassing workers; and

falsifying records when pressured to meet labour standards.237

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Supply chain pressures in the garment industries238

A recent report on the working conditions of electronic sector workers found that outsourcing reduces the
amount of capital investment in production sites and results in higher flexibility for employers, as companies
can respond more quickly to market demands and slumps when they are not tied to production sites through
property ownership and permanent staff contracts. These short-term contracts make it easier to hire and fire
because as demand grows, they can commission a new production line; if demand slumps, they can simply
close the line. Female workers, in particular, live in a constant atmosphere of insecurity and fear because
they are often denied maternity benefits and do not have their contracts renewed if management discovers
they are pregnant.239

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Discrimination can
also entrench social
attitudes that make
exploitation normal,
tolerable, inevitable
or not exploitation at
all.

Discrimination normalising or
invisibilising exploitation
Discrimination can be both a cause and a consequence of exploitation.
Discrimination is one process that can make a group of workers easier
to control and use than others.240 The demand for exploitative labour
practices can be normalised if enough people assume that there is
and should be a large supply of workers that is easy to use and easy
to dispose of in order to benefit another group of consumers.
Laws and policies that institutionalize
discrimination can also shape demand, as can a
failure on the part of the State to challenge
discriminatory social attitudes, practices and
beliefs effectively.241 UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights
[I]t is depressing to observe how malleable most
people are in terms of their morality in any market
and how quickly they can adjust themselves to
practices that they would previously have
considered exploitative, providing no one stops
them and others appear to be doing the same
thing. Thus, for example, in our research on
employer demand for migrant domestic workers,
we interviewed European expatriates in Thailand
who, back home in Europe, would never have
dreamt of asking a domestic worker to work a 14
or 15 hour day, six or seven days a week, for a
pittance, but who were quite happy to impose
these employment conditions on domestic
workers in Bangkok on grounds that local
employers do so, and the authorities do not
intervene to prevent it.242 Dr. Julia OConnell
Davidson
Discrimination can also entrench social attitudes that make exploitation
normal, tolerable, inevitable or not exploitation at all. Research on
employers of domestic workers, found that discriminatory attitudes
changed exploitative practices into reasonable requests, by relying
on prejudicial attitudes about domestic workers capabilities.
Working as a domestic worker or as an au pair in
a private household can be transformed from a
grim necessity to a golden opportunity when it is
undertaken by a hard pressed migrant with limited
opportunities.243 Dr. Bridget Anderson
Many employers reflect paternalistic attitudes
towards domestic workers, seeking to protect
them from bad influences by not allowing them
to go outside and communicate with others as
well as protecting their original documents by
holding onto them for the worker so they
wouldnt be lost. 244

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In some instances, the demand for exploitable labour is considered

synonymous with the demand for migrant labour. However, its
important to remember that migrant labour in itself isnt inherently
exploitable, but that there are certain social and political processes
that can turn migrant labour into labour that can be exploited. For
instance, most countries do encourage immigration of professional
and wealthy migrants but resist filling the demand for workingclass migrant labour.
Laws and policies play a significant role in
how employers treat migrant workers.245

WHY IS THE
DEMAND FOR
EXPLOITABLE
LABOUR MET
BY MIGRANT
LABOUR?

[T]hree related factors are key to explaining

the exploitative conditions experienced by
many migrant domestic and sex workers: (a)
The unregulated nature of the labour market
segments in which they work; (b) the
abundant supply of exploitable labour and (c)
the power and malleability of social norms
regulating the behaviour of employers and
clients.246 Dr. Bridget Anderson and Dr. Julia
OConnell Davidson
In some industrialised countries, the growing number of women
working outside the home and growing aged populations results
in a greater need for childcare and eldercare services. When these
needs arent accommodated by national childcare programs or
the provision of affordable care services, families are left with
employing a private worker to fill the gap.
The demand for women migrant workers, in
particular those going into domestic service,
is often high and sustained, since they
represent a form of replacement mobility
for female nationals who are freed from their
household and care responsibilities to take
up other better positions in the labour
market. 247 International Labour
Organisation
A common refrain is that migrant workers are willing to take jobs
that citizens are reluctant to do248 249, although this is more likely
due to working conditions and workers power, rather than taboos
about specific jobs.
Of course, when employers claim that certain
marginalized groups are the only people
available to do unskilled work this may well
be related to employment wages and
conditions: were the salary for this unskilled
work raised to 2000 a week employers might
find the availability of non-migrants
increases.250 Dr. Bridget Anderson

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Economic growth tends to result in increased demand for cheap migrant labour, as the
domestic workforce is able to move away from low-skilled, low-wage employment.251
International Labour Organisation
In some sectors such as sex work, domestic work, construction, hospitality the demand for labour is often
based on preferences for a particular gender, race, age, class, nationality, religion, caste or appearance.252 253
254
Employers may believe that a persons race, gender or another identifying characteristic signifies something
about their qualities as a worker (e.g. temperament, ethic, aptitude, etc.). For some employers, an employees
physical characteristics may also be part of the image employers would like to project.255 256
Despite the relatively high wages of Polish workers in Berlin, they still account for a
significant proportion of domestic workers. Filipina workers are the most popular in
Athens, and they are also the most expensive.257 Dr. Bridget Anderson

Contradiction between growing labour demands and

restrictive immigration policies
How is it that migrants, among the most highly controlled groups of the population,
provide such de-regulated labour?258 Dr. Bridget Anderson
It is increasingly acknowledged that the risk of trafficking increases when the demand for labour is undermined
by migration policies that limit working-class migration.259 260 261 In this context, traffickers can become one of
the only avenues left to reconcile the demands of both employers and workers within restrictive migration
systems.262 263 264
Restrictive immigration laws and policies are obstacles to a large supply of human
power from source countries to meet the high demand for cheap labour in host countries.
This helps generate a lucrative market for traffickers.265 Ms Joy Ezeilo, UN Special
Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
As Ruhs and Anderson notes, a key consideration in assessment of employer demand for migrant workers is
that what employers want (i.e. the skills, competencies and attributes required of employees) is critically
influenced by what employers think they can get from the available pools of labour.266
Employers may prefer migrants because of their lower expectations about wages and employment conditions,
or because the employment restrictions associated with particular types of immigration status may make
migrants easier to retain at lower wages and poor employment conditions. As already noted, companies with
a demand for a flexible workforce may make use of employment agencies to help find suitable workers.267
In other cases, governments may institute restrictive migration measures in order to fuel and exploit the
demand for migrant labour. For instance, the Indonesian government has implemented a labour export policy
that requires prospective migrant workers to pay excessive fees to labour migration recruitment agencies, and
pay fees for travelling through an airport terminal specifically for working-class migrant workers.268 269 Workers
who make independent travel arrangements (outside of Terminal 4) and access employment opportunities
without using an intermediary are deemed to be illegal workers by the Indonesian government.
[T]he government seeks to increase business opportunities for employment services by
eliminating barriers to sending Indonesian workers abroad. In other words, the
government is deliberately trying to double the workers sent abroad to obtain economic
benefits from the remittances sent by migrant workers to their families. This framework
encouraged the development of the National Agency for the Placement and Protection
of Indonesian Workers (BNP2TKI). The agencys function was to implement the

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governments labour export policy by boosting the number of Indonesians sent abroad
and increasing state revenue. The agency has been weak in improving labour protection
for migrants. Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia or Association of Indonesian Migrant
Workers (ATKI)

Exploiting and controlling workers through migrant

workers fears of being illegal
In the absence of a migration framework that can accurately assess the demands of the labour market,
undocumented migrant workers help meet the demand for labour as well as meeting migrants own demands
for a livelihood and income. The process of labelling undocumented migrant workers as illegal (i.e. without
papers) sustains migrants fears (about arrest, detention, deportation) and makes it easier to control workers.
Although working-class, undocumented migrant workers are at risk of exploitation, social perceptions of workers
as illegal re-position migrant workers as threats and the dominant society as the potential victim (rather than
the beneficiary of cheap labour). Through this process, the crime of not having sufficient paperwork is prioritised
over employers crime of exploitation or abuse.
Employing temporary undocumented workers maximizes control and profit.not only
do illegalised workers reap greater profits for employers, they also enable the national
state to perform its role as the protector of the citizenry.270 Dr. Nandita Sharma

Discrimination against migrants

Demand in the context of trafficking is often shaped by discriminatory attitudes (including
cultural attitudes).271 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Discriminatory attitudes towards migrants can help justify, normalise or invisibilise exploitation of migrant
labour. Although there may be a great demand for migrant labour in destination countries, this demand can be
re-framed by dominant society as either intrusive (flood, stealing our jobs) or as charity (normalising exploitation
by comparing it favourably to workers countries of origin). Destination countries responsibilities to address
exploitation of foreign labour can be dismissed by relying on social ideas of migrant workers as opportunistic
criminals rather than exploited workers. The fact that a few exploited workers may receive some assistance by
being acknowledged as trafficked may not address the much larger numbers of workers who have been
exploited but not technically trafficked.272
The link between discrimination of migrants and the demand for exploitative labour practices is generally
acknowledged, but its still unclear whether discriminatory attitudes towards migrants themselves increase
the demand for exploitative labour practices, or whether broader discriminatory attitudes towards migrants
simply allow employers more freedom to exploit migrant workers without fear of legal or social penalties.
The reproduction of gendered and racialised roles that is part of the function of domestic
work means that domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to racist and sexist
violence.It is also unrecognised, because it is taking place in the private household,
a protected arena for the family but not for the worker. Racist and sexual violence that
would never be tolerated in the workplace passes unremarked in the home.273 Dr.
Bridget Anderson
Discriminatory attitudes can also entrench ideas that migrants exist only as workers, not human beings with
the right to family, and the right to a private life. In an analysis of a government program for temporary migrant
workers on strawberry farms in Spain, GAATW found that eligible applicants were restricted to mothers and
women who were married, divorced, or widowed. Although these requirements governing womens marital
status violated Spanish labour laws on non-discrimination, they were considered key to the governments aim

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of limiting migration. It was believed that recruiting mothers and women who were married provided a guarantee
that women would not pursue social mobility in Spain.274
At a systemic level, discrimination can be entrenched in state-sponsored and legalised
forms of exploitation. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a sponsorship (kafala) system
impacts all migrant labour as each foreign worker must have a kafil, or sponsor, who
holds citizenship of that state. Here, the kafil provides the worker with an entry job
and visa and is responsible for notifying any changes in the workers employment or
residence to the authorities. As such, the kafil assumes control of the workers freedom
of movement and labour. Recently, Human Rights Watch275 documented the situation
of workers involved in the construction of Saadiyat Island, a $27 billion development,
who are caught in a cycle of abuse and human rights violations. These workers
believed they had to remain in their jobs or be deported and banned from returning
to the UAE for one year if they chose to quit. Additionally, as a result of the 2008
recession, some companies engaged in cost-cutting strategies that included cutting
workers daily meals from three to one, and adding as much as 40% to the population
of their labour camps without increasing space for accommodation.

Another example is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in Canada

wherein some foreign workers in low-skilled occupations may be bound by law to
live and work on the property of their employer. Canadas Live-In Caregiver Program
admits temporary foreign workers to care for children, seniors or people with
disabilities. Often, workers face excessive work hours, dismal living conditions or
unreasonable expectations from their clients and families. Despite this, they are unable
to switch jobs or access help. Although the government introduced reforms in 2010,
which moved the responsibility for paying recruitment fees, medical insurance and
half the cost of a caregivers travel to their employer, many agencies closed because
they could no longer charge exorbitant fees to both caregivers and families.276 277

Foreign-ness turning exploitation into golden

opportunities
Some employers may rely on foreign difference to increase employers comfort about making greater work
demands, withholding workers documents and controlling workers movements.278 279 280
Well an English girl might want to talk to you and that would be awful! I say that as a
joke but I really dont particularly want to talk to people. I want them to get on with the
work and Ill spend ten minutes talking to them every day but I dont want to stand there
whilst theyre doing the ironing, listening to what theyve got to say. No thank you.281
British domestic worker employer
They have a greater incentive to work because they desperately need the money..Shes
dependent for money, so I think its a circle that works well so that I can keep her.282
British housewife

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Foreign differences between employers and workers also allowed some employers to think of themselves as
benefactors and protectors, rather than recipients of domestic work services.
The raced/classed difference manifest in the Third World/ First World dichotomy (a
dichotomy of need/provide) helps to generate a positive moral profile of the domestic
employer in answer to important questions surrounding the morality of domestic service.
This discourse on helping allows the employer to present herself as a positive force, a
kind and good woman, someone who will not abuse the resident alien or create an
inferior class, but rather extend a familial, maternal hand. 283 Esther Bott
Globalised economic processes have allowed for more precarious, temporary or flexible employment practices.
In unregulated sectors, leaving abusive employers may be one of the only recourses available to legally
unprotected workers.284 The need to keep labour makes it understandable why employers might look to
migrant workers.285 Workers who are unfamiliar with the language or processes in destination countries may
be less able to leave easily. The task of moving abroad for work, and the debts incurred in that process, can
also result in a mentality that makes it easier or more justifiable to tolerate exploitation. People working
outside of their home countries may be more likely to view their situation as temporary, and more likely to
withstand exploitation in order to maximise earnings.286 A persons status as a worker can also mean that
other identities recede, particularly given the absence of family in a labour migration context.

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WHAT
APPROACHES
CAN REDUCE
THE DEMAND
FOR
EXPLOITATIVE
LABOUR
PRACTICES?

Without challenging the global demand for

cheap labour alongside individual poverty and
lack of education, durable change cannot occur.
Both aspects the individual and the political
must be considered when assessing change.287
GAATW

Reducing discrimination against

migrants
Reducing discrimination can reduce the demand for exploitative labour
practices. Reducing discrimination has to involve change at the
structural level, such as allowing undocumented migrant workers to
press charges against abusive employers. At the societal level, worker
employers attitudes need to change, as does public tolerance for
abuses against migrant workers.
This is especially the case with employers of domestic workers.
Discriminatory or racialised ideas about domestic workers are what
essentially allow employers to re-frame their behaviour as charity.288
Reducing employers discriminatory attitudes towards domestic
workers poses a threat to employers self-perceptions of themselves
as good people. Dr. Bridget Andersons research found that many
domestic worker employers who were willing to provide other rights
and benefits (such as vacation time, pension, etc.) still did not agree
with domestic workers joining a union. Without union organising
efforts, it was still possible for employers to frame benefits and rights
as gifts or as a demonstration of the employers kindness, rather
than fulfilling human rights obligations and responsibilities.

Decriminalising migration and

protecting migrants rights
Reducing the demand for exploitable migrant labour includes fighting
discrimination against migrants and women289, giving trafficked
persons the opportunity to regularise their migration status and
access labour and education markets290, and avoiding the conflation
of exploited labour with illegal migrant labour. Employing
undocumented workers is not inherently exploitative in itself. Such
employers may actually be the only opportunities for undocumented
workers to earn income. Rather, it is the barriers to gaining
documented status that can be used to employers advantage.
Regularising workers migration status can also benefit employers.
A study of employers in the Mekong region found some employers
liked migrant worker registration schemes as it reduced the bribes
they had to pay to police.291
Trafficking legislation must not be used to further
restrict the basic human rights of migrants
thereby risking increasing supply.292 Dr.
Bridget Anderson
Given that the conditions many migrants are
seeking to escape are so bleak, violent and

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degrading, it is also hard to see why anyone

genuinely concerned with protecting and
promoting human rights would place
measures to tackle consumer demand for
commercial sex at the top of their policy
agenda. Measure to devise more humane, nondiscriminatory, and rights based migration
policies in countries of destination seem rather
more urgent priorities.293 Dr. Julia OConnell
Davidson

Fair and legal migration

channels for working-class
migrant workers
To reduce the demand for exploitative labour practices, antitrafficking stakeholders are increasingly calling for a more coherent
fit between countries immigration policies and labour market
needs.294 295 Stakeholders are also calling for legal labour migration
channels in order to reduce migrants reliance on traffickers as
the only way to enter a country.296 297
Preventative measures should therefore
include facilitating the legal migration of poor
and working class women.298 Anna Weekes,
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy
Taskforce (SWEAT), South Africa
More opportunities for legal migration must
be created and migration policies should be
based on a sound assessment of the demand
for labour. Failure to do so can create
preconditions for labour trafficking. 299 Recommendation to the UN Special
Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children, Ms Joy
Ezeilo at GAATWs 2010 International
Members Congress and Conference
This also involves ensuring that legal labour migration channels
are fair and non-exploitative. For instance, Indonesian migrant
worker groups in GAATWs network argue that while current labour
migration channels in Indonesia may be legal, they have further
entrenched exploitation of migrant workers by requiring prospective
migrant workers to pay excessive placement and travel fees.300 301

Enforcing labour standards and

improving working conditions
The demand for exploitative labour practices can be reduced by
protecting workers rights, improving working conditions and
allowing workers to organise.302 303 304 Other demand-reduction

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measures include monitoring recruitment agencies, sensitising employers and enforcing labour standards.305
A group of migrant farm workers in the town of Immokalee, Florida, have demonstrated
a number of strategies to reduce the demand for the products of slave labour.CIWs
[the Coalition of Immokalee Workers] most widely-known effort is a boycott of the Taco
Bell fast food restaurant, which purchases large quantities of tomatoes from exploitative
growers. In the fall of 2001, a caravan of migrant workers and their supporters embarked
on their Taco Bell Truth Tour, a cross-country tour to raise awareness of their national
boycott.As CIWs work illustrates, direct action can be accomplished by trafficked
people themselves, independent of lawyers and free from legal impediments like the
interposition of middlemen between trafficked labour and the ultimate beneficiary of
slavery labour, in this case, Taco Bell.306 Mie Lewis
[A]wareness raising training amongst employers in destination countries would be very
beneficialEmployers think that they are doing the young girls a favour by providing
them with work and accommodation. Yet many are working in extremely exploitative
conditions. Employers in Hong Kong dont realize the process that the migrant workers
have been through before arriving in Hong Kong. They are unaware of the recruitment
process, the holding centres and the debts that they incur.307 Kim Warren, ICMC
Opinions vary on who should be responsible for, and most effective at, enforcing labour standards and improving
working conditions. This can range from calling on states to fulfil their human rights responsibilities, to relying
on voluntary codes of conduct in the private sector.308 For a more detailed analysis on the role of the different
stakeholders in labour-related anti-trafficking efforts, readers can refer to GAATWs Beyond Border: Exploring
Links Between Trafficking and Labour.309
Most companies have traditionally argued that human rights are the purview of the state, including ensuring
that national and international labour codes are enforced310. In 2011, the UN Special Representative on Business
and Human Rights, Dr. John Ruggie, presented the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights:
Implementing the United Nations Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework to the UN Human Rights Council.
These principles, which are based on his 2008 Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework and the outcome of
6 years of extensive research, outline the dual responsibilities of governments to protect human rights, and
businesses to respect human rights. On June 16, 2011, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed
the Principles.311
According to the Principles, the state is bound to protect human rights according to the treaties or conventions
of which they are signatories. This duty includes the protection of citizens from human rights violations committed
by non-state actors, including corporations. Ruggie notes that weaknesses in states human rights protection
mechanisms, combined with their inability and unwillingness to sometimes hold companies accountable,
result in gross human rights violations as a result of business activities. The Principles suggest that companies
must engage in pro-active due diligence and adopt policies and implement management systems that will
ensure the effective management of human rights issues. Although the Principles are voluntary in nature,
increasing awareness of the framework and of the responsibilities of businesses have led many companies to
strengthen their own policies and management systems without being prompted by government actors.312
There are a number of mechanisms in which businesses can reduce the demand for exploitative labour practices
in their supply chain. These activities range from:313 314 315
1. Adopting a labour standards policy based on the International Labour Organizations Core Labour
Standards. Although these standards tend to be gender-neutral, companies and their suppliers
should ideally listen and respond to the needs of female workers who are often more vulnerable to
exploitative labour practices.
2. Performing regular and robust auditing in order to enforce the labour standards policy and drive
workplace improvements. Unannounced audits and worker interviews would strengthen monitoring
and reporting, as would ensuring that accessible grievance mechanisms are in place to report on
any gross labour violations that could be connected to companies.

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3. Enforcing remediation plans that are developed based on an analysis of the root causes of
exploitative practices. Here, buyers and contractors have a responsibility to create an environment
for remediation so that plans can be sustained. Recent research has shown that factory managers
are more likely to invest in improving working conditions if they develop long-term relationships
with clients.
4. Promoting ownership of standards by suppliers in order to foster a genuine commitment to labour
standards compliance. In order to successfully promote ownership of these standards, buyers
should build supplier management capacity to track and analyse the benefits of compliance,
deliver training to raise awareness of supply chain complicity, and work to develop strong partnerships
through preferential order placement and building longer-term trading relationships.
5. Increasing worker participation in the workplace, by facilitating dialogue about their health and
safety needs, allowing them to exercise their right to freedom of association and collective
bargaining, and providing support and training for management and workers on how to communicate
with each other.
6. Working with suppliers when work volumes are growing in order to minimize the risk of unauthorized
outsourcing or engaging in exploitative practices through unpaid and excessive overtime.
7. Working with local industry associations in order to ensure that it promotes industry-wide
approaches to the demand for exploitative labour practices. Companies can also reach out more
actively to host governments with weak mechanisms for protecting and monitoring human rights,
as well as laggard companies who may sometimes drive ethical companies out of business.
8. Transparently communicating what the continued challenges are in responding to the demand for
exploitative labour practices and identifying improvements, such as higher productivity in the supply
chain through stronger supplier relations. For example, Echo Sourcing, a Bangladeshi supplier to
UK fashion retailer New Look, has established long-term relationships with a limited number of
suppliers. It has also invested in human resources practices to ensure productivity while raising
workers living standards. Such actions include establishing worker committees for regular dialogue
with management, and offering its workers a provident fund, as well as free lunches and on-site
doctors. Through supply forecasting by New Look, Echo Sourcing is also able to respond to
sudden production changes while finding an optimum point at which overtime hours fall, productivity
increases and workers net pay rises.

Educating and raising awareness among investors to

reduce demand
Investors are increasingly becoming aware of the legal, reputational and financial risks of investing in companies
that engage in exploitative labour practices. Individual investors and institutional investors have the opportunity
to use their significant market capital in order to demand investments in robust labour policies and sound
labour management.
A recent example of investor action is the response to the persistence of slave labour
in Brazil. A 2006 report by Bloomberg on slavery in Latin America documented how
Brazilian workers from the impoverished cities in Brazils northeast or from the Andean
Highlands of Bolivia and Peru were recruited by slave camp owners on the promise
of steady-paying jobs. Once at the Amazon camps, workers are forced sometimes
at gunpoint to work off debts to their bosses for food and clothing bought at company
stores. Workers go for months without pay and are forced to work in extreme heat
without access to medical facilities and clean water. The report clearly linked the
steel used by leading automobile and appliance manufacturers with slave labour in
Brazil. Investors such as Domini Social Funds and Hermes Fund Management Ltd.
(UK) were quick to respond to the findings of the report.316

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Domini Social Funds pressed Nucor, the largest buyer of Brazilian pig iron, for a
more comprehensive and transparent system for addressing poor labour conditions
in Brazil. In response, Nucor adopted a policy of prohibiting forced labour in its
supply chain and published details about its response to slavery for the first time.
Domini also filed a shareholder proposal in 2009, receiving a 27% vote. Domini
withdrew its proposal after entering into a written agreement whereby Nucor required
its top-tier Brazilian pig-iron suppliers to either join the Citizens Charcoal Institution
an institute created by the Steel Industry Pact and signed by 15 companies, the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) and trade unions in the sector or sign and
adhere to the National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labour. Nucor has also agreed
to publish annual progress reports on implementation of these policies.
Hermes Fund Management Ltd. (UK) raised the issue with fourteen companies in the
course of a collaborative engagement process. These companies included
Bombardier, Daimler Chrysler, Deere & Co, Ford Motor Company, General Motors,
Harley Davidson, Nippon Steel, Honda Motor Company, JFE Holdings, Magna
International, Russell Metals, Sumitomo Metal Industries and Suzuki Motor Corp.
The focus of this engagement was to change company relationships with their
suppliers in Brazil through a disclosure of their risk management policies and practices
for dealing with slave labour. The aim was to get companies to re-think their
approaches and engage in a process of developing robust policies and accountability
structures.

Institutional investors often have the capacity to influence markets because of the significant portion of capital
invested in the economy. As such, investors can play a key role in reducing the demand for exploitative labour
practices by sending companies a clear message about their unwillingness to accept such conditions. There
are several ways investors can send such a signal:
1. Develop and implement responsible investment policies to include relevant labour considerations.
A simple first step for pension trustees is to ask in-house investment analysts or the external fund
manager about whether current policies take labour management into account in investment decisionmaking. If current policies do not place a strong emphasis on workplace conditions, it would be
important to communicate with plan members about whether a strong emphasis should be placed
on incorporating labour considerations in investment decision-making.
2. Build the competency of decision-makers and those who will implement investment policy in order
to ensure that decisions are based on relevant, sufficient, and valid information. Such methods
can include organizing discussions with peer pension plans that have developed effective policies
incorporating corporate labour management risk and benefit assessments.
3. Review, update and communicate policies in order to document the plans goals and objectives
and provide trustees with a clear overview of the plans investment and program implementation. In
particular, plan members could ask the fund to take a public position on the impact of poor
corporate labour management practices on investment decision-making and report regularly on
discussions around relevant risks and benefits. They could also establish procedures to
communicate with plan members and members on the board of trustees about what the funds
position is regarding laggard companies with exposure to labour exploitation and trafficking. In
doing so, decision-making for the investment analyst can be simplified by incorporating member
feedback on a regular basis as well as by determining the best mechanism for shareholders to
practice active ownership.
4. Screen out companies with poor labour management practices. Screening is the practice of
evaluating equity investments based on certain social and/or environmental criteria. Investors can
aim to capture the labour management records of companies and apply identified criteria in order
to determine whether or not to exclude or include particular investments.

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5. Engage with companies that may have substantial risk tied to exploitative labour practices: As
shareholders of companies, investors are granted formal rights including proxy voting and it is the
fundamental right of every holder of common stock to vote on certain matters of corporate business
and to ensure that company policies and activities are financially prudent and socially responsible.
Generally, investors can voice their opinions on corporate performance through voting on matters
pertaining to governance and policy issues via written or electronic notice to the company, or
through a proxy voting service. Through this process, shareholders will vote for, against, or withhold/
abstain on proposals put forth by management and/or other shareholders. Investors who have
determined that an investment can and must improve upon its current labour practices but have
failed to generate an adequate response from corporate management may seek to persuade other
shareholders to pass a resolution mandating that management take specific actions. In filing a
proposal, investors can push management to adopt a policy and improve upon practices related to
labour. As such, the shareholder proposal process provides a great communication channel among
shareholders, company management, and other interested stakeholders.

Consumer education and raising awareness to reduce

demand
How does consumer behaviour influence human trafficking, and how is consumer
behaviour stimulated by those offering cheap goods or services, or goods and services
that are illegal?317 UN.GIFT or the UN Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking
Increasing public awareness as a demand-reduction strategy is mentioned in a number of international antitrafficking instruments.318 319 320 This assumes that most consumers do not specifically desire services or
products from trafficked labour but that they desire services or products that are cheap and available, and that
these characteristics may indicate unethical or exploitative employment practices.
Awareness raising strategies may differ, depending on whether theyre targeting consumers of services that
may be provided by forced labour (e.g. domestic work, sex work) or consumers of products that may be
produced by forced labour (e.g. agricultural farms, carpets, clothing). In situations such as domestic work and
sex work, the connection between consumer and worker is much more intimate and immediate than the
connection between the consumer of a product and the workers involved in producing that product.
Awareness raising efforts will also differ, depending on whether they are meant to bolster consumers activism
(e.g. boycotts, corporate protests) or consumers buying choices only. The success of the latter may vary
across sectors, depending on the extent to which consumption choices are based on ethical issues.

Limitations of a consumer-based approach

Relying on consumer goodwill may not be sufficient in itself to address a multifaceted issue such as trafficking.
Its still not known how significant a role consumers play in reducing the demand for exploitative labour
practices that trafficking can involve. It could be that consumer awareness is promoted as a demand reduction
strategy because consumers actually have a significant impact on production and service costs. Or it could be
that consumer-based approaches offer an attractive distraction from addressing structural factors and states
obligations to fulfil their human rights responsibilities.
As there is very little research currently directed at the structural market factors that
contribute to trafficking, we remain open to any evidence you have demonstrating that
the purchasers of sex (and agricultural and other products, for example, cheap tomatoes
and T-shirts), and not profit makers, are the real engines driving the crime.321 Letter
from US academic researchers to Ambassador-at-Large Luis Cde Baca, US Department
of State

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Consumers may not be the most significant determinant of whether a service or product requires the use of
forced or exploited labour that has been trafficked. For instance, GAATW research found that strawberry
farmers in Spain relied on temporary migrant workers because the labour costs for harvesting was the only part
of the production chain that farmers had any power over.322 All other costs in the production chain are determined
by others, with a view to maximising profits. It is not clear whether consumers (through their buying choices
alone) would be able to impact the amount of power farmers have over their labour costs.
Consumer awareness efforts may be most appealing or effective with certain groups of consumers with the
resources to educate themselves on ethical consumption issues, and the money to afford higher-priced options.
So far, consumer-based demand-reduction approaches appear to focus on cost as an indicator of ethical trade
practices. Although few would disagree with encouraging more thoughtful consumption, it would be a shame if
ethical consumption becomes limited to just another marker of middle-class prosperity.

Opportunities with consumer-based approaches

However, this may be an opportune time to explore the utility (and limitations) of consumer awareness raising
strategies in demand-reduction, especially given the current trend towards consumer responsibility in other
movements (e.g. climate change, child labour, environmental sustainability, Fair Trade, frugality).
Consumer-based approaches may particularly useful in localised contexts where there is a closer link between
the provider and consumer (e.g. domestic work, sex work, begging).323
In the case of children who are trafficked so that they can beg for money in the streets
or outside places of worship, people who give out of generosity and a sense of charity
have to be approached carefully, so as not to undermine their sense of charity. In
Thessalonica, in northern Greece, the Greek public was initially generous when, in the
late 1990s, Albanian children began turning up at traffic lights and begging from
motorists. Once members of ARSIS had understood what was going on, they set about
influencing the public in order to make people aware that their donations were going
to traffickers who controlled the child beggars. The campaign had significant success.
By 2003, Albanian youngsters were no longer being paraded in tattered clothing to
generate pity, although smaller numbers continued to sell small items to diners in
pavement restaurants and play music to them in order to collect money.324 Mike
Dottridge
Consumer awareness raising efforts may also offer a more socially palatable way of promoting migrant workers
rights in destination countries. Through conversations with migrant rights organisations, we have noticed the
difficulty in promoting migrant rights in destination countries. In many destination countries, attitudes towards
migrant workers can range from hatred, paternalism, paranoia and fear. Cynically speaking, it may be more
challenging to change xenophobic beliefs such as migrants steal jobs than it might be to offer the public a
simple way to affirm an ethical identity through what they buy.

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Conclusion
Limitations and harms of end demand for
prostitution approaches
End demand for prostitution approaches have not been shown to reduce trafficking or prostitution (see page
28, What consequences do end demand for prostitution approaches have on anti-trafficking efforts?). As
end demand for prostitution approaches typically call for penalising or stigmatising sex workers clients,
these approaches can also endanger sex workers physical and economic security. For numerous sex workers
rights groups (including GAATW members), focusing on demand has included protesting end demand for
prostitution campaigns.

Reduce the demand and opportunity for exploitative

labour practices, in any sector
A more effective approach to demand might instead look at reducing the demand for exploitative labour practices,
in whatever sector trafficking occurs (including, but not limited to, sex work). Trafficked labour is only one form
of exploited labour available to employers. Shifting the focus from the demand for exploitative labour practices
(whether it is trafficked labour or undocumented migrant labour or forced labour) might prove to be more
beneficial and more relevant across more work sectors.
Opinions vary as to who should be responsible for, and most effective at, enforcing labour standards and
improving working conditions. This can range from calling on states to fulfil their human rights responsibilities,
to relying on voluntary codes of conduct in the private sector, to consumer awareness initiatives, to encouraging
investors to demand sound labour management. However, its important to remember that fostering employer/
consumer goodwill325 is not a substitute for structural change and human rights protection. Consumer awareness
initiatives targeting the demand for exploitative labour practices (in any sector) are potentially useful but they
arent, in itself, able to stop trafficking. A sole focus on (sex workers) clients and consumers as the groups
most complicit in trafficking ignores states human rights obligations and structural factors that increase the
risk of trafficking, such as the lack of livelihood opportunities in countries of origin, restrictive immigration
policies, privatisation of recruitment agencies, and so on.

Simple demand-supply analogies dont help clarify

complex issues, such as trafficking
The way demand is currently mentioned in anti-trafficking discussions often seems to reduce trafficking to a
crude economic equation, rather than helping to clarify a complex, multifaceted issue. The use of catchphrases
(e.g. if theres no demand, theres no supply) may help attract media attention or assist fundraising efforts, but
its very unlikely that they help tackle the broader gender, migration, and labour issues that intersect with
trafficking.
This is not to say that demand isnt a factor in trafficking. But if were going to talk about it, we need to be
clearer about what kind of demand were talking about and how were talking about it. Is the demand for
specific commodities thats the issue or is it the demand for profit? The research of Dr. Bridget Anderson
(Oxford University) and Dr. Julia OConnell Davidson (University of Nottingham) is particularly valuable in analysing
the nuances of demand and what those nuances mean for anti-trafficking efforts, labour rights and migrant
rights efforts.
Most anti-trafficking discussions assume a one-way direction between demand and supply, i.e. demand affects
supply. However, demand and supply can impact each other in various ways. For instance, the large availability
of supply may increase demand; demand does not automatically create supply. In this guide, weve mostly

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analysed the impact of demand-based approaches on the supply (e.g. the impact of demand-based approaches
on sex workers rights) but theres been little discussion about how supply-side approaches could shape
demand. For instance, how do workers organising efforts change the expectations and behaviour of employers?

Supply-side approaches to demand-based problems

Describing people as commodities can simplify anti-trafficking analysis, but does this analogy help guide antitrafficking efforts or does it replicate commodification by traffickers? One of the troubling aspects of current
discussions on demand is the absence of migrants and workers as anything except product.
One of GAATWs guiding principles is grounding our work in what women migrants and workers say and know
and want about labour, migration and womens rights. Whats missing from current demand-based approaches
are migrants and workers motivations, aspirations, risk analysis, recommendations, and resistance strategies.
Numerous stakeholders point out that talking about demand also needs to include the supplys demands,
such as migrant workers demands for legal migration opportunities, the demand for safe working conditions,
the demand for income security and livelihood options.
It could be that problems about demand would be best met with supply-side solutions (i.e. strengthening
workers rights). For example, trade unions have been successful in shaping employers behaviours, expectations
and attitudes even though their work typically doesnt refer to demand.
This is especially the case for sex workers rights organisations. The supply or sex workers have argued
strongly to stop end demand for prostitution approaches. Advocates of sex workers rights have argued that it
is working conditions in sex work that most impact sex workers safety, not demand. In the sex work sector,
tackling the demand for exploitative labour practices may provide a more productive, rights-based approach to
reducing demand that fosters exploitation than the end demand for prostitution approaches currently touted
by prostitution abolitionists.

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Suggested bibliography
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Jordan, A., Miller, A.M., Uhl, B., Anderson, B., Vance, C.S., Thukral, J., OConnell Davidson, J., Wijers, M.,
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Noushin Khushrushahi, Dr. Ann Jordan, and Sienna Baskin who generously provided helpful
critiques of earlier drafts. Thanks also to the Network of Sex Work Projects, SCOT-PEP, the English Collective
of Prostitutes, Dr. Bridget Anderson, Dr. Julia OConnell Davidson, and Dr. Nick Mai for sharing their insights
and their work on the impact of demand-based discourses on sex workers rights and anti-trafficking efforts.
This project was supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. We thank Heather Doyle and the
Open Society Foundations for their support and their recommendations throughout the project.
Finally, thanks to GAATW International Secretariat colleagues for their critiques, recommendations and
encouragement.

73

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Endnotes
1

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2010). Principle 4 and related
guidelines: Prevention through addressing demand. Recommended Principles and Guidelines on
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Pearson, E. (2006). The Mekong Challenge Human Trafficking: Redefining Demand. Bangkok: ILO.
Available online at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/child/trafficking/downloads/
demand.pdf

Anderson, B. & OConnell Davidson, J. (2002). Trafficking A Demand Led Problem? A Multi-Country
Pilot Study. Stockholm: Save the Children. Available online at: http://gaatw.org/publications/
The%20Demand%20Side%20part1.pdf

Andrijasevic, R. & Anderson, B. (2009). Anti-trafficking campaigns: Decent? Honest? Truthful? Feminist
Review, 92, 151-155. Available online at: http://oro.open.ac.uk/17941/2/FR_THB.pdf

Ezeilo, J. (2010, August 9). Report of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children (A/65/288). Presented at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly. Available
online at: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N10/483/11/PDF/N1048311.pdf?OpenElement

Hughes, D. (2005). The Demand for Victims of Sex Trafficking. Available online at: http://www.uri.edu/
artsci/wms/hughes/demand_for_victims.pdf

Raymond, J.G. (2004). Prostitution on demand: Legalising the buyers as sexual consumers. Violence
Against Women, 10, 1156-1186. Available online at: http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/
RaymondVAW.pdf

International Labour Organisation. (2006). The Demand Side of Human Trafficking in Asia: Empirical
Findings. Bangkok: ILO. Available online at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/asia/robangkok/documents/publication/wcms_bk_pb_73_en.pdf

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2010). Principle 4 and related
guidelines: Prevention through addressing demand. Recommended Principles and Guidelines on
Human Rights and Human Trafficking: Commentary. Geneva: OHCHR. Available online at: http://
www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Commentary_Human_Trafficking_en.pdf

10

GAATW. (2010). Beyond Borders: Exploring Links Between Trafficking, Globalisation and Security. GAATW
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11

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (2004). A Trade Union Guide to Globalisation.
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Article 9(5) in United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2004). United Nations Convention Against
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13

Available online at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Traffickingen.pdf

14

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2010). Principle 4 and related
guidelines: Prevention through addressing demand. Recommended Principles and Guidelines on
Human Rights and Human Trafficking: Commentary. Geneva: OHCHR. Available online at: http://
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15

African Union. (2006). Ouagadougou Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially

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Women and Children. Available online at: http://au.int/en/dp/sa/content/ouagadougou-action-plancombat-trafficking-human-beings-especially-women-and-children-0

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Available online at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg2/trafficking/campaign/Source/

PDF_Conv_197_Trafficking_E.pdf

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The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. (2011, April 5). Directive 2011/36/EU
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Available online at: http://ec.europa.eu/anti-trafficking
/
download.action;jsessionid=Lh1QTVRYDWnvLTm5hpqTzvG9zpn20HLpSxLBZ4yy
3mJy09yc2T6Y!797973069?nodeId=9c9ba3cd-794b-4a57-b534ad89effac575&fileName=Directive+THB+L+101+15+april+2011.pdf&fileType=pdf

18

E.g. U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. (2011). Prevention:
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19

Rights Work Initiative (2011, October 10). Seeking evidence from State Department for assertions on
fighting sex trafficking by curbing demand for prostitution. Available online at: http://rightswork.org/
2011/10/seeking-evidence-from-state-department-for-assertions-on-fighting-sex-trafficking-by-curbingdemand-for-prostitution/?utm_source=RWI+Contacts&utm_campaign=ec1afee4b7State_Department_Letter10_10_2011&utm_medium=email
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20

E.g. Collet, A. (2006). Interrogating sexualities at Beijing+10. Sexuality Policy Watch, Working Papers,
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21

Weekes, A. (2006). South African anti-trafficking legislation: A critique of control over womens freedom of
movement and sexuality. Agenda, 70, 29-37. Available online at: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/72478610/
focus-fiona

22

Rights Work Initiative (2011, October 10). Seeking evidence from State Department for assertions on
fighting sex trafficking by curbing demand for prostitution. Available online at: http://rightswork.org/
2011/10/seeking-evidence-from-state-department-for-assertions-on-fighting-sex-trafficking-by-curbingdemand-for-prostitution/
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23

Anderson, B. & OConnell Davidson, J. (2002). Trafficking A Demand Led Problem? A Multi-Country
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24

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29

International Labour Organisation. (2006). The Demand Side of Human Trafficking in Asia: Empirical
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32

Raymond, J.G. (2004). Prostitution on demand: Legalising the buyers as sexual consumers. Violence
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RaymondVAW.pdf

33

Hughes, D. (2005). The Demand for Victims of Sex Trafficking. Available online at: http://www.uri.edu/
artsci/wms/hughes/demand_for_victims.pdf

34

Hughes, D. (2005). The Demand for Victims of Sex Trafficking. Available online at: http://www.uri.edu/
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OConnell Davidson, J. (2006, July 27). Men, middlemen, and migrants: The demand side of sex
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OConnell Davidson, J. (2006, July 27). Men, middlemen, and migrants: The demand side of sex
trafficking. Eurozine. Available online at: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-07-27-davidson-en.html

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Weitzer, R. (2005). New directions in research on prostitution. Crime, Law & Social Change 43, 211
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Sanders, T. (2008). Paying for Pleasure: Men Who Buy Sex. Devon: Willan.

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Dodillet, S. & stergren, P. (2011, March 3-4). The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and
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Dodillet, S. & stergren, P. (2011, March 3-4). The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and
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BR (2008) as cited in Dodillet, S. & stergren, P. (2011, March 3-4). The Swedish Sex Purchase Act:
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Dodillet, S. & stergren, P. (2011, March 3-4). The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and
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www.petraostergren.com/upl/files/54259.pdf. Conclusions were drawn from material from authorities
responsible for reporting on prostitution and evaluating the policy, including: the National Board of
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SOU (2010) as cited in Dodillet, S. & stergren, P. (2011, March 3-4). The Swedish Sex Purchase Act:
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La Strada International. (2010). Questions and answers on La Strada Internationals Opinion on the FIFA
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Self-Empowerment Program for Migrant Women (SEPOM) (2010). Trafficked Identities as a Barrier to
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La Strada International. (2002). La Strada Statement and Recommendations on the Proposal for a
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Wilcox, A., Christmann, K., Rogerson, M. & Birch, P. (2009). Tackling the Demand for Prostitution: A Rapid
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Dodillet, S. & stergren, P. (2011, March 3-4). The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and
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Dodillet, S. & stergren, P. (2011, March 3-4). The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and
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123

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124

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The Sex Industry

in New South WaleS
A report to the NSW Ministry of Health
The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine
University of New South Wales

Dedicated to the late Dr Christine Harcourt a rare and sensible voice in sex work research and policy for 30 years.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

A Report to the NSW Ministry of Health
Basil Donovan and Christine Harcourt
The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales
and Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Sydney Hospital
Sandra Egger
Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales
Lucy Watchirs Smith, Karen Schneider, Handan Wand and John M Kaldor
The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales
Marcus Y Chen and Christopher K Fairley
School of Population Health, University of Melbourne
and Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
Sepehr Tabrizi
Royal Womens Hospital, Melbourne
Kirby Institute for infection and immunity in society, UNSW 2012
Suggested citation:
Donovan, B., Harcourt, C., Egger, S., Watchirs Smith, L., Schneider, K., Kaldor, J.M., Chen, M.Y., Fairley, C.K.,
Tabrizi, S., (2012). The Sex Industry in New South Wales: a Report to the NSW Ministry of Health.
Sydney: Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales.
www.kirby.unsw.edu.au
ISBN: 978-0-646-56721-1
Acknowledgements
The Law and Sexworker Health (LASH) team would like to thank the NSW Ministry of Health for funding the production
of this report. However the views expressed in the Report are not necessarily those of the Ministry. The LASH project
was originally funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (Project grant no.352437). We would like
to thank Julie Bates, Jody OConnor, Kate Demaere, the staff of SWOP and A/Prof Anna McNulty, Heng Lu, and the
Multicultural Health Promotion team at SSHC for their assistance with data collection.
Design, layout and production Ascending Horse (www.ascendinghorse.com)

Table of contents
List of tables and figures

Executive summary

vi

Recommendations

STIs and HIV

23

Background

Condom use with clients

23

Condom use with non-paying partners

24

Legal responses to sex work

The health of sex workers

Use of clinical and health promotion services

23
23

Anti-trafficking measures

10

Tobacco, alcohol and other substance use

26

Public health responses to sex work

11

Social support and wellbeing

26

Health promotion

11

Encounters with the police at work

26

Sexual health services

11

Knowledge of prostitution laws

27

Sexual behaviour

12

STIs and HIV

12

Brothel owners, managers, and receptionists

29

Drug injecting

13

Hourly rate for services

29

Mental health

13

NSW Police involvement with brothels

29

Violence at work

13

Visits by other authorities

29

Other issues

13

Conclusions

29

Methodology

14

Perceptions of sex industry conditions

Prostitution law and policing in NSW

28

30

14

Policing and prosecution

30

The law and policing

14

Street offences

30

Key informant survey

14

Brothel offences

32

Measuring health promotion services

14

Premises used for prostitution

33

Brothel ratings

14

The Summary Offences Act 1988 provisions

33

Sex worker survey

14

Disorderly Houses/Restricted Premises

34

Statistical analysis

The Law and Sexworker Health (LASH) Study

15

Live on the earnings

36

Ethical considerations

15

Sole operators

37

SSHC longitudinal study: 19922009

15

Escort workers

37

Sex worker enumeration study

15

Inducing/procuring

37

Survey of local government brothel approvals

15

Advertising

38

The size and structure of the sex industry in NSW

iv

16

Child prostitution offences

38

Demand for sexual services in NSW

16

Sexual servitude and trafficking

38

Typology and numbers

16

Summary

39

Demographics of female sex workers in NSW

17

Local government planning responses

40

Age

17

Survey of Sydney Councils

41

Country of birth and language skills

17

Corruption by local government officials

43

Time in sex work

18

Private sex workers

43

Language and education

18

References

44

Brothel locations and types

18

Appendix 1: The LASH questionnaire

47

Private sex work

19

Escort work

20

Street-based sex work

20

Other venues

21

More marginalised sex workers

21

Pimps

22

Clients of sex workers

22

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

List of tables and figures

Table 1 Australasian legal responses to sex work
Table 2 Number of sex workers working in NSW brothels accessed by LASH
Table 3 Age and origin of sex workers, LASH and SSHC data from 2006
Table 4 Other demographic characteristics of sex workers, LASH sample
Table 5 Current and previous (Australian) work venues of sex workers in Sydney, LASH sample
Table 6

Sydney brothel characteristics reported by LASH field staff, LASH sample

Table 7 Workplace resources reported by Sydney brothel-based sex workers, LASH sample
Table 8 Sex workers reasons for choosing current workplace, LASH sample
Table 9 NSW sex workers use of health services, LASH sample
Table 10 Sexually transmissible infections and HIV, LASH sample
Table 11 Condom use with clients, LASH sample
Table 12 Non-paying sexual partners and condom use in previous three months, LASH sample
Table 13 Substance use in previous 12 months, LASH sample
Table 14 Social support and psychological distress, LASH sample
Table 15 Encounters with the police in brothels, LASH sample
Table 16

Soliciting offences finalised in NSW courts, 20002006

Table 17

Public acts of prostitution offences finalised in NSW courts, 20002006

Table 18

Procuring charges finalised in NSW courts, 20002006

Table 19 Charges for the most common brothel and soliciting offences, 19722006
Table 20 Inner Sydney Brothel Development Approvals by Local Government Area, 19962007

Figure 1

The proportions of Asian and non-Asian brothel-based sex workers in Sydney that reported condom use for
vaginal or anal sex with all clients, 19802007

Figure 2 Country of birth of new female sex workers, SSHC 19922009

Figure 3

Prevalent STIs at first visit in non-Asian sex workers, SSHC 19922009

Figure 4

Prevalent STIs at first visit in Asian sex workers, SSHC 19922009

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Executive summary
The Law and Sexworker Health (LASH) team are leading
international authorities on the public health and legal
aspects of sex work combining over 100 years of
multidisciplinary research experience into sex work in
NSW, interstate, and internationally.
Like most Australian Governments, NSW periodically
reviews its legislative approach to prostitution. Independent
of this process, the LASH team was compiling extensive
data on the prostitution laws in NSW; prosecutions
(20002006) resulting from those laws; the reactions of
local government; the structure and function of the sex
industry in Sydney; the demographics, behaviour, health,
and welfare of a representative sample of brothel-based
sex workers in Sydney; and the operation of health
promotion and clinical services. The NSW Ministry of
Health contracted the LASH team to compile this Report in
order to better inform NSW policy considerations.
The LASH team had been funded by the National Health
and Medical Research Council to investigate if the various
legislative approaches across Australian jurisdictions were
associated with different health and welfare outcomes for
the sex workers. Three capital cities were selected and
the LASH team focused on urban brothel-based female
sex workers for comparability reasons, and because such
women provide the bulk of commercial sexual services
in Australia. Perth was selected because most forms of
commercial sex are illegal, Sydney because adult sex
work is largely decriminalised, and Melbourne because
sex work is legalised: that is, either brothels or individual
sex workers must be licensed. Unlicensed brothels or sex
workers in Melbourne remain criminalised.
In brief, the LASH team determined that:
n Sydney has a diverse and open sex industry.
Compared to other Australian cities Sydneys
sex industry is commensurate with the size of its
population. NSW men are infrequent consumers
of commercial sexual services, with only 2.3%
purchasing sexual services in any one year, similar
to the Australian average. The number of sex workers
in Sydney brothels was similar to estimates from
20 years ago. These data confirm that the removal of
most criminal sanctions did not increase the incidence
of commercial sex in NSW.
n Despite several remaining laws against prostitutionrelated activities, offenses finalised in the NSW courts
were overwhelmingly concentrated on the street-based
sex industry. A third of those who were prosecuted
were male clients of street workers. Over the sevenyear period, 2000 to 2006, there were no prosecutions
against several prostitution laws.
n Sydney brothels are widely dispersed in inner
urban and suburban areas, and they attract few
complaints from neighbours. Because of difficulties
in gaining development approval from local councils
many Sydney brothels operate without approval,
they are often small with poor occupational health

vi

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

and safety standards, and may masquerade as

massage parlours. There are periodic reports of local
government corruption, but no evidence of widespread
police corruption around sex work.
n Compared to sex workers surveyed in Melbournes
licensed brothels and in Perth, brothel-based female
sex workers in Sydney were better educated, and were
more likely to have been born in an Asian or other nonEnglish speaking country. In contrast to these other
cities, the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) and
the Multi-cultural Health Promotion team at the Sydney
Sexual Health Centre have been actively working with
and have had full access to this sector for 20 years.
As a result the migrant sex workers in Sydney have
achieved similar excellent levels of sexual health as
their local counterparts.
n Condom use at work approaches 100% in Sydney
brothels and when the LASH team tested the Sydney
sex workers the prevalence of four STIs chlamydia
(2.8%), gonorrhoea (0), Mycoplasma genitalium
(3.6%), and trichomoniasis (0.7%) was at least as
low as the general population.
n In general Sydney brothels workers enjoyed levels of
mental health that were comparable to the general
population. However, 10% of the Sydney women
were found to be severely distressed on psychological
testing (the Kessler-6 scale): twice as often as the
general population. Psychological distress was
strongly associated with injecting drug use.
Based on these findings and a review of the recent
literature on the outcomes of various legislative
approaches to prostitution, the LASH team developed the
recommendations that appear in the following section.

Recommendations
1. The NSW Governments legislative reforms of 1979 and
1995 should be endorsed. These reforms that decriminalised
adult sex work have improved human rights; removed police
corruption; netted savings for the criminal justice system;
and enhanced the surveillance, health promotion, and safety
of the NSW sex industry. International authorities regard the
NSW regulatory framework as best practice. Contrary to early
concerns the NSW sex industry has not increased in size or
visibility, and sex work remains stigmatised.
2. Licensing of sex work (legalisation) should not be
regarded as a viable legislative response. For over a
century systems that require licensing of sex workers or
brothels have consistently failed most jurisdictions that once
had licensing systems have abandoned them. As most sex
workers remain unlicensed criminal codes remain in force,
leaving the potential for police corruption. Licensing systems
are expensive and difficult to administer, and they always
generate an unlicensed underclass. That underclass is wary
of and avoids surveillance systems and public health services:
the current systems in Queensland and Victoria confirm this
fact. Thus, licensing is a threat to public health.
3. The Department of Planning, in consultation
with local government, community representatives,
and the Health Department, should endorse planning
guidelines for brothels. The inadequacies of council
responses to brothel development applications can be
addressed by the State Planning Department endorsing
the Sex Services Premises Planning Guidelines 2004, with
appropriate updates and amendments.
4. Decriminalisation of the adult sex industry means that
prime responsibility for the industry has moved from the
police to local government. Local government should
be resourced by the state for this role, and supported
by WorkCover. Decriminalisation in NSW has been
associated with many local governments refusing to approve
development applications for brothels. This has resulted in
substantial legal costs and, in isolated instances, corruption by
local government officials. Refusing development applications
has also fostered the growth of brothels masquerading as
massage parlours. Overseeing brothels to ensure compliance
with occupational health and safety standards requires
suitably qualified staff, perhaps best managed by WorkCover.
WorkCover should implement a system of active staff and
performance management in the compliance area, and
develop a rigorous review and audit system for the compliance
function with a high-level manager overseeing the process.

INTERNATIONAL
AUTHORITIES
REGARD THE NSW
REGULATORY
FRAMEWORK AS
BEST PRACTICE

LICENSING IS
A THREAT TO
PUBLIC HEALTH

REFUSING
DEVELOPMENT
APPLICATIONS
HAS FOSTERED
THE GROWTH
OF BROTHELS
MASQUERADING
AS MASSAGE
PARLOURS

continues

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

continued from previous page

5. The NSW Ministry of Health should commission a review

of clinical and health promotion services available to
sex workers. Our suggestion is that the process be led by
the STI Programs Unit in consultation with the Sex Workers
Outreach Project (SWOP) and the Kirby Institute. The current
high levels of occupational safety and historically low levels of
sexually transmissible infections (STIs) in most sex workers
provides an opportunity to rationalise and better target health
service provision where it can provide the greatest benefit; for
example, new brothel workers and street-based sex workers.
Clinical screening and health promotion guidelines should be
evidence-based and distinguish between higher and lower
risk sex workers. Data on the sexual health of regional and
rural, Aboriginal, street-based, male, and gender diverse sex
workers should be sought and collated.
6. The NSW Government, in consultation with local
government and street work communities, should
investigate more effective and humane approaches to the
problems posed by street-based sex work. Street-based
sex work is politically challenging everywhere, and NSW is not
exceptional, as traditional working areas become gentrified.
Street sex workers are among the most traumatised people in
the sex industry. Though they are the smallest component of
the industry, street sex workers are the major target for police
prosecutions because of their high visibility. The aim of the
investigation should be to explore methods of reducing the
street presence and vulnerability of sex workers by means
such ensuring an adequate supply of indoor alternatives;
including approving brothels, and supporting more safe
house facilities.
7. Considerations should be given to supporting research
into the health and welfare of NSW sex workers outside
Sydney; including the structure and determinates of the
industry, and the knowledge, experience and behaviour
of the workers. The LASH and Sydney Sexual Health
Centre (SSHC) studies were limited to urban female brothelworkers in Sydney. Parts of regional NSW have significant
numbers of sex workers, many of whom are in contact with
regional sexual health services. Such research could inform
clinical service delivery and health promotion programs (see
Recommendation 5).
8. For health and safety reasons and in order to meet
best practice in a decriminalised environment the word
brothel as defined in the legislation, should not apply
when up to four private sex workers work cooperatively
from private premises. All of the evidence indicates that
private sex workers have no effect on public amenity.
Exempting this group from planning laws that pertain to
brothels will limit the potential for local government corruption.
The New Zealand experience provides a successful precedent
for the four worker model.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

STREET-BASED
SEX WORK IS
POLITICALLY
CHALLENGING
EVERYWHERE,
AND NSW IS NOT
EXCEPTIONAL,
AS TRADITIONAL
WORKING
AREAS BECOME
GENTRIFIED

THE WORD
BROTHEL SHOULD
NOT APPLY WHEN
UP TO FOUR
PRIVATE SEX
WORKERS WORK
COOPERATIVELY
FROM PRIVATE
PREMISES

Background
In 1995 the sex industry in New South Wales (NSW)
was effectively decriminalised by the Disorderly Houses
Amendment Act 1995 that allowed for the legal operation
of brothels subject to approval under planning laws. This
was the culmination of a process begun in 1979 when street
soliciting was decriminalised by the repeal of the Summary
Offences Act. There is growing evidence that better public
health outcomes occur when sex work is decriminalised
and health promotion and outreach programs are properly
resourced (Rekart, 2005; Donovan et al., 2010a), however
most jurisdictions continue to criminalise their sex industries.
Decriminalisation has now been in operation in NSW for
16 years. Over that period there have been other major
changes with potential impacts on the sex industry in NSW.
These include immigration and growing HIV epidemics to
our north, and increasing STIs across Australia. As NSW
was a pioneer in the decriminalisation of prostitution, it is
timely to review the status of its sex industry. This could
prove useful to other jurisdictions that are considering
decriminalisation, as well as highlighting remaining issues
that need to be addressed in NSW.

Legal responses to sex work

The Australian Constitution does not grant general criminal
law powers to the Commonwealth Government and thus
prostitution laws are matters for the State and Territory
Governments. Since the 19th century all Australian
jurisdictions and New Zealand (NZ) had criminalised most
activities around prostitution but in the later part of the 20th
century these laws became increasingly diverse (Harcourt
et al., 2005). Most recently, NSW and the Australian Capital
Territory (ACT) and NZ largely decriminalised prostitution
(see Table 1, overleaf).
Earlier, the Victoria and Queensland governments had
introduced licensing systems for brothels and some
sex workers in the shadows of the emerging HIV/AIDS
epidemic and extensive police corruption, respectively.
The remaining states retain a variety of criminal laws
against brothel-keeping and other prostitution-related
activities (see Table 1), but these seem to be infrequently
policed and debates and enquiries about prostitution law
reform are ongoing. Notably, a majority of Australians
have long favoured a move away from criminal sanctions
(Weitzer, 2009), and enforcing prostitution laws is
unpopular with police forces (McDonald, 2004).
As governments considering prostitution law reform
have a number of options, it is useful to briefly review
these options in the Australian context more data and
discussion are available elsewhere (Harcourt et al., 2005).
Broadly, these options are:
1. Criminalisation. Otherwise known as prohibition
or abolitionism, this legal approach has traditionally
been seen as the most appropriate societal or moral
response to conduct associated with the trade in

sexual services. Criminal sanctions focus on related

activities such as soliciting, brothel-keeping, and
procuring, rather than the act of prostitution itself.

Though criminalisation is the most common response

globally, police discretion is often exercised to
permit certain activities notwithstanding the criminal
prohibitions. This tension between law and policing
has a demonstrated potential to result in police
corruption and abuse. Criminalisation may exacerbate
opportunities for coercion and exploitation by
encouraging sex workers to seek the protection of
pimps and criminals (Harcourt et al., 2005). There is
no evidence that criminalisation reduces the incidence
of prostitution (Abel, 2009; Rissel et al., 2003; Neave,
1988) and the Australian public no longer see it as a
preferred option (Weitzer, 2009).

2. Decriminalisation. The removal of most of the

criminal penalties applying to adult prostitution is
based on an essentially pragmatic acceptance that
sex work is here to stay, so priority is given to
protecting human rights and the public health.
Restrictions on sex work remain, but these are
normally administered by local government rather
than the police (Harcourt et al., 2005).
In theory, decriminalisation could result in a more
normalised sex industry with improved working
conditions (including paid leave, superannuation,
security, and occupational health and safety programs),
taxation obligations, reduced police corruption and
a reduction in the involvement of organised crime.
However, such advances are often slow and patchy
(Harcourt et al., 2005). As they do not acquire criminal
records, sex workers find it easier to move out of a
decriminalised industry into alternative employment.
Better health outcomes for sex workers are typically
reported from decriminalised systems such as the
Netherlands, Germany, and NSW (Rekart, 2005;
Donovan et al., 2010) though such jurisdictions usually
also have strong public health systems. The NSW
decriminalisation model has been commended by
international authorities as best practice (Rekart, 2005;
Jeffrey & Sullivan, 2009) and was influential in law
reform in New Zealand (Ministry of Justice, 2008).
3. Licensing. Often called legalisation, under this
system either brothels or individual sex workers can
apply to the state for a license to operate. Seen as
a means of excluding undesirable persons from the
industry and of enhancing government control over the
number, location, and operation of brothels, licensing
has never lived up to expectations. Unlicensed
premises and sex workers remain criminalised, and
the unlicensed sector normally comprises a large
proportion of the industry (see Table 1, overleaf).

continues

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Table 1 Australasian legal responses to sex work

Criminalised Licensed (legalised) Decriminalised

Jurisdiction (year of change)

WA, SA, NT, Tas Vic (1984) ACT (1992)

Qld (1992) NSW (1995)
NZ (2003)
Proportion of sex workers
>80% (typically, only Vic ~50%
operating illegally
private or escort work
Qld ~90%

is not illegal)
(inc. unlicensed brothels

and street workers)

<2% (street workers

in the wrong location)

Corruption potential
Police
Police Local government
Local government

Medical

continued from previous page

In Queensland, for example, after 20 years of

operation, only 25 brothels (less than 10%) have
joined the scheme (Prostitution Licensing
Authority, 2009).
Licensing systems are self-serving, expensive and
exclusive, often pushing sex workers onto the street
(Harcourt et al., 2005), while undermining access by
surveillance and health promotion programs (Chen
et al., 2010; Harcourt et al., 2010; Rowe, 2011).
As well as being questionable from a human rights
perspective, mandatory sexual health screening of
sex workers in Victoria has been shown to waste
millions of dollars (Wilson et al., 2010) and to displace
higher risk patients from finite public health services
(Samaranake et al., 2010).
4. The Swedish Model. In 1998 the Swedish
Government introduced a new system that has
attracted international attention largely because of its
claimed novelty. Positioning sex workers as victims,
the Swedes claim to be unique by decriminalising
sex work while imposing criminal sanctions on their
clients. In other words, purchasing sexual services is
a crime while selling such services is not. However,
criminal sanctions against clients are common around
the world (Brewer et al., 2006), including NSW (p47),
so the Swedish model is not as novel as claimed.
Curiously, the only evaluation of the legislation by the
Swedish Government presented no data on numbers
of prosecutions. While they claimed to have reduced
the prevalence of street prostitution, this had been
offset by substantial increases in indoor prostitution
(Swedish Institute, 2010). As most prostitution-related
activities remain criminalised in Sweden, even the
claim of providing benefit for the women is arguable
(Dodillet & stergren, 2011).

10

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

The distinctions between these systems may be largely

illusory, with substantial overlap.
Policing practices are usually more important than the law.
Even though Thailands large sex industry is criminalised,
it is lightly policed and socially tolerated. By contrast,
despite superficially moderate sanctions, 50,000 sex
workers are incarcerated in China every year for a period of
two years of brutal re-education, with a high re-offending
rate. As the Chinese system expands so do the epidemics of
HIV and other STIs in China (Tucker et al., 2010). One can
only speculate on the sorts of arrangements the other
99% of Chinese sex workers has reached with the police
to avoid detention.

Anti-trafficking measures
Much of the hard line position against the liberalisation
of prostitution legislation is driven by concerns about the
trafficking women and children for sexual slavery. Most of
these claims are anecdotal but there clearly are issues in
Europe where women from Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union have been taken illegally to brothels in more
affluent western European and Middle Eastern countries,
including Turkey and Israel (Cwikel et al., 2008). There
is also a long history of trafficking in India (e.g. from
Nepal to Kolkotta and Mumbai) and around the
Thai-Burmese border.
Some individuals in Australia contend that hundreds
of Asian women are trafficked to brothels in Australia
but present little evidence. The Federal Government,
in response to international anti-trafficking agreements
funded a large-scale investigation into these allegations
(Inquiry into the Trafficking of Women for Sexual Servitude,
June 2004). It was recently reported that, since 2004,
119 women discovered in NSW have been involved in a
Commonwealth Government support program for people

trafficked into the sex industry, but there have only been a
handful of successful prosecutions. Recent brothel raids
in Gladesville and Eastwood resulted in a few men being
charged with drug offenses and bail breaches only (Sydney
Morning Herald, 8/10/2011). Trafficking charges in relation
to prostitution are hard to prove (David, 2008).
The LASH team found no evidence of recent trafficking
of female sex workers in the Sydney brothel survey
(see The size and structure of the sex industry in NSW,
page 16) or in a clinic study (Pell et al., 2006). This was
in marked contrast to the 1990s when contacted women
from Thailand were common in Sydney (Brockett & Murray,
1993; OConnor et al., 1996; Payne C, 1997).

Public health responses to sex work

Australian sex workers have achieved substantial
improvement to their sexual health since the 1980s and
this appears to have been sustained (Lee et al., 2005;
Donovan et al., 2010a). This has been attributed primarily
to the consistent use of condoms by sex workers with
commercial partners (Harcourt et al., 2001; Lee et al.,
2005). Most Australian jurisdictions have supported health
promotion programs targeting sex workers for over 20
years (Donovan & Harcourt, 1996). Highly successful harm
reduction programs have also resulted in HIV not entering
the sex industry in any substantial way through drug
injection (Donovan et al., 2010).
However, there are ongoing changes with potential impacts
on the sex industry. These include demographic changes
through migration and travel (Pell et al., 2006), prostitution
law reform, and an increased incidence of HIV infection
and other STIs in Australia and in neighbouring countries
(Kirby Institute, 2011).
Demographic changes within the Australian sex industry
include an increased number of migrant sex workers from
high HIV prevalence countries in Asia. This has been
most marked in NSW (OConnor et al., 1996; Pell et al.,
2006) and to an extent in Victoria and WA (Donovan et al.,
2010b). However, female sex workers in Australia who
are HIV-positive are rare (OConnor et al., 1996; Kirby
Institute, 2011), but with the ongoing potential for this
situation to change.

Health promotion
In response to the HIV epidemic, a range of initiatives were
implemented in Australia in the 1980s that have contributed
greatly to the health of sex workers. Among these initiatives
was the formation of community-based organisations
representing at-risk groups with the mandate of providing
health education, community support and advocacy. They
did so with the assistance of health professionals and
national and state AIDS funding (Mulhall et al., 1995a;
Donovan & Harcourt, 1996).

Specifically, as a national and probably international first, in

1986 the NSW Health Department provided funding to the
NSW branch of the Australian Prostitutes Collective (APC)
a community organisation that had begun peer education
and support activities in Sydney as early as 1983 (Donovan
& Harcourt, 1996). The APC, with the support of the Health
Department, was instrumental in persuading brothel
managers and workers to adopt safer sex practices (Bates,
1990). Condom use in brothels rose from under 11% of
sexual encounters to over 90% between 1985 and 1989
and the health of sex workers improved commensurately
(Donovan & Harcourt, 1996). However, ideological disputes
between members of the APC led eventually to a break-up
of the organisation in 1988 (Harcourt 2002: 136143).
The government saw the value of continuing the groundbreaking work of the APC and in 1990 it funded a
new organisation the Sex Workers Outreach Project
(SWOP) administered by the AIDS Council of NSW
(ACON), a prominent, community based non-government
organisation. The new organisation was funded to deliver
HIV/STI information and education to the sex industry.
There were initial community concerns that it would lack
the strong advocacy and political roles undertaken by
the APC but over time the organisation became widely
acceptable to sex workers and owners in the sex industry.
Through its accumulated knowledge base SWOP has been
able to support law reform and to seek improvements in
working conditions in the industry (SWOP, 1994). Today,
SWOP and its regional branches provide peer education
through outreach and shopfront services and delivers
resources to sex workers throughout NSW. SWOP has
developed strong collaborative partnerships with other
public health services (Pell et al., 2006).
Similarly, AIDS education programs for the general public
increased awareness among sex workers clients of the
importance of safer sex (Donovan et al 1996). Following
the decriminalisation of brothel prostitution, NSW Health
gave additional support for work place reform for sex
workers (NSW Health & WorkCover, 1997).
Also of note was federal support, initiated in the mid1980s, for needle and syringe programs (first introduced
privately by health professionals in NSW), methadone
maintenance programs and other related resources aimed
at drug injecting communities throughout Australia. These
programs continue to have positive benefits for injecting
drug users including those working in the sex industry
(Donovan & Harcourt, 1996).

Sexual health services

The 1980s and 1990s also saw an increase in the number
and quality of clinical sexual health services in many parts
of Australia (Donovan & Harcourt, 1996). In 1988, the
Australasian College of Sexual Health Physicians was

continues

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

11

continued from previous page

These developments fed into career structures and allowed

clinical staff to become better consultants and advocates
on behalf of their priority populations, including sex
workers. Also, in 1985 Medicare began to allow rebates
for STI-related consultations for sex workers with private
doctors, although there are still restrictions on rebating
pathology testing. In all Australian jurisdictions, GPs
provide most of the STI screening for sex workers and
their clients.
In some NSW public sexual health centres, culturallyspecific resources have been developed to address the
unique needs of non-resident sex workers. The first and
still the largest such initiative was in Sydney where the
Multicultural Health Promotion Project was established
in 1990 at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre (SSHC).
The Project includes Asian language clinics and outreach
services employing Asian peer educators and is conducted
in collaboration with SWOP (OConnor et al. 1996; Pell et
al., 2006). NSW has the most extensive network of sexual
health services in Australia, and all treat sex workers as
a priority population. Nevertheless, local gaps in health
promotion and health care delivery have been identified in
NSW (Berg et al., 2011).

Sexual behaviour
The health promotion programs and HIV prevention
services provided by health professionals and communitybased groups led to a dramatic increase in condom use by
Australian brothel sex workers since the 1980s (Harcourt,
1994; Harcourt & Philpot, 1990). Since the mid-1990s
repeated surveys of female sex workers working privately
or in brothels in other states show almost universal condom
use with clients (Harcourt et al., 2001; Perkins & Lovejoy,
2007; Pyett et al., 1996; Lee et al., 2005; Donovan et al.,
2010). Importantly, Asian sex workers are now as likely to
use condoms at work as their resident peers (Figure 1).
In other research, sex workers who are young and
inexperienced, sex workers who are drug-dependent
and male sex workers have been found to use condoms
less consistently (Harcourt, 1994; OConnor et al., 1996;
Morton et al., 1999; Minichiello et al., 2001; Minichiello
et al., 2000; Pell et al., 2006; Roxburgh et al., 2008;
Roxburgh et al., 2006). Street sex workers in Melbourne
and Sydney have also reported lower rates of consistent
condom use at work than brothel workers (Morton et al.,
1999; Harcourt et al., 2001).

12

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

100
80
Percent

incorporated as a professional training body, and became

a Chapter of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians
in 2004. Similarly, sexual and reproductive health nursing
was recognised as a specialist area and the Australian
Sexual Health Nurses Association was established in 1991
(Mulhall et al., 1995b).

60
40
20
0
1980

1990

2000

2010

Year
Other

Asian

Figure 1 The proportions of Asian and non-Asian brothelbased sex workers in Sydney that reported condom use for
vaginal or anal sex with all clients, 19802007. (Source:
Donovan et al., 2010a.)

Sex workers, regardless of their age, sex, ethnic

background or type of sex work are much less likely to
use condoms with non-paying partners, similar to the
general population (Fox et al., 2006; Harcourt, 1994;
Prestage et al., 2007; Pyett et al., 1996). Inconsistent
condom use with non-paying partners is associated
with a low perception of risk and the use of condoms to
differentiate sexual activity with private partners.

STIs and HIV

Due to the consistent use of condoms by sex workers
Australia has seen a steady decline in STIs in sex workers
and their clients (Harcourt, 1994). These low levels of STIs
have been maintained over the last decade (Donovan
et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2005). In a Melbourne study,
unprotected sex with non-paying partners was the major
risk factor for incident STIs (Lee et al., 2005). Nevertheless,
because the same sex workers consistently use condoms
at work, further transmission to their clients is largely
averted (Wilson et al., 2010).
There is still no documented case of a female sex worker
in Australia acquiring or transmitting HIV infection at work
and HIV in female sex workers remains rare in Australia
(Kirby Institute, 2011). The few resident female sex workers
identified as HIV-positive have all had IDU as the probable
source of infection (Harcourt, 1994).
The prevalence of STIs among certain groups of sex
workers tends to be higher. For example, in one review of
medical records in Sydney, almost one third of male sex
workers had one or more STIs at clinical presentation,
which was double the prevalence of STIs among female
sex workers (Estcourt et al., 2000).

Female sex workers from Asia, young sex workers, those

who engage in high levels of illegal drug use, and street
sex workers have previously been found to have higher
rates of STIs (OConnor et al., 1996; Estcourt et al., 2000;
Harcourt, 1994; Morton et al., 2002; Morton et al., 1999).
However, STI rates in Asian sex workers in Sydney are
now as low as in their local peers (Donovan et al., 2010a).
Notably, heterosexual men attending the SSHC who
reported contact with a sex worker were five times less
likely to be infected with chlamydia than other heterosexual
men attending the same clinic (Chen et al., 2007).

Drug injecting
Only 7% to 17% of brothel and escort sex workers in
Australia report ever injecting drugs (Harcourt et al., 2001;
Perkins & Lovejoy, 2007; Pyett et al., 1996). The proportion
is much higher among more marginalised groups such as
street-based workers (typically >85%), young sex workers,
and occasional sex workers (Morton et al., 1999; Harcourt
et al., 2001; Lee et al., 2005; Roxburgh et al., 2008;
Roxburgh et al., 2006; Sharp, 1995). Sex workers who
inject drugs have the added risk factors of being more likely
to have intercourse without a condom and to have partners
who are also drug users (Sharp, 1995).
NSW sexual health services provide clean injecting
equipment and free hepatitis B vaccination. The Kirketon
Road Centre in Sydney which has a large clientele of
injecting drug user (IDU) street workers also provides
opiate substitution therapy and counselling for IDUs.

2007) for street workers violence is a more pervasive issue.

Upwards of 50% of Sydney street workers report violence
at work (Boyle et al., 1997; Harcourt et al., 2001; Roxburgh
et al., 2006; Seib et al., 2009).
The illegal, visible, and stigmatised status of street sex
work attracts extreme violence. Between 1990 and 2003,
87 street workers in the UK were murdered (Kinnell, 2004),
heralding the five Ipswich murders in 2006 (Goodyear &
Cusick, 2007). In 2002, one man was charged with the
murder of 26 of the 63 missing sex workers in Vancouver
(Jeffrey & Sullivan, 2009). No comparable statistics are
available for Australia. It has been argued that the state
contributes to these murders by promoting stigmatisation
and exploitation of sex workers while alienating them from
the security that should be provided by the police (Kinnell,
2004; Goodyear & Cusick, 2007).

Other issues
Among sex workers high levels of tobacco consumption
is a consistent finding, with up to 82% reporting currently
smoking cigarettes (Perkins, 1994). Unless provisions
are made for this high rate of smoking, brothels can
be very smoky environments that raise occupational
health and safety concerns. Other issues faced by more
vulnerable sex workers include child care, lack of social
support, and unstable accommodation (Harcourt et al.,
2001; Pyett et al., 1996).

Mental health
Sex workers face a number of other health and safety
concerns in their work. Stress, depression and a sense of
isolation have all been reported by sex workers (Perkins,
1994). However, the psychological distress experienced
by brothel-based sex workers may not be substantially
different than that of women in the general population.
In a sample of 171 female sex workers in Queensland,
it was found that 28% were above the threshold for mild
psychiatric morbidity, a rate similar to that of women from
the general population (Boyle et al., 1997).
However, sex workers engaging in street-based work and
who inject drugs were much more likely to report poor
mental health (Boyle et al., 1997; Perkins, 1994; Roxburgh
et al., 2006; Seib et al., 2009). Roxburgh et al (2006)
found that just under half of Sydney street workers met the
criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Violence at work
Client violence is another issue that sex workers face.
While 5% to 10% of brothel and private workers have
reported some form of violence in their work (e.g., robbery
with violence, rape, bashing, stabbing) (Perkins & Lovejoy,

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

13

Methodology
The Law and Sexworker Health (LASH)
Study
Between 2007 and 2008 we conducted a comparative
study of the health and welfare of sex workers in three
Australian cities with different legal climates the LASH
study. The chosen cities were: Perth, with extensive
criminal sanctions against most prostitution-related
activities; Melbourne, where licensed brothel prostitution
was permitted, but most other prostitution-related activities
remain criminalised; and Sydney, where adult prostitution
is largely decriminalised. While Sydney brothels do not
require a license, they are subject to local planning laws.
Australia was arguably the only country where such a
study could be conducted because of its diversity of legal
approaches to prostitution (Jeffrey & Sullivan, 2009), while
other societal and institutional factors are common to all
jurisdictions. Specifically, the LASH Study explored the
following questions:
n What are the laws relating to prostitution in NSW,
Victoria and WA? How are they policed?
n What broadly, are the demographics and the work
locations of sex workers in these three states?
n How accessible and targeted are health services for
sex workers in each state?
n What are the health and welfare outcomes for sex
workers in each state?
n To what extent do sex worker health and welfare
outcomes vary with the severity of prostitution laws
and policing practices, and with access to health
services, in each state?
We employed a number of methods to answer the research
questions, including standard legal research techniques,
key informant phone interviews, and a self-administered
questionnaire and STI testing via a self-collected tampon
specimen, of approximately 200 brothel-based sex workers
in each city.

The law and policing

We analysed the law and court statistics in each state,
the policing and prosecution experiences of sex workers
responding to the questionnaire, and local government and
police policies, plans and instructions.

Key informant survey

During the first year of the LASH project, we conducted
semi-structured phone interviews with key informants.
In NSW we interviewed eight key informants, including
community and outreach workers, former brothel managers
and sex workers, and a public health professional.
Information was sought regarding the numbers and
locations of sex workers, local policies and policing
practices and the informants understanding of the major
issues faced by sex workers.

14

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

We analysed information from the key informant

questionnaires through cross comparison and thematic
grouping of responses to the open-ended questions.
The results of this analysis were used to supplement
information about the size and location of the sex industry
in Sydney to determine local policing practices, to provide
a broad picture of health and welfare services targeting sex
workers, and to refine the sex worker questionnaire.

Measuring health promotion services

For each state we quantified health promotion programs
targeted at the sex industry. We defined health promotion
broadly and included issues such as policy framework,
work environment, community action, health education,
outreach, condom supply, and health service delivery.
We used information from the key informants to determine
resource levels, including budgets and staff numbers,
and their accessibility and outreach to target populations.
The survey of sex workers provided supplementary
information and specifically sought the sex workers
personal experiences of delivery of educational services
to their work-sites, availability of condoms and other
safety equipment, and their access to public sexual
health services.

Brothel ratings
While administering the questionnaire, field staff also
recorded brothel features such as security measures
(external lights, front of house security, and internal
alarms), general layout and presentation of premises
(cleanliness, lighting, staff rest areas, staff-friendly
environment, etc.). Based on their observations, data
collectors assessed brothels on their merits as workerfriendly workplaces, awarding them a star rating from 1 star
(lowest) to 5 stars (highest) developed for the purposes
of the LASH study. The sex worker questionnaire also
included questions about work-site security.

Sex worker survey

To achieve a sample of sufficient statistical power we
planned to survey and test 200 female sex workers for STIs
at their work place in each city. We limited the sample to
women in urban brothels as this is the most common type
of sex work in Australia (Rissel et al., 2003) and to allow
comparison between the three cities. Health issues vary
according to the type of sex work (Harcourt & Donovan,
2005; Rowe 2011).
To construct the sampling frame of brothels in Sydney,
we cross-referenced advertisements in the telephone
book with lists compiled from consultations with SWOP.
We ruled out duplicate listings, by cross-referencing
brothel addresses and telephone numbers which revealed
that some premises had more than one phone line and
others advertised under a variety of names. We identified

up to 400 premises that were probably brothels in the

greater metropolitan area, but we restricted our final list to
approximately 200 premises located within 20 kilometres
of the central Sydney GPO. We randomly selected 120
premises from the list and were able to confirm by phone
call or visit that 101 of these were currently operating
brothels. We were able to access 74 brothels to
collect data.
Field staff made a total of 86 visits some brothels were
visited twice. Seventy-two of the visits were made during
the daytime and 14 occurred at night. There was a median
of 3 (inter quartile range 24) workers observed at the
brothels at each visit.
We employed outreach workers from the SWOP and
SSHC Multicultural Project (Pell et al., 2006) to assist in
collecting data from sex workers. As far as possible we
included similar numbers of women who worked day and
night shifts, a similar spread of both high and low class
brothels (as determined by charges for sexual services),
and smaller and larger brothels. We translated the
questionnaire into Thai, Chinese, and Korean for use with
non-English speaking sex workers.
All sex workers present at the time of visit were invited to
participate in the study. Those who agreed gave informed
verbal consent to complete a 20-minute questionnaire
and to provide a self-collected tampon for STI testing.
The questionnaire gathered information on demographics,
working conditions, sexual behaviour at work, private
sexual and drug use behaviours, and contact with a variety
of authorities as well as health promotion programs while at
work. The women were compensated for their time with a
$25 cash payment. Refusals to participate by work-sites or
by individual women were recorded.
A total of 264 sex workers were approached and
201 agreed to participate in the survey, resulting in
a questionnaire response rate of 76%. A copy of the
questionnaire appears as Appendix 1.

Statistical analysis
Frequency tables were used for the descriptive analysis of
data. The chi-square test was used to compare categorical
data. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA
Release 8.2 (Stata Statistical Software: Release 8.0, Stat
Corporation, College Station, USA). Statistical significance
was set a two-sided 5% level.

testing and conveying results to participants. To obtain test

results, field staff provided participants with a contact name
and number to ring.
Brothel owners/managers provided consent to gain entry
to their premises, and sex workers provided verbal consent
prior to participating in the survey.

Sydney Sexual Health Centre

Longitudinal Study: 19922009
We analysed data from the SSHC database to
examine the demographics, behaviours and sexual
health of sex workers through a period that spanned
the decriminalisation of brothels in 1995. To determine
STI prevalence we included all female sex workers who
attended SSHC for the first time from 1992 through 2009.
To determine STI incidence we included all women
who attended for further STI testing from 2004 through
2009. This study received approval from the South
Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service Research
Ethics Committee.

Sex worker enumeration study

We applied a mathematical modelling technique that
exploited the overlap between the LASH community-based
sample and the SSHC sample to determine how many
female urban brothel-based sex workers worked each
week, each month, and each year in Sydney (Read
et al., 2012a). This study received approval from the
South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service
Research Ethics Committee.

Survey of local government brothel

approvals
We also surveyed by email 27 inner Sydney councils
covering those areas where we had collected LASH data,
to ascertain how many brothels had received council or
Court approval and whether there were provisions for sex
workers to work from private premises. Up to three emails
were sent if there was no initial response.

Ethical considerations
Approval was obtained from Human Ethics Committees
at the University of New South Wales, the AIDS Council
of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne and the
Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. Confidentiality was maintained
throughout. We identified sex workers and key informants
by a code only, and no names or addresses were entered
on data collection forms. Codes were used for laboratory

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

15

The size and structure of the sex industry in NSW

It has been argued that legislation and law enforcement
policy does not directly determine the size of the sex
industry but rather shapes its form (Neave, 1988).
The following description of the industry draws on
published reports plus data from the LASH and SSHC
Longitudinal studies.

Table 2 Number of sex workers working in individual Sydney

brothels accessed by LASH

Mean number (%)

Sex worker responses (n=201)

During the day (median)

4.0

No response/dont know

33 (16.4)

Demand for sexual services in NSW

During the night

5.5

No response/dont know

75 (37.3)

Australian men are infrequent consumers of commercial

sexual services by world standards. In a representative
sample of Australian men aged 15 to 59 years in 2001
2002, 2.3% of NSW men reported paying for sex in the last
year (16% had ever paid) which was similar to Australia
overall and lower than most countries (Rissel et al., 2003).
Australian men who had recently paid for sex had met the
women in a brothel (64.6%), via an escort service (32.6%),
massage parlour (26.8%), private premises with a single sex
worker (25.5%) or private premises with two or more sex
workers (11.5%), or on the street (5.9%) (Rissel et al., 2003).

Owner/Manager responses (n=34)

Median

6.0

No response/dont know

5 (14.7)

staff per brothel (Table 2). Two claimed they had 40 or

more women on their books and eight reported only two
or three.

Typology and numbers

The remaining premises in this group of 34 brothels

employed between 5 and 20 sex workers. Overall these
numbers suggest there were approximately 1,000 female
sex workers working in brothels within 20 kilometres of
Sydney CBD in any one week. Given the short time many
women spend in the industry there may be two or three
times as many who engage in sex work during a 12-month
period.

It is extremely difficult to estimate numbers of sex workers

because of the covert and transient nature of employment
in the industry. Estimates range from 1,500 female sex
workers working at any one time to 10,000 in the whole
of NSW (Lovejoy et al., 1991: 5; SWOP estimate, verbal
communication 2009). LASH key informants suggested
there were about 8,000 sex workers (male, female and
gender diverse) in NSW. Our research however suggests
that the number is probably lower than this.

The most systematic estimate of numbers of female sex

workers employed in brothels in Sydney used mathematical
modelling based on the overlap between the LASH and
SSHC samples, and their reported time in the industry, to
arrive at figures of:
n 1,578 sex workers each day
n 2,391 sex workers each week, and
n 3,174 (95% confidence interval 2,5904,762) in a
12 month period (Read et al., 2012a).

LASH data collectors confirmed that there were at least

101 brothels (possibly as many as 200) operating within
20 kilometres of Sydney CBD, and they visited 74 of
these. Email enquiries to 23 Local Government Councils in
the area (see Perceptions of sex industry conditions,
page 28) established that 113 premises had received
planning permission since 1996.

In addition to brothel-based sex workers (who are almost

all female) SWOP estimates that up to 40% of all sex
workers (including most male sex workers) in NSW work
privately, approximately 5% are street-based and an
unknown number (<10%) work exclusively as escorts.
These estimates are broadly consistent with a populationbased survey where 32.6% of sex workers clients reported
recently using an escort service (Rissel et al., 2003). A
realistic estimate of numbers of sex workers working within
20 kilometres of Sydney CBD within any one year might
therefore be between 3,000 and 4,500. It is also known that
there are a number of brothels operating in Western and
South-Western Sydney and some NSW regional centres
(Esler et al., 2008; Berg et al, 2011). Street-based sex
workers work in some of Sydneys outer suburban areas
and in Wollongong and Newcastle (Harcourt et al., 2001).

Though its sources are obscure, an industry reporting

organisation feels that all of the Australian sex industries
are gradually declining in both scale and revenue
(IBISWorld, 2010).

Most of the brothels that we visited were relatively small

establishments. This was particularly true of those
that appeared to be operating without current planning
permission. Key informants stated there was an average
of seven sex workers per brothel in Sydney. Sex workers
reported to LASH that a median of four sex workers worked
day shifts and 5.5 worked at night in the 74 brothels
surveyed (Table 2).
We also surveyed 34 owners/managers/ receptionists via a
small self-administered questionnaire distributed while the
LASH questionnaires were being completed. They reported
a median number of six sex workers and administration

16

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

However it is unlikely that numbers in these locations add

more than one or two thousand to the annual total.

Table 3 Age and country of birth of sex workers, LASH and SSHC data from 2006
Characteristics LASH (n=201)
No.

SSHC (n=628)

% No.

31

29

Australia

55

27.4

116

18.5

New Zealand

10

5.0

24

3.8

Other English speaking

1.0

14a

2.2a

China

42

20.9

141

22.5

Thailand

35

17.4

153

24.4

Other Asian

30

14.9

135

21.5

Western Europe

18

9.0

21b

3.3b

Other non-English speaking

4.5

19

3.0c

Age (years)
Median
Country of birth

Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander

Yes

1.5

No

187

93.0

11

5.5

Unknown/No response
a UK and Ireland
b Includes western and eastern Europe
c Includes Central/South America

Notably, these estimates of the current size of the NSW sex

industry are similar to estimates prior to decriminalisation
(Parliament of NSW, 1986). New Zealand has also found
no increase in sex worker numbers with decriminalisation
(Abel et al., 2009).

Demographics of female sex workers

in NSW
Age
The Sydney LASH respondents were aged between 18
and 60 years, median 31 years (Table 3). The average age
of brothel-based sex workers has increased since the mid
1990s in part due to the increased number of Asian sex
workers who are generally older than the other women
(Pell et al., 2006). Between 1992 and 2009 there was an
increase in median age of sex workers at first visit to SSHC
from 25 to 29 years (p-trend <0.001). Most of this age
increase was among the Asian women.

Country of birth and language skills

Two thirds (66.7%) of the sex workers in the LASH sample
were from Asian (53.2%) or other non-English speaking
countries (13.5%) (Table 3), and nearly half (46%) rated
their English skills as Fair or Poor (Table 4) There has
been an increase in the proportions of Asian immigrant
sex workers in brothels in NSW since the early 1990s
when it was estimated that Asian sex workers represented

about 20% of the female sex industry (Donovan et al.,

1991; OConnor et al., 1996; Figure 2, overleaf).
The SSHC database study reflects this trend with the
proportion of Australian-born sex workers steadily declining
over the past two decades, largely replaced by women
from Thailand, Korea, and China (Figure 2). However the
clinic sample may be biased toward Asian women because
SSHC runs Asian language clinics and many of these
women do not have Medicare cards so they have less
access to GPs: the LASH sample was not prone to
those biases.
Notably, while Thai women comprised the bulk of migrant
sex workers in the 1990s (Brockett & Murray, 1993;
OConnor et al, 1996) many more women now come from
China, Korea and elsewhere in Asia (Table 3; Figure 2,
overleaf; Pell et al., 2006). This is an important change,
as the Thai women in the 1990s were typically poorly
educated, had false passports and visas, and were usually
in debt to the agents that had organised their travel to
Australia (Brockett & Murray, 1993; OConnor et al, 1996).
By contrast, educational levels among Asian sex workers
in Sydney are now much higher, and most have permanent
residency or legitimate student visas. Debt bondage among
Asian sex workers in Sydney is now rare (Pell et al., 2006).
Only three women (1.5%) in the LASH sample identified
as Aboriginal, consistent with previous studies that found
few Aboriginal women work in brothels. However Aboriginal
women are disproportionately represented in street-based
samples (Roxburgh et al., 2006; Harcourt et al., 2001).

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

17

160
140

Australia
Thailand

100

China

80
60

Korea
Malaysia
Other Asia

40

Other English speaking

Central/South American

2009

2008

2007

2006

2004

Others
2003

2002

2001

x x x
2000

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

x x x x x x x

x
1999

20
0

x
x x

2005

Number of women

120

Year
Figure 2 Country of birth of new female sex workers, SSHC 19922009

Time in sex work

In the Sydney LASH sample the median total length of time
in the sex industry overall was only 2.0 years (interquartile
range [IQR] 0.254.00) and 1.6 years (IQR 0.253.50) in
the industry in Australia. This is a transient group of women
requiring frequent outreach services to ensure health
promotion messages reach newcomers.

Language and education

Their origins in Asian countries meant that a half of the
LASH sample struggled with English, but 38% had an
educational level beyond high school (Table 4).

Table 4 Language skills and educational levels of sex workers,

LASH sample (n=201)
Characteristics No.

English skills (self-rated)

Good

99

Fair

49

24.4

Poor

44

21.9

4.5

12 years or less

88

43.8

13 years or more

76

37.8

Unknown/No response

37

18.4

Unknown/No response

49.3

Education

Brothel locations and types

Brothels are located throughout Sydney, Wollongong,
Newcastle, regional cities, and in many rural towns. Within
Sydney there is a heavy concentration of brothels in the
inner suburbs. Other clusters of brothels occur around the
major commercial nodes such as Parramatta, Liverpool,
Bankstown, Kogarah, Bondi Junction and Chatswood. A
few brothels are well known to the general public and are
easily identifiable, but most brothels operate unobtrusively
in suburban houses or above small retail outlets.
Estimates of brothel numbers have varied considerably
over the years. In September 1997 SWOP outreach
workers (the Female Information and Support Team)
estimated there were a minimum of 418 brothels employing
female sex workers in the Sydney metropolitan area
alone. Of these, 301 were Australian and 118 employed
predominantly Asian sex workers. There may have been
up to 200 other premises in the rest of NSW. In 2007 the

18

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

LASH team counted up to 200 brothels within 20kms of the

CBD. Disparities in these estimates arise from variations in
the way researchers distinguish between brothels, parlours
and private workers; and further confusion arises from the
common practice of advertising premises under several
different names and phone numbers.
Brothels may employ female, male or gender diverse sex
workers. However there are currently very few (perhaps
two or three) male brothels in Sydney. A few gender diverse
sex workers work in female brothels.
Larger brothels employ additional staff, such as receptionists,
cleaners and bouncers. Smaller brothels sometimes operate
as cooperatives, or are sub-leased from an off-site business
owner. The advantages of this type of operation are that the
sex workers retain the security of shared premises but they
have more autonomy in their work conditions and a greater
share of their income than in a managed brothel.

Massage parlours operate in a similar fashion to brothels

except that the primary service offered is relaxation
massage. For legal reasons they usually present some
of the trappings of legitimate massage rooms but sexual
services may be available to clients on request. Generally it
is left to the sex worker to negotiate with the client in order
to distance the management from the activity. Many clients
prefer to visit a parlour rather than a brothel and many
sex workers state that they prefer to work in premises
where they can often avoid vaginal/anal penetrative sex.
Arrangements in massage parlours vary in the mix of
massage and sexual services that they provide. This
mix can be for both planning permission reasons and
for marketing reasons. The ambiguous nature of the
presentation of the business can give sex workers more
control when negotiating services with the client.
Over 50% of LASH respondents said they worked in a
massage parlour (Table 5), though the data collectors
only identified one brothel as mainly providing massage
services (Table 6). Several respondents gave more than
one answer to this question reflecting the fact that some
brothels also offer massage and escort services and that
some sex workers work in more than one sector of the
industry on a regular basis. Many have previously engaged
in escort or private sex work (Table 5).
While accessing the 74 participating brothels, the LASH
field staff recorded the brothels physical features and
assessed their merits as worker-friendly workplaces,
awarding them a semi-objective star rating from 1 star
(poor) to 5 stars (good). Their observations are presented
in Table 6.
Comparisons between Sydney, Melbourne and Perth found
few differences in the health and safety and general
ambience categories. However, there was a difference in
the scores for availability of health promotion resources
aimed at sex workers and clients. Forty percent of Sydney
brothels had health promotion resources for sex workers
and 5% had them for clients (Table 6). This compares
respectively with 61% and 43% of licensed brothels in
Melbourne and 25% and 4% in Perth.
Sex workers in the LASH Study were also asked to report
on the health promotion and other resources that were
made available at their work place (Table 7, overleaf).
Thirty six per cent of sex workers in Sydney had condoms
supplied free at work, compared with 87% in Melbourne
and 11% in Perth (p<0.001). The higher proportion in
Melbourne was attributable to free condoms being required
by the licensing scheme, but what occurs in the unlicensed
brothels is unknown (Chen et al., 2010).

Private sex work

Many sex workers prefer to work independently, from home
or from privately leased premises. Almost 20% of LASH
respondents had worked privately (Table 5), and over a

Table 5 Reported current and previous (Australian) work

venues of sex workers in Sydney, LASH sample (n=201)

Current work Previous worka

No.

% No.

Massage

101

50.2

99

49.3

Brothel

92

45.8

82

40.8

Escort

13

6.5

45

22.4

Private
BDSM

6
4

3.0
2.0

38
10

18.9
5.0

Street

0.0

1.5

Other

1.5

3.0

Table 6 Sydney brothel characteristics assessed by LASH field

staff, LASH sample (n=74)
Brothel characteristics No.

Services provideda
Brothel

47

Massage

59

33

45

38

51

Industrial

10

13

Residential

14

19

Mixed zone areas

12

16

Escort
Bondage and discipline
Brothel location
Commercial

Health and safetya

Security cameras

44

59

Exterior well lit

43

57

Regular sex worker outreach

47

63

Regulatory signs

18

24
41

Close to public transport/taxis

31

Security guard

12

16

Other (intercoms, first aid, etc)

10

13

Sex worker resources

30

40

Occupational health
and safety information

12

16

69

92

Tidy/clean

56

75

Staff room

65

87

Rules/regulations (punitive)
i.e., fines, bonds

16

21

Smokers room/area

20

27

Health promotiona

Client resources
General ambience
a

Staff friendly

Rating by field staff

2

34 star

5 star

45

60

12 star

25

33

a May add to more than 100% because responses are not

mutually exclusive

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

19

Escort work

Table 7 Workplace resources reported by Sydney brothelbased workers, LASH sample (n=201)
Resource No.

Condoms provided at work

Yes, they are free

72

35.8

Yes, I pay for them

53

26.4

No

61

30.3

15

7.5

Receptionist

137

68.2

Security cameras

No response
Other resources
a

123

61.2

Lubricant

88

43.8

Smokers room

82

40.8

Room alarm

73

36.3

Dental dams

47

23.4

Security guard

45

22.4

Needles disposal bin

30

14.9

None of these

15

7.5

17.4

Frequency of educator/outreach visits

Never

35

Less than once a year

16

8.0

1 to 4 times a year

74

36.8

5 or more times a year

22

10.9

Other

36

17.9

No response

18

9.0

a May add to more than 100% because respondents could report more
than one

third of Australian men who had recently paid for sex said
that this was with a private worker (Rissel et al., 2003).
Most male sex workers also work from private premises
(Minichiello et al., 1999).
Private sex workers work alone or with one or two others
and/or a receptionist. Clients usually attend only by
(phone) appointment, so they are sometimes referred to
as call-girls (Perkins & Lovejoy, 2007). The decision to
work with one or more other people and to restrict clients
to appointments is made as much for personal safety
considerations as for general business reasons. Private
sex workers have been found to be older and more
experienced than brothel workers. A survey of 95 private
sex workers in NSW found that 20% of them held tertiary
qualifications (Lovejoy et al., 1994). Often they have
worked in other sectors of the sex industry before setting
up business with a core group of regular clients.
However a few LASH key informants expressed concern
that younger, less experienced women were now moving
into private sex work to stay under the radar, thus
becoming less accessible to health promotion services.
In NSW planning law does not distinguish between
a small group of private sex workers and larger
commercial brothels.

20

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

It is very difficult to estimate how many women or men

work in this sector because of the casual and discreet
nature of the work and because it has never been targeted
as an illegal activity. One study found that a majority of
male sex workers in Sydney recruit their clients through
escort agencies (Minichiello et al., 1999). Some brothels
offer an escort service in addition to in-house services.
Over 20% of LASH respondents had worked as escorts in
Australia and over 6% currently provided escort services
(presumably going out from brothels) (Table 5). A third of
Australian men who had recently purchased sex had used
an escort service (Rissel et al., 2003).
Previously, most escorts worked through an agency that
contacted them by phone. Typically, escort agencies
advertise under several names with numerous phone lines
to maximise their market share (Parliament of NSW 1986:
66). Globally, the internet is increasingly used to advertise
escort services. Escorts may be requested to visit clients in
a variety of venues including their homes, offices, and hotel
rooms. The style and income associated with escort work
varies greatly depending on the requirements and status of
the clients and the presentation of the sex worker.
Escort work is potentially more hazardous for the sex
worker than other forms of indoor prostitution because
(s)he works alone in a space that is controlled by the client.
The dangers can be minimised by regular phone contact
with an agency or minder. In some cases this may include
a car escort to and from the clients premises (Parliament
of NSW 1986: 1819). Escorts who work through agencies
pay up to 60% of their fee to the agent, plus incur large
expenses such as clothes and taxi fares.

Street-based sex work

NSW is unique in Australia in having decriminalised street
prostitution. The Summary Offences Act 1988 permits
street soliciting in non-residential areas, not near or within
view of churches, schools, dwellings and hospitals. In
practice however there are only a very limited number of
locales where street soliciting occurs. Traditionally most
street soliciting occurred in the inner Sydney suburbs
of Darlinghurst and Woolloomooloo, but in recent years
numbers have declined in these areas and many sex
workers now solicit close to major roads in the western
suburbs. There may be up to 120 street-based sex workers
on any one night around NSW, and over 300 in the
course of the year (Harcourt et al., 2001). Interestingly in
Melbourne, where all street-based sex work is illegal,
there are many more street workers than in Sydney
(Morton et al., 1999).
Male street-based sex workers tend to be younger and
to have a more casual and opportunistic involvement in
prostitution than do female and transgender sex workers.
One study of 96 male sex workers in Sydney showed
that 11.3% of soliciting occurred on the street and that
7.6% of sexual encounters took place in a car, or a public
place (toilets, park street etc) (Minichiello et al., 2000).

Male street-based sex workers mostly work in East

Sydney/Kings Cross but have became less conspicuous
in Darlinghurst after the Wall on Darlinghurst Road was
made out of bounds.

of the sex industry. Licensed clubs in Kings Cross were

found to employ drug dependent and possibly under
age sex workers to service their customers under covert
backstage conditions.

In 1994 a NSW study of 146 transgender people revealed

that 21% were currently working in the sex industry
and that 45% had worked in the industry at some time.
Of these, 32 individuals had been sex workers for more
than five years (Perkins 1994: 3136). Transgender sex
workers work mainly in Darlinghurst on or adjacent to
William Street. In addition a small number of transgender
sex workers solicit in Newcastle. Nearly 70% of the
transgender sex workers surveyed had worked on the
street (Perkins 1994: 34).

There is also a number of fantasy, and bondage and

discipline/sadomasochism (BDSM) specialists. These
workers are less likely to engage in penetrative sexual
intercourse with their clients and consequently STIs are not
necessarily a major concern, but their work is sometimes
described as psychologically demanding. Because of the
nature of the work, requiring privacy for clients and safe
storage for equipment, these women usually operate from
secure premises, which may stand-alone or be linked with
a conventional brothel. Only 2% of LASH respondents
worked in this sector, with approximately 5% reporting they
had ever worked in BDSM (Table 5).

Street-based sex services are provided in cars,

alleyways or lanes, or in nearby safe houses where rooms
may be let for short time hire. There are two council
approved safe houses in Woolloomooloo, but in other
places rooms may be found in hotels or motels, empty
properties, private houses or industrial units operated
under brothel style management.
One of the most dangerous features of working in the
more isolated areas is that the clients vehicle is frequently
the only off-street venue available. Sixty-seven percent
of the 72 street sex workers interviewed in 2005 reported
providing sexual services in cars and 85% reported
experiencing violence while working (Roxburgh et al 2006).
Street sex workers are much more likely than other sex
workers to have traumatic backgrounds, experience
violence at work, be involved in heavy drug use and
to have experienced homelessness and incarceration
(Roxburgh et al 2006). Notably street-based sex workers
may stay in the industry for much longer (mean12 years
compared with the two years of LASH participants) even
though 66% reported they found sex work very stressful
(Roxburgh et al 2006).
LASH key informants believed street-based sex workers
were more affected by the move on powers exercised
by police under s 197 of the Law Enforcement (Powers
and Responsibilities) Act 2002 than by the prosecution of
offences under the Summary Offences Act 1988. Move on
orders may prohibit the worker from returning to a safe
street and thus put them more at risk. Police could be
coercive at times and at other times showed favouritism to
individual street workers.

Other venues
A small number of sex workers work in bars, clubs and
hotels in NSW. Their work conditions vary with the location
but their situation is similar to that of some escorts.
Because this kind of prostitution is illegal (breeching the
Liquor Act 1912) it is very covert. The Royal Commission
into the NSW Police Service (Final Report, Vol.1 1997:121)
partially exposed the most exploitative side of this aspect

More marginalised sex workers

All sex workers are marginalised from mainstream society,
because their work continues to be heavily stigmatised.
However some are more marginalised than others.
Street workers fall into this category because of the high
level of public antipathy towards them. Aboriginal women
are disproportionately represented among street-based
sex workers: 21%23% (Harcourt et al 2001; Roxburgh et
al 2006) versus 1.5% in the LASH study of brothel-based
sex workers (Table 3). The marginalisation of these women
is compounded by the socio-economic disadvantage
and cultural norms of their communities. Some rural sex
workers are also affected by limited access to health
care and community support, and by the difficulties of
maintaining confidentiality and privacy within smaller
communities (Scott et al., 2006).
Transport services may provide alternative venues for
the commercial sex industry. Ports and truck stops are
bases from which contact for sexual services are made.
These women are hard to reach and rarely studied. Little
is known about their sexual health, working conditions or
access to services. This is a borderline area where the
identity sex worker is less clearly differentiated from other
mobile, economically deprived individuals who occasionally
exchange sex for travel, hospitality or other gifts in kind.
In the early 1990s many Asian women in Sydney brothels
were heavily indebted to migration agents and employed
under harsh contracts. While sometimes described as
being trafficked, these women had voluntarily come
to Australia (often repeatedly) seeking economic gain
(Brockett & Murray 1994). In addition their employers
and clients often resisted the use of condoms in brothels.
International sex workers were identified as having poorer
sexual health outcomes than resident workers (Donovan
1991b; OConnor 1996). Fortunately this situation appears
to have resolved. More recent studies show Asian migrant
sex workers now have far more autonomy, including
student visas and residency status, and much better

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

21

health outcomes (Pell et al., 2006; Donovan et al., 2010a).

That said, 11% of the Asian women in the LASH sample
reported that they were unhappy about being involved in
sex work (figure that would not be unusual in any industry).
Not all sex workers receive cash payments for their
services. Some are drug dependent, under-age youth
of both sexes, and young men, who sometimes receive
payment in kind. Other people providing sexual services
in rural areas, Aboriginal and itinerant communities
(such as those formed around shearing, harvesting,
major construction projects and truck stops) may not
work for cash or identify as sex workers (Harcourt and
Donovan 2007).

Pimps
It has been claimed that globally 8090% of all sex workers
are controlled by pimps (Faugier & Sargeant 1997: 121).
However, in NSW, and in Australia as a whole, pimping
has not been a significant feature of the sex industry for
decades. Even in the early part of the 20th century these
arrangements appear to have been much looser and more
fluid than the tight individual control exerted by pimps in
the USA and to some extent in the UK (McLeod 1982;
Parliament of NSW 1986:119). Since the legal reforms
in 1979 sex workers in NSW have had no use for pimps.
Notably, the LASH study found no evidence that any
of the women had been coerced into working in a brothel
(Table 8).

Clients of sex workers

A representative national study (n=9,337) found that
2.3% of men in NSW had paid for sex in the past year
(Rissel et al., 2003). Men were significantly more likely than
women to have ever paid for sex (15.6% vs 0.1%). There
was no correlation between age, language background,
income, education or occupation and having paid for sex.
However there were a number of behavioural differences
between those who had and had not paid for sex. Men
who had paid for sex reported more drug and alcohol use,
psycho-social stress, numbers of sexual partners and
earlier sexual debut.
Information from female sex workers indicates that clients
are very diverse, drawn from all age groups, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Reasons for visiting
sex workers range from the lack, or temporary absence of,
other sexual partners, loneliness and boredom, to curiosity,
the quest for variety and the desire for sexual activities
unobtainable from regular partners (Parliament of NSW
1986: 7491; Lovejoy 1991). Male sex workers report the
same heterogeneity among their (male) clients, including
a significant number who identify as bisexual or straight
(Minichiello et al., 1999). In a few instances male sex
workers also see female clients.

22

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Table 8 Sex workers reasons for choosing current workplace,

LASH sample (n=201)
Reasonsa No.

Hours are flexible

88

43.8

I like management

74

36.8

It pays better

70

34.8

I like my workmates
Clients are better

67
62

33.3
30.8

Safer (better security)

47

23.4

More discreet

45

22.4

I live near here

41

20.4

Not as many rules

28

13.9

Sex worker support comes here

16

8.0

Better services

13

6.5

4.0

It was all that was available

Avoid hassles with the police

2.5

I go where Im told

I can get drugs here

Other

17

8.5

a May add to more than 100% because respondents could report more
than one

A few sex workers often with the support of therapists

and carers provide sexual services to socially isolated
people with disability. Possibly unique in the world, NSW
has policy and procedure guidelines for accessing such
services (Chivers et al. 2010).

The health of sex workers

Use of clinical and health promotion
services
The Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) is funded to
provide sexual health education and support to sex workers
throughout NSW, including outreach to brothels and streetbased sex workers. SWOP has facilities in Sydney and a
number of regional centres. SSHC provides several clinics
each week targeting non-English speaking sex workers.
SSHC and SWOP jointly employ a number of health
promotion/outreach staff with multiple language skills to
assist sex workers from Asian countries. Limited services
exist in other sexual health centres in Sydney and in NSW
regional centres (Berg et al., 2011).
Most LASH respondents (83%) reported they underwent
regular sexual health checks: of these, 65.6% reported
having sexual health checks at least every six months
(Table 9). Fifty-three percent of sex workers in Sydney
(compared with 29% in Melbourne and 22% in Perth)
reported that they usually attended a public sexual health
clinic for checkups.
Of the LASH sample 61% had been vaccinated against
hepatitis B, and 65% had ever been tested for HIV. When
asked where safer sex and sex work skills were learned,
the most common responses were from other workers
while on the job (52%) and Sydney Sexual Health Centre
(52%). Other responses included: educational booklets
(37%); local GP (22%); educators through face-to-face
sessions (21%); friends outside work (18%); via the
Internet (12%); and nowhere (6%).

STIs and HIV

Among the 140 LASH participants in Sydney who were
tested for four common STIs chlamydia, gonorrhoea,
trichomoniasis, and Mycoplasma genitalium infection the
prevalence of these conditions was at least as low as
would be found in women in the general population (Table
10, overleaf). Despite their high numbers of sexual partners
at work, prevalences are kept low by the consistent use of
condoms and regular STI screening.
Importantly these STI prevalences reflect what is observed
in the clinic. While the STI prevalences in non-Asian sex
workers in Sydney have been very low for decades
(Figure 3, overleaf), they are dramatically lower among
Asian sex workers than the experience of the early 1990s
(Figure 4, overleaf; OConnor et al., 1996).
These low and declining STI prevalences are particularly
remarkable in the context of rising chlamydia notifications
in non-sex workers at SSHC and nationally (Guy et al.,
2010; Donovan, 2002; Kirby Institute, 2011). The relatively
higher reports of past STIs (Table 10, overleaf) reflects
high screening rates. The three cases of self-reported HIV
infection in the LASH study were in Thai women who were
engaged in massage only, while the syphilis cases were

Table 9 Sydney sex workers use of health services,

LASH sample (n=201)
Health Services No.

Have regular sexual health checks

167

83.1

Do not have regular health checks

23

11.4

No response

11

5.5

If yes, frequency of sexual health checks

Weekly

1.0

Monthly

25

12.4

Every 26 months

105

52.2

Every 712 months

25

12.4

Less than once a year/other

12

6.0

No response

32

15.9

Provider of sexual health checksa

Public (free) sexual health clinic

107

53.2

Local GP/doctor

58

28.9

Womens health clinic/family planning

21

10.4

Private sexual health clinic

17

8.5

GP/doctor in another town

10

5.0

Other

11

5.5

Reasons for seeing this provider

a

Confidentiality

99

49.3

Expertise

61

30.3

Easy to get there

55

27.4

Recommended

44

21.9

Cost

25

12.4

Only place I know

17

8.5

Required by employer

11

5.5

Other

14

7.0

a Adds to more than 100% because respondents could report more

than one

imported latent or previously treated infections that were

diagnosed at initial screening in Australia.
However some male and female sex workers still report
relatively high levels of STIs. These are the people who
work on the streets and those who are most marginalised
from mainstream health and welfare services (Minichiello
et al., 2000; Harcourt et al 2001; Morton et al. 1999).

Condom use with clients

Substantial minorities of the LASH respondents reported
no vaginal sex, no oral sex or no anal sex with clients, or
they did not answer these questions (Table 11). This may
relate to the complexity of the questions (particularly after
translation) or it may be because some may only provide
massage with hand relief. Nevertheless, when reported,
condom use was high.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

23

SSHC data showed that between 1995 (the first full

year of collecting this data) and 2009 the proportion of
non-Asian sex workers reporting consistent condom use
with clients remained at 95% or higher. Over the same
period, consistent use of condoms at work by Asian sex
workers rose from 77% to 95% (p-trend <0.001). Of the
few women that report <100% condom use for vaginal sex
at work, all reported 90% or higher. Thus, over 99% of all
commercial vaginal sex encounters in Sydney involve the
use of a condom.
Of note, consistent condom use was lower for oral
sex a finding among sex workers at SSHC that has
been associated with occasional cases of pharyngeal
gonorrhoea. A number of these cases have been in women
who report no vaginal intercourse at work; that is, they are
predominantly working as masseuses (Read et al., 2012b).

No.
Median number of clients in a week

15

100% condom use with clients

Vaginal sex (n=143)

135

94

No vaginal sex with clients

26

No response

34

Oral sex (n=115)

96

84

No oral sex with clients

33

No response

54

Anal sex (n=33)

28

90

No anal sex with clients

99

No response

74

Table 12 Non-paying sexual partners and condom use in

previous three months, LASH sample (n=201)

Condom use with non-paying partners

Of the women with male partners outside of work in the
previous three months, 50% used condoms inconsistently
or never used condoms with their partners (Table 12).
In the SSHC study there was a decrease from 1995 to
2006 in the use of condoms with partners outside of work.
The decrease was from 50% to 24% (p-trend <0.001) in
Asian sex workers and from 43% to 25% (p-trend <0.001)
for non-Asian sex workers.

Table 10 STIs and HIV in Sydney sex workers, LASH sample

(n=201)
Sexually transmitted infections No.

Diagnosis in previous 12 months

(self-reported)a (n=201)
Chlamydia

Table 11 Condom use with clients, LASH sample (n=201)

Sexual partners and condom use No.

Number of male sexual partners

outside of work
None

25

12.4
44.8

One

90

Two

14

7.0

Three+

29

14.4

No response

43

21.4

None

65

32.3

One

3.0

Two

0.5

Three or more

1.5

126

62.7

19.4

Number of female sexual partners

outside of work

21

10.4

Pelvic infection (PID)

2.5

Hepatitis C

Genital warts

2.5

Never

39

Genital herpes

2.5

Sometimes (less than half the time)

16

8.0

Gonorrhoea

2.5

Usually (more than half the time)

23

11.4

Hepatitis B

4.5

Always

77

38.3

Syphilis

1.5

No partners

35

17.4

HIV

1.5

No response

11

5.5

40

19.9

Mycoplasma genitalium

3.6

Chlamydia

2.8

Trichomoniasis

0.7

One or more of the above

Current infectiona (tampon PCR test)
(n=140)

Gonorrhoea
a Respondents may have more than one infection

24

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

No response
Condom use with male partners

25

20

Percent

15

10

x
x x x x x x x x x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
Chlamydia

Genital gonorrhoea

Throat gonorrhoea

Infectious syphilis

HIV-1

Figure 3 Prevalent STIs at first visit in non-Asian sex workers, SSHC 19922009

25

20

Percent

15

10

x
x

x
x

x
x

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
Chlamydia

Genital gonorrhoea

Throat gonorrhoea

Infectious syphilis

HIV-1

Figure 4 Prevalent STIs at first visit in Asian sex workers, SSHC 19922009

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

25

Tobacco, alcohol and other substance use

The smoking rate among the LASH sample was high (46%;
Table 13), similar to Melbourne (51%) but significantly
lower than in Perth (68%; p<0.001). These rates are three
times the general population rates. SSHC data showed the
overall proportion of women who reported smoking to have
fallen from 53% in 1992 to 40% in 2006. Non-Asian women
were more likely to smoke cigarettes than were the Asian
women (53% vs 37%, p<0.001).

Table 13 Substance use in previous 12 months, LASH sample

(n=201)
No.

Substance use in previous 12 monthsa

Cigarettes

92

45.8

Marijuana

33

16.4

Cocaine

33

16.4

Ecstasy

31

15.4

Sydney sex workers were significantly less likely to drink

alcohol to excess than were sex workers in Melbourne
or Perth: 44% of Sydney workers had never drunk more
than four alcoholic drinks in a day, compared with 27% in
Melbourne and 23% in Perth; p<0.001. This may reflect the
higher proportion of Asian sex workers in Sydney brothels.
The SSHC data showed 6% of sex workers reported
drinking >140 gms of alcohol per week (non-Asian 10% vs
Asian 2%, p<0.001).

Speed

18

9.0

Heroin

1.0

Bupenorphine

1.0

Methadone

0.5

Never

88

43.8

Today

Also of note, is that only 2% of Sydney LASH participants

had injected a drug in the previous 12 months, significantly
lower than in Melbourne (10%) and Perth (14%; p<0.001).
Again this finding was supported by the SSHC data where
8% of the women reported ever having injected drugs, with
<1% of the Asian women doing so (Table 13).

Yesterday

11

5.5

Last 7 days

32

15.9

24 weeks

28

13.9

Social support and wellbeing

Less than two thirds (63%) of LASH respondents reported
having a supportive relationship with another person; that
is, having someone who would look after them if they were
sick at home (Table 14).
On the whole LASH respondents appear to be well
adjusted and comfortable with their occupation, however
10% had high scores on the Kessler-6 psychological
distress scale that indicates that they were likely to have
a serious mental illness (Table 14). This was consistent
across all states, and is about twice the rate for similaraged women in the general population. These women are
likely to have other stressors in their lives such as stigma,
drug use, homelessness, social and financial constraints.
Health and outreach service providers need to be mindful
of this minority and be able to make appropriate referrals
when they suspect a sex worker is seriously at risk.
In the previous year, 8% of LASH participants reported
being assaulted by clients, 10% threatened by clients, and
a third (33%) reported being pressured by a client to do
something they didnt want to do. These results did not vary
significantly across the three cities.
There are clearly still a number of inherent threats to
the physical and mental wellbeing of brothel-based sex
workers. Social isolation (often associated with the stigma
attached to sex work see Perceptions of sex industry
conditions, page 28) is a major factor that is difficult to
address. The potential for threats and assaults by clients
should be addressed in the management plans of brothels

26

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Last time consumed more than four

alcoholic drinks in a day

23 months

4.0

More than 3 months

21

10.4

No response

13

6.5

2.0

187

93.0

10

5.0

Injected a drug in previous 12 months

Yes
No
No response

a Adds to more than 100% because respondents could report more

than one drug

and in the provision of Occupation Health and Safety

education and information to owners, managers and
workers in the sex industry.
Nevertheless brothel workers appear to be much better
off in this respect than street-based sex workers where
the majority report serious lifetime traumas, and a large
number also report adult sexual assault and work-related
violence, as well as drug dependence and depression
(Harcourt et al., 2001; Roxburgh et al., 2006). In one recent
study nearly half had symptoms that met DSM-IV criteria
for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and one third
reported current PTSD (Roxburgh et al., 2006).

Encounters with the police at work

Less than 10% of LASH respondents reported any work
related experiences with the police in the past year. Of
these, 68% said the police had been supportive and
friendly. Two women reported threats of arrest, one
reported being threatened with violence, two reported
physical assault by police, one reported police had
demanded money, and three reported pressure to provide
sexual services to police (Table 15).

Table 14 Social support and psychological distress,

LASH sample (n=201)

Table 15 Encounters with the police in brothels, LASH sample

Experiences (n=201) No.

No.

Supportive relationship (n=201)

Experiences with police while working

No experiences with police while working

126

62.7

No response

No

52

25.9

Further detail of encounters (n=19)

No response

23

11.4

Yes

If yes, with whom? (n=126)

19

9.5

170

84.6

12

6.0

13

68.4

Police were not supportive/friendly

10.5

No response

21.1

Threatened with arrest

10.5

Not threatened with arrest

26.3

12

62.3

Police were supportive/friendly

Friend

49

38.9

Partner

52

41.3

Parent

33

26.2

Several people

14

11.1

4.8

12

9.5

No response

13

68.4

5.6

Physically assaulted

10.5

Not physically assaulted

26.3

12

63.2

Pet
Flatmate
Another sex worker
Group (religious/community/self-help)

Unlikely to have a serious mental illness

No response

Threatened with violence

5.3

Not threatened with violence

26.3

No response

Psychological distress (Kessler-6)

scale (n=201)
Likely to have a serious mental illness

No response

20

10.0

142

70.6

39

19.4

Had money demanded from

5.3

No money was demanded of me

26.3

No response

13

68.4

Pressured to provide sexual services

15.8

Not pressured to provide sexual services

21.1

12

63.2

90

44.8

No response

Twenty-four women (12%) reported that police visited

their current workplace one or more times each year.
When asked how comfortable they felt about going to
police with complaints such as sexual assault, 46% said
they would feel not comfortable or very uncomfortable,
whereas less than 24% said they would feel comfortable
or very comfortable.

Frequency of police visits to current

workplace in the past year (n=201)
Never
Less than once a year

3.0

20

10.0

5 or more times a year

2.0

Other

1.5

Knowledge of prostitution laws

Unsure

67

33.3

No response

11

5.5

When asked about the impact of sex work laws, 2% of sex

workers indicated that they had moved state (or country)
because of sex work laws, and 3% reported changing
workplaces within state because of the laws. Thirteen
percent were unsure if it was legal to do sex work in NSW
and 4% believed it was illegal. Overall sex workers were
much clearer about their status under the law in Sydney
and Melbourne than they were in Perth where all sex work
is illegal (p <0.001) (Donovan et al., 2010b).

In the past year, (n=201)

5

2.5

1 to 4 times a year

Police arrested/detained someone

in the workplace
No one was arrested or detained

127

63.2

Unsure

54

26.9

No response

15

7.5

Police charged someone in the workplace

1.0

123

61.2

Unsure

55

27.4

No response

21

10.4

No one was charged

Comfort level in going to police

with complaints of sexual assault,
assault, etc.(n=201)
Very comfortable

29

14.4

Comfortable

19

9.5

Somewhat comfortable

18

9.0

Not comfortable

49

24.4

Very uncomfortable

43

21.4

No response

43

21.4

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

27

Perceptions of sex industry conditions

At the end of the LASH questionnaire, participants were
given the opportunity to provide additional comments about
the impact of the law on their work conditions, health and
wellbeing. Forty-six (23%) participants provided comments.
Of these, seven (15%) indicated they were happy with
their work and had no complaints about the law or work
conditions. One of these women commented:
[Its a] good job, if you are making money. Another
wrote: we are normal, happy, educated women
doing and treating this as a professional business.
Five women (11%) were very unhappy about being
involved in sex work. Two expressed this as experiencing
discrimination against non-Australians in the search for
other kinds of work:
It is difficult to find a job here in Australia and the wage
is really low. If there is a better job here then I wouldnt
do this job;
Felt unsafe, not freedom. Australia make difficult [for]
overseas people.
A third woman found large brothels terrifying and
distressing and another had just started sex work but
intended to leave at the end of the week and resume
studies. The fifth found [work] conditions sometimes
very severe.
Six women (13%) did not express any wish to change jobs
but complained about discrimination and the lack of respect
shown to sex workers. These included the woman (quoted
above) who said she was normal, happy and educated.
Two of the six commented that they kept their work secret
from friends and family. One explained that lying all the
time is exhausting; and the other said she would:
not give my ABN number for work in the sex
industry. It is a very secretive venture for me

bribes. Another complained of inadequate policing of

illegal brothels and a third of ineffective police responses to
protect women.
Three respondents thought that the current situation
(i.e. decriminalisation) had made some aspects of work
less safe. There is more pressure from owners to provide
unsafe sex to clients and one woman believed private
workers had lost their safety net of being able to work in
pairs. Several women commented that sex workers should
be given more information about the law and their rights
and that NSW laws should be strengthened to give better
protection to sex workers.
Several of the respondents indicated by their comments
that they were unclear about the intersection of Federal,
State and Local Government laws. Others misunderstood
the reach of the law. Two women complained that shift fees
and room rentals were being administered at their work
places contrary to the law. Another woman reported that
the police wrongly referred to their massage parlour as
a brothel.
One sex worker claimed that legal discrimination against
Thais denied them the same access as other nonresidents, while another wanted to Make sure those that
are forced to be in this industry are able to press legal
charges even, if they do not have immigration papers.
Two women complained about establishments that put
the need to please clients above the need to protect sex
worker health.
One sex worker requested the compulsory provision of free
condoms, dams, lube and information at every place of
work. There was also a request for a free portable testing
kit, and one for free preventive medicine, morning after pill,
and better quality (Japanese) condoms.

Other issues raised were possible adverse impacts on

sexual assault complaints and childrens court matters;
prohibition from being a blood donor; lack of respect in
spite of sex work being a job that helps the community;
and the assumption that all working ladies are doing
this to support a drug or other habit.

There were two comments on STI testing one saying

testing should only be done every two to six months,and
the other praising the Melbourne system of monthly checks
and certificates as it ensures the girls are tested and
clean. One woman simply stated that she had learnt a lot
about how to use condoms at the sexual health clinic.

A further 29 (63%) women made comments that suggested

they were comfortable about being sex workers, although
they had a variety of complaints and suggestions about
how their working lives could be improved. These
comments can be broken down under the following themes.

Three women were concerned that sex workers were

not fully aware of their rights and that more education
and information was needed. One woman remarked that
workers rights were better protected in legal brothels
in Melbourne.

One sex worker said she admired the Australian (sic)

Governments attitude to prostitution law and two
commented that the law had no impact on their health or
work conditions.

Two responses dealt with the need for industry

superannuation, and work cover insurance for all sex
workers. One person commented that Receptionists are
underpaid and another called for a womens refuge, open
24 hours, for homeless sex workers.

Other comments on the law ranged from saying sex

work should be legal everywhere to requests for more
regulation to keep people honest, and to crack down on
illegal establishments and illegal workers working on
contracts. One person claimed that Immigration accepts

28

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Brothel owners, managers, and

receptionists
When LASH data collectors were invited into a brothel
to survey the sex workers they also offered a short (one
page) questionnaire to the person who appeared to be
in charge of brothel management during that shift. These
people were sometimes the brothel owners but they were
more often shift managers or receptionists. Thirty four
responses were collected. Of these, 20 were receptionists,
eight were business owners or owner/managers (one
business owner also worked as a receptionist), three were
general managers and two were shift managers. One
general manager and one shift manager also doubled as
receptionists. One person did not identify his/her position.

sexual favours at another similar business in this state.

The no response rate was well under 20% for questions
about possible corruption. Two people made general
unsubstantiated comments about corrupt council officers.
There were few comments about the general impact of
NSW law on the brothel industry. Five people indicated
they were ambivalent or still slightly confused about
the law. Five others lamented that law changes had not
removed the stigma from the industry or addressed sex
slavery. One of these also commented on neighbourhood
prejudice against brothels. One respondent said the current
law had a positive impact on the industry.

Conclusions

Respondents had been involved with the sex industry (in a

variety of capacities) for between three months to 20 years.
The median time involved was five years.

There is nothing in the comments by sex workers and

owner managers in the brothel industry in NSW to indicate
any systematic misconduct or corruption by officials, or any
serious crime involvement.

Hourly rate for services

Invited unstructured comments show that some people

are still rather vague about some aspects of the law and
Council regulation. There is still considerable concern
about the stigma attached to sex work.

Nineteen managers and receptionists quoted amounts for

sexual services ranging from $50 to $270. The median
hourly rate was $150. Five establishments charged only
$50 or $60 per hour. These were all Asian businesses and
this may reflect prices charged for relaxation massage as
opposed to full sexual services. Seven (20.6%) people did
not respond to this question.

Overall these comments confirm the picture of an industry

operating predominantly through small-scale local
businesses, offering uniformly moderately priced services
to their clientele. It suggests competition is fairly high and
profit margins are small for most brothels in Sydney.

NSW Police involvement with brothels

Seven of 34 (20.6%) brothels had been visited by NSW
Police in the past three months. Two calls were in relation
to property thefts (not directly involving brothel workers)
and one was in response to an anonymous tip-off about
an underage sex worker. Others were routine checks.
There were no known convictions related to these events
although one receptionist claimed a young student was
charged with harassing sex workers and calling them
names. There was no reported evidence of corrupt conduct
by police and one owner who had been visited once by the
police said he was Happy with the local police.

Visits by other authorities

Respondents were asked about visits in the past three
months by representatives from the Department of
Immigration and Citizenship, the Australian Tax Office
(ATO), the Local Council, and Federal Police. Five (14.7%)
had been visited by the Immigration Department (three of
these were Asian brothels). Two (5.9%) had been visited
by the ATO, five (14.7%) by Council officers and none by
the Federal Police. There was a high no-response rate
(29%44%) to all these questions. Most of these visits
were described as routine checks with no action resulting.
There was only one report of possible corrupt conduct
and that was said to be by a Council officer asking for

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

29

Prostitution law and policing in NSW

The criminal laws in NSW contain few offences relating
to prostitution. By a series of reforms enacted between
1979 and 1995, prostitution related activities were largely
decriminalised. The current law in NSW is contained in the
Summary Offences Act 1988, the Restricted Premises Act
1943, and to a lesser extent, the Environmental Planning
and Assessment Act 1979. There are no offences relating
to the keeping or managing of a brothel per se. Current
offences include living on the earnings of prostitution,
coercive conduct to induce a person to act as a prostitute,
holding out premises used for prostitution as a massage
parlour, and soliciting by workers or clients near or within
view of a school, church, hospital or dwelling. Brothels in
NSW do not need a licence to operate, but require planning
approval from the local council. A brothel may be closed
by a Court upon application under the Restricted Premises
Act, but not solely on the grounds that it is a brothel. The
relevant considerations include complaints, disturbance,
operation in an area frequented by children, etc. The
criminal offences applying to sex work in NSW as of June
2011 are examined in the following sections.

Policing and prosecution

Information on all finalised court appearances in NSW
for prostitution related offences between 2000 and 2006
(inclusive) was requested from the Bureau of Crime
Statistics and Research, specified according to Act
and section number. In the following sections, the data
on all prosecutions are presented where relevant. The
data presented in this report relates to all appearances
in the courts over 20002006 (n=1,579) and includes
appearances where the charge was dismissed because
no evidence was offered (n=47), appearances where
the charges were dismissed after hearing (n=23), and
appearances where the charge was dismissed for other
reasons or stood out of the list (n=21). The analysis was
primarily directed at assessing policing activity, rather than
prosecution outcome in the courts, and it was considered
that court appearance provides a more direct reflection of
policing activity than conviction.
The following sections examine the criminal offences
applying to various sex worker activities in NSW in broad
offence groupings: street offences, brothel offences,
offences applying to using premises in specified
circumstances, live on the earnings, sole operators, escort

workers, inducing/procuring, advertising and sponsorship,

child prostitution and sexual servitude offences.

Street offences
There are three soliciting offences applying to workers
in s 19 of the Summary Offences Act 1988:
n soliciting in a road or road related area near or within
view of a prescribed location,
n soliciting in a prescribed location and,
n soliciting in a manner that distresses or harasses, in,
near or within view of a prescribed location.1
All three offences contained in s 19 carry a maximum
penalty of imprisonment for three months.
An amendment in 1997 changed the location of the first
offence from a public place to a road or road-related
area and further specified that soliciting included soliciting
from a motor vehicle.2 A road related area is defined in s 4
to mean a road or road related area within the meaning of
the Road Transport (General) Act 1999. The purpose of
the amendment was stated in the second reading speech
(NSW Parliamentary Hansard, Legislative Council,
25 November 1999, at 3710, per Ian MacDonald):
By expressly mentioning motor vehicles the new
offence will operate to target kerb crawlers. Kerb
crawlers are persons who seek the services of street
prostitutes by driving slowly along the street. Their
behaviour causes significant community concern in
certain areas. The mere act of driving slowly in a nondangerous manner is not criminalised by this proposal.
The actions that constitute soliciting are well established
in the law and the actions of persons in motor vehicles
who are charged with soliciting will reflect the action of
propositioning, pestering or similar relevant behaviour
as well as being in the motor vehicle.
The meaning of solicit in s 19(1) was considered in
Coleman v DPP [2000] NSWSC 275. The defendant
was convicted of soliciting in Forbes Street, Darlinghurst
within view of SCEGGS boarding school. On appeal, the
defendant contended that soliciting involves persistence,
pestering, pressure and that her conduct was no more
than a simple request. OKeefe J upheld the conviction and
concluded that there was no requirement for persistence,
pressure or annoyance.3

1 19 (1) A person in a road or road related area shall not, near or within view from a dwelling, school, church or hospital, solicit

another person for the purpose of prostitution
(2) A person shall not, in a school, church or hospital, solicit another person for the purpose of prostitution
(3) A person shall not, in or near, or within view from, a dwelling, school, church, hospital or public place, solicit another person, for

the purpose of prostitution, in a manner that harasses or distresses the other person
(5) In this section:

(a) a reference to a person who solicits another person for the purpose of prostitution is a reference to a person who does so

as a prostitute, and

(b) a reference to soliciting includes a reference to soliciting from a motor vehicle, whether moving or stationary.
2

30

The Crimes and Courts Legislation Amendment Act 1999

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Client specific offences were created in s 19A by the

Crimes and Courts Legislation Amendment Act 1999.4
Section 19A duplicates the three offences (and penalties)
contained in s 19 and states: a reference to a person who
solicits another person for the purpose of prostitution is a
reference to a person who does so as a prospective client
of a prostitute
An ongoing problem with the enforcement of soliciting
laws has been the prosecution of sex workers but rarely
clients. The purpose underlying the confining of s 19 to
prostitutes and the creation of client offences in s 19A was
stated in the second reading speech (NSW Parliament,
Hansard, Legislative Council, 25 November 1999, at 3710,
Ian MacDonald):
Whilst it appears that the offences contained in section
19 apply equally to prostitutes and clients of prostitutes,
in practice only prostitutes are charged by police with
offences under section 19
By clearly criminalising the behaviour of persons
seeking the services of prostitutes in the proscribed
public places, the creation of the new offences should
have a deterrent effect on such persons and thus
reduce the incidence of street prostitution.
The creation of a separate offence for clients will
guide police discretion by providing police with an
explicit policy statement and clear direction about the
desirability of charging clients of sex workers with
prostitution offences The offence will be non-gender
specific so that it will equally apply to heterosexual,
homosexual and transgender street prostitution.
Section 20 creates an offence of public act of prostitution,
punishing each of the persons taking part in an act of
prostitution in, or within view from, a school, church,
hospital or public place; or within view from a dwelling.5
Where the act of prostitution takes place in a vehicle which
is in or within view from a school, church, hospital or public
3

place or within view from a dwelling, each of the persons

is guilty of an offence whether or not the act of prostitution
can be seen from outside the vehicle. The maximum
penalty for an offence under s 20 is 10 penalty units or six
months imprisonment. An act of prostitution is defined to
include sexual intercourse or masturbation.
Street soliciting has thus been legal in NSW for over
30 years except in the few prescribed locations: near or
within view of a school, church, hospital or dwelling or in
a school, church or hospital. There has been a decline
of approximately 95% in the number of prosecutions for
street soliciting from the high point of the early 1970s under
the Summary Offences Act 1970 to the present (from
4,288 charges in 1972 to 53 charges in 2006). The most
well known street-based market is a stretch of William St
near Kings Cross. Other street markets are located at
Canterbury Road in the suburbs of Campsie, Lakemba and
Belmore; the Great Western Highway at Minchinbury and
Mt Druitt; and Port Kembla in the Illawarra. From time to
time, tensions erupt between local residents, sex workers
and other interested parties such as local government.
Often police are called upon to conduct a saturation
policing exercise to contain the market to the prescribed
locations and, as a result, the tensions ease, at least for
a while.
As noted elsewhere in this report, street-based sex workers
represent only approximately 5% of the sex industry
population. Most of the remaining 95% of the sex industry
comprises various kinds of indoor work: in brothels (with
or without council planning approval), private premises
involving one to three women working independently
(legally defined as brothels but rarely seeking council
planning approval) and phone-based escorts. The charges
finalised for the soliciting offences in the courts are
presented in Table 16, overleaf.

Coleman v DPP [2000] NSWSC 275: Solicit involves a personal approach, for the purpose of, or which is accompanied by, or which
constitutes or conveys, an offer that some form of sexual activity will be engaged in by the person making the approach in return for
monetary gain. It is unnecessary for there to be any element of aggressive persistence, pestering, pressure, or harassment or
annoyance to the person approached. Nor is there a need for distress or embarrassment to be caused by or result from the approach or
offer The mere approach by a prostitute to a person who is a potential customer, when she is dressed in a suggestive manner, perhaps
with appropriate gestures or words, or is presented in a particular way is sufficient to constitute an offer of services as a prostitute.

4 19 (1) A person in a road or road related area must not, near or within view from a dwelling, school, church or hospital, solicit another

person for the purpose of prostitution. Maximum penalty: 6 penalty units or imprisonment for 3 months.
(2) A person must not, in a school, church or hospital, solicit another person for the purpose of prostitution. Maximum penalty:

6 penalty units or imprisonment for 3 months.
(3) A person must not, in or near, or within view from, a dwelling, school, church, hospital or public place, solicit another person, for

the purpose of prostitution, in a manner that harasses or distresses the other person. Maximum penalty: 8 penalty units or

imprisonment for 3 months.
5 20 (1) Each of the persons taking part in an act of prostitution:

(a) in, or within view from, a school, church, hospital or public place, or

(b) within view from a dwelling,

is guilty of an offence. Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months.
(2) Each of the persons taking part in an act of prostitution in a vehicle that is:

(a) in, or within view from, a school, church, hospital or public place, or

(b) within view from a dwelling,

is guilty of an offence whether or not the act of prostitution can be seen from outside the vehicle.

Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

31

Table 16 Soliciting offences finalised in NSW courts, 20002006

Offence

2000

Summary Offences Act s 19 (1)

Soliciting near or within view of prescribed location by worker

2001 2002 2003 2004

2005 2006

Total

158

274

198

148

35

32

50

895

Summary Offences Act s 19 (2)

Soliciting in prescribed location by worker

Summary Offences Act s 19 (3)

Soliciting in a manner that harasses by worker

Summary Offences Act s 19A (1)

Soliciting near or within view of prescribed location by client

11

164

85

52

80

86

480

Summary Offences Act s 19A (2)

Soliciting in prescribed location by client

Summary Offences Act s 19A (3)

Soliciting in a manner that harasses by client

In common with all jurisdictions, the public soliciting

offences are the most heavily prosecuted prostitution
offences in NSW. Of particular interest, is the fact that a
third of the charges were against clients. This represents
an important change in the policing of street prostitution
and a break from the past practices where almost all law
enforcement was directed at workers.
The charges finalised for public act of prostitution offences
in the courts are presented in Table 17. The most heavily
prosecuted offence is an act of prostitution in a vehicle in,
or within view from, a school, church, hospital or public
place. However prosecutions were rare in the later years.

Brothel offences
It is not a criminal offence to manage or own a brothel in
NSW, or to work in a brothel. The laws underpinning the
decriminalisation of brothel keeping were successively
enacted over a 16 year period, as follows.

In 1979, reforms were enacted which decriminalised most

of the key prostitution offences and which have continued,
in substantially the same form, to the present day.6
The reforms recognised first, that the present law
discriminates unfairly against the prostitute as compared
to the customer, and second, that wherever possible
the law should be directed at preventing and punishing
exploitation (Frank Walker, Hansard, Legislative Assembly,
23 April 1979 at 4923). The key offence of brothel keeping
under s 32 of the Summary Offences Act 1970 was
repealed and not replaced.
Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, much of
the brothel industry operated in a quasi-legal fashion.
However, police action in two areas served to undermine
the 1979 reforms. First, rarely used wartime legislation, the
Disorderly Houses Act 1943, was revived and an increasing
number of declarations were sought in the Supreme Court.
A disorderly house declaration enabled prosecutions to be
undertaken for the offences of owning, occupying or being

Table 17 Public act of prostitution offences finalised in NSW courts, 20002006

Offence

2000

Summary Offences Act s 20 (1) (a)

Public act of prostitution in or within view of prescribed location

2001 2002 2003 2004

2005 2006

Total

Summary Offences Act s 20 (1) (b)

Public act of prostitution within view of prescribed dwelling

11

Summary Offences Act s 20 (2) (a)

Public act of prostitution in a vehicle in or within view of
prescribed location

28

73

14

141

15

Summary Offences Act s 20 (2) (b)

Public act of prostitution in a vehicle within view of dwelling

32

The Summary Offences (Repeal) Act 1979

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

found on such declared brothels. The decision in Sibuse

Pty Ltd v Shaw (1988) 13 NSWLR 98, that a declaration
may be made on the mere ground that the premises are a
brothel, made it easier to obtain declarations and paved the
way for many further applications and prosecutions.
Secondly, the police revived the common law offence
of brothel keeping. In 1990, the police charged and
successfully prosecuted a person for the common law
misdemeanour of keeping a brothel, notwithstanding that
there had been no prosecutions for this offence in living
memory (McHugh J in Sibuse Pty Ltd v Shaw (1988)
13 NSWLR 98 at 122). Further prosecutions ensued. In
Rahme (1993) 70 A Crim R 357, the appellant appealed
his conviction, arguing that brothel keeping was no longer
an offence known to law given the perceptible changes in
the mores of society (and reliance was placed upon Street
CJs dissenting opinion in Sibuse). However, in the Court of
Criminal Appeal, Grove J (with whom James and Campbell
JJ agreed) noted (at 361) that:
the legislature reaffirmed its recognition of the
existence of the common law misdemeanour in the
passage of s 17(2) of the Summary Offences Act [1988]
shortly after those views [in Sibuse] had been published.
it is for the legislature to regulate social conduct if this
is deemed desirable. It is not the function of the court to
assess the merit of competing views about changes in
society. The offence of keeping a brothel has been and
is part of the law of New South Wales and I reject the
submission that the court should discard it.
In 1995, the Disorderly Houses (Amendment) Act 1995 was
enacted to reinforce the policy underlying the 1979 reforms
by overturning the decisions in Sibuse and Rahme and to
further involve planning laws in the regulation of brothel
operation. The common law offence of keeping a common
bawdy house or brothel was abolished: see s 580C of the
Crimes Act. Restrictions were placed on the classification
of brothels as disorderly houses.

The Summary Offences Act 1988

provisions
Section 16 creates the following offence (punishable by up
to five penalty units or imprisonment for three months):
16 A person shall not use, for the purpose of

prostitution or of soliciting for prostitution, any

premises held out as being available:

a) for the provision of massage, sauna baths,

steam baths or facilities for physical exercise,

or

b) for the taking of photographs, or

c) as a photographic studio,

or for services of a like nature.
In Franklin v Durkin (unreported, NSWSC, 21 October
1994), Levine J ruled that the section created two offences:
using premises for the purpose of prostitution, and using
premises for the purpose of soliciting for prostitution. In
respect of the first, an act of prostitution is a necessary
ingredient. An offer to perform in future a sexual service
for payment falls within the second offence. The meaning
of prostitution was also considered in Franklin v Durkin.
Section 3(1) of the Summary Offences Act provides:
prostitution includes acts of prostitution between
persons of different sexes or of the same sex, and
includes:
a) sexual intercourse as defined in section 61H of the

Crimes Act 1900, and
b) masturbation committed by one person on another,

for payment.

Premises used for prostitution

Levine J held that the definition, although only inclusive,

contemplates the performance of a sexual act and that,
as a matter of statutory construction, the wider meaning
of prostitution at common law referred to in Samuels v
Bosch (1972) 127 CLR 517 does not apply. In Samuels v
Bosch, Gibbs J stated (at 524) that The ordinary meaning
of prostitution is the offering of the body to indiscriminate
lewdness for hire.

Notwithstanding the decriminalisation of brothel keeping,

there remain some offences which may apply to brothelrelated activities in specified circumstances. Firstly, there
are two provisions in the Summary Offences Act 1988,
which prohibit brothel keeping and use where the premises
are held out as a massage parlour. Secondly, if a brothel
has been declared by a court to be a disorderly house
under the Restricted Premises Act 1943, an offence is
committed by the owner or occupier if any of the conditions
referred to in section 3 (1) apply to the premises while the
declaration is in force.

Section 17 creates a corresponding offence for owners,

occupiers and managers, punishable by a maximum of
50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months.7 Both
offences appear to be directed at the deception involved in
the labelling of the premises, rather than the prostitution.
The justification for including such offences in the criminal
law may be questioned, given that their primary purpose
appears to be consumer protection. There were only two
court appearances for the s 16 offence between 2000 and
2006 (inclusive). There were no appearances for the
s 17 offence.

7 17 (1) A person, being the owner, occupier or manager, or a person assisting in the management, of any premises held out as being

available:

(a) for the provision of massage, sauna baths, steam baths or facilities for physical exercise, or

(b) for the taking of photographs, or

(c) as a photographic studio,

or for services of a like nature, shall not knowingly suffer or permit the premises to be used for the purpose of prostitution or of

soliciting for prostitution. Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

33

Disorderly Houses/Restricted
Premises
The Disorderly Houses Act 1943 was enacted to deal
with the wartime growth of gambling, sly grog and
prostitution (Parliament of NSW 1986, p244). Under s 3,
premises could be declared a disorderly house or deemed
declared premises on a variety of grounds including that
drunkenness or disorderly or indecent conduct or any
entertainment of a demoralising character takes place
on the premises. Once declared, the premises could
be searched at any time by police, without warrant and
offences were created of being the owner (s 8) or occupier
(s 9) of declared premises.
In 1968, the Act was amended as part of the Askin
Governments attempt to eradicate prostitution, and s
3(1)(e) was added to the grounds: premises that are
habitually used for the purposes of prostitution, or have
been so used for that purpose and are likely again to be
so used for that purpose.8 As noted above, the Act was
increasingly used by police in the 1980s and 1990s to close
brothels and prosecute persons found on the premises
(Perkins 1991; Egger & Harcourt 1991). The police
applications under the Act increased after the decision in
Sibuse and there were 50 applications in 1990 (Perkins
1991).
The Disorderly Houses Amendment Act 1995 repealed
s 3(1)(e) and provided in s 16 that a s 3 declaration may
not be made in respect of premises solely because the
premises are a brothel. A new Pt 3 relating to brothels
was introduced. Section 17 authorised the NSW Land and
Environment Court, on the application of a local council,
to make an order that premises not be used for the

purpose of a brothel. A local council may not approach the

Land and Environment Court to make such an application
unless it is satisfied that it has received sufficient
complaints about the brothel [from residents who live in
the vicinity of the brothel or whose children use facilities
in the vicinity of the brothel] to warrant the making of the
application. In making an order, the Land and Environment
Court is to consider whether:
n the brothel is operating near or within view from
a church, hospital, school or any place regularly
frequented by children for recreational or cultural
activities (s 17(5)(a));
n the brothel causes a disturbance in the
neighbourhood (including by reason of noise, or
vehicular and pedestrian traffic) (s 17(5)(b);
n sufficient off-street parking and suitable access
have been provided (s 17(5)(c), (d)); and
n the operation of the brothel interferes with the amenity
of the neighbourhood (s 17(5)(f)).
The Disorderly Houses Act 1943 has been subject to three
important subsequent amendments effecting brothels.
1. It was amended by the Disorderly Houses
Amendment (Brothels) Act 2001 in response to
a recommendation of the Brothel Task Force
(established by the Government in 2000). The
objective was to clarify the evidence needed to
determine that a premise is operating as a brothel.
A new s 17A was inserted into the Act.9 Section
17A allows the Land and Environment Court to rely
on circumstantial evidence in determining whether
premises were used as a brothel. Safe sex equipment
was said to not of itself constitute evidence.

8 By the Vagrancy, Disorderly Houses and Other Acts (Amendment) Act 1968
9 17A
Evidence of use of premises as brothel

(1) This section applies to proceedings before the Land and Environment Court:

(a) on an application under section 17 for premises not to be used as a brothel, or

(b) under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 to remedy or restrain a breach of that Act in relation to

the use of premises as a brothel.

(2) In any proceedings to which this section applies, the Court may rely on circumstantial evidence to find that particular

premises are used as a brothel.

(3) However, the presence in any premises of articles or equipment that facilitate or encourage safe sex practices does not of

itself constitute evidence of any kind that the premises are used as a brothel.
Note. Examples of circumstantial evidence include (but are not limited to) the following:

(a) evidence relating to persons entering and leaving the premises (including number, gender and frequency) that is

consistent with the use of the premises for prostitution,

(b) evidence of the premises being advertised expressly or implicitly for the purposes of prostitution (including

advertisements on or in the premises, newspapers, directories or the Internet),

(c) evidence of appointments with persons at the premises for the purposes of prostitution that are made through the

use of telephone numbers or other contact details that are publicly advertised,

(d) evidence of information in books and accounts that is consistent with the use of the premises for prostitution,

34

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

2. The Disorderly Houses Act 1943 was renamed the

Restricted Premises Act 1943 by the Disorderly
Houses Amendment (Commercial Supply of Prohibited
Drugs) Act 2002. The offence of being found in
premises declared to be a disorderly house (s 7) was
repealed and the offences relating to owners (s 8)
and occupiers (s 9) were repealed and replaced by
substantially different offences.10 The new offences
penalize the owner or occupier if, whilst the declaration
is in force, any of the conditions referred to in s 3
continue to exist. Since s 3 does not refer to brothel
operation11, it is arguable that the s 8 and 9 offences
no longer have any application to brothel owners
or managers.
3. The Restricted Premises Act 1943 was further
amended by the Brothels Legislation Amendment Act
2007. The ambit of s 17 of the Restricted Premises
Act (which allows a local council to apply to the Land
and Environment Court for an order that the premises
are not to be used as a brothel) was substantially
broadened to apply to premises offering related sex
uses. Related sex uses are defined in s 2 to include
the provision of adult entertainment involving nudity,
indecent acts or sexual activity. Section 17 was also
amended to provide that only one complaint may be
sufficient to warrant the making of an application in
the case of a brothel used or likely to be used for the
purposes of prostitution by two or more prostitutes.
The previous requirement was confined to sufficient
complaints. Section 17 was also amended to allow
the Courts to suspend or vary for up to six months
any development consent already granted to the
brothel or related sex uses premises. S17A was
amended to allow the Court to find without any direct
evidence that the particular premises are used as

a brothel. Important amendments were also made

to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act
1979. The amendments created specific brothel
closure orders (defined in s121ZR) which may extend
to related sex uses premises. Under s121ZS, if a
person fails to comply with a brothel closure order, a
Local Court or the Land and Environment Court may
make an order directing a provider of water, electricity
or gas to those premises to cease provision for up to
three months. Because the definition of a brothel in
s 4 (1) excludes premises used by no more than one
prostitute, the closure and cessation of utilities orders
do not apply to sole operators. A person who fails to
comply with a brothel closure order may be guilty of an
offence under s 126 and subject to a maximum fine of
up to 10,000 penalty units (if sentenced by the Land
and Environment Court). Section 126 does not provide
for the imposition of a term of imprisonment.
The operation of brothels is now regulated by the law in
three primary ways and without the direct involvement of
the criminal law:
n Firstly, under the Environmental Planning and
Assessment Act 1979, a development application
to establish a brothel may be rejected by a local
council or authority. The matters to be considered
in determining a development application are laid
down in s 79C of the Environmental Planning and
Assessment Act 1979 and include the provisions of
any environmental planning instrument. Previously,
the Department of Urban Affairs and Environment
informed all local councils that Local Environment
Plans would not be approved by the Minister for
Urban Affairs and Planning if they contain a blanket
prohibition on brothels (Department of Urban Affairs
and Planning, Council Circular Planning Control of

10 8(1) After the service of a notice under section 6 on the owner of premises of the making of a declaration, the owner is guilty of an

offence if any of the conditions referred to in section 3 (1) apply to the premises while the declaration is in force. Maximum

penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.

9(1) After the service of a notice under section 6 on the occupier of premises of the making of a declaration, the occupier is guilty of

an offence if any of the conditions referred to in section 3 (1) apply to the premises while the declaration is in force. Maximum

penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.
11 3(1)
On a senior police officer showing reasonable grounds for suspecting that all or any of the following conditions obtain with

respect to any premises, that is to say:

(a) that drunkenness or disorderly or indecent conduct or any entertainment of a demoralising character takes place on the

premises, or has taken place and is likely to take place again on the premises, or

(b) that liquor or a drug is unlawfully sold or supplied on or from the premises or has been so sold or supplied on or from the

premises and is likely to be so sold again on or from the premises, or

(c) that reputed criminals or associates of reputed criminals are to be found on or resort to the premises or have resorted and

are likely to resort again to the premises, or

(d) that any of the persons having control of or managing or taking part or assisting in the control or management of the

premises:

(i)
is a reputed criminal or an associate of reputed criminals, or

(ii) has been concerned in the control or management of other premises which have been the subject of a declaration

under this Part, or

(iii) is or has been concerned in the control or management of premises which are or have been frequented by persons

of notoriously bad character or of premises on or from which liquor or a drug is or has been unlawfully sold or

supplied, ...

the Supreme Court or the District Court may declare such premises to be premises to which this Part applies.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

35

Brothels, 29, 1995), although they were permitted to

restrict them to industrial zones (Department of Urban
Affairs and Planning, Council Circular Planning
Control of Brothels, 16, 1996). This edict allowing
Councils to restrict brothels to industrial zones has
since been repealed. In 2009 the Planning Department
revised this advice and issued new directives under
the model provisions for the Standard InstrumentPrinciple LEP that now requires Councils to permit
brothels somewhere in their local government area.
n Secondly, a local council may attempt to prevent a
brothel from operating by applying under s 17 of the
Restricted Premises Act to the Land and Environment
Court for an order that the premises are not to be used
as a brothel if a recent amenity-based complaint has
been verified.
n Thirdly, the Land and Environment Court may issue
a brothel closure order under the Environmental
Planning and Assessment Act 1979. If a person fails
to comply with a brothel closure order, a Local Court
or the Land and Environment Court may issue a
utilities order under which gas water and electricity
supply is ceased for up to three months. If a person
fails to comply with a brothel closure order they may
be charged and convicted of an offence of offending
against the Courts prohibition under s 125 of the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and
fined accordingly.
Several local councils have criticised the planning scheme
for brothels, claiming that they do not have adequate
resources to investigate and litigate in the Land and
Environment Court, where necessary (Sydney Morning
Herald, 30/8/1999). Some councils have been reluctant
to include brothels in their Local Environment Plans and
some have criticised the decisions of the court as favouring
brothels over councils. Between late 1995 and June
1998, the Land and Environment Court heard 27 appeals
from brothel applicants who were refused development
consent; 20 were upheld (Smith 1999). Other councils have
assumed the new responsibilities with minimal adverse
comment. According to Smith (2003) approximately
half of the local councils in NSW had prepared Local
Environment Plans to identify the location of brothels by
2003. Most councils had prohibited brothels from operating
in residential areas. A Sex Services Premises Planning
Advisory Panel was established by the Government in
2002 to provide advice and assistance to assist councils
in the development and management of brothel planning.
The Advisory Panel produced the Sex Services Premises
Planning Guidelines in 2004 to assist local government
and to outline best practice standards. These are yet to be
adopted by the Department of Planning.

36

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Live on the earnings

Section 15 of the Summary Offences Act 1988 prohibits
living on the earnings of prostitution:
15 (1) A person shall not knowingly live wholly or in

part on the earnings of prostitution of another

person.

Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units or

imprisonment for 12 months.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), a person

who is of or above the age of 18 years and

who:

(a)
lives with or is habitually in the

company of, a reputed prostitute, and

(b)
has no visible lawful means of support,

shall be taken knowingly to live wholly or in

part on the earnings of prostitution of another

person unless he or she satisfies the court

before which he or she is charged with an

offence under that subsection that he or she

has sufficient lawful means of support.

(3) A person does not contravene subsection (1)

by living wholly or in part on earnings derived

from a brothel if the person owns, manages or

is employed in the brothel.
The s 15 offence was amended in 1995 by the Disorderly
Houses Amendment Act 1995, belatedly implementing
the recommendation of the 1986 NSW Parliament report
Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly
Upon Prostitution. Subsection (3) was added to prevent its
application to persons owning, managing or employed in
a brothel. Although the former version of the offence was
generally understood to be aimed at pimps and others
who exploit prostitutes, there was nothing in the section
to restrict the application to exploitative relationships.
It applied to co-workers of the prostitute, such as, for
example, the cleaner or the receptionist in a brothel.
However, the 1995 amendments did not address the
problem of the dependent relationships of the prostitute
and, as s 15 presently stands, it could be used against
the adult child or other dependant of the prostitute even
in the absence of any exploitative relationship. Indeed an
adult dependant who lives with the reputed prostitute
is presumed to be in breach of the section and must
affirmatively establish that he or she has independent
lawful means of support. Furthermore, s 15(3) only
exempts those involved in brothels and thus the support
workers of street workers (for example, those who record
client car numbers or hold safe sex equipment) may still be
prosecuted for living on the earnings.
The Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative
Assembly Upon Prostitution (Parliament of NSW 1986)
recommended that the ambit of live on the earnings be cut

down to restrict its application to circumstances of violence

or coercion or other forms of exploitation or to supply
an illegal drug of addiction. This recommendation was not
adopted; instead, a new offence was created in 1995 by
the Disorderly Houses Amendment Act 1995:
15A (2) A person must not, by coercive conduct or

undue influence, cause or induce another

person to surrender any proceeds of an act of

prostitution.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or

imprisonment for 12 months, or both.
The ambit of the live on the earnings offence has been
considered by the courts in the past. As observed by the
Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, the live on
the earnings offence applies to a person who lives with a
prostitute and is wholly or partly kept by her, but may also
apply in other situations, such as the supply of goods
and services:12
Prostitutes, like everyone else, need food, clothing,
accommodation and so on, and so the courts have
attempted to distinguish between the supply of goods
and services which in their nature can only relate
to prostitution, in which circumstances the supplier
would commit the offence;13 and the supply of goods
and services which are not exclusively referable to
prostitution but which will be used to further it in some
way, in which case the supplier will only commit the
offence where the charge made for the goods or services
is exorbitant because the woman is a prostitute14.
Australian case law supports this distinction and it has been
held in NSW that the offence requires some continuous
association and habitual receipt of money.15
Between 2000 and 2006 (inclusive), no charges were
prosecuted in the courts for live on the earnings. Between
2000 and 2006 (inclusive), there were only three court
appearances for the s 15A (2) offence of causing another
to surrender the proceeds of prostitution: one appearance
each year in 2000, 2001 and 2004.

Sole operators
Sole operators, commonly known as private workers in
the industry, are ordinarily defined as one sex worker
working from a private residence which may be their home
or may be a residence which is not their home, but leased
or owned for the purpose of providing sexual services.
Because owning or managing a brothel is not an offence in
NSW, it is not a criminal offence for a sole operator to offer
sexual services from home.16

Escort workers
There are no criminal prohibitions against the conduct of an
escort business or the work of escorts.

Inducing/procuring
Sections 91A91B of the Crimes Act contain serious,
but rarely used (Table 18, overleaf), prostitution-related
offences of procuring. Section 91A makes it a crime
punishable by up to seven years imprisonment to procure,
entice or lead away any person (not being a prostitute),
with or without that persons consent, for purposes of
prostitution. Section 91B makes it a crime punishable by
up to 10 years imprisonment where procurement for the
purpose of prostitution is done by means of any fraud,
violence, threat, or abuse of authority, or by the use of any
drug or intoxicating liquor. As noted by Gilmour-Walsh17,
these are older style procuring offences introduced into
NSW law in 1924. A new procuring offence was introduced
in 1995 by the Disorderly Houses Amendment Act 1995:
15A (1) A person must not, by coercive conduct or

undue influence, cause or induce another

person to commit an act of prostitution.
The rationale underlying the offence is unclear given the
existence of the Crimes Act offences and no prosecutions
have been undertaken for this offence since enactment in
1995. These offences are rarely prosecuted and charges
resulted in a guilty outcome in only three appearances.

12 Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, Project No 85, Police Act Offences, Discussion Paper, May 1989, p 89.
13 Footnote supplied by the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, ibid, p89: Eg Calvert v Mayes [1954] 1 QB 342 (the owner-driver
of a taxi allowed his taxi to be used by American servicemen and prostitutes on short journeys during which sexual intercourse took place;
the defendant was paid the proper fee, but without the presence of the prostitutes and the opportunities for sexual intercourse his income
would have been very much reduced).
14 Footnote supplied by the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, ibid, p89: Eg R v Thomas [1957] 2 All ER 181, in which a man
let a prostitute have the use of a room for prostitution between 9.00pm and 2.00am each night. The court said that the offence of living on
the earnings would be committed if the rent was grossly inflated. It has however been suggested that the accommodation was provided for
prostitution and nothing else, and whether the rent was inflated or not should have been irrelevant: Shaw v DPP [1962] AC 220, 265 per
Viscount Simonds.
15 In Shaluga (1958) 75 WN (NSW) 120, the appellant was described as working and receiving substantial remuneration from honest and
lucrative employment. On one occasion, he drove a man and two women to and from Holsworthy Military Camp, where the women
engaged in prostitution. Shaluga was summarily convicted of living partly on the earnings of prostitution in relation to the fee he earned for
driving. The Court of Appeal unanimously quashed the verdict, noting that there was only one isolated incident. The court held that there
must be some continuous association and some habitual receipt of money from the earnings of prostitution.
16 It may be an offence under s 16 or 17 of the Summary Offences Act, if the sole operators premises are held out as a massage parlour or
photographic studio.
17 Gilmour-Walsh, B. N., No Bad Sex Workers, Just Bad Laws? The Legal Regulation of Prostitution in Australia, unpublished PhD thesis,
ANU, 2003. The offences were introduced in s 8 of the Crimes (Amendment) Act 1924.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

37

Table 18 Procuring charges finalised in NSW courts, 20002006

Offence

2000

Crimes Act s 91A

Procure for prostitution
Crimes Act Act s 91B
Procure for prostitution by fraud, violence, threat, etc.

2001 2002 2003 2004

2005 2006

Total

Advertising

Child prostitution offences

Section 18 of the Summary Offences Act 1988 prohibits

advertisements for prostitution, with a maximum penalty of
six penalty units or three months imprisonment:
15 A person shall not, in any manner:

(a) publish or cause to be published an

advertisement, or

(b) erect or cause to be erected any sign,

indicating that any premises are used or are

available for use, or that a person is available, for

the purposes of prostitution.

In common with other Australian jurisdictions, a number

of serious criminal offences pertaining to offering a child
for prostitution are contained in the Crimes Act 1900. The
Crimes (Child Prostitution) Amendment Act 1988 inserted a
number of new provisions into the Crimes Act. Section 91C
defines an act of child prostitution very broadly, including
sexual intercourse (as defined in s 61H), and also any
sexual service, whether or not involving an indecent act
that can reasonably be considered to be aimed at the
sexual arousal or sexual gratification of a person.

However, this has not stopped many newspapers

(especially suburban dailies) from running pages of
advertisements in the personal columns which are
obviously for the purpose of prostitution. The Select
Committee of the Legislative Assembly (Parliament of
NSW 1986) described a survey of the English language
press in NSW in the week of 915 September 1984,
and found 1424 listings for prostitution services. Sixty
percent of the advertisements were for establishments
(brothels, massage parlours and escort agencies), 31% for
individuals, and the remainder for small groups.

Section 91D (1) creates offences of causing or inducing

a child to participate in an act of child prostitution, or
participating as a client in such an act. The penalty is a
maximum of imprisonment for 10 years, or 14 years if the
child is under 14 years of age.

It is also an offence to advertise prostitution employment18:

18A (1) A person shall not, in any manner, publish or

cause to be published an advertisement for a

prostitute

(2) In this section, advertisement for a prostitute

means an advertisement that indicates, or that

can be reasonably taken to indicate, that:

(a)
employment for a prostitute is or may

be available, or

(b) a person is required for employment as

a prostitute or to act as a prostitute, or

(c) a person is required for employment

in a position that involves, or may

involve, acting as a prostitute.
The maximum penalty is 10 penalty units or imprisonment
for three months. Thus while s 18 refers to the
advertisement of prostitute services, s 18A deals with
advertising for the employment of a person to act as a
prostitute. No prosecutions were undertaken for either
offence between 2000 and 2006 (inclusive).

Section 91E creates an offence, punishable by up to 10

years imprisonment, where any person receives money
or any other material benefit knowing that it is derived
directly or indirectly from an act of child prostitution. It is a
defence where the accused person satisfies the court that
the money or material benefit was received by the person
for the lawful provision of goods or services, or was paid
or provided in accordance with a judgment or court order
or legislative requirement: s 91E(2). Section 91F makes
it an offence to be a person who is capable of exercising
lawful control over premises at which a child participates in
an act of child prostitution. Section 91G creates offences
relating to using, causing or procuring or, having care of a
child, consenting to the using of a child for pornographic
purposes. Use for pornographic purposes is defined as the
child engaging in sexual activity or being placed in a sexual
context or is subjected to torture, cruelty or physical abuse
for the purpose of the production of pornography.

Sexual servitude and trafficking

Whilst the sexual servitude laws are not part of NSW
prostitution laws, they are briefly described here to
complete the overview. The Criminal Code Amendment
(Slavery and Sexual Servitude) Act 1999 inserted a number
of prostitution offences into the Commonwealth Criminal
Code Act 1995. Section 270.6(1) creates the offence

18 S 18A was inserted into the Summary Offences Act by the Summary Offences (Prostitution) Amendment Act 1988.

38

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Table 19 Charges for the most common brothel and soliciting offences, 19722006
Year

Soliciting
by worker
s19(1) & (2)

1972

4,288

Soliciting Live on Own manage Use massage Advertise

by client
earnings
parlour
parlour
s19A(1) & (2)

46

1974

3,301

17

1976

1,930

20

1978

1,804

13

1980

35

28

94

1982

39

17

66

1984

419

33

17

27

166

1986

180

11

11

1988

376

32

68

1990

654

12

1992

713

21

1994

314

14

11

42

1996

267

10

1998

259

2000

159

11

2002

274

85

2004

35

80

2006

50

of intentionally or recklessly causing another person to

enter into or remain in sexual servitude, punishable by 15
years imprisonment. Section 270.6(2) creates the offence
of conducting a business that involves sexual servitude,
punishable by 15 years. Section 270.7 creates the offence
of inducing another person into an engagement to provide
sexual services by deception about the fact that sexual
services are required. The penalty is increased to 19 years
for these offences if the other person is under the age of
18 years. Sexual servitude is defined in s 270.4 as the
condition of a person who provides sexual services and
who, because of the use of force or threats is not free
to cease providing sexual services; or is not free to
leave the place or area where the person provides sexual
services. Under s 270.5, either the conduct constituting the
offence (or part of it) and/or the sexual services must occur
outside Australia.

Summary
Although there remains a poorly justified patchwork of
criminal prohibitions against specific activities associated
with the adult sex industry, most of the core activities
are not prohibited by the criminal law. Street soliciting
is legal except in, near or within view of the prescribed
locations, brothel keeping is not a criminal offence and
no offences apply to escort workers or sole operators
per se. The court figures show a large decline in the

policing of all forms of prostitution in NSW. Table 19

presentsthe number of charges prosecuted in the Local
Court for the most frequently prosecuted prostitution
offences in the periods before and after the 1979, 1983,
1988 and 1995 amendments.
Prosecutions for all the key prostitution offences have
declined. Prosecutions for soliciting declined to zero
following the repeal of the soliciting offence in 1979.
They increased to 419, when the offence was partially
re-criminalised by introduction of defined prohibited
locations in 1983. There was a slight increase around
the introduction of the Summary Offences Act 1988
(which increased the ambit from near to near or within
view of the prescribed locations) followed by a steady
decline throughout the 1990s. The other offences are
less frequently the subject of prosecution. No data are
presented for the Restricted Premises Act 1943 because
charges may arise from premises declared disorderly for
reasons other than prostitution.
The NSW prostitution prosecution figures generally
provide a striking illustration of the decriminalisation of
prostitution in NSW and show the declining involvement
of police in all aspects of the industry. Notwithstanding the
decriminalisation of the industry, there remain significant
legal problems associated with the planning law framework
under which brothels and sole operators work.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

39

Local government planning responses

In 1995 the Disorderly Houses Amendment Act 1995
introduced important changes which largely decriminalised
the brothel-based sex industry. For some years prior to this
reform a number of urban councils had expressed support
for changes to the legislation to allow them to consider
approving brothels in appropriate locations. At the Local
Government Association (LGA) Annual Conference in 1994
delegates strongly supported a motion along these lines.
(LGA Annual Conference Business Paper, 1994).
When the Disorderly Houses Amendment Act 1995 was
introduced in 1995 it provided councils with most of the
conditions they had sought. Criminal offences applying to
brothel keeping were repealed and planning control was
left with councils in the first instance, with appeal to the
Land and Environment Court (LEC). Councils were also
provided with a specific legal procedure to apply to the
Land and Environment Court for an order that a brothel be
closed if there were amenity complaints under s 17 of the
Disorderly Houses Act 1943. More than 16 years on, this
legislative reform has not fully delivered the anticipated
improvements in sex industry regulation.
Initially councils were slow to develop brothel policies,
waiting for State Government guidelines on health, location
and policing, and unwilling to face community hostility and
sustained media campaigns opposed to zoning proposals
(Sex while you shop: council brothel plan, Sydney Morning
Herald, 21/6/96). Some sought special exemptions in spite
of the fact that the NSW Government had indicated that
it would not support a blanket prohibition of brothels in a
local government area.
The slowness of councils in responding to the Act
was matched by brothel owners reluctance to submit
applications. Without policies in place they could not be
sure of the conditions they would have to meet. Many
businesses also preferred to wait and see the outcomes of
other applications and to assess the role to be played by
the LEC (Brothels ignore legitimacy Act, Daily Telegraph
6/5/96). People in the sex industry were aware that in the
early years of legalisation in Victoria most applications for
brothel development had been decided in the Court.
In 1999 newspapers reported the majority of surveyed legal
brothels had received approval from the LEC after refusal
by Council (Court gives green light to red lights, Sydney
Morning Herald, 25/6/99). In its next issue the paper
criticised the Court for its approval of a brothel that backed
on to a laneway adjacent to a church (Church, school next
door to sleaze, Sydney Morning Herald, 28/6/99).
Reflecting councils unease about approving development
applications for brothels, a Brothels Task Force was
convened by the President of the LGA in September 1997
and requested the Attorney-General to:
n Establish a Ministerial Advisory Council to assess
council brothels policies providing an opportunity to
plead special circumstances.

40

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

n Consider the licensing of brothels at State level (a model

similar to that used for hotels was suggested); and
n Allow LGA officers to investigate more realistic
evidentiary requirements for the closure of
illegal brothels.
(Letter from Councillor Peter Woods, President of the LGA,
to the Hon Jeff Shaw Attorney General and Minister for
Industrial Relations, 12/11/98).
In response, the Premiers Office convened the Brothels
Task Force (2000), which in turn recommended the
establishment of an advisory service for councils. The
Sex Services Premises Planning Advisory Panel, chaired
by Vic Smith, former Mayor of South Sydney Council,
included representatives from the Departments of Planning,
Health, State Chamber of Commerce, local government,
sex worker organisations and a legal expert. The Panel
produced a set of guidelines, Sex Services Premises
Planning Guidelines (SSPPG) 2004, to assist councils
in planning and policy relating to brothel developments
(SSPPG 2006). These guidelines were comprehensive
and well informed, but were not formally endorsed by the
State Government in spite of the process being initiated by
the Premiers Department. Consequently although widely
distributed, and endorsed by other agencies (including
through judgements in the LEC) the Guidelines best
practice models have been ignored by most councils in
favour of an ad hoc approach to brothel planning which
gives minimal guidance or assistance to applicants seeking
a consistent and commercially equitable development
application (DA) process.
Meanwhile the State Government has addressed another
concern raised by councils, namely, the difficulties
encountered in closing unapproved brothels. Difficulties in
substantiating complaints against purported illegal brothels
led some councils to employ private investigators to pose
as brothel clients, for this purpose (Sydney Morning Herald,
24/6/99). Identified brothels usually had the option of
submitting a DA, which meant they could continue trading
while the DA was considered. Council decisions were
frequently appealed to the LEC causing further delays
and often an unsatisfactory outcome as far as council was
concerned. The Brothels Legislation Amendment Act 2007
has simplified and speeded up the process of closure of
unauthorised brothels by permitting the council to apply
to the Court on only one complaint and by providing for
the Court to issue an order to cut off power and water to
premises that have not ceased trading within one week
of receiving a brothel closure order. The utilities orders
do not apply to single operator private sex workers
although some Councils require a full DA. Anecdotally
these provisions seem to have been very effective with the
rapid closure but possible re-location of many small,
unapproved brothels in recent times.
Many councils remain reluctant to draw up appropriate
planning guidelines making provision for brothel
applications within their area.

Survey of Sydney Councils

The LASH team identified 205 premises within a
20 kilometre radius of Sydney GPO that appeared to
be operating as brothels. We contacted by phone or
by visiting 123 premises and confirmed that 101 were
operating as brothels between June 2007 and February
2008. During this period the LASH team also contacted by
email the 27 inner-Sydney councils where these brothels
were located and asked:
a) how many brothel applications have been approved by
your Council or by the Court, since 1996?
b) how many brothel applications have been approved in
the past year (1 July 200630 June 2007)?
c) do you permit single operator home occupation
brothels in your area?
The results are presented in Table 20, overleaf. Four
councils did not respond after three emails. Of the
23 responses two councils (City of Sydney and Marrickville:
61 and 15 approvals respectively) accounted for two
thirds (67%) of approvals since 1996. Sixteen of these
(16/76 21%) were Court approved.
The remaining 21 councils hosted 37 approved brothels
between them. Of these, two councils (one with five and
one with two brothels) did not distinguish between court
and council approvals. Eleven councils had not approved
any brothels, but of these, six had court-approved brothels
within their areas. Five councils had no approved brothels
at all and one other (with three court approved brothels)
stated it was opposed to any brothel DA. Apart from
Marrickville and Sydney City, in 18 councils with approved
brothels 50% (15/30) were only approved by the Court.
Only four councils permitted resident private sex workers to
conduct home occupation businesses, while Marrickville
required a full DA process and Sydney and Canada Bay
permitted them only in some localities.
Brothel approvals have been piecemeal and have
tended to occur most readily in those suburbs with a long
acknowledged history of having a significant sex industry.
Through the council approval process brothel distribution
has been largely contained within its historic boundaries
but this has not taken account of the massive demographic
shifts in Metropolitan Sydney (the demographic heartland
is now west of Parramatta), and changing socio-economic
profiles in the suburbs adjacent to Sydney City. It has, on
the whole, been far easier for established brothels in areas
adjacent to the old red light suburbs to gain approval than
it has for established or new premises meeting additional
demand in growing outer suburbs.
Many Councils are still hesitant to deal with brothel
applications because of (often justified) fear of hostile
community and local media reaction. There are instances
of Councillors voting down brothel DAs in spite of
favourable reports from their own planning departments
(for example: David Harbour, Brothel proposal defeated,
The Torch, 16/4/2008). The lack of clear process through

a sound planning policy for brothel approvals makes it

more difficult for elected and community members to
fairly assess the likely amenity and social effects of a
brothel application. Applicants equally have problems
when policies are not clearly enunciated and adhered to
in council decisions. Many brothel owners/managers are
not highly capitalised and are discouraged from making
applications if they fear a protracted battle in the LEC
will be the outcome even when they have met basic
planning requirements.
On the whole NSW brothels are small or very small
businesses. Our survey found that on average they employ
about four sex workers on day shifts and up to six during
evening shifts. Brothel sex workers each work on average
about 24 hours per week and see approximately 15 clients
in that time. There is a fairly rapid turnover of staff as the
mean time for work in the brothel-based sex industry in
NSW is 1.6 years.
Interestingly, 67% of the brothels we visited were located
in commercial or mixed-use zones (the zones preferred by
SSPG, and decriminalisation advocates) (Harcourt 1999).
Nineteen per cent were in industrial zones and 13% were
in residential areas. We did not try to establish the planning
status of the brothels visited for LASH, but it is probable
that most of those in residential areas did not have
development approval from the local council.
Approximately 83 of the advertised premises we initially
tried to contact in Sydney had closed down or moved to
another address. It is evident from the low number (three)
of approvals in 2006/7 and the fact that the majority of
approvals in the City of Sydney date from before the
Council amalgamations in 2004 (Table 20), that new or
relocating businesses are finding it very difficult to gain
approval under existing council policies. A full audit of
currently operating brothels would probably reveal that
many of the early approvals are no longer active and that
recent demand is not being met by the current rate of new
approvals. In Newcastle, of an estimated 40 brothels, only
13 appeared to have Council approval (Esler et al., 2008).
We believe that councils would find it easier to deal with
brothel DAs if the State Government formally adopted the
SSPG on behalf of Local Government.
These Guidelines could be incorporated through the
changes envisaged in the current government review of the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. Among the
stated aims of this review are:
n To consider if aspects of NSW planning policies
and legislation need to be adjusted to ensure
the right balance in achieving sustainable social
and environmental outcomes and in promoting a
competitive business environment.
n Zoned land is available for development to reduce
barriers to entry.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

41

Table 20 Brothel development approvals by local government area, 19962007

Council No. approved No. council No. court Permits home

since 1996
approveda approved
occupation

brothel
Ashfield

Comments

3 No Opposed to any brothel DA

Auburn

1 Not clear

Bankstown

0 No

Botany Bay

Burwood

2 No

Not clear

Recognises one brothel (established c.1970)

Canada Bay
1
1
0 Yes (Concord)
No (Drummoyne)
Canterbury

1 No

Hunters Hill

0 No

Hurstville No response
Kogarah

2 No

Ku-ring-gai

1 No

Lane Cove
0
0
0 No

Sydney Morning Herald reports one closure

28/10/07

Leichhardt
3
3
0 No Currently taking action against two illegal

brothels
Manly
0
0
0 Yes, if complies

with LEP

home occupation
Marrickville

15

12

3 Yes + full DA

Mosman

0 No

North Sydney

2 No

Parramatta No response
Randwick

0 No

Rockdale

5 Not stated Not stated No

Ryde

0 No

Strathfield

1 No

Three zoned locations for brothels

Sydney City
61
48
13 Yes, varies New single LEP in process.

with LEP
Warringah No response
Waverley No response
Willoughby
Woollahra
TOTALS

2 No

2 Not sure Not sure No Brothel DAs not separately recorded.

113b

75

31

a not requiring Land and Environment Court ruling

b only three approved between July 2006June 2007
DA = development application, LEP = local environment plan

42

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Corruption by local government

officials
Officials of two local governments in Sydney have
been found guilty of corrupt behaviour when dealing
with brothels, and rumours about others are common.
The Independent Commission against Corruption
(ICAC) has recommended better and more transparent
compliance systems within councils, and for the State
Government to examine the potential, and develop
policies to counteract, opportunities for corruption in
the Local Government regulation of brothels. ICAC also
recommended that potential brothel owners be of good
character, providing this is not based simplistically on a
persons previous history with the law, but takes account
of their demonstrated ability to provide and adhere to an
appropriate brothel management plan (including health
and OH&S measures) and to implement council
compliance requirements.

Private sex workers

The situation for private sex workers is also unsatisfactory.
None of the surveyed Councils have made adequate
provision for this substantial, and possibly growing sector
of the industry. Private sex workers are notoriously difficult
to research but there is sufficient anecdotal evidence to
show that very many female, and probably most male sex
workers prefer to work in a private capacity. The reasons
for this are many; including having more autonomy and
control over work, avoiding the fees imposed in brothels,
and possibly avoiding tax. It is evident from their very low
profile in the research and policing statistics that private
sex workers have no amenity impact on their communities.
Private sex workers remain substantially under the
radar for planners and politicians alike, but this is an
unsatisfactory situation as they remain in a precarious
legal position.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

43

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David F (2008). Trafficking of Women for Sexual Purposes.

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Harcourt C, van Beek I, McMahon M, Heslop J, Donovan

B (2001). The health and welfare needs of female and
transgender, street sex workers in New South Wales. Australia
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Dodillet S, stergren P (2011). The Swedish Sex Purchase

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the international workshop: Decriminalizing Prostitution and
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(March).

Harcourt C, OConnor J, Egger S, et al. (2010). The

decriminalisation of prostitution is associated with better
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482486.

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Australia: a health promotion model. Venereology; 9(1):6367.

IBISWorld (2010). IBISWorld Industry Report Q9528: Sexual

Services in Australia. Melbourne: IBISWorld.

Donovan B, Harcourt C, Bassett I, Philpot CR (1991).

Gonorrhoea and Asian prostitution: the Sydney Sexual Health
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Jackson L, Highcrest A, Coates RA (1992). Varied potential

risks of HIV infection among prostitutes. Social Science &
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Donovan B, Knight V, OConnor CC (2001). Migrant sex

workers in Sydney: a decade of successful health promotion.
International Journal of STD &AIDS; 12, Suppl. 2:48.

Jeffrey LA, Sullivan B (2009). Canadian sex work policy for

the 21st century: enhancing rights and safety, lessons from
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Kirby Institute (2011). HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and sexually

transmissible infections in Australia Annual Surveillance Report
2011. Sydney: Kirby Institute, UNSW.
Lee DM, Binger A, Hocking J, Fairley CK (2005). The incidence
of sexually transmitted infections among frequently screened
sex workers in a decriminalised and regulated system in
Melbourne. Sexually Transmitted Infections; 81: 434436.
Lovejoy F, Perkins R (1991). AIDS Preventative Practices
among Female Prostitutes and their Clients and Private risk.
Sydney: School of Sociology, UNSW/Commonwealth Dept. of
Health Housing and Community Services.
Maher L, Dixon D (1999). Policing and public health: law
enforcement and harm minimization in a street-level drug
market. British Journal of Criminology; 39(4): 488512.

Pell C, Dabbhadatta J, Harcourt C, Tribe K, OConnor C

(2006). Demographic, migration status and work related
changes in Asian sex workers surveyed in Sydney: 1993 and
2003. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health;
30: 157162.
Perkins R (1991). Working Girls: prostitutes, their life and
social control. Sydney: Australian Institute of Criminology.
Perkins R (1994). Female prostitution. In: Perkins R, Prestage
G, Sharp R, Lovejoy F, (eds). Sex Work and Sex Workers in
Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Perkins R., Lovejoy F (2007). Call Girls. Crawley, WA:
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Perkins R, Prestage G, Sharp R, Lovejoy F. (eds) (1994). Sex
Work and Sex Workers in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press.

McCoy AW (1980). Drug Traffic: narcotics and organised crime

in Australia. Sydney: Harper and Row.

Philpot CR, Harcourt CL, Edwards JM (1989). Drug use by

prostitutes in Sydney. British Journal of Addiction; 84: 499505.

McLeod (1982). Women Working. Prostitution Now. London:

Croom Helm.

Philpot CR, Harcourt CL, Edwards JM (1991). A survey of

female prostitutes at risk of HIV infection and other sexually
transmissible diseases. Genitourinary Medicine; 67: 3848.

Minichiello V, Marino R, Browne J, Jamieson M (2000).

Commercial sex between men: A prospective diary-based
study. The Journal of Sex Research; 37(2):151160.
Minichiello V, Marino R, Browne J (2001). Knowledge, risk
perceptions and condom usage in male sex workers from
three Australian cities. AIDS Care Psychological and SocioMedical Aspects of AIDS/HIV; 13(3): 387402.
Ministry of Justice (2008). Report of the Prostitution Law
Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform
Act 2003. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Government.
Morton AN, Tabrizi SN, Garland SM, et al. (2002). Will the
legalisation of street sex work improve health? Sexually
Transmitted Infections; 78: 309.
Morton AN, Wakefield T, Tabrizi SN, et al. (1999). An outreach
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International Journal of STD & AIDS; 10: 741743.
Mulhall BP, Hart G, Harcourt C (1995). Sexually transmitted
diseases in Australia: a decade of change. Epidemiology and
surveillance. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore;
24(4): 569578.
National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research
(2008). Mathematical models to investigate recent trends
in HIV notifications among men who have sex with men in
Australia. Sydney: National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and
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Neave M (1988). The failure of prostitution law reform.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology; 21:
202213.
NSW Health and WorkCover (1997). Health and Safety
Guidelines for Brothels in NSW.
OConnor CC, Berry G, Rohrsheim R, Donovan B (1996).
Sexual health and use of condoms among local and
international sex workers in Sydney. Genitourinary Medicine;
72: 4751.
Parliament of NSW (1986). Report of the Select Committee
upon Prostitution. Sydney: Parliament of NSW.
Payne C (1997). The slave traders of Sydney. Australian
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Prestage G, Mao L, Jin F, et al. (2007). Sex work and risk

behaviour among HIV-negative gay men. AIDS Care; 19:
931934.
Pyett PM, Haste BR, Snow J (1996). Risk practices for HIV
infection and other STDs amongst female prostitutes working
in legalized brothels. AIDS Care; 8: 8.
Pyett P, Warr D (1999). Women at risk in sex work: strategies
for survival. Journal of Sociology; 35: 183197.
Read PJ, Wilson DP, Wand H, et al. (2012a). Estimating
the number of female sex workers in Sydney, Australia, (in
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Read PJ, Wand H, Guy R, McNulty AM, Donovan B (2012b).
Unprotected fellatio between sex workers and clients in
Sydney, Australia, (in preparation).
Rowe J (2011). Shantusi: Surveying HIV and Need in the
Unregulated Sex Industry. South Melbourne: Inner City
Community Health Service.
Roxburgh A, Degenhardt L, Copeland J (2006). Posttraumatic
stress disorder among female street-based sex workers in the
greater Sydney area, Australia. BMC Psychiatry; 6.
Roxburgh A, Degenhardt L, Copeland J, Larance B (2008).
Drug dependence and associated risks among female streetbased sex workers in the greater Sydney area, Australia.
Substance Use and Misuse; 43(89):12021217 and1288.
Samaranake A, Chen MY, Hocking J, Bradshaw CS, Cumming
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sex workers with low rates of STI restricts access to services
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Seib C, Fischer J, Najman J (2008). The health of female sex
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Services Premises Planning Guidelines, December 2004.
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Sharp R (1994). Female sex work and injecting drug use: what
more do we need to know. In: Perkins R, Prestage G, Sharp
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Writer L (2001). Razor. Sydney: Pan Macmillan.

46

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

Appendix 1: The LASH questionnaire

All information gathered in this questionnaire is confidential and shall be used only for the purposes of this study. No
personal names or identifying information is required. Participation in the questionnaire is entirely voluntary and may
be discontinued at any time.
Please mark circles and or write comments as indicated.
1. What is your country of birth?
If you were born overseas, what year did you arrive in Australia?
2. How old are you? Years
3. Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent?

m Yes

m No

4. What language do you speak at home?

m English

m Other

5. How would you rate your English language skills?

m Good

m Fair

m Poor

6. How many years of formal education have you had? Years

Months

7. How long have you been in the sex industry (in total)? Years

Months

How long have you worked in the sex industry in Australia? Years

Months

8. Do you currently work in: (mark all that apply)

m Brothel
m Private

m Escort
m Massage

m BDSM
m Other
9. How many sex workers usually work at your work place?
Day shift Night shift
10. What other kinds of sex work have you ever engaged in: (mark all that apply)

a) In Australia
m Brothel
m escort
m Private
m massage
m Street
m BDSM
m Other

b) Overseas?
m Brothel
m Private
m Street
m Other

m escort
m massage
m BDSM

11. Why did you choose to work at your place of work rather than another location or kind of sex work? (mark all that apply)

m I like my work mates
m I like the management

m It pays better
m its more discreet

m I live near here
m the hours are flexible

m It is safer (better security)
m the clients are better here

m To avoid hassles with the police
m it was all that was available/ or that I know of

m Not as many rules (as the parlours)
m better services (i.e. clothes hire, food provided)

m I can get drugs here
m I go where I am told

m Sex worker support/ outreach/service providers come here

m Other (specify)
12. How many hours in an average week do you work?

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

47

13. Do you have regular sexual health checks? m Yes

m No
If yes how often?
m Monthly
m Every 26 months
m Every 712 months

a) m Weekly
m Other

m Less than once per year

b) How long since your last check up?
m Less than 30 days
m 13 months
m More than 3 months

c) Where do you usually go for sexual health checks? (mark all that apply)
m Local GP/ doctor
m GP/doctor in another town/suburb
m Private sexual health clinic
m Public (free) sexual health centre
m Womens health/ family planning clinic
m Other?

d) Why do you go to this particular health service? (mark all that apply)
m Expertise
m Cost
m Confidentiality
m Friendly
m Recommended
m Required by my employer
m Only place I know
m Easy to get to
m Other (details)

e) In the last 12 months have you attended:
m Sydney Sexual Health service
m Royal Perth Hospital Sexual Health Clinic

m Melbourne Sexual Health Centre

m None of these

14. Have you ever been diagnosed (by a doctor or nurse) with any of the following conditions: (Mark all that apply)
No Yes In last 12 months
m
m
m
Gonorrhoea
m
m
m
Syphilis
m
m
m
Chlamydia
m
m
m
pelvic infection (PID)
m
m
m
genital herpes
m
m
m
genital warts
m
m
m
Hepatitis B
m
m
m
Hepatitis C
HIV
m
m
m
15. Have you ever been vaccinated against Hepatitis B?

m Yes

m No

m Unsure

16. Have you ever been tested for HIV

m Yes

m No

m Unsure

If yes, when were you last tested for HIV? _______ / _______

Month Year

17. What do you currently use for contraception? (mark all that apply)

m Condoms
m Injection or implant

m The pill
m IUD/Coil

m Another method (please specify):

m I dont use any contraception because:

18. In the last 3 months how often would you use condoms with male partners outside of work?

m Never
m Sometimes (less than half the time)

m Always
m Usually (more than half the time)

m No male partners outside work in the last 3 months
19. In the last 3 months how many sexual partners have you had outside of work?

Men Women

Transgender

20. How many clients do you see in an average week? Clients

48

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

21. In an average week how many of your clients ask for services without condoms?

Men ask for vaginal sex without condoms

Men ask for anal sex without condoms

Men ask for oral sex without condoms

22. In an average week how many of your clients used condoms for:
or
number of men
or I dont have the following
All men
Vaginal sex? m

m No vaginal sex with clients

Anal sex?

m No anal sex with clients

Oral sex?

m No oral sex with clients

23. Do you use any of the following? (mark all that apply)
m No
m
Cigarettes

(everyday)
m No
m

Marijuana
m No
m
Ecstasy/designer drugs
m No
m
Speed/ ice/crystal/amphetamines
m No
m
Heroin
m No
m
Codeine
m No
m

Methadone
m No
m
Bupenorphine (bupe)
Other (specify)

in last 12 months

m currently (most of the time)

in last 12 months
in last 12 months
in last 12 months
in last 12 months
in last 12 months
in last 12 months
in last 12 months

m
m
m
m
m
m
m

currently (most of the time)

currently (most of the time)
currently (most of the time)
currently (most of the time)
currently (most of the time)
currently (most of the time)
currently (most of the time)

24. When was the last time you drank more than four alcoholic drinks in a day?
m Today
m Yesterday
m Last 7 days

m Never

m 24 weeks
m 23 months
m More than 3 months
25. Have you injected a drug in the past 12 months?
26. Are condoms provided at your work?

m No

m No

m Yes

m Yes, I pay for them

m Yes, they are free

27. Which of the following are provided at your current workplace? (mark all that apply)

m Needles disposal bin (sharps container)
m Smokers room
m Room alarm m Security guard

m Security camera
m Receptionist
m Dams
m Lube m None of these
28. Where did you learn about safer sex and sex work skills? (Mark all that apply)

m nowhere
m l learnt on the job from other workers
m I learnt from my local GP/doctor

m I learnt for sexual health centre
m I leant from internet
m I learnt from clients

m I learnt from friends away from work
m I learnt from educators that comes to my work (face-to-face)

m I learnt from educational booklets left by visiting

m Other:
29. How often do educators or outreach workers come to your worksite?

m Never
m less than once a year
m 1 to 4 times a year
m 5 or more times a year

m Other
30. Is it legal to do sex work in this state?
Any special conditions?

m Yes

m No

m Unsure

31. Have you ever moved state (or country) because of laws about sex sex work?

m No
m Yes (what state or country did you leave?)
32. Have you ever changed your workplace within this state because of the laws?

m No
m Yes (please give reasons)

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

49

33. Do the police visit your current workplace? (do not include visits as paying clients)

m Never
m Unsure
m Less than once per year
m 1 to 4 times a year

m Other
34. In the last year have the police ever arrested/detained anyone in your workplace?
35. In the last year have the police charged anyone in your workplace with an offence?
If yes, can you say what the charges were?

m 5 or more times per year

m Yes
m Yes

m No
m No

m Unsure
m Unsure

If yes, someone was charged:

a) Did the premises close down after the charges were laid?
b) Did the premises open up elsewhere?

m Yes
m Yes

m No
m No

m Unsure
m Unsure

36. In the last year have you had any experiences with police whilst working in the sex industry?
m Yes
m No
m Unsure

a)

b) If yes please mark the circles that apply.
Yes No
On the whole police are supportive and helpful
m
m
I have been threatened with arrest
m
m
I have been threatened with violence
m
m
I have been physically assaulted
m
m
I have had money demanded from me
m
m
I been pressured into providing sexual services
m
m
Comments:
37. In the past year while at work have any client/s ever?
m No
m Once or twice

Threatened you
m No
m Once or twice
Assaulted you

Pressured you to do something you didnt want to?
Comments:

m More than twice

m More than twice
m No
m Once or twice

m More than twice

38. As a sex worker how comfortable are you about going to the police with complaints such as sexual assault, threats, theft,
unpaid services etc?

m Very comfortable m Comfortable m Somewhat comfortable
m Not comfortable
m Very uncomfortable
Comments:
m Yes m No m dont know
39. Have any of the officials listed visited your workplace?
If yes please mark all that apply

m Immigration (DIMA) m Local council m Tax office
m Workcover
m Centrelink
Any comments:
40. Do you share your income with anyone?
m Yes
m No
If yes (please mark all that apply),

m Partner
m Flatmate
m Dependant child[ren]

m Other (please describe)

m Parent[s]

m Contact tracer/s

m Dependants

How many altogether? Adults Children

41. Is there someone who you have a supportive relationship with? (eg would look after you if you were sick at home)
m Yes
m No
m Unsure
If yes (please mark all that apply),

m Partner
m Another sex worker
m Flatmate
m Friend
m Parent
m Several people

m A group (religious/ community/self help)
m Pet

m Other:

50

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

SOCIAL WELLBEING TEST

This is a standard test applied in an Australian national population study. For each question please tick the answer that best
fits your circumstances.
In the past four weeks, about how often did you feel:
All of
most of
some of
little of
none of

the time
the time
the time
the time
the time
42. Nervous?
m
m
m
m
m
43. So sad that nothing could cheer you up?
m
m
m
m
m
44. Restless or fidgety?
m
m
m
m
m
45. Hopeless?
m
m
m
m
m
46. That everything was an effort?
m
m
m
m
m
47. Worthless?
m
m
m
m
m
Is the anything you would like to add about the impact of the law on your work conditions, health and wellbeing?
m No m Yes (Please specify)
Thank you for participating in this study.

The Sex Industry in New South Wales

51

Occupational Health and Safety of

Migrant Sex Workers in New Zealand

prepared for

New Zealand Prostitutes Collective

by

Dr Michael Roguski

28 March 2013

michael@kaitiakiresearch.com

Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................................................... iv
1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
2 Literature review: Occupational health and safety of migrant sex workers ....... 2
2.1 Australia ................................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Hong Kong ................................................................................................................. 4
2.3 Macau ....................................................................................................................... 5
2.4 United Kingdom ........................................................................................................ 6
2.5 Turkey ....................................................................................................................... 8
2.6 Similarities and differences across the studies ........................................................... 9
3 Occupational Health and Safety in Sex Work .................................................. 11
3.1 Legal context ........................................................................................................... 11
3.2 Physical and mental health ..................................................................................... 11
3.3 Violence .................................................................................................................. 13
3.4 Sexually transmitted infections ............................................................................... 13
3.5 Alcohol and drug use ............................................................................................... 15
4 Sex Trafficking ................................................................................................ 16
4.1 Summary ................................................................................................................. 20
5 Methodology .................................................................................................. 22
5.1 Qualitative interviews ............................................................................................. 22
5.2 Review of clinic records ........................................................................................... 23
5.3 Migrant sex worker survey ...................................................................................... 23
5.3.1 Participants ........................................................................................................ 23
5.3.2 Survey content ................................................................................................... 25
5.3.3 Participant recruitment ...................................................................................... 25
5.4 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................. 26
5.5 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 26
5.5.1 Qualitative data .................................................................................................. 26
5.5.2 Quantitative data ............................................................................................... 26
6 Contextualising the Needs of Migrant Sex Workers ........................................ 27
6.1 Legislative precursors of vulnerability ..................................................................... 27
6.1.1 Inequitable provision under the law .................................................................. 27
6.1.2 No evidence of trafficking .................................................................................. 28
6.1.3 Sex workers placed in an untenable position ..................................................... 30
6.2 Unique needs specific to migrant sex workers ......................................................... 33
6.2.1 Language ............................................................................................................ 33
6.2.2 Health considerations ........................................................................................ 33
6.3 Protective factors .................................................................................................... 33

6.4 Suggested improvements ........................................................................................ 34

6.5 Summary ................................................................................................................. 35

7 Review of Clinic Records ................................................................................. 36

7.1 Demographic information ....................................................................................... 36
7.2 Results .................................................................................................................... 37
7.3 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 37
8 Survey Results ................................................................................................ 39
8.1 Migration experience .............................................................................................. 39
8.1.1 The pre-migration context ................................................................................. 39
8.1.2 Motivations for leaving home country ............................................................... 41
8.1.3 Motivations for coming to New Zealand ............................................................ 42
8.1.4 Entering New Zealand ........................................................................................ 43
8.2 Working situation ................................................................................................... 45
8.2.1 Working conditions ............................................................................................ 45
8.2.2 Venue and clients ............................................................................................... 50
8.2.3 Income ................................................................................................................ 51
8.3 Accessing NZPC ....................................................................................................... 54
8.3.1 Awareness .......................................................................................................... 54
8.3.2 Barriers to accessing services ............................................................................. 54
8.4 Summary ................................................................................................................. 56
9 Discussion ...................................................................................................... 58
10 References .................................................................................................... 59

ii

Acknowledgements
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC).
NZPCs National Coordinator, Catherine Healy, identified the need for this landmark study
and worked alongside me in developing the studys focus. Further, many thanks goes to
Dr Calum Bennachie and Annah Pickering who, despite high work commitments, were
heavily involved in the project. Thanks also goes to Angel and each of the local NZPC
centre co-ordinators who helped recruit participants and administer the survey.
Thanks also go to Natalie Gregory and Elaine Mossman for their assistance with this
research.
Finally, and above all, my gratitude goes to the studys participants. I realise that, on
many levels, taking part in a study about migrant sex workers can be extremely
intimidating and so I truly thank you for your trust in deciding to participate. I trust your
responses will help inform legislation that will enable you to work more safely.
Dr Michael Roguski
Kaitiaki Research and Evaluation

I don't know how it is going to happen, and when it is going to happen, but I
just hope that it can be that sex workers can be treated equally without any
stigma from the society (Migrant Sex Worker)

iii

Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In late 2011 the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) commissioned Kaitiaki
Research and Evaluation (Kaitiaki) to undertake research to provide an in-depth
understanding of issues facing migrant sex workers in New Zealand, with a particular
focus on occupational health and safety, and sexual reproductive health. It was intended
that the research would provide an evidence base from which NZPC could develop and
provide migrant-relevant advocacy and services.
Specific research objectives included:

understand the New Zealand sex work context in which migrants are working

identify the specific needs of migrant sex workers with regards to -

occupational health and safety needs

sexual and reproductive needs

any other needs that may contribute to the general health of migrant sex
workers

identify barriers and facilitators to migrant sex workers' receipt of appropriate

services and/or required assistance.

Approach
The study utilised a mixed method approach. First, 12 in-depth semi-structured qualitative
interviews were carried out. The aim of the interviews was to contextualise and explore
the occupational health and safety needs of migrant sex workers from multiple
perspectives, highlight the specific needs of migration sex workers and to identify the
barriers and facilitators to accessing services. Participants were selected because of their
in-depth knowledge of migrant sex worker experiences or, in the case of the New Zealand
Immigration Service, an in-depth understanding of legislation and policy pertaining to
migrant sex workers.
A review of anonymised migrant sex workers sexual and reproductive health clinic
records was also undertaken. The review involved a census of migrant sex worker files
(n=51) and a random selection of non-migrant sex worker files (n=51) from the 2007
calendar year to 31 July 2012. The aim of the review was to explore whether any trends
could be identified which would then inform the focus of key informant interviews.
Finally, a total of 124 migrant sex workers completed a paper-based survey over a threemonth period beginning June 2012. Participants were required to be migrant sex workers
aged 18 years and over, having lived in New Zealand for no more than six years and to
have worked in the sex industry over the last five years. The survey was translated into
Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. In addition, participants had the option of responding to
the survey in English.

A. Qualitative findings
Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers
Participants responses fell into the following three thematic areas:

legislative precursors to migrant sex workers vulnerabilities

unique needs specific to migrant sex workers

iv

Executive Summary

a series of protective factors.

Legislative precursors of vulnerability

The majority of participants strongly supported an amendment to the Prostitution Reform
Act (2003) (PRA) to remove the prohibition for migrant sex workers to engage in
commercial sexual services in New Zealand. An amendment was perceived as necessary
as it would remove migrants current vulnerability and risks associated with working
underground.
Underscoring changes to the PRA include:

to date there has been no evidence of trafficking of migrant sex workers to New
Zealand

New Zealands international obligations requires the provision of the same rights to
migrant workers as are currently afforded New Zealand residents

a fear of deportation may act to dissuade migrant workers from accessing

intervention in times of need.

Unique needs specific to migrant sex workers

While migrant sex workers can have some unique needs these are generally based on
their culture and language and the fact that they are vulnerable and marginalised within a
foreign nation. Two unique needs, creating a degree of vulnerability, were identified:

language - possessing no, or a limited, command of English was identified as

potentially placing migrant workers in a vulnerable position

health considerations - in terms of primary health care, health professionals related

concern that, due to a fear that they may be required to disclose their immigration
status, migrant workers often avoid seeking clinical intervention through a general
practitioner.

Protective factors
Aside from the various concerns discussed above, migrant sex workers resilience was
noted and discussed in relation to a number of protective factors. Most notably, migrant
workers were discussed in terms of the high levels of supportive camaraderie that many
migrant groups demonstrate and that this camaraderie underpins the provision of safer
sex education, adherence to condom use and as a point of referral to supportive services,
such as NZPC. In contrast, workers who were more isolated or lacking support from
other workers were seen as more vulnerable. Finally, health professional and NZPC
participants commonly referred to many migrant sex worker groups as exceptionally
assertive in requesting, and often demanding, services. This is an important
consideration in light of the trafficking debate which portrays migrant workers as
vulnerable and without voice.

B. Review of clinic records

A review of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collectives Wellington sexual and reproductive
health clinic records was undertaken. Given anti-trafficking literatures concern about the
forced nature of sex work it was important to determine if there were indication of a higher
rate of unsafe sexual practices, and therefore positive diagnoses, among migrant sex
workers.
No cases of gonorrhoea or HIV were diagnosed during the time period for either group.
Migrant sex workers had a higher incidence of urinary tract infections compared to nonmigrant workers. Relatively high rates of bacterial vaginosis were reported for migrant

Executive Summary

and non-migrant sex workers, with non-migrant sex workers reporting significantly higher
incidence.
In contrast to anti-trafficking discourse, the review of clinic records provides a strong
indication that migrant sex workers engage in high levels of safer sex behaviour. This is
further supported by high rates of condom usage reported by the survey participants
(third component of the study).

C. Survey Results
Participants were asked a series of questions about their migration experience, current
working conditions and satisfaction and, finally, their awareness and access to NZPC.
The majority (94%) of participants reported knowing that they were coming to New
Zealand when they left their home country. The remainder appear to have taken a
circuitous route common with an overseas experience. Further, the majority either
travelled alone, with a friend or a family member. Only one participant reported having
travelled with their boss.
Concern about migrant workers incurring debt from travelling to another country to work
have been raised by anti-trafficking groups. Specifically, concern has focused on debt to
employers. The survey found no indication of employer indebtedness. While participants
indicated that substantial sums were expended in travelling to New Zealand the highest
costs were generally reported by students. These costs appear to reflect tertiary levels
fees placed on international students.
In terms of workplace conditions, the majority of participants found their working
conditions either matched or exceeded their expectations. Further, while 70% reported
having a boss, the majority did not have a contract. This provides an indication that
workers are not locked into a particular workplace or agreement. Furthermore, 82% of
participants said that they were happy with their income. Those who were not satisfied
commented that they found New Zealand an expensive place to live.
The number of hours worked is also an interesting finding. Most common were reports of
working between six and ten hours a day for five or six days a week and seeing between
10 and 19 clients a week. A further 10 percent reported working seven days a week.
Despite long hours, over a third of participants (36%) said that they would like to see
more clients if they could and 20% said that they would not change the number of clients,
whereas one quarter said that they would prefer to see less. Given the interviews with
health professionals in the qualitative component of the study, these hours of work may
be appreciated in light of the individuals intent to earn as much money as possible before
they leave. The risk, however, is that their health can suffer as a result of fatigue.
Positive indications of freedom in the workplace were reflected in the high number of
participants who reported that they are paid regularly (94%) and the frequency in which
they go shopping (two-thirds going out shopping once a week or more).
In terms of awareness of NZPC, the majority of participants had heard of Aucklands
NZPC (76%), with much less awareness of the remaining branches. The high level of
awareness about Auckland NZPC can, more than likely, be attributed to the fact the
majority of participants were recruited in Auckland. Forty percent of participants reported
they had had no difficulties in accessing NZPCs services. Of those that had experienced
difficulties accessing NZPC, the majority attributed this to a lack of knowledge about the
various support services available (19%).
A number of concerns were raised by the survey. Rather than trafficking these concerns
indicate poor workplace/managerial practice. Specifically, it is a concern that 5% of
participants stated that their workplace did not allow them to refuse clients. Also there is
an indication that some employers place fines on workers. For instance, just under 10%

vi

Executive Summary

indicated that it is legal for a worker to be fined. Finally, 5% of participants reported not
having easy access to their passports. Unfortunately, the survey did not question whether
their employer or a third party had confiscated their passport or whether not having easy
access was a problem for the individual. At the least, the individuals ability to access
their passport requires some attention.

Discussion
This study drew on three research streams. First, from the perspective of key informants,
concern was raised that New Zealand is not meeting its obligations, under a number of
United Nations conventions, to migrant workers. Further, current legislation was
discussed as creating migrants as an underclass; vulnerable to exploitation.
The primary message underpinning anti-trafficking discourse is that sex workers are
vulnerable, exploited and have no agency in their work. The logical outcome of which is
that migrant workers will have a higher incidence of sexually transmitted infections as they
would be forced to forego safer sex practices: either because of a clients or their
managers demands. The studys second research stream, a review of sexual and
reproductive health records, challenges this anti-trafficking premise. Based on the
findings of the review, there was no indication that migrant sex workers are at any greater
risk of infection than non-migrants. Further, low levels of infection, and commentary
obtained from participating health professionals, provides a strong indication of adherence
to safer sex practices while working. The concern, however, is a practice, albeit however
small, of sex workers who do not use condoms with their intimate partners. It is at the
level of intimate partners that appears the greatest risk of infection/transmission.
The third research stream, the survey of migrant sex workers, provides an overview of
their experiences and provides a strong indication that participating migrant sex workers
have entered New Zealand of their own volition and are generally happy in their work and
workplaces.
The survey, however, has raised a number of concerns. Rather than trafficking, these
concerns indicate poor workplace/managerial practice. For instance, there are indications
that some managers are not allowing workers to refuse clients. Also, the imposition of
fines, a poor practice and contrary to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, can have a
detrimental effect on the individuals wellbeing. Finally, requiring attention are reports, by a
minority of participants, of not having easy access to their passports.

vii

Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION
In late 2011 the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) commissioned Kaitiaki
Research and Evaluation (Kaitiaki) to undertake research to provide an in-depth
understanding of issues facing migrant sex workers in New Zealand, with a particular
focus on occupational health and safety, and sexual reproductive health. It was
intended that the research would provide an evidence base from which NZPC could
develop and provide migrant-relevant advocacy and services.
Specific research objectives include:

understand the New Zealand sex work context in which migrants are working

identify the specific needs of migrant sex workers with regards to -

occupational health and safety needs

sexual and reproductive needs

any other needs that may contribute to the general health of migrant sex
workers

identify barriers and facilitators to migrant sex workers' receipt of appropriate

services and/or required assistance.

Literature review

2 LITERATURE REVIEW: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY OF

MIGRANT SEX WORKERS
This, and the following two sections, provides a review of occupational health and safety
pertaining to migrant sex workers. The current section reviews the occupational health
and safety and sexual reproductive health of migrant sex workers in the following
countries: Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Section 3
provides a review of occupational health and safety considerations in general; namely, a
broader review outside of a specific migrant focus. The final section of the literature
review, Section 4, reviews sex trafficking literature as it pertains to occupational health
and safety.

2.1 Australia
An assessment of Thai sex workers in Sydney was conducted by Brockett and Murray
(1994). The authors noted that in 1993 approximately 80% of female migrant sex workers
in Sydney were Thai (Brockett & Murray, 1994). The majority of these women arrived in
Australia through an arranged bonded contract in which they must work in a specific
establishment in order to pay-off the costs of their recruitment and travel to Australia. The
authors noted that for most, the reasons for coming to work in Australia was monetary,
and despite much speculation about sex trafficking in Asian females, the majority of Thai
women reported to have freely opted to work in the sex industry (Brockett & Murray,
1994).
Brockett and Murray (1994), in discussing the health of Thai sex workers, noted a number
of issues that act to isolate workers. First, Thai sex workers face prejudice not only from
an Australian community, who do not readily condone the sale of sex for a living, but also
from the Thai community due to the moral teachings of Buddhism, which dictates that sex
work is one of the five businesses that should not be undertaken.
Next, a lack of English often leads to many workers risking their sexual health by not using
a condom with clients, with many being pressured by the establishment managers and
their agents. They also commented that knowledge surrounding Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was poor.
Brockett and Murray (1994) cited a study conducted by Donovan, Harcourt, Bassett and
Philpot (1991) which reported that 89% of gonorrhoea cases diagnosed at the Sydney
Sexual Health Centre (SSHC) were Asian sex workers. In response to these findings the
SSHC, established the Multicultural Health Promotion Project to service the needs of the
Asian sex worker community, with the aim of not only providing information on sexual
health in multiple languages, but also to support workers in exercising their right to be free
from harm at work (Brockett & Murray, 1994).
A third isolating issue identified by Brockett and Murray (1994) is that Thai sex workers on
contract were reported to be seen as being on the lowest rung of the sex industry ladder.
Thus, they were vulnerable to having their rights violated, experiencing prejudice and
client abuse. While the authors noted that this level of prejudice diminished with the Thai
sex workers improved level of English and positive adjustment to life in Sydney, possible
hierarchies that exist within the migrant sex worker community are an important
consideration for other studies. Brockett and Murray (1994) concluded that despite the
many difficulties facing Thai sex workers in Sydney, from both the Thai community and
Australians in general, there has been a marked improvement in this groups working
conditions.

Literature review

A study conducted with Asian female sex workers in Sydney, Australia compared data
pertaining to demographic information, migration status and working conditions collected
in 1993 and 20031 (Pell, Dabbhadatta, Harcourt, Tribe & OConnor, 2006).2
Across the decade there was significant change in the age of participants, with the median
age of Asian sex workers reported as 26 years in 1993 and advancing to 33 years in
2003. There was also a difference in reported nationalities, with the majority of
participants in 1993 (72.5%) indicating that they were from Thailand. However, in 2003
this fell to 41.8%, with the largest majority coming from China (46.1%) (Pell et al., 2006).
The authors reported that the 2003 survey saw a significant increase in use of condoms,
with reported use increasing from 51.6% (n=47) in 1993 to 84.8% (n=140) for vaginal sex,
from 39.6%(n=36) to 66.1% (n=109) for oral sex, and from 25% (n=8) to 77.77% (n=18)
for anal sex, despite a decrease in the provision of free condoms in places of
employments (Pell et al., 2006). The authors posited that increased adherence to safer
sex practices could be attributed to improved and increased promotion of safer sex within
brothels and a drop in clients unwilling to use protection, and increasing demand amongst
Brothel operators/managers for their employers to wear condoms. In both 1993 and 2003,
drug and alcohol use by participants was minimal. Knowledge surrounding the
transmission of HIV was strong across the decade. In assessing the changes that
occurred between 1993 and 2003, Pell et al. (2006) argue that the Multicultural Health
Promotion Project, and the decriminalisation of the sex industry, has made an impact on
safe sex practices of Asian sex workers, resulting in better sexual health and improved
their overall well-being.
Despite these positive changes, Pell et al. (2006) noted that there were some detrimental
changes. The first was a lack of free condoms in the workplace, and the sex workers who
indicated that they would still provide services to a client even if they suspected them of
having a sexually transmitted infection (STI) (Pell et al., 2006). Pell et al. (2006) reported
on research that indicated Chinese speaking sex workers were generally less informed
than Thai speakers and suggested that, comparatively speaking, Chinese sex workers
have not resided in Australia as long as Thai speakers, and that in China information
regarding HIV and STIs is not as readily available as in Thailand.
In 2006, the Scarlett Alliance conducted a needs assessment of Chinese migrant sex
workers in Australia. This was the first such study and provided a wealth of knowledge of
this particular segment of sex workers. The study was part of a transnational study of
Chinese migrant sex workers in a number of nations and the Scarlett Alliance partnered
with several sex worker organisations across Australia (Jeffreys, 2008). Forty-three
Chinese sex workers across Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra were surveyed,
as well as a control group of 29 English speaking Australian sex workers (Jeffreys, 2008).
The survey collected information on demographics, working conditions, justice system
experience, and income of Chinese migrant sex workers (Jeffreys, 2008).
The research reported that the majority of Chinese sex workers in Australia fell between
the ages of 31 and 40, with no participant younger than twenty years old (Jeffreys, 2008).
The majority (79%) of those surveyed reported that this was the only time they have
moved from their home country to work in a foreign place, and 88% of those surveyed
possessed their own visa. Jeffreys (2008) noted that just over one third of participants
had worked in the sex industry prior to coming to Australia, with 14% listing their previous

1
1993 study n=91 and the 2003 study n=165.
2
The participants were sourced via a convenience sample of Asian female sex workers who were using
the SSHC and were surveyed as part of an evaluation of the Multicultural Health Promotion Project run
by SSHC. A follow-up survey, between September 2002 and November 2003 was conducted to
evaluate the similarities and differences in Asian female sex workers across a ten year period (Pell et
al., 2006). The authors reported that a number of significant differences were observed (Pell et al.,
2006).

Literature review

occupation as housewife, 12% small business owner, 12% student, with the others
previously employed in a range of occupations including farmer, beautician, police officer
and mechanic. When questioned about why they had travelled to Australia, 24% stated
that they had been to Australia previously, and 24% had travelled to the country because
they had a positive view of the sex work industry in Australia (Jeffreys, 2008). The author
reported that almost one third of participants (28%) replied that another person had
suggested that they should go to Australia (Jeffreys, 2008).
The results pertaining to the working conditions of Chinese migrant sex workers in
Australia suggest that conditions were good overall. The author reported that a third of
the workers are self-employed or the owner of an establishment (Jeffreys, 2008). The
majority of those surveyed worked in establishments and provided full services, which
included sex. The author reported that 44.1% of workers divided their fees equally with
the business owner (Jeffreys, 2008). The author suggests that these findings indicate that
the majority of participants speak more than one language, including English (Jeffreys,
2008). The income that 61.9% of Chinese sex workers earn is more than what they take
home in their nation of origin and the rest earned a similar amount (Jeffreys, 2008).
In relation to sexual health and perceptions of the justice system, 97% of Chinese sex
workers reported that they used a condom with all customers. This figure equates to
condom use reported by the Australian sex workers (Jeffreys, 2008). Jeffreys (2008) also
noted that almost all participants (93%) indicated that they would see a doctor if they
thought they had a sexually transmitted infection, which is also similar to the figures for
Australian sex workers. The study also reported that 84% were aware of their local sexual
health centre. Further, Chinese sex workers placed more faith in the Australian justice
system than their Australian colleagues, with 50% of Chinese sex workers willing to report
a sexual assault that occurred whilst working to the police. In terms of awareness of
human rights, 74% understood their rights and a large majority indicated that they
considered the laws in Australia to be just (Jeffreys, 2008). Jeffreys (2008) suggested
that the results of this survey indicate Chinese sex workers have a positive experience of
working in Australia, and 75% of those surveyed indicated that they would return to
Australia to work.

2.2 Hong Kong

Research on migrant sex workers from Mainland China was conducted by Zi Teng, a
Hong Kong-based non-governmental organisation that works with Chinese and Hong
Kong sex workers. One hundred and eight Chinese sex workers completed a
questionnaire about reasons for coming to Hong Kong, their working conditions,
experiences with law enforcement and occupational health and safety. In contextualising
sex work, Zi Teng (2006) found that Chinese citizens visa eligibility excludes sex work
and, as a consequence, sex work is criminalised and is pushed underground. Further, no
assistance is available to migrant Chinese sex workers and police persecution is common
(Zi Teng, 2006). When asked why they came to work in Hong Kong, the majority of
Chinese migrant sex workers (76%) reported having migrated for monetary reasons. Job
loss (14%) and issues with their family (12%) were also reported. Many of the participating
sex workers had been introduced to the idea of working in Hong Kong by friends, and the
majority came to Hong Kong initially as a tourist (Zi Teng, 2006).
The employment conditions in Hong Kong, for the majority of participants, was reported as
poor, with excessive working hours and low pay (Zi Teng, 2006). The majority of the
participants were self-employed (92%) and worked in excess of 10 hours or more every
day, yet only saw around three clients per day, with most earning less than $US20 per
client (Zi Teng, 2006). The results of the research also indicated that the occupational
health and safety of Chinese migrant sex workers was not adequate. Due to cost and
lack of knowledge of where to access medical help, many migrant workers did not seek

Literature review

medical assistance when they, through self-diagnosis, believed they had contracted an
STI. Rather, workers reported purchasing medication themselves, or waiting until they
returned to China. Further, just over half of those surveyed did not always require their
clients wear a condom, with 70% of this group indicating that this was due to the fact that
clients did not want to use them. A large majority (80%) of the workers did not keep
condoms on their person while working due to risk of police searches and arrest. As a
result, heavy handed policing and client demand was found to result in migrant sex
workers risking their health by not using protection with their clients (Zi Teng, 2006).
The safety of Chinese migrant sex workers in Hong Kong was also identified as a
problem. A number of the women had been raped (11 out of 108 participants), and
almost 25% had been deceived out of funds by men posing as police officers (Zi Teng,
2006). A number of women reported theft, non-payment for services and violence, with
some also reporting that they were hassled by criminal syndicates such as the triads. Not
one participant reported these incidents to law enforcement, with sixty-four respondents
relying on the support of other sex workers (Zi Teng, 2006). Two main reasons for not
calling the police revolved around the fact that if they revealed their occupation they would
no longer be able to work in the sex industry as they may be vulnerable to police and/or
triad-related harassment (Zi Teng, 2006).
Despite poor working conditions, almost 75% of respondents indicated they would
consider working in Hong Kong again. Only a small number reported that they would not
with 20% stating that they were not sure (Zi Teng, 2006). On reviewing the results of the
research, Zi Teng (2006) not only highlighted the terrible working environment in Hong
Kong, but also the discrimination Chinese migrant sex workers face in Hong Kong and
how this pushes them even further to the fringes of society. The researchers suggest that
the best solution to solving the issues faced by migrant sex workers would be to
decriminalise sex work and enforce their rights as workers. This would stop crime
syndicates and police from targeting sex workers and help create secure and healthy
working conditions for migrant sex workers from Mainland China (Zi Teng, 2006).

2.3 Macau
Choi (2011) conducted research in Macau which analysed data collected from a
community survey of 491 migrant sex workers from Russia, Vietnam, Thailand and
Mainland China over a number of years. The study provides an in depth look at the
disparities between the four nationalities in terms of their social circumstances, their
occupational environment, understanding of HIV/AIDS and their exposure to issues that
affect their well being (Choi, 2011). Choi (2011) chose to concentrate on three main
health issues encountered by sex workers in China, these being the use of condoms,
condom slippages/breakages, and abuse by clients. In terms of their right to work legally
in the sex industry in Macau, Choi (2011) explained that Vietnamese, Thai and Russian
women are able to enter the city and work legally in the industry on a three-month visa,
with most employed within indoor establishments. However, women from Mainland China
are only entitled to a two-week holiday visa. In practice, this means that engaging in sex
work is illegal. The majority of Mainland Chinese workers are self-employed and based on
the street.
The major findings of the study highlighted a number of the differences between the
various nationalities of the sex workers. The participants from Mainland China and
Thailand were the most underprivileged. Overall, they had the least years of schooling,
were older, hailed from farming areas, were divorced and had offspring to look after (Choi,
2011). Choi (2011) commented that the results indicate that Thai women were confronted
with the highest rate of financial burden and the highest rate of drug use (14%).
Nevertheless, the Russian participants, who hailed from the highest socio-economic
background, also had a high level of drug-use (12%). The sex workers, regardless of

Literature review

nationality, all kept in touch with their families (97%) and the majority sent money back to
their homes (85%). The author commented that this finding is contrary to much of the
literature on sex workers that present women as the victims of trafficking. This finding
would denote that most women came to Macau to earn money to improve their life and
the life of their families back home (Choi, 2011).
The study found that socio-economic status and the working environment of the women
impacted on the three health factors that were examined (Choi, 2011). Vietnamese sex
workers were most likely to have not used a condom in the last three months (41%), with
Thailand ranking second at 39%. Approximately a quarter (23%) of Russian and
Mainland China sex workers reported not using a condom. Regression analysis indicated
that not using a condom when having sex with a client was significantly linked to the
establishments (e.g. brothel) policy on condom use, older age, culture, lack of schooling
and having offspring (Choi, 2011). Condom breakages/slippages occurred at a higher
rate for workers from Mainland China (54%), with Thai women experiencing the least at
18.6%. Abuse at the hands of clients was high, with the workers from Mainland China
reporting the most sexual (42%), verbal (46%) or physical (27%) violence (Choi, 2011).
The author proposed that the lower levels of abuse seen with workers from Vietnam,
Russia and Thailand was due to the fact that they worked in establishments, rather than
on the street, however, Choi (2011) noted that abuse is still frequent for these three
nationalities, with 18% being subjected to verbal abuse, and 15% reporting physical
violence and sexual assault. Analysis of the findings on violence indicate it is significantly
related to understanding of safe sex, culture, schooling and financial position (Choi, 2011).
Condom slippages and breakages were linked to sex worker disempowerment (Choi,
2011). Choi commented that most significant factor in condom breakage was clientperpetrated violence and that as the levels of violence increase so do the chances of
condom breakage (Choi, 2011). As discussed, women from Mainland China experienced
the most condom failings and interviews conducted with the participants suggest that,
rather than being a problem with the way the condom was used, it was intentional
destruction by the client to secure non-condom sex. Choi (2011) argued that the fact
Chinese sex workers have to work on the street, they are left more open to abuse by
clients and have less resources on hand to deal with it.
In discussing the implications of the research, the author suggests that due to the
overlapping nature of the three health variables examined, any future sex worker health
programmes must incorporate all factors, not just look at one aspect of sexual health,
such as condom use (Choi, 2011). Currently the Macau Health Department programmes
places the onus on the female sex worker to use protection with clients, however, the
migration policy of Macau, which prevents Mainland Chinese sex workers from working
legally in the city, leaves them open to police raids and abuse by clients (Choi, 2011).
According to Choi (2011) this is a situation that needs to change. The author also
suggests that any new programmes should be shaped to meet the needs of each
individual group of sex workers, as the results of the study illustrates that migrant sex
workers are not one in the same (Choi, 2011).

2.4 United Kingdom

A study conducted by the Institute for the Study of European Transformations at the
London Metropolitan University examined the relationship between migration and sex
workers in the United Kingdom (UK), through discussions with migrants who came to work
in the sex industry (Mai, 2009). Interviews were conducted with 100 participants (67
females, 24 males and nine transgender individuals). Most of the participants came from
Eastern Europe (46 participants), with 22 migrating from Latin America and eight from
Asia. The remainder came from Australia, Jamaica and the United States. The majority
of female participants worked indoors or as strippers or self-employed escorts, with the

Literature review

male and transgender participants mostly working as self-employed escorts (Mai, 2009).
The author noted that approximately 10 participants did not provide sexual services in
exchange for remuneration but worked as servants or card boys3 (Mai, 2009). The
interviews explored motivations for coming to the United Kingdom, what part their
community and family ties played in their move, how they came to be working in the UK
sex industry, their life before migrating, and the working conditions they encountered (Mai,
2009).
The interviews with the migrant sex workers revealed that the motivations for migrating to
the UK were diverse and varied (Mai, 2009). The reasons given ranged from moving to
improve their English, fleeing war and oppression, improving their economic situation,
moving to live with family, and/or to study. The UK was also used as a stepping stone by
a few migrants with the desire to work and move to other nations such as the United
States or other European Union member states (Mai, 2009). The majority of participants
came to the UK with the help of family or friends. Acquaintances that they already knew
in the UK provided assistance, advising on how to get to the UK, what travel papers were
needed, and what sort of jobs were available once there (Mai, 2009). Mai (2009)
commented that the backgrounds of those interviewed also varied greatly, with some
coming from highly advantaged positions in society, and others from deeply
disadvantaged situations. A number of the migrants were highly skilled (for example, one
participant was previously a lawyer and another a paediatrician), while others were poorly
educated (Mai, 2009). Many migrants chose to work in the sex industry as this offered
better pay and working conditions than were found in other unskilled work available to
them in the UK (Mai, 2009).
The working conditions, of those interviewed, were generally good overall. The majority of
participants indicated they had positive dealings with their managers and clients, with
many expressing that their clients were courteous and kind. However, a number of
migrant sex workers reported occasions of hostility and fear of theft (Mai, 2009). Mai
(2009) stated that there were a number of factors which contributed to the standard of
working conditions experienced by migrants working in the sex industry. Their knowledge
of English, their right to work legally in the UK, and their personal and occupational
connections all impacted on the experience they had working in sex industry. A number
of participants expressed that discrimination against sex workers and their absence of
immigration papers left them exposed to exploitation and injustices (Mai, 2009). However,
only a small proportion of the female participants (nine of the total female participants 67,
13%) believed that they had been exploited.4 Mai (2009) argued that the findings indicate
that, contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of migrant sex workers were not victims
of sex traffickers. Most went to the UK willingly and chose to work in the sex industry as a
way to better their situation and that of their families (Mai, 2009).
When questioned about the laws surrounding the sex industry in the UK, the majority of
migrants postulated that the criminalisation of clients would not stop them working but it
would make the life of a migrant sex worker more difficult and result in a black market sex
industry that disempowers sex workers (Mai, 2009). All of the participants believed that
sex work should be fully decriminalised, which would afford migrant sex workers full rights
and privileges. The author suggested that current UK policy on sex work, which aims to
stop the trafficking and abuse of sex workers is actually pushing the industry underground,
exposing sex workers to the kind of injustice the laws are attempting to stop (Mai, 2009).
Taking on board the results of the research, the report suggests that sex work in the UK

3
A card boy is an individual who is paid to place cards advertising sex workers in local phone boxes
(Whittaker & Hart, 1996)
4
Four of the nine women (6% of the total number of female participants) could be classified as trafficking
victims, revealing that they had been totally mislead and coerced into sex work, having no agency in
which to change the situation.

Literature review

be decriminalised, which would allow migrants to obtain papers easily and allow official
recruitment of sex workers from around the globe (Mai, 2009). The research also
suggests that those who have been exposed to injustices and suffered abuse need to be
fully supported and be able to access leave to remain in the UK. In terms of advancing
programmes for migrant sex workers, Mai (2009) asserts that they need to provide
information regarding what sort of work is available to them as migrants, provide language
courses at no charge, provide emotional guidance and educate sex workers as to the
processes and realities of abuse, and also inform them of their rights and the means in
which they can exercise them. Organisations that work with sex workers (e.g. police and
support groups) can also work more efficiently together to advance the rights of sex
workers and educate them (Mai, 2009).

2.5 Turkey
Glr and lkkaracan (2002) investigated migrants experiences of working in the Turkish
sex industry. Their study focused on migrant sex workers from ex-Soviet states, who are
commonly referred to as Natashas within Turkish society. Glr and lkkaracan (2002)
uncovered a number of themes including the reasons for migrating to Turkey, the
womens encounters with clients and pimps, their dealings with police and government
and broader health issues. The researchers interviewed key informants (clients of sex
workers, local sales people, and bartenders) and migrant sex workers, observed migrant
sex workers, and analysed local and international media reports (Glr & lkkaracan,
2002). The study found that the women generally entered Turkey on a one month visa,
with no right to work, although most stayed longer, applying for new one month visas by
crossing in and out of Turkey, applying for alternative visas or simply staying on illegally
(Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). In regards to the legality of migrant sex work in Turkey,
Glr and lkkaracan (2002) explained that Turkish law does not allow migrants to work
in the sex industry and enforces policies surrounding sex worker registration.
Glr and lkkaracan (2002) found that the predominant reasons for migrating to Turkey
were for monetary or personal reasons. Many female participants had stated that they
had wished to work in Western Europe, but were prevented by strict visa laws. Turkey
was perceived as a reasonable second choice destination and many women had migrated
to Turkey because of relative ease in gaining an entry visa (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002).
The majority of women interviewed came freely to work in Turkey and the closeness to
their home nation, the chance to explore new cultures, and personal growth were among
the reasons given for migrating to Turkey (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). Their interactions
with clients and pimps were not always positive, with many women being subjected to
abuse, especially after they first arrived in Turkey. Many told how this abuse had abated
over time, due to their ability to now avoid these kinds of situations. Not all women
worked with pimps: generally they had to resort to colluding with them when business was
slow, but all women admitted that they were afraid of them (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002).
When working with a pimp, women also had to hand over half of their fee (Glr &
lkkaracan, 2002). All the migrant sex workers interviewed relayed how verbal and sexual
persecution while street walking was common, as was robbery and refusal to pay for
services (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002).
Because migrant sex work is illegal in Turkey this results in persecution by the police and
arrest, with some women reportedly being threatened with deportation even when on a
valid visa (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). The police were reported to frequently hassle all
blonde women, using intimidation tactics and violence to extort large bribes from migrant
sex workers. Participants reported that these fees could range from $US25 to $US100,
almost 10% of what a sex worker would earn in one week (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002).
Further, migrant sex worker participants indicated that they had interactions with police as
regularly as three times a week to four times a month (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). The

Literature review

authors commented that the police were essentially pimps, as they were received a
portion of a sex workers wage (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). A second financial pressure
was the price of accommodation. The accommodation available to migrant sex workers
was overpriced and inadequate, with landlords exploiting the illegal status of migrant sex
workers and enforcing inflated rents (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002).
Migrant sex workers illicit work and status also restricted their right to obtain health care
and other utilities, such as banking. The inability to open bank accounts left the women
exposed to robbery and the lack of access to Turkish health care meant that they had to
pay expensive health care fees (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). In regards to their
occupational health and safety, despite being aware of the risk of HIV, the women
indicated that they were often powerless to demand safer sex. Glr and lkkaracan
(2002) reported that many clients refused to wear condoms, despite insistence by the sex
workers and only 1-2% of clients complied with the workers request. All women indicated
that they had sexual health checks on the occasions that they returned to their home
nations (Glr and lkkaracan, 2002). Glr and lkkaracan (2002) also reported that
many migrants expressed how their working conditions led to many sex workers
developing problems with alcohol and experiencing depression.
In summarising the findings, Glr and lkkaracan (2002) noted that controls surrounding
sex work and migration leave women open to persecution and extortion by law
enforcement. The illegal status of migrant sex workers ensures that they have to
constantly bargain with authorities to delay deportation or arrest. The risks surrounding
the lack of condom use and the inability to negotiate with clients, the inferior living
conditions and lack of access to affordable medical services all impact negatively on
migrant sex workers. The authors suggest that the Turkish government needs to review
its laws surrounding sex work, especially those that impact most heavily on the workers.
The policies currently in place ensure that migrant sex workers are vulnerable to abuse by
landlords, law enforcement and other governmental authorities. The authors insist that
the rights of migrant sex workers need to be acknowledged through decriminalising sex
work. This would ensure that all occupational rights apply to workers within this industry
and allow migrant workers to access the services they require (Glr & lkkaracan,
2002).

2.6 Similarities and differences across the studies

The studies discussed above share many similarities. A number of the studies outlined
indicated that the occupational health and safety and general well-being of migrant sex
workers were poor (Brockett & Murray, 1994; Pell et al., 2006; Zi Teng, 2006; Choi, 2011;
Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). There were exceptions, as with the study on Chinese migrant
sex workers conducted by Scarlett Alliance (Jeffreys, 2008), which reported positive
working conditions and good sexual health practices among the women, and the overall
good working conditions of migrant sex workers in the United Kingdom (Mai, 2009). In a
number of the studies, immigration laws and the criminalisation of sex work left migrant
sex workers exposed to exploitative practices by police and authorities, rendered the
women powerless in negotiations with clients surrounding safer sex and prevent them
from accessing essential health care (Brockett & Murray, 1994; Pell et al., 2006; Zi Teng,
2006; Choi, 2011; Mai, 2009; Glr & lkkaracan, 2002).
The working conditions and experience of migrant sex workers in the Australian studies,
while not always positive in every aspect, was generally better than those of other nations
(Brockett & Murray, 1994; Pell et al., 2006; Jeffreys, 2008). In discussing the findings of
their study which assessed the changes in the working conditions and sexual health of
Asian sex workers in Sydney, Pell et al. (2006) argued that the Multicultural Health
Promotion Project and decriminalisation of the sex industry has made an impact on safe
sex practices of Asian sex workers. The research conducted by Scarlett Alliance reported

Literature review

that the Chinese migrant workers had sexual health practices that were statistically equal
to that of Australian sex workers, a large majority had full understanding of their rights and
had faith in the justice system (Jeffreys, 2008). The findings reported by Brockett and
Murray (1994) in relation to Thai sex workers in Sydney were not as encouraging, with
language barriers making it difficult for women to negotiate condom use with clients or
management. The authors also noted that sexual health knowledge was also poor among
this group of migrant sex workers (Brockett & Murray, 1994). Discrimination and abuse
was reported by Thai sex workers, however, the authors report that the situation is
improving for Thai sex workers and their working conditions and life tends to improve the
longer they are in Australia (Brockett & Murray, 1994).
In comparison, the working conditions and occupational health and safety of Chinese
migrant sex workers in both Hong Kong and Macau were poor (Zi Teng, 2006; Choi,
2011). Heavy handed policing and the socio-economic status of the Chinese migrant sex
workers in Hong Kong were identified as the main contributors to the use of condoms and
overall safety of these sex workers (Zi Teng, 2006). Migrant Chinese sex workers also
faced heightened levels of violence in Macau, when compared to Vietnamese, Russian
and Thai migrants (Choi, 2011). As noted by Choi (2011) socioeconomic status also
played a role in the occupational health and safety of migrant sex workers in Macau, with
those who were poorer suffering more violence and as a result more condom
slippages/breakages. Exposure to sexually transmitted infections were also a problem for
migrant sex workers in Turkey, Glr and lkkaracan (2002) noted that the majority of
clients refused to wear condoms despite the sex workers insisting on it.
The majority of studies highlighted the illegal nature of sex work as being central to the
issues faced by migrant sex workers (Brockett & Murray, 1994; Pell et al., 2006; Zi Teng,
2006; Choi, 2011; Glr & lkkaracan, 2002). The criminalisation of sex work and often
the illegality of their working status, left migrant sex workers open to police persecution,
violence by clients, lack of negotiating power and limited access to medical care and other
services (Brockett & Murray, 1994; Pell et al., 2006; Zi Teng, 2006; Choi, 2011; Glr &
lkkaracan, 2002).
The conclusions of the Turkish (Glr & lkkaracan, 2002) and the United Kingdom
studies (Mai, 2009) suggest that the health and safety of migrant sex workers can only be
improved by decriminalising sex work and allowing migrant sex workers to access
services that will ensure they stay safe and healthy while working..

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Literature review

3 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN SEX WORK

As outlined above, migrant sex workers around the globe face numerous occupational
health and safety concerns. Many of the issues confronted are the same as those
encountered by non-migrant sex workers, although the illegal status of many migrant sex
workers may lead to a greater exposure to these harms. According to Ross, Crisp,
Mnsson and Hawkes (2011), the occupational health of safety of sex workers has been
largely disregarded due to the focus on the safeguarding the health of clients and moral
discourses that denounce sex work. In discussions surrounding the occupational health
and safety of sex workers, Groneberg, Mollin and Kusma (2006) argue that sex workers
face many issues including violence, harassment, infections, bladder problems, stress,
depression, alcohol and/or drug addiction, latex allergy and death. This section briefly
examines the occupational health and safety risks most commonly reported by sex
workers with a focus on health concerns, violence and how the legal environment can
impact on the health and safety of sex workers. Please note, unless explicitly stated, the
participants in the studies were comprised solely of female sex workers.

3.1 Legal context

The legal context under which sex work is conducted plays in important role in the health
of sex workers according to Alexander (1998), who examined how the legal restrictions
surrounding sex work in the United States, including soliciting, engaging in or agreeing to
engage in sex work, and living off the earnings of sex work, to name but a few of the laws
prohibiting commercial sex in the United States, impact on the health and safety of sex
workers. For instance, in attempts to evade arrest, many street workers reported entering
client cars without having the time to properly assess the clients potential for violence.
Further, many sex workers reported choosing not to carry condoms for fear of being
searched by police (Alexander, 1998). Ross et al. (2011) noted how laws prohibiting sex
work often resulted in sex workers not reporting violence they encounter to police due to
fear of arrest or fact that they will not be believed. The illegal nature of sex work and lack
of legal protection aids in promoting violence against sex workers, and reinforces the
inferior work conditions they are exposed to (Ross et al., 2011). In contrast to situations
outlined by both Ross et al. (2011) and Alexander (1998) above, the review of the risk and
risk management post decriminalisation in New Zealand by Abel and Fitzgerald (2010)
reported that many sex workers felt they were better able to negotiate with clients and
report violence to the police, as they now had the backing of the law. This indicates that
the legal context does indeed have a prominent role in the occupational health and safety
of sex workers, and that sex work is safer in a decriminalised context.

3.2 Physical and mental health

There is much variation in the types of risks that sex workers are exposed. These
disparities are often linked to such elements as power and the setting in which a sex
worker operates (Barnard, 1993). An Australian study conducted by Seib, Fischer and
Najman (2009) looked at the differences between sex workers in three areas of the
industry in Queensland, comparing the experiences of 247 female sex workers working in
licensed brothels (n=102), as private sole operators (n=103) and illegally (n=42). In
Queensland, certain sectors of sex work have been legalised, however, street-based
workers, escort agencies and unlicenced brothels are still illegal (Seib et al., 2009). The
authors reported that in general there were no vast differences in the physical health of
those who work illegally (mostly on the street) and those who work in legal sectors of the
sex industry in Queensland (Seib et al. 2009). The authors did find a difference in the
mental health of those who worked illegally, with 44.7% (n=17) of the illegal workers
surveyed scoring low on mental health items, compared to 16.5% (n=16) of private sex

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Literature review

workers and 12.2% (n=12) working in licensed brothels (Seib et al., 2009). Although
further examination of this link exposed the fact that street-based sex workers difference
in mental health status was attributed to factors outside of their work; many reporting
having come from disadvantaged backgrounds and histories of drug use, child abuse and
childhood violence (Seib et al., 2009).
Interviews with sex workers in New Zealand has revealed good overall levels of health,
however, a number of interviewees expressed difficulties surrounding the emotional and
mental strains of their work (Abel & Fitzgerald, 2010). Long shifts and working throughout
the night were found to contribute to stress and burn-out (Abel & Fitzgerald, 2010). An
excerpt from an interview with one of the participants Jenny, explained how 11 hour long
night shifts, difficulties sleeping throughout the day, the caffeine intake required to stay
awake throughout the night and the inability to eat properly while at work can all impact
negatively on the health of a sex worker5. A private sex worker, Kate, described how the
isolated nature of private sex work and the stress surrounding times when there are a lack
of clients contributed to the strain she felt (Abel & Fitzgerald, 2010). As Abel and
Fitzgerald (2010) noted, burn-out is something that is not exclusive to sex work and is
experienced by other workers across numerous occupations. For instance, research by
Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski & Silber (2002) found high levels of burn-out
experienced by nurses. No difference in levels of burnout were found in a study by
Vanwesenbeeck (2005) that compared the levels of burn-out between sex workers
(comprised of female, male and transsexual workers), nurses and patients being treated
for employment-related psychological problems.
In the New Zealand context, Abel and Fitzgerald (2010) compared the results of their
survey which assessed the general health, mental health and energy and vitality of male
and female sex workers to general population data collected by the New Zealand Health
Survey 2004, which utilised the same survey. The results found that there were no
significant differences between sex workers and the general population for general health,
energy and vitality; although, those sex workers working within a brothel environment did
report marginally higher levels of general health when compared to street workers. The
authors reported a significant difference in mental health scores, with sex workers scoring
lower on perceived levels of mental health when compared to the general population (Abel
& Fitzgerald, 2010). In evaluating the reasons for this difference in mental health scores,
shift work was considered as one of the possible explanations. The work environment
was also considered by Abel and Fitzgerald, (2010) to be a possible factor, as they noted
that many street-based sex workers tend to be more susceptible to violence which could
cause strain. Abel and Fitzgerald (2010) also point out that the majority of younger
participants in their survey were street workers, and research by Vanwesenbeeck (2005)
showed that older sex workers coped with the stresses surrounding sex work more
adequately than younger workers.
The stigma associated with sex work was highlighted as a crucial factor in the increased
rates of poor mental health (Abel & Fitzgerald, 2010). Day and Ward (2007), in
summarising the findings of their longitudinal research on sex workers in London6,
reported that stigma and criminalisation have the greatest impact on the mental health of
sex workers. Stigma towards sex work, according to Day and Ward (2007), was found to
hinder access to medical services and promote the erroneous and widely held belief that
sex workers are over represented as suffering from some form of contagious disease.
Research conducted in New Zealand following decriminalisation illustrates that the
legitimacy of the sector has not been found to reduce stigma felt by sex workers
(Fitzgerald & Abel, 2010). Vanwesenbeeck (2005) also indicated that stigmatisation was

5
No comparisons between sex workers and shift workers were identified. However, the authors assume
that this likely to be experienced across the shift worker population.
6
Day and Wards (2007) study was conducted from the mid-1980s to 2000.

12

Literature review

a major contributor to the burn-out suffered by sex workers. Vanwesenbeeck (2005) also
found that lack of agency, organisation factors such an absence of support from
management/more experienced workers and decreased desire to work in the sex industry
all contributed to the burn-out experienced by sex workers. The author reported that the
work location was not significantly related to burn-out (the sample comprised of escorts,
window workers, club workers, brothel workers, sex shop workers, and those who operate
from home) (Vanwesenbeeck, 2005).
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is another mental health issue that has been linked
with sex work (Ross et al., 2011). A study that looked at the prevalence of violence and
PTSD in a group of male, female and transgender street workers in Washington D.C.
reported that 42% of their participants met the criteria for PTSD (Valera, Sawyer &
Schiraldi, 2000). Analyses indicated that male sex workers reported higher levels of
PTSD than the transgender workers, with no other significant differences found (Valera et
al., 2000). Further analyses found that there were two factors that were significant
predictors of PTSD among sex workers: sexual and physical abuse as a child. These
factors were found in the general population (Valera et al., 2000). It should be particularly
noted that no factors associated with sex work, such as violence, were found to be
significantly related to PTSD (Valera et al., 2000).
A number of PTSD and sex work-related studies have been conducted by Melissa Farley
(e.g. Farley, Baral, Kiremire & Sezgin, 1998; Farley & Barkan, 1998; Farley, Lynne &
Cotton, 2005; Farley, Cotton, Lynne, Zumbeck, Spiwak, Reyes, Alvarez & Sezgin, 2003).
However, these studies need to be treated with caution as Farley has outlined a
paternalistic view of sex work and has categorised sex work as a form of violence against
women (Farley et al., 1998). She has also denigrated the occupational status of sex work
by referring to female sex workers as prostituted women (Farley, 2004). As these
definitions do not accord with those used in the current review, the research carried out by
Farley has not been included.

3.3 Violence
Research conducted in New Zealand has highlighted how street workers experience a
greater risk of violence than those sex workers who operate indoors (Plumridge & Abel,
2001). The study interviewed 303 female sex workers, 78 of whom worked on the streets
of Christchurch and 225 who worked indoors (Plumridge & Abel, 2001). Although 83% of
all participants reported negative experiences, describing such situations as refusal to
pay, robbery, verbal abuse and physical violence, street workers experienced such
incidents more often and these were generally more serious. For example 21% (n=61) of
street workers reported being forced to have sex without protection compared to 9%
(n=20) indoor workers and a greater number revealed that they had been physically
assaulted or raped (Plumridge & Abel, 2001). The study by Plumridge and Abel (2001)
was conducted before the decriminalisation of sex work in New Zealand in 2003; however,
according to Abel and Fitzgerald (2010) even after the Act the situation is unchanged as
street workers are still more vulnerable to violence, although one street worker reported
that she felt the streets were safer since the law came into force. Positively Abel and
Fitzgerald (2010) indicated that sex workers were now more likely to report violence to
police, more so than prior to the 2003 Act, but the stigma involved with working in the sex
industry resulted in some people not feeling comfortable in turning to the police when they
experience violence.

3.4 Sexually transmitted infections

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) have also been identified as a prominent
occupational health and safety risk with a number of factors influencing the level of risk.

13

Literature review

For instance, Ross et al. (2011) reviewed literature surrounding STIs and sex work and
identified the following six determinants of risk:
1. sexual risk behaviour (particularly condom use)
2. health-seeking behaviour, including screening
3. client characteristics
4. the risk levels of other (non-commercial) partners
5. underlying power dynamics, including socioeconomic status.
6. the legal environment (2011, p. 6 7).
Sexual health is an important issue to sex workers (Plumridge & Abel, 2000) and research
has shown that sex workers in New Zealand, Scotland, and England generally have high
levels of sexual health knowledge and condom use (Plumridge & Abel, 2001; McKeganey
& Barnard, 1992; Ward, Day, Green, Cooper & Weber, 2004). Plumridge and Abel (2000)
surveyed 303 sex workers about their sexual health and the large majority of the women
(96%, n=290)7 reported regularly going for health checks. Further, Plumridge and Abel
(2001) reported high levels condom use among both outdoor and indoor female sex
workers, and in another New Zealand study, condom use was also found to be high
following the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act (Abel & Fitzgerald, 2010). According to Abel
and Fitzgerald (2010), the occupational safety and health manual that guides the health
and safety of sex work in New Zealands decriminalised environment is a powerful
weapon, as sex workers have legal backing to demand that clients use condoms; and
there is also no fear of carrying condoms on your person, as sex work has been
decriminalised. Plumridge and Abel (2001) reported that not one of the women
considered vaginal or anal sex to be safe without a condom. In regards to other sexual
services the vast majority of New Zealand female sex workers reported that condom use
is necessary, with the exception of hand jobs, in which 67% of indoor workers and 40% of
outdoor workers considered to be okay to perform manual release without protection
(Plumridge & Abel, 2001). In a small number of situations where condoms were not used,
the reasons given for this included the fact that the client refused to use one, the sex
worker knew the client, or extra money was offered for services without a condom
(Plumridge & Abel, 2001). Sex worker determination and the power in the client-worker
negotiation were found to be key to condom use and the authors noted that this was
similar to international research (Plumridge & Abel, 2001).
In a study that examined the HIV-related risk behaviour of street-based sex workers in
Glasgow, interview participants reported a high level of condom failures, 18 of the women
(26.4%, n=68) indicated condom breakage in the last month (McKeganey & Barnard,
1992). The breakages were generally attributed to engaging in vaginal and anal sex with
a non-lubricated condom. Another explanation was that clients often attempt to
deliberately break condoms (McKeganey & Barnard, 1992). In examining the prevalence
of STI infection in London from 1985 to 2002, Ward et al. (2004) reported a drop in the
number of past and current STIs across the years. The study compared data from 1050
sex workers who first attended a sexual health clinic between 1985 and 1992 or between
1996 and 2002. The drop in current STIs between the two cohorts was significant with the
presence of an STI dropping from 25% to 8% and reports regarding past STIs also
dropped from 80% to 32% (Ward et al., 2004). The authors found that the only risk
associated with STIs among their participants was reduced use of condoms for oral sex
(with clients) and they attributed the drop in the number of reported STIs to an increase in
condom use for vaginal sex (Ward et al., 2004).

7
n=302 participants answered this question.

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Literature review

3.5 Alcohol and drug use

Alcohol and drug use have been commonly linked with sex work (Plumridge & Abel, 2001;
Ross et al., 2011; ONeill, 1997; Cox & Whitaker, 2009). Although as Cox and Whitaker
(2009) point out this relationship between sex work and drug use is complex. For
instance, Cox and Whitaker (2009) examined various risk factors among drug-using male
and female sex workers in Dublin. In relation to their drug use and sex work, the authors
found that the majority of their participants entered sex work to fund their habits and that
the extra money earned from sex work often led to increased drug use. Entering sex work
to pay for drugs has also been reported by ONeill (1997). Drug use amongst sex workers
in Christchurch, New Zealand was explored by Plumridge and Abel (2001). Plumridge
and Abel (2001) reported that overall, 54% of the women never drank alcohol while at
work (62% of street workers and 51% of indoor workers). Overall, 56% of the women
stated that they never used drugs at work, but there was a significant difference between
the number of indoor workers that used drugs while at work (33%), compared to 76% of
street workers (Plumridge & Abel, 2001). When queried about the reasons behind the use
of alcohol or drugs at work, 49% of outdoor workers and 21% of indoor workers indicated
that they did so to get through the work, 22% of outdoor workers and 29% of indoor
workers did it because they liked it and 14% of outdoor workers and 29% of outdoor
workers used drugs as it was considered to be a crucial part of the worker/client social
interaction (Plumridge & Abel, 2001). Ross et al. (2011) also found that the working
environment and the requirements of certain sex work can also lead to alcohol use. A
study of alcohol consumption by Latinos working in low-class bars (cantinas) in which
sexual services are paid for in alcohol, reported that the average daily consumption of
alcohol was high, with most sex workers drinking an average of eleven beers (FernndezEsquer, 2003). Those sex workers who are employed in bars where clients are
encouraged to purchase alcohol, not only presents issues regarding safety of the worker
and the use of protection, but also has implications for the long-term health. The author
listed liver disease, gastrointestinal cancers, heart disease, obesity, neuro-psychiatric
impairment as some of the risks of alcohol consumption (Ross et al., 2011).

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4 SEX TRAFFICKING
Contemporary associations of sex work and human trafficking are reminiscent of historical
efforts to criminalise and/or eradicate prostitution (Roguski, 1997; Segrave, Milivojevic, &
Pickering, 2009). Roguski (1997) identified three discursive voices that nullify sex workers
assertions of agency: the paternalistic and pathologising, the moral, and the abolitionist
feminist. The paternalistic perspective generally portrays sex workers as needing some
form of intervention, often therapeutic, and proponents strongly argued that only those
who were in same way damaged, such as early childhood sexualisation, could consider
sex work as an option. At the heart of this perspective is that prostitution is degrading and
prostitutes are a helpless victim of circumstance in need of a rescuer to either reform or
help them select better options. Within a western context, those aligned with the moral
perspective commonly transform Judaeo-Christian teachings to underscore harsh
repression and demands for the eradication of prostitution. Arguments for eradication
have historically rested on the threat prostitution poses to the moral fibre of society.
Implicitly this has incorporated the sanctity of marriage being undermined and that
prostitutes epitomise sexual sin. The abolitionist feminist perspective, while complicated
by a number of positions within feminism, underscores the need to eradicate prostitution
because prostitution perpetuates womens inequitable societal position, as prostitution, it
is argued, is synonymous with male dominance and womens commodification and
subjugation.
While these discursive positions have attempted to nullify sex workers assertions of
personal agency, the strength of their various, often interwoven, positions waned in the
later part of the 20th century (Bernstein, 2007). In response, Doezema (2005) has argued
that the drive to continue to nullify the legitimacy of sex work resulted in a transformation
of the various nullifying positions and resulted in a recoding of the various arguments
under the umbrella of sex trafficking: an emotive term which reinforced the coerced and
victimised nature of sex workers.
Internationally, the association between migration and sex work has largely been
represented as a problem of human trafficking for sexual exploitation (Mai, 2009). Though
there are multiple forms of trafficking, including forced labour or services, servitude,
slavery and the removal of organs (United Nations, 2000), the global fight against
trafficking has largely focussed on the trafficking of women into sex work.
According to Segrave et al. (2009), the most prominent trafficking discourse is that of the
neo-abolitionists. This anti-sex work perspective presents a picture of the all migrant sex
workers as young women who are coerced and unwillingly trafficked, abused (Tomkinson,
2012) and only too willing to be rescued and returned to their homeland (Sanghera, 2012).
Sex workers rights advocates and third world feminists contest this perspective, and
stress the distinction between voluntary and forced prostitution (Doezema, 2002).
The image of the helpless, female, coerced victim has been used to legitimise the
regulation of the commercial sex industry throughout history (Spencer & Broad, 2012),
and Kempadoo (2012) posited that the anti-migration and anti-sex work agenda of the
nineteenth and twentieth century moral crusades to end white slavery are very much
present in todays sex trafficking discourse.
In 1904 the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic was
formulated to tackle the international movement of European women into sex work, which
spawned laws aimed at abolishing sex work (Kempadoo, 2012). In 1949 the first United
Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of
the Prostitution of Others that dealt with trafficking was formulated and superseded
previous international agreements on White slavery (Chuang, 2010). The Convention,
although not widely ratified, closely tied sex work to trafficking and slavery (Chuang, 2010)

16

Literature review

and, like its predecessor, advocated the abolishment of the sex industry (Kempadoo,
2012).
Although the 1949 United Nations Convention has been replaced, the legacy of this legal
association between sex work and trafficking still reverberates today. For instance, the
conventional framing of sex work as exploitation and a human rights abuse is reflected in
contemporary sex trafficking debates which evolved in the 1970s as an outcome of the
second wave of feminism (Kempadoo, 2012). Further, the heated sex work debate of the
late 1970s and 1980s is today repeated within the sex trafficking debate (Spencer &
Broad, 2012). The work of radical feminists and feminist abolitionists, such as Barry
(1979; 1995) and Jeffreys (1997) have had a major influence on the neo-abolitionist
perspective (Lee, 2011). The sex trafficking debate has seen battle lines drawn between
neo-abolitionists and pro-sex work advocates (Desyllas, 2007).
The sex trafficking debate has also heavily influenced international legislation and
definitions of human trafficking. In 1998, the United Nations recognised the need to
update the definition of human trafficking and develop new legislation that did not link sex
work and human trafficking as closely as did the 1949 United Nations Convention (van
Liempt, 2006). The need to expand the definition of trafficking to include other forms of
labour was, however, overshadowed as sex work was to be the focal point of two years of
protracted negotiation that took place at the United Nations Centre for International Crime
Prevention in Vienna. The debate centred on whether the new trafficking in persons
definition should encompass just forced sex work or also voluntary sex work (Chuang,
2006). As Dempsey (2010) highlighted, though the neo-abolitionist and non-abolitionists
factions campaigned for the end of trafficking for sexual exploitation, the neo-abolitionists
desire for the eradication of the commercial sex industry proved to be a stumbling block to
agreement.
The neo-abolitionist discourse mirrors the anti-sex work discourse forwarded by such
abolitionist feminists as Kathleen Barry (1995) and Shelia Jeffreys (1997); regarding sex
work as a form of patriarchal oppression and essentially violence towards women (Lee,
2011). In contrast, pro-sex work advocates, such the Global Alliance Against Traffic in
Women (GAATW) and the Network of Sex Work Projects (Chuang, 2010; Desyllas, 2007),
advocate for sex work to be regarded as a legitimate occupation (Chuang, 2010;
Doezema, 2005; Desyllas, 2007; Roguski, 1997). Challenging the neo-abolitionist
position, anti-abolitionist and sex workers rights groups argued for a definition of
trafficking that differentiated between sex workers who voluntarily work in the industry and
those that were coerced (Outshoorn, 2005). The anti-abolitionist groups argued that if the
definition were to include those who willingly migrated to work in the sex industry; this
would deflect from the central issue which was to prevent coerced migration (Chuang,
2006). Distinguishing between forced and willing sex work was also vital to the pursuit of
rights for sex workers, to ensure safe working conditions (Outshoorn, 2005). The debate
between the two opposing factions hinged on questions surrounding consent and
coercion. The neo-abolitionists, in accordance with traditional abolitionist notions, argued
that sex work could never be a consensual choice (Chuang, 2006). This faction views sex
work as a violation of human rights and deny agency to women who choose to work in the
commercial sex industry (Doezema, 2002). Conversely, the anti-abolitionists argued that
women, who willingly work in the sex industry, even if illegally, should not be denied the
freedom to work in whatever industry they wish.
In 2000, the debate finally culminated in the United Nations ratifying the following
definition of trafficking in persons:
a)

Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring

or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the
consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of
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Literature review

exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the

prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services,
slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
b)

The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth
in subparagraph a of this article shall be irrelevant where any means set form in
subparagraph a has been used (United Nations, 2000, Article 3, paragraphs a & b, p.
42).

This definition differentiates between voluntary and forced coerced prostitution, which was
regarded as a win for the anti-abolitionists (Desyllas, 2007). However, Doezema (2005)
argued that by differentiating between trafficking and voluntary prostitution via the use of
the term consent, the UN Trafficking Protocol:
. . . offers nothing to sex workers whose human rights are abused, but who fall
outside of the narrowly constructed category of trafficking victim (p. 80).
Other problems with this definition revolve around the failure to come to an agreement on
how exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation
should be defined. A stalemate resulted in a note declaring that states could . . . address
prostitution in their domestic laws (UN, 2000, para. 64). Ditmore (2012) posited that this
allows nations such as New Zealand to have legislation which decriminalises sex work.
However, conversely it allows other nations such as the United States to introduce strict
anti-sex work trafficking legislation that has repercussions for both migrants and sex
workers (Chuang, 2006; Doezema, 2002).
Although the neo-abolitionists failed in their quest to have all migrant sex workers defined
as trafficking victims, they have had much more influence on United States legislation and
definitions of trafficking in person (Chuang, 2010). The United States Trafficking Victims
Protection Act (TPVA) provides a separate definition for trafficking in persons,
differentiating it from other forms of human trafficking (Chuang, 2006).8 The TPVA
definition is utilised by the United States Department of State (USDOS) in their annual
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report (Chuang, 2010).
The TIP report provides an annual ranking of how countries are advancing in the fight
against human trafficking (Desyllas, 2007). Each country is placed in one of four Tiers, as
specified by the TVPA (USDOS, 2012). A Tier 1 ranking signifies that a nation is
addressing human trafficking issues and meets the TVPAs minimum standards. Tier 2
and Tier 2 Watchlist countries are not complying with minimum standards, but are
acknowledged for their attempts to comply. Tier 3 countries are not attempting to comply
and have non-humanitarian sanctions placed on them by the United States.
New Zealand is ranked Tier 1 in the latest TIP Report (USDOS, 2012). According to the
2012 TIP Report, New Zealand is a source country for the domestic sex trafficking of
underage girls, especially Mori and Pacific children, by gang controlled trafficking rings
(p. 265). The report also indicated that foreign females (originating from China and
Southeast Asia) who are recruited to work in the sex industry in New Zealand are at risk of
coercive practices (USDOS, 2012, p. 265). Though the report identified that no victims of
trafficking had been identified in New Zealand in the last year, it recommended that New
Zealand needs to be more proactive in identifying potential trafficking victims and
significantly increase the investigation and prosecution of both sex and labour traffickers
(USDOS, 2012). Anti-abolitionists have challenged the TIP report for providing global
assessments that lack sufficient evidence to support often inflammatory claims (Lee,

The TVPA refers to severe forms of trafficking in persons as:

a. sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the
person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or
b. the recruitment, harbouring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labour or services,
through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude,
peonage, debt bondage, or slavery (TPVA, 2000).

18

Literature review

2011). Further, assertions, as in the case of New Zealand, of a problem of domestic

trafficking of underage girls, fuels a moral panic surrounding trafficking and reinforces
abolitionist efforts to eradicate prostitution (Weitzer, 2007).
While definitions have been the focus of much debate, estimates of the number of
trafficked persons produced by such organisations as the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), have come under much scrutiny and have been challenged for lacking
any evidentiary basis (Lee, 2011; Wylie, 2006). For instance, in 2009 a warning from
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (2009a) declared that:
Over the past decade, trafficking in persons has reached epidemic proportions.
No country is immune (n.p.).
Other examples include the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which has estimated
that between 2002 and 2011, 4.5 million people were trafficked into forced labour for
sexual exploitation (ILO, 2012). Further, according to the organisation, 98% of these 4.5
million individuals were female (ILO, 2012). Next, the UNODC (2009b), while not citing
figures, estimated that 79% of human trafficking occurs for sexual exploitation. These
estimates are alarming; however, anti-abolitionists are highly sceptical of their validity
(Weitzer, 2007). For instance, Kangaspunta (2003), an analyst from the UNs Global
Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings commented Even though some highquality research exists, most of the data are based on guesstimates, which, in many
cases, are used for advocacy or fund-raising purposes (p. 84).
Further support of the need to be sceptical of trafficking-related estimates can be found in
reference to global prosecution figures which are significantly less that the estimated
prevalence of trafficking in persons. For instance, the ILO (2012) estimated that
worldwide there are 20.9 million victims of all forms of human trafficking (state-enforced
forced labour, labour exploitation and sexual exploitation) at any one time between 2002
and 2011. The recent TIP Report (USDOS, 2012) included data on global prosecutions,
convictions and victims of trafficking. Between 2007 and 2011, worldwide there were
30,426 prosecutions and 18,164 convictions for the trafficking of persons. Over this time
period, 155,470 victims were identified (USDOS, 2012). The reasoning behind the
massive discrepancies in prosecutions and estimates has attributed to the hidden and
criminal nature of trafficking (Wylie, 2006), definitional ambiguities (Newman & Cameron,
2008), poor methodology (Sanghera, 2012) and a total lack of understanding of the
trafficking process (Segrave et al., 2009). Nonetheless, these figures are presented by
media and politicians with no disclaimers regarding accuracy (Weitzer, 2007). These
figures have shock value (Weitzer, 2007) and as Zhang (2009) argued, inflated estimates
justify the need for stringent migration laws and the criminalisation of the sex industry.
Anti-trafficking legislation has also been criticised for not only negatively impacting on
migrant sex workers but on the commercial sex industry in general (Chuang, 2010). It is
posited by neo-abolitionists that the criminalisation of the purchase of sex will reduce
demand and thus reduce harm to women (Dempsey, 2010). However, pro-sex worker
rights advocates stress that criminalising those who sell sex, or their clients, only serves to
push the sex industry underground (Chuang, 2010). In her assessment of Scandinavian
research, Chuang (2010) contended that rather than protecting sex workers, the
criminalisation of clients under Swedish law, had increased the risk for sex workers.
According to Chuang (2010), the criminalisation of the purchase of sex work in Sweden
greatly reduced the visibility of the sex industry, making it harder for sex worker projects to
reach vulnerable workers, placing these sex workers at greater risk. Chuang (2010) also
argued that the fear of arrest stopped clients coming forward to assist police in the
prosecution of traffickers and pimps (Chuang, 2010).
Finally, criticisms of the anti-trafficking agenda have focused on the rise of a
trafficking in persons rescue industry (Agustn, 2007). Rescue campaigns to save
the assumed victims of sex trafficking generally involve raids by law enforcement

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Literature review

and interventions by aligned non-government organisations (Agustn, 2007; Chuang,

2010). Agustn (2007) is critical of such social helpers as the victim being saved
is commonly stigmatised and is placed in an untenable and often worse position
(Agustn, 2007). While raids on brothels are common (Chuang, 2006), their efficacy
has been questioned by the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (2011) in
reference to United Kingdom police Operation Pentameter 2, which resulted in 822
premises across the United Kingdom being raided. According to the police, they
were in search of 25,000 trafficking victims. A report following the operation
described that 167 victims of trafficking were rescued (Strategic Information
Response Network, 2008). However, it is unknown if the situations of the 167
labelled as trafficking victims fit the UN Trafficking Protocol definition of trafficking.
According to Davies (2009, para. 30) most of these 167 victims ... absconded from
police, went home voluntarily, declined support, were removed by the UK Borders
Agency or were prosecuted for various offences. According to an unnamed
government report, sourced by Davies (2009), a number of the supposed victims
made it clear in interviews that they were not trafficked. Also, further investigations
into a number of the purported trafficking cases revealed that information pointing to
trafficking was either false, or incomplete (Davies, 2009).
The high proportion of rescued sex trafficking victims who return to work in the sex
industry is problematic for the neo-abolitionist rescue industry (Chuang, 2010). The neoabolitionists have tried to explain this return by arguing that those who go back suffer from
false consciousness. Supposedly, this can be attributed to their victimisation which
explains why they are not thankful to have escaped the sex industry (Chuang, 2010).
Soderlund (2005) is critical of this neo-abolitionist position and suggested that the false
consciousness argument reflects a paradigm-saving technique, one that encourages
activists to dodge potential pitfalls in their own interventionist strategies (p.79).
Additionally, often those who do stay with their rescuers are contained in shelters for long
periods of time and have little freedom or agency whilst in the care of their rescuers
(Chuang, 2010). Chuang (2010) and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (2011)
have also voiced concerns that raids can result in all those who work on a premises being
exposed to police brutality and detention, whether they are coerced migrant sex workers
or not. If returned to their homelands, migrant sex workers also face the challenge of
reintegrating back into their community (Sanghera, 2012). As Chuang (2010) pointed out,
many rescued women may not wish to be sent back home, as their reasons for migrating
may have been to escape oppressive circumstances.
International anti-trafficking legislation does not only affect migrant sex workers, but all
migrants (Agustn, 2007). The anti-sex work theme of the neo-abolitionist trafficking
framework has been adopted by anti-immigration organisations as evidence for the need
to tighten immigration laws (Global Network Of Sex Work Projects, 2011). These tougher
laws, rather than preventing trafficking and protecting possible trafficking victims have
actually seen migrants engage with third parties to arrange their migration, exposing them
to potential exploitation at the hands of a third party (Global Network Of Sex Work
Projects, 2011). Miller (2004) is critical of the reasons for tough migration laws and
suggested that law makers have used . . . sexual harm as a justification for restraining
womens movement (p.34). A dominant anti-trafficking framework that revolves around
the criminalisation of sex work so far has done little to protect those vulnerable from
trafficking. It could even be argued that the neo-abolitionist legislation only serves to push
the sex industry further underground, leaving migrant sex workers with few rights.

4.1 Summary
Sex workers, regardless of migrant status, are routinely exposed to a number of
occupational health and safety risks. Occupational health and safety of sex workers is
greatly influenced by the legal and policing environment. A lack of legal protection creates

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Literature review

an environment in which violence towards sex workers goes unchallenged and there are
increased risks of the transmission of sexually transmitted infections and a reduction in
sex workers ability to negotiate with their client (Ross et al., 2011). Substance abuse is
also a risk, as ONeill (1997) and Cox and Whitaker (2009) reported that participants
indicated they entered sex work and use the money earned to fund their drug habits.
Substance abuse also appears to surface due to job roles that require sex workers to
encourage the purchase of drinks at strip clubs and in the case of cantinas, alcohol is the
form of payment for services (Ross et al., 2011; Fernndez-Esquer, 2003). Plumridge
and Abel (2001) reported that the majority of their participants did not use alcohol or drugs
while working, however, some of the reasons for use of drugs while at work were: to get
through their shift; because they enjoyed using drugs; and because it was considered
sociable to do so.
Sexually transmitted infections represent one of the more commonly discussed risks, with
Ross et al. (2011) outlining the multi-dimensional determinants of this risk which involve
not only condom use and screening, but issues involved with clients, the legal
environment and power. The studies discussed indicated that condom usage is high
amongst sex workers, sexual health is important to those who work in the sex industry,
and that overall sexual health knowledge is good (Plumridge & Abel, 2001; McKeganey &
Barnard, 1992; Plumridge and Abel, 2000). A drop in the number of STIs was also
reported by Ward et al. (2004) between 1985 and 2002, which according to the authors
could be attributed to a rise the practice of safer sex.
Violence is also a risk that linked to sex work and in the New Zealand context, while both
indoor and outdoor sex workers experience violence, those who work on the street tend to
be exposed to more severe violence which occurs more frequently (Plumridge & Abel,
2001). Street workers were also found to be at greater risk of mental health problems,
although this appears to be due to the background from which street workers originate,
rather than sex work per se (Seib et al., 2009) and as noted by Abel and Fitzgerald (2001)
the younger age of street workers and fear of violence may also contribute to lower scores
in perceived mental health amongst this group of sex workers. Overall though, while
burn-out was health risk that sex workers are exposed to, they were at no higher risk than
other occupations (Vanwesenbeeck, 2005; Aiken et al., 2002). While self-reported mental
health scores were lower than the general population in Abel and Fitzgeralds (2010)
study, as Vanwesenbeeck (2005) and Day and Ward (2007) argued this can be attributed
to the stigmatisation of sex workers more so than any other reason.
Other occupational health and safety risks that are not commonly linked to sex work, such
as repetitive strain injuries, jaw, back and foot problems, have all reported to be health
issues faced by sex workers (Alexander, 1998). As with any worker whose occupation
requires close contact with the public, sex workers have a heightened risk of contracting
infectious diseases such tuberculosis (Alexander, 1998). The myriad of occupational
health and safety risks faced by sex workers are varied, and are linked to not only
knowledge and power, but the legality of sex work. In New Zealand, the decriminalisation
of sex work in 2003 resulted in the production of an occupational safety and health
manual, which provides a legal backing to the insistence of condom use and provides
other guidelines that provide a safer working environment for sex workers (Abel &
Fitzgerald, 2010). Since the decriminalisation of sex work, those in the industry reported
feeling more comfortable with demanding condom use and reporting violence to police
(Abel & Fitzgerald, 2010), which highlights how the laws surrounding sex work can
influence a number of the occupational health and safety risks that sex workers face.

21

Methodology

5 METHODOLOGY
The current study involved three research streams: in-depth semi-structured qualitative
interviews, an anonymised review of migrant sex workers sexual and reproductive health
clinic records and a survey of migrant sex workers.

5.1 Qualitative interviews

A total of 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out in Auckland and
Wellington; two of New Zealands largest urban centres. The aim of the interviews was to:

contextualise the occupational health and safety needs of migrant sex workers

elicit rich information, from multiple perspectives, about the health and safety needs
of migrant sex workers

highlight needs specific to migrant sex workers

explore barriers and facilitators to these sex workers accessing the

services/assistance required.
Table 1: Interview Participant Characteristics (n=12)
Female

Male

Stakeholders

Brothel operators

Immigration Lawyer

Health professionals with a high sex

worker patient focus

NZPC members

Migrant/refugee organisation

NZ immigration

Human rights organisation

Total

Participants were initially recruited through NZPCs brothel, legal, clinical and sex worker
networks. Snowballing methodology was then used to identify and recruit additional
participants.
Eligibility to participant in the interviews was reliant upon the individual possessing an indepth knowledge of migrant sex worker experiences or, in the case of the New Zealand
Immigration Service, an in-depth understanding of legislation and policy pertaining to
migrant sex workers.
Interviews lasted between 60 and 90 minutes and, with participants consent, were audio
recorded. Interviews were then transcribed.

22

Methodology

5.2 Review of clinic records

Analysis of anonymised NZPC sexual and reproductive health (gathered at the on-site
clinic) was carried out by a health professional associated with the Wellington clinic. The
aim of the review was to explore whether any trends could be identified which would then
inform the focus of key informant interviews.
The review involved a census of migrant sex worker files and a random selection of nonmigrant sex worker files from the 2007 calendar year to 31 July 2012.
A series of key indicators formed the basis of the review. These consisted of indications
of unsafe sexual behaviour9 (gonorrhoea and HIV) and infections commonly associated
with high rates of sexual activity (urinary tract infections and bacterial vaginosis).10 This
framework was adapted from Ward, Day, Green, Cooper and Webers (2004) study of
prevalence amongst sex workers in London. It was then honed in consultation with
NZPCs sexual and reproductive health practitioners.
To safeguard participant confidentiality the review was carried out by the clinics
registered health professional. The data was then fully anonymised before it was
provided to the principal researcher.
The analysis focused on comparing migrant and non-migrant sex workers prevalence of
each health indicator. Differences between populations were tested through a series of
chi-square tests.

5.3 Migrant sex worker survey

A paper-based survey was administered to migrant sex workers over a three-month
period beginning June 2012. The survey was replicated from Zitengs (2006) Hong Kong
study and aimed to survey participants about their migration and work experiences,
working situation and access to support.

5.3.1 Participants
A total of 124 surveys were completed by migrant sex workers.11 The sample consisted of
one transgender sex worker with the remainder being female. Participants ranged in age
from 18 to 25 years through to six sex workers aged over 50. Forty-one percent of
participants had achieved a tertiary qualification, with only 11% having had no more than
primary school education. Over a third of participants (39%) reported being in an intimate
relationship (married or de facto partner). Just over half the participants had one or more
children (55%), with one child being most common (38%). One or more of the children
were under 14 years of age for just under a third of participants (30%). Table 2 provides a
breakdown of the participants demographic characteristics.

9
Positive Gonorrhoea and HIV tests are an indication of engaging in sexual intercourse without a
condom.
10
Note, Urinary Tract Infections and bacterial vaginosis are not associated with unsafe sexual behavior.
11

Rather, they are associated with high rates of sexual activity and, in reference to bacterial vaginosis,
can be brought on by the use of lubricants and sexual activity which can negatively affect the vaginas
natural flora.
An additional three surveys were completed but later removed as it was determined the participants
had always lived in New Zealand and did not meet the research criteria of a recent migrant to New
Zealand.

23

Methodology

Table 2: Migrant Sex Worker Survey Participant Characteristics (n=124)

Characteristics

123

99%

1%

18 to 25 years

20

16%

25 to 39 years

63

51%

Over 40 years

41

33%

Single

47

38%

De facto

20

16%

Married

28

23%

Divorced/separated

27

22%

Widowed

2%

54

44%

47

38%

18

15%

>2

2%

No response

2%

Tertiary

51

41%

Graduated high school

35

28%

Some high school

23

19%

Primary school

13

10%

None

1%

No response

1%

Gender
Female
Transgender
Age Range

Relationship status (current)

Number of children

Highest level of qualification

Participants were also asked what country they identified as home. Just over one third
reported (37%, n=46) regarding New Zealand as their home with the remaining
participants identifying their country of birth as home.
Over a third of participants had permanent immigration status either as a permanent
resident (25%, n=31) or as a New Zealand Citizen (11%, n=14). The majority of
participants reported holding a visa. These included: including student visas (27%, n=34),
visitor permits (19%, n=23), or work visas (13%, n=16).

24

Methodology

Figure 1: Participant Immigration Status

Student visa

27%

Permanent resident

25%

Visitor's permit

17%

Work visa

13%

NZ CiWzen

11%

Tourist visa

2%

Missing

5%
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

5.3.2 Survey content

The survey consisted of 54 questions divided into four sections. The survey was designed
to be completed within 30 minutes. Most questions were closed-ended (yes or no), 15
questions gave participants the option of selecting multiple responses (e.g. what
languages do you speak at work?). In all questions participants had the option to not
answer the question and skip to the next one by selecting no response or dont know as
response.
The four sections of the survey were as follows:

basic demographics and participant characteristics

migration experience

working situation

occupational health and safety.

In addition to the 53 questions compiled by Zi Teng, the survey replicated one question
from Abel & Fitzgerald (2010) (for what reasons do you stay working in the sex industry).
The inclusion of this question enabled a comparison with New Zealand non-migrant sex
workers.
The survey was translated into Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. In addition, participants
had the option of responding to the survey in English.

5.3.3 Participant recruitment

Participants were recruited through NZPC coordinators and staff networks in Auckland,
the central North Island and Wellington.12 Migrant sex workers visiting an NZPC site were
invited to complete a survey. Even though the survey was designed to be selfadministered NZPC staff were available to provide clarification or complete the survey in
cases of limited literacy. The confidential nature of the survey was reinforced by asking
participants to seal the survey in an envelop and placing the envelop in a designated box.

12
Christchurch NZPC declined to participate in the survey because of the continued impact of the
Christchurch earthquakes.

25

Methodology

In Auckland and the central North Island staff actively recruited participants by visiting
venues and drawing on established networks. The bulk of participants were recruited
through an Auckland-based staff member, fluent in Chinese and Thai, whose key role is to
liaise with Asian sex workers in the Auckland area.
Participants were required to meet the following eligibility criteria:

aged 18 years or older

migrant sex workers

having worked in the sex industry in New Zealand over the last five years

lived in New Zealand for no more than six years.

For each completed survey, participants received a $20 reimbursement in

acknowledgement of their time.

5.4 Ethical considerations

An application for ethical approval for the study was submitted to the Victoria University of
Wellington Human Ethics Committee detailing procedures for fully informing those being
asked to take part in interviews about the research, obtaining informed consent, providing
feedback at the conclusion of the study and procedures for storing and maintaining the
confidentiality of information. Ethics approval was granted in April 2011.
The provisions of the Privacy Act 1993 with respect to confidentiality and methods of
obtaining, storing and destroying information were adhered to in this study.

5.5 Data Analysis

5.5.1 Qualitative data
A process of constant comparative analysis was used throughout the lifespan of the
research which meant comparing:

different individual and stakeholder perspectives

data from the same individuals at different points in time

analysis from interviews and lessons from existing literature.

In practice this meant that codes/themes were created within an analysis framework.
Throughout the fieldwork, information was defined and categorised through a continual
review of interviews and fieldwork notes. As a result, emerging patterns were continually
tested through the interview as well as the exploration of new questions that arose in the
preceding interviews. This process of constant comparative analysis also provides an
opportunity to explore, at greater depth, reasons underlying emerging patterns. Quotes
are used to illustrate the various codes/themes that emerged.

5.5.2 Quantitative data

The migrant sex worker survey and clinical data was analyzed using SPSS. It was then
screened for any errors and inconsistencies. Simple descriptive analyses were then
produced (mean, range, frequency counts and percentages). Cross-tabs were produced
to compare responses. Some assumed differences were noted and a series of ChiSquare were conducted. Only significant differences are reported.

26

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

6 CONTEXTUALISING THE NEEDS OF MIGRANT SEX WORKERS

A series of in-depth interviews explored participants views on the unique needs of migrant
sex workers. Responses fell into three areas. First, legislative precursors to migrant sex
workers vulnerabilities were identified. Precursor-based discussions framed migrant sex
workers occupational health and safety as integrally linked to existing legislation. Next, a
series of unique needs specific to migrant sex workers were identified. Finally, a series of
protective factors were discussed. This section provides a review of each area.

6.1 Legislative precursors of vulnerability

All participants, excluding the NZ Immigration Service representative, stressed that existing
legislation treats migrant sex workers inequitably. Most notably, under the Prostitution Reform
Act, 2003 (PRA), migrants who require visas to work in New Zealand are prohibited from
working in the sex industry. As such, under the PRA those on student and working visa are
excluded from working as sex workers.
While the current law was lauded as having greatly improved conditions for sex workers in
New Zealand the same privileges have not been awarded to migrants.
Participants challenged the law on the basis that:

it places migrant sex workers in an inequitable provision under the law

there is no evidence of migrant sex workers having been trafficked to New Zealand

legislation places migrant workers in an untenable position.

6.1.1 Inequitable provision under the law

A number of inequities were identified through the interviews. The first inequity centred on the
PRA itself and the fact that the law inequitably allows non-migrants to engage in sex work
while prohibiting migrants. This double standard was described as illogical and an
inconsistent framing of the law.
Prostitution is no longer a criminal activity and yet we dont allow people to come in [to
New Zealand] and work. Yet all other work we allow people to come in for (Human rights
organisation)
I dont see why they cant get a work visa [that includes sex work]. Why shouldnt they be
a sex worker versus working in a caf? (Health professional)
At the end of the day whether you agree with the morality of the occupation, the fact is, its
a legal occupation for New Zealanders. So why are we making foreigners into criminals
for something that is legal for a New Zealander? That is what I object to. The morality
issue here is having a law that says New Zealanders can work in this occupation but
youre a criminal if you [migrant] do it (Lawyer)
Are we [New Zealand] saying that that sex work is a valid occupation but that this is one
occupation that you are not allowed to come in here and take up? (Human rights
organisation)

Next, concern was raised that, under New Zealands international obligations migrant women
are entitled to the same rights as any non-migrants, including sex workers.
The rights of migrant workers, in general, are covered under various treaties and under the
United Nations. So then, if the rights of migrant workers are considered then why not the

27

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

rights of migrant sex workers because they are workers as well. So I think thats a question
we really have to ask (Migrant/refugee organisation)
If you look at what we [New Zealand] are signed up to, New Zealand has signed a lot of
conventions that say we agree that people should all be treated the same way, equally,
and all have the same rights. Now what we are saying is that weve got a several tier
system where sex workers dont have the same rights actually (Human rights organisation)

Most notably are the rights of women under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 2008), with specific reference to general
recommendation 26, adopted in 2008, which states that:
States parties in countries where migrant women work should take all appropriate
measures to ensure non-discrimination and the equal rights of women migrant workers,
including in their own communities.

Further, a pertinent specific measure is found in article 26(a):

Lifting of discriminatory bans or restrictions on immigration: States parties should repeal
outright bans and discriminatory restrictions on womens immigration. They should ensure
that their visa schemes do not indirectly discriminate against women by restricting
permission to women migrant workers to be employed in certain job categories where men
predominate, or by excluding certain female-dominated occupations from visa schemes.

Given New Zealands commitment to CEDAW it appears that current prohibitions against
migrants working as sex workers are incongruous with the rights afforded New Zealand
residents.
Finally, in relation to immigrants who have been awarded a student visa, participants raised
the inequitable immigration policy that allows students to work up to 20 hours per week while
they are studying as long as the work does not involve commercial sexual services.
And they have said to me, Our options are, were studying, we can get a job cleaning for
minimum wage or we can become a sex worker. Work for minimum wage and not earn
enough money to cover all our rent and whatever bills we have or we can be a sex worker;
work a few less hours and make enough money to actually live and study (Brothel operator
#1)

6.1.2 No evidence of trafficking

Participants were sceptical about the inequitable treatment of migrant sex workers under the
law given that there has been no proven case of sex trafficking in New Zealand.
When we look at people trafficking there have been no proven instances of people
trafficking in New Zealand, no prosecutions (NZ Immigration Service)
I dont know of any place where girls have been actually abused, held against their will or
had their passports taken off them (Brothel operator #1)
I have had no experience of girls who have been unknowingly dragged into the country
and been made to work as sex workers because theyve been told for whatever reason
that their kids would be harmed if they dont or theyll never get out of the country if they
dont (Brothel operator #2)

Rather than trafficking in New Zealand, participants concern centred on the way in
which sex work is reported by the media and politicians to provide a distorted image of
sex work and an unbalanced view of trafficking internationally.

28

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

The impact of the moral panic is just horrendous. Because that is all that people hear
about. Sensation sells papers and any trafficking stories people just jump on. So thats
what people remember. The minute you say to someone, I work in the sex industry they
go, Its terrible the way they traffic the girls into countries and take their passports off them
and tie them to their beds and beat them up. The reality for me is that it just feeds that
whole public misconception of the sex industry (Brothel operator #1)
The image of the poor, trafficked, vulnerable sex worker that some of the media puts
forward is, from my observation, nothing but a load of the proverbial (Lawyer)
I just think it is a load of bollocks. Im sure that there are people in the world who are
trafficked for sexual purposes but I am also sure that its no where near the problem or
numbers that anti-traffickers make it seem like anti-traffickers are causing a lot more harm
internationally than any trafficking ring. The problem is that anti-traffickers are more likely
to be backed by a church or to be funded by someone who has some misguided view of
whats actually happening or how to get some fame or how to get some job in a foreign
country and try and hunt out traffickers (Brothel operator #2)
I squirm when I think of the harm that non-government organisations can do. When
inadvertently they think they are doing right. Its the whole wrapping of prostitution with
trafficking and not identifying it (NGO representative)

Similar to the literature reviews findings, participants traced anti-trafficking groups adherence
to negative conceptualisations of sex work to an inherent paternalism and a drive to eradicate
prostitution.
There is a fixation, an inherent belief that no one is willingly involved in sex work and the
belief that all sex workers need to be rescued and shown a better way of living. Antitrafficking groups are usually evangelical. It is kind of a rescue mentality. It is a very
paternalistic model: the rescuer who knows best (NGO representative)

Paternalism was identified as underpinning the NZ Immigration Services focus on migrant sex
work. Aside from the obligation of the Immigration Service to monitor and enforce the
Immigration Act, the Immigration Service representative related that the sex industry is viewed
as a high risk and vulnerable industry despite his previous comments that there has been no
known incident of sex worker trafficking in New Zealand.
Over and above that [the Immigration Act] I think that we have an understanding that we
have an obligation to monitor the potential for exploitation in high risk and vulnerable
industries and sex work would be one of them. Their work would be one of those that we
want to monitor to make sure that girls who are working in that industry are not being
subjected to trafficking (NZ Immigration Service)

Also, all participants, excluding the NZ Immigration Service, agreed that anti-trafficking groups
nullify an individuals agency in deciding to engage in sex work and instead challenge such
assertions with accusations of false consciousness.
I get very alarmed when these groups [anti-trafficking groups] dont give sex workers any
agency whatsoever. I have heard it said in a number of different settings recently. I was in
a conference in Melbourne and the presenter said, Of course people dont always realised
they have been trafficked and you have to tell them. It is scary, you know, to say, You
dont know youve been trafficked, but we know. So its up to us to rescue you (NGO
representative)

In an attempt to provide balance to the anti-trafficking panic, the following comments were
made to stress that the popularised portrayal of endemic trafficking is illogical given client

29

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

demand; as their are few clients who would be willing to solicit the services of someone who is
obviously poorly treated and coerced.
There is just not that many men with that little conscience. Say what you like about men,
but there is just not that many that would support a business that is trafficking, obviously
trafficking and making them have sex against their will. Because it would show. There
just isnt enough clientele that would make it worthwhile (Brothel operator #1)
It would surprise me if it does happen [Brothel operators forcibly restricting a migrant sex
workers movements]. New Zealand is a pretty free place; unless the brothel owners
physically lock them up I think its fairly easy for them [migrant sex workers] to move
around and get information. My experience from the clients I have represented is that the
girls who are working in brothels and unlicensed brothels talk to each other. So I find it
difficult to believe that there are girls who are being held captive. I think the Liam Neeson
Taken images portrayed by some of the media are a figment of an over-hyped
imagination (Lawyer)

6.1.3 Sex workers placed in an untenable position

The prohibitive nature of the PRA, excluding migrants from engaging in sex work in New
Zealand, was discussed as placing migrant workers in an untenable position. This was raised
in terms of having created barriers to migrant sex workers seeking assistance from agencies,
and as potentially creating a space for underground activities and ultimately placing migrant
sex workers at risk.
a)

Seeking intervention

Given that migrant sex workers are not afforded the same rights as non-migrants they are
placed in a vulnerable position of not being able to freely, and without the fear of deportation,
seek assistance from the police or immigration. As such, migrants were continually afforded a
second-class status.
One of the reasons migrant sex workers are not really visible or come forward for help is
probably because of their residential status in New Zealand. Because if they if they are
non-permanent residents and on visas there is a fear that they will be deported
(Migrant/refugee organisation)
Amongst many migrants there is a general fear of authorities based on their experiences in
their own countries. So if something goes wrong for them in a situation they are unsure
who to turn to. This is especially true for migrant sex workers as they are working outside
of the law (NGO representative)
They arent able to openly say what they do. And, if something happened to them, they
wouldnt have access to get help (Brothel operator #2)
If I was a migrant worker and I was in a situation where I had actually no legal rights and I
was in fear of being busted and deported and no one else that I worked with was because
they werent migrant sex workers well I guess I would feel frightened and hard done by
(Brothel operator #1)
As a migrant sex worker there is always a feeling that you could be deported and fined and
never allowed back in the country (Brothel operator #2)

In addition, migrant sex workers were reported as not seeking intervention because of
negative experiences with the NZ Immigration Service. Negative experiences included

30

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

surprise brothel inspections and threats of deportation. Participants concern rested on

immigration officers abuse of their limited powers.13
The Immigration Act 2009 generally carried over powers that were in the Immigration Act
1987 allowing authorised immigration officers to:

enter and inspect the records of accommodation providers and employers, when
investigating people who may be working in New Zealand unlawfully, or people with no
right to remain in New Zealand

require people suspected to be liable for deportation or turnaround to provide certain

information or documents.

Further, according to the PRA, a migrant worker can be deported if there is sufficient belief, on
reasonable grounds, that a migrant has engaged in the provision of commercial sexual
services. The difficulty with the reasonable grounds requirement is that it is necessary to
prove that commercial sexual services were provided.
They [New Zealand Immigration Service] go in there with forms and they serve
Deportation Liability Notices and they do it illegally because they write on those forms You
were found providing commercial sexual services. Ive not had a client yet that was found
providing commercial sexual services. As Justice Young said, finding a lady sitting on the
couch in the waiting room in skimpy clothes is cause for suspicion but it is not evidence
that you have found someone providing commercial sexual services (Lawyer)
Another thing, immigration officers carry out sting operations. One calls up and pretends
to be a client and goes in. Oh how much is it? and pretends to get another $50 and goes
outside and a minute later four of them burst in. Thats illegal. Immigration officers must,
at all times prior to carrying out any immigration business, identify themselves. Hi I am X.
I am an Immigration Officer and I am here to check your premises out. Do you mind if I
come in and pretend to be a client so I can bust you in five minutes? Of course its a no
brainer that prior identification is not going to work for them. And whether they like it or
not, what Immigration [New Zealand Immigration Service] is doing is unlawful (Lawyer)

Such negative experiences with NZ Immigration Services were reported as reinforcing fear of
authorities and acting as a barrier to migrants seeking assistance should the need arise.
b)

Underground activity

Underground activity was a term commonly used to refer to illicit sex worker activities that
occur despite the laws prohibition.
We have this amazing decriminalisation law in New Zealand but migrant sex workers are
not eligible which makes them work under the radar (Brothel operator #1)

Participants differed according to how they viewed the emergence of underground activities.
The NZ Immigration Service made a number of comments that indicate a belief that the sex
industry is likely to attract a criminal element. This position reflects the representatives belief
that illicit activities are, outside of migrant sex work considerations, a component of the
industry.
The only thing I can say about sex work is that it can attract people. Im talking about
employers now and people on the periphery who are skirting across the law if you like. It
is safe to assume there are some criminal elements to the industry. Some employers are
going to be pretty good with robust employment practices and treat the girls well. While

13 http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/general/generalinformation/immigrationact/factsheets
/iopowersfactsheet.htm

31

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

some employers are a front for other criminal activities in the background (NZ Immigration
Service)

In contrast, the remaining interview participants focused their comments on how the existing
law (PRA) provides room for conditions that can lead to the creation of underground activities.
The divergence of views appears to reflect the degree to which sex work is viewed positively
as a labour issue or whether moral attributions are placed on the industry. Needless to say,
both camps acknowledged that underground activities can lead to inappropriate workplace
practices: namely long hours, unclean environments and compromise an individuals agency
in deciding whether or not they choose to carry out a job. Of note, the risk of inappropriate
workplaces was discussed as equally impacting on migrant and non-migrant workers.
These girls are not necessarily migrant workers that Ive had experience with. These are
girls that have worked in the kind of places that a lot of migrant workers end up working.
They are just factories. They are nothing like the movies or the way the media talks about
sex work. They are dirty, there is a lack of security and the girls are expected to work
under less than optimal conditions. You know, drunk clients. Seeing client after client.
Like a factory. There is no real care for the service because they are charging the
minimum amount so clients are not expecting a huge standard service so girls are not
expected to provide a huge amount of service. So everything is kind of low expectation.
But the thing is, these are the places that would be willing to hire migrant workers. This is
where a lot of migrant girls end up working as they are the only places that will work with
migrants (Brothel operator #1)

As such, underground activities place workers at risk of exploitation.

This puts them at risk of being underpaid or in a worse case scenario being abused. It
puts them at risk of financial abuse or they have to work longer hours or in not so nice
conditions (Brothel operator #2)
When you talk about migrant sex workers, inherently there is a greater risk for more
vulnerability amongst that group. Because you have got people who are working illegally,
so the moment you start to work illegally, your status in New Zealand is at risk. That then
increases the opportunity for others to exploit that situation for their own benefit. We find
this, not only in sex workers, but across the board in illegal work. Unscrupulous employers
or others involved in that industry will hold individual workers to ransom on the basis that
they will dob them in when they wont do what is required. . . That generally means that
you work longer hours, you work for less pay and you work in conditions that ordinarily
your average worker would not agree to (NZ Immigration Service)

Also, participants raised the concern that migrant sex workers are compromised in not being
able to easily change workplaces.
They have fewer choices where they can work. They wouldnt have the options to come
and work somewhere like here because I dont employ someone who doesnt have all their
papers [entitlement to work under the PRA]. So migrant sex workers dont necessarily get
the same level of safety that Kiwi or actual legal workers are afforded. The options to go
somewhere else are very limited (Brothel operator #1)

Risks associated with underground activities were also discussed with the abuse of authority
figures discretionary powers.

32

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

6.2 Unique needs specific to migrant sex workers

Two unique needs, language and health considerations, specific to migrant sex workers were
identified. These needs create a degree of vulnerability.

6.2.1 Language
Possessing no, or a limited, command of English was identified as potentially placing migrant
workers in a vulnerable position. This was especially raised in terms of being able to access
information and communicate concerns to an English-speaking individual.
If they dont speak English it makes it slightly different in that they would need someone to
assist them with that or be in the right environment in which to be able to work safely with
a lack of English. But apart from that I cant see any different needs (Brothel operator #1)

6.2.2 Health considerations

Interviews were carried out with registered health professionals working in dedicated sex
worker clinics in Wellington and Auckland. Both health professionals were asked what they
believed were the unique needs of migrant sex workers and the degree to which these needs
might be linked to their migrant status. Rather than migrant status per se, both participants
identified a series of needs directly related to migrants legal position under the PRA.
In terms of primary health care, both health professionals related their concern that, due to a
fear that they may be required to disclose their status, migrant workers often avoid seeking
medical intervention through a general practitioner. As a consequence, migrants were
reported as presenting with escalating conditions that could have been easily treated if
reported at time of onset.
One of the primary issues is that they [migrant sex workers] dont have a doctor. They
dont have a GP. So sometimes their general health is bad. I think there are questions
about are working so therefore, they wont go to a GP because they may be asked about
their visas (Health professional)

Further, workers immigration status can incur non-resident clinic charges which, in many
situations, was reported as cost prohibitive.
They might not go to a doctor because, maybe, they are new to Wellington and they cant
get a GP for love or money because they are full. They havent got enough money for the
after hours and so they struggle on. And so they often come here and complain how sick
they are (Health professional)
Some of them go to the after hours but a non-resident has to pay $100 (Health
professional)

6.3 Protective factors

Aside from the various concerns discussed above, migrant sex workers resilience was noted
and discussed in relation to a number of protective factors. Most notably, migrant workers
were discussed in terms of the high levels of supportive camaraderie that many migrant
groups demonstrate and that this camaraderie underpins the provision of safer sex education,
adherence to condom use and as a point of referral to supportive services, such as NZPC.
They are pretty switched on to putting on condoms. I think what happens is the sisterhood
of the Asian groups are better at teaching their peers than the Kiwi groups. I think there is
much more camaraderie in teaching them (Health professional)

33

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

In contrast, workers who were more isolated or lacking support from other workers were seen
as more vulnerable.
The two participating health professionals discussed that patients generally reported a high
and consistent use of condoms in their work and explained that incidences of sexually
transmitted infections could be attributed to workers who chose not to use condoms with their
intimate partners. This is discussed in more depth in Section 7.
Finally, health professional and NZPC participants commonly referred to many migrant sex
worker groups as exceptionally assertive in making requests and often demanding services.
This is an important consideration in light of the trafficking debate, which portrays migrant
workers as vulnerable and without voice.

6.4 Suggested improvements

The majority of participants strongly supported an amendment to the PRA to remove the
prohibition for migrant sex workers to engage in commercial sexual services in New Zealand.
I think it is just like any other industry. If they come here and they have the skills give them
the ability to be able to apply those skills in whatever level of the industry their skills are
good for. Give them the same opportunity as any other sex worker and any other migrant
worker. If they want to do it and have the skills why shouldnt they be afforded the same
level of choice and back-up (Brothel operator #1)
The PRA needs to be amended to make sure that migrant sex workers have the same
rights as non-migrants (Human rights organisation)

In practice, an amendment would more than likely require migrants to apply for a visa to
engage in commercial sexual services and allow students to work in the sex industry for up to
20 hours a week. It is implicit that the age requirement under the PRA would remain
unchanged.
Of note, the NZ Immigration Service was the only interview stakeholder who had reservations
about changes to the law. Specifically, the NZ Immigration Service related that it would be
extremely difficult to administer migrant sex worker visas, although this was not qualified.
Further, the Immigration Service also stated considerable research exploring possible impacts
of an amendment would be required.
The question is, do you incentivise it by issuing visas for people to come in and work in the
sex industry? Are you then just incentivising more people to come in and work in the sex
industry? What then are the consequences of that? What are the downstream impacts of
that and how do you regulate it? Potentially you could have more people and less work
and an increase in the potential for exploitation? It may well increase the number of people
exploiting these girls in the brothels or supporting their illegal movement across borders. I
dont know. I think youd need to do a lengthy and decent impact review (NZ Immigration
Service)

In contrast, participants advocating for changes to the PRA stressed that criminalisation
provides opportunities for an individuals exploitation and that an amendment to the PRA,
allowing migrants to engage in commercial sexual services, would remove the environments
in which exploitation can occur.
The only reason that people with bad intentions might be attracted to any industry are
because there is an element of being able to coerce or have power over someone. So
therefore migrant sex workers who are not afforded the same rights as Kiwi workers are in
a situation that attracts rogues. But if they are afforded the same rights as other sex

34

Contextualising the needs of migrant sex workers

workers then those people with bad intentions will be weeded out because that is what has
happened under decriminalisation (Brothel operator #1)

Other opposition to NZ Immigration Services focus on workplace exploitation to maintain

legislative status quo centred on existing poor workplace treatment of migrants outside of sex
work.
It is incorrect to focus on exploitation as labour exploitation is not highly organised at all.
Its just all pockets of people. With labour law we [New Zealand] allow people to come in
and we tie them to a certain place to work, which is difficulty in itself because it just makes
them so vulnerable because they know that if they say anything theyll be put right out of
the country (Human rights organisation)

Participants also called for a change to trafficking discourse suggesting a need for alternative
terms to focus on labour exploitation while simultaneously moving away from trafficking
references which are often emotive, lacking a rigorous evidence base and have become so
synonymous with prostitution that trafficking lacks utility.
There is a huge grey area and I think there is where the trafficking paradigm needs to be
brought to an end. Because it is not helpful. It has been completely muddled up in
prostitution and it just needs to be got rid of. It is much more useful to talk about labour
exploitation. Because if someone is being exploited they are being exploited and they
need help (Human rights organisation)

6.5 Summary
The majority of participants strongly support an amendment to the PRA to remove the
prohibition for migrant sex workers to engage in commercial sexual services in New Zealand.
An amendment was perceived as necessary as it would remove migrants current vulnerability
and risks associated with working underground.
Underscoring changes to the PRA includes:

to date there has been no evidence of trafficking of migrant sex workers to New Zealand

New Zealands international obligations requires the provision of the same rights to
migrant workers as are currently afforded New Zealand residents

a need to remove the fear of deportation that the PRA currently provides to enable
migrant workers to access intervention in times of need.

Further, while migrant sex workers can have some unique needs these are generally based
on their culture and language and the fact that they are vulnerable and marginalised with a
different cultural framework. The most important issue raised was fear of authorities which
acts as a barrier to seeking intervention.

35

Review of medical records

7 REVIEW OF CLINIC RECORDS

A review of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collectives Wellington sexual and reproductive
health clinic records was undertaken. The review was inspired by commentary that asserted
migrants are more likely to engage in unsafe sexual practice, often being encouraged or
forced to forego the use of condoms and the assumed higher incidence of STIs amongst
migrant sex worker populations.
The review was developed as an exploratory exercise. Anonymised clinic records, between
2007 and 31 July 2012, were reviewed to determine if particular migrant workers had any
difference in needs from non-migrants. It was assumed that this would be identified if there
were differences in rates of diagnosis between the two populations. Namely, given trafficking
literatures concern about the forced nature of sex work amongst migrants it was important to
determine if there were indication of a higher rate of unsafe sexual practices, and therefore
positive diagnoses, among migrant sex workers.

7.1 Demographic information

The clinical review comprised a census of migrant sex workers (n=51) and a random selection
of non-migrant sex workers (n=51) who had accessed the sexual and reproductive health
clinic.
The ages of migrant sex workers ranged between 18 and 59 years with a median age of 33.
Similarly, non-migrant sex workers were aged between 18 and 53 with a median age of 28. All
non-migrant sex workers were born in New Zealand. Migrant sex workers came from four
geographical areas: Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe. The majority of migrant sex
workers came from Asia (n=46, 90.2%), followed by Africa (n=3, 5.9%).
The majority of migrant sex workers had been in New Zealand for less than a year (n=23,
51.1%) with an additional 16 (35.6%) having been in New Zealand between one and five
years. A minority of migrants had been in New Zealand for five years or more (n=6, 13.3).14
The majority of migrant reported having been in the industry for less than a year (n=22,
53.7%), whereas the largest proportion of New Zealand-born sex workers had worked in the
industry between one and five years (n=17, 47.2%)15 (see Table 3).

14
The length of time in New Zealand was unknown for six of the files reviewed.
15
Data relating to the length of time having worked in the sex industry was missing from both the migrant and
non-migrant records. This equated to 10 and 14 respectively.

36

Review of medical records

Table 3: Demographic Information

Migrant Sex Workers
(n)

Non-Migrant Sex Workers

(n)

Range

18 - 59

18 - 53

Median

33

28

Missing

51

Asia

46

Africa

Caribbean

Europe

Less than a year

22

13

Between 1 and 5 years

15

17

More than 5 years

Missing

10

14

Age

Country of birth
New Zealand

Years in sex industry

7.2 Results
No cases of gonorrhoea or HIV were diagnosed during the time period for either group. Next,
migrant sex workers had a higher incidence of urinary tract infections (n=8, 15.69%) compared
to non-migrant workers (n=5, 9.80%). Finally, relatively high rates of bacterial vaginosis were
reported for migrant and non-migrant sex workers. Notably, non-migrants reporting a
significantly higher incidence (n=31, 60.78%) compared to migrants ( = 10.137, df = 1,
p>0.05).
Table 4: A Review of Key Indicators of Sexual Health.
A Comparison of Migrant and Non-Migrant Sex Workers
Migrant Sex Workers

Non-Migrant Sex Workers

P
value

Prevalence

Prevalence

Gonorrhoea

0/51

0%

0/51

0%

HIV

0/51

0%

0/51

0%

Urinary Tract Infection

8/51

15.69%

5/51

9.80%

NS

Bacterial Vaginosis

15/51

29.41%

31/51

60.78%

0.05

NS represents a difference of no significant difference

7.3 Discussion
In contrast to anti-trafficking discourse, the review of clinic records provided a strong
indication that migrant sex workers engage in high levels of safer sex behaviour. This is

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Review of medical records

further supported by high rates of condom usage reported by survey participants (see Section
8). Popularised depictions of migrant sex workers generally involve the portrayal of migrants
having been forced to engage in sex work; commonly without the use of condoms as the
woman is portrayed as possessing no personal agency. In contrast, the participating health
professionals unanimously agreed that the bulk of their migrant sex worker clients reported a
high, and willing, adherence to safer sex practices and consistently use condoms with their
clients.
No I think they are good. I check every patient I see about condom use and they look
aghast at me for even asking. I dont think Ive had problems with Asian sex workers a lot
not using condoms (Health professional)

Further, health professionals reported that, while patients generally reported a high and
consistent use of condoms in their work, the incidence of any infections might be attributed to
workers who do not use condoms with their intimate partners. As such, it cannot be concluded
that positive diagnoses of a sexually transmitted infection were acquired through sex work.
It is very rare for someone who is only working to be diagnosed with an STI. They
normally catch the bug outside of work (Health professional)
A lot of times their partners dont know that they are working. Thats a big concern that
their husbands or their boyfriends dont know that they are sex workers so thats why they
dont use condoms with them. And I think the infections they get are more often from their
partners than they are from their clients (Health professional)

The incidence of urinary tract infections is noteworthy from an occupational health and safety
perspective and complements observations made by the nurses participating in the study.
Both nurses raised concern in relation to the length of time worked and the large number of
clients migrant workers reported seeing. In contrast to anti-trafficking literature, which
positions migrant sex workers as being forced into long hours of work, nurse participants
related that many migrants come to New Zealand for short amounts of time with a
predetermination to save as much money as possible. Long hours and associated lack of
sleep was reported as negatively impacting on their health and often resulted in fatigue and illhealth characteristic of being rundown.
Probably one of my concerns is that they are here to make money, therefore they work
madly. Its not unusual that they are on six day long shifts. So when they come in theyre
overworked. When first come here they come very rundown. Urinary tract infections, chest
infections and sore throats (Health professional)

Finally, relatively high rates of bacterial vaginosis in migrant and non-migrant populations may
be explained by a high use of lubricants and vaginal douching. The common use of vaginal
douching amongst some ethnicities was raised a concern as it may predispose workers to
bacterial vaginosis.
It is a concern because if they change the pH of the vagina, which they are doing with over
washing, they are far more likely to get bacterial vaginosis (Health professional)

While douching was not reported as a common practice among non-migrant workers the use
of lubricant may explain changes in vaginal flora.

38

Survey results

8 SURVEY RESULTS
A survey of migrant sex workers was undertaken to understand migration and work
experiences, working situation and access to support.

8.1 Migration experience

One section of the survey focused on understanding participants migration experiences.
Questions fell into the following four areas:

the pre-migration context

motivations for leaving home country

motivations for coming to New Zealand

entering New Zealand.

8.1.1 The pre-migration context

Two pre-migration questions were asked: participants country of birth and their primary
occupation.

Country of birth
The majority of survey participants (86%, n=107) indicated they were born in Asia. Of these
China was most common (n=65), followed by Hong Kong (n=17) and Thailand (n=11) (see
Figure 2).
Figure 2: Country of Birth

Asia
LaWn American

86%
5%

Europe

3%

Pacic

2%

North American

2%

Africa

2%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Eighty-three percent (n=101) of participants had been living in the country of their birth before
they arrived in New Zealand, and 95% (n=118) were living in the same region in which they

39

Survey results

born.16 Each of the four who had moved from their region of birth had been born in Asia; two
were born in China but had been living in the United Arab Emirates and Australia prior to
moving to New Zealand. The remaining two were born in Japan but had been living in the
USA and Australia prior to moving to New Zealand.

Main occupation before coming to New Zealand

Survey participants indicated a diversity of occupations prior to migration which reflected a
range of backgrounds. They were given eight categories to select from or indicated other as
shown in Figures 3 below.
Of the specified categories, prior to moving to New Zealand, participants most commonly
reported having been students (23%, n=28). Just under one in five were workers17 (18%,
n=22). Two percent reported having worked as sex workers (n=2). The remaining 26% (n=33)
were employed variously in business, health, teaching and farming. The most common
response was to indicate other occupation (27%, n=34).18
Figure 3: Occupations Prior to Migrating

Other

27%

Student

23%

Worker

18%

Small business owner

17%

Nurse

7%

Teacher

2%

Sex worker

2%

Farmer

1%
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Other occupation included:

housewife (18%, n=22)

office worker (2%, n=2)

consultant (1%, n=1)

flight attendant (1%, n=1)

hairdresser (1%, n=1)

massage (1%, n=1)

police officer (1%, n=1)

real estate agent (1%, n=1)

16

Data was missing for two participants.

17

Worker is synonymous with manual/unskilled labour not requiring indepth or specialized training.

18

Due to rounding, percentages do not total 100.

40

Survey results

store manager (1%, n=1)

tour guide (1%, n=1)

travel agent (1%, n=1).

The low percentage reporting their previous occupation as a sex worker was further supported
by a direct question on whether they had ever worked as a sex worker in a country other than
New Zealand. Just 10% (n=12) reported they had worked as a sex worker at some point.
One sex workers listed four countries they had previously worked as a sex worker (Australia,
England, Spain and Singapore), two listed three different countries (both Australia, Japan, and
Hong Kong) and another listed two countries (Canada and England), the remaining
respondents listed just one country (which included Africa, Australia, Brazil, China and
England).
Eight sex workers (6%) reported they had previously worked in New Zealand as a sex worker,
but for the majority (91%, n=113) this was their first time working as a sex worker in New
Zealand.19

8.1.2 Motivations for leaving home country

Survey participants were asked to indicate the main reasons they left their home country, they
could select more than one reason from options provided. The most common reasons for
leaving was to study (26%, n=32), to travel (20%, n=25) or because they moved with their
family (16%, n=20). Financial reasons were also common. These included to support their
family (15%, n=18), to get a higher paying job (11%, n=14), because they had lost their job
(6%, n=7) and/or debt problems (5%, n=6).
Seven percent (n=9) of respondents reported family problems and just 1% (n=1) reported
having left their home country out of fear for their own or their families safety. Of those giving
other reasons (3%, n=4), three suggested they wanted a better future or new start, and one
didnt give a response (see Figure 4).

19

Responses were missing for three participants.

41

Survey results

Figure 4: Reasons Cited for Leaving Home Country

26%

To study
20%

To travel
16%

Moved with family

15%

To support my family
11%

To get a higher paying job

Family problems

7%

To get married

7%
6%

I lost my job

5%

Debt problems

4%

I didn't like my job

3%

Other
1%

For fear of my own/famiy's safety

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

8.1.3 Motivations for coming to New Zealand

The most commonly reported reason for coming to New Zealand was because the participant
knew someone already living in the country (35%, n=43). The next most common response
was because of the working environment (28%, n=35) (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Reasons Reported for Travelling to New Zealand

Know someone living here

35%

The working environment is be`er

28%

Be`er study opWons

19%

To be with my family in New Zealand

15%

Because I became married

10%

It is easier to get a visa

8%

Been here before

8%

Other

6%

It was cheaper to come here

2%
0%

5%

42

10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Survey results

8.1.4 Entering New Zealand

Participants were asked a number of migration questions that have been commonly
associated with trafficking. Firstly, they were asked what action that took to enter New
Zealand. The assumption has been that sponsorship may reflect a trafficking type scenario.
Next, they were questioned about the type of assistance the individual received to secure a
visa. An indication of trafficking is if their boss had assisted them. The third line of questioning
centred on the how they actually travelled to New Zealand. The expectation is that those who
travel with a boss are trafficked. Finally, participants were asked how much it had cost them to
travel to New Zealand. This has been included because there has been some commentary
that migrant workers are required to pay to work in a foreign country and are required to pay
for a friend to accompany them.

Action taken to enter New Zealand

Survey participants were asked if they had taken any action to assist with their entry into New
Zealand. They were given four options and could select as many were applicable or indicate
any other action. The most common action taken was to travel as a tourist (44%, n=54), and
just under a third (27%, n=34) had enrolled in an education course. There were only 11%
(n=14) who were sponsored by an individual or workplace. Unfortunately, the question did not
clearly differentiate between sponsorship on the grounds of work or through a family member
(see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Action Taken to Enter New Zealand

44%

Travel as a tourist
Enrol in an edcuaWon course

27%

Get married

15%

Get sponsored by an individual or workplace

11%
5%

Other
0%

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Help securing visa

Most commonly, participants had arranged their visa themselves or with help of a family
member, partner or friend. Nine percent had used a broker and just 2% (n=2) reported their
boss had assisted them in securing their visa. One of these workers indicated they did not
want to do anything else, while one reported they did not know how to leave / couldnt get help
to leave. Of those that had some assistance in securing their visa, this assistance came from
people living overseas for 17 migrants (14%).

43

Survey results

Travel
The majority of the participants had travelled to New Zealand alone (n=77, 62%). One in five
came with a friend (n=27) and another 17 came with a relative or family member. Just one
migrant arrived with another sex worker, and none reported being accompanied by their boss.
These figures counter a common conception that migrant sex workers are somehow forced to
travel to another country (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: How Participants Travelled to New Zealand

62%

Alone
22%

Friend
14%

RelaWve
Other

1%

Another sex worker

1%

Boss

0%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

A popularised trafficking image is that migrants either do not know the country of destination or
that they had been misinformed, before they left their country, about the actual destination.
Encouragingly, the majority of participants (94%, n=117) reported knowing that they were
coming to New Zealand. The remaining seven (6%) participants indicated that they did not
know. Of these, three participants indicated that they had left their home country to travel the
world and had taken a circuitous travel route before arriving in New Zealand. The remaining
three participants did not qualify their responses.

Cost of travel
Participants were asked how much it cost them to travel, enter and start working in New
Zealand. The majority of participants (66%, n=82) reported that they had spent less than
$10,000. There were 18 participants (14%) who reported a cost greater than $10,000. Of
these, the majority were students (n=10) and three were on a work visa. The remaining
participants stated that they had moved to New Zealand with their family and were now either
New Zealand citizens (n=3) or a permanent resident (n=1). The higher costs of $30,000 or
more were reported by three participants who came to New Zealand to study (see Figure 8).
Of note, 17 of the 18 participants who paid $10,000 or more to travel to New Zealand reported
travelling alone. The remaining individual reported travelling with a relative.

44

Survey results

Figure 8: The Cost to Travel (including air fares), Enter

and Start Working in New Zealand

30%
26%
25%
20%

18%
14%

15%

12%

9%

10%
5%

2%

0%
<$2000

$2000 to
$2999

$3000 to
$4999

$5000 to
$9999

$10,000 to
$20,000

>$30,000

8.2 Working situation

Participants were asked a series of questions about their working situations. Questions fell
into the following three areas:

working conditions

venue and clients

income.

8.2.1 Working conditions

Participants were asked a number of questions about their working conditions. Questions
include the type of employment arrangements under which they worked, the hours worked,
condom use and indications of freedom and breaches of human rights.
Most participants found their working conditions to be about what they were expecting (40%,
n=49) or a little better (28%, n=35). Twelve percent (n=15) found them much better than they
were expecting, with just 18% (n=22) finding their conditions a little or much worse than they
were expecting.

Management
Seven out of ten participants reported that they had a boss (70%, n=87). A similar number
(n=88) reported they stayed in one location (i.e. did not move between towns or cities in New
Zealand for work).

45

Survey results

Contractual arrangements
The majority of participants reported not having a work contract or employment agreement
with their employer (72%, n=89). Of the 30 respondents who did have some form of
employment contract, most found their current working conditions accurately reflected their
contract (83%, n=25). This suggests a degree of employment transparency and fairness. Four
suggested their conditions were better than their contract and just one indicated her conditions
were worse than the terms in her contract.

Hours worked
Participants most commonly reported working between six and ten hours a day, for five or six
days a week, seeing between 10 and 19 clients a week. Approximately one quarter of
participants reported working 10 hours and over per day (23%, n=29) and 10% (n=13) of
participants stated that they work seven days a week.
Over a third of participants (36%) said they would see more clients if they could, 20% said they
would not change the number of clients, while a quarter (24%) said they would prefer to see
less.20
Table 5: Hours Worked and Number of Clients Per Week
Amount of Work

Frequency

Percentage

1-6 hours

31

25%

6-10 hours

55

44%

10 hours and over

29

23%

On call 24 hours

5%

Missing

2%

1-2

7%

3-4

44

35%

5-6

55

44%

13

10%

Missing

2%

9 or less

35

28%

10-19

53

43%

20-29

28

23%

30-39

4%

Missing

2%

124

100%

Average hours per day

Average days per week

Average number of clients per week

Total

20

Twenty-four participants either did not respond to this question or said they didnt know

46

Survey results

Condom use
All but two participants reported that they always wore condoms while working (98%, n=120).
Of the two that did not always use condoms, one said it was because her boss tells her not
to and the other because it will keep the customer happy and because she could charge
more.21

Freedom and human rights

Nearly all the migrants reported having easy access to their passport (95%, n=118), just five
migrants reported that they did not have access.22
Further, most participants (88%, n=109) said that their workplace allowed them to refuse
clients, with six (5%) reported this was not the case.23 Of note, only one participant who could
not refuse a client did not have access to their passport.24
Participants were also asked two questions designed to gauge their knowledge of their rights.
The majority of participants (88%, n= 103) said that it is illegal for a boss to fine a sex worker
if they take the day off. While three participants reported that it is only sometimes illegal
(2.4%).25 Of concern, 11 participants (9.4%) indicated that it is legal for a worker to be fined.
Next, participants were asked if it is illegal for a boss or anyone else to stop a sex worker
leaving their job. Again, the majority of participants said that it is not legal (93.2%, n=110).
Five participants said that it is sometimes illegal (4.2%, n=5) with three (2.5%) reporting that it
is legal.26
Freedom to go shopping was explored as a possible indication of unfair constraints being
placed on the worker. Most participants reported shopping frequently, with two-thirds shopping
once a week or more. Only 6% reported they hardly ever went shopping (see Figure 9).

21
22
23

24

25
26

Two participants did not respond to this question

One participant did not answer this question.
Two participants did not answer this question, and seven responded with dont know.
Of note, further exploration of this participants responses revealed a number of indicators of personal
freedom. For instance, the participant goes shopping once a week, is in contact with NZPC, has travelled
and worked in New Zealand on multiple occassions, knew that she was coming to New Zealand and she
travelled to New Zealand to get married. Finally, she stated that she woud have no problem contacting
police.
Nine participants did not answer this question.
Nine participants did not answer this question.

47

Survey results

Figure 9: Reporting Shopping Frequency

60%
49%

50%
40%
30%
20%

17%

17%
6%

10%

6%

0%
2-3 Wmes per Once a week 2-3 Wmes per Once a month Hardly ever
week
month

Reasons for staying working in the sex industry

Survey participants typically indicated a number of reasons for staying working in the sex
industry, with the average number of reasons being five. The most common reason reported
by three-quarters (n=94) was to pay for household expenses. Of particular note is that none of
the migrants that participated in the survey reported that they were being made to work by
someone (i.e. suggesting human trafficking).
Abel et al (2007) surveyed a large sample of New Zealand sex workers (n=772) and asked
them their reason for staying working in the sex industry carried out by Abel et al (2007).
Figure 10 below compares their reasons to that of the migrant sex workers in the current
study, the chart is ordered in terms of frequency of the reasons given by the migrant sex
workers. Reasons given were similar, with earning money or saving being rated highly by both
groups. Non-migrant workers seemed to appreciate the flexible working hours and, perhaps
more frequently, noted other positive aspects (e.g. ability to pay for social life/luxuries/going
out, because sex workers are fun to be with, enjoying the sex).
For migrant workers paying for education and difficulties earning or accessing other income
were more common than for New Zealand sex workers.

48

Survey results

Figure 10: Reasons for Staying in the Sex Industry.

A Comparison of Migrants and Non-Migrants

Migrant sex workers

NZ Sex Workers
76%
82%

Pay household expenses (N=743; N=124)

59%

Saving up (N=730; N=124)

53%

Money (N=756; N=124)

Support children / family (N=724; N=124)

40%

93%

49%

42%

Flexible working hours (N=739; N=124)

Pay for educaWon (N=720; N=124)

25%

No other income (N=726; N=124)

26%

83%

40%
39%

31%

Pay for social life/going out/luxuries (N=730; N=124)

67%

23%
18%

Don't know what else to do (N=711; N=124)

19%

Because it's my job (N=719; N=124)

Unable to get benet/parental support (N=715;
N=124)
Sex workers are friendly/fun to be with (N=705;
N=124)

11%

51%

19%

16%

Don't know how to leave (N=710; N=124)

10%
10%

Can't get help to leave (N=710; N=124)

10%
7%

42%

10%
15%

All my friends do it (N=715; N=124)

10%

Enjoy the sex (N=701; N=124)

9%

Don't want to do anything else (N=705; N=124)

Support for alcohol or other drug use (N=722;
N=124)

4%

It's exciWng and glamorous (N=713; N=124)

3%

Support gambling use (N=717; N=124)

1%

Made to work by someone (N=715; N=124)

0%
1%

0%

68%

24%
17%
23%
39%

20%

49

39%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Survey results

8.2.2 Venue and clients

The next series of questions focused on the type of venue in which participants worked.

Type of workplace
Participants were asked which of six types of workplace they worked.27 It appeared the vast
majority of participants only worked in one type of venue (93%, n=115) while just seven
migrant sex workers worked in more than one venue. Most commonly, participants reported
working from a private house (40%, n=49) this was followed by working in a massage health
clinic (34%, n=42).
Figure 11: Type of Workplace

40%

Private house
34%

Massage health clinic

Brothel

10%

Motel

6%
2%

Escort (agency)
Street-based worker

2%

Other

1%
0%

5%

10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Clients
Respondents were also asked about the ethnic background of their clients. The majority of
respondents related that they saw clients of mixed ethnic backgrounds (56%, n=69) whereas
approximately one quarter of respondents saw exclusively European clients (26%, n=32),
and around one in five reported seeing exclusively Asian clients (17%, n=21).28

Languages spoken at work

Just under half the survey participants (47%, n=58) felt they spoke English either very well or
well. A similar proportion felt they didnt speak English well (49%, n=61), and only four
percent indicated they did not speak English at all (see Figure 12).

27
28

Participants were given the option of providing multiple responses.

Responses were missing for two participants.

50

Survey results

Figure 12: Knowledge of English Language

80%
70%
60%

49%

50%
40%

26%

30%

21%

20%
10%

4%

0%
I don't speak
English

Not well

Well

Very well

The vast majority of sex workers spoke English at work (94%, n=117). Of these 25% also
spoke Mandarin (n=31), and 11 percent also spoke Cantonese (n=14). Of the 6% (n=7) that
indicated they did not speak English at work, six spoke Cantonese (with three of these also
speaking Mandarin) and one worker spoke Korean only.

8.2.3 Income
Participants were asked a number of questions about their income. Some questions explored
fairness within the workplace, such as whether respondents were paid regularly. Other
questions compared income and working conditions to the individuals home country whilst
others explore income-related work conditions. Again these questions can be used as an
indication of exploitation and/or coercion in the workplace.

Regular payment
Nearly all the participants reported being paid regularly (n=117, 94%). Five reported they
were not paid regularly. Of these, two said this was because there were sometimes not
enough clients.29

Current income in comparison to home country

Three-quarters (75%, n=92) of participants reported their current New Zealand income was a
little, or much, better than what they would have earned in their home country. A minority,
4%, stated that their New Zealand income was worse (see Figure 13).

29

Two participants did not answer this question

51

Survey results

Figure 13: The Extent to which New Zealand Income Compares to Country of Origin

45%

41%

40%

34%

35%
30%
25%

20%

20%
15%
10%
5%

2%

2%

0%
Much worse A li`le worse About the same A li`le be`er Much be`er

Income satisfaction
Just 12% (n=15) reported they were not satisfied with their current income with some of
these commented that they found living in New Zealand expensive and were struggling on
their current income.

Expenditure
Participants were asked how they spent the majority of their income.30 Most commonly, 47%
(n=58) used their income to support themselves, family and/or partner in New Zealand. Just
under a third reported saving the majority of their income (n=35).
Perhaps more specific to migrants, a third (28%, n=35) reported spending the majority of
their income supporting family members in their home country, and 7% (n=9) reported the
majority of their income was spent paying debts outside of New Zealand. The same
proportion (7%, n=9) reported most of their earnings were spent paying off debt in New
Zealand.31
Of the 17 who reported their income was spent paying off debt, either in New Zealand or in
their home country, seven reported that their debt had been incurred through their travel to
New Zealand or through securing their current job (6% of all migrants that participated in the
survey) (see Figure 14).

30
31

Participants had the option of giving multiple responses.

One participant reported their income was spent paying off debt in New Zealand and overseas

52

Survey results

Figure 14: How the Majority of Income is Spent

Support for me and family in NZ

43%

Support family in home country outside NZ

28%

Save

28%
19%

EducaWon fees
Pay debts outside NZ

7%

Pay debts in NZ

7%

Support me and partner in NZ

4%

Other

2%

Gamble

2%

Buy drugs

2%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

53

Survey results

8.3 Accessing NZPC

The final section of the survey explored participants awareness and use of NZPCs services.

8.3.1 Awareness
Participants were questioned about their awareness of the various NZPC branches.32 The
majority of participants had heard of Aucklands NZPC (76%, n=94), with much less
awareness of the remaining branches. The high level of awareness about Auckland NZPC
may, more than likely, be attributed to the fact the majority of participants were recruited in
Auckland. Similarly, low levels of awareness about Christchurch and Dunedin NZPC can be
attributed to the fact that the survey was administered in the North Island only.
Table 6: Awareness of NZPC
n

Auckland NZPC

94

76%

Tauranga NZPC

16

13%

Wellington NZPC

16

13%

Christchurch NZPC

11

9%

Dunedin NZPC

7%

8.3.2 Barriers to accessing services

Forty percent of participants (n=49) reported they had had no difficulties in accessing NZPCs
services. Of those that had experienced difficulties accessing NZPC, the majority attributed
this to a lack of knowledge about the various support services available (19%, n=23) (see
Figure 15).

32

Participants were also questioned about their willingness to access NZPC. Data pertaining to this
question has been omited because over 20% the survey question was incomplete.

54

Survey results

Figure 15: Use and Possible Barriers to Accessing NZPC

I have not had any diculty accessing services

40%

I didn't know which support services could

help me

19%

I was afraid

7%

I couldn't nd one that spoke my language

6%

I wanted to deal with the diculWes myself

5%

The opening hours didn't suit me

4%

I couldn't aord them

2%

Other

1%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Rather than NZPC, the majority of participants stated that they most commonly sourced
information from friends (68%, n=81). NZPC was the next most common source (39%,
n=48).
Figure 16: Participants Primary Sources of Information

Friends

65%

NZPC

39%

Workplace

32%

Internet

31%

Newspaper

29%

TV

24%

Local language newsle`ers

24%

Doctor

22%

Radio

12%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Health professional and NZPC participants suggested that a number of opportunities exist to
promote aspects of NZPCs services. First, the need for early engagement with migrant sex
workers arose out of discussions with the health professional participants and their concern
over the degree of illness some migrant workers initially present.
Brothel managers need to look after the girls health. If they [managers] know they
havent got visas they have to do something for their health (Health professional)

55

Survey results

Next, complementing early intervention, the need for health brochures in relevant languages
was also raised.
Sexual and reproductive health services need to have resources in a variety of
languages (Brothel operator #1)

Participants also raised the need for flyers in pertinent languages outlining the nature of
NZPCs services; specifically the sexual and reproductive health is free and that NZPC has
no relationship or reporting requirements to state agencies.
So I think we could so some flyers so every time there is a delivery we should have some
flyers in Chinese and translate it for the owners so they dont think were doing anything
underhand. Put it in with the deliveries and ask them to put it on the notice board (Health
professional)

NZPC and health professional participants also raised the need for NZPC to advertise in
relevant newspapers, and in particular Chinese media. Of note, however, NZPC has
advertised in a number of Chinese newspapers in the past. An article appeared the New
Zealand Herald accusing NZPC of inappropriately using taxpayers funds for targeting illegal
migrant sex workers.
We got attacked by the Herald saying we were using taxpayers money to develop
resources for Chinese sex workers (NZPC)

While not a survey question, health professional and NZPC interview participants raised
concerns that the sexual and reproductive health clinics are in a process of moving from an
anonymous to a confidential service. Participants raised this as possibly compromising the
success of promotional activities.
Historically, the success of the NZPC sexual and reproductive health clinics rested on its
anonymous service. In practice this meant that names were never required and all clinic
records were encoded to ensure patient anonymity. Similar practices were practiced by the
New Zealand AIDS Foundation in its testing of HIV and syphilis as it was asserted that
marginalised populations such as sex workers and men who have sex with men are less
likely to engage with health services that risk disclosing their name, work, sexual orientation,
or behaviours.
Over the last few years changes in District Health Board requirements has resulted in the
steady erosion of anonymous nature of the NZPC health and reproductive health clinics.

8.4 Summary
The surveys results provide a strong indication that participating migrant sex workers have
entered New Zealand of their own volition, and are generally happy in their work and
workplaces.
Concerns about trafficking are nullified by a review of the processes surrounding securing
visas, the means in which they travelled and the costs associated with travel. In terms of
securing visas, the majority of participants reported having secured these themselves or with
the help of a friend or a family member. Two participants (2%) reported that a boss had
helped them.
In relation to the means of travel, the majority (94%) of participants reported knowing that
they were coming to New Zealand when they left their home country. The remainder appear
to have taken a circuitous route common with an overseas experience. Further, the majority
either travelled alone, with a friend or a family member. Only one participant reported having
travelled with their boss.

56

Survey results

Anti-trafficking groups have raised concerns about migrant workers incurring debt as a result
of travelling to another country to work. The risk is that the individual is placed in a
vulnerable position if the debt is owed to their employer. Fortunately, there was no indication
of employer indebtedness. While substantial sums were expended in travelling to New
Zealand the highest costs were generally reported by students. These cost appear to reflect
tertiary levels fees placed on international students.
The surveys results are also useful in regards to highlighting a lack of exploitation and/or
coercion in the workplace. Of note, the majority of participants found their workplace
conditions either matched or exceeded their expectations. Further, while 70% reported
having a boss, the majority did not have a contract. This provides an indication that workers
are not locked into a particular workplace or agreement. Furthermore, 82% of participants
said that they were happy with their income. Those who were not satisfied commented that
they found New Zealand an expensive place to live.
The number of hours worked is also an interesting finding. Most common were reports of
working between six and ten hours a day for five or six days a week and seeing between 10
and 19 clients a week. A further 10 percent reported working seven days a week. Despite
long hours, over a third of participants (36%) said that they would like to see more clients if
they could and 20% said that they would not change the number of clients, whereas one
quarter said that they would prefer to see less. Given the interviews with health
professionals in the qualitative component of the study, these hours of work may be
appreciated in light of the individuals intent to earn as much money as possible before they
leave. The risk, however, is that their health can suffer as a result of fatigue.
Positive indications of freedom in the workplace were reflected in the high number of
participants who reported that they are paid regularly (94%) and the frequency in which they
go shopping (two-thirds going out shopping once a week or more).
In terms of awareness of NZPC, the majority of participants had heard of Aucklands NZPC
(76%, n=94), with much less awareness of the remaining branches. The high level of
awareness about Auckland NZPC can, more than likely, be attributed to the fact the majority
of participants were recruited in Auckland. Forty percent of participants (n=49) reported they
had had no difficulties in accessing NZPCs services. Of those that had experienced
difficulties accessing NZPC, the majority attributed this to a lack of knowledge about the
various support services available (19%, n=23).
The survey however, has raised a number of concerns. Rather than trafficking these
concerns indicate poor workplace/managerial practice. Specifically, it is a concern that 5%
of participants stated that their workplace did not allow them to refuse clients. Also there is
an indication that some employers place fines on workers. For instance, just under 10%
indicated that it is legal for a worker to be fined. Finally, 5% of participants reported not
having easy access to their passports. Unfortunately, the survey did not question whether
their employer or a third party had confiscated their passport or whether not having easy
access was a problem for the individual. At the least, the individuals ability to access their
passport requires some attention.

57

Discussion

9 DISCUSSION
This study has drawn on three research streams. First, from the perspective of key
informants, concern was raised that New Zealand is not meeting its obligations, under a
number of United Nations conventions, to migrant workers. Further, current legislation was
discussed as creating migrants as an underclass; vulnerable to exploitation.
The primary message underpinning anti-trafficking discourse is that sex workers are
vulnerable, exploited and have no agency in their work. The logical outcome of which is that
migrant workers will have a higher incidence of sexually transmitted infections as they would
be forced to forego safer sex practices: either because of a clients or their managers
demands. The studys second research stream, a review of sexual and reproductive health
records, challenges this anti-trafficking premise. Based on the findings of the review, there
was no indication that migrant sex workers are at any greater risk of infection than nonmigrants. Further, low levels of infection, and commentary obtained from participating health
professionals, provides a strong indication of adherence to safer sex practices while working.
The concern, however, is a practice, albeit however small, of sex workers who do not use
condoms with their intimate partners. It is at the level of intimate partners that appears the
greatest risk of infection/transmission.
The third research stream, the survey of migrant sex workers, provides an overview of their
experiences and provides a strong indication that participating migrant sex workers have
entered New Zealand of their own volition and are generally happy in their work and
workplaces.
The survey, however, has raised a number of concerns that indicate poor
workplace/managerial practice. For instance, there are indications that some managers are
not allowing workers to refuse clients. Also, the imposition of fines, a poor practice and
contrary to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, can have a detrimental effect on the individuals
wellbeing. Finally, it is noteworthy that five percent of participants reported not having easy
access to their passports. The survey did not question whether lack of access to their
passport was because of it having been confiscated or whether not having easy access was
a problem for the individual. At the least, the individuals ability to access their passport
requires some attention.

58

References

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64

BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

BEYOND
DECRIMINALIZATION :
Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework
for Law Reform
Full Report

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

Danica Piche photo.

List of contributors
Authors

Dedication

Creative content

Mary Childs, Sarah Ciarrocchi, Cristen

Gleeson, John Lowman, Katrina Pacey,
Francois Paradis, Danica Piche, Emily
Rix, Elaine Ryan, Elin Sigurdson,
Krista Sigurdson, Laura Track, Maia
Tsurumi, Megan Vis-Dunbar, Lisa
Weich.

To all the people who gave their time,

energy and expertise to this important
project. In particular, to the inspiring
group of sex workers who courageously
spoke out about the conditions of their
work and their lives and contributed
their knowledge, insight and vision for
law and social reform.

Barry Calhoun, Brad Hornick, Tracie

Park, Danica Piche, Paul Ryan, Jaya
Surjadinata, Peter Wrinch.

Contributors
Rielle Capler, Kelly Crowe, Debbie,
Caily DiPuma, Elisabeth Finney,
Lauren Gehlen, Stacey Grayer,
Ashleigh Keall, Thomas Kerr, DJ, Jeff
Langlois, Laurie, Joel Lemoyre, Chris
Misura, John Richardson, Shari, Julie
Shugarman.

Editors
Naomi Brunemeyer, Karen Mirsky,
Sean Rossiter.

Legal reviewers
Carolyn Askew, Kate Blomfield, Kelley
Bryan, Catherine Dauvergne, Jess
Hadley, John Kilcoyne, Chris Sprysak,
Ondine Snowdon.


PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

Acknowledgements
All the staff at Pivot Legal Society,
Asian Society for the Intervention of
AIDS (ASIA), Boys R Us, Downtown
Eastside Womens Centre, Lifeskills
Centre, ORCHID Project, Portland
Hotel Society and the Potluck Cafe,
Prostitutes Empowerment Education
and Resource Society (PEERS),
Prostitution Alternatives Counselling
and Education Society (PACE), Sex
Workers Action Network (SWAN), the
Gathering Place, Womens Information
and Safe House (WISH).

Images on covers and headers

Barry Calhoun.

Funders
Law Foundation of B.C.,
Law Commission of Canada,
Canadian Bar Association.
Pivot Legal Society
PO Box 4438 STN Terminal
Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3Z8
Copyright Pivot Legal Society
June 2006
To view a pdf of the Abridged Version
of Beyond Decriminalization, go to
www.pivotlegal.org
ISBN: 0-9736445-2-4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

Executive Summary

Part 1: Introduction

10

Pivots sex work law reform project 10

Scope of this report 11

Section 1: Pivots approach to law reform 12

Section 2: Pivots research methods 13

Project staff and volunteers 13

Methodology 13
Research objectives 13
Data collection 14
Table 1: Discusssion groups and education session structure 15
Expertise of sex workers 16
Recruitment of project participants 16
Project participants 16
Data analysis 17

i.
ii.

Section 3: Current working conditions in various areas of the sex industry 18

i.
Street-level sex work (women) 18

Safety 19

Work areas 19

Law enforcement 20

Marginalization 20

Health 20

Financial security 20

ii. Street-level sex work (men) 21

Safety services 21

Physical and mental health 21

iii. Out-call/escort 22

Health 22

Stress 23

Harrasment 23

Safety 23

Management and services 24

Licensing 25

iv. In-call/massage 25

Management and working conditions 25

Complaints 26

Safety 27

Health 27

Privacy 28

Work and income 28

Law enforcement 28

Forced labour 28

Financial arrangements and wage structure 29
1. Financial exploitation and sexual slavery 29
2. Fee splitting (i. Worker receives a base amount per client and all tips, ii Fees for both the 29

introduction and the sexual services are split between worker and owner on a percentage basis),

3. Hourly wage
30

4. Tips only
30

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

Part 2: Municipal Law and Sex Work

32

Licensing and sex work

i.
Laws governing municipal powers in B.C. and Alberta
ii. B.C.s Local Government Act
iii. Do the LGA and Community Charter apply in Vancouver?
iv. Discretion to grant and refuse business licenses in Vancouver
v.
Inspections by the City
vi. Municipal governance over businesses that provide sexual services in Vancouver, Calgary and

Edmonton

vii. Vancouvers licensing by-laws

Vancouvers business prohibition by-law

Body rub parlours

Dating services

Health enhancement centres

Social escort service

Massage parlours and steam baths

viii. Licensing fees

Challenging high licensing fees and restrictive by-laws

Body rub parlour licenses in Vancouver

Body rub parlour licenses in Edmonton and Calgary

ix. Views on the quasi-legal status of sex industry businesses

x.
Licensing restrictions criminal record

xi. Do sex workers want to participate in a licensing system?

Individual licensing street workers

Individual licensing escorts

Individual escort licensing in Edmonton

Business licenses for establishments consisting of more than one sex worker

xi. Privacy

xii. Business hours

xiii. Advertising by-laws

xiv. By-law enforcement

xv. Discretion of licensing body

xvi. Licensing schemes must promote choice

xvii. Consultation with sex workers

xviii. Municipal law and sex work recomendations

32
32
33
33
34
35

Zoning and sex work

i.
Zoning laws

ii. Vancouvers zoming by-law

iii. Regulating zoning districts

iv. The current situtuation for sex workers

v.
Sex workers views on zoning

vi. Incorporating sex industry businesses into the existing zoning scheme

vii. Prostitution as a distinct use

Dedicated prostitution zones

viii. Home-based sex industry businesses

ix. Other concerns relating to the issue of zoning

Safety

Autonomy

Privacy

Sensitivity to children
x.
Zoning and sex work recommendations

65
65
65
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
74
75
76
77
77

36
37
38
38
39
40
40
41
41
42
43
44
45
49
49
50
51
53
55
56
57
59
60
62
63
64
64

BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

Part 3: EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR LAW

78

Section 1: Employment standards and protections
80

i.
Sex workers as employees and independent contractors
81

Current conditions in the sex industry
81

Sex workers as employees
82

ii. Employees and employment standards
85

Hiring employees
85

Hiring practices
85

Age of workers
88

Nature of employment
89

Emplyment contracts
89

Control over services provided
90

iii. Financial arrangements and wage structure
96

Financial arrangements
96

What type of wage protections do sex workers want?
97

Hours of work, overtime, statutory holidays, vacation time and sick days
98

Work-related supplies, expenses and clothing 102

Training 103

Employer record keeping 106

iv. Termination of employment 108

Section 2: Workers compensation and occupational health and safety 109

i.
Workers Compensation Act 109

Sex workers and workers compensation 110

Types of compensation for sex workers 111

Evidentiary issues 114

Serious or wilful misconduct 115

Condom use and wilful misconduct: the New Zealand approach 116

HIV-positive workers and wilful misconduct: the Nevada approach 117

Disclosure of HIV-positive status 118

Accident 118

xiii. Mandatory diease testing 119

Privacy concerns 120

ix. Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 121

Training 122

Safe workplaces and violence prevention 123

Drug and alcohol use in the workplace 126

Hazardous substances 128

Supplies 129

Hygiene 130

Public health 131

Section 3: Unionization
131

i.
Do sex workers want to unionize? 132

ii. Wages 132

iii. Representation on issues faced by workers 133

iv. Desire to retain independence and control over their own business 134

v.
Who will represent sex workers? 135

vi. Unionization of sex workers 135

Certification 135

Union structure 137

Strikes and picketing 138

Section 4: Complaints and grievances

138

Section 5: Sex workers as independent contractors

143

Section 6: Sex workers operating as a collective

143
i.
Formal collective arrangements 144
ii. Employment benfits and protection for sex workers recommendations 145

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

Part 4: Income Assistance and Employment Insurance LAW

149

Income Assistance
149

i.
Work search/employment related requirements 149

Two-year employment requirement 151

Declaring income 152

Three-week waiting period 154

Employment Insurance
154

i.
Income Assistance recommendations 156

ii. Employment Insurance recommendations 157

Part 5: Income Tax LAW

158

Paying income tax and claiming income
158

i.
Benefits of paying tax 160

The benefits of inclusion 160

The economic benefits 161

ii. Concerns about paying tax 164

Concerns about loss of privacy 164

Concerns about increased tax law enforcement by Revenue Canada 166

Concerns about retroactive taxation 166

Concerns about calculating income 168

iii. Tax deductions 171

Business expenses 171

Personal deductions 172

iv. Income tax law recommendations 173

Part 6: Company Law

174

Business structures
174
i.
Sole proprietorships 174
ii. Partnerships 175
iii. Corporations 176
iv. Cooperatives 177
v.
Housing cooperatives 179
vi. Company law recommendations 180

Part 7: Human Rights LAW

181

Human rights and discrimination
181

i.
Human rights law generally 182

ii. Human rights protections for sex workers 182

iii. Discrimination based on source of income 183

Experiences of discrimination in housing 183

Experiences of discrimination in the provision of services 184

Discrimination based on sex: sexual harassment
186

i.
Forms of sexual harassment encountered by sex workers 186

ii. Sexual harassment by employers 187

iii. Sexual harassment by clients 188

iv. Current protections against sexual harassment 189

v.
Human rights law recommendations 190

Part 8: Immigration Law

191

Are all migrant sex workers trafficked persons?
191

Migrant sex workers in Canada
192

i.
Current working conditions of migrant sex workers 192

ii. Health concerns 197

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
197

i.
Human smuggling and trafficking 198

Definitions of trafficking in persons 198

BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

ii.








iii.

Statistics 199
Trafficking procedure 200
Revenue generated from trafficking in persons 200
Challenges facing law enforcement 200
Jurisdictional issues 200
Detection difficult due to mobility 201
Difficulty obtaining witness testimony 202
Changes to anti-smuggling and trafficking laws 202
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act 202
The Criminal Code of Canada and Bill C-49 203
Trafficking in persons 203
Profiting from trafficking 203
Withholding or destroying documents 203
Restitution 203
Protection of vulnerable witnesses 203
Immigration law recommendations 204

Part 9: Family Law

Part 10: Criminal Law

214

Assault
214
i.
Sexual assault 215
ii. Consent general considerations 215
iii. Consent sexual assault 216
Youth
217
Indecency
217
Non-disclosure of HIV-positive status
218
i.
Criminal law recommendations 220

Part 11: Call To Action

205

Child custody, access and guardianship

205
i.
Parental involvement in prostitution and the best interests of the child 205
ii. Working out of the family home 208
Child protection
209
i.
Parental involvement in prostitution and parenting ability 209
ii. Family law recommendations 213

i.

222

Law reform is not enough 224

Appendix A: The Allocation Of Legislative Power Under

Canadas Federal Structure

225

How current laws would apply
225

Provincial powers and sex work
226

i.
Limitations on provincial government powers 226

Provinces cannot regulate morality 226

Human rights legislation 227

Paramountcy 227

National standards
227

Federal influence over the regulation of sex work
228

i.
Criminal Code exceptions 228

ii. Federal spending power 229

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Sex workers are entitled to the same human rights standards that are
afforded to other members of Canadian society. However, as a result of the
current criminal laws relating to adult prostitution, sex workers are forced
to live and work in conditions where they experience systemic discrimination, exploitation and violence, and where their constitutional rights are
infringed. Pivots 2004 report, Voices for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms
Caused by Canadas Sex Trade Laws, argued that sex workers right to
expression, life, liberty, security of the person, and equality, as enshrined in
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are routinely violated.
Significant improvements to the working and living conditions of sex workers are not possible
without the repeal of s.s 210, 211, 212(1), 212(3) and 213 of the Criminal Code of Canada. In anticipation that Canada will one day recognize and carry out this important legislative reform, this report
moves beyond the issue of criminal law reform to examine areas of law that become relevant and
applicable in a decriminalized context. The analyses and findings set out in Beyond Decriminalization
are intended to encourage Canadians to consider how reform of other areas of law and policy can be
used to end the violence, discrimination and other human rights violations faced by sex workers.
One example of an area of legislation that will be highly relevant if sex work is decriminalized is
employment and labour law. This report examines how employment and labour standards can be used
to provide rights and protections for workers in the sex industry. In addition to this key topic, this
report considers other relevant areas of law, including: occupational health and safety, municipal, tax,
immigration, human rights, family, company, and social welfare. The findings and analyses presented
are grounded in the expert opinions and experiences of sex workers from various areas of the sex
industry. Through individual and group discussions with workers and business owners from escort
agencies, massage parlours, sole proprietorships and at street level, this report provides a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which many areas of law can be used to improve the safety and protect the
rights of sex workers.
The report presents a wide-ranging list of recommendations proposed by sex workers in the course
of this research. The following selection illustrates some key aspects of sex workers call to action:
Provide sex workers with full access to the rights and protections found in the Employment
Standards Act and ensure the legislation explicitly protects a sex workers right to maintain control
over her or his contracts for the provision of sexual services.
Respect the right of sex workers to unionize and provide resources and support to them
throughout the process.
Involve sex workers in a meaningful way in municipal governance issues, such as business
licensing and city zoning, in order to meet the diverse needs of sex workers from various
aspects of the industry as well as the interests of communities.
Respect the right of sex workers to have fair and equal access to Workers Compensation,
Employment Insurance as well as other employment benefits.

BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

Enact a provision that ensures that refusal to work in the sex industry does not affect a persons
entitlements to Employment Insurance or Income Assistance.
Ensure the freedom of sex workers to choose from a range of business structures.
Ensure that income earned through sex work is subject to fair and non-discriminatory taxation
and that sex workers are not retroactively taxed once their work becomes recognized as a legal
activity.
Recognize that a parents involvement in sex work does not automatically create grounds for the
apprehension of a child or loss of custody, and take steps to ensure that sex workers are not subject
to discrimination by the Courts or government.
Ensure the right of sex workers to access the human rights complaint process and equal opportunities for social citizenship.
Ensure that migrant sex workers are afforded the rights and protections found in the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This report is the beginning of an important social dialogue about the role that the law will play
in governing the sex industry in Canada. Pivot has argued that criminal law reform is the first step
towards a shift from the status quo, where sex workers are subject to extreme levels of violence and
social marginalization, to a society where sex workers are empowered to create safe and dignified
working conditions. Criminal law reform will be most effectively carried out if all levels of government consider the findings of this research and contemplate how areas of law that fall within their
jurisdiction will play a role in creating a safe and legitimate sex industry.
This report also illustrates why sex workers must be provided with a prominent role in the process
of law, policy and social reform. Sex workers have a unique insight and expertise regarding their
industry, the role it plays in Canadian society, and the ways in which regulatory schemes will impact
their business. Above all, law and policy makers should listen to sex workers in order to understand
how the laws affect them, which is a necessary step in ensuring that Canadas laws comply with the
guarantees and protections enshrined in the Charter and other human rights instruments.

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

PART 1: Introduction
What is the appropriate legal response to the complex phenomenon of
prostitution in Canada? For the past 25 years, this question has occasioned
a heated debate across the country. The most recent forum for this debate
was the federal Parliamentary Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws (the
Subcommittee) whose mandate was to examine the Criminal Code provisions pertaining to prostitution. However, the calling of a federal election
for January, 2006 meant that the Subcommittees report was shelved before
it was finished. Nevertheless, the Subcommittee did complete its hearings
in September, 2005 thus making the dozens of written and oral submissions
it received part of the public record. A review of the evidence presented to
the Subcommittee reveals an overwhelming consensus that Canadas prostitution laws must be altered, with two main proposals for change. The
first involves decriminalizing prostitution. The second calls for adopting the
Swedish model. In Sweden, the buying of sexual services, procuring, and
living on the avails are all prohibited under criminal law, whereas the sale of
sex is decriminalized.
For the reasons explained in Voices of Dignity, Pivot Legal Society advocates the decriminalization
of adult prostitution. However, Pivot argues further that criminal law reform is not enough to secure
the rights and safety of sex workers If the criminal laws governing sex work are repealed, a whole range
of civil laws, both provincial and municipal, will become applicable to the sex industry. The purpose
of the ensuing report is to identify the types of civil law that will have relevance to the sex industry,
and ask a self-selected sample of sex workers to discuss how, if at all, these various types of law should
be applied to sex work.
The discussion of potential law reform is based on the expert opinions of sex workers and
attempts to anticipate the post-criminalization relevance and impact of these areas of law. The report
is intended to serve as a starting point for law and policy makers who may question whether other
legislative changes are necessary in addition to criminal law reform.

Pivots sex work law reform project

For the past several years, Pivot has advocated the repeal of the Criminal Code provisions relating
to adult prostitution (ss. 210, 211, parts of 212 and 213). This position arose from research carried
out in the first phase of Pivots Sex Work Law Reform Project, which examined the views and opinions of street-level sex workers on Canadas criminal laws relating to adult prostitution. The resulting
report, Voices for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused by Canadas Sex Trade Laws, argued that the
criminal laws violate the constitutional rights of sex workers, and should be repealed.
 Criminal Code of Canada, R.S. 1985, c. C-46 [Criminal Code].
 Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws, online: Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws <http://www.parl.gc.ca/Committee/CommitteeList.aspx?Lang=1&PARLSES=381&JNT=0&SELID=e21_&COM=9243>.

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

The second report, Beyond Decriminalization: Sex Work, Human Rights, and a New Framework for
Law Reform, presents the research and analysis carried out in the second phase of Pivots Sex Work
Law Reform Project, and is based on the realization that, before decriminalization occurs, legislators
should consider how laws of general application will affect the sex industry should it be decriminalized. In the course of our research, the following areas of law were identified as being particularly
relevant:
Municipal law;
Employment and labour law;
Employment Assistance and Employment Insurance;
Income tax law;
Company law;
Human rights law;
Immigration law;
Family law; and
Criminal law.
The objective of this project is to anticipate questions that lawmakers may have about the application of these areas of legislation. Further, this project hopes to inform law and policy makers so that
they draft and apply civil and administrative laws in a way that meets the needs and concerns of sex
workers.

Scope of this report

This report contains front-line accounts from individuals who have experience working in the
sex industry under the current criminal-law regime. Participants include street-level sex workers,
employees in outcall services (escort agency employees and independent outcall sex workers) and incall services (employees in massage parlours and independent in-call sex workers). The report makes
available the expertise and opinion of a diverse group of sex workers to law and policy makers in the
hope that the views of the people most directly affected by any law reform initiative are taken into
account. The following guiding principles for law reform are proposed:
The opinions and experiences of sex workers should be given central and full consideration in any
law reform initiative affecting the rights and working conditions of sex workers;
Sex workers must be given the opportunity to participate in law reform in a meaningful way;
Law and policy makers must ensure that current and future laws conform to the human, labour
and employment rights guaranteed under Canadian law and international human rights instruments; and
Policy analysis and law reform undertaken by the Canadian government must be gender-based,
racially sensitive, and conscious of socio-economic variations in different components of the sex
industry.
Pivot has opted to use the term sex worker to describe a consenting adult who provides in-person
sexual services, including oral sex, intercourse, masturbation and other services most often (but not
always) involving physical contact intended for sexual gratification in exchange for money to another
consenting adult.

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PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

While many of Pivots participants said that they are more comfortable with the term sex work
than prostitution, the term sex work includes many forms of intimate services and/or sexualized
work such as, for example, stripping, lap dancing, and phone sex. Consequently, because the project
focused solely on physical-contact sexual services, we use the term prostitution to distinguish this
from other types of sex work.
The report comprises eleven parts and one appendix. Part one is divided into three sections which
introduce the study. The first section provides a formal introduction and describes the projects
guiding principles. The second section presents the projects methodology. The third section describes
the conditions under which the sex-worker participants carry out their work as an essential precursor
to the main body of the report, a discussion of how civil, criminal and administrative law currently
applies to adult prostitution, and how various statutes should be reformed should adult prostitution
be decriminalized.
Parts two through 10 describe the reports key findings and recommendations on civil, criminal
and administrative law reform. The legal analysis examines existing municipal, employment, labour,
social welfare, tax, company, human rights, immigration, family and criminal laws in light of whether
or not they currently meet the needs and concerns of sex workers, and whether or not these laws
will meet the needs and concerns of sex workers in the event that prostitution is decriminalized. The
analysis of each law concludes with a set of recommendations for law reform on the basis of the expert
opinions of sex workers.
Part 11 presents a call to action. It proposes a series of actions based on economic, legal and social
considerations that law and policy-makers should take when facilitating decriminalization and associated legal reforms.
Appendix 1 describes the division of legislative power between the federal government and provinces in order to show which civil and administrative laws will apply to adult prostitution should it be
decriminalized.

Section 1: Pivots approach to law reform

This project proceeded on the principle that all persons are worthy of dignity and respect, and
that their perspectives and experiences should form one cornerstone of any law reform that will
disproportionately affect them. The dignity, empowerment and political participation of sex workers
are central to Pivots work, and their opinions provide the foundation of this report. The sex workers
who participated expressed critical and analytical opinions about the states of their lives and the laws
affecting them. They asserted that, while they make difficult choices under constrained conditions,
they nevertheless do make choices. Indeed, many of the sex workers who participated in this project
wish to challenge the view they are not capable of making real choices. Sex workers are in the best
position to describe what it is like to work and live under the current social and legal framework.
Lawmakers and other citizens should acknowledge this expertise.
A second principle that project participants elaborated to guide this project is that consenting
adult prostitution is a legitimate form of labour. While exploitation certainly occurs in the sex
industry, as it does in many professions and service industries, most of the sex workers we talked
to want to be recognized as legitimate workers. On this basis, we assert that sex workers should be
entitled to the same labour and human rights protections as any other worker.

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

Section 2: Pivots research methods

Project staff and volunteers
A criminology professor from Simon Fraser University served as the Principal Investigator for the
discussion group and interview components of the research. The project steering committee hired four
part-time co-coordinators to administer the project and conduct the research; two were current or
former sex workers, one was a social justice activist, and one was a practicing lawyer. A working group
was created to develop the methodology and carry out the project. The working group consisted of
current and former sex workers, lawyers, law students, advocates, and researchers. Also, the steering
committee recruited, on a volunteer basis, a group of lawyers and university professors from various
faculties of law with expertise in labour, criminal, family, municipal, tax, immigration and social
welfare law to oversee the legal research and analysis in each of their areas of expertise.

Methodology
Research objectives
The objective of this project was to gather the expert opinions of sex workers regarding issues
relevant to labour, employment, municipal, tax, immigration, human rights, family, corporate, health
and social welfare laws. The data would then form the basis for an analysis of the effects of existing
legislation in these areas on prostitution, and to evaluate whether it facilitates working and living
conditions consistent with the needs and interests of sex workers. This report will be presented to all
levels of government and to the public.
Project personnel were selected with two objectives in mind: First, to ensure that all aspects of the
project were led by sex workers so that the project methodology was empowering and respectful of sex
workers; and second, to have a staff lawyer who could direct the various legal analyses. An attempt has
been made to ground all legal analyses and recommendations in the expertise and lived experience of
sex workers.
This project addresses the laws as they that relate to adult prostitution; the Criminal Code defines
an adult as anyone who is 18 years of age and older. It was not designed to address the particular legal
issues relating to sexually exploited children and youth.
The project considers how the following statutes would apply to prostitution in a decriminalized
setting:
1. Municipal law:
a. Local Government Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 323;
b. Community Charter, S.B.C. 2003, c. 26;
c. Vancouver Charter, S.B.C. 1953, c. 55;
d. City of Vancouver, By-Law No. 3575, Zoning and Development By-law;
e. City of Vancouver, By-law No. 4450, License By-Law (23 September 1969);
f. City of Vancouver, By-law No. 5156, A By-law to prohibit the carrying on of sundry business,
trades, professions and other occupations (11 April 1978);
g. City of Vancouver, By-Law No. 4912, Downtown Official Development Plan (4 November 1975);
h. City of Vancouver Downtown Official Development Plan (Adopted by By-Law No.4912,
November 4, 1975);
i. City of Calgary, By-law No. 32M98, Business Licence Bylaw;
j. City of Calgary, By-law 51M97, Massage License Bylaw;
k. City of Calgary, Bylaw 34M86, Dating and Escort Bylaw;
l. City of Edmonton, By-law No. 13138, Business Licence Bylaw; and
m. City of Edmonton, By-law 12452, Escort Licensing Bylaw.

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PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

2.

Labour and Employment law:

a. Employment Standards Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 113;
b. Employment Standards Regulation, B.C. Reg. 396/95;
c. Labour Relations Code, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 244;
d. Workers Compensation Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 492;
e. Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, B.C. Reg. 296/97;
f. Health Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 179;
g. Personal Services Establishments Regulation, B.C. Reg. 202/83; and
h. Communicable Disease Regulation, B.C. Reg. 4/83.

3. Social welfare:

a.

Employment and Assistance Regulations, B.C. Reg. 263/2002;

b.

Employment and Assistance Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 40; and

c.

Employment Insurance Act, S.C. 1996, c. 23.

4. Income Tax law:

a. Income Tax Act, R.S.C. 1985 (5th Supp.), c. 1.
5. Human Rights:
a. Canadian Human Rights Act, R.S. 1985, c. H-6; and
b. Human Rights Code, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 210.
6. Criminal law:
a. Criminal Code of Canada, R.S. 1985, c. C-46.
7. Immigration law:
a. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2000, c. 27.
8.

Family law:
a. Family Relations Act, R.S.B.C 1996, c. 128;
b. Divorce Act, R.S. 1985 (2nd Supp.), c. 3; and
c. Child, Family and Community Service Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 46.

9.

Corporate law:
a. Partnership Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 348, s. 2;
b. Business Corporations Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 57, s. 30;
c. Canada Business Corporations Act, R.S. 1985, c. C-44;
d. Cooperative Associations Act, S.B.C. 1999, c. 28; and
e. Residential Tenancy Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 78.

Data collection
Sex workers were asked to participate in discussion groups of four or five people. Prior to each
discussion group, sex workers consent to be audio-taped was obtained. It was agreed that the audiotapes of the discussion groups would be: i) strictly confidential; ii) used only for the purposes of
transcription; and iii) destroyed after transcription. Participants in the discussion groups were encouraged to use an alias throughout the discussion. They were asked questions about issues related to the
various laws examined, but not asked for demographic or other personal information. When participants revealed personal or identifying information during the discussion groups, that information was
edited out of the transcripts. All project staff, volunteers and project participants signed confidentiality agreements. Audio-tapes were transcribed by project staff and volunteers. Transcripts were then
stored in a secure location under lock and key. Project co-coordinators were provided with access to

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

the audio-tapes and transcripts. During the data analysis and report-writing stages volunteers were
permitted to view the transcripts once all identifying information had been removed.
All discussion groups were co-facilitated by a sex worker and a person who had experience and/or
knowledge regarding the legal issues discussed. Eight facilitators attended a facilitation training session
that dealt with how to create a safe and comfortable environment for discussion, ask non-leading
questions, and respect the confidentiality of participants.
Discussion groups were conducted in the following general groupings:
Female street-level sex workers (self-identifying as female);
Male street-level sex workers (self-identifying as male);
Massage parlour workers and independent sex workers who mostly take in-calls; and
Escorts working for agencies, and independent sex workers who mostly provide out-calls.
Three rounds of discussion groups were held. Each round contained two groups one in the
morning and one in the afternoon in each of the three categories of sex workers (i.e. in the case of
male street-level sex workers, a discussion group of five male street sex workers in the morning, then a
discussion group of five different male street-level sex workers in the afternoon comprised one round
of discussion groups). The first round was introductory, with broad and general issues being discussed,
while the second and third rounds explored specific legal issues more fully. To facilitate the second and
third round discussions participants attending the first round were invited to attend two education
sessions where they were provided with information about the specific laws under discussion. Where
possible, we attempted to have the same individuals participate in all three rounds of discussions and
both education sessions.

Table 1: Discussion group and education session structure

Round One

Introductory round in which all the legal issues were canvassed in a broad and general fashion.
Opinions and feedback from sex workers during and after Round One were used to create the
education sessions, and to draft the questions for Rounds Two and Three.

Legal education sessions

Two legal education sessions for participants

Round Two

In-depth discussion of issues regarding social welfare, family, tax, corporate and criminal law

Round Three

In-depth discussion of issues regarding employment, labour and municipal law

Participants received a $25 honorarium for contributing to the project. Prior to each discussion
group, participants were provided with the following information:
background, purpose and objectives of the project;
information about their participation being voluntary and their right to withdraw at any time;
an assurance that audiotapes of discussion would be kept confidential and destroyed following
transcription;
as assurance that all personal or other identifying information would be removed from the
transcript; and
information about use of the data and the final report.

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PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

An opportunity for questions was provided following provision of the above information.
After being provided with the information, each sex worker was asked if he or she wished to
participate in the project. Those who wished to participate were asked to sign a consent form. Participants were encouraged to use an alias in signing the consent form. All consent forms were kept strictly
confidential.
Participants could respond to any of the questions posed during the discussion groups, could pass
if they did not want to respond. Discussion group questions were formulated through collaboration
with members of the working group, including current and former sex workers, lawyers, law students,
and advocates.
Expertise of sex workers
A fundamental principle underlying this project is that sex workers are experts on the effects of the
law on their work and their lives, and should be regarded as such in any law or policy decision-making
process. It is our position that legislators and policy makers cannot understand the ways in which the
laws affect sex workers, and nor can they carry out an effective analysis of laws affecting prostitution
without this expertise. Effective law reform depends on the input and meaningful participation of sex
workers.
Recruitment of project participants
The following means were used to contact street-level, escort and massage parlour workers to
recruit them for participation in discussion groups:
Placing fliers regarding discussion groups near massage parlours and escort
agencies.
Placing advertisements in the adult classified sections of the following newspapers: Georgia
Straight, Westender, Buy and Sell; and Xtra West newspaper. These ads described the project and
asked potential participants to call to receive more information regarding discussion groups.
Contacting other non-profit organizations and service-providers, including those in which sex
workers are involved, such as the Womens Information and Safe House (WISH), Prostitutes
Empowerment Education Resources Society (PEERS), the Downtown Eastside Womens Centre
(DEWC), Prostitution Alternatives Counselling Education (PACE), Boys R Us and the Asian
Society for the Intervention of AIDS project entitled the ORCHID Project. Fliers were posted
on the premises of businesses involved in the Orchid Project.
Placing an ad on the website www.perv.ca.
Discussing the project with other organizations and individuals.
Previous contacts of project personnel.
In addition to the discussion groups a series of one-on-one interviews were conducted with five key
informants who have worked extensively in the off-street prostitution trade, two of whom currently
operate prostitution businesses.
Project participants
The project received ethics approval from the Simon Fraser University Ethics Review Board in
December of 2004.
In order to protect the identity of project participants Pivot elected not to seek demographic
or other personal information. As a result, participants were not asked to identify their race, age,
education or other demographical information. Participants self selected which discussion group they

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

wanted to participate in: male street-level, female street-level, escort or massage parlour. The selfselection process resulted in the participation of 82 sex workers who self selected into the following
categories:
23 female independent sex workers;
2 escort agency workers;
1 escort agency owner former sex worker;
7 massage parlour workers;
1 massage parlour owner, former sex worker;
24 male street-level sex workers; and
26 female street-level sex workers.
Although the off-street sex trade likely comprises more than 80 percent of Canadas prostitution
business, it accounts for less than five percent of criminal convictions in Canada for prostitutionrelated offences, in contrast to the street trade, which accounts for more than 95 percent of prostitution related criminal convictions, but less than 20 percent of the business.
We interviewed two prostitution business owners one owns a massage parlour, the other
an escort service partly because both of them had long careers as sex workers prior to owning a
sex-work business, and also because their experience running these businesses provides valuable
insight into how civil and administrative law is currently applied to off-street prostitution venues
in Vancouver. The owner-employers provide a unique perspective on the enforcement of municipal
bylaws governing business licenses, hiring practises, and workplace training.
Massage parlour workers and migrant workers
Accessing sex workers who are in Canada illegally and were willing to be interviewed proved to be
very difficult because of the highly clandestine nature of their business.
Accessing massage parlour workers also proved to be difficult. After mostly failed attempts to
recruit participants, several key informants suggested that massage parlour workers are, in general,
not willing to participate in discussion groups, preferring to provide their opinions in one-on-one
interviews.
The massage parlour workers and immigrant workers who did participate in this project did so in
individual interviews. The same protocol regarding audio-taping, confidentiality and consent procedures was used for individual interviews, and the same question format was used. Because three of our
off-street sex worker participants reside and work in Alberta, the interviews were conducted over the
phone.
Data analysis
In describing the results of our consultation with sex workers, we attempted to identify the main
themes that emerged, as identified by three researchers who read through the transcripts. These
themes were used to develop s a framework on which to base the broader analysis of civil and administrative laws that already are relevant to prostitution, or will become relevant should prostitution be
decriminalized.
The discussion groups were held in English. Interpreters were available for individual interviews
with participants who were not fluent in English, but they were not available for discussion groups.
Participants were not asked to disclose their gender. Discussion groups for persons who self-iden-

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PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

tify as trans-gendered were not organized. We do know that more than a dozen trans-gendered sex
workers participated in this project, none of whom expressed or displayed discomfort with the discussion group set-up.
Time and budget constraints limited the number of discussion groups and individual interviews, and
so we were unable to capture the voice of every person who was interested in contributing to the project.

Section 3: Current working conditions in various areas of the sex industry

There are no statistics to indicate how many people are currently employed as sex workers in
Canada. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the vast majority of sex workers work for escort services,
in massage parlours or independently using newspaper ads or contacts via the Internet. In many
cities, such as Vancouver, it appears that as few as 20 percent work at the street level. One of the most
profound lessons from this project was the extreme diversity among people working in prostitution.
This report attempts to illustrate that diversity in a manner that is respectful of the range of opinions
and concerns that participants voiced.
In order to appreciate the need for reform of the laws affecting sex workers, both in the event of
the criminals laws being repealed and under the current system, it is important to understand the
current working conditions of
Canadian sex workers. The sex workers interviewed for this project come from a wide variety of backgrounds. They engage in prostitution in a wide range of contexts and in a variety of workplaces. Each
participant brought a distinct perspective to the discussion, and conveyed a wide range of experiences
and opinions. While our participants are not statistically representative of all
Canadian sex workers, or even all Vancouver-area sex workers, their experiences shed light on current
working conditions experienced by many sex workers in Canada.
The following discussion presents an overview of the current working conditions experienced by
the sex workers who participated in this project. Because of the wide variety of contexts and workplaces in which participants engage in prostitution, this chapter is divided into three sections representing the three broad types of prostitution discussed in the report:
1. Street level: sex workers who work at the street level, either independently or work for others
2. Out-call/escort: sex workers who work independently or for escort agencies and meet their clients
and provide services at locations outside of where they operate their business.
3. In-call/massage: sex workers who work independently or for massage parlours and their clients
come to the sex workers place of business to receive services.

Street-level sex work (women)

The most violent way to work would be street where it is entirely anonymous, you
have no back-up and youre by yourself one-on-one with somebody in a car. There
really is no recourse for you if you have a problem.

Street-level sex work makes up a small proportion of the sex industry overall, but it is generally the
most visible aspect of the industry. Street-level sex workers meet clients in several Vancouver localities
or strolls, as they are known colloquially and usually negotiate with clients on the street or in a
vehicle.
Participants spoke generally about two types of street-level prostitution in Vancouver: high track
and low track. These terms have many connotations, but generally are distinguished in terms of
the amount a client can expect to pay for a date in a particular stroll; high track sex workers earn far
more than their low track counterparts. Sex workers indicated that, in Vancouver, low-track strolls are

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

located in the Downtown Eastside or in certain blocks along Kingsway, while the high track is located
on Seymour Street which is in the core downtown area. Franklin is sometimes referred to as a midtrack stroll. Sex workers reported that a large proportion of the sex workers on the high track strolls
work under the control of a pimp.
Pimps may provide sex workers under their control with food, clothing and shelter. However,
participants stated that pimps often use violence and abuse to control the workers, and demand all of
a sex workers earnings, leaving the worker financially dependent on the pimp. Participants reported
that it is often very difficult to get out of a pimps control because they tend to view sex workers as
their property. Such workers are under-represented in our sample.
Currently, there is ample evidence to suggest that street-level sex workers in Vancouver face a
disproportionate level of serious harm and violence as compared with sex workers in other sectors of
the industry. This is especially true for workers in Vancouvers Downtown Eastside, who face extreme
poverty and homelessness. Issues of addiction, mental and physical health, disability and marginalization are common among this population of sex workers and, as a result, these workers have few
options in order to make enough money to survive.
The account given in Beyond Decriminalization reiterates themes addressed in Voices for Dignity,
but describes the working conditions of the street-level workers interviewed during the second phase
of the Sex Work Law Reform Project, many of whom work in the Downtown Eastside.
Safety
Street-level sex workers reported extraordinarily high levels of violence, including rapes, beatings,
and assaults. Many street-level sex workers expressed feelings of powerlessness and an inability to alter
the conditions of their work in order to reduce the violence they experience. Nearly all street-level
workers described an experience of violence at the hands of a client. Some described being beaten
after requesting payment from a client. Others described being robbed by clients who would steal
their purses, or run away without paying for their services. Many sex workers stated that they felt
the client held the balance of power in the transaction, and they all stated that they felt they had no
recourse when they experienced these kinds of abuse.
Sex workers stated that the bawdy-house provisions in the Criminal Code prohibit them from
working in a safer indoor environment, thereby adding to the levels of harm they experience on the
job. Sex workers repeatedly stated that working together in an indoor environment would allow them
increased safety and protection from violent clients. Street-level sex workers stated that they wanted
sex workers to watch out for one another more often in order to improve safety. However, they also
placed a high value on their independence and autonomy, and stated that they would work in an
arrangement with others only if it meant they did not have to sacrifice these values.
Work areas
Many street-level workers characterized the places they work as isolated industrial areas and the
high-crime areas of the city. They stated that it is often hard to get a date where they work because of
the low volume of traffic and the impact of law enforcement on them and their clients. Street-level
sex workers were almost unanimous in stating that they would prefer to work indoors where they felt
they would be more protected and less visible to the general public. The workers who said they would
prefer to continue working on the street stated that they would like a designated safe area or zone in
which to work. Street-level workers emphasized that, if they were to continue working on the street,
they would like to do so in highly populated and well lit areas such as core downtown locations, but
they also felt strongly that such an area should be located away from children and families. Street-level
workers suggested that, regardless of any social or legal reforms, there will always be a street-level sex
industry because of its anonymity and convenience for some workers.

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PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

Law enforcement
Sex workers expressed scepticism that police officers would take their complaints about bad dates
seriously or do anything to investigate their claims. Some also expressed fear of police due to previous
violence they had experienced at the hands of police officers. Sex workers said that, because they feel
that the police view them as criminals, they rarely seek police help even after suffering assaults. Many
felt that they had no authority figures to turn to for protection.
Those street-level sex workers who described reporting bad dates and dangerous clients to police
said they felt that police did little, if anything, in response. They reported that some police officers
actively seek out information about bad dates, while they believe that other officers are more interested in harassing sex workers. Some street-level workers described seeing a dangerous client on the
street after reporting him to police, or hearing that the same client had attacked a friend or colleague
after being reported. Street-level sex workers stated dangerous clients are often known to many of the
workers in the neighbourhood and to the police.
As street-level sex work is more visible than massage parlour or escort work, and is often deemed
to be a public nuisance because of its visibility, a greater proportion of street workers reported
being harassed by police officers than did the other types of sex workers we interviewed. Clearly, a
more positive and trusting relationship between sex workers and police is necessary to ensure that
sex workers are able to work under safe conditions, with the knowledge that police will take their
complaints seriously and deal with them appropriately.
Marginalization
Street-level workers described having little faith in the government, and little faith that anything
could be done to further the protection of their human and labour rights. They revealed a profound
level of disillusionment. Street-level workers described their experiences of classism, and felt that their
lives were considered to be worthless by the rest of citizenry. Street-level workers suggested that if any
other group of people had been subjected to the tragedy that the missing women from the Downtown
Eastside had been subjected to, a much more proactive response would have been taken much sooner.
They all agreed that the disappearance of so many sex workers from the Downtown Eastside created
an atmosphere of fear and worry, and many felt that they, too, were at risk of losing their lives.
Health
Many street-level sex workers stated that they felt condoms should be used with every transaction
involving oral, vaginal or anal sex, and that they felt more service providers in their neighbourhood
should provide condoms. They reported, however, that high-quality condoms were not readily available to them. Some workers described occasionally having received defective condoms from service
providers.
Street-level workers described having little power in their interactions with clients. As a result, they
felt that they had little ability to insist on condom use. One street-level worker described an incident
where she was unaware that a client had removed a condom immediately prior to intercourse. There
was a high level of reported condom use and awareness about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
However, despite this general high level of awareness, a few participants stated that they were unaware
that an STD could be contracted by engaging in oral sex without a condom. Many workers said that
they wanted their clients tested for STDs before providing services to them, but felt this was not
realistic, as clients would refuse.
Financial security
Many street-level participants felt that they have few ways to earn enough money to survive.
Nevertheless, as with nearly all other sex workers interviewed, street-level workers stated that they

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choose to engage in sex work, and that prostitution is a job that should be afforded the same respect
and protections as other jobs. Some street-level sex workers value programs that assist street-involved
women to gain education and alternative employment, and felt that there should be increased funding
for such programs. Street-level workers described how welfare rates are too low to live on, and people
are becoming more desperate as a result. They described how the prices for their services were being
driven down by competition, sometimes as low as $5 for sexual intercourse.
Street-level workers described having absolutely no access to any form of security for old age, such
as a pension or a retirement savings plan. Many street-level sex workers said that they had no expectation of having any means to earn a living after the age of 55.

Street-level sex work (men)

Male participants described working conditions that have some similarities to those experienced
by female street-level workers. Like their female counterparts, male sex workers described different
levels of the trade, some more visible than others. While some male sex workers reported attracting
clients by standing on the street, others conduct their business through a network of contacts.
Safety
Like the women we interviewed, male workers were very conscious of the dangers faced when
working outdoors. Because of the criminal laws, they are secretive about their work. This secrecy and
isolation increases the risk they face from predatory or violent clients. Male participants placed significant emphasis on their privacy and the privacy of their clients. Like the women, male workers stated
that they felt their work would be safer if it were legal to work indoors.
One gender difference that emerged is that male workers described being able to rely on their physical
strength to defend themselves against dangerous clients. Some male workers suggested that they encounter
fewer violent clients than females because clients are aware that young men are more readily able to defend
themselves. This reliance on physical strength led male sex workers to express less fear of clients.
Like female street-level workers, males experience frequent harassment and discrimination from
other citizens. Male workers reported being called names and having items thrown at them while
working on the street. Male workers reported that clients, too, have fears about stigma, and postulate
that this would affect the willingness of clients to engage in preventative measures such as mandatory
STD/HIV testing.
Services
Male sex workers reported that they did not feel the government would be able to assist them with
their safety concerns. They said that it has become more difficult to obtain welfare, and that lack of
access to social assistance has had adverse effects on them.
Male workers claim that services for men are less readily available than those for women. One
worker pointed to the need for peer-based services targeted at male sex workers. Some male workers
described the difficulties they face if they want to exit the sex industry. Options for those exiting
prostitution were seen as limited. Male workers described a need for more training in a wider variety
of skills and trades. One participant explained that many of those who try to exit prostitution often
want to become peer or youth workers and work with those involved in the industry, because that is
what they feel they know best.
Physical and mental health
Male participants reported that their work can be difficult. The challenges result partly from the
risk of dangerous clients and dangerous conditions, and partly from the emotional and psychological
difficulty of their work. One participant suggested that there should be publicly-funded counselling

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for sex workers, and that it would be useful for sex workers to have access to extended health care that
included psychological treatment.
Male participants indicated that under current conditions, some sex workers turn to drugs and
alcohol as a means to cope with their situations. Consequently, participants suggested that greater
access to exit options, to treatment and rehabilitation, and to social services is necessary to ensure that
those who do not wish to engage in sex work have other options.
Many of the issues raised by male sex workers involve health and hygiene concerns. A primary
worry of sex workers is the occupational hazard of sexually transmitted diseases. Male participants
report that STD/HIV testing is available, and that public health nursing is accessible to them. Male
sex workers report that they lose clients when they insist that the client uses a condom, and that many
clients refuse to use condoms altogether.
A common experience of many street-level sex workers, male and female, is that they report living
in or on the edge of poverty. Effectively, prostitution and welfare are seen as their only two means of
survival. Generally, welfare payments are much lower than the income generated by working in the
sex industry.

Out-call/escort
Two types of female out-call workers participated in this project: those who work independently,
and escorts who work for an agency or call service. Independent workers described themselves as
self-employed, working from a home office or some other location. They receive calls from clients and
then meet the client at an agreed upon location. Many independent escorts advertise through the classified sections of the local newspapers, contact magazines, the Internet, or the phonebook.
A typical escort agency arrangement involves a call centre where the manager, owner or reception
person will take calls from clients. The owner or manager will then call the workers and inform them
where to meet the client. Sometimes the owner or manager who answers the phone negotiates the
services provided and the fees. Sometimes the worker pays the owner or manager a set fee for each
call, and sometimes the owner or manager will take a cut depending on the services provided. Escort
agencies provide varying types of administrative support to their workers, including receiving calls and
payments from clients, handling bookkeeping, licensing, and advertising, providing transportation for
workers, and sometimes providing some security services for the workers.
The widely felt need for independence expressed by the majority of our participants was described
as being fulfilled by working independently. However, the equally widely felt need for security was
best met by an agency. Independent escorts generally described having a greater degree of control
over the services offered and the types of clients accepted. However, escorts working for an agency
described having a greater degree of security by virtue of working with other people. The other advantage of working for an agency is the client base is potentially much bigger.
Health
Many of the out-call worker participants commented that education about health and hygiene
in their workplace was insufficient. While some education is available, and some of them had
received training and information about their work, there is no mechanism for sex workers, whether
working independently or for an agency, to be provided with up-to-date information about health
and hygiene. Some external organizations and public health bodies have tried to address the paucity
of health education among sex workers. However, some participants suggested that the appropriate
educational format for sex workers has not been found, and attempts at education are often inappropriate or unsuccessful. In one example, a participant described how public health officials in
Edmonton were reported to have given information about a gonorrhoea epidemic to the body that
licenses escorts so that the licensing body could convey that information to sex workers. The licensing

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body failed to pass on the information. Escort agencies do not always provide condoms for their
workers use. Often, as with independents, workers have to provide their own supplies.
Stress
Many participants described prostitution as being very stressful not only because of the conditions
of the work, but also because of its unpredictable nature. Some days may be very busy, while others
can entail long stretches without a client. The inability to control or predict the environment in which
the work is carried out was cited as a key stress producer. One worker reported that the inconsistency
and lack of security of the work, its availability and variability is psychologically very trying. Escorts
described their social isolation and the stigmatization of prostitution as being stress-inducing, especially in a business environment where there is a great deal of competition and distrust.
Harassment
A common complaint of outcall sex workers is that they are subject to various forms of harassment. Harassment by other citizens is fairly common. One escort reported that she was harassed after
she was identified as an advocate for sex workers rights. Some out-call workers commented that they
exited the street trade because of police harassment of street-level workers.
A further form of harassment that escorts mentioned comes at the hands of managers and owners.
Some out-call workers report having been required to have sex with the manager or owner as part of
the hiring process; this was described as a form of audition.
Safety
Out-call participants suggested that indoor work is much more humane in comparison to the
degrading conditions often found at the street level. However, there are major concerns about safety
in the out-call industry as well. As one participant reported, the danger lies predominantly in the
uncertainty of an out-call date. When a worker arrives at a call, it is impossible for her to know for
certain what kind of person is waiting for her, or whether he is going to be violent.
Many street-level sex workers stated that they viewed a move into independent outcall work as
the most viable means of relocating to a safer work environment while still retaining their autonomy.
Sex workers stated that the move from street-level prostitution to independent outcall work required
the means to obtain a telephone and take out an advertisement in a local newspaper. Although there
are no statistics to accurately assess the number of persons currently working as independent outcall
workers, the prevalence of advertisements and websites offering such services in nearly all Canadian
cities suggests that independent off-street work forms a much larger portion of the industry than is
commonly acknowledged.
Some of the independent escorts interviewed described facing challenges on the job. These include
having to work alone and make judgments about a client on the basis of a short telephone call. Some
independent outcall workers described the difficulty of working alone when no one else knows your
location or the identity of the client, and emphasized that it is safer to work with other women. Some
of our participants alert other workers to their whereabouts when they are with a client, or have an
attendant work with them. Such security measures are necessary given the potential for violence in
the sex industry.
Nearly all the sex workers we interviewed, regardless of the style of work they engage in, reported
experiencing pressure from clients to engage in sexual acts without a condom. Nearly all of them
described having been offered more money to engage in riskier sexual acts. For many sex workers,
of course, sexual services without a condom are not an option, and they consistently refuse these
requests.
 Escort X, Create a Legal Brothel Zone? A Prostitute Says No!, online: The Tyee <www.thetyee.ca>..

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Sex workers described one of the main advantages of working for an escort agency or call service is
that a third party knows who the worker is dating and where the interaction is occurring, thus making
premeditated violence less likely.
Escort services may provide a range of safety measures. While some agencies do not offer any
fallback protection for their employees, others are vigilant about taking names, hotel room numbers,
and other identifying information. Sometimes agencies check that a client is actually where they say
they are by calling back the phone number provided. Some agencies provide a driver who functions as
both transportation and security for the worker, and who will check in on her during the date. One
worker, concerned about physical safety suggested that agencies provide self-defence training for their
employees.
Despite having some safety concerns, many of the outcall sex workers we interviewed described
having a high level of satisfaction with their employment, and emphasized that, in general, working
indoors is far safer than the outdoor trade. Independent sex workers emphasized the autonomy and
anonymity they enjoyed while working on their own.
Management and services
An escort agencys management approach often determines the level of satisfaction escorts
expressed with their working conditions. Participants expressed concern about the controls placed on
workers and the requirements of some escort agencies. Several escort agency workers stated that they
want more control over what services are provided and the fees that are set.
Participants reported that some owners tell workers what services they are required to perform
with clients, and give the most business to the workers who are most compliant. When working for
an agency, sometimes a worker will be reprimanded by the employer if she does not do what the client
requests. As discussed in this report, the current laws of assault and sexual consent place control over
the services performed with the worker (see Part 10 on Criminal Law).
Some escort agency workers described being unable to control the fees charged for particular
services. In some cases, the agency charged a flat introduction fee, leaving the negotiation of the fee
for sexual services to the escort. In other cases, the agency takes a cut of the workers tips in exchange
for providing them with clients. Also, they may charge the worker a nightly booking fee, which
must be paid to the agency before it provides the escort with client contacts. However, if the worker
receives no clients that night, the booking fee is not refunded. Escorts described being subject to
fines and penalties for minor infractions of house rules, such as being late, or not being able to see a
client even if they had a valid reason. Payment mechanisms are discussed in more detail in the section
entitled Financial arrangements and wage structure (see p. 29).
Some owners may require workers to have sex with them in exchange for clients. Several participants reported being forced to engage in sexual activity and endure sexual harassment from their
employers in order to get or keep their job.
One owner/operator who used to work as a sex worker wished to counteract the misconception
that all owners are male, exploitative, or driven purely by profit. She stated that her job as an owner
entails, among other things, scheduling, administration, payroll, bookkeeping, and public relations
work. She works 40-50 hours a week, and stated that she earns far less money as an owner than she
did as a sex worker. She wished to correct the misconception that all employers make large amounts of
money from the labour of others, while doing little or no work themselves. There are many employers
who consider themselves fair to their workers, and who create a positive work environment. While
some employers may make large profits by taking all or most of the money a worker earns, or by
offering unsafe services for an exorbitant rate, this is not the case for all employers.

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Licensing
Escort agencies in Vancouver must carry licenses, but independent sex workers are not required
to obtain a license. In contrast, sex workers in Edmonton and Calgary described how they are subject
to more restrictive by-laws controlling advertising and licensing, thereby discouraging street-level sex
workers from moving into escort or independent outcall work. For instance, in Edmonton, a person
who does not have a licence as an independent escort cannot place an entry in the sex advertising
section of the local newspaper. One participant described how she had to apply for a prohibitively
expensive licence, and had to have her criminal record cleared before could apply. She suggested that
these by-laws keep women on the street who would otherwise move to safer indoor work. Edmonton
police are currently searching for a serial killer who is thought to have claimed the lives of at least ten
street-level sex workers.

In-call/massage
In-call workers are those whose work takes place at a place of business where the clients attend
and receive services on site. The distinction between in-call and outcall services is not necessarily clear
cut, as some in-call venues also provide some outcall services. In instances where mainly in-call venues
offer limited outcall services, we focus on the in-call component of the business.
While not all massage parlours and health enhancement centers are fronts for prostitution, they
are among the most common venues for in-call work. Some sex workers operate independently from
their homes and handle all matters related to their business, including administration, marketing,
health and safety issues, and clientele.
Most of the workers who participated in this project work for an employer in a licensed massage
parlour. Our participants described a wide range of conditions in the parlours they work. Many
work as independent contractors, and were not aware of the possibility that the courts could grant
them the full legal protection and benefits afforded to employees. Massage parlour workers reported
encountering various financial problems with their employers. Workers reported sometimes not
receiving the pay they were promised, being required to give their employers a share of their tips in
order to receive clients, and being subject to fines and penalties for minor infractions of house rules,
such as being late or failing to answer their telephone. Also, there were concerns about safety and
security. Some massage parlour workers reported being assaulted by clients and receiving little or no
help or support from their employers.
In some parlours, workers receive wages only for the clients they see. This means that a massage
parlour worker could spend a full shift at the workplace waiting for clients, not get any and, as a
result, receive no pay for the time they were at work. Some workers reported that their employers
require them to perform various tasks during these times, such as cleaning the bathrooms, again
without compensation.
Management and working conditions
The conditions for in-call workers vary greatly, based on the kind of management that is in place
at a particular massage parlour. Payment for services and the employer/employee relationship will be
discussed below in the section entitled Financial arrangements and wage structure (see p. 29).
Major concerns for massage parlour sex workers relate to the kind of services they are expected to
provide, and whether they can decline to perform a service. Participants described a variety of arrangements. Some establishments provide their workers with a degree of freedom they can decline to
perform a service with a client without repercussions from the manager or owner. The client is passed
on to another worker. Some workers reported that they get to determine themselves what services are
offered. One described working in a massage parlour as a positive experience because health and safety
measures were in place, as well as benefits, privacy, autonomy, and consistent remuneration.

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At many other establishments, however, owners and managers maintain more control over what
kind of services are provided, and how the worker will be compensated. Several participants explained
that at the establishment where they work, the owner determines what services are provided, and
for what fee. One massage parlour worker reported that some owners literally buy illegal immigrant workers who then have to perform all the services the owner requires of them. Several workers
reported situations where workers are pimped by a live-in boyfriend or a person who provides them
with drugs. In these situations, the worker gives all or most of their massage parlour earnings to the
pimp. The legality of these various types of working arrangements will be discussed throughout this
report.
Participants described an array of types of ownership and management. Participants said that the
most common form of massage parlour or escort agency management involves an owner-operated
business.
Some participants reported that most massage parlours in Vancouver are owned by women. Others
said there are male and female owners, and that the gender of the owner does not make a difference in
management style or conditions, although it appears that workers are less likely to experience sexual
harassment by female owner-operators. Some massage parlour owners have past experience as sex
workers. One participant stated that organized crime and biker gangs are trying to take hold of the
sex industry in Edmonton, and are doing so by buying massage parlours and strip clubs. None of our
participants reported working for gang-owned parlours.
Participants reported that the business-related duties expected of workers vary, depending on
the massage parlour. Some reported that they were expected to perform cleaning duties, including
bathrooms and toilets, while in other parlours laundry and cleaning were done by other staff. Many
massage parlour workers stated that they are not provided with proper on-site hygiene facilities, such
as a shower. Several reported that their employers do not provide them with work-related supplies,
such as condoms, rubber gloves and lubricant.
Participants voiced several concerns about hiring and firing practices. Some employers require
job applicants to undertake a traditional interview in which the applicant is questioned about their
relevant experience. Some massage parlours require prospective employees to submit to a try out by
providing unpaid sexual services to the owner or manager. All massage parlour owners and workers
alike reported that physical attractiveness is a prerequisite of the job. Several workers reported that
they are not able to get jobs at the higher-paying establishments because they do not meet the standards for physical attractiveness. Some owners reported that they require waist and breast measurements from job applicants prior to hiring.
When it comes to keeping their job, participants reported that there are relatively few safeguards to
protect massage parlour employees from wrongful termination. One participant reported that her only
complaint about working in massage parlours is that workers are often fired for no apparent reason.
Complaints
Massage parlour employees reported that there is no one to complain to about working conditions
and that, generally, managers and owners are not receptive to complaints. An example was given of an
owner who would turn off the heat in the winter despite the protests of employees.
One worker reported that there is a sense of isolation working in a massage parlour. Where streetlevel workers have access to services, massage parlour employees work behind closed doors. As a result
they have fewer opportunities to access available services. The one exception participants mentioned
was the ORCHID project, which is an outreach and research project being carried out by the Asian
Society for the Intervention of AIDS, which travels to massage parlours in Vancouver and the Lower
Mainland providing free condoms and sexual-health information.

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Safety
Safety concerns were paramount for all in-call participants. Violence, harassment and abuse are
common experiences of many sex workers, and the ability to work in an environment that provides
protection from the harms related to bad dates was seen as a priority. Some massage parlour workers
reported that their safety needs are met. Others expressed concerns and made suggestions as to how
safety could be improved.
Participants described Vancouver massage parlours as workplaces with a relatively high standard
for personal safety as compared with street-level work. Nevertheless, some workers described being
beaten and assaulted in massage parlours. Many participants reported that workers will help one
another in the event of a violent client, but that some managers and owners do nothing to prevent
bad dates, and ignore them when they occur. Some participants recounted situations where they had
physically attacked a client who was assaulting another worker. Other participants described working
in parlours where they did get help from other workers or managers if they encountered trouble, and
felt that their safety was well protected. One of our participants said that a well-known violent client
frequents many of the massage parlours in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland without criminal
charges being brought against him. Some establishments have banned this man, but others, despite
knowing about his violent proclivities, still allow him to receive services.
One participant explained that when she has to collect payment directly from the client, altercations are more likely to occur. Nearly all participants stated that violence is not reported to the police.
Because they are susceptible to prosecution for bawdy-house, living on the avails and procuring
offences, workers and managers alike fear the involvement of police. The sex workers who would
report violence to police said that they are discouraged from doing so by managers and owners.
One participant reported that, in her experience, many more bad dates patronize street-level
workers than visit massage parlours. The fact that many massage parlours have security cameras, and
all of them have on-site management adds to the safety and security of massage parlour work. Further,
all of the massage parlours we visited are laid out so that rooms are close to one another. A woman
working on her own, especially on the street, cannot always defend herself against an aggressive male
client. This danger is exacerbated when there are no available safeguards. Workers report that there
is less anonymity in the massage parlour context than in out-call work situations. Potentially violent
clients are well aware that in massage parlours they are usually outnumbered, and are much less likely
to attempt violence if someone else is around to witness it, or physically intervene.
Health
Another concern for in-call sex workers are health and hygiene standards in the workplace.
Because there are no standardised occupational health and safety measures for sex work, there is a
wide range of practices in massage parlours.
Participants reported that in some massage parlours there are strict rules for hygiene and protection against sexually transmitted diseases. One participant explained that in the parlour she works
health standards are adequate, training is in place, and there are repercussions when employees fail to
follow the required standards.
Participants reported that, depending on the establishment and the management, massage parlours
could be very clean or very unsanitary. Some have a mandatory condom use policy, and some also
provide condoms, though many of the participants reported that they are required to provide all of
their own supplies including condoms, and that the only equipment provided is clean towels and
laundry. Several participants thought that condom use should be mandatory, and others stated that
they should be provided at no charge by the parlour.
While some massage parlours require all sex acts to be safe and hygienic, others require workers to
engage in extremely unsafe sexual practices. Some locations offer what is known as a Girlfriend Expe-

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rience, which involves clients paying more money for unsafe sexual services, such as unprotected oral
sex. Like some escort services, some massage parlour employers require that workers provide certain
services, and give more clients to the workers who are most compliant. Several participants reported
feeling compelled to perform services that they are uncomfortable with because their employer had
promised those services to the client.
Privacy
Current by-laws require massage parlours and escort agencies to keep records of employees.
Participants did not have a particular objection to this rule. However one participant was concerned
that this requirement creates potential violations of privacy because there may be insufficient security
protecting such records. She felt that these records should be kept under lock and key and not be
available to clients and other workers.
Work and income
Massage parlour workers made some general observations about the difficulty of the work they do.
They emphasized that it is stressful, and that sex workers should be entitled to breaks and vacations.
Further, participants said the work they do should count towards welfare entitlements.
Massage parlour participants suggested that in-call workers had relatively more control over their
working conditions than other sex workers. In general they have more ability to choose where and
how the work is done, and what kind of services they provide. However, they noted that there are
some limits to these choices. A sex workers degree of choice may reflect her physical assets. Participants saw physical characteristics as directly linked to the amount of bargaining power a worker
possesses. As they get older, they may experience less demand for their services, in which case they
may be able to exercise less choice over their working conditions.
Some massage parlour participants saw their work as a long-term career, although they reported
that they would no longer be hired by a massage parlour once they are in their late thirties. Other
participants saw sex work as a means to a more immediate end, such as financing an education to
make them eligible for a different career.
Participants reported that in-call workers can earn a fairly reasonable income. Income varies based
on the age of the worker and her physical attractiveness. Some massage parlour workers declare their
income for taxation purposes, others do not. One reason to declare income is to allow the worker to
pay into a RRSP or RESP; if they do not declare any income, they are not eligible for either. One
participant explained that many sex workers do not declare their whole income, and feel this justified
because they are not able to claim expenses in the same way that other workers can.
Law enforcement
Several participants reported that, in Vancouver, criminal and civil laws are rarely enforced against
in-call venues. One in-call worker explained that, in comparison to other cities she has worked,
Vancouver police rarely enforce laws against massage parlours. One worker reported that sometimes
police visit massage parlours to check identification for citizenship, at which point illegal immigrant
workers make themselves scarce.
In contrast, a participant from Calgary reported that there was a large-scale enforcement sweep of
local massage parlours at least once a year.
Forced labour
Some sex workers are engaged in prostitution against their will and in difficult and sometimes
dangerous circumstances. Some are disempowered by pimps, who may use coercion and violence
to exploit their labour. Some project participants described working under the control of a pimp

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

or pimps. In one case, a pimp gained control of a participant because of her addiction to drugs; in
another case, the control was achieved by violence and intimidation.
Some sex workers are trafficked into Canada, often through coercion and manipulation, and face
arrest and deportation if they come forward. Also, if they talk to police, they may suffer reprisals from
the traffickers who brought them into the country. The needs of these workers extend far beyond
improved working conditions. Their desire to exit the sex industry and gain protection from those
exploiting them can be facilitated by increasing their ability to seek police assistance and by more
humanitarian treatment under Canadas immigration and refugee laws.
Immigrant sex workers, many of whom work in massage parlours, face several legal challenges.
Women and girls trafficked into Canada illegally must endure profound isolation and restrictions
on their freedoms. They cannot disclose their true identities to other workers, and their employers
sometimes prevent them from even leaving the massage parlour. Because of their status as illegal
immigrants, they are unable to access police when they face violence and exploitation for fear of being
arrested and deported. The problems faced by immigrant sex workers are discussed in more detail in
Part 8 on Immigration Law.

Financial arrangements and wage structure

Many sex workers felt they do not have adequate power when negotiating their wages. Our
participants identified four types of pay structure in escort agencies and massage parlours: financial
exploitation/sexual slavery; fee splitting; hourly wages; and tips only.

1. Financial exploitation and sexual slavery

Currently, some sex workers face extreme financial exploitation by people who seek to control
them and exploit their labour. This type of exploitation was reported by street-level sex workers,
escorts, and massage parlour workers, including those legally residing in Canada and those illegally in
the country. Sometimes the reported exploitation stemmed from physical or emotional domination
and control. Sometimes the exploitation stemmed from a persons addiction to drugs.
Some sex workers pay all of their earnings to another person who does not pay them a liveable
wage or, in some cases, any wage at all. This person is commonly referred to as a pimp. The pimp
may provide the worker with room and board and pay for other living expenses, but does not pay
them a consistent wage. One massage parlour worker described being completely under the control of
her employer who supplied room, board, clothing and drugs.
Such a situation would, depending on the circumstances, be found to contravene the criminal laws
prohibiting procuring and extortion. Further, if prostitution were to be decriminalized, this financial
arrangement would be found to contravene various sections of the Employment Standards Act (the ESA),
including the guaranteed minimum wage. Serious forms of exploitation can be dealt with using several
kinds of law.

2. Fee splitting
There are several structures whereby fees paid by clients are split between the worker and employer.
The two most common described by participants in this project were: i) a base fee for a massage with
the worker keeping all tips for sexual services; ii) or a percentage breakdown of fees between worker
and owner.
i. Worker receives a base amount per client and all tips
In some businesses, the client pays a basic fee to have an appointment with an escort or a massage
parlour worker. Part of that fee goes to the business and part goes to the worker. In addition to

29

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

receiving part of the base fee, the worker is able to negotiate a tip with the client by offering sexual
services at various prices. In many cases, the worker keeps the entire tip.
ii. Fees for both the introduction and the sexual services are split between worker and owner on a
percentage basis
The business owner charges an all-inclusive flat rate for a period of time with an escort that
includes payment for sexual services. At the outset, the client is informed of the services being offered.
All-inclusive fees negate the need for any kind of negotiation between the worker and the client.
Usually the fee is split evenly between the business and the sex worker. In this pay structure the
workers earnings are proportionate to the number of clients that they see.
An owner who participated in this study described the fee-split arrangement as a straightforward
financial arrangement between owner and worker. In her establishment, the split was 50-50. She saw the
50 percent fee to the establishment as necessary to cover the work infrastructure she provides, including
phone answering, screening of clients on the phone, protection of anonymity, advertising, etc.
In describing the disadvantages of this payment structure, one participant said that it reduced her
autonomy by making it more difficult to control the types of services she provides, her flexibility in
terms of rates charged for different services, and her overall earnings.

3. Hourly wage
The all-inclusive structure described above pay an hourly wage to the worker, but only for
the time the worker spends with clients. In this system, a sex worker can spend a great deal of time
waiting for clients without being paid. However, there was little support among our participants for
the idea of implementing an hourly wage. Many sex workers enjoy being able to control their work,
and they sense that they can make more money by setting their own fees. For example, when asked
whether they would prefer an hourly rate, one escort explained that she would not, because it would
be hard to determine the hourly rate; she prefers to be able to tailor the fee to the particular service
provided, and the time spent with each client. She would limit the employers role to provision of a
safe workplace.
Another former sex worker suggested that a wage implies a loss of control, and that she would prefer
paying a small fee to an employer, determining herself what to charge the client. She did, however,
believe that an hourly wage would benefit older women who have less bargaining power than their
younger competitors.
One massage parlour worker reported being paid an hourly wage. As well as providing massages
and sexual services, she was required to clean the premises. As a massage attendant, she reported being
eligible for WCB, paying into CPP and EI, and earning B.C.s minimum wage, even if there were no
customers.

4. Tips only
In some businesses, the workers earn only the amount that the client pays above and beyond the
initial introduction fee paid to the establishment. The client pays an initial fee for the massage or
for the appointment with the escort, and then the worker negotiates the sexual services that will be
provided for a tip. This means that if a client does not want any services above and beyond what
they paid for at the outset, the worker does not earn anything.
Several sex workers reported that, in their experience, they generally make more money under the
tips-only system. However, the reality is that they can go to work and not earn anything if they do not
get any clients. Further, if they have to pay fees to their employer while they are on the job, such as a
booking-on fee, they may find themselves in a deficit. Nevertheless, many sex workers reported that
they appreciate having control over the financial aspects of their work.

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

When asked about these different types of financial arrangements, one business owner stated that
the all-inclusive system is, on balance, the best for everyone. She explained that there are very high
overhead costs for establishments like hers, and that the room fee has to cover those. She reported that
generally, when workers determine their own fees, they are happy with the income levels they achieve
overall, even if on some days they do not take home any income.
The legalities of all of these types of financial arrangement will be discussed throughout this report.

31

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

PART 2: Municipal Law

Licensing and sex work: In Canada, thousands of sex workers operate
within licensed massage parlours, body rub parlours and escort services. In
many towns and cities, these businesses are licensed under municipal bylaws. However, due to the current criminal laws that prohibit procuring,
living on the avails of prostitution, and providing sexual services in bawdy
houses, these businesses are susceptible to criminal prosecution. They are
licensed to provide massage, escort services, or other types of services, but
not to sell sexual services. Nevertheless, it is common know-ledge that sexual
services are provided by many of Canadas escort services, massage parlours
and some exotic dance establishments.
If the provisions of the Criminal Code relating to adult prostitution were repealed, the provinces
would have jurisdiction over the regulation of many aspects of prostitution. All provincial governments in Canada have delegated control over certain local matters to municipal governments. Specifically, the licensing of businesses and municipal land use (zoning) are currently delegated to municipal
governments. These are areas of regulation that would become particularly relevant to the sex industry
in the event of decriminalization. In countries that have undergone legal reform, such as New
Zealand, battles regarding where and how many legal brothels may be established are being fought at
the municipal level. Similarly in Canada, if prostitution were to be decriminalized, municipal governments would control the location and nature of prostitution establishments. During the course of
this project, sex workers in three major Western Canadian cities Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton
were interviewed about their experiences with current municipal regulations. In this chapter, we
discuss municipal laws in these three cities, with a focus on Vancouver.

Laws governing municipal powers in B.C. and Alberta

The laws governing municipal powers contain important provisions that will bear directly on the
ability for persons to set up and maintain sex industry
businesses within a province in a decriminalized setting. For example, a municipality has the discretion to refuse a certain type of business license in the interest of limiting the number of such businesses operating in its jurisdiction. A municipality has the discretion to set licensing fees so high that
it will be difficult or impossible for some sex workers to do business. The power of a municipality
to revoke and grant a business license, inspect businesses, set license fees and draft by-laws are all set
out in the laws governing municipal powers. Provisions for challenging these powers are also set out
in these laws. Municipalities have a say in how all business is conducted within their boundaries,
and there will likely be no exception should the criminal laws surrounding prostitution be repealed.
Because of the significant impact that municipalities will likely have on the sex trade, it is imperative
that they consult with sex workers extensively prior to imposing any by-laws on sex work.
B.C. and Alberta both have provincial statues that delegate control over local matters, such as
licensing of businesses and zoning, to local governments. The B.C. Local Government Act (the LGA)
 Criminal Code, R.S.C. 2005, s.210, s.212.
 See e.g. R. v. Hrabchak [1999] M. J. No. 554 (Manitoba Prov Ct.) at p. 7.

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

sets out those matters over which municipalities in B.C. may exercise jurisdiction. The B.C. Community Charter (the Community Charter), sets out additional laws with respect to municipal and
regional district governance. Generally, municipal governments in B.C. create and pass by-laws in
accordance with these statutes. One exception is the City of Vancouver, where the Vancouver Charter
replaces much of the law set out in the LGA and the Community Charter.
B.C.s LGA is very similar in purpose and scope to the Alberta Municipal Government Act (the
MGA). In Alberta, municipalities create and pass by-laws in accordance with the MGA. The MGA
has similar features to the LGA.

B.C.s Local Government Act

The main purposes of the LGA are to provide a legal framework for the establishment and
continuation of local governments, and to set out the powers, duties and functions of local governments, including municipalities and regional districts. The LGA states that municipal governments
have authority within towns and districts, while regional districts have authority outside of towns
and cities. The LGA describes the ways in which municipal by-laws may be challenged under the law;
under s. 262 of the LGA an elector of a municipality may apply to the Supreme Court to set aside all
or part of a by-law for illegality. The court may award costs for or against the municipality according
to the result of the application.
The LGA contains specific provisions regarding the licensing of businesses and bestows on local
government the authority to charge fees for license applications and inspections. The LGA states that
no other fees may be charged besides those set out in s. 931.10 The section contains a provision that
safeguards against exorbitant municipal fees. Subsection 931(2) states that a fee must not exceed the
estimated average costs of processing, inspection, advertising and administration, or other matters to
which the fee relates.

Do the LGA and Community Charter apply in Vancouver?

The LGA and the Community Charter apply throughout B.C. except where particular sections of
these two acts have been specifically superseded by another act of the legislature such as the Vancouver
Charter. The Vancouver Charter specifies which sections of the LGA and the Community Charter are
still in force within the City of Vancouver.11 The Vancouver Charter cannot be changed by City Council
but, rather, requires an act of Provincial government to amend it. The Vancouver Charter states that
only a handful of provisions of the LGA relating to such matters as the transfer of provincial tax dollars
and fire and security alarm systems continue to apply within the City of Vancouver.12 The only LGA
provision relevant to prostitution that continues to apply in Vancouver is s. 931(6) that relates to fees
the municipality charges for applications and inspections.
Further, the Vancouver Charter stipulates that the only provisions of the Community Charter
that continue to apply within Vancouver are those related to interest calculation, exemptions under
regulations and dispute resolution, and governmental relations.13 Thus, the vast majority of municipal
powers applicable in Vancouver are set out in the Vancouver Charter.
 Local Government Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 323 [LGA].
 Community Charter, S.B.C. 2003, c. 26.
 Vancouver Charter, S.B.C. 1953, c. 55.
 Alberta Municipal Government Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. M-26.
 Supra note 3 at s.1.
 Supra note 3 at s. 262.
 Supra note 3 at part 26.
10 Supra note 3 at s. 931.
11 Supra note 5 at s. 2.1.
12 Supra note 5 at s. 2.1.
13 Supra note 5 at s. 2.1.

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Discretion to grant and refuse business licenses in Vancouver

The Vancouver Charter sets out a broad power under s. 275 to grant and refuse business licenses.14
The section states that the revocation or suspension of a licence shall be deemed to be in the discretion of Vancouver City Council, and the Council may grant, refuse, revoke, or suspend a licence
without stating any reason, save in respect of a licensee who, despite reasonable efforts, cannot be
found. The section also provides that a license holder must be given a hearing prior to having their
license revoked. In considering s. 275, the courts have held that the section confers a broad discretion
on Council with respect to granting, revoking and suspending business licences. In the exercise of
that discretion, the Council is entitled to concern itself with such matters as the safety and well being
of the general public, including crime occurring on premises that is attributable, in part, to poor
management by a licensee.15
In the case of D & H Holdings Ltd. v. City of Vancouver and Kenneth Armstrong, Chief License
Inspector, (A850871, Vancouver Registry, July 3, 1985), the petitioner sought a declaration that s.
275 of the Vancouver Charter was without force and effect because it contravenes s. 7 of the Charter
of Rights and Freedoms, the right to life, liberty and security of the person. The court struck out the
provision that states that Council need not provide reasons for revoking or suspending a license. On
this point the Court stated:
the section does, on its face, permit Council to decline to give reasons and that, in my view,
is contrary to fundamental justice. How can a citizen properly challenge Councils decision if
no reasons are given. Section 52(1) of the Charter of Rights provides that The Constitution
of Canada is the Supreme Law of Canada, and any law that is inconsistent with the provisions
of the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect (my emphasis).
The objectionable words without stating any reason therefore are declared inoperative and of
no force or effect.

As the result of this decision, Vancouver City Council no longer has the authority to revoke a business license, such as the license of an escort agency or massage parlour, without providing reasons for
the revocation. The discretion conferred on the City in granting licenses under the Vancouver Charter
will be examined in more detail later in the report.
Under s. 272 of the Vancouver Charter, City Council may make by-laws providing for the licensing of
any person carrying on any business, trade, profession, or other occupation, and for revoking or suspending
any licence, the section states:16
272 (1) The Council may from time to time make by-laws
(a) for providing for the licensing of any person carrying on any business, trade, profession, or
other occupation;
(b) for fixing the fee for the granting of any permit or of any licence, which may be in the
nature of a tax for the privilege conferred by it;
(c) for providing for enforcing payment of any licence fee, and for prohibiting any person
from carrying on any business, trade, profession, or other occupation without first being
licensed therefore;
(f ) for regulating every person required to be licensed under this Part, except to the extent that
he is subject to regulation by some other Statute.

The power to regulate under s. 272(f ) has been interpreted broadly by the courts, and includes the
definition of regulating set out in s. 2 of the Vancouver Charter as authorizing, controlling, limiting,
14 Supra note 5 at s. 275.
15 See Sunrise Hotel Ltd. v. City of Vancouver (No. X5393 - Vancouver Registry - December 21, 1973); Sunrise Hotel Ltd. v. City of
Vancouver (No. 36099/74 - Vancouver Registry - May 30, 1975); Kim v. City of Vancouver [1985] B.C.J. No. 686; and D & H Holdings Ltd. v. City of Vancouver and Kenneth Armstrong, Chief License Inspector, (A850871, Vancouver Registry, July 3, 1985).
16 Supra note 5 at s. 272.

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

inspecting, restricting, and prohibiting. However, in a challenge to the validity of what was then s.
24(6) of Vancouver business licensing by-law No. 4450 a provision aimed at licensing Social Escort
Services the B.C. Superior Court held that the power to regulate in s. 272(f ) does not include the
power to require Social Escort Services to maintain a record of all client requests to provide a Social
Escort and to provide such record upon request, and make such list and records available for inspection by the Inspector or the Chief Constable.17 In that case, the court held that, to survive a challenge,
the power to regulate under s. 272(f ) must be linked to a valid municipal regulatory purpose.
The Vancouver Charter stipulates that City Council may set the term of a license for any period
up to two years, and that a person who maintains a business, trade or occupation at more than one
location must hold a license with respect to each place of business.18 The Vancouver Charter grants the
Chief License Inspector the power to summarily suspend any license if the license holder has been
convicted of an offence under any federal or provincial statute, or under any by-law of the city.19 In
the case of by-law convictions, they must be by-law offences related to the business, trade, profession,
or other occupation for which the license is held.
Further, the Chief License Inspector may suspend a license if, in her opinion, the license holder
has been guilty of such gross misconduct in or with respect to the licensed premises as to warrant
the suspension of his license.20 Additionally, the Chief License Inspector may suspend a license if,
in her opinion, the license holder has conducted his business in a manner, performed a service in a
manner, or sold, offered for sale, displayed for sale, or distributed to a person actually or apparently
under the age of 16 years any thing that may be harmful or dangerous to the health or safety of that
person.21 A person whose license has been suspended under s. 277 may appeal to City Council under
the same provision. The Chief License Inspector may in any case recommend to Council in writing
the suspension or revocation of any license, setting out the reason for such a recommendation.22 The
Council shall not suspend or revoke the license without previous notice and the license holder must
be given an opportunity to be heard.
The Vancouver Charter provides for the fixing of fees for the granting of any permit or license.
Section 272(1)(b) states that the fees may be in the nature of a tax for the privilege of holding the
permit or license.23 The Vancouver Charter also confers the authority of City Council to enforce the
payment of licensing fees and to prohibit any person from carrying on any business, trade, profession
or other occupation without first being licensed for it. These provisions will be examined in more
detail in the following discussion.

Inspections by the City

The Vancouver Charter conveys the authority for regulating business licenses on City Council.
Under s. 269, authority is given to the Chief Licence Inspector to make, or cause all necessary inspections to be made, to ascertain whether the provisions of any statute, regulation, or by-law assigning
powers or duties to him or his staff are being carried out in the city.24 Section 271 confers a duty
on an owner and occupier of any real property in the city to give to the Chief Licence Inspector
such access at any reasonable hour to such real property, and such information as may be reasonably
required to enable an inspection to be made.25
17 International Escort Services Inc. v. Vancouver (City) [1988] B.C.J. No. 2475.
18 Supra note 5 at ss. 273, 276.
19 Supra note 5 at s. 277.
20 Supra note 5 at s. 277(c).
21 Supra note 5 at s. 277(d).
22 Supra note 5 at s. 278.
23 Supra note 5 at s. 272(1)(b).
24 Supra note 5 at s. 269.
25 Supra note 5 at s. 271.

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PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

The Vancouver Charter contains specific provisions limiting the ability to challenge the validity of
city by-laws. Section 148 states that a by-law or resolution duly passed by the Council in the exercise of its powers, and in good faith, shall not be open to question in any Court, or be quashed, set
aside, or declared invalid on account of the unreasonableness of its provisions.26 Section 149 of the
Vancouver Charter states that any by-law or resolution passed by the Council shall be absolutely valid
and binding upon all parties concerned, and can only be questioned in Court within one month after
its final passing.27

Municipal governance over businesses that provide sexual services in Vancouver,

Calgary and Edmonton
Municipal licensing by-laws exist in all Canadian cities. These by-laws set out the types of restrictions that different businesses have to meet in order to obtain a license. In general, business licenses
are a way for municipalities to control the number and nature of businesses within their boundaries,
ensure compliance with health and safety guidelines, and collect licensing fees for city revenue.
Most Canadian cities currently license businesses that are similar, if not identical to Vancouvers
escort agencies, massage parlour services, health enhancement centres or steam baths and, in many
cases, but not all, these types of businesses offer sexual services. Vancouvers health enhancement centre
license provides a clear example of one that is held by both businesses providing non-sexual services,
such as therapeutic massage, and those providing sexual services. Vancouvers Body Rub Parlour license
is an example of a license that is almost exclusively held by establishments that offer sexual services.
Some of these operating businesses may be described as quasi-legal: some of the services they provide
are legal, such as massage or escort services, while others, by providing sexual services, offend the bawdy
house or procuring provisions of the Criminal Code.28
Prostitution that is commonly not carried out under the auspices of a license, such as street and
independent escort work, could also become subject to municipal licensing laws in the event of legal
reform. The potential for licensing of these types of prostitution will be discussed later in this report.
Most Canadian by-laws regulating the types of businesses that often provide sexual services
contain restrictive provisions that can only be interpreted as an attempt to control the provision of
sexual services while not banning prostitution outright. Municipalities in Canada do not have the
authority to explicitly prohibit street-level prostitution.29 Under the Canadian Constitution, municipalities do not have the authority to impose prohibitions for a moral purpose but they may regulate
matters within their jurisdiction, such as local land use and the licensing of local businesses. In Westendorp v. The Queen, a Supreme Court of Canada decision that applies to all of Canada, the Court
held that a by-law may be found to be unconstitutional where it creates an offence that is an attempt
to control or punish street prostitution. Westendorp involved a provision with a stated purpose of
prohibiting street prostitution. The by-law stated: Being a By-law of The City of Calgary to Amend
By-law Number 9022 to Prohibit Use of City Streets by those Approaching or being Approached by
Others for the Purpose of Prostitution. Further, the by-law at issue in Westendorp explicitly created an
offence relating to prostitution:
(2) No person shall be or remain on a street for the purpose of prostitution.
(3) No person shall approach another person on a street for the purpose of prostitution.
(4) Any person contravening the provisions of this section is guilty of an offence and is liable
on summary conviction.30
26 Supra note 5 at s. 148.
27 Supra note 5 at s. 149
28 Supra note 1.
29 Westendorp v. The Queen, [1983] 1 S.C.R. 43 (QL) [Westendorp].
30 Ibid.

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

While the precedent set in Westendorp protects sex workers from municipal attempts to ban streetlevel sex work, municipalities have still been allowed a significant degree of control over street-level
prostitution.
The by-laws in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton are enforced differently and place different
types of restrictions on sex workers, some more onerous than others. This raises different issues for the
sex workers operating within such licensing schemes. These by-laws and their impact on sex workers
are examined in more detail below.

Vancouvers licensing by-laws

Any person carrying on a business, trade, profession or other occupation must have a valid business license under the Vancouver Charter.31 The terms business, trade, profession, and occupation are not defined in the Vancouver Charter but, in practice, they are applied very broadly to
encompass everything from sole proprietorships operated out of the home, to street vendors, to
persons operating web businesses, to persons operating large-scale enterprises. Clearly, this provision
would encompass all forms of prostitution if it were to be fully decriminalized.
In Vancouver, a by-law breach normally results in a fine as punishment. Fines can range between
$100 and $2,000.
The licensing of businesses in Vancouver is governed by one central by-law called the Vancouver
License By-law, No. 4450 (the Vancouver By-law).32 The Vancouver By-law sets out the requirements
and fees to obtain a license for various types of businesses, including those commonly held by sex
industry employers, and sets out restrictions on various types of business.
To obtain a business license, business owners and operators must fill out an application for a license,
submit it in person at City Hall, and pay an annual licensing fee.33 All Vancouver business licenses
expire on December 31 of each year and, therefore, must be renewed annually.34 Employees do not
have to obtain a business license; rather, only the owner or operator of the business must obtain the
license. The license application requires the applicant to provide their name, address, a description
of the business, and property address of the proposed business as set out in the Vancouver By-law.35
All persons applying for licenses are automatically subject to a criminal record check by the City
Inspector.36 The Inspector can refuse to grant a license to a person because of their criminal record. A
person applying for a business license must present at City Hall a valid B.C. identification or Canadian
passport in order to obtain a license.
Businesses that provide sexual services commonly hold Body Rub Parlour, Dating Service,
Health Enhancement Centre, Social Escort Service, Steam Bath, and Massage Parlour business
licenses; however, not all massage parlours, health enhancement centres and steam baths are fronts
for prostitution. During the course of the project we interviewed sex workers operating in businesses
holding Health Enhancement Centre, Social Escort Service and Dating Service licenses under the
Vancouver By-law. Given that each of these categories may provide fronts for prostitution, sex workers
commented on all five types of licenses. Many of these licensing provisions contain a wide range of
restrictions. In the event that the criminal laws related to prostitution are repealed, it is likely that
municipalities would revise or even eliminate such restrictions.

31 Supra note 5 at s. 272(1)(a).

32 City of Vancouver, By-law No. 4450, License By-Law (23 September 1969) [Vancouver By-Law)
33 Supra note 32 at s. 3(2).
34 Supra note 32 at s. 3(2).
35 Supra note 32 at s. 4(3).
36 Supra note 32 at s. 4(2).

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Vancouvers business prohibition by-law

Vancouvers municipal by-laws directly prohibit certain types of businesses. By-law No. 5156,
the Business Prohibition By-law, prohibits any person from carrying on a business that involves a
nude encounter (i.e. a discussion session engaged in for which a fee is paid and either one or both
parties are unclothed, or any activities substantially similar), an out-call body massage service (i.e.
the offering of a body-rub at any premises other than a licensed body-rub parlour), or an erotic
telephone call (i.e. the offering or providing of a discussion of sex over the telephone for a fee in an
erotic or lewd manner).37 By-law No. 5156 imposes a $2,000 fine on anyone violating this by-law.
When asked about this by-law, sex workers stated unanimously that it was vague and unfair.
Body rub parlours
The term Body Rub Parlour is defined in the Vancouver By-law as any premises where a bodyrub is performed, offered or solicited.38 The By-law defines Body rub as the manipulating, touching
or stimulating by any means, of a persons body or part thereof, not including medical, therapeutic
or cosmetic massage treatment given by a person duly licensed or registered under any statute of the
Province of B.C. or a therapeutic touch technique.39
The Vancouver By-law states that every applicant for a license to operate a body rub parlour shall
supply the Chief Constable of the Vancouver Police Department and the City License Inspector with
the name, age, address and sex of all persons that the applicant employs.40 The provisions state that
no person carrying on the business of a Body-Rub Parlour shall employ a person under the age of 19
years, nor shall a person under the age of 19 years be permitted on the premises, in which case clients
must be over 19 or older.41 The by-law requires that all rooms used for body-rub shall not be less than
2.4 metres by 2.4 metres, shall not be equipped with any locking device on any door other than the
entrance to the premises, shall not have any means by which any person may view the interior of the
premises such as a window and shall be equipped with lighting of at least 50 candle power which
shall remain on when the door closed.42
The Body Rub provisions hold that no person who carries on the business of operating a body-rub
parlour shall:
permit any person to enter or remain on the premises between the hours of 12 midnight and 8 a.m.; 43
practice or permit the practice of a therapeutic touch technique or advertise in any way that a
therapeutic touch technique is available on the premises;44
exhibit herself nor permit other persons to exhibit themselves, in any window on or about the
premises, or exhibit or permit to be exhibited any sign outside of the premises showing any nude
male or female body nor any printed words that might indicate that the licensed premises is a
place that offers any form of sexual or nude entertainment.45
The by-law requires that the person performing the body-rub wears clean, washable, non-transparent
outer garments covering his or her body between the neck and the top of the knee, the sleeves of which
37 City of Vancouver, By-law No. 5156, A By-law to prohibit the carrying on of sundry business, trades, professions and other occupations
(11 April 1978).
38 Supra note 32 at s. 2.
39 Supra note 32 at s. 2.
40 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5.
41 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5(3).
42 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5(5).
43 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5(6).
44 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5(9).
45 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5(8).

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

do not reach below the elbows.46

When asked about these provisions, sex workers stated they felt they are unnecessary and intrusive:
Q. What is your opinion of the law surrounding body rub parlours? . . . We
talked about it. [Rooms must be] two-by-two metres, you needed to have the outfits
between the neck and the knees.
A. We said that it wasnt applicable to sex trade workers, that it needed definitely to be
changed.
- female street-level sex worker

Restrictions, targeting such minutiae as the type and length of clothing that must be worn, the precise
size and lighting of the rooms, and requirement that there be no locks on the rooms are very different
from the types of licensing requirements imposed on other types of businesses.47 Such restrictions
impose a higher degree of control over, and intrusion into, the workplaces of sex workers. Nearly all
sex workers felt some or all of these requirements were unfair.
One sex worker described the breach of privacy created by the requirement in her workplace that
she keep her door unlocked:
A. I dont think that its fair that I have to keep my door unlocked.
Q. Do you currently have to keep the door unlocked?
A. Yup, I do . . . . I get people walking in all the time.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

One former sex worker and current business owner stated she felt the specific lighting requirement
was nonsensical:
A. But there are no windows on the rooms. But another thing that it does specify is the
brightness of the lights. Which I could never understand what the hell is a six foot
candle?
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

One sex worker suggested that the requirements are overly restrictive:
A. Like I mean, cmon, 10 candles. I mean I mean, I think it should be a darker
lighting, if you want.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Nearly all sex workers felt that these provisions are overly intrusive. Some even remarked that they
were outdated and should be revised to better protect the safety and interests of sex workers.
Dating services
The Vancouver By-law defines a dating service as any person carrying on the business of providing
information to persons wanting to meet other persons for the purposes of social outings.48 The by-law
requires that every person carrying on the business of a dating service shall supply the City License
Inspector with the name, age, address and description of every person employed in the said business,
shall notify the Inspector within 72 hours of any change in the personnel employed in the business,
and shall maintain a written record of all customers.49 There is no requirement to supply information
about employees in the case of the escort service by-law.
46 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5(7).
47 For example, many licensing provisions contain restrictions on hours of operation only.
48 Supra note 32 at s. 2.
49 Supra note 32 at s. 13.1.

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Health enhancement centres

The Vancouver By-law defines a Health Enhancement Centre as a building or premises used for
the enhancement of health and well-being through one or more therapeutic touch techniques.50 The
by-law also states that every person carrying on the business of a health enhancement centre shall
ensure that all persons hired to administer a therapeutic touch technique are qualified and, unlike the
Body Rub by-law, requires that they have not been convicted under s. 212 of the Criminal Code, the
provision prohibiting procuring, or s. 213, the section prohibiting communicating for the purposes of
prostitution.51 The by-law requires that a health enhancement centre shall not remain open between
the hours of midnight and 8 a.m., and that no person carrying on the business of a health enhancement centre shall allow a person on the premises to engage in an act of prostitution.
This provision is an example of a by-law that prohibits prostitution in one kind of licensed
establishment, but facilitates it in another, because no similar provision is included in the Body Rub
by-law. This implies that body rub parlours are designed to be prostitution establishments. Indeed, the
vastly different fees for the various types of establishments $193 for a Health Enhancement Center
and $208 for a Massage Parlour, as compared to $7,891 for a Body Rub Parlour reinforce this
impression. In fact, a Body Rub license is the third most expensive in Vancouver, exceeded by only the
Pacific National Exhibition and the Race Track.
Sex workers pointed out the Health Enhancement Centre provision prohibiting persons with
convictions under s.s 212 and 213 of the Criminal Code from working in Health Enhancement
Centres has the effect of preventing persons wishing to exit prostitution for employment in a range of
therapies.
One sex worker and owner stated that she felt it was nonsensical having to ensure that staff are
certified to practice therapies they do not offer:
A. Because I dont live up to a lot of what I need to live up to. But I am not offering
fucking Reiki. Okay? Its not what I am offering. But its what have I have to pretend
to be offering to get my business license. So, yknow, to to have to meet the licensing
requirements of a business I dont offer, is certainly odd. I cant think of another business that has to have their staff certified in something theyre not offering . . . . But being
certified in some sort of knowledge, of what you are offering, would sure make a lot
more fucking sense than being certified in reflexology to give a blowjob.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Social escort service

The Vancouver By-law states that a Social Escort Service means any person who carries on the
business of providing, or offering to provide, the services or the names of persons to act as escorts for
other persons.52 The Vancouver By-law also states that any person carrying on the business of a social
escort shall maintain on the premises a list of all current employees and all customers; and upon
request make such list available for inspection by the City Inspector or the Chief Constable.53 This
requirement does not protect the privacy of who is working at and who is frequenting social escort
services.

50 Supra note 32 at s. 2.
51 Supra note 32 at s. 17.1.
52 Supra note 32 at s. 2.
53 Supra note 32 at s. 25.3.

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BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

Massage parlours and steam baths

The Vancouver By-law addresses Massage Parlours and Steam Baths within the same licensing
provision.54 The Vancouver By-law does not define a Massage Parlour. It defines a Steam Bath as any
premises wherein a fee is paid for a sauna or steam-bath.55 The by-law states attendants in steam baths
and massage parlours must not treat or attend members of the opposite sex.56 The operator must keep
a written record of all persons using the premises, including their name, address and time and date
of use. No person shall operate a premise in which members of the opposite sex use the same steambath, and that the interior of the premises must be illuminated to a minimum of ten candles in every
part of the premises.57
Sex workers felt the licensing provisions related to Steam Baths and Massage Parlours were unfair,
discriminatory, and based on outdated moral beliefs. Sex workers noted that no similar requirement
regarding members of the opposite sex exists for other professions that involve bodily contact between
service provider and client.58 Sex workers indicated that they feel this restriction rests on a stereotype
that persons working in and frequenting steam baths and massage parlours are all heterosexual. One
sex worker said:
A. Its natural to go into a steam bath with the opposite sex . . . . What I was just saying
is I think a lot of this illuminated that. I think a lot of these rules were written a
loooong time ago.
- female street-level sex worker

One escort summarized her criticism of these provisions in the following manner:
A. Thats ridiculous . . . . I imagine that this law dates back to a time before . . . people
even thought about gay sex . . . . But I think that if you if you want to be in a
designated room, that should be for both sexes, then thats fine. But I think that
also a same-sex only room should be available.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Licensing fees
Schedule A of the Vancouver By-law sets out the fees that a license holder must pay on an annual
basis to the City:59
Dating services

$128 per year

Health enhancement centres

$198 per year

Body rub parlours

$8,108 per year

Steam baths and massage parlours

$214 per year

Social escort services

$958 per year.

These licensing fees can be compared to fees for the following non-sex industry business licensing
fees under the Vancouver By-law:

54 Supra note 32 at s. 25.6.

55 Supra note 32 at s. 2.
56 Supra note 32 at s. 25.6.
57 Supra note 32 at s. 25.6.
58 For example, massage therapists, escorts, and gynaecologists
59 Supra note 32 at Schedule A.

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Bowling alley

$197 per year

Auto dealer

$128 per year

Arcade

$266 per year

Late night dance event

$232 $929 per year60

Given the enormous discrepancy in these fees, it would appear that the city of Vancouver is
attempting to channel prostitution services into escort services and body rub parlours, and away from
dating services, massage parlours, steam baths and health enhancement centres.
The licensing provisions like those applicable to body rub parlours as well as the nature of the
businesses holding such licenses make it obvious that the City is well aware it is licensing prostitution.
Thus, just as the federal government has created a contradiction in the law with respect to prostitution making it legal but almost impossible to carry out in a legal manner so, too, have municipal
governments, by creating provisions that allow for the licensing of businesses in which sexual services
are offered while at the same time heavily restricting and confining those businesses in a way that can
be construed as denying that prostitution occurs in licensed premises.
Challenging high licensing fees and restrictive by-laws
In several Canadian cases, applicants have argued against disproportionately high licensing fees
for escort services and massage parlours on the basis that they are: a) discriminatory; and b) on the
basis that the high fees may have the effect of prohibiting such businesses. In several cases, applicants
have argued that such restrictive licensing by-law provisions constitute an unlawful prohibition.
However, few such cases have been successful.61 In the case of Re City of Vancouver License By-Law
4957, the Vancouver by-law dealing with body-rub parlours, body painting and model studios was
challenged in B.C. Supreme Court. Among other things, the by-law prohibited nude attendants in
body-rub parlours, restricted hours of operation to before midnight, and imposed an annual license
fee substantially higher than that extracted from other businesses. There was no evidence presented
as to the economic effect of the by-law on the business of body-rub parlours generally, and there was
no evidence presented as to what motivated City Council to enact the by-law in the first place. In
delivering the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Taggart, J.A., summarized the three grounds for the
plaintiffs case against the by-law as follows:
(1) Its purpose and effect was to prohibit and not merely to regulate the business of the appellants.
(2) Council in enacting the by-law did not act in good faith but in an unfair, oppressive and
discriminatory manner.
(3) Council exceeded its authority in enacting the by-law in that it purported to regulate
public and private morality.62

With respect to the evidence on the first ground of appeal, Taggart J.A. stated:
While the economic effects of a by-law on those affected by it may be a relevant consideration
in determining whether the by-law is prohibitory or merely regulatory, I think the evidence in
the case at Bar does not support its application because the evidence is limited to expressions
of opinion by officers of the two appellant companies as to the effects of the impugned by-law
on the appellants alone, and there is no evidence as to what the economic effects of the by-law
may be on the class of business known as body-rub parlours.63
60 Licensing fees cited are for annual license renewal, not fees for first-time license-holders which are higher.
61 See Re City of Vancouver, [1976] B.C.J. No. 330 (B.C.S.C.) (QL) [Re Vancouver]; International Escort Services Inc. v. Vancouver
(City), [1988] B.C.J. No. 2475 (B.C.S.C.) (QL) [International Services}
62 Re Try-San International Ltd. and City of Vancouver (1978), 83 D.L.R. (3d) 236 (QL).
63 Ibid.

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The court held that the by-law was not prohibitory, but merely regulated the manner in which body-rub
parlour business could be conducted. Turning to the other grounds of appeal, Taggart J.A. reasoned:
Grounds 2 and 3 may conveniently be considered together for the appellants submission on
Ground 2 as to bad faith is bound up with the contention that council purported to regulate
public and private morality. In relation to Grounds 2 and 3 counsel for the appellant again
encountered difficulties because there was no evidence to indicate what considerations motivated council in enacting the impugned by-law.
Here, in the absence of evidence it seems to me impossible to say that council acted to regulate
public and private morality. In saying that I do not wish to be taken as saying that council
may not in appropriate circumstances consider moral issues when acting under the powers
conferred on the council by the City Charter to regulate how businesses may be conducted. I
merely say that here there is no evidence of any consideration of moral issues by council.64

This decision suggests that a challenge to discriminatorily high licensing fees for sex industry businesses may be successful with the appropriate evidence. There is no question that licensing fees for
businesses offering sexual services are higher than those for non-sex industry businesses. We will
return to the subject of licensing fees in more detail later in this report.
Body rub parlour licenses in Vancouver
Sex workers indicated that there is currently only one Body Rub Parlour license held in Vancouver,
and that the City is not issuing any more licenses beyond this one. The City confirmed that there
is, indeed, only one Body Rub Parlour license at present. There was no confirmation that other
persons have applied for and been denied Body Rub Parlour licenses. The exercise of discretion by the
licensing authority to deny licenses in this fashion will be discussed below under the heading
Discretion of Licensing Body on page 62.
Vancouver area sex workers suggested that as a result of higher licensing fees for Body Rub
Parlours and the apparent lack of new licenses, many establishments providing sexual services are
operating under Health Enhancement Centre and Massage Parlour licenses.
One sex worker and owner/operator commented on the difference in licensing fees and requirements in body rub parlour and health enhancement centres:
A. And if you decide and two of them switched over to a Health Enhancement Centre
because its so much cheaper. Its a regular business license fee, whereas the body rub
license was nearly seven grand. Seven grand, okay? So yeah, when you could pay
five hundred dollars versus seven grand then you have to go, Okay well there is 40
health enhancement centres in Vancouver, that are all doing the same thing that I
am. Why should I be paying this fee? They switched over.
Q. So why do people [apply for Body Rub Parlour licenses], I guess so they dont have
to maintain so much yknow, secrecy with what they are doing, they have a little bit
more leeway with what they do, or?
A. Well it yknow, you still end up paying for it, because you are allowed things with
the body rub license that you are not allowed with the health enhancement centre
license. With the body rub license, none of the staff have to be certified in anything.
So thats a huge bonus. [An] establishment with [a] body rub license doesnt ever
have to worry about city hall coming in and saying, Can I see your staff certification? I do. So it is a means by which the city can effectively close down every place in
Vancouver, except one, overnight if they wanted to. Its a very simple way. Eventu64 Ibid.

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ally, people would find a way around, but if they wanted to shut everybody down
for a couple of months, they could. And then people would just have to fork over the
$500 [for a fee for certification] and go get certified in something. And thered be the
pressure to do that quickly, whereas right now theres not. And even with my own
staff, yknow to tell people theyd have to go get certified, they would be like, when
was the last time that anyone checked? It doesnt matter that it was four years ago, it
could happen tomorrow.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Body rub parlour licenses in Edmonton and Calgary

The licensing fees for businesses in Vancouver are similar to those in Calgary and Edmonton.
The Calgary By-Law No. 32M98 governs business licensing fees.65 A Body Rub Studio license costs
$3,600 and a Dating and Escort Service license costs $3,600, while a Motor Vehicle Dealer license
costs $110.00. In Edmonton, Business License By-Law No. 13138 sets out business licensing fees,
including $4,092 annually to license an Escort Agency, $1,535 for an Independent Escort license,
$154 for a Vehicle Dealership and $512 for a Nightclub.66
Sex workers commented that they felt having much higher licensing fees for sex industry businesses was unfair, discriminatory and prohibitive:
Q. So, what is your opinion about licensing fees for individual sex workers, and about
licensing fees for sex work businesses?
A. They should be on par with everything else. Not like theres such a jump, in that eight
thousand, thats ridiculous. Between the body rub and what was it?
A. Escort services. Like ones 800 and ones 8,000 [dollars?]. They should definitely be on
par with each other basis. Thats legitimate. Not just some government.
A. Yeah.
A. I mean some of the services are exactly the same as a brothel house and a massage
parlour.
A. Exactly. So they should be on par with the licensing too.
- female street-level sex workers

A sex worker in Edmonton described how she felt the high fees for independent escorts made it difficult, if not impossible, for some women to move from the street into independent escort work:
A. The cost is $4,000 if you want an agency license in Edmonton where you would
employ people as opposed to 15 hundred dollars for somebody who is independent.
And that brings me pretty much up to today.
Q. What do you think of that particular arrangement right now?
A. Well, I find it workable, probably because I have been around for long, and Im
aware of it, and for what its for, think its very prohibitive for anybody to just walk
into, into the independent part of the business and work without any, any agency
help because its so, I mean its not even just $1,500. Its another hundred dollars
and its an added insult because you first have the $1,500 of the independent agency
license but you still have to employ yourself even though you cant employ anyone else
and thats a hundred dollars, and then because thats the nature of the beast you have
to have a home business license which is another $35, and now I hear its up two
percent from that. So, you know, its a lot of money and the upstart is, is so expen65 City of Calgary, By-law No. 32M98, Business Licence Bylaw.
66 City of Edmonton, By-law No. 13138, Business Licence Bylaw.

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sive because now youve got this license in your hands assuming youve managed
to scrape that kind of money together. . . . So what about women that want to get
off the street? What does this by-law do to them? The escort by-law makes it impossible. It really, almost makes it impossible. Yes, they could go work for pimps, and I
suppose if theyve already been working for a street pimp and they find themselves out
of that situation, needing work, they probably wouldnt find themselves uncomfortable working for an inside pimp. But for the independent, you know the independent
girl, on the street, which is what I used to be, it costs her nothing. Theres the condom
wagon, so she doesnt even have to pay for that. She gets herself out of bed in the
morning, walks to the curb, theres her advertising costs, nothing, her transportation
costs he provides, they either go back to her place or his place or do it in the car, that
costs nothing extra. And shes got money in her pocket. How can you convince somebody, drug addicted or not drug addicted, that theyd be better off inside, except for
of course the fact that there are these serial killers running around, anybody whos out
on the street thats younger might not be so much addicted, but when youre younger
youre invincible and of course that guys not coming for you right? People that are
older and are still stuck on the street, they might have mental problems, or maybe
theyre just desperate for the moment and they dont do it full time anyway. But
thats the thing. I mean if youre on welfare or something and youre just not making
ends meet, and youre just out there once a week, what would compel a person to go
indoors at those prices? Or what would compel, I cant even imagine what would
compel me to go work for a massage agency for instance, when Im only going to work
once in a blue moon and they would take more than the money I would make.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

The fact that sex workers who want to move from street work into escort work are prevented from doing
so by the high escort licensing fees reveals the way that such provisions directly affect the safety of sex
workers. In Edmonton, where this impact was reported, a serial killer is currently suspected of causing
the deaths of several street-level sex workers. The Edmonton council should consider lowering the
licensing fees and restrictions it applies to independent escorts.
Sex workers in Calgary and Edmonton similarly criticized the municipal by-laws relating to sex
work under which they are forced to operate. In Calgary, there are two relevant by-laws: the 1988
By-law to License, Regulate and Control Massage Practitioners and Massage Studios, and the 1986
By-law to License, Regulate and Control Body Painting Studios, Encounter Studios, Dating and
Escort Services and Model Studios.67 The by-laws set out licensing requirements and restrictions, fees,
penalties for non-compliance, and revocation of a license. These by-laws prohibit the aforementioned
adult businesses from operating in residential districts.
In Edmonton, both escort agencies and escorts are governed by the Escort Licensing By-law
#12452.68 This by-law sets out how licenses are obtained, restrictions on who can apply for a license,
licensing fees, the duration of the license, and fines for non-compliance.
In all cases, sex workers stated they felt the number and type of restrictions, and the licensing fees
for sex industry businesses should be equivalent to those for other businesses.

Views on the quasi-legal status of sex industry businesses

The status of licensed sex industry businesses as simultaneously legal and illegal creates an uncertain situation for sex workers. They described the experience of working for a business that provides
67 City of Calgary, Bylaw 51M97, Massage License Bylaw; City of Calgary, Bylaw 34M86, Dating and Escort Bylaw.
68 City of Edmonton, By-law 12452, Escort Licensing Bylaw.

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both legal and illegal services as one of constant fear of reprisal by City Officials who can penalize
them at any time for engaging in prostitution. Also they stated that they are unable to seek protection
of their legal rights. One sex worker stated:
A. Yet yknow, we jump through the hoops that we have to jump through, to to keep it
all there. And it all could all be pulled out from underneath me.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Some sex workers felt intimidated by the threat of officials enforcing municipal licensing schemes.
When asked about how she felt about the by-laws, one sex worker said:
A. Well mostly fear and intimidation, I mean you constantly feel like youre being
watched. And I dont know, Im not all that prone to paranoia, but there just seems to
be [sighs], oh dear. That, thats the biggest thing, I think people are always worried,
when are they going to be the next target, and its uncomfortable to say the very
least. And its also, you know, there are some people that are you know, pretty, pretty
upfront with their families about what they do, and they still wouldnt want to go
and stick their neck out and say anything to the media, lest they be the next target.
And its kind of an ongoing thing . . . .
- female off-street out-call sex worker

All sex workers operating in licensed businesses felt they had fewer rights than other workers, and
were less able than other workers to seek protection of their rights:
A. But as we dont still have the same civil rights that you do, as any other business
owner. Yes, it used to be very confrontational, and they would come do ID checks.
A. Yeah, so I mean, its its a house of cards, I am always, I realize the frailty of the
licensing system, from which I work. It can be revoked at any time. And I really I
really dont have a lot of rights.
- female off-street in-call sex workers

One owner/sex worker talked about how seldom people working in the sex industry will mobilize and
speak out against abuses:
A. Theyre not the type of stuff the type of stuff that takes people over the edge is the
type of the stuff that happened in [name omitted] where your yknow, where you
have to let the owner go perform oral sex on you on a regular basis, to hold your job.
And and yknow, hes just nasty, dirty, degrading, disgusting, piece of shit human
being thats the type of thing to to get people in this industry to mobilize.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Such a system allows municipalities to control and profit from sex industry businesses while simultaneously maintaining the faade that they do not know what takes place inside them.
All sex workers who work in licensed establishments described the way that they must pretend
they are not providing sexual services even though they are certain the municipality knows that they
are. Sex workers believed that municipal authorities are well aware that they license and profit from
prostitution. Indeed, some sex workers suggested that municipalities are living on the avails of prostitution contrary to s. 212 of the Criminal Code.69 The opinions of sex workers clearly showed that the
need to conceal their real work creates barriers to their accessing health, safety, civil and human rights
protections while they work. Several sex workers commented:
69 Supra note 1.

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A. Well, basically the city says that they dont license the act, they only license the introduction . . . . And thats their pretext and thats what they are going on.
A. Theyre turning a blind eye to whats going on . . . .
A. Theyre allowing . . . agencies to book the calls and send the girls to the calls, but they
refuse to admit that theyre actually turning tricks or doing prostitution . . . .
A. They think we are going to the opera . . . . I dont think Ive been taken to the opera,
but hey.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Some sex workers said that they are put in the position of being solely responsible for what occurs
on the job because their work is illegal. As a result, they felt they had little recourse when they
are assaulted during the course of their work. Many sex workers stated that on-site management
personnel offer no protection or help:
A. The management doesnt help out much here though or at all when a guy is rough. I
have to go back into the room or I am not getting paid even if the guy is too rough
with me.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

A. You know I am really disappointed because the boss when you are in the room you
are on your own. You can scream or whatever. You know. Well, whatever. He is so
strong, he is so big how can I. You know, I was screaming but nobody hear . . . .
Thats why I left there.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Also, the sex workers we interviewed said that they would rarely, if ever, report violence to police.
Sex workers asserted that the current licensing scheme does nothing to enhance their safety and security. One sex worker challenged the idea that the current licensing scheme is designed to protect sex
workers, and felt that it is not fulfilling that objective:
A. I dont think it [licensing] adds to your safety any. I mean, Ive never known any
girl that had a license and phoned the police and said Oh my God, theres a stalker
guy after me . . . or this guy tried to beat me up or something . . . they just basically
laugh at you and say, you know, Who cares?. Thats the line of work youre in. Too
bad. But then they sit there and put your name in the database and say yeah, we
should arrest her soon, you know. Im sorry if I see it in kind of a one-sided light but
the way they treat the women here, its bad. No one deserves to be killed, and no one
. . . you know, you should be able to go to the police for help. You shouldnt have to
hide and fear the police all the time because theyre the enemy and not the client, you
know, because theyre the ones who are going to say too bad if we find your body . . .
your type of people . . . in dumpsters all the time
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers suggested that the current licensing requirement that employers maintain extensive
records of who works for them is an invasion of privacy:
Q. What about maintaining records? Some of the by-laws say that in a massage parlour
the massage parlour has to maintain records of all their employees with their name .
A. Yeah, they have that now, and I dont like it. I thought of going in there and
snatching my record out of there . . . . Yeah, I dont like that right now. Because its so
intrusive. All my information its in there. My social security number, where I live.
I dont trust like the girls that I work with, they can get to that information. I have

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seen them be friends with managers before. They go get information about where
she lives and phone numbers. If they are going to have that information, they should
really keep it under lock and key.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Talking about Edmontons by-laws, one woman described the way that the current licensing prohibition of telephone call-forwarding prevents sex workers from working independently:
A. Unfortunately, when the licensing came into place in the city of Edmonton, I found
myself basically having to work in these seedy offices and I went out . . . . I borrowed
some money and went out on my own and I got an agency license . . . . How much
they made, or how many calls they did, I didnt care. But again, with the city
licensing, the way it was I ended up subjecting myself to a lot of fines. Basically, the
by-law states that the office door has to be open during business hours and somebody
had to be there. So by doing that, if I booked myself a call, and I wasnt in the office
. . . . I locked the door and went to turn the trick, I got a $2,500 fine if they were
banging on my door while I was out working . . . .
Q. Hmm . . . okay so if you could imagine this . . . sorry? There was a call forwarding
thing, right? They wouldnt allow call forwarding, initially.
A. Right. To the cell phones.
Q. Right. Do they allow that now?
A. No, again that was . . . the agency owners that actually went to city hall and said
that they were worried about our safety and that our kids were answering the phones
and these types of things, by allowing the call forwarding.
Q. Oh, I see.
A. The pimps were trying to get the call forwarding taken away and eliminated.
Q. So they could keep control of the calls.
A. Exactly. So they could eliminate us and that we would all have to go back and work
for them.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Such restrictions take control away from the worker, enabling employers to dictate the terms and
conditions of sex work. A sex worker described the discrimination produced under the current
licensing scheme:
A. Well, Ive got one girl here . . . this is sad . . . she was going to go to San Diego with a
couple of girlfriends of hers, just for a couple of weeks just to take some time off, and
she had her escort license on her. And U.S. Customs stopped her and went through
her bag, found her escort license and shes been banned to go to the United States
for 10 years . . . . So, I mean, I cant see this doing any good. I mean, a lot of girls .
. . they have kids. They dont want the kids knowing what they do. Or their parents
knowing what they do. These types of things. You know, because were so stereotyped
that a lot of women are hiding so nobody finds out what they do.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

In sum, sex workers found that the combined effect of the quasi-legal status of their work together
with restrictive licensing requirements gives more control to the employer, invades their privacy,
grants them fewer rights than other workers, and makes them less able to protect their rights and
personal security. In future, licensing by-laws should be re-written so as to enhance the health and
safety of sex workers.

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Licensing restrictions criminal record

Sex workers stated that licensing by-laws that prohibit persons with criminal records from working
in off-street sex work venues may prevent many workers from leaving the street.70 All applicants
for business licenses in Vancouver can be subject to criminal record screening under the Vancouver
Charter,71 and no person may be employed in a Health Enhancement Centre who has a conviction
under s.s 213 or 212 of the Criminal Code.72 In Edmonton, applicants seeking escort licenses are
carefully screened, with sometimes even minor offences barring them from obtaining a license.73 One
escort describes her tenuous position when renewing her escort license:
Q. So what other things are you involved with passing the clearance?
A. Basically the clearance is done by the Edmonton City Police, they say that its to
keep the criminal element out of the sex trade. Ah, basically say that you have been
charged with prostitution related charges, drug offences or something like that, they
wont allow you to be cleared . . . . Well, I mean I dont know too many prostitutes
that have totally clear records. Well, I mean, myself I have an offence that dates back
13 years. Every year I have to go in there to beg to get a clearance so I can get my
license or I am back out on the street.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers stated that a person should be prohibited from working indoors only as a way to enhance
workplace safety, in which case only those persons convicted of crimes of violence should be barred.
Further, they felt that if such requirements are to be put in place, they should apply equally to all
work places, not just sex industry businesses. A former worker/owner stated the case this way:
Q. What do you think about this . . . [by-law] about the convictions for procuring or
communicating for the purpose of prostitution?
A. Well I guess, on the face of it, I would have to say that I disagree with it. I mean I
can see why you would need to not have a criminal record maybe, to work in a bank.
But for what we are offering, if someone has some type of prostitution related criminal record I dont think it should be illegal in the first place so how could I object
to someone having a criminal record for it? I mean, if someone had a criminal record
with armed robbery, maybe I would want to know. But wouldnt every employer?
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

In sum, sex workers felt that criminal record prohibitions prevent workers from moving off the street
to indoor venues. They suggested that if there are to be criminal record prohibitions, they should be
designed to facilitate workplace safety, and should apply equally to all businesses.

Do sex workers want to participate in a licensing system?

Sex workers were asked whether or not they wanted to participate in a licensing scheme at all.
Those workers who did were asked whether or not they felt sex workers should be licensed individually, or whether licensing should be restricted to businesses employing more than one sex worker.
The sex workers who participated in the project were divided as to whether businesses that
employed more than one person should be licensed. In general, those sex workers who felt that such
70 Many sex workers reported that they felt working indoors would provide a safer work environment than the streets. See also Voices
for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused by Canadas Sex Trade Laws in which street sex workers voiced the opinion that they felt
working indoors would allow them increased security and safety from violent clients.
71 Supra note 5 at s. 277.
72 Supra note 32 at s. 17.1(2).
73 Supra note 68 at s. 22.

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businesses should be licensed felt that licensing provisions should match those of non-sex industry
businesses in terms of the types of requirements and level of restrictiveness; sex industry businesses
should not be subject to more restrictive licensing requirements or levels of enforcement than other
businesses. Sex workers agreed that by-laws imposing harsher restrictions on sex industry businesses
should be repealed.
With the exception of two participants, sex workers were opposed to licensing individual street sex
workers and independent escorts. The vast majority of our participants felt that individual licensing
was impractical, and would reduce the autonomy of independent sex workers.
Sex workers argued that municipal by-laws should promote the autonomy of individual sex
workers, and enable them to control their own working conditions. They felt that consultation with
sex workers was the crucial first step to any reform of municipal by-laws affecting their work. They
want to be able to work out of their homes on an independent basis without having to be licensed. As
home-based work in Vancouver is regulated by zoning by-laws, this issue is discussed in more detail in
the section on Zoning on page 65.
Individual licensing street workers
Most Canadian cities regulate street commerce by requiring that street vendors obtain licenses.
Because s. 213 of the Criminal Code prohibits street-level prostitution,74 it cannot be licensed. In the
event of the repeal of criminal laws related to prostitution, street-level sex workers would require a
license, because the Vancouver Charter requires that all businesses be licensed.75
Sex workers were unanimous in their opposition to licenses for street-level workers. Street-level sex
workers are diverse. An unknown proportion of the population are sex workers who engage in prostitution in order to meet their most basic subsistence needs, and do not necessarily engage in prostitution on an ongoing basis but do so only when they are in a state of financial need. The impracticality
of licensing street-level sex workers and the imposition of by-laws, the breach of which would require
payment of fines, were reasons cited for rejecting individual licensing. As one sex worker said:
Q. Do you think its the individual sex workers that should have to have a license?
A. No.
Q. And why or why not?
A. . . . theyre working in different . . . they havent got a set establishment, they havent
all the stuff to secure, they havent got all the benefits . . . theyre [non-sex workers]
not having to worry about getting shot or raped or you know. No licensing for street
workers. Not now. Not ever.
- female street-level sex worker

A group of sex workers pointed out that individual licensing was not practical for street-level
prostitution:
Q. If there were licenses do you think most people would get them? Most people that
work in the trade do you think theyd get them?
A. It depends how hard it is.
A. I wouldnt want one.
A. I dont know.
A. I wouldnt want one either.
A. Nope.
A. [sarcastic why is this here?] Im a hooker.
A. I got my certificate saying Im a hooker, as if.
- male street-level sex workers
74 Supra note 1 at s. 213.
75 Supra note 5 at s. 276.

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Some sex workers argued that the imposition of license fees would further impoverish already
impoverished sex workers:
A. Having to get a license to become a prostitute would kind of divert the meaning, you
know what I mean?
Q. What do you mean?
A. Cause then you would need money to get a license and how would you get the money
to get a license so on and so forth. Its like street busking. Its the same problems that
street buskers have right? Right?
A. You get someone backing you up, no problem, you have a lot of money.
- male street-level sex workers

Some sex workers pointed out that licensing could lead to punishment of street-level sex workers for
non-compliance, and could have the same negative impacts as criminalization:
A. But in a way it would still be kind of illegal, you know what I mean if you didnt
have the license it would still be illegal, so theres no way were gonna win here.
- male street-level sex worker

Legislators in countries that have decriminalized prostitution appear to share these same concerns, as
none of them have instituted licensing for street-level sex workers.
Individual licensing escorts
On its face, the Vancouver licensing provision related to social escort services applies to both
independent escorts and those employed in an escort business.76 However, we know of no Vancouver
case where an independent sex worker has been prosecuted for working without an escort license. In
contrast, both Calgary and Edmonton require independent escorts to obtain licenses, and prosecute
them when they do not.
Vancouvers relaxed by-law enforcement against independent escorts appears to have allowed sex
workers increased choice in the manner in which they carry out their work. In contrast, sex workers
in Edmonton indicated that strict enforcement of licensing for independent escorts leads to limited
choices and a loss of autonomy:
A. Its peculiar at least in my mind in the way that Edmontons doing things. The escort
license is prohibitive . . . $1,500 for an independent escort license . . . which is really
out for reach for a lot of girls out there, a lot of them are single parents and we are
doing this part time. So I mean its either they can get a license or they are back on
the street out there and they are also subject to what you call a security clearance. If
a girl has been charged with prostitution related charges or drug attempts, she cant
get a clearance with the Edmonton City Police. So, therefore shes not allowed to come
inside and work. Shes forced back on the street and left out there for bait.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers described how the municipality uses independent escort licenses to control sex workers.
Some sex workers felt that individual licensing schemes were coercive and that independent escorts
should not have to obtain licenses:
A. So if you decided to just do a couple of tricks you should not have to have a license.
A. Yes.
A. It shouldnt You shouldnt need a license I am just saying that you should be able
to use that as like, a benefit. Yknow, as far as I am a licensed sex worker.
76 Supra note 32 at s. 25.3.

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A. As a marketable business, you could say that you are a licensed business.
A. Yes.
Q. Right.
A. But not a regulation.
A. Right.
A. You cant nail down human sexuality. You cant nail it down you know.
A. you cant put it in a box.
A. Yeah.
A. Yknow, I mean, the girls that do it, arent; Oh I pay my rent. Oh, you did [name
deleted] or whatever. Okay sure! Or take me for dinner, or buy me some clothes. Or
whatever, I mean, what are they going to have to become licensed as well? These
things are the same as sex work. I mean, you know.
A. It is the same thing as giving sex for these things. The women are just not as up front
about it. Theyre just a bit sneakier. If you dont need a license to do that why would
you need a license for sex work? They should not require licenses. Yeah.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

One worker explained how the casual nature of some independent escort work makes it unsuitable for
licensing, and again suggested that licensing limits the freedom of sex workers:
A. I just think this Its really Earlier when you guys were talking about independent
contract regulations because You were saying theres no limit on sex right I mean
there is no time limit and there is just no boundary on it . . . . I mean I could be a
sex worker, and not have an ad, and I could just occasionally see somebody. Yknow
what I mean? So it doesnt really fall into that kind of category that can be forced to
comply with by-laws. It is very difficult to control or enforce.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

As one sex industry business owner and former worker noted, licensing of independents is impractical
because of the ephemeral nature of much sex work:
A. So thats the same way I deal with my ladies, as if they are, just on a contract basis,
you know each date is a separate transaction kind of thing because I may have one
girl whos doing six dates in a week and another one whos only doing one every two
weeks or something like that, so yeah, the frequency of employment can really vary
immensely. And I also look at it and this speaks to why I dont get them to have a
license either they may come to work for me one time and then I never hear from
them again, or I decide its not really working, or they dont suit my circumstances
very well.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

Against the general consensus, two sex workers supported individual licensing because it would create
a vehicle for health initiatives, such as disease testing and improved sexual-health education. One
former sex worker/owner described her idea for mandatory sex worker certification as follows:
A. Maybe its not a licensing system, where you are actually recorded and monitored,
and what we think of when we hear licensing system, you think of this very repressive
regime. Maybe you have to attend some type of a seminar certificate. Ah, yeah. You
have to be certified in Sex Worker Health and Safety. And perhaps you dont even
have to give your name to do that. But you have a certificate that has your photo or
something on it that identifies you as the person that took that course and passed.

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Maybe something like that is whats needed.

- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

In Vancouver, the social escort by-law apparently applies to both independent escorts and those
working in a larger business.77 A business license is required for any person carrying on a business,
trade, or profession in the City.78 In the event that the criminal laws related to adult prostitution are
repealed, under the existing licensing scheme in Vancouver, business licenses would be required for all
sex workers operating independently on the street or indoors, and for those working independently
indoors via advertisements. Thus, on the basis of the expert opinions of sex workers, we recommend
that the current licensing scheme be reformed to exempt independent indoor sex workers and individual street-level sex workers in the event that prostitution is decriminalized.
Individual escort licensing in Edmonton
The escort licensing by-law in Edmonton offers an example of how a highly restrictive and strictly
enforced by-law for independent escorts can leave sex workers with few options, and force them to
work in dangerous environments.79
Many of the sex workers stated that they prefer to work independently rather than for an
employer. Working for an employer means that they lose control over their work. Sex workers repeatedly stated that autonomy and control are two of the most important factors affecting workplace
safety and job satisfaction.
Because of some of the exploitative and unfair practises in many sex industry businesses, many
sex workers want to work independently. Sex workers also mentioned frustration with the barriers to
employment in many off-street sex industry businesses, such as the need to conform to certain age
and beauty criteria to be eligible for employment. Several sex workers commented that they were
able to work successfully as independent escorts even though they could not obtain jobs working in
off-street establishments. Working as an independent is one of the most attainable options for persons
looking to move out of street prostitution.
Edmontons independent escort license requires every sex worker operating on his or her own to
apply to the City for a license.80 Sex workers explained how, prior to enacting the by-law, Edmonton
had completely outlawed what it subsequently came to define as independent escort work. Initially,
for this reason, sex workers celebrated the new independent escort by-law. However, Edmontons
current escort by-law contains a narrow and stringently enforced prohibition on persons with a
criminal record from obtaining a license, a disproportionately high licensing fee, and advertising
restrictions that require each worker to show their escort license at local newspapers prior to placing
an advertisement.81
Sex workers in Edmonton reported being prevented from obtaining a license on the basis of even
minor and very old criminal convictions. Also, they reported stringent enforcement of the licensing
by-law, including stings, to ensure that independent escorts comply with the licensing provision. One
sex worker recounted her experiences under the by-law this way:
A. Anybody who has any kind of criminal record, whether its prostitution related or
anything else, it may be an ancient drug charge, or even a drunk driving charge, uh,
will automatically get a rejection, you wont pass the clearance. And that usually is
enough to scare most people, that they dont realize, and certainly nobody goes out of
their way to tell them, is that, if they basically beg or if they, they you know, push the
77 Supra note 32 at s. 25.3.
78 Supra note 32 at s. 3(1).
79 Supra note 68.
80 Supra note 68 at s. 4.
81 Supra note 68 at ss. 22, 36, 37, Schedule A.

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point, they can quite often get an escort license. I know one gal who had a dangerous
driving conviction, and she has to go each year and she has to supply a thumbprint
actually, and even though they know exactly who she is because she is a very vocal
advocate, they make her put her thumbprint on it every year to match it with the
one they have in Ottawa or wherever the main databank is . . . Im fairly convinced
theres a sting about every, Id say on an average, every six to eight weeks. And theyre
usually about three days long, and they try to be quite creative, so theyll target
different types of potential, breaches of the by-law . . . .
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Such strict enforcement stands in stark contrast to Vancouver, where sex workers stated that by-laws
are rarely enforced. Sex workers stated that the Edmonton requirement that independent escorts have
to show their license in order to place an advertisement has the effect of severely limiting the employment options of sex workers seeking to leave street work if they have a criminal record and/or cannot
afford the license fee.
Q. So, just to go back to the licensing stuff. The independent licenses . . . do they want
every single individual on the street to have one of those licenses?
A. If a girl could pass the [criminal record] clearance. And then she would be allowed to
actually put an ad in the newspaper . . . . Yeah, the way they have it now, if you dont
have a license, you cant put an ad in any of the local newspapers.
Q. Okay. And that becomes the newspapers policy?
A. Well, the newspapers actually cut a deal with the city of Edmonton . . . .
Q. And is it true that you need to have a license to put in an ad?
A. Yes absolutely. You cannot, you cannot put in. The only place you can put an ad right
now, in Edmonton, is Vue Weekly. And uh, interestingly enough, they somehow,
this happened and its really rather recent, maybe in the last eight weeks theyve got
a heading that says Sex Trade Workers, and anybody can put an ad under that
whether they be escort or massage, or I guess even strippers, because it all would
fit under that heading. Because theyve changed the headings and theyre not using
semantics of escort or massage, the people putting the ads in arent using their licensed
name necessarily, theyre certainly not putting their license numbers in and they can
use any phone number they want. So far I havent seen any repercussions and I think
in some ways theyre right because nowhere in my escort by-law does it say that I can
or might or could sell sex, its not in there. So even though the other publications
oblige me to have one in order to sell sex Vue Weekly would let me have an ad with
or without a license.
Q. Do you actually have to show your license when you go to place an ad?
A. Once a year I have to show it at Edmonton Sun.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some sex workers linked Edmontons strictly enforced licensing by-law for individual escorts to the
rising death toll of street sex workers in Edmonton:82
A. Yeah, thats how all agencies are run here in Edmonton. Its appalling . . . its gross.
Women are being abused. And, I mean, what theyve done is . . . by putting this
licensing in place, theyve driven a wedge between the street-level sex trade workers
and the girls that are inside . . .
82 Supra note 68.

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A. You know, I mean the girls that are outside, they dont have a fighting chance to come
in . . . theyd have to pass the security clearance.
A. And if they cant pass that, theyre left out there for bait. And like I said, 13 years ago
I was charged, and every year I have to go in and beg to be cleared. And if I cant get
cleared, Im back out in the street. I mean, this morning, they saw . . . or yesterday,
sorry, they found another girl floating down the river here.
Q. Thats in addition to the woman that you sent me the article on four days ago?
A. Yeah. I mean, the pace is picking up here, you know. And by driving this wedge
between us, I mean its . . . God forbid, were turning into Vancouver.
Q. Do we know that both of these women were involved in the biz?
A. As far as I know so far . . . yeah. They havent made it public yet, but from what Im
told, yeah.
Q. So how many call girls are we talking about now?
A. Well . . . you know, since licensing . . . in 1990, when the licensing came into place,
theres been an average of two to three per year, and the pace is picking up . . . I think
theres four this year . . . four or five this year . . . . Since licensing came into place,
and Ive tried to tell them that, like . . . look, you know, these women are showing up
dead because of the licensing, and they just wont do anything about it.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

One Edmonton sex worker who distributes her card to women wanting to leave the street and work
independently indoors believes that more than one of the women found murdered had attempted to
work indoors prior to getting killed:
A. I mean one of the girls, well . . . I know more than one, but they will only admit to
one. One of the girls had my business card, not really, just a print off the computer
and just basically my nick-name [name omitted] and my cell number. And the
girl, some of the girls that are showing up dead have my card found on their body
and to me that only means one thing: and that is they wanted to come inside but they
werent allowed to, for some reason they dont pass the [criminal record] clearance or
the city doesnt deem them as we call them condom worthy.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

The strictly enforced Edmonton independent escort licensing by-law provides a clear example of how
heavy restrictions on attaining an individual escort license entrenches women in more dangerous work
on the street.
Business licenses for establishments consisting of more than one sex worker
Sex workers were divided as to whether or not sex industry businesses consisting of more than one
person should be required to obtain a business license. In general, sex workers stated that if licensing
is applied, by-laws should be no more restrictive than licenses for non-sex industry businesses, and
they should be subject to equal levels of enforcement. Some sex workers stated they felt such businesses should not be required to hold licenses, while others thought it was a way for such businesses to
achieve legitimacy, so long as they were not treated differently than other businesses. One sex worker
commented:
A. I am really not too sure. Yknow, its its something of a thinker. I mean theoretically, I am against licensing, per se. But then, the more practical side of me says,
well everyone else has to get some sort of license. Whether they are an electrician, or
plumber. So even though I am well, theres a huge part of me, the worker part of

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me that is hugely opposed to that type of legislation. It just seems so invasive. To have
to be licensed. And I have a gag reflex to that. But at the same time. That how
else do you I dont know. I really dont know. There, I am sure theres other ways to
deal with that, that I have just not wrapped my brain around yet. People need to be
informed. And in the employer-employee relationship, that part is pretty obvious.
I can see how that plays out, because that is how I play it out now . . . . And I am
making all the employers to be these evil, yknow, people. Unfortunately, its its
theres more shades of gray than that. What you tend to have is a fair bunch of
decent people in the middle, Im I think that I am the only person at my end of
the spectrum, that takes all of the training this seriously.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

One sex worker felt licenses should not be used to keep track of sex workers so that police could
harass them:
A. Theyre saying theyre making tons of money and that theres no . . . okay maybe you
should have a license, so that you do pay your taxes and do try to do your best, but as
long as its not used to arrest you or harass you.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Given that licenses are currently required for all businesses in Vancouver, exempting sex industry businesses from licensing laws would mean a fundamental reform of existing laws. In the New Zealand
Prostitution Reference Act 2003, provision is made to allow for the establishment of small owneroperated sex industry businesses comprising no more than four people without having to obtain a
license.83 The intent of this provision is to allow a more flexible and less rigorous procedure for sex
workers to obtain employment in small businesses. Generally the sex workers we interviewed would
support this sort of provision, because it a less restrictive approach to the establishment of sex industry
businesses than the ones currently regulating the sex industry in B.C. and Alberta.

Privacy
Sex workers voiced concerns about the types of information that must be disclosed when applying
for a municipal business license. In general, the type of business, the name, address and age of the
applicant must be supplied upon application for a City of Vancouver business license.84 This information
is available to any member of the public upon request at Vancouver City Hall, including the name of
the license holder, the type of license and the date the license was granted. However, the City does not
disclose the home mailing address and phone number of license holders. Sex workers were concerned
that they would be publicly identified as such as a result of holding a sex industry license such
publicity could be negative on both a personal and a business level.
Sex workers repeatedly emphasized the need to have their privacy respected:
A. Oh sure. You might get married one day and you dont want that coming back to haunt
you, someone finding out. Yeah . . . . No matter where you do it theres gonna be ups
and downs, it doesnt matter where its gonna be . . . its because, you know same thing
with the license thing if we can go back to that, the thing with the license is theres a
way that the government can actually keep track of it of the whos the prostitutes and
whos not and thats they can kind of put you in a book I would say. You know what I
83 Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (N.Z.), 2003/28.
84 City of Vancouver Business License Application Form, available from City of Vancouver Community Services Group, Licenses &
Inspection, License Department.

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mean. They always put . . . already now they put drug dealers in this book where they,
you know, know the local drug dealers that do the local you know acts and stuff. With
relations like that they can also keep track of prostitutes and that might help . . . .
A. Its a thing with privacy I think, yknow, like not everybody wants to be know as
a hooker, you know . . . its, like, confidential, and thats the thing about having a
license, its not, you dont have that confidentiality to . . . yknow.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

One escort agency owner-operator operates without a license to protect her privacy and privacy of the
women who work for her:
A. Ive never gone for one of those [a license], and one of the strong reasons, I guess the
main, maybe one of the main reasons is that a client once told me, he said, well you
know people can walk into the government office up at City Hall that is and see
everything about whos applied for business licenses. So they can find out your phone
number, and your address, and everything about you. Its public record and its open,
and so I thought well, whod want to do that and what the heck do you get in return
for it. You dont get anything, youre just being watched or controlled if somebody
knows where you are, so I wasnt gonna go for that. I have had business licenses in
different years, but I didnt see any point to that either cause then youre also just
being regulated in terms of you know who can come to your home and how often and
so on and so forth and so as far as my involvement with other levels of government
like the income tax people, I dont need to fall into line with the city by-laws particularly, so I just leave that alone.
One sex industry business owner/worker described how privacy is vital to her business. For example,
many clients will only frequent sex work businesses if their privacy is protected:
A. The fact that we have the veneer of being a spa, I think, really helps . . . . Yeah I
mean, if it came up as, yknow, the ABC FucknSuck on their Visa statement, that is
a lot more, blatant than, yknow, suchnsuch management services charge. Even if it
got traced to the ABC Mens Spa, a guy always has an out. It was Johnnys bachelor
party, I just, yknow, had to stay anyway. I had a massage and, yknow, he could
giggle and chuckle, and say he was offered extras and he did not take them up on it.
There is still always that out. If you are busted, or, yknow, if someone sees you going
in. You can just say that you were going in on a lark. There is still always an out. And
half our clients do pay by credit card.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Sex workers stated that they valued privacy in order to preserve their anonymity, to avoid the stigmatization that would occur if other people became aware of their occupation, and to ensure that their
clients would be comfortable utilizing their services. Even if the criminal laws relating to prostitution
were to be repealed, the stigma associated with sex work will likely remain. Consequently, sex workers
fear becoming more visible in a social climate where prostitution is not socially acceptable. Based on
the opinions of sex workers, we recommend that increased privacy protections be put in place for all
forms of licensed sex work.

Business hours
In all Canadian municipalities there are restrictions on the hours of business operation. The most
restrictive hours are imposed on businesses engaging in prostitution, and those that serve alcohol. The
licensing provisions for many sex industry businesses contain specific restrictions on hours of opera-

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tion. For example, Vancouver by-laws prohibit health enhancement centres and body-rub parlours
from operating between 12 midnight and 8 a.m.85 Street, out-call and in-call sex workers were divided
as to whether or not sex workers should be subject to such restrictions.
Some sex workers stated that they did not want any restrictions on their hours of work, while
others had no problem accepting municipally established business hours:
A. No, if theyre working in a if they are in a zone or they are zoned to a certain
area than and and if they are zoned in a certain area around the edges of the
residential, maybe street workers. There the municipality of that certain area should
have some say maybe in in hours . . . .
A. There should be no restrictions.
A. No restrictions.
- female street-level sex workers

Some in-call establishment sex workers stated that the limited business hours actually helped protect
sex workers, in which case they recommended that by-law restrictions on times of business operation
be kept as they are:
Q. So lets talk about these these by-laws then for the Health Enhancement Centre.
What do you think about them? About the hours of operation?
A. The hours of operation are okay. We dont really want the after bar crowd, okay? But
if we were allowed to, we would have to stay open so that we could compete on that
level. Because if we closed at 12, and other places were open til two, like it is right
now, because we all close at 12, every prospective client in Vancouver, knows that they
have to get in the door by 12.
A. So we are all on a level playing field that way. Unless given that he is a massage
parlour client, if he is an escort client, he doesnt have to, they are 24 hours. And if he is
an independent working client, then he obviously, can find someone 24 hours.
A. But if it is a client, who likes our type of service, which means you walk into a room,
and you get to meet everybody and choose who you like, that style of service is only
available until 12 midnight. Okay?
A. If you call an escort agency, you have to go give up something yourself. Either you
have to go pay for a hotel room, or you have to have someone over to your home. A lot
of men dont want to do that. A lot of men dont like to see an independent because
they have to give their real name, and a girl yknow, shell screen calls.
A. So what remains attractive about our form of business is that you dont need an
appointment, and you can walk in and pick who you like, in person, and go from
there. And if that is your thing, you can only do that until midnight in Vancouver.
And I am glad for that.
A. Because we dont I could see our business getting really ugly if we were The only
problems we ever have is from someone who is drunk, who cant make the judgment
call. Like I said, we dont get a misogynist or a violent person, because if they want
to go pick on a woman, they are not going to go into a place where there are a whole
group of us and the geography is not set up to their benefit.
A. But people who are not making the proper judgment calls, dont think those things
through. And drunks are I guess there are very happy drunks out there but
usually, we will turn away drunks. We dont say that we wont help you because you
are drunk. We will just say, we are sorry but we are all booked up right now.
85 Supra note 32 at ss. 11.5(6), 17.1(4).

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A. Is usually how we handle drunks. But it a lot of drunks are, they are sleeper drunks
you dont realize they are drunk.
A. Yeah. Yknow, doing the door, presentation. I do the door a lot when I am there. But
thats, yknow, part of it. We know the least we take happy drunks, but we do not
take falling down drunks. And we dont take miserable drunks, and we dont pick a
fight with a drunk.
A. Yknow, we we train people in sort of confrontation management that way. Its
rather than saying, Sorry we cant help you, you are drunk. Thats very confrontational. You just say, I am really sorry, we are all booked up right now. Do you want
to come back in about an hour?
A. No one is going to come back in an hour.
- female off-street in-call sex workers

Other sex workers stated that there should be no restriction on business hours whatsoever:
Q. And what about business hours? Do you think there should be any restrictions
regarding business hours for establishments?
A. No, I dont. Like, here in Edmonton, they make massage parlours shut down at 11:00
and I really cant see why.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Other participants stated that restrictions on the hours of operation of sex industry businesses should
be no different than any other kind of business, such as establishments serving alcohol:
A. I think that it should be like drinking establishments that have set hours when they
are serving alcohol. I dont think it should be specialized to sex work and they should
have their own restricted hours.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

In sum, sex workers were divided as to whether or not business hours for sex industry businesses
should be restricted.

Advertising by-laws
It is common for municipal sex industry by laws to restrict advertising. Most often such provisions prohibit nudity and depictions of sexual activity in advertisements.86 Sex workers were divided
as to whether or not there should be restrictions on the content of advertising. Sex workers stated that
the most damaging restrictions on advertising are the sort imposed in Edmonton where independent
escorts must show their license in order to place an ad.87 For independent escorts in particular, advertising is usually the most important method of contacting clients.
Two sex workers agreed with restrictions on advertising content, stating that ads should be tasteful,
and that children should not be exposed to explicit advertising:
A. I dont think nudity is needed in an advertisement. I dont see it necessary for
anything, perhaps nice, tasteful, clothed shots of people, maybe the size . . . . I dont
want to look at a full-page ad of Barbie and her friends or something. Just something
small, something simple. I mean, you dont have to put it out there, clients know
whats what anyways, so it doesnt need to be big.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

86 Supra note 32 at s. 11.5(8).

87 Supra note 68 at s. 36, 37.

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A. I think it [advertising] should be restricted in its content, content and meaning.

Because if it is going to be viewed by children then you need to be more discrete with
advertising. If you are going to be advertising in an adult only area then that is
different and the ads should be more free.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Others favoured a more liberal approach:

A. No restrictions . . . yeah I can see that. I mean, if you want to run a classy house, you
are going to run a classy ad. If youre going to run a anything goes type of house, you
are going to have a good thing going, yknow?
Q. Where should you be allowed to advertise, though?
A. Any place thatll take your money.
- female street-level sex worker

By-law enforcement
While there is ample evidence that enforcement of criminal laws pertaining to prostitution creates
harmful and dangerous working conditions for street-level sex workers, many of our research participants believed that enforcement of municipal by-laws can have harmful effects as well.88
Usually the penalty for breaching a municipal by-law is a fine. However, if fines are not paid, a
person can be charged with contempt of court, and face imprisonment.
Sex workers in Alberta reported that they were subject to by-law enforcement sting operations, and
much more likely to be prosecuted for by-law infractions than other types of business. They felt threatened and intimidated by these stings:
A. . . . theyve been coming around like crazy in the last two weeks. They havent been
here to my place yet because Im hardly ever, ever open but theyve gone to almost
every place. And I guess they were saying the by-law were saying that the vice-cops
dont have enough resources anymore to come and inspect and do all that they used to
do. So what theyre doing is theyre coming out and giving fines. I know one place that
got $5,000 worth of fines, and it was . . . like things like dress code, if your blouse
is a little too low-cut . . . or if your . . . lets say your skirt is knee-length, or its not
below the knees, theyll fine you for that. Or, if you dont have your license on you . . .
on the premises at that moment, theyll fine you for that. Or if you havent written in
the customer and the time properly, theyll fine you. So they can really ka -ching, kaching out of lots of fines . . . . The city of Calgary by-law inspector . . . they just hired
about twelve more by-law inspectors andWhat they do now too, is they come in
and they pretend theyre just a regular guy and they have a massage and they pay you
for it. And at the end theyll say, you know . . . can I have any extra services? And if
you say yes, theyll go over and they have their badge underneath, and then they pull
your license. And you gotta go through a great rigmarole to try and get it back, and
they close you down and . . . yeah.
Q. So this has been happening recently in Calgary, or is it something that has always
happened?
A. No, this is fairly new. They never used to do that before. As far as I know, the ball
never used to come down on massage; it was the undercover cop that used to come
88 Pivot Legal Society Sex Work Subcommittee, Voices for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused by Canadas Sex Trade Laws, (Vancouver: Pivot Legal Society, 2004); J. Lowman and L. Fraser, Violence Against Persons Who Prostitute: The Experience in B.C. (Ottawa:
Department of Justice Research, Statistics and Evaluation Directorate Policy Sector, 1995).

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and they used to lay criminal charges. Now, theyre only laying criminal charges, I
think, if they have enough fines. But you know, there might be a big sweep coming
up. The way everyone I talk to says that theres a sweep coming up. I mean, the bylaw could just be laying the groundwork, is what we think. And then theyre gonna
come in and do such a big shut-down, put it all over the news, you know. Massage
Place is Busted Women Offering Prostitution . . . blah, blah, blah. What happens
is, you see, when these women get busted, they lose their licenses and then they all end
up working the streets at Forest Lawn, right. But this is what happens, because now
you cant work safely inside, you cannot get a city of Calgary license. So now you have
to go work on the street and theres all these crazies out on the street and women are
being murdered all the time. And so the law forces you into an unsafe situation. Its
bad, its just not a safe law . . . . And I thought, what a pathetic life you live. Like,
this is your big thing in life, these are the big criminals, youre catching a bunch of
women who are just trying to make a living and pay for their food and stuff? Its sick.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers reported that enforcement patterns vary widely in different cities. In Vancouver, for example,
there is very little enforcement of massage, body rub, escort service, and health enhancement centre by laws.
When enforcement does occur, it is largely complaint driven. Two in-call workers recounted their experiences this way:
Q. And do you have any trouble with enforcement? Do the police ever come around
sniffing or questioning or anything like that?
A. Well if they have they havent announced who they are. No one has come around in a
uniform and asked me anything or banged on my door or anything, so if theyve come
around posing as a client I have no idea. Theres been the odd time when Ive interviewed someone and Ive kind of felt, I wonder, but, could have been just paranoia.
A. Yes, Vice is a complaint driven department. Or it is at this point in time.
The only way you are really going to go down at this point of time in Vancouver, is
if someone takes a complaint to Vice. Whether it be a client that is a client thats
unhappy a competitor that wants to stage some type of problem floating a religious, or fundamental right-wing group that wants to catch you up, and take that to
their attention.
- female off-street in-call sex workers

This more relaxed, complaint-driven approach to by-law enforcement was believed to increase choices
for off-street workers by allowing for the development of less oppressive work environments, and a
more trusting relationship with police. One sex worker suggested that this more trusting relationship
meant that police were more willing to protect workers from violent clients:
A. Everything that has been achieved over the last 10 years, in the system, would fall
apart. If they cracked down, first of all, women in this business wouldnt trust the
police anymore.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Some sex workers felt that some progress has been made in terms of their ability to report violent
clients and, because of police tolerance of the off-street prostitution trade, female off-street sex
workers are now making more reports than ever before.
A. Yknow, 10 years ago I would have never picked up the phone and said, We have an
aggressive client, I need help. But I would now. And that is a by-product of a liberal

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police force and selective enforcement of complaint driven force. That doesnt bug us
unless we do something blatantly wrong, which we dont . . . . Why could I not go
work independently? Because at the time, I would be arrested. I didnt have choices
therefore I was forced to work in environments that were repressive, or downright
degrading, or unsafe. And, a crackdown, would only lead to that type of working
environment. And its not something that happens overnight. And fixing it, didnt
happen overnight. Its taken a lot of years of this level of tolerance, in Vancouver, to
lead to this situation that we have now.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

On the basis of these opinions, police should be given more education about sex work. Even if the
criminal laws are repealed, stigma and restrictive provincial and municipal laws may continue to
bring sex workers into conflict with law enforcement officials. Consequently, it is imperative that law
enforcement officials employ sensitive practises that do not result in the harassment or intimidation of
sex workers.

Discretion of licensing body

Attempts to control, or even phase out sex industry businesses by refusing to grant new licenses
have been reported in Canada and in other countries. In the Netherlands the problem of municipalities
refusing to grant new licenses for brothels has been raised.89 The discretion conferred on City Council
to determine whether or not to grant licenses under the Vancouver Charter is fairly broad, but there are
restrictions on municipal authority to refuse a business license.
In the Supreme Court of Canada case of Roncarelli v. Duplessis the court held that there is a limit
on the level of discretion exercisable by a public official, and stated that discretion must be exercised
in the good faith:
Discretion necessarily implies good faith in discharging public duty; there is always a perspective within which a statute is intended to operate; and any clear departure from its lines or
objects is just as objectionable as fraud or corruption.90

The precedent set in Roncarelli v. Duplessis means that City Councils discretion cannot be exercised arbitrarily, capriciously, or for reasons unrelated to carrying into effect the intent and purpose of the Vancouver
Charter or the Vancouver By-law.
There is ample case authority to suggest that the Citys discretionary power pursuant to the
Vancouver Charter must be exercised in an objective and judicious manner.91 The courts have held that
a municipalitys decision to refuse a business license solely on the basis of land use considerations is
not a valid exercise of the municipal authority to regulate business. In Council of the City of New Westminster v. Davis Industries Ltd., and in City of Prince George v. Payne, it was held that a refusal to grant
a licence based solely upon zoning considerations would not be a judicious exercise of discretion.92 A
municipalitys decision to refuse a business license can be challenged under the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, and under the precedent set in Roncarelli.93
89 See A.L. Daalder, Lifting the ban on brothels; prostitution in 2000-2001 (The Hague, The Netherlands:
The Netherlands Ministry of Justice, 2004), 7.
90 Roncarelli v. Duplessis, [1959] S.C.R. 121 (QL).
91 See the following cases: Celebrity Enterprises Limited v. The Corporation of the City of Vancouver, (1978), 7 B.C.L.R. 20 (B.C.S.C.
Verchere, J.); Active Trading v. City of New Westminster (1974), 5 W.W.R. 354; Shell Canada Ltd. v. Vancouver (City), [1982] B.C.J.
No. 1449 (B.C.S.C.) (QL).
92 Council of the City of New Westminster v. Davis Industries Ltd., [1975] 3 W.W.R. 73; City of Prince George v. Payne [1977] 4 W.W.R.
275 (S.C.C.).
93 Supra note 90.

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The viewpoints expressed by sex workers show that, when discretion is exercised without careful
safeguards, moral and discriminatory attitudes can influence regulatory decisions. Sex workers
described how, at present, such discretionary decisions are made often by a municipal employee who
has no expertise with respect to the lived experiences of sex workers without regard to protecting
the health, safety and well being of sex workers. The impact on sex workers of such blind decisionmaking is often negative.
Sex workers suggested that, if they must be licensed, licensing bodies should be sensitive to sex
workers needs, and have some experience or training regarding the particular challenges that sex
workers face:
A. Theres a lady here I dont speak to much anymore, but shes very well educated and
shes also outspoken. And here . . . Ive asked the city of Edmonton . . . the by-law
officer that gives us our licenses; hes actually just a bus driver. I mean, I dont think
the guy has given anybody sex in his life, or paid for it, I dont know. But I wanted
that job . . . his job should have went to an active sex-trade worker, or one who wants
to retire. And I dont know if Ive got her number on my computer, but her name is
[name omitted], and she has also done a lot of work, like fighting for this, too. And
to me, somebody like her . . . like I dont want the job personally, because I can make
more noise on the outside than on the inside . . . but somebody like her can get in
there for the licensing and the education because shes worked street-level, and shes
worked like all different areas of the sex trade. You know, and somebody like that
should be handing out the licenses and educating the women because they have a little
bit more understanding of what really goes on.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers argued that licensing bodies should be guided by clear objectives that place protection of
sex workers at the forefront, as these two Calgary sex workers explained:
A. I dont think it adds to your safety any. I mean, Ive never known any girl that had
a license and phoned the police and said Oh my God, theres a stalker guy after me
. . . or this guy tried to beat me up or something . . . they just basically laugh at you
and say, you know, who cares? Thats the line of work youre in. Too bad. But then
they sit there and put your name in the database and say yeah, we should arrest her
soon, you know. Im sorry if I see it in kind of a one-sided light but the way they
treat the women here, its bad. No one deserves to be killed, and no one . . . you know,
you should be able to go to the police for help. You shouldnt have to hide and fear the
police all the time because theyre the enemy and not the client, you know, because
theyre the ones who are going to say too bad if we find your body . . . your type of
people . . . in dumpsters all the time.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. If it was a way of keeping a head-count, you know, whos involved in the business so
that we can better enhance your safety and care about you . . . . But its never used
for those purposes. The only reason they want to license you is so they can bust you
later. Really, thats what I found out.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

The discretion of City Council to grant or refuse business licenses under the Vancouver Charter is very
broad. However, discretion must be exercised in good faith and in accordance with a valid regulatory
purpose. It is important that municipal officials delegated the authority to process and approve business licenses are sensitive to the needs and issues that sex workers face. Decision-makers at the municipal level should be given sensitivity training with respect to appropriate treatment of sex workers.

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Licensing schemes must promote choice

Sex workers repeatedly stated that the ability to choose where and how they work is a matter
of central importance to their health, livelihood and well-being. Sex workers stated that municipal
restrictions on their ability to choose where to work should be minimized or eliminated:
A. The only way I can think of is basically leave us the hell alone. You know, get out of
the licensing business, allow us to advertise, allow us to work out of our home safely,
you know. Personally, myself, where I live I dont bring my tricks here. This is my
safe zone. This is my sanctuary. You know, probably more likely would, along with
another girls Im not saying Im doing this but Id rent an apartment, split the
rent with a girlfriend, and thats where wed do our in-calls.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers suggested that the ability to choose where to work is the most important factor affecting
their personal safety.

Consultation with sex workers

Sex workers believe that they should be given a voice in any law reform process, including reform at
the municipal level they were unanimous in asserting their right to a meaningful role in all law reform
that relates to their work.

Municipal law and sex work recommendations

1. Repeal ss. 210, 211, 212(1), 212(3) and 213 of the Criminal Code and then, if municipalities
require sex work businesses to be licensed, create a licensing scheme for sex work businesses that
recognizes them as such.
2. Amend all municipal legislation, including the Vancouver Charter, in a way which ensures that all
future business licensing legislation contains an exemption for individual street-level sex workers,
independent escorts and small owner-operated sex work businesses.
3. Repeal all municipal by-laws that impose disproportionately high and prohibitive licensing fees,
and ensure that any licensing requirements and fees apply to sex workers and their businesses in a
manner that is fair and on a par with other businesses.
4. A conviction under ss. 210, 211, 212(1), 212(3), 213 should not preclude an individual from
being granted a license, unless the conviction under s. 212(1) or s. 212(3) was one involving
violence, exploitation or coercion, in which case discretion should be exercised by the licensing
authority.
5. Create a funded task force of sex workers to provide direction on important issues, such as restrictions on business hours, advertising, and the creation of guidelines for by-law enforcement.
6. Provide law enforcement personnel with education and sensitivity training with respect to the
issues facing sex workers, and ensure that enforcement practices are consistent with this training.
7. Provide education and sensitivity training for municipal employees who make decisions affecting
sex work businesses.
8. Consult with sex workers in the process of amend existing municipal licensing provisions affecting
sex workers so as to promote choice for persons in the sex industry, provide for their health and
safety, and ensure that any licensing scheme is not overly restrictive or intrusive.
9. Ensure that all municipal by-laws are respectful of the privacy and autonomy of sex workers.

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10. Ensure increased privacy protections for information that is recorded by the licensing authority in
relation to the licenses of sex work businesses.
11. Ensure that sex workers have access to legal remedies where it is felt that City Council is making
licensing decisions that are not in good faith or in accordance with a valid regulatory purpose.

Zoning and sex work

Zoning is one of the more controversial issues in the national discussion concerning the repeal
of the criminal laws relating to prostitution. Zoning by-laws affect where and how prostitution can
be carried out in any municipality. In a decriminalized environment, the municipal power to zone
prostitution will be one of the principle mechanisms that local governments use to control prostitution. In jurisdictions where prostitution has been legalized or decriminalized, sex workers and sex
industry business owners are still fighting some of the hardest battles at the municipal level over land
use governance.94
The ensuing discussion describes sex workers opinions about zoning. This chapter is merely the
beginning of the discussion that needs to take place in each municipality that will be confronted with
this issue should the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution be repealed. The significant diversity in opinions and the concerns raised by sex workers indicates the complexity of the zoning issue.
Therefore, it is critical that lawmakers engage in comprehensive consultations with sex workers and
involve them in decision making before any zoning requirements are imposed. Without the adequate
involvement of sex workers, municipalities will be unable to create a system that addresses the various
needs of sex workers.
Although some of the participants were from Calgary and Edmonton, the discussion of zoning
laws has been limited to the Vancouver experience in the interest of keeping the discussion clear and
concise.

Zoning laws
Municipal zoning laws govern the areas where specified businesses may be conducted. The
authority to enact land use by-laws is set out in B.C.s Local Government Act.95 The exception to this
is the City of Vancouver, where the Vancouver Charter establishes authority over zoning.96 Under
the LGA, local governments, such as city councils, may enact by-laws and regulations that divide all
or part of a municipality into zones.97 The LGA authorizes municipal governments to regulate what
happens in each zone in terms of use of the land, and the location and density of buildings and structures. Local governments are empowered to prohibit a zone from being used for a particular purpose.
The Vancouver Charter grants authority to the City of Vancouver to govern construction, use and
occupancy of buildings and zones, and to set a maximum population density within zones.98
The issue of municipal zoning has important implications for the sex industry should the criminal
laws surrounding adult prostitution be repealed. For example, where will street prostitution take
place? Where will brothels be located? What type of zoning scheme will address the interests of sex
workers, and the interests of neighbourhoods and communities? These questions make municipal
zoning laws a particularly important and difficult law reform issue.
94 See Willowford Family Trust and Terry Rex Brown v. Christchurch City Council, High Court of New Zealand, Christchurch Registry,
July 29, 2005, CIV-2004-409-002299, the first court decision under the New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act regarding a local
municipalitys attempt to restrict the location of sex industry businesses.
95 Supra note 3.
96 Supra note 5.
97 Supra note 3 at s. 903.
98 Supra note 5 at s. 565.

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Vancouvers zoning by-law

This analysis is focused on Vancouvers Zoning and Development By-Law No. 3575 (the By-Law),
which designates different geographical areas within the city, known as zoning districts, for particular
uses.99 The By-Law is a collection of regulations that govern how development may occur in the
various zones in Vancouver. Each zone type has distinct requirements for development, although
similarities occur in related types of zones. For example, only within designated industrial districts
may one operate a chemical manufacturing plant. Similarly, only within designated commercial
districts may one operate a hair salon. The City of Vancouver is currently divided into 71 zoning
districts. The district zoning schedules are grouped into R for residential zones, C for commercial zones, M and I for industrial zones, HA for historical areas, and CD for comprehensive development schedules.100 The consequences for breaching the By-Law are payment of a fine
not exceeding $2000, or imprisonment not exceeding two months.101 The City can levy a fine of up to
$50 for each day a person remains in violation of the By-Law.102
Of particular relevance to this discussion are the following types of zoning districts: Vancouvers
Downtown District; commercial districts; and residential districts (referred to as dwelling
districts in the By-Law). Every establishment in Vancouver including residences, businesses, and
other types of establishments must be built or maintained in accordance with the appropriate zoning
district under the By-Law.103
Among the 71 zoning districts, the By-Law identifies eight general zoning districts: Limited
Agriculture; One-Family Dwelling; Two-Family Dwelling; Multiple Dwelling; Commercial; Industrial; Historic Area; and Comprehensive Development.104 These eight general zoning districts are
further divided into smaller districts that have specific rules about what can be built or maintained
99 City of Vancouver, By-Law No. 3575, Zoning and Development By-Law [By-Law].
100 By-Law No. 3575, Zoning and Development By-Law establishes the following zones:
Limited Agriculture District: The Limited Agriculture District provides for nurseries, field crops, greenhouses and fruit farms, and
their associated retail businesses, as well as stables, golf courses, parks, one-family dwellings, seniors housing, bed and breakfast businesses and special needs residential facilities.
One-Family Dwelling District: A One-Family Dwelling is a building containing only one dwelling unit A Family is defined as one
or more individuals all related to one another by blood, marriage, or adoption or a maximum of three unrelated individuals living
together as a household. This District is broken-up into many zones; different zones within this District allow for the establishment
of schools, libraries, churches, hospitals, golf courses, parks, grocery stores and other necessary community institutions.
Two-Family Dwelling District: A Two-Family Dwelling is defined as a building containing only two dwelling units. Again, different
zones within this district permit the establishment of various community institutions.
Multiple Dwelling District: A Multiple Dwelling is defined as a building containing only three or more dwelling units. Each zone
within this District allows for various types of establishments, such as apartment buildings, rooming houses, community centers,
special needs facilities, laundromats, hotels, museums, liquor stores, pharmacies, health enhancement centers and restaurants.
Commercial District: While the outright approval uses of Commercial Districts throughout Vancouver are retail and service shops,
such as grocery stores, beauty salons, photography studios, bowling alleys and the like, the conditional uses of Commercial Districts
include dwellings, schools, theatres, zoos, as well as some light manufacturing services such as jewellery manufacturing and printing.
Industrial District: Industrial zoning districts within Greater Vancouver provide space for the manufacture of goods, retail/wholesale
of goods, transportation and storage of goods, services such as motor vehicle repair shops and communications(Live/Work and Work/
Live: Vancouver overview including strategic directions; City of Vancouver Land Use and Development Policies and Guidelines.
June 13. 1996. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/Guidelines/L002.pdf.). Industrial zoning districts also allow for dwellings, community
services (such as schools) and retail businesses (such as gas stations)).
Historical Area District: Chinatown, Yaletown and Gastown comprise Vancouvers Historical Area District. These towns are zoned
to allow for a variety of types of establishment, including residential, commercial and industrial activities.
Comprehensive Development Districts: Each area zoned as a Comprehensive Development zoning district is guided by its own
by-law which sets out what kinds of establishments will and will not be permitted in that area. For our purposes, the most important
of all of the Comprehensive Development zoning districts is the Downtown District, which is regulated by the Downtown District
Official Development Plan (Downtown Official Development Plan (Adopted by By-Law No.4912, November 4, 1975)).
101 Supra note 99 at s. 8.2.
102 Supra note 99 at s. 8.3.
103 Supra note 99 at s. 9.
104 Supra note 99 at s. 9.

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within that zone, along with its own specific building regulations.105 Some zoning districts pertain to
a specific neighbourhood such as the zoning district referred to as FC-1, which applies to the East
False Creek area of Vancouver whereas others, such as the zoning district referred to as C-1, apply
to a number of different neighbourhoods that have this designation.106

Regulating zoning districts

Each zoning district has either a district schedule or an official development plan that sets
out the intent, uses and regulations of that district, and what kinds of businesses can be established
there.107 While the district schedules are part of the By-Law, the City Council approves official development plan by-laws for each zoning district.
Each one of the 71 zoning districts has a two-tiered system for establishing what kinds of business
activities may occur there. First, outright approval uses are permitted within the district provided all
regulations and provisions of the By-Law are met. The City commonly issues business licenses and/or
development permits for outright approval uses.
Second, conditional approval uses are secondary activities that may be carried out within the
zoning district. Conditional approval uses are those that the City identifies as having a potential
impact on the community. To be approved, conditional approval uses must be considered by the City
in terms of the intent of the by-laws, any applicable plans, policies or guidelines, the recommendations of any advisory groups for the area, and the responses of adjacent property owners and residents
who may have been notified. Permits and business licenses are usually more difficult to obtain for
conditional uses.
By way of example, under the Limited Agriculture District Schedule, the District is used primarily
for nurseries, field crops, fruit farms, one-family dwellings and special needs residential facilities.
The conditional uses include golf courses and marinas.108 Because the City exercises more discretion
over the issuance of permits or licenses for conditional uses than it does for outright approval uses, a
person wanting to establish a fruit farm in a Limited Agriculture District would likely have few problems obtaining a license or permit, whereas a person wanting to establish a golf course in the same
District might face opposition from residents or workers who could convince the City not to issue the
requested license or permit.
Under the By-Law, a zone can be designated for one or more of 12 possible uses: agricultural
uses; cultural and recreational uses; dwelling uses; institutional uses; manufacturing uses; office uses;
parking uses; retail uses; service uses; transportation and storage uses; utility and communication uses;
and wholesale uses.109 The list of businesses and type of buildings that can be established under each
designated use are set out in the By-Law .110 For example, cultural and recreational uses include
artist studios, bingo halls, libraries, parks and theatres; retail uses include farmers markets, gas
stations and car dealerships.
There is a myriad of mixed-use zones throughout the City of Vancouver. The primary purpose of
mixed-use zones is to allow dwelling uses to be in close proximity to any of the other designated uses.
The classification of type of use may vary from district to district. For example, one zoning district
may list manufacturing as an outright approval use and dwelling as a conditional approval use,
while another zoning district may list dwelling as an outright approval use and manufacturing as
a conditional approval use. Different types of businesses in the same category of use may also be listed
105 See District Schedules for all zones, attached to the By-Law, supra note 99.
106 See the Commercial District Schedules, attached to the By-Law, supra note 99.
107 For example, see City of Vancouver, By-Law No. 4912, Downtown Official Development Plan (4 November 1975).
108 Supra note 99 at RA-1 District Schedule (Limited Agriculture).
109 Supra note 99 at s. 2.
110 Supra note 99 at s. 2.

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as both outright approval uses and conditional approval uses in the same zoning district. For example,
in the FC-1 zoning district service uses, such as laundromats and vocational schools, are listed as
outright approval uses, while service uses, such as cabarets and photography laboratories, are listed
as conditional approval uses.111 Through the establishment of zoning requirements, municipalities
maintain tight control over what types of activities are carried out in each area of the City.

The current situation for sex workers

The City of Vancouver currently issues licenses for body rub parlours, health enhancement centers,
social escort services, dating services, steam baths, and strip clubs.112 Some businesses holding these
types of license are in the business of providing sexual services. These businesses are quasi-legal,
because they engage in activities that are not permitted under the licenses issued to these various
types of business. Further, when these businesses provide sexual services, they are in violation of the
provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada relating to prostitution such as s. 212, the procuring
law, and s. 210, the bawdy house law.113 Nevertheless, these quasi-legal, licensed sex industry businesses continue to operate under the current licensing scheme, and do so within Vancouvers existing
zoning scheme. Street prostitution is not currently licensed or subject to zoning, because s. 213 of the
Criminal Code, the communicating law, outlaws street prostitution.114
Body rub parlours, health enhancement centers, social escort services, dating services, steam baths
and strip clubs are permitted to operate in certain zones in Vancouver. It is important to recognize that
not all businesses carrying these licenses also provide sexual services, but the data from sex workers who
participated in this project indicates that many of them do, indeed, offer sexual services.
Licensed body rub parlours are confined to the Downtown District, which is part of Vancouvers
Comprehensive Development District. This districts Official Development Plan permits body rub
parlours to be zoned in this District under the category Other Commercial use, meaning any other
commercial use not being retail or office.115 Under s. 2 of the By-law a body rub parlour is listed
as a business under service use.116
Businesses that are licensed for exotic dancing and stripping can be located in most types of zoning
districts throughout Vancouver, including Commercial, Industrial, Historic Area, and Comprehensive Development.117 Exotic Dancing and Stripping Businesses are regulated in accordance with the
regulations for restaurants and cabarets, which are categorized as types of service uses under s. 2 of
the By-law.118 Currently, the majority of Vancouvers Exotic Dancers and Strip Businesses are concentrated in the Downtown District.119
Businesses that hold a Social Escort Service license are not confined to any particular zone under
the By-law. However, other Vancouver by-laws, by-law amendments, and official development plans
specify where Social Escort Services may not be established. For example, the Downtown District
Official Development Plan states that a Social Escort Service may not operate from a General Office
Live-Work space in the Downtown District.120 This means that a Social Escort Service may not be
located in those spaces where an owner/occupier uses the space as both a residence and a place of busi111 Supra note 106.
112 Supra note 32.
113 Supra note 1 at ss. 210, 212.
114 Supra note 1 at s. 213.
115 City of Vancouver, By-Law No. 4912, Downtown Official Development Plan (4 November 1975).
116 Supra note 99 at s. 2.
117 See the District Schedules for these zones.
118 Supra note 99 at s. 2.
119 The Downtown District includes the area between Cardero Street and Abbott Street (West to East) and Cordova Street to Beach
(North to South).
120 Supra note 115 in the Definitions section.

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ness within the Downtown District. For more information about Live-Work spaces, see the section on
Working from Home below.
Under the By-law, Health Enhancement Centres may be established in Multiple Dwelling,
Commercial, Industrial and Historic Area zoning districts.121 Health Enhancement Centres are categorized as an office use. Like Social Escort Services, Health Enhancement Centres may not operate
from a General Office Live-Work space in the Downtown District.122
Dating Services are not restricted to any particular zoning district under the By-Law. The term
Dating Service does not fall under any of the use headings described above. However, as with Social
Escort Services and Health Enhancement Centres, a Dating Service may not operate from a General
Office Live-Work Space in the Downtown District. 123
There are no zoning regulations regarding steam baths.

Sex workers views on zoning

Sex workers were divided as to whether there should be any restrictions on where they may establish
their business or carry out their work. Some sex workers were opposed to zoning laws that place limitations on independent workers:
A. The only way I can think of is basically leave us the hell alone. You know, get out of
the licensing business, allow us to advertise, allow us to work out of our home safely,
you know.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some sex workers were expressed concern about limiting where street workers can operate:
A. I think you cant zone, you cant tell people that they cant stand on a freaking street
corner.
- female street-level sex worker

Other sex workers, like the one quoted below, felt that creating zones for prostitution would drive sex
workers further underground, presumably because some sex workers may not be able to, or willing to,
operate under the rules set out by the city:
A. Well, thats the thing, though, you see. Once you start zoning and say you can only
operate in this area, what happens is then . . . like youve really labelled people and,
I dont know, I think youll drive it further underground.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some sex workers felt that sex industry businesses should not be subject to any new zoning by-laws
targeting prostitution, and should be integrated into the existing zoning scheme in Vancouver:
A. Im opposed to zoning for prostitutes. I dont think we should zone for prostitutes.
Again its one of those things that if you can make it apply to another business let it
apply to [sex work] as to another business.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Against these views, some sex workers suggested that the City should create new prostitution zones:
A. Well there needs to be like an acknowledged little party plaza. Say. Yknow, like an
adult party plaza and then another kind, right? Where you got your nightclubs.
- female street-level sex worker
121 See the District Schedules for these zones.
122 Supra note 115 in the Definitions section.
123 Supra note 115 in the Definitions section.

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A. So, I mean maybe if there was areas that they had designated areas for the girls that
are outside, like in, certain areas, yknow, like one downtown or this is the area of
Burnaby or these or certain areas of streets, yknow, that could be, so that was
allowed in that district, that was red light district and maybe that would be away
from the homes and stuff like that. I think that it should be put somewhere, but an
organized kind of somewhere.
- female street-level sex worker

The significant diversity in opinions and the concerns raised by sex workers is an indication of the
complexity of the zoning issue.
Some sex workers stated that they do not want involvement in any zoning scheme whatsoever.
This opinion should guide lawmakers and stakeholders examining the issue of the location of prostitution. What follows is a more detailed discussion and analysis of those opinions expressed that favour
sex-work zoning laws.

Incorporating sex industry businesses into the existing zoning scheme

Sex workers from various sectors of the industry suggested that sex industry businesses should be
incorporated into the existing zoning districts rather than create a single zone for such businesses.
Several sex workers were opposed to setting up a red light district. The following sex workers who
expressed this view were unanimous that their preferred location for work would be the business and
commercial areas in downtown Vancouver:
A. [I would like to work] well down near Davie and Granville down near Celebrities
and stuff like that.
- male street-level sex worker

Several sex workers felt strongly that prostitution should not be located in areas where children are
frequently present:
A. I definitely think it would be in business areas. And not in neighbourhoods, yknow,
of course, with children and stuff. The zoning would be, yeah, more business areas.
- female street-level sex worker

Some sex workers made specific references to popular landmarks in the Downtown District as areas
providing good business and relative safety for sex workers:
A. [I would like to work] Around the Bentalls . . . outside Hotel Vancouver. Expo
Boulevard . . . . The Wall Centre . . . Plaza of Nations . . . around the Pan Pacific . . .
down by the Bayshore.
- female street-level sex worker

Several sex workers agreed that sex industry businesses, such as brothels, would best fit commercial
or industrial districts:
A. I mean if were talking a larger, larger, brothel then it should be in a commercial
zone, centrally located.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

A. And then maybe in those commercial industrial areas there could be . . . lets just
say that if it were all legal . . . maybe there could be like a massage parlour with five
rooms or six rooms and these girls could come and rent the room by the hour.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

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Sex workers preferred to work in the commercial and business areas of downtown Vancouver for
many reasons. One was that some prostitution already takes place in the downtown area, including
street, in-call and out-call business. This makes the downtown area familiar and comfortable for some
sex workers, and easily accessible. Sex workers noted that they prefer the downtown area because it is
heavily populated and a popular tourist location, and provides them with a readily-available clientele.
One of the primary reasons that sex workers from all groups said they preferred the downtown area
was because they felt it is safer. Some sex workers mentioned the higher population density, lighting,
and availability of phones as features in the downtown that increased their security.
Street workers felt that working in more populated and secure downtown areas would allow for
increased safety as compared to isolated industrial sites, empty alleyways and high-crime neighbourhoods. Few sex workers identified the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver as a place where they wanted
to work, preferring areas in the downtown core, such as Davie Street, Granville Street, the areas
around the Sheraton Wall Centre, the Bentall Centres on Burrard Street, and the Plaza of Nations
on Pacific Boulevard. All types of sex workers were adamant that prostitution take place in an adult
oriented neighbourhood, meaning an area used for adult activity not frequented by children. The
Downtown District, already home to strip clubs, nightclubs, bars, lounges and body rub parlours, was
felt to be most fitting for prostitution.
If the criminal laws surrounding adult prostitution are repealed and prostitution becomes integrated into the existing zoning scheme in Vancouver, the city will have to determine which zoning
districts are appropriate for sex industry businesses, and what use category they are best suited to.
Prostitution could potentially be integrated into a number of existing uses, including: Commercial
use, Other Commercial use (i.e. commercial use that is not retail commercial or office commercial use) or Service use. In order to integrate prostitution into the existing zoning scheme, a
municipality would first have to designate a use category for prostitution, and then designate prostitution as either an outright approval or conditional approval use in a district schedule or official
development plan with respect to applicable zones.

Prostitution as a distinct use

One option for integrating prostitution into the existing zoning scheme is to create a specific
prostitution use rather than subsuming it into existing uses. Accommodating prostitution in this
manner would mean that the City determines which zoning districts would accept sex industry
businesses. However, giving prostitution its own new and separate use category (i.e. a prostitution
use) would allow greater opportunity for these businesses to be treated differently than others, since
municipalities would have greater control over where they are located.
Sex workers expressed concern about having a specific prostitution use because they want their
business to be treated as any other and not subject to specialized rules. Therefore, they believe that
prostitution should be classified as part of a common existing use, such as a commercial or service
use. Further, because the City has more discretion over activities classified as conditional approval
uses, it may not be advantageous to have prostitution subsumed within a use designation that is likely
to be a conditional approval use, rather than an outright approval use.
A specific prostitution use could also lead to a situation where local groups who are opposed to
the presence of sex industry businesses may more easily identify and contest their proposed locations.
With greater discretion over where to locate prostitution, the City could react by severely restrict
prostitution by, for example, designating very few zones for prostitution use, and by designating
prostitution as a conditional approval use.
Classifying which existing designated use is most appropriate for prostitution is a complex issue
that, if embarked upon, should be undertaken by lawmakers with careful attention to the needs and
concerns of sex workers. If prostitution is integrated into the existing zoning system, it is through the

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use classification that the City will be able to exercise control of the location of sex industry businesses. This is an unsettled issue that, in the event of decriminalization, will have to be examined
carefully with input from sex workers.
Designated prostitution zones
Many sex workers advocated establishing specific sex industry zones:
A. I still like the red light district where each person has there own house and your just
kind of in the window kind of and whoevers interested would come up to the door.
Its all indoors, its all private. Itd be a lot easier.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. Like in the European countries. You have a block or a district. A red light district.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. I personally think yes there should be like a red light district because number one
youve got that safety thing of it and number two if theres a problem its kinda in one
area and its easy to get rid of it.
- female street-level sex worker

In discussing zones specifically designated for prostitution, many sex workers used the term red light
district. This term has many meanings. Generally, it describes an area where brothels are located,
regardless of whether prostitution is illegal or legal. Well-known examples in countries where prostitution has not been legalized include the Pigalle district of Paris, France, and the Patpong district of
Bangkok, Thailand. Perhaps the best-known red light district internationally is the De Wallen in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal.
Because the term red light district is vague and uncertain, and applied to both legal and illegal
regimes, we do not use it. Instead we use the term designated prostitution zone to identify an area
specifically zoned for prostitution use. Under the current zoning scheme, where there are various
zoning districts with designated uses, the setting aside of an area for prostitution would require that
prostitution be designated its own zoning district category, similar to Limited Agriculture, One
Family Dwelling, Commercial and Comprehensive Development.
The one thing most sex workers agreed on was that a single small area in Vancouver designated for
prostitution would be inadequate. Even those sex workers who were supportive of designated areas for
prostitution felt that there should be multiple areas located throughout the city:
A. Well, I guess if youre saying off the street then youre talking about a red-light district
type of scenario I think you could very well have a red-light district, but it seems to
me that that would almost be like having an amusement park district or something
where you have a bunch of establishment in one area. That shouldnt mean that if
youre in that kind of business you have to be in that zone, because you know it would
be ridiculous, if say there was a zone like that in Gastown for instance and someone
wanted to get laid in Burnaby or Coquitlam, theyre not necessarily going to want to
come all that way to perform a sort of a domestic kind of transaction. And so yeah, you
could have a zone that is geared for that but that couldnt be the only zone or youd have
to have other zones all over the place.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Proponents of designated prostitution zones agreed that not only would zoning increase the safety of
sex workers, but also it might provide a safer way for sex workers to transition out of the industry, and
might even help decrease the rate and extent of illness among sex workers. Nevertheless, the need to value

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autonomy and privacy was the most prevalent theme of all opinions on zoning. Further, sex workers
believe workers and clients need to conduct business in areas in which they feel comfortable, be that in
their own neighbourhood or in an area of Vancouver that is some distance from where they reside.

Home-based sex industry businesses

The By-law allows for some forms of work to take place in a persons home. Under the homecraft
provision, the By-law allows one person per family to engage in a craft or occupation athome.124
However, the principal use of the building must be as a residence. Generally, the term homecraft
refers to businesses like bookkeeping and accounting. Under s.11.6 of the By-law, no products or
materials may be sold from a residence, and there is a restriction against any objectionable effect[s]
being created by the residential business.125 A business run from the home cannot employ other
persons or allow customers into the home.126 Given all of these factors, the homecraft provision of
the By-law would not allow sex workers to receive in-calls at their place of residence. However, they
could arrange outcalls from home. In addition to the fact that no customers are allowed into the
home, the provision that no other objectionable effect be produced by the business is a very broad
criterion, and may be used to prevent prostitution from being conducted in a sex workers residence.
No offensive noise, odour, vibration, smoke, heat or other objectionable effect shall be produced in
a homecraft.127 Additional examples of objectionable impacts that may be relevant in the context of
prostitution include issues of security and availability of parking.128
In order to operate a business under the homecraft provision a business license must be obtained, but
a development permit is not necessary. These business licenses can carry various restrictions. For example,
a City of Vancouver staff person advised that a person working from home can be required to renew the
license at an interval designated by the City, which allows the City to review the effects of the business on
the neighbourhood and determine whether to renew the license.
Both male and female sex workers of all types reported that they would like the ability to work in
a residential setting; many of them would like to be able to work at home with one or more other sex
workers, but this is not permitted under the rules of the homecraft provision:
A. You know, probably more likely would, along with another girls Im not saying Im
doing this but Id rent an apartment, split the rent with a girlfriend, and thats
where wed do our in-calls.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. I dont think a big place is good. I think allowing two to three women to work in
small, little bawdy-houses all throughout the city [is a good idea].
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. I think that it [sex work] would successfully operate invisibly if theres not an area
[specific zone for sex work] because there could be very small houses with just one or a
few workers.
- male street-level sex worker

124 Supra note 99 at s. 11.6.1

125 Supra note 99 at s. 11.6.5.
126 P. Mondor & J. Madden, Policy Report: Urban Structure (29 July 2003), online: Vancouver City Council <http://vancouver.
ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20030910/ph2.htm>.
127 Supra note 99 s. 11.6.5.
128 City of Vancouver, Community Services, Live/Work and Work/Live: Vancouver Overview Including Strategic Directions (May
2001), online: <http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/guidelines/L002.pdf>.

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The Official Development Plan for the Downtown District provides for general office live-work
space within that District.129 General office live-work space allows a person to conduct general office
work from their home. General office work is defined as:
the use of premises for any office use, including Information Technology and desktop
publishing, but does not include Financial Institution, Health Care Office or Health Enhancement Centre.130

The Downtown District Official Development Plan places further restrictions on the use of a home as
a general office, restricting the ability of persons to use their home as a place of business for a dating
service, entertainment service, exotic dancer business, social escort service or other similar business.131
A person wishing to operate a business from a General Office Live-Work space requires a development
permit from the City.
In August 2004, a Vancouver-area activist for sex workers rights challenged this limitation. She
proposed that, given that independent escorts are licensed under the General Office category, they
also should be allowed to operate their business out of General Office Live-Work spaces. The proposal
was initially supported by a vote at city council, but was later overturned.132
Given many sex workers preference to work from home, the repeal of the criminal laws relating
to adult prostitution should call for a re-vamping of the Zoning and Development By-law provisions in
order to permit sex workers to take in-calls at home and work in conjunction with two to three other
workers in a home-based business.
In addition to the views expressed by sex workers regarding specific zoning laws, four other
concerns emerged from our discussion of zoning, which we describe next.

Other concerns relating to the issue of zoning

The four concerns that emerged from sex workers discussions of zoning regulations concerned
safety, privacy, autonomy, and children.
Safety
The sex workers we interviewed all agreed that any by-laws restricting prostitution to certain zones
must prioritize the safety of sex workers. Sex workers described a variety of unsafe situations: street
work in industrial areas or places having dim or no lighting; providing sexual services in cars; and
working in any kind of isolated areas where sex workers have no access to other persons or aid in case
of an emergency:133
A. As soon as you stick women in an industrial area, the problem is safety.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. I feel violated . . . . I feel violated because the area where we work in, just because of
the security, because of the police, because of the crime, because of the drugs and all
that kind of stuff goes on around the area. It is kind of hard to actually . . . actually
get a date because of all the crime that is going on around my surroundings. So that
its kind of one of the . . . you know, big . . . main concerns for me and my safety, is
129 Supra note 115.
130 Supra note 99 at s. 2.
131 Supra note 115 in the Definitions section.
132 City of Vancouver, Special Council Meeting Minutes (10 September 2003), online: <http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/
cclerk/20030910/phmin.htm>
David Carrigg, Council decision delights sex trade activist The Vancouver Courier, online: The Vancouver Courier <http://www.
vancourier.com/issues03/093103/news/093103nn8.html>.
133 Pivot Legal Society Sex Work Subcommittee, Voices for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused by Canadas Sex Trade Laws,
(Vancouver: Pivot Legal Society, 2004) at 16, 17.

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because of all the crime that is going on around.

- female street-level sex worker

There is a wealth of evidence that working in isolated areas industrial parks, cars and wooded areas
adds to the harm that sex workers experience on the job.134 The current conditions of much of the
street sex work that occurs in Canadian cities provide ample evidence of just how dangerous working
in isolated and dimly lit areas can be. From this deadly experience somewhere between 200 and
300 street sex workers have been murdered over the past 25 years in Canada a very clear lesson can
be drawn with respect to zoning of prostitution: certain kinds of zoning will likely perpetuate this
pattern if prostitution is restricted to dimly lit industrial areas.
There was general consensus amongst all participants that working in isolated locations made
working conditions unsafe:
A. [S]o its very difficult to impose any kind of, I would think, safety measures when you
know people dont know who theyre going with and where, whether theyre going to do
the transaction in the car, or in the woods, or what. So, yeah, I dont think its a safe
environment, the street situation, and I would like to see it all go indoors.
A. So it really is, the most violent way to work would be street where it is entirely anonymous, you have no back-up and youre by yourself one-on-one with somebody in a
car. There really is no recourse for you if you have a problem.
A. Further, the fact that working indoors allows for increased safety suggests that allowance for indoor sex work must be incorporated in any zoning by-law applicable to sex
work. An independent sex worker and an escort stressed the safety of indoor sex work:
A. I think youre safest indoors, youre safest when they come in to see you. But like I say,
you need to have like a buddy you can work with or someone you can work alongside with and youre safe.
A. So, yeah, I dont think its a safe environment, the street situation, and I would like to
see it all go indoors.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

The sex workers we interviewed made it clear that any zoning by-law must allow sex workers to work
in populated, well-lit, secure and central locations. Protecting the safety of sex workers must be given
priority in any decision about where to locate prostitution.
Autonomy
While some sex workers believed that sex industry businesses should be zoned, others thought
that the decision about where to work should be left entirely to the sex worker. While their greatest
emphasis was placed on empowering sex workers, others suggested that clients should be able to choose
where they go to receive sexual services. The following excerpts illustrate the different perspectives.
A. Its okay to have a zone but let it come from the workers. Dont like say you have to go
here.
- female street-level sex worker

134 John Lowman, Violence and the Outlaw Status of (Street) Prostitution (2000) 6(9) Violence Against Women 987; John Lowman & Laura Fraser, Violence Against Persons Who Prostitute: The Experience in B.C., Technical Report No. TR1996-14e. (Ottawa: Department of Justice Canada, 1996); Cecilia Benoit & Alison Millar, Dispelling myths and understanding realities: Working
conditions, health status and exiting experiences of sex workers (Victoria: PEERS, 2001), online: University of Victoria website
<http://web.uvic.ca/~cbenoit/papers/DispMyths.pdf> ; S, Currie, N. Laliberte, S. Bird, N. Rosa & S. Sprung, Assessing the Violence
Against Street-Involved Women in the Downtown Eastside/Strathcona Community (Vancouver: Mimeo, 1995); Leonard Cler-Cunningham & Christine Christensen, Violence against women in Vancouvers street-level sex trade and the police response (Vancouver:
Pace Society, 2003).

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A. [C]ertainly a massage parlour is the safest place to work because theres safety in
numbers. Given that though, I think people should have the choice to be
self-employed and assess that risk on their own . . . no one . . . needs that paternalistic, this is safer for you approach and be told where or how to work.
A. I mean, realistically, some people are still going to go outside, no matter what.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

A. Well, maybe it could be that there would be sort of a Low Track area where the druggies and all that hang out and I dont know . . . the only thing that maybe, if there
were a closed radius to some dumpy, cheap hotels they could work out of there and
their friends could watch out for them.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. That shouldnt mean that if youre in that kind of [sex work] business you have to be
in that [one] zone, because you know it would be ridiculous, if say there was a[sex
work] zone like that in Gastown for instance and someone wanted to get laid in
Burnaby or Coquitlam, theyre [the client is] not necessarily going to want to come all
that way to perform a sort of a domestic kind of transaction. And so yeah, you could
have a zone that is geared for that but that couldnt be the only zone or youd have to
have other zones all over the place.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Privacy
Generally sex workers emphasized the need for privacy for workers, clients and the industry as a
whole. Some sex workers stated that they felt a zone for prostitution would make them more visible,
which could make them susceptible to stigmatization and discrimination. Both escorts and female
street sex workers emphasized the need for privacy:
A. Once you start zoning and say you can only operate in this area, what happens
is thenlike youve really labelled people and, I dont know, I think youll drive it
further underground. Some people will stand up and say, yeah, Im gonna work in
this area, but then I dont know . . . . Nobody really wants to stand up and say Im
a sex-trade worker. I dont know a lot of people who would want to admit it, you
know?
female street-level sex worker

A. I was very discreet about it. I mean, the thing is, if you let people know what you do,
then youre opening yourself up to eggs being thrown at you, or whatever the heck,
people screeching at you, who knows, maybe people trying to make you move out of
your home or at least making you feel so uncomfortable that you move out on your
own volition. So, it really pays not to tell people what you do.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. I think that it would successfully operate invisibly if theres not an area because there
could be very small houses with just one or a few workers and like you said people
could come and go unnoticed, if you like, whereas if its all ghettoized into a certain
red light district then people are you know . . . youre only there for one reason. You
lose privacy.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

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Sex workers insisted that their safety and their ability to conduct business both depend on the privacy
and autonomy of workers and their clients. For them, privacy and autonomy are important considerations when contemplating how to design prostitution zoning laws.
Sensitivity to children
Almost all sex workers agreed that sex industry businesses should not be located near childrens
gathering places, such as schools:
A. One thing is definitely in regards to schools no matter what it should not be anywhere
close to an elementary school as far as Im concerned and theres enough areas
throughout the lower mainland that they could put a red light district and there is no
schools, elementary schools.
- female street-level sex worker

Comments such as this reinforce the proposal that the Downtown District is the most appropriate
location for prostitution, particularly because it should be kept out of the sight of children.

Zoning and sex work recommendations

1. Consult extensively with sex workers regarding where sex work should be located, and involve sex
workers in any decision-making process concerning zoning laws.
2. Explore the benefits and disadvantages of various zoning schemes, including specific zones for
sex-work businesses and street-level sex workers. The general view was that a single area designated
for sex work would not meet the needs of different kinds of sex workers. Many sex workers were
opposed to establishing designated prostitution zones; sex work should be treated like any other
business that is classified as a commercial or service industry.
3. Given the preference of sex workers to work from the home, the Zoning and Development By-law
provisions that place restrictions on home-based business should be revised to permit two sex
workers to take in-calls at a single residential location.
4. Ensure that zoning regulations do not prohibit street prostitution entirely.
5. Ensure that sex-work businesses are not located near schools or childrens playgrounds.
6. Consult with sex workers to develop zoning regulations that enhance the safety, privacy and
autonomy of sex workers.

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PART 3: EMPLOYMENT and

labour law
B.C.s employment and labour legislation creates important rights and
protections for workers. However, despite the existence of this legislation,
the most fundamental labour and employment rights of sex workers are
being violated, and they are unable to access the legal protections available
to other workers. This chapter outlines the steps that should be taken to
provide sex workers with equal access to the employment rights and protections provided under existing B.C. law, and examines whether the existing
legislation adequately serves the needs of workers in the sex industry.
The repeal of the criminal laws pertaining to adult prostitution is a critical step towards providing
sex workers with equal access to workers protection. Under the current legal framework, although
prostitution itself is legal in Canada, the criminal laws relating to prostitution create restrictions
on employment in the sex industry. For example, being an employer of a sex worker is effectively
prohibited by s. 212(1)(a) of the Criminal Code of Canada (the Criminal Code). The procuring
law makes it a criminal offence to procure or solicit a person to have sexual intercourse with another
person. As a consequence of this section, any person who employs sex workers is likely to be in violation of this section of the Criminal Code and may also be infringing the criminal law prohibiting
living on the avails of prostitution. Living on the avails of prostitution is a criminal offence if the
relationship between the employer and sex worker is judged to be parasitic. Courts have applied
the term parasitic in a way that renders wage sharing by sex workers and employers susceptible to
prosecution under Criminal Code s. 212(j). As the Ontario Court of Appeal in R. v. Barrow stated,
[t]he element of parasitism was found in the fact that she was in the business of rendering services to
prostitutes because they were prostitutes.
Despite the existence of these criminal laws, many sex workers currently work for employers,
and often do so in licensed businesses. For example, sexual services are often provided under the guise
of massage and escort businesses. These businesses can, therefore, be characterized as operating in a
quasi-legal way, because they are licensed to provide massage and escort services, but in addition to
those services, many businesses that hold these licenses also offer sexual services. The true nature of
these services is commonly known but, particularly in Vancouver, city council and police tend to turn
a blind eye to the criminal offences that such businesses commit.
Sex workers are in an extremely disempowered position as a result of the current criminal laws.
They have little or no opportunity to avail themselves of the administrative laws that provide benefits
and protections to other workers. There are a number of reasons for this problem. When asked
whether they would consider seeking assistance from the government on employment related issues,
 Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34, s. 212 (j) [CCC]. In R. v. Barrow (2001), 54 O.R. (3d) 417 (Ont C.A.) at para 29, the
accused ran an escort agency, arranging dates between male clients and female escorts employed by the agency and even though her
relationship with her escorts was supportive and friendly rather than exploitive, her occupation was found to be parasitic in that she
was in the business of rendering prostitution services. The court held that the offence of living on the avails of prostitution does not
require proof of coercion.
 Daniel Wood, House Rules Vancouver Magazine (April 2004).

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sex workers stated that they fear the stigma and discrimination that could result from disclosure of
their employment in the sex industry. Likewise, filing a claim under the Employment Standards Act or
the Workers Compensation Act means disclosure of ones type of work and identity to a governmentaffiliated body. Sex workers stated that they fear the possibility of criminal sanctions if they reveal that
their business practices violate criminal law. Complaining about working conditions could expose an
employer to severe consequences, such as loss of a business license or criminal sanctions, and could
lead to retaliation against the worker, or termination of the business itself in which case the worker
would lose her job. Given their inability to access employment protections, sex workers are extremely
vulnerable to exploitation by employers.
Few sex workers seek the labour and employment protections available to other workers. None
of the participants in this project reported filing a claim under the Employment Standards Act or the
Workers Compensation Act, and decisions rendered under these statutes show that few such claims have
ever been made in B.C. Further, we found that lack of awareness and understanding of their legal
rights was a serious problem among the sex workers who contributed to this project. If the employment and labour rights of sex workers are to be respected, basic education about their legal rights is an
important first step.
Part of the barrier in discussing prostitution as a labour and employment issue is the commonly
held stereotype that any sex industry employer is an exploitative and controlling pimp. While
that type of exploitative situation exists, it cannot be applied to all employers in the sex industry. The
type of employment issues that sex workers face varies greatly, depending on the type of sex work. Sex
workers struggle with many of the same employment issues that would arise in the straight world
pertaining to wages and working conditions. At its most extreme, the exploitation that some sex
workers experience is a form of sexual slavery:
A. He said I can live there and he will buy me clothes. He wont charge me clothes; he
wont charge me food, and stuff like that. I can stay there. All I have to do is working.
I live there and he supplies drugs for me . . . . With two girls and he buys all the
clothes, he pays the rent, and all you have to do is work for him. And he charge those
guys around $180. But same thing. Like he will make a list of how many drugs I do
because I have some drugs like, um, he makes sure I have drugs every day like even
though . . . . I have to make money he would put it on the list. So everybody is doing
heroin. And what happened, its like he introducing me to rock [crack cocaine].
Cause like what happened its like I do not really know how to do cocaine at the time.
I do not really know that. But I starting to find out what rock is and this is how he
control us. Cause rock is really addictive. What happened is at the time; I started
to know some girls from him. Like I know a girl . . . she is not supposed to be [in
Canada] and she travel all over the place and making money with prostitution . . .
and what happened is she told me two kinds of girls. Two kinds. One kind like her,
is free like her, which means she knows those dealers for sex . . . the bigger dealers.
Right, and because she got money in Malaysia so she can pay for her own passport.
Fake passport money. And she can pay for the ticket - airplane ticket. And thats why
she is free so she chooses who she work for. And she told me there is a different one.
The different one is the . . . I met later on at the massage parlour. Which means they
do not have freedom. They have to stay in certain places. They cannot walk out, they
cannot talk to people. They cannot tell people their real name and stuff like that
because like those dealers, those people dealers they pay for the passport and for the
airplane and ticket and stuff like that. Usually those girls coming from Thailand or
Malaysia around those countries between those countries.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

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The commonly held stereotype about pimps holds true in some instances, but it should not be seen
as representative of all current employer-employee relationships in the sex industry. In this project, sex
workers stated that, even under the current laws, there are good employers in the industry. However,
it was agreed that sex workers would be able to benefit from better relationships with their employers
if the criminal laws were to be repealed.
Before moving further into this discussion, it is important to acknowledge that improving employment protections for sex workers is only one of the steps that must be taken to protect the human
rights of sex workers. Too many sex workers are engaged in prostitution against their will and work
under very dangerous circumstances. Some sex workers are extremely disempowered by individuals
who use violence and intimidation to exploit their labour. Some sex workers are coercively trafficked
into Canada, and face the prospect of arrest and deportation if they speak out. For workers in those
circumstances, their needs extend far beyond improved working conditions. Their desire to exit the
trade and access protection from those who are exploiting them is the more important consideration.
For them the remedy lies in their ability to access police protection, and protection under humanitarian immigration laws. These issues are addressed in other chapters of this report.
For workers who choose to engage is sex work, the focus on employment protections is a vitally
important one. Their right to work in a safe work environment should be legally protected. Even
for those sex workers who intend to exit the industry, providing a safe work environment while they
remain in the industry both reduces the potential for harm to the worker and may facilitate his or her
transition out of prostitution.
Sex workers were asked to consider the types of employment protections and benefits that they
would like to see if they were operating in a decriminalized work environment. Sex workers from all
sectors of the industry were unanimous in their opinion that their working conditions must improve.
The following chapter provides an overview of sex workers views on employment benefits and protections, and an analysis of whether the existing legislation provides adequate protection for the sex
worker.

Section 1: Employment standards and protections

This chapter will refer to a number of statutes, but will focus on the B.C. Employment Standards
Act, the Labour Relations Code  and the Workers Compensation Act.
The Employment Standards Act (the ESA) sets out the minimum workplace standards for most
employees in B.C., including such things as minimum wage, protection of wage payment and
prevention of exploitation by employers. The ESA applies to both unionized and non-unionized employees. The ESA sets out both general workplace standards and specialized standards for
particular industries.
The Labour Relations Code (the LRC) is also relevant to this discussion because it sets out the
law in relation to unionization and the relationship between unions and employers. The ability to
enjoy the protections that union membership offers is set out in the LRC. In order to be a part of a
union, you have to be an employee.
The Workers Compensation Act (the WCA) contains a provincial compensation scheme through
which employers pay into a compensation fund. When a worker is injured on the job, he or she
 Voices for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused by Canadas Sex Trade Laws (March 2004), online: Pivot Legal Society
<www.pivotlegal.org> [Voices].
 Employment Standards Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 113 [ESA].
 Labour Relations Code, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 244 [LRC].
 Workers Compensation Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 492 [WCA].

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may make a claim for compensation under the Act that includes compensation for lost wages due
to the injury and compensation for medical costs.
The WCA has an associated set of regulations called the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation
(the OHSR). The OHSR sets out the minimum requirements for health and safety standards in
the workplace enforced by the Board in all industries covered by the WCA.
When discussing employment and labour protections for sex workers, it is important to understand the distinction between workers who are employees and workers who are independent
contractors or self-employed. The ESA standards and the right to unionize under the LRC are only
available to employees and not to independent contractors (for a more detailed discussion, see
page 81). This means that only sex workers who fit the definition of employee will be able to access
these rights and protections.
Section 1 of the ESA sets out a general definition of the term employee. The section says that
an employee is someone who works for another person and is entitled to receive wages. However,
establishing who is an employee is complicated. To determine whether someone is an employee for
the purposes of employment protection, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled:
The central question is whether the person who has been engaged to perform the services
is performing them as a person in business on his own account. In making this determination, the level of control the employer has over the workers activities will always be a factor.
However, other factors to consider include whether the worker provides his or her own equipment, whether the worker hires his or her own helpers, the degree of financial risk taken by
the worker, the degree of responsibility for investment and management held by the worker,
and the workers opportunity for profit in the performance of his or her tasks.

In short, the more control that the hirer has over the worker, the greater the chance that the relationship will be categorized as an employer-employee relationship, and thereby qualify the worker and the
hirer to protection under the ESA. Finally, an employee can work on a part-time, full-time, temporary
or permanent basis without it affecting his or her legal status.

Sex workers as employees and independent contractors

Current conditions in the sex industry
Participants who work for an employer were asked about their employment status. All those who
responded to this question stated that owners or managers have told them that they are independent
contractors. Therefore, the data indicates that there is a trend among employers in the sex industry
to classify their workers as independent contractors. This is partly an effect of criminal sanctions
against procuring; employers distance themselves from acts of prostitution by arguing that it is up to
the independent contractor to decide whether their work crosses the line from massage or escorting
into sale of sexual services. Also, it is consistent with the increasing trend in many other industries,
including exotic dancing, to define workers as independent contractors, because it relieves the
employer of the responsibilities set out in the ESA. What many workers do not realize is that, even
if their employer tells them they are independent contractors, depending on the individual circumstances of the employment relationship, the courts may not agree. This means that many workers who
believe they are independent contractors may be, in the eyes of the law, employees entitled to full
protection under the ESA. This common misunderstanding further emphasizes the need for increased
legal education for workers.
 Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, B.C. Reg. 296/97 [OHSR].
 Ibid. s. 2.1.
 67122 Ontario v. Sagaz Industries Canada Inc., [2001] 2 S.C.R. 983, 2001 SCC 59.

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The Law Commission of Canada has studied the evolution of the Canadian workforce and states
that there has been an overall shift towards non-standard workers, a grouping that includes independent contractors. In most circumstances, this is disadvantageous for workers:
Some non-standard workers combine flexibility with adequate to excellent financial remuneration and work conditions. However, there is growing evidence that many others are not faring
as well. Among the problems associated with non-standard work are the following: poor pay,
little job security, a lack of access to important statutory benefits and protections (such as
Employment Insurance, employment standards protections, workers compensation, the right
to collective bargaining) and a lack of access to employer-provided benefits such as dental, life
and disability insurance. Although the phenomenon of non-standard work has been growing
for many years, labour and employment legislation, originally designed to provide conventional employees with a minimum of social protection, has not been updated to reflect these
new realities.10

Nevertheless, an employers decision to label a worker as an independent contractor is not binding

on a court or tribunal. It is only by looking at the factors set out on page 81 that one can establish
whether a worker fits the legal definition of employee. Based on the information they provided
about their workplaces, it would seem that many sex workers in this project meet the legal definition
of employee. Even so, the bottom line will always be that no one can compel a sex worker to engage
in any particular sex act, in which case a third party hiring a sex worker can not control actual sex work.
What aspects of sex work will be under an employers control? If the sex industry is completely
decriminalized, a third party or employer will be able to control the circumstances in which the work
takes place. Presently, even this degree of control is not possible given the criminalization of any third
party involvement in prostitution through the various bawdy house, procuring and living on the avails
sections of the Criminal Code. As a result, sex workers are denied the right to claim any of the benefits
and protection that employee status would bring under the ESA.
Sex workers as employees
All sex workers interviewed including street-level workers, independent escorts and those who
already work for an employer in escort agencies and massage parlours were asked whether they
would consider working for an employer, or would chose to continue working for an employer if the
industry was decriminalized. There was significant variation among sex workers responses. Some were
clear that they did not want to work for employers, and were only interested in operating as selfemployed sole proprietors. Others were interested in working for an employer, but varied in terms of
the degree to which they wanted an employer to control the terms and conditions of their work.
A particularly predominant view among male sex-worker participants was that they wanted to
operate independently as sole proprietors. Both male and female sex workers expressed the following
reasons for preferring to work independently. First, many sex workers said that they did not want to
pay any part of their earnings to another person. Second, many stated that they want to enjoy as much
flexibility and independence as possible, and did not want to be constrained by anyone elses rules.
Q. If youre working in the sex trade, would you prefer to work independently, or work
for an employer?
A. Definitely independently.
A. Independently.
A. Independently . . . .

10 Canada, Law Commission of Canada, Discussion Paper - Is Work Working? Work Laws that Do a Better Job, (Ottawa. Law Commission of Canada, 2004) at 5 [Is Work Working?].

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A. Id rather work independently . . . be in charge of GST and that kinda stuff because
that way its contributing to society.
A. Less competition.
A. Keep your own hours.
A. Being your own boss, you determine, its up to you what happens and like safety
concerns and so forth, plus money wise, I dont know about you guys but I wouldnt
want to have to stand on a corner like some of these ladies have to and make money
for somebody else. And therein the whole risk, if Im going to have that type of risk.
- male street-level sex workers

Remaining independent and in control of how prostitution is carried out was very important for
many sex workers, and some believed that this could not be done in an employment relationship:
Q. So I take it from what youre saying so far that you would prefer to work independently rather than for an employer.
A. Yes.
Q. OK. And why is that?
A. I like my own money.
Q. Any other reasons?
A. Oh, I already have problems with the fact that the city tries to control me, and you
know, our government is in our face regardless of what Im doing, it doesnt really
matter there, things are Big Brother enough. To add to that a pimp that watches over
my every move? I cant even imagine. It makes me itch.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some sex workers felt that safety issues could be addressed by working in collaboration with other sex
workers while still maintaining their self-employment status:
A. Well, I think I prefer to work independently, but I would prefer to work with
another girl for safety reasons. Just somebody . . . you know . . . the two of us could
work together, we could kind of watch each others back kind of thing. And the guy
would also know that you arent there by yourself; but the way it is now, they know
were here by ourselves . . . so you know, its dangerous . . . . Well, I . . . you know, its
like I say, just someone could sort of be here while Im here, you know. We can make
sure that each other are safe, the guy isnt beating you up and . . . vice-versa, and you
know, we could close together, walk out together at night, walk each other to our cars.
It would be much safer, and plus, they know theres somebody else here so they wont
likely try something. When they know youre by yourself, theyll try anything.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

In contrast to this view, many sex workers felt that with adequate standards and protections in place,
working for an employer could be very beneficial. Sex workers felt that working for an employer
provides greater potential for a workplace that is free from violent clients. Safety was a particularly
significant factor for female sex workers:
A. Me? Well I prefer to work for somebody. Because I mean I know from past experience working from for myself, right? I got raped, I got beaten up, I got shot at, and
its like that if I had an employer, right? . . . I would feel protected.
Some sex workers thought that working for an employer created the possibility for better health and
safety standards and access to benefits, such as the Canada Pension Plan:

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A. I think that it would be good to work for somebody, who is a good employer, who
has health issues, all the proper things and security for the girls that are working
for them. I think that it would be good to work for somebody that has that would
protect them.
Q. What are some of the qualities that you would look for in an employer?
A. Theyre caring about health issues, about security. And the conditions of where you
are working. And, understanding.
A. Yeah, I would I would like to add. If I had the option of being by myself, which is
good but if you worked for an employer they might have things like CCP and pension
plans. God knows weve never had a pension plan, things like CCP . . . .
Q. So what are what do you think some of the conditions, you would look for, before
accepting to work for someone else?
A. . . . how much money that you are going to make.
A. I would make sure that I was in a place that was, like, clean, and that it was licensed
before jumping up and going ahead and being employed by them.
- female street-level sex workers

Some sex workers felt that working for an employer would be beneficial if it meant that workers were
provided access to benefits:
A. Yeah I would pay into [benefits] . . . thats the only reason that I would go to a house
versus working by myself would be to get that kind of protection, would be to get a
pension. You have to pull into account, hey they want this legalized, they wanna help
us out, they want to make this a legal thing? The government wants a piece of the
pie? Fine. Tax us. Pension us. Everything else like a regular job . . . . It also gives you
maternity leave, it also gives you paid leave, workers compensation, in case you get
hurt on the job.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Several sex workers felt that working in a larger business with other employees would create a
situation where a variety of services could be offered without each worker having to provide every
type of service.
Some sex workers stated that they would only work for an employer if the workers were able to
maintain control over how they conducted business:
Q. Yeah. Okay. So, if you would work for an employer, like, were trying to think of
an ideal world where the criminal laws are repealed. So if you would work for an
employer, under what conditions would you do that or would you not do that no
matter what the conditions were? Or what sort of qualities would you want in an
employer?
A. I think that basically want to, you know, be able to control how I conduct my business.
I dont want to be told I have to pay all sorts of money to work there. I dont mind to,
you know, pay a certain fee for the room rental, whatever, as long as its not, you know,
astronomical. I dont want to have to perform sexual services for the owner because
frequently in a lot of places, thats what they do. You cant get a job there unless you do
them. What else? You know, you can pick and choose your time and hours of when you
want, you can do your own advertising, you can basically set up your own client base
and if theyre portable, you can take them with you, have your own cell phone, make
your own arrangements. Basically I guess it would be a space to use, a safe space to
use. Somebody might be on the premises that would just sort of be there for your safety

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purposes, but pretty much you could function independently.

- female off-street out-call sex worker

Many of these considerations will be discussed in more detail in the sections to follow. The opinions
expressed show that sex workers have varied needs and interests, in which case law reforms must allow
for various kinds of sex work organization, and extend employment protections to those who choose
to work in some form of employer-employee relationship.
Not only is there a great deal of variation among workers views of the type of work arrangement
they prefer, but also it is apparent that many workers move in and out of different sectors of the
industry. Several sex workers described how they would change the location and type of venue they
worked in depending on their circumstances at the time. Several participants had worked at the street
level, as independent escorts, and as employees in massage parlours and escort agencies at different
times. Many described this flexibility as contributing to their sense of autonomy and control over
their work. One business owner and former sex worker remarked that it is important to have a range
of organizational models so that sex workers are given options and choices.
A. I think if you had a system, where you arent forced to work in a particular model,
you will see what works, because youll see people will gravitate to the most equitable form of working. Like the system that you have in Vancouver, people go where
it works best for them. In some trades it does work like that. I mean, you can work as
a carpenter, you can work independently, you can start your own business, you can
go and work for a restoration company that deals with buyers. . . . You can go and
attach yourself to Home Depot. Right?
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

The following discussion of employment and labour standards will be set out in two parts. First, based
on the data which shows that many sex workers wish to have legal employee status, the analysis
will look at the various statutory benefits and protections set out in the ESA and LRC, and whether
these protections would adequately serve the needs of sex workers. The second part of the discussion
considers the circumstances of sex workers who wish to remain as independent contractors and what
protections are available to them in that context.

Employees and employment standards

Hiring employees
When asked about hiring practices, sex workers raised a number of concerns. The ESA contains several
provisions that aim to protect workers in the hiring process. Sex workers were asked what kind of employment protections they would like.
Hiring practices
The ESA contains several provisions that pertain to hiring practices. Section 8 states that an
employer must not make false representations in order to induce, influence, or persuade a person
to become an employee. Section 10 prohibits charging a fee for hiring or providing information to
someone about the nature of the employment.
Sex workers described facing particular challenges when applying for jobs in the sex industry.
Employers who described their own hiring practices, some of which appear to constitute clear
breaches of human rights and employment standards, provided further evidence of the challenges
faced by sex workers and their employers. The following escort business owner described her hiring
process and the fact that being physically appealing is an occupational requirement:
Q. What kinds of hiring practices do you think are fair and reasonable for this profession?

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A. As an employer, like, if I was hiring someone for any kind of work, Id want to
think that they were people who were clean, responsible, and able to be on time, and
someone who is capable of getting themselves where theyve got to go to see the client
. . . . Who has something of a wardrobe to use, or their get-togethers, even if its just
one or two outfits that they can get by on until theyve made some money to get some
more, there is a certain need for attractiveness in this business, and in that way it is
different than a lot of other businesses, but you know, if you went to an office and you
couldnt dress properly for it, Im sure people would get tired of that.
Q. So what would you ask someone? You interview people I assume when you hire them?
A. Yeah . . .
Q. And what kind of questions do you ask them, like, have you done this [sex work] before?
A. Yes I would.
Q. Do you take measurements?
A. Well I dont stand there and take them, I just ask them what their measurements are,
yeah, I need to convey that to my client. I would want to retain the right to say I
dont think Im gonna be able to get many clients for you given this, this, or this you
know, I dont have to refuse them completely but I can say you know your chances
may not be very good. I was thinking of someone just the other day Id done that
with last year. She just wasnt appealing enough relative to the rest of the people I
have on offer, that she would have gotten any work or much work. So theres that
angle. They have to be in shape to a degree and it seems like the age factor is another
factor, although of course you dont, I dont want to employ anybody too young. I
prefer that theyre 20 or older, so theres that angle as well.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

There were differences of opinion over the use of physical attributes as a criterion in the hiring
process. Several escorts felt that the physical beauty requirements imposed by many employers were
unfortunate, but they thought that it is a reality of the sex-work profession. Sex workers described
how clients demands for particular physical attributes drive the hiring process and the retention of
workers:
Q. What about any sort of rules with respect to hiring employees?
A. I guess thats up to the employer because if every kind wants a different girl, different
tastes, ya, so its up to the employer-what kind of girl she wants to hire or he wants to
hire.
A. Do you mean how do you prevent discrimination in hiring and stuff like that? Thats
tough.
Q. Ya like only the pretty girls with big boobs gets hired.
A. But you know what, thats what happens in restaurants. Hooters. And who controls
it? Nobody.
A. So regardless . . . Its going to happen and I dont think theres nothin that can be
done about it either.
A. Thats the way the world is.
Q. If the law could do something about it though do you think there should be laws
about it?
A. What are there now?
Q. Basically you could bring an action for discrimination or a complaint to one of these
bodies. Whether or not it will be successful probably depends on how blatant it was.
A. Different men like different body types.

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A. Ya there is, for sure.

A. Well, its attrition. In the massage parlours its attrition. If youre not making money
you leave, right? You dont have to sit there for eight hours if youre not making
money. They dont even have to get rid of you, you just go.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Other workers stated that the particular personal appearance that many employers require means that
sex workers who do not fit the mainstream beauty norm often have to work independently:
A. Not every woman in this business is that blatantly attractive, and Ive worked with
girls who are all shapes and sizes and Ive seen places like in Vancouver, you know,
like [name of business omitted] . . . if youre not like completely plastic-surgery
clean, you dont get picked so you dont make any money. So theyre not going to stick
around very long and theyll end up . . . what? Going to work on their own, I mean,
thats just what would happen.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers and business owners were asked about the types of information that employers should
share with job applicants in the hiring process. The ESA states that an employer must not make
false representations in order to induce, influence or persuade a person to become an employee.11
One escort business owner described the importance of describing the nature of the services that are
provided at her establishment in order to ensure that any person who was hired was willing to provide
these services:
A. Well, when we interview, when I sit down with them at the very beginning, I get
some idea, I have a form that I fill out, like an employment form, and I ask them
you know what their rules are on this that and the other kind of thing, if they have
certain rules. And I may say to them well, you know the way you want business or the
way youre used to it from somewhere else probably isnt going to fit with my style. My
business is known for offering what they call girlfriend experience and that tends to
be a more relaxed, open, kind of encounter that a man may have with a girlfriend or
mistress, and so there would be, you know, kissing and affection, and a lot of things
that some services might think was taboo.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

The requirement that employers provide full information about the nature and conditions of employment is central to the ability of both the employer and the worker to enter into a binding employment
contract under contract law. In order for the terms and conditions in the employment contract to be
enforceable, an employee must be fully informed as to the details of their contractual arrangement. The
statutory protection found in s. 8 of the ESA reinforces this obligation.
For many escort agencies or massage parlours, the job application process involves an interview
where an applicant is asked questions about themselves, their experience in prostitution and, in some
circumstances, about their physical measurements. Some sex workers described the particularly offensive and apparently widespread practice of male employers requiring job applicants to have sex with
the owner or manager as part of the interview process:
A. Okay, when I went around looking for a job or to become an escort . . . I mean, every
one of those guys that interviewed me, I had to have sex with them. Like that, to
me, is sexual harassment. The escort owners want to try you out. I dont know of any
11 ESA, supra note 4, s. 8.

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other profession that, when you go in to be a secretary, you have to give your boss a
blow-job. You know, that is a form of harassment. You know . . . and its no different
from escort to massage and so forth . . . its all the same. And I dont think thats ever
going to change.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Another sex worker described having a similar experience:

A. No, I tell you something. This is pretty disgusting, but this is happens to every single
one. I mean every massage parlour that have it. I am pretty certain, hundred percent
sure. Cause I have been some like you know three different massage parlours. I did
not really work for the first one. What happens is the first thing when you go for
interview . . . . And they will ask you do you know how to do massage? They will
want you to get into the room. And like you know they will asking you to wear dress,
skirt usually. What happens is they say, you know I am the test. And the test is you
have to have sex with the guy [the owner] . . . . With the manager. Usually, what
happens is some of them, they have managers. They say manager but I think thats
just a pimp. Usually we call them dealers because they do not treat the girl as a
person. They just called dealers. Doing the deal.
Q. Right. So they make you have sex with the dealer?
A. Thats right. Because like some bigger massage parlours they have two dealers. They
put them A or B. You know what I mean?
Q. And with the dealer or with the owner that you have to have sex with, do you use a
condom with them?
A. Well, usually yes if you know. Because before I go, [name omitted] gave me tips. You
can ask for it, but if you do not ask for it, they make you do it without a condom.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

The requirement that job applicants have sex with the business owner or manager as part of the hiring
process could lead to criminal charges against the employer/manager. They could be charged with
sexual assault on the grounds that consent was obtained by an abuse of their position of authority. 12
Such conduct could also be prosecuted as extortion under the Criminal Code if a court accepted the
argument that there was a threat not to hire if the worker did not consent.13
The data gathered from this group of sex workers reinforces the importance of the protections
provided in the ESA for job applicants. The existing ESA provision relating to full and honest disclosure about the nature of the employment is important for sex workers who need to be clear about
the nature of the establishment and the expectations once they are on the job. Also these interviews
suggest that people involved in the sex industry need a much better understanding of criminal sexual
assault laws. Both employers and workers must be educated to understand that requiring job applicants to have sex with a manager or owner as a condition of hiring is a criminal offence. Police should
be educated about the existence of such practices and be given the mandate to provide the same
protection to sex workers as other victims of sexual assault.
Age of workers
Many sex workers expressed concern about the involvement of children and youth in prostitution. For example, the following project participant described her concern that if sex work becomes
more socially acceptable, it may have the unintended consequence of making it more acceptable for
children and youth to be involved.
12 CCC, supra note 1, s. 273.1(2)(c).
13 See R. v. Davis, [1999] 3 S.C.R. 759, 179 D.L.R. (4th) 385.

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A. Thats a fear of mine though too, that if things are decriminalized, that, yknow,
people are going to, is the attitude going to be oh its been decriminalized, it cant
be that bad? And there are still a lot of not good things about it. Yes there are women
who do it, women and men who do it, because that is what they want to do and they
make good money and dah, dah, dah. Thats fine, because thats their choice. But
there is still a lot of people that are sold into the trade from different countries, who
are recruited from malls and youth centres. Who are 12, 13 and 14 years old.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

In terms of employment standards and the hiring of youth and children, the ESA says that a person
must not employ a child less than 15 years of age unless the person has obtained the written consent
of the childs parent or guardian.14 However, the Criminal Code supersedes this legislation.15 Pivots
report Voices for Dignity16 called for the preservation of s. 212(2) of the Criminal Code, which
prohibits procuring a person who is under 18 years of age, and s. 212(4) which prohibits obtaining
or attempting to obtain for consideration the sexual services of a person who is under the age of 18
years.17 As long as these Criminal Code section remain in force, the minimum age for hiring a person
to work in prostitution will be 18 years. Jurisdictions such as New Zealand and the State of Victoria
in Australia that have decriminalized or legalized sex work have also set the legal age for employment
in sex work at 18 years.
Nature of employment
Employment contracts
As a result of the current criminal laws, sex workers are limited in their ability to enter into written
employment contracts that disclose their true professional responsibilities. For example, sex workers in
massage parlours do not normally have contracts that state they will engage in sex work. This deprives
sex workers of bargaining power and control over their working conditions. If sex work is decriminalized, employment contracts could detail the full terms and conditions of the job apart from the actual
sexual services they perform, a consequence of the Criminal Code provisions regarding sexual consent.
Employers and employees in the sex industry ought to be able to make clear and transparent
employment contracts that establish hours of work, wages, benefits, workplace conditions, and
duties to be performed. However, employers cannot bind their employees to contractual obligations
regarding the types of sexual services they will provide to individual clients because all sexual activity
has to be consented to by both parties on a case-by-case basis, and can be withdrawn at any time.
Therefore, employers and sex workers can enter contractual arrangements regarding many aspects of
the job, but cannot create a binding contractual obligation to offer certain sexual services to any or
all clients in the future. In accordance with the fundamental right to sexual self-determination, sex
workers must always maintain the ability to withdraw consent and maintain control over their sexual
activities.
New Zealand specifically addresses this issue in the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (the PRA).18
Section 7 permits contracts for provision of commercial sexual services:
s. 7 No contract for the provision of, or arranging the provision of, commercial sexual services
is illegal or void on public policy or other similar grounds.

However, S. 17 states that a person may, at any time, refuse to provide commercial sexual services, even if
they entered into a contract to provide those services:
14 ESA, supra note 4, s. 9 (1).
15 CCC, supra note 1, ss. 212(2), 212(2.1), 212(4).
16 Voices, supra note 3.
17 CCC, supra note 1, ss. 212(4).
18 Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (N.Z.), 2003/28 [PRA]. Available online: <www.legislation.govt.nz>.

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s. 17 (1) Despite anything in a contract for the provision of commercial sexual services, a
person may, at any time, refuse to provide, or to continue to provide, a commercial sexual
service to any other person.
(2) The fact that a person has entered into a contract to provide commercial sexual services
does not of itself constitute consent for the purposes of the criminal law if he or she does not
consent, or withdraws his or her consent, to providing a commercial sexual service.
(3) However, nothing in this section affects a right (if any) to rescind or cancel, or to recover
damages for, a contract for the provision of commercial sexual services that is not performed.

Many sex workers supported this type of provision, reasoning that individual workers must dictate
what sexual services are provided, and to which clients. The New Zealand PRA provision set out above
would be an appropriate addition to the ESA or to other provincial statutes that may be enacted to
regulate prostitution once the criminal laws have been repealed.
Control over services provided
Canadas criminal law explicitly protects an individuals right to determine whether they wish
to engage in sexual activity. Section 271 of the Criminal Code defines engaging in sexual activity
with another person without their consent as sexual assault. Section 273.1(2)(c) states that consent
must be received from the person who will be engaging in the sexual activity; consent is not received
where a person is induced through abuse of trust, power or authority. Where an employer induces
an employee to provide a particular sexual service, or threatens an employee who refuses to provide
services, the employer could be prosecuted for violating the criminal law.
Section 273.1(a) states that sexual consent is not obtained when the agreement is made by the
words or conduct of a third party. Consequently, an employer cannot provide consent on behalf of a
sex worker. Because of these provisions of the Criminal Code, all sex workers have the right to withdraw consent at all times. It is, therefore, imperative that employers respect the workers right to withdraw consent to perform sexual services. To be consistent with the Criminal Code, this respect must be
observed in workplace policies and practices.
Sex workers felt that individual workers should have complete control over the services that
they provide to clients. However, there are many situations where they are deprived of this control.
First, many employers do try to dictate what services are offered to individual clients, although they
clearly do not understand that this practice is illegal. Second, because of their circumstances fear
of violence, their vulnerable immigration status, or their poverty many sex workers are unable to
control the types of services they provide.
With respect to employers asserting control over the sexual services their staff provide one sexwork business owner described the following logic:
A. You really have to break it down, into whats allowed and whats not allowed, so you
dont have all the different shades of grey. So it just comes down to the sort of fairness
and equality, and its its not about I mean, okay, you want to talk about nipples?
Some women have very sensitive nipples. Some women dont. Some women have said
to me, Absolutely not, I just absolutely would not be able to stand that. But then
I have to say, Well, Im sorry, you cant work here. Because I cant say to 30 other
girls, that you are better than they are. Um so I mean, some things again on the
face of it, can seem really unfair. Well, if that really bothers a woman, why do you
make her do that? Why? Because I cant tell thirty or forty others, that they have to,
and not her. Can I tell them all they dont have to? Well, no. Because theres very little
we allow a client to do in that room, and weve decided that the sucking of a breast, is
not a health risk. So therefore it goes. Given our competition that is offering bareback
blowjobs, am I asking too much of you to allow a client to suck on your breast? Um

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so . . . Would I enjoy a client sucking on my breast? No. For the amount of money
I charged? Did I let it go? Yes. Given the alternatives and the other ways to make a
living. So, one of the things that I take really important, is the consistency of rules
and their consistent application amongst all staff. And it can sound really crass, to
start saying how you write it down. And thats just one example of that, I guess it is
just a little bit funny at the same time, to put it so bluntly. But, the alternative is to
have all different rules for different people. Well, the really, really fucking pretty girls
they dont have to give up quite as much of themselves in the room. Cuz they dont
really have to, they can just lay there and look good.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

The same business owner described how there are more extreme cases in which other business owners
require their workers to provide services that they do not want to perform, and under unsafe circumstances:
A. At the other end of the spectrum, you have some very, very evil employers. Like the
one I am describing. Where theyll yknow, tell their staff this is this is what you
need you need to do to work here. But yeah, theres this other big grey area, where
they dont actually tell their staff that they have to do these things. But its pretty
obvious who risks their health for clients. And who gets the bulk of business. So they
will allocate their business to the girls that are giving up the most. Cause thats
whats making the clients happiest. Or theres the other people who dont condone it
and dont openly say, no I dont want you to do that here. But at the same time, they
are like well, the girl is going to be offering that anyway, she may as well be doing
that on my my watch. Or, well she is going to offer it anyway, that is her choice.
And she just happens to work for me. Or, yknow, theres a very sort of just ambivalent attitude towards it? Yknow, like I cant save the world type of attitude. Well, its
like, yes you can! If if everyone employs standards of what is acceptable and what
isnt acceptable, then it would even the playing field for for all sex workers. But for
the ones that want to operate safely, its really hard to compete with those who dont.
And then you end up with people who want to operate safely but they end up not or
taking chances, or maybe extending their boundaries a little bit. Maybe not offering
everything that I gave you on the previous list, but maybe saying, well god, a client
thought I was really cold and clinical, maybe I should neck with my clients and okay,
maybe I will just let them put their fingers in me, then. Or yknow, thinking well
maybe I could just give up some of my boundaries so that I could get return business or
repeat business. And thats thats where I see the problem is all these shades of grey.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Currently, some establishments specify that they offer particular services to every client, such as a
Girl Friend Experience or GFE. This industry term indicates that more intimate sexual services
are offered, such as kissing. One employer described how her workers must be willing to provide a
GFE to clients in order for her to employ them:
A. When we interview, when I sit down with them at the very beginning, I get some
idea, I have a form that I fill out, like an employment form, and I ask them you
know what their rules are on this that and the other kind of thing, if they have
certain rules. And I may say to them well, you know the way you want to business
or the way youre used to it from somewhere else probably isnt going to fit with my
style. My business is known for offering what they call girlfriend experience and
that tends to be a more relaxed, open kind of encounter that a man may have with a

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girlfriend or mistress, and so there would be, you know, kissing and affection, and a
lot of things that some services might think was taboo. But I dont want my clients to
feel processed, I dont want them to feel like eww, you probably got something yucky
and we dont want to touch you. I want it to be a great exchange for both people,
and have a minimum amount of paranoia. Its probably a metaphysical point of
view of mine but it seems to me that if theres no bad energy coming from either side,
then how much can go wrong, and that goes with the health as well.
Q. What kind of process do you think an employer should have for, if for example, a
worker works for you for five years and theres no problem in terms of services and
then one day you sort of hear either through the client or, I guess it would have to be
through the client, or maybe the worker, that she refused to do a particular aspect of
the service? How do you think an employer should deal with that, if at all?
A. . . . I mean for myself, I would try and find out what was going on, why that
happened, was it this particular individual, was there something about them that
you know, raised a red flag, or made some objection. I mean people have said, you
know I would normally kiss but this one was really kind of disgusting or didnt smell
so good or something like that. Uh, you know, if someone, if the ladys being reasonable, I have no quarrel with that.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

Some employers may even expect GFE services to involve oral sex or sexual intercourse without a
condom.
Some employers offer a set menu of sexual services available at their establishment, and all
workers in the establishment are obliged to offer the services on the menu, even where the worker
does not wish to. This practice has the potential to violate the sexual assault provisions of the Criminal
Code. Upon accepting the job, workers may have agreed to provide a range of services to any client,
but under current law, consent must be obtained for each sexual encounter, and can be revoked at
any time. Therefore, sex workers must not be placed in the situation of consenting to engage in sexual
activity as a result of inducements, pressure or under duress.
In the following excerpt, a project participant discussed sexual assault and the importance of the
sex workers consent:
A. Okay, from the point of an employer I think yes, they are the ones that take advantage, theyre the ones that believe in free sampling of the wares. You know? Youd
be surprised. The only time I have a potential problem with a client is if he wants
service I dont provide and hes sort of on the drunk side. And then he can be belligerent and keep asking and keep nagging, and its like, you know what I do? Im a
big girl and I look at him and I go if you do that one more time youre not going
to get the time you expected from me because Im going to leave and youre going to
be left to your own resources. And that usually straightens them right up. And if it
doesnt, on one of those occasions when it doesnt, I just climb into my clothes and I
leave and I go maybe next time youll have a better grip. And, you know, youll grab
a brain and you wont do that again. Theres no room for sexual harassment charges
with clients. There is room though for sexual assault charges. That is to say that if a
girl doesnt provide a particular service, and he doesnt care and goes ahead and takes
advantage of her that way, then of course. I mean, theres tons and tons of girls in this
industry for instance that dont provide anal sex. Occasionally, some client will come
along and say well I paid for it, I should have it and those, those sorts of things, those
should be prosecuted. I mean nobody should get away with doing that to another

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person against their will.

- female off-street out-call sex worker

Given Canadas sexual assault laws, sex workers will always be legally entitled to maintain control over
the sexual services they provide in any given transaction. This right cannot be overridden by contractual obligations or workplace rules. Sex workers will always have the right to refuse sexual activity,
regardless of any prior arrangements with an employer or with a client.
Even though this protection is in place, the reality is that sex workers who are living in poverty
may feel compelled to engage in sexual activities that they do not feel comfortable with in order to
retain a client or earn more money in a single transaction.19 Many sex workers reported that some
customers offer higher fees for unsafe sexual acts. The practice of clients offering to pay more for risky
sexual acts was a recurring theme. Sex workers who are in greater financial need may be at more risk
of being compelled to engage in unsafe practises. One sex worker described receiving more money for
providing oral sex without a condom:
Q. Now did they give you condoms there?
A. No, you have to have your own condoms
Q. So, were you using condoms?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. All used or . . .
A. All used.
Q. Did customers ever offer you not to use a condom?
A. Oh, yeah.
Q. And did they offer you more money not to use a condom?
A. I take the offer when its blow job. I do not take the offer when its having sex.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Some sex workers are pressured to engage in unsafe activities in order to generate enough income to
pay escort agency fees, such as transportation, security, administrative services and other work-related
expenses:
Q. Should [sex workers] determine what services are provided?
A. Oh, definitely. Some girls that work for the agencies, they go on these calls and one
girl says well . . . the guy wanted Greek but I wont take it up the ass. And he says
well you do what youre supposed to do because thats what you are. You know, theyre
. . . Im just so frustrated . . . Youre just forced to do unsafe things to pay [the escort
agencys] fee.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

To a certain extent, these financial concerns can be addressed by providing sex workers with wage
protection (see the discussion of wage protections in the section Financial arrangements and wage
structure on page 29).
Several workers described how in certain massage parlours, only Canadian sex workers are able to
exercise control over the services they provide. Several sex workers, including the massage parlour worker
below, said that workers who do not have Canadian residency status have much less power and control
over their work:
A. I do feel unsafe, but its not that bad. The guy did not raped [sic] me. He just, you
know, he was trying to, like, having sex with me . . . He was trying to have sex with
19 Voices, supra note 3.

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me without a condom. I said no. And then he trying to grab me. Starting to grab me
really hard, trying to forcing [sic] me to do it. Like he want to rape me . . . so, I was
screaming. And my friend, that is my friend was just passing by and she knocked on
the door. Like, knock, knock, go, go. Thats why I was lucky. Thats why I was away.
And . . .
Q. So she rattled on the door and he got scared?
A. Yeah, and then he stopped. I went out and I said, I do not want to do him. Cause I
am . . . This is the difference when you are Canadian; you have a choice to say I do
not want to do this guy. In all those massage parlours if you are not, like you cannot
say no. And thats what I want to talk about. Its so unfair.
Q. Did you talk to the owner? What did the owner do?
A. The owner trying to offer him a different girl, thats all.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Differential treatment of employees on the basis of race, ethnicity or place of origin is prohibited by
the B.C. Human Rights Code.20 Accordingly, these workers could file a complaint with the Human
Rights Tribunal. In the event it sustained a complaint, the Tribunal could order the employer to cease
the discriminatory treatment, and could award the worker compensation for any lost income, and
damages for the injury to their dignity and self-respect.
Some sex workers described losing control over the services they provide because of their vulnerability to violence in the workplace, and because there is no protection from bad dates. The above
passage, which describes an employer who continued to offer services to a client he knew was violent,
exemplifies the lack of protection in some workplaces.
One project participant, a foreign national, described her lack of control over her work and the
violence that she endures in the workplace:
A. . . . there is something I have to say. This is makes very disappointed. Its not too, too
bad in the Kingsway one, but I have been in one before that one. I have been in one
massage place and actually, Kingsway is not much different than that one, a little
bit better. What happens is that they do not really care about your safe. This is makes
me very disappointed. I am going to say about it. I am going to talk about it. One
time at the older one, like the one before Kingsway. In that massage parlour. One
time, I get in and its so dark. The customer, they can control the light. If they want
to put it darker and I got raped. Two times and it was a big guy . . . He is so big. I
have no way to run away and I was screaming. I just screaming. I am pretty sure I
am screaming, and actually, I remember there was a lady passing by. She backed that
way, but nobody coming for me.
Q. Was the door open or closed?
A. Its closed.
Q. But there was like a window or something?
A. Yeah, a window, usually there is a window.
Q. So, she could see you.
A. Yeah, but she did not do anything. I mean like, I was so like . . . I was crying; I was
so disappointed. And when coming out, I getting so mad and I talk to the owner.
And you know what he said. Hey girl, well, ahh you have to know that when you get
in the room you are on your own. You have to take responsibility for your own safe.
Well, we cannot do anything. The customer is gone and we cannot do anything. And
20 Human Rights Code, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 210 [HRC].

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I do not want to call cops. They wont do anything.

- female off-street in-call sex worker

Violence in the workplace is a serious issue that is dealt with at length in the section on Occupational
Health and Safety (see page 121). Reducing violence in the workplace is central to protecting the basic
human rights of sex workers and increasing the degree to which they control the services they offer.
Since each sex worker has the legal right to control what services she or he provides, employers
in the sex industry are not entitled to control this fundamental aspect of their business. This issue
is unique to the sex industry and creates challenges for employers who want to define their business. Sex workers were clear that, ultimately, they should maintain the right to decide what services
they provide. However, some workers suggested that the employer should have a role in determining
the overall nature of their business, and this may mean enabling them to be specific about the types
of sexual services that are offered. These workers felt that once the worker is aware of the nature of
the services that the establishment purports to offer, he or she can determine whether they want to
work there. Nevertheless, for the reasons set out above, even if the worker is aware of the types of
services that are supposed to be on offer, the establishment cannot guarantee that each staff person
will provide every service on the menu. A sex worker maintains the legal right to withdraw consent
to perform a particular service in the context of an individual transaction. Neither sex workers nor
owners demonstrated an awareness of the workers rights in this respect.
Q. So lets talk about provision of services. Who should decide which services are available to clients?
A. Oh the women, the working women.
A. The working women, yeah.
Q. So if it was a situation where there is an employer, should the employer have any role
in deciding what services are available?
A. Yeah, what they are comfortable . . . with too.
A. The employer will be saying, I am going to be have a house that is doing bondage and
discipline. And thats all I am doing . . . thats all. And non-sexual. Thats fetish, only
fetishes. And then another house would say I am doing everything.
A. Yeah, yeah. And I think that then you the bosses and the girls everybody could
work where they feel comfortable.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

A number of escorts discussed the issue of control over services and illustrated the complexity of this
issue for both workers and employers.
Q. If you do work for an employer who should decide what services you provide?
A. Well, that again I think if the industry were right open then an establishment would
be known for what it provides and not all establishments would provide that service.
A. It would be that sort of, simple.
Q. So who should be the one to decide what services are provided?
A. The employer. The employer could say that. If it was all on the up and up they could
say if you dont do that well then you cant work here. I dont think thats any discrimination or anything.
A. I think it has to be between both because certain girls do certain things and also it
actually kind of depends with me, if hes willing to pay the outrageous price, sure Ill
go for it, Ill do it. So I think its up to both parties actually and also . . .
A. But if you are the business person you have to have a consistent standard. You cant
have you know, just . . .

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Q. And why is that? Why do you have a consistent standard?

A. Because its a business and you have to . . . the clients have to trust that theyll get
what they want.
A. And they have to know their limitations also and how far they can go.
A. So if you are going to run it like a job I think what the employer should do is find
certain services that these clients are asking for and find certain girls who will do
them, who will fulfill their fantasies, who will fulfill what these guys want and what
theyre paying for.
A. So it depends on the employer. Say this employer provides this service and this
employer provides maybe bondage and stuff like that so it depends on your employer
like where you want to go.
A. For myself . . . thats where my limits would be. As far as I want to go would be up to me
because its my body, its my health, its my everything that Im sacrificing, its not them.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Ultimately, all those involved in the sex industry must understand and respect the legal principle of
consent that puts the decision about what sexual services to provide in the hands of the sex worker.
Clearly this principle places limits on employers that may seem unreasonable from their point of view,
but given the nature of prostitution and the law of consent, the control must rest with the worker
in order to protect their right to control their sexuality and physical autonomy. Existing legislation
may not adequately protect sex workers from retaliation by employers who find workers refusing to
provide a full range of services. Termination or other punishment on this basis could be grounds for
workers to bring legal actions for wrongful dismissal, either in court or before the Employment
Standards Branch.21
Financial arrangements and wage structure
Financial arrangements
This section provides an overview of the various pay arrangements that sex workers described. It
focuses on the arrangement between employers and employees with respect to wages, setting pay rates
for different services, paying for work-related expenses, and distribution of profits.
Independent escorts and many street-level sex workers are self-employed. They set their own fees,
retain all of their wages, and pay all business-related expenses. But a significant proportion of sex
workers work for employers, either at the street level, in massage parlours, or in the escort industry.
These employment relationships vary considerably when it comes to how much they respect the
workers rights. Many sex workers face an imbalance of power when negotiating terms with their
employers. Providing sex workers with negotiating rights is an important way to empower them as
workers.
Sex workers described five different kinds of payment arrangements between employers and sex
workers (for further detail, see page 29 of this report):
1. Sexual exploitation and sexual slavery: An illegal arrangement where sex workers are subject to
total control by their employers, and their wages are either inconsistent or nonexistent. Sometimes
worker is given room and board, but very little salary. Sometimes they are given a salary, but then
have to pay various debts, in which case they are effectively held in debt bondage, a form of sexual
slavery.
2. Basic wage plus commission: the worker receives a fixed amount per client and then negotiates a
tip for sexual services, which they keep.
21 Stolle v. Daishinpan (Canada) Inc. (1998), 37 C.C.E.L. (2d) 18, 98 CLLC (B.C.S.C.), para 210.

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3. 100 percent commission: the worker keeps only the tip, and is not paid a fixed amount per client.
4. Shared commission: the clients flat fee is split on a percentage basis between the worker and the
business.
5. Hourly wage: in some cases, workers are provided an hourly wage for all of the time that they
are at work, regardless of whether or not they are with a client.
What types of wage protections do sex workers want?
Generally, sex workers want freedom to enter into a range of financial arrangements with their
employers and have formal bargaining power. Decriminalization is an important first step towards this
goal, because sex workers would be able to create clear contractual arrangements with their employers
setting out the nature and conditions of their employment, including pay. The ability to enter into
legal employment contracts would be an important first step to increasing protection of sex workers
employment rights. With legally binding contracts, sex workers would be able to seek legal recourse if
an employer violated their statutory and contractual obligations.
Sex workers entering into a strict commission structure would be characterized independent
contractors, thereby making them ineligible for most labour and employment protections.
When determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, one factor to
consider is whether the person has a chance of profit and a risk of loss. If they do, they are more likely
to be considered an independent contractor. While many people who work on commission are still
considered employees under the ESA, one factor that enters the equation is how much risk they face
in conducting their work. Therefore a worker who does not receive any guaranteed minimum wage
per client and only earns that which is paid to her in the form of a tip will likely be considered an
independent contractor, since the worker bears the entire risk for the vagaries of business, whereas an
employer must pay an employee, or make them redundant on grounds of financial exigency.
Many sex workers supported the idea of a minimum wage, but the actual rate in B.C., $8 per hour
at the time of writing,22 was thought to be so low that it was not particularly helpful to sex workers.
One project participant stated that a minimum wage would be appropriate, but it would have to be
set at a much higher rate for sex workers:
Q. Should there be rules about wages like should there be a minimum wage or . . .
A. Oh definitely. If youre working for somebody the ultimate thing is the employers
making money off of you. I just keep using this escort as youd see, the internet, they
charge 200 bucks an hour and out of that you get . . . I just remembered the actual
price it was $97.15 an hour and its all legal. They still have to make their money but
there should be a minimum wage and their minimum wage is 97 bucks an hour so I
think thats fair.
- male street-level sex worker

Even with a guaranteed minimum hourly wage, workers would be free to negotiate higher hourly
wages or a base salary, and would still be able to operate on a commission basis. At least a guaranteed
minimum hourly wage would provide an important protection when work is slow or when clients fail
to give adequate tips.
The application of the ESA minimum hourly wage would mean that sex workers would be paid
for all work, including the non-prostitution related tasks that they perform (e.g. straight massages
and escorting, receptionist work, cleaning, and administrative tasks). As one worker stated, it is
important that, even if you do not get any clients, you get paid something for your time at work. In
22 Employment Standards Regulation, B.C. Reg. 396/95, s. 15(1).

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most arrangements, sex workers are not paid for time they spend at work waiting for clients which
can be the majority of the time. Several workers described having to clean and do secretarial work
without compensation while waiting for clients. This common practice is a clear breach of s. 34 of the
ESA, which states that if an employer requires an employee to report for work on any given day, the
employer must pay the employee for a minimum of two hours at the regular wage whether or not the
employee starts the actual work they are being paid to perform. Workers who not only attend work
but also spend time performing any service required by the employer must be compensated for all of
their time spent working, and, at a minimum, for two hours. For example, this means that a worker
who shows up and is told to go home without starting work gets paid for two hours, a worker who
shows up and does 10 minutes of cleaning and then leaves work is paid for two hours, and a worker
who shows up and spends six hours cleaning, and then leaves work is paid for six hours. An escort
states that these same benefits should apply to prostitution.
A. But you should still get paid for showing up. Like, even if you have one date. If you
are scheduled for one date, you should still get paid for the minimum, whatever the
standard is. I think it is two hours, to show up.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Sex workers raised several other work-related financial issues. One important issue was the employer
practice of making workers pay for supplies related to occupational health and safety. For example,
some massage parlours and escort agencies expect workers to pay for their own condoms and lubricants. Some sex workers felt that the employer should pay for these work-related supplies. In some
cases, workers pay for transportation, security, administrative services, and other work-related costs.
The result is that a worker who does not have a very profitable shift at work can end up owing money
to the employer.
Sex workers would benefit from the application of s. 21(2) of the ESA, which provides that an
employer cannot require an employee to pay any of the employers business costs unless authorized
by the regulations. Thus some of these charges notably administrative services, transportation and
security are likely contrary to the ESA.
Some workers complained that they were subject to fines or penalties by their employers for
calling in sick, or not responding to a client call:
A. So that they [the government] know who is running them [sex work businesses] and
to have control over the organizations that are having these girls, making sure what
kind of environment its in, how they are being treated, what kind of fees that these
people are charging. I mean, all that stuff, needs to be regulated. Because it jumps
around from one agency to the next agency, then that agency decides, oh! I am going
to charge you for this! So next thing you know you have got fines on your board,
hundreds and hundreds of fines. So theres no control over what they can do of taking
that money, that girls money, when she is working for them. And, that gets ridiculous. Ive seen some places go up into the hundreds.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Under the ESA, such fines are illegal. Section 21(1) says that unless authorized by legislation, no
employer can deduct or withhold all or part of an employees wages. In this sense, many sex industry
employers are currently breaching their employees rights under the ESA.
Hours of work, overtime, statutory holidays, vacation time and sick days
The ESA states that an employee must have at least 32 hours in a row each week that they do not
work. If an employee works during this period, it is considered overtime, payable at a rate of timeand-a-half. Also, an employee is entitled to have eight hours off between shifts.

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Sex workers were asked about the length of their shifts and what they felt was a reasonable number
of hours for a shift. One project participant described how she currently works five-hour shifts seven
days a week:
Q. Were you working everyday?
A. Yeah.
Q. And how many hours in a day?
A. Well, you have to show around eight or nine oclock at night at least and sometimes
around six at night and you have to leaving at least one or two oclock at least.
Q. Okay, and how many customers could you see say between eight at night between till one
in the morning? So thats five hours how many how many guys would you see?
A Sometimes you could see 10 15 guys. Sometimes. Sometimes, you could see like four
or five. Sometimes, when its busy you can see 10 or 15.
Q. So is there a limit the amount of time a man can stay with you?
A. I do not know.
Q. And who is keeping track of that?
A. The boss.
Q. Okay, so they would, what? Come and knock on the door or what?
A. Yes, 45 minutes usually. And if they want more hours, they have to pay right away.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

One business owner suggested that working for an employer is advantageous because, as an independent, work is much more sporadic. Regularity of business is necessary to make a living wage. Working
for an employer means that work takes place during designated shifts and there is time off in between.
Q. What do you see as some of the advantages and disadvantages of working in sex
work, where you have an employer? As opposed to working in sex work totally
independently?
A. Well, now thats where it depends upon the individual dynamic of the person.
Because it depends what your special skills are. And what they sell or not. So if you
are going to work independently, you you need to be willing to answer your phone
or your pager all day long. Which means either you have no privacy or you have no
life. Because it is pretty obvious when your phone keeps ringing, and you have to keep
leaving the room that people are suspicious. Because you cant sit with your friends
and say, Well I charge this much an hour, and I am going to do this and that and
I have lots Yknow you cant do that. So you are either have to stay home all the
time, or turn your phone off. And if you turn your phone off, you are not going
to make any money. So working independently is a big commitment in that sense,
because you in order to offer any level of service, you have to be constantly available.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Sex workers opinions varied as to how long shifts should be. Some felt that shifts should be four
hours; others felt that 12 hours are acceptable if a worker wishes to work that long:
Q. What about hours of work? The standard work-week right now is eight hours a day
five days a week.
A. Well these days prostitution is 24-7.
Q. What do you think of limitations? Do you think there should be limitations?
A. Ya, I think there should be limitations.
A. No. No.
A. Because theres other employees that work 24-7 like call centres.

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A. But I think youre talking more can they make you work for 12 hours straight?
A. Oh, okay.
A. No. I think it should be different shifts.
A. Different shifts, ya.
A. On call?
A. Eight-hour shifts.
A. That would be fair for everyone.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

A. Yeah, but I would make it our own . . . like, eight hours is a long time to be doing
work on the street or whatever right. So, I mean, the hours would have to be
different. I mean, some girls like to work that long. Me, I like to two or three hours
and I am finished. I dont want to be spreading my legs for eight hours a day. It is
way too long for me.
- female street-level sex worker

Several other project participants said that when working for an employer, it is important to be
protected from unreasonably long workdays. If self-employed workers wish to work longer hours, they
should be able to, without any constraints, as this discussion illustrated:
Q. What about hours of work and overtime? So say youre working for somebody should
there be a maximum number of hours that you should be required to work and if you
work past a certain number of hours . . .
A. Not when it comes to the sex trade, no.
A. 24 hours on call.
A. I dont think in the sex trade, I dont think a person should have to work more than
12 hours a day. If you have to work more than 12 hours a day then your employer
seriously needs to be changed. But if youre working for yourself thats a 24-hour job
and you can work the 24 hours if you want to. Thats your choice.
A. Due to the fact that it is a very short life span in terms of jobs and careers it should
be able to be worked 24 hours. We shouldnt have to be restricted to eight hours
because you know, eight hours, people got eight hours for 30 years and we got what,
eight hours for five, six years, whatever. We should be able to work you know . . .
A. . . . I think that you dont want sweatshops developing.
- male street-level sex workers

According to these opinions, sex workers would be permitted to work lengthy shifts under the ESA as
long as they do not work excessive hours. The ESA prohibits employers from requiring or allowing
employees to work excessive hours, or hours harmful to their health or safety.23
If defined as employees, sex workers also would be entitled to overtime pay. The ESA states that
after working eight hours in a single day, an employee must be paid time-and-a-half for the next four
hours worked, and double-time for all hours worked in excess of 12 hours in a day. An employee who
works more than 40 hours in a week must be paid time-and-a-half after 40 hours. The ESA would
permit sex workers to negotiate with employers the number of hours worked per week. Employers
and employees can enter into Averaging Agreements that permit hours of work to be averaged over
one, two, three or four weeks, thereby enabling employers to avoid paying for overtime.24
Sex workers favoured the idea of having a day off on a statutory holiday while still earning an
average days pay:
23 ESA, supra note 4, s. 39.
24 Ibid., s. 37.

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Q. Okay now what about statutory holidays?

A. Thats where payment should be doubled. Ive worked Christmas Day and Ive made
good money on Christmas Day but thats the time when you should actually be
spending with your family. Well if youre going to be working on that you should be
getting paid extra. Those are special days.
A. Granted it may look unfair to the John that they have to pay double even though they
dont have anybody to be with on Christmas its still a matter of its Christmas and
lets be honest we have friends wed much rather spend Christmas with than go out
and make money in a lot of circumstances.
Q. Any other comments about statutory holidays?
A. Its a hard one, it truly is because I find I make my best money on statutory holidays
especially around Valentines and its not a statutory holiday so . . .
- male street-level sex workers

Given that statutory holidays tend to be especially lucrative for sex workers, they would benefit from
the protection that an eligible employee who works on a statutory holiday is entitled to: time-and-ahalf for the first 12 hours worked, and double-time for any work over 12 hours.
With respect to vacation time, the ESA sets out that after completing one year of employment,
an employee is entitled to two weeks vacation. After five years, an employee is entitled to three weeks
vacation. Sex workers liked the idea of having a paid vacation.
Q. Do you think there should be vacation time that kind of thing, overtime and regular
hours?
A. Yup, definitely, its a stressful job and jobs that stressful should have vacation time. A
lot of the time we get asked to stay double shifts, its a long day and we should get the
return of having the benefit of overtime.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Employers are required to provide a number of unpaid leaves, including pregnancy leave, parental leave,
family responsibility leave, bereavement leave, leave for jury duty and sick leave. With respect to sick days,
Part 6 of the ESA provides for unpaid leaves. Consequently, employees can take time off due to illness and
not be fired for being absent. Fines for missing days of work are illegal under s. 21(1) of the ESA.
Currently, sex worker employees are not entitled to paid leaves, statutory holiday pay, overtime
pay, or sick time. Sex workers felt that this entitlement would make a positive change to their working
conditions:
Q. Okay, next question. Say youre working for an employer, youre not independent,
should you be able to get leave from work if someone in your family dies.
A. Yes, definitely.
A. Grievance pay.
Q. Okay and what about vacation time?
A. Four percent of your earnings.
Q. Okay so you guys already know.
A. Is it not six?
A. It depends on your employer. I think four minimum.
Q. So you guys think that the same rules that are normally out there should be . . .
A. Oh ya its the only way to make us feel part of the working world without judgment
right?
- male street-level sex workers

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Work-related supplies, expenses and clothing

Many business expenses have to be paid to operate the sex industry. For example, escort agency
expenses include office administration, reception and dispatch, advertising, transportation, security,
and clothing. One escort agency owner described the types of expenses she pays to run her agency:
A. The ladies should buy and carry protection with them at all times, meaning condoms,
and . . . if I wind up supplying those things then . . . when they go out to a hotel,
theyre not used to having them on. As far as Im concerned, they should be responsible for their own personal safety that way . . . sometimes people arrive without
them and I give them some. I do provide, like a very safe and discreet location to get
together with people in and thats very homey and very clean, and has showers and
you know, whatever you need in terms of comforts, music, lighting, etcetera. And
lately Ive gotten a hold of a guy who does driving so that when ladies dont have a
method of transportation of their own to get places he can do that for a reasonable
cost. And sometimes I leave that completely up to the lady to pay for and sometimes I
split it with her, and thats sometimes a bit of a . . . I guess a security measure as well,
knowing that hes waiting for her and not far away.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

Many street-level sex workers rely on condom distribution by local social service organizations:
Q. Do we need more organizations to supply street-level girls?
A. Yes.
Q. Condoms?
A. Definitely, needed.
A. Yes.
A. The more, the better.
- female street-level sex workers

Several sex workers reported that some massage parlours do not provide any supplies other than clean
towels and a physical space in which to provide sexual services. Several workers stated that, in many
workplaces, they disagreed with the requirement that workers provide their own condoms. There
is little question that in the context of prostitution, condoms are an important form of protective
equipment. As discussed in the section on Occupational Health and Safety, the WCA and the OHSR
require employers to provide protective equipment:
Q. Now did they give you condoms there?
A. No, you have to have your own condoms.
Q. So, were you using condoms?
A. Yes, I did.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Some sex workers felt that massage parlour owners also should provide security services:
A. So, if its in a brothel, or something, if the boss is paying the electricity, the hydro,
making sure that there are condoms, lube, making sure that all . . . everything is
supplied. That there is no extra cost to the sex trade worker. All she has to do is show
up. If everything is taken care of. Realistically, it is very expensive to be a sex trade
worker. Like its not a cheap business. So if the boss is taking care of everything, not
forcing her, the woman, into the trade. Yknow, being scheduled, do you know what I
mean? If it is run like a legitimate business, then all the woman is doing is coming . .
. . And everything is supplied then, [the employer] should get part of [the earnings].
- female off-street out-call sex worker

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One sex work business owner suggested that independent sex workers have a hard time covering their
business expenses:
A. You take a higher security risk . . . when you are [working independently] Yknow a
lot of girls will pay a driver to sit outside and wait for them but that again, cuts into
your bottom line. So financially, it isnt always feasible, unless you are a very well paid
person in this industry, it may not be worth the financial commitment to pay a driver,
to sit outside for an hour. Or half an hour, whatever the length of time the call is . . .
Um those are sort of the downsides. You have to pay all your own expenses when you
work independently. You have to pay your advertising costs, you have to pay for all your
supplies.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

Other project participants felt that sex workers should provide some of their own work-related supplies:
Q. Do you think there is anything an employer should have to provide, and if so, then
what sorts of supplies?
A. Well, I think we dont have to go too far. I think, if were all adults and we agree that
its decriminalized, then the employer could relax and say ok well now that its cool. By
all means, he should definitely provide, you know, the condoms, but when it comes to
other things, each girl would probably carve out her own niche. One would maybe do
massage, another one might do some spanking. And I think at that point, its, its like
a welder. Welder has to come in and provide all his own tools and his own toolbox but
he uses the company logo, so, you know, you use the company condoms, but when it
comes to your little specialties, yes, it costs to provide that, and it doesnt mean that you
as a worker wouldnt be well compensated because you would charge extra for those
little things that you provide anyway that are different from somebody else.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

The repeal of the criminal laws surrounding prostitution could increase the bargaining power of sex
workers to negotiate better contractual terms relating to the provision of supplies. Also, it would
provide sex workers the benefit of the protections found in the ESA requiring that the employer
cover certain business costs. Section 21(1) of the ESA states that an employer must not require an
employee to pay any of the employers business costs except as permitted by the regulations. This
could mean that, unless an employer was able to argue that transportation, security, and supplies
were not business costs, the ESA would require that the employer pay for those costs, and it would be
illegal to make deductions from an employees wages on that basis.
The ESA provides that an employer who requires an employee to wear special clothing must,
without charge to the employee, provide the special clothing, clean it, and maintain it in a good state
of repair. This means that if employers require sex workers to wear special clothing, the employer will
be responsible for providing it. It remains to be decided whether this might include items of clothing,
such as lingerie, rubber gloves and fetish wear.
Training
The ESA states that the employer is required to pay for any meetings or training that they direct
their employees to attend.25 Where an employer requires an employees attendance on the employees
regular day off, the employee may be eligible for overtime, minimum daily pay, or other entitlements
under the ESA.
25 A Guide to the Employment Standards Act, online: Employment Standards Branch <http://www.labour.gov.bc.ca/esb/esaguide/
faqs.htm>.

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Sex workers supported job training as a vehicle for providing sexual-health education. A sex work
business owner described the training that takes place for her staff:
A. It [training] should be huge. I mean when we hire people and we tell them, yknow,
we book them to come in for training, they laugh at us. Its like, for training? What
do you mean? They are thinking, I have done this before, what are you possibly going
to tell me to do? And they they laugh at us. But it we like to sit down and go
through everything. A lot of it is just administrative stuff. Well, yknow, this is what
you need to clean in a room, when you are finished, and this is what you need to
replace. And this is yknow, where the laundry goes. A lot of its just administrative
stuff. But we spend a huge amount of time talking about hygiene. And what goes on
in a room. Because what goes on before a girl goes into the room, and what goes on
when a girl comes out of the room, we see. All of that. So if theres things we want
someone to do differently, or need them to do Oh no, we dont put that there, we
do that there. And oh yeah, you have hand prints all over the mirror, you need to
go in there and clean that. Yknow thats stuff that we see. We could correct it, and
everyone eventually will will fall into place. But what goes on in that room for an
hour, we dont see. And if someone is jeopardizing their health, you dont want to find
about it a month later. So you need to be pro-active and yknow we our training
probably, is only three hours long but you cant make it any longer than that. People
dont have the attention span, they are not hearing you anymore, they are not listening
to you anymore. So, we really need to sit down and tell people what is a health risk. We
get a lot of people who have worked for a very long time, and they already know these
things. A lot of people that have worked a long time and dont know these things. We get
a lot of people who have never worked before and they are very naive, very mouldable.
Very vulnerable. And you could tell them to do anything and they would do it. And its
its horrible because theres many places that do.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

It was commonly felt that the employer should be responsible for providing and covering the cost of
the training, and that training should be mandatory:
Q. And what about training on the job? What sorts of training should an employer
provide?
A. Well, now, see, Im not sure that its an employer that should provide the training. I
think that before somebody is hired, it should be compulsory, regardless, I mean, this
goes all the way back to whatever level were talking, I dont care if you find somebody
out on the street and the first time say sorry before we see you on the streets the next
time we want a certificate that says you did this training, and, and its mandatory
and if you dont do it, well make you sit through class . . . and it doesnt even have
to be class, it can be on a videotape, so theres no real good excuse to say, somebodys
working, um, for six weeks without taking this course, its like sit down and watch
this video. Um, and then, you know, come out tomorrow and work. But, but, I
mean, it should be, it should be multi, multi-faceted. I mean, sure youve got your
sexually transmitted diseases, and how to prevent them. Unwanted pregnancies they
should have, as uh. Personal safety too, all the possible scenarios. Theyve got them
on TV, these things are easy to tape, to put a compilation together. They shouldnt go
further than that though, they should teach people about good health, uh, where they
can go for drug addictions and counselling, and twelve step programs and ADAC
and things like that, and other resources, shelters. All the things that people need to

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know as a foundation, so that if they ever want to change their course they can, and
then it should be realistic enough to say that some people will never change their
course so lets give them something to aim for.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Many sex workers stressed that training should cover occupational health and safety. Sex workers
described how this type of training is currently taking place in some workplaces:
A. We have policy there and we go through training and if anyone is caught doing
anything without protection, they are going to get fired. But nobody knows what goes
on behind closed doors right? So . . . I noticed that in the massage parlour everybody
is very careful and nobody wants to do anything that puts their health at risk.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

In addition to health and safety training, some sex workers felt that the employer should provide
training on specialized types of sex work, such as bondage. Project participants stated that sex workers
should help to develop such training programs:
Q. Should there be training for sex workers on how to do their job?
A. Yes.
Q. If so who should provide it? If so what sort of training?
A. The employer.
A. The employer.
A. The employer so if theres a bondage and discipline house whos going to provide all
the training, have certain little classes.
A. Training classes.
A. Because they need to be trained.
Q. What should the training be? Lets talk a bit about what a training session would
entail. Its kinda interesting.
A. You learn things I think as you work and those are the kinds of things you wish
someone had told you. Right? Does anyone have any of those?
A. Oh ya, I do.
Q. So what should it include?
A. Like a client comes in maybe at a discounted price and the trainee sits and watches
in the corner I guess.
A. They could also have like a couple of transformation dates when they want to be
transformed into a woman. We call those transformation dates.
A. Cross dressing.
A. Ya, cross dressing dates so they have those also.
Q. Training people on how to do that?
A. It could be non sexual too.
A. What about oral? You have to train a girl how to give head.
Q. What kind of stuff on safety?
A. For example a lot of the kits that theyre handing out on the street will advocate putting
lube on a condom. Its not really an idea if youre working because it slips off.
A. Uh huh, it slips off.
A. Its good for head. Its not good for sex. Thats an important mistake that I made so
you know I wouldnt want to see girls making that mistake.
Q. What else? What about something like self defence or protection from . . .
A. Oh definitely.
A. Yes.

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Q. For street-level or for . . .

A. For both.
Q. What else? What other kind of training?
A. How to diffuse a client. How to know when a client is going to blow his top. Like
knowing what are things that I can notice and then how do I diffuse the situation.
A. What are the precautions.
A. How to handle like additional services because I know when I worked for an out call
agency they have no interest in teaching you how to handle when a guy wants more
than what hes paying for already. Do you know what I mean? If you go in there and
do everything for 200 bucks then they get known as the agency with the girl who does
everything.
A. So basically Im kinda looking at how teaching the girls how to handle oh, okay, so
that would be this much then.
Q. Who should develop the training program?
A. Sex workers.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

The ESA, particularly in combination with the OHSR, can provide important protections for sex
workers, not only in terms of emphasizing to employers the importance of training but also in
requiring employers to pay for certain types of training programs.
Employer record keeping
Any form of regulation of the sex industry raises serious privacy issues in an industry where many
of the workers and clients have an interest in remaining anonymous. Sex workers pointed out that
one advantage of allowing the industry to continue to operate as it currently does, as a quasi-legal
entity, is that it affords a relatively high degree of confidentiality. A disadvantage of gaining access to
the protections that employment regulation may have to offer is that it may make workers and clients
more visible to government authorities.
The level to which employers are expected to maintain records of their employees and staff
under the ESA and WCA is an example of such a privacy issue. When an employer registers with
the Workers Compensation Board and is considered to be an employer under the ESA, he or she is
obligated to maintain records of his or her employees, including: the employees name; date of birth;
occupation; telephone number; residential address; each employees wage rate; hours worked by each
employee on each day and a number of other facts. By contrast, in a quasi-legal environment, business can be carried out with little or no record of the workers name or record of transactions. Project
participants were concerned that such records might be disclosed to government or to the public:
Q. What about maintaining records regarding employees?
A. Probably not, no.
A. No.
Q. What should they be? And who should maintain them? Who should enforce them?
A. No, no, no, no, no.
A. . . . thered have to be a record if the government got involved just like any government agency.
A. Yeah, the regular stuff; name, age, yada yada.
Q. What should be kept on record then?
A. SIN Card. SIN.
A. Just your basic personal information.
A. And your medical.
A. Yeah, thats it.

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A. Your name, who cares how old you are? I mean, come on.
A. Nothing more than any other agency, like work.
A. Exactly.
- female street-level sex workers

Several sex workers felt that businesses in the sex industry should be subject to the same rules that
apply to other workplaces, but not any additional or special government monitoring:
Q. And then we talked about the dating service. And, how we have to give the name,
address and description of everyone employed in the business, to the inspector. And
what do people think about that?
A. And we said We said something about giving out that information on the employees
and not the clients.
A. Why Why does it have to so uniquely arranged? Like if I am an employer and I
list all my employees, why do I have to supply that to the inspector? Why do I have to
supply that to do sex work? Like Like I have this disease?
A. With your Social Insurance Number, that should be covered.
A. Exactly. They can find out everything that they need to find out, by your social insurance number. The inspector could find you that way if he wanted to.
A. Oh, how would they? The list of employees, though. Why should they have to submit a
list of the employees, other businesses do not have to.
A. Right, yeah. Like, that is what I am saying that it is not just a disclosure and they
come in to check you out, you have to submit and you have to keep it up-to-date. You
have to tell them, Oh we have hired this girl and she is blonde. The police can come
in and check that out.
A. And this is how she looked like; blonde hair, blue eyes . . .
A. Its for the safety of the staff. Like I did not understand that it was disclosure. I
thought that it was information that was available upon request.
A. Oh.
A. I think thats an accurate way to look at it. Not disclosure but the information should
be just available on file at the workplace.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Some project participants felt that maintaining a record of employees and clients was an important
safety measure:
Q. Okay and what about the social escort service and maintaining the list of offered
employees and customers?
A. Yes.
A. Definitely should, for the safety of the women.
- female street-level sex workers

Some project participants felt that any records that are maintained by an employer should be
confidential:
Q. Should there be rules about what the employer can do with that information?
A. It would all be confidential.
A. Ya and kept confidential. Only the employer and the employee need to know.
- male street-level sex workers

Ensuring that any new legislation does not require business owners to maintain a record of client
names will be necessary to protect the integrity of the industry. This is also an important consider-

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ation in the enactment of any municipal legislation relating to the sex industry. B.C.s Personal Information Protection Act currently protects the identities of the clients of all businesses. Under the PIPA,
a business cannot collect information about an individual or disclose information about an individual
without their consent.26
In terms of protecting the anonymity of employees, participation in any government-regulated
programs, such as workers compensation or employment insurance, will inevitably result in a loss of
privacy. Government records are confidential to a certain extent, but ultimately sex workers will lose
some degree of anonymity if they want access to employment benefits and protections.
Termination of employment
The ESA permits employers to terminate employees with or without cause. However, the ESA does
provide certain protections to employees who are terminated without just cause. Employees who are
terminated without just cause must receive adequate advance notice of their termination or must be
compensated based on length of service. Sex workers pointed out that they could benefit from the
protection available under these provisions. Project participants noted that being terminated without
cause was a common occurrence in the sex industry:
A. The only thing that upset me about the massage parlours here is that you would get
fired for no reason.
A. Yeah.
A. You get fired like, literally one girl I saw got fired because they didnt like the sound
of her voice and she talked too much.
A. Its so unstable here, or even in Toronto. Some of the bigger cities have less regulations
and its so, unstable, like. Like here, our eggs are in one basket, and they can just blow
up at any time. Like this place, they ask you, they want you to keep quotas, they keep
tabs with your clients to make sure that you are polite, if you are rude, if yknow go
somewhere else. Well theres a demerits point towards you, you get warnings, just like
any other job, you get written up, and then eventually, you can get fired. If you are
absolutely terrible, yknow.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Due to the lack of consistency across the industry, a sex work business owner indicated that it would
benefit sex workers to have an understanding of what type of conduct could constitute just cause for
termination:
A. It depends on the establishment. The place I work at is quite strict, there are a lot of
rules, and actually one of your earlier questions was, could you take clients? Well if
you were caught with a clients phone number or giving out your phone number of
course youd be fired, which I guess is a legitimate concern for any business owner if they
are paying all the expenses. Lots, lots of rules at the place I work at as far as . . . showing
up to work on time and missing shifts, and if youre going to be late, and . . . it is a
place that has, is fairly well established and its quite busy and they have a high calibre
of staff . . .
- female off-street in-call sex worker

At present, sex workers have little or no recourse if they are subject to termination without cause and
they do not receive notice or compensation. The application of the ESA to sex workers would provide
access to the Employment Standards Branch complaints mechanism or allow a civil suit against an
employer for wrongful dismissal.
26 Personal Information Protection Act, S.B.C. 2003, c. 63, ss. 6, 7.

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Section 2: Workers compensation and occupational health and safety

Workers Compensation Act
The B.C. Workers Compensation Act (the WCA) applies to most people working in B.C. regardless
of whether they are working full-time or part-time, or as employees or independent contractors. In
the event that the criminal laws related to adult prostitution are repealed, sex workers should be able
to avail themselves of B.C.s workers compensation scheme where they satisfy the criteria governing
any other worker in the province.
The WCA has two main components: provisions to prevent injuries to workers, and provisions to
provide compensation benefits for injuries and diseases incurred in the course of employment. The
Workers Compensation Board (the Board) is responsible for overseeing the workers compensation
scheme. Employers pay into a compensation fund. If a worker is injured on the job, he or she may
make a claim for compensation under the WCA. Because the system is employer funded and not tax
or general revenue funded, employers are assessed on their payroll at a percentage that reflects the
injury, disease and death rates that occur in the industry, as well as the cost of claims for that specific
employer. Compensation can include payment for lost wages due to an injury or illness incurred on
the job, and compensation for medical costs.27 Workers will be covered even if an employer has failed
to register with the Board, but this means that employers who are difficult to identify or locate drive
the costs up for employers who are registered and assessed by the Board.
Once a worker files a claim, a Board representative assesses it to determine whether or not the
worker qualifies for compensation. To be eligible for compensation a worker must have sustained a
personal injury or disease that arose out of and during the course of their employment. In the case
where a worker contracts a disease, the work or the work environment must cause the contraction
of the disease. In the case of an injury, the worker must have been working when the injury was
sustained, and the injury must have been caused by something to do with the job in order to be
compensable. In New Zealand, where prostitution has been decriminalized pursuant to the PRA,28
sex workers performing commercial sexual services are considered at work29 for the purposes of their
equivalent legislation, the Health and Safety in Employment Act.30
All employers who hire one or more workers and pay them on a full-time, part-time, casual or
contract basis must register with the Board, and comply with the WCA and regulations. Under the
law, employers must also pay their premiums and submit their payroll to the Board. The employer
pays these premiums in addition to the wages paid to the employee, and is not permitted to deduct
money from a workers wages or salary to put towards premiums. The most important duty placed on
employers by the WCA is the duty to provide a safe workplace and to protect the health and safety of
workers. Employers have an obligation to report injuries and diseases within three days. Under the
WCA an employer can have their business shut down for failure to ensure safe and healthy working
conditions for workers.
The main duties placed on the worker under the WCA are to report injuries and to seek medical
attention when injured. Workers have the right to report a claim when injured and an employer
cannot prevent or try to prevent a worker from doing so. If, at the time of injury, a worker requires
an ambulance or transportation from his or her workplace to the doctors office or the hospital, the
employer is required to pay the cost.
27 Wage-loss payments will usually be 90% of the claimants average net earnings at the time of injury. In determining the claimants
average net earnings, the Board will deduct probable Canada Pension Plan contributions, Employment Insurance premiums and
federal and provincial income taxes. Average earnings may not exceed the maximum wage rate. The minimum and maximum wage
rates are adjusted every year.
28 PRA, supra note 18.
29 Ibid., s. 10(1).
30 Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (N.Z.), 1992/96.

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Once a workers claim is accepted and they are receiving benefits, the benefits can be suspended if:
the worker does not attend or co-operate in a medical examination or program arranged by the Board;
fails to participate in any activity that might delay their recovery; refuse treatment recommended by
the Board; or they are found to have made a fraudulent claim.
Sex workers and workers compensation
Many sex workers supported becoming part of a workers compensation scheme:
A. Yeah, you should have to pay in a certain amount every month towards a Workers
compensation package, and then if youre injured on the job you should be able to
collect just like everyone else.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

One sex worker suggested that access to workers compensation would assist in dispelling the notion that
sex workers deserve the harm they experience on the job:
A. To me, thats the flawed thinking that goes around prostitution because you are
doing it, or because you choose to do it, or whatever. That you deserve the repercussions of that.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

The WCA would apply in situations where sex workers meet the definition of workers under the
WCA.31 This is a broad definition that includes both employees and independent contractors where
admitted by the Board under s. 2(2) of the WCA.
Sex workers in massage parlours, steam baths and in the escort service industry are currently
covered under the WCA. However, many such establishments are currently working under the notion
that their workers are independent contractors when, in fact, they would not be viewed as such under
the law. Thus, it is unclear at present how many employers are currently paying premiums to ensure
coverage for their workers, and how many are neglecting to pay for coverage, thereby violating the
WCA. Service Sector employees in these industries are classified under the category accommodation,
food, and leisure services.32 In 2005, employers in this industry group, which also includes tanning
salons and hair styling workers, had to pay 79 cents per $100 of the assessable payroll, to a maximum
annual wage per worker of $61,300. By way of comparison, in the Service Sector business services
group, the employers of clerical workers paid 58 cents per $100 of the assessable payroll,33 while in
the construction industry group employers of building demolition workers paid $5.91 per $100 in
2005.34 Thus, the premiums that sex industry employers currently pay are higher than those for some
other businesses.
Persons working independently and without an employer, such as most street-level sex workers
and many escorts, have to be admitted for coverage by the Board under s. 2(2) of the WCA35 in order
31 Worker means (a) a person who has entered into or works under a contract of service or apprenticeship, written or oral, express or
implied, whether by way of manual labour or otherwise; (b) a person who is a learner, although not under a contract of service or apprenticeship, who becomes subject to the hazards of an industry within the scope of Part 1 for the purpose of undergoing training or
probationary work specified or stipulated by the employer as a preliminary to employment; or (f ) an independent operator admitted
by the Board under s. 2(2). WCA, supra note 6, s. 1.
32 WorkSafeBC, Classification Unit No. 761021 (Classification Unit Description), online: WorkSafe BC <http://www.worksafebc.
com/for%5Femployers/premiums/2005_rates/Assets/Applications/Classifications/pdf/2005_761021.pdf>.
33 WorkSafeBC, Classification Unit No.762010 (Classifications Unit Description), online: WorkSafeBC <http://www.worksafebc.
com/for%5Femployers/premiums/2005_rates/Assets/Applications/Classifications/pdf/2005_762010.pdf>.
34 WorkSafeBC, Classification Unit No.721005 (Classifications Unit Description), online: WorkSafeBC <http://www.worksafebc.
com/for%5Femployers/premiums/2005_rates/Assets/Applications/Classifications/pdf/2005_721005.pdf>.
35 WCA, supra note 6, s. 2 (2): The Board may direct that this Part applies on the terms specified in the Boards direction: (a) to
an independent operator who is neither an employer nor a worker as though the independent operator was a worker, or (b) to an
employer as though the employer was a worker.

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to participate in the compensation scheme. Section 2(2) allows for optional protection coverage for
independent operators. The concept of the independent operator under the WCA differs from the
concept of the independent contractor under the ESA.
The Board defines an independent operator as an individual who is neither an employer nor
a worker to whom the Board has deemed that coverage applies, as if the independent operator is
a worker. An independent operator performs work under a contract, but has a business existence
independent of the person or entity for whom that work is performed. An independent operator is
an independent firm.36 This feature of the WCA is significant for the large number of sex workers
who indicated that they would prefer to work independently without an employer. In B.C., such selfemployed workers and other individuals not expressly covered by the WCA currently have the option
of purchasing Personal Optional Protection (POP). POP is paid into by the independent operator
himself or herself. Under this scheme, self-employed workers can be covered for wage loss and medical
and rehabilitation services should they be injured during the course of employment.37 In general, POP
coverage costs the independent operator more than the premiums paid by employers on behalf of
workers.
Under s. 2(1) of the WCA, the Board does have the discretion to exempt certain classes of workers
from coverage. For example, in 1994 the Board formally exempted professional sports competitors from the workers compensation scheme.38 The Board justified its decision by reasoning that its
inability to regulate the safety and health of sport participants is incompatible with the purposes of
the WCA. Given that the Board already recognizes escort and massage parlour work as a viable form
of employment eligible for coverage, presumably it should cover sex workers too, should prostitution
be decriminalized. In that event, the Board should consult with sex workers about coverage options.
A similar scheme to protect self-employed sex workers also exists in New Zealand. There, independent workers are covered through New Zealands equivalent workers compensation scheme, the
Accident Compensation Corporation. New Zealand has managed to make coverage for independent
workers affordable and practical. While employers of sex workers in New Zealand had to pay 56 cents
per $100 of liable earnings in 2003-2004, self-employed sex workers were able to pay a comparable
57 cents per $100 of their earnings in order to obtain coverage.39
Types of compensation for sex workers
Street workers, escorts, and massage parlour workers all expressed support for obtaining coverage
under the WCA for injuries that occur in the course of employment. Sex workers described the risk
of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, as well as physical injuries from common workplace
accidents or violence:
A. Well, if they are going to be legal, then they are going to be given the same rights as
any other they are going to have to follow labour laws, they are going to be taxed.
They are going to have these things. So they might as well take the benefits. Its not
just STDs, some women get beaten up and they cant work. Some women sprain their
ankles from walking down the stroll. Yknow, a lot of different things happen on the
job.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

36 Workers Compensation Board of B.C., Assessment Manual (B.C. Workers Compensation Board, 2003) at AP 1-1-6.
37 WorkSafeBC, Apply for Personal Optional Protection (WorkSafeBC Online Services), online: WorkSafeBC <http://www.worksafebc.com/online_services/pop/default.asp>.
38 B.C., Workers Compensation Reporter, Decision of the Governors, vol. 10(2) (B.C. Workers Compensation Board, 1994) at 174.
39 New Zealand Fully Decriminalized in 2003, but Street Hookers a Problem, online: Decriminalize Sex Work Now Coalition
<http://www.sexwork.com/coalition/NewZealand.html>.

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Under the WCA, workers might also be eligible for compensation for mental stress.40 However,
compensable psychological disability must be acute, and be diagnosed by a physician or psychologist,
and it must go beyond clinical depression, addiction and anxiety disorders. Such compensation is
therefore rare and extremely difficult to obtain.
Many sex workers described the psychological stresses associated with their work:
A. There should be a similar system with sex work. For sex trade workers, they suffer
from post-traumatic stress disorder. Tons of them do. I do . . . Or when they are in
the trade still. I mean, excessive nightmares, anxiety attacks. Its all part of post traumatic stress disorder. A lot of that makes it very hard for someone to find work, like,
legitimate non-sex work, work.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Project participants also mentioned that employee benefits, such as workers compensation, could
provide an incentive to work for an employer, rather than work on their own:
A. Yeah I would pay into that. Thats thats like thats what I was saying like the only
reason that I would go to a house versus working by myself would be to get that kind
of protection, would be to get a Pension. You have to pull into account, hey they want
this legalized, they wanna help us out, they want to make this a legal thing? The
government wants a piece of the pie? Fine. Tax us. Pension us. Everything else like a
regular job job. It also gives you maternity leave, it also gives you paid leave, workers
compensation, in case you get hurt on the job, god knows you could get lock jaw.
- female street-level sex workers

Section 6(1) of the WCA provides compensation for occupational diseases.41 For example, Hepatitis A
and Herpes Simplex are covered at present. However, the Occupational Disease Recognition Regulation42
does not recognize HIV/AIDS as an occupational disease. Sections 6(4.1) and 6(4.2) give authority to
the Board to add to the occupational diseases set out in Schedule B of the Regulation.43
Although it is commonly believed that sex workers are vectors of disease, Canadian health
research indicates that the majority of sex trade workers who acquire HIV through sexual contact
contracted it through unprotected sex with a male intravenous drug user who was an intimate partner,
not through a client.44 The vast majority of sex workers who contributed to this project reported
being extremely vigilant and careful about condom use on the job. Nevertheless, there may be cases of
accidental exposure. Sex workers suggested that the schedule should be revised to include HIV/AIDS
so that workers in all industries who may be vulnerable to HIV exposure have access to workers
compensation:
40 WCA, supra note 6, s. 5.1.
41 Occupational disease means (a) a worker suffers from an occupational disease and is thereby disabled from earning full wages at the
work at which the worker was employed or the death of a worker is caused by an occupational disease; and (b) the disease is due to the
nature of any employment in which the worker was employed, whether under one or more employments. WCA, supra note 6, s. 6(1).
42 Occupational Disease Recognition Regulation, B.C. Reg. 71/99.
43 WCA, supra note 6, s. 6(4.1): The Board may, by regulation, (a) add to or delete from Schedule B a disease that, in the opinion of
the Board, is an occupational disease, (b) add to or delete from Schedule B a process or an industry, and (c) set terms, conditions and
limitations for the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (b). Section 6(4.2): Despite subsection (4.1), the Board may designate or recognize
a disease as being a disease that is peculiar to or characteristic of a particular process, trade or occupation on the terms and conditions
and with the limitations set by the Board.
44 See, for example: K. Bastow Prostitution and HIV/AIDS (1995) HIV/AIDS Policy & Law Newsletter 2(2), online: Canadian
HIV/AIDS Legal Network Homepage <http://www.aidslaw.ca/Maincontent/otherdocs/Newsletter/January1996/10bastowE.html>;
L. Jackson & A. Highcrest Female Prostitutes in North America. What are their Risks of HIV Infection? in L. Sheer, C. Hankins
and L. Bennett eds., AIDS as a Gender Issue (London: Taylor and Francis, 1996); P.M. Spittal, K.J.P. Craib, E. Wood, N. Laliberte,
K. Li, M.W. Tyndall, M.V. OShaughnessey & M.T. Schechter Risk factors for elevated HIV incidence rates among female injection
drug users in Vancouver (2002) Canadian Medical Association Journal 166(7).

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A. Police and nurses, and medical people. Arent they covered for catching HIV?
A. HIV should be in the statute.
A. I think it should be.
Since blood-borne illnesses are not formally recognized under schedule B, workers in other industries
such as paramedics and physicians who are exposed to these pathogens and file a workers compensation claim are currently left to the interpretations made by Board adjudicators on a case-by-case
basis. According to the guiding provisions of the Boards Rehabilitation Claims Services Manual (the
RCSM),45 the authority granted to the Board under s. 6(4.1)(b) gives it substantial flexibility in its
designation or recognition of an occupational disease other than by listing it in Schedule B.46
Transmission of HIV/AIDS is extremely rare in lawful occupational settings in Canada. For
example, as of 2001, there had only been two probable cases of transmission of HIV to laboratory
workers while on the job, and one case of transmission to a health care worker on the job.47 While
there is little Canadian case law surrounding this issue, the Association of Workers Compensation
Boards of Canada reported seven cases in 1998 of compensated lost time due to occupational HIV
infection or suspected infection.48 While all of these cases involved health care professionals, they
establish that HIV/AIDS has been recognized as an occupationally transmitted disease, and such
recognition could be extended to prostitution. Sex workers recommended HIV/AIDS be added to the
list of compensable diseases in Schedule B.
There are also problematic issues of proof to consider. In their determination of a claim, Board
adjudicators will assess whether the occupational exposure satisfies the requirements necessary to be
defined as an occupational disease (RCSM #13.10).49 RCSM #25 states that HIV/AIDS and other
sexually transmitted diseases should be covered when they are contracted on the job. In adjudicating claims, determining the extent to which a workers employment had in producing the disease
becomes a critical or central issue.50 The difficulty of proving such a claim will be discussed under
Evidentiary Issues below.
In terms of what is specifically covered under the WCA, compensation can include lost wages and
health care expenses, such as medical care and medications,51 for injuries sustained in the course of
employment. In the context of HIV and Hepatitis infection, this could mean that workers compensation would cover post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) drugs in the event of accidental exposure. PEP
drugs can help reduce the risk of disease transmission where a worker has been exposed to either
Hepatitis B or HIV, if taken shortly after the exposure. Under RCSM#32.60 Board pays for reasonable health care benefits, and the manual cites the example of covering drugs to reduce the risk of
contracting blood borne illness in the instance of a lab technician who in the course of employment
cuts a finger on the sharp edge of a broken specimen bottle. This interpretation suggests that the
Board could extend the same drug coverage to prostitution.
Regarding HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases that do not physically prevent sex workers
from working, under s. 6(1)(b) of the WCA, a health care benefit may be paid although the worker
45 B.C., Rehabilitation Claims Services Manual, vol. 2 (B.C. Workers Compensation Board, 2002) [RCSM].
46 Ibid., at 4-4.
47 Testing of Persons Believed to be the Source of an Occupational Exposure to HBV, HCV, or HIV: A Backgrounder, online:
HIV/AIDS Legal Network <http://www.aidslaw.ca/Maincontent/issues/testing/e-compulsorytesting/occupationalexposure.htm#_ednref21>.
48 Canada, Canada Communicable Disease Report, vol. 28S1 (Ottawa. Health Canada, 2002) at 166, online: <http://www.phac-aspc.
gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/02pdf/28s1e.pdf> as reported in the Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada. National
work injury statistics program 1998 (Toronto, 2000).
49 RSCM, supra note 45 at 3-1: The following are examples of disorders classified as DISEASES: an infection (except when it is incidental to a compensable injury, when it is treated as part of the injury) and contagious diseases. Only diseases which are occupational
diseases are compensable.
50 RCSM, supra note 45 at 4-1.
51 WCA, supra note 6, s. 21(1).

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is not disabled from earning full wages at the work at which he or she was employed. However,
according to RCSM #26.30, no compensation beyond health care benefits, such as compensation
for lost wages, are payable to a worker who suffers from an occupational disease, unless the worker
is disabled from earning full wages at the work at which they are employed. According to this logic,
sex workers infected with HIV on the job should receive compensation for their health care costs. In
addition to such compensation, the B.C. Human Rights Code52 would protect sex workers from being
fired or prevented from working because of their HIV-positive status. The continued employment
of HIV-positive workers is a highly contentious issue that will be addressed later in this section. The
Board will only award compensation if it believes that the worker took precautions to prevent the
transmission of disease, and this will also be discussed below.
The current compensation scheme under the WCA does not include compensation for pregnancy.
Despite widespread condom use reported among sex workers, pregnancy remains a job-related risk.
While New Zealand allows compensation for sex workers contracting sexually transmitted diseases
on the job where they meet the test set out in the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001,53 it does not recognize pregnancy as a compensable injury for the purposes of workers
compensation. However, pregnancy clearly effects a womans ability to work, creates healthcare costs
and, depending on the circumstances, child rearing costs. Because of the criminalization of their work
and their treatment as independent contractors by employers, sex workers do not generally enjoy the
benefits of paid maternity leave. One project participant described the impact of an unplanned pregnancy on her work in the following terms:
A. So, when they find out that they are pregnant, and no one ever really plans a pregnancy, unless they have money saved. So, lets say most people havent planned their
pregnancy, and they find out they are pregnant, they realistically have four more
months to make enough money, to last another year which is virtually impossible.
And this is where you see people, um, taking a lot of chances. This is these are the
girls that will steal from clients, these are the girls that will steal from each other,
these are the girls that are all of a sudden they are desperate. Because no matter
what, by about the five month mark, they cant hide it anymore . . . Where do you go?
Where do you go get a job at five months pregnant and for what kind of money?
- female off-street in-call sex worker

In the event of decriminalization, pregnancy is a workplace risk that should be accommodated as part
of worker compensation if sex workers are, like other workers, to be given benefits that match the
level of risk associated with their work. Increasing coverage to include HIV transmission and pregnancy on the job will have the added effect of increasing the vigilance of employers with respect to
sexual-health and safety in the workplace. This may, in turn, drive down the incentive for employers
to offer more risky services at their establishments. The issue of compensation for pregnancy, injuries
and particularly for sexually transmitted diseases in the context of prostitution raises special issues of
proof that are examined next.
Evidentiary issues
When a claim is filed under the WCA, a Board representative conducts an investigation to determine whether or not the facts of the claim can be substantiated and whether the claim meets the
52 HRC, supra note 20. Section 13 (1) A person must not: (a) refuse to employ or refuse to continue to employ a person, or (b)
discriminate against a person regarding employment or any term or condition of employment because of the race, colour, ancestry,
place of origin, political belief, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation or age of that
person or because that person has been convicted of a criminal or summary conviction offence that is unrelated to the employment or
to the intended employment of that person.
53 Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001 (N.Z.), 2001/49, s. 30.

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requirements set out under the WCA. In the course of such an investigation, a Board representative
will talk to any witnesses, review any medical evidence, and review the record of employment and
income earned by the claimant. Under the current scheme, the following sections are applied with
respect to proving a claim:
5(3) Where the injury is attributable solely to the serious and wilful misconduct of the worker,
compensation is not payable unless the injury results in death or serious or permanent disablement.
5(4) In cases where the injury is caused by accident, where the accident arose out of the
employment, unless the contrary is shown, it must be presumed that it occurred in the course
of the employment; and where the accident occurred in the course of the employment, unless
the contrary is shown, it must be presumed that it arose out of the employment.

Serious or wilful misconduct

Where the injury is attributable solely to the serious and wilful misconduct of the worker,
compensation is not payable unless the injury results in death or serious or permanent disablement.54
Because of the absence of precedents with respect to sex worker claims for workers compensation,
it is unclear whether or not the Board would consider failure to wear a condom as serious and wilful
misconduct, thereby precluding compensation, as set out in s. 5(3). According to the RCSM #16.60,
wilful misconduct is determined by asking whether the claimant had pre-knowledge or voluntarily
elected to break a rule. In other words, the claimant must be aware of a workplace rule and knowingly elect to break it.
Proving whether or not the worker or the client is at fault in the failure to wear a condom could be
difficult depending on the particular circumstances of the transaction. Some sex workers reported that
they sometimes feel they have little control over whether or not a client will wear a condom. One sex
worker reported that a client removed a condom prior to intercourse without her knowledge. Further,
in instances of violence or sexual assault, it is clear that the worker may not always be in control of
whether or not a client uses a condom. Educating sex workers about their rights, making employers
liable for workplace health and safety, and increasing the power and choice that sex workers have over
the terms of their work are important steps to increasing a workers ability to insist on condom use.
Because coverage is only available under the WCA where precautions have been taken, condom use
would likely become a mandatory element of prostitution within the workers compensation scheme.
Where it can be proven that a sex worker is aware of the rule and knowingly fails to use a condom and
contracts an illness as a result, compensation may not be available.
Under s. 5(3) failure to follow a workplace rule is irrelevant if death or serious disablement
occurs. This provision is commonly applied to instances where a worker has a serious accident on
the job resulting in death or disablement. Although it is not commonly applied to such instances,
this provision may apply to HIV infection if it results in death or serious disablement. This would
mean that, even where it can be proven that the worker willingly failed to wear a condom, if death or
serious disablement resulted then compensation is still available to the worker. However, in the case of
sexually transmitted diseases for which there are known and readily available cures, it is unlikely that
they would satisfy the standard of death or serious disablement.
Section 5(3) places an obligation on employees to act responsibly in order to improve their
chances of making a successful compensation claim. In addition, when s. 5(3) is combined with
the sections of the WCA that set out general worker duties and responsibilities including wearing
protective equipment55 and taking reasonable care to protect the health and safety of others who may
be affected by their actions56 sex workers may be obliged to protect their health, and their clients
health, by using protective equipment.
54 WCA, supra note 6, s. 5(3).
55 Ibid., s. 116(2)(b).
56 Ibid., s. 116(1)(a).

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Condom use and wilful misconduct: the New Zealand approach

Would a sex worker who consents to not using a condom during a sexual encounter in the workplace be engaging in serious and wilful misconduct thereby making compensation not payable under
s. 5(3) if she or he contracts a disease? Given the lack of cases where sex workers have made claims
under Workers Compensation, this question has never been tested. Should mandatory condom use
be included in the legislation relating to workplace safety? One example of legislation dealing with
this issue is New Zealands PRA.
Section 9 of New Zealands PRA states that all sex workers and their clients must adopt safer sex
practices; they must take all reasonable steps to ensure that a condom or other appropriate barrier
is used for all activities that create a risk of sexually transmitting a disease.57 Contravention of these
provisions can result in liability on summary conviction to a fine of up to $2,000.58
Sex workers were in favour of workplace rules requiring the use of condoms. One project participant suggested that with the benefit of compensation comes the responsibility of using condoms:
A. When a sex trade worker gets an STD, if its in that time frame when she was not
using a condom, no workers compensation for you honey. You should be fined and
you should not be able to work. Thats a huge breach.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

One former massage parlour worker who now owns her own business stated that sex workers should
practise safer sex, just as non-sex workers should, and that if a sex worker does not practise safer sex
and contracts a disease, it is his or her own fault:
A. Or just like anyone in the whole population, if you are going to practice unsafe sex,
and you catch an STD, then you live with the repercussions of that, for making a bad
choice. Maybe it was uninformed choice, but you made a bad choice.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Another sex worker stated that employers should be held responsible where a sex worker has
contracted an illness from their failure to wear a condom:
A. On one hand its the personal choice to risk everything. Everyone knows that condoms
are ninety-nine percent effective. So to choose that line of work, like, how do you put
an employer, like, like, they [the employer] have to pay for that abuse if you risk your
own body, sort of thing.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

However, sex workers frequently argued that it would be very difficult to enforce a law relating to
mandatory condom use, and that currently it is often not the workers choice whether or not to use
condoms. Project participants reiterated that that sex workers living at or below the poverty line,
especially when they have a serious substance addiction, may be so desperate for the extra money
offered to provide services without a condom that they fail to consider the potential repercussions.
They have very little bargaining power.
A. No [there is no way to regulate the use of condoms] and especially, no, because I
mean they of course, would offer more money, and if the girl needing that money,
and in this case, not thinking what she might get. And depending what drugs or
whatever, puts her to risk and more easily, agreeable to say yes. And, thats unfortunate; you cant do anything about it, right? But it is between them too. So, they are
57 PRA, supra note 18, s. 9(1).
58 Ibid., s. 9(4).

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breaking I dont know, they are putting themselves at risk. But you cant regulate it,
its not like you can take a picture.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Another project participant described the desperation that some sex workers experience:
A. I dont think a lot of its gonna work. I mean, if the girls drug addicted or very
desperate . . . and youre in the tricks car and havent eaten for two days, and the guy
says, here, Ill give you an extra $50 if you give me a blow-job without a condom,
a lot of those girls are that desperate theyll do it.
- female street-level sex worker

While it would be impossible to enforce mandatory condom use, setting out a similar requirement
to New Zealands all reasonable steps provision in future Canadian legislation could help resolve
the contentious issue of how to regulate HIV-positive sex workers, or workers infected with other
sexually transmitted diseases. Further, for those sex workers living below the poverty line, increased
provision of condoms by non-profit organizations and government-funded organizations is imperative. Increased rights protections and increased education for sex workers are also important steps in
promoting condom use.
HIV-positive workers and wilful misconduct: the Nevada approach
Nevada provides a different approach to disease control than the one developed in New Zealand.
Under the Nevada Administrative Code, condom use is required for any sexual touching.59 Sex workers
in Nevada are subject to mandatory disease testing for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhoea and Chlamydia.60
Pap smears are administered weekly, and blood tests are conducted monthly. If found infected with
anything other than HIV, a sex worker cannot return to work until they test negative. If a worker
is infected with HIV, it is illegal for them to be employed as a sex worker.61 Because HIV-positive workers are terminated immediately and with no assistance, such as workers compensation
they may continue to work illegally to support themselves.62 Not only does this raise the issue of
discrimination against infected workers, but also it tends to encourage the development of an underground market where grave health and safety concerns arise. Legislation like Nevadas, which prevents
HIV-positive workers from working, may create a false sense of security among clients who are led to
believe that there is less of a risk because no one is infected. In turn, this false sense of security may
lead to increased risky behaviours, such as failure to wear a condom. Preventing a person from earning
a living because they are HIV positive is discriminatory, and would contravene Canadian human
rights codes. The Nevada approach has the effect of taking power and control away from the worker.
Systems that reduce the autonomy of the worker may encourage exploitative practises in the workplace, and deter workers from demanding protection of their basic rights.
In contrast to Nevada, the New Zealand legislation has no specific provision for treatment of
HIV-positive sex workers. In fact, the New Zealand PRA states that a person who is either providing
or receiving sexual services must not state or imply that a medical examination means that he or she
is not infected or likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease.63 This provision prevents
the false sense of security that may be created by the Nevada model. All sex workers and clients are
required and expected to use protective equipment in order to minimize disease transmission. In
59 Nevada Administrative Code 441A.805 (2003), online: Nevada Legislature <http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nac/NAC-441A.html>.
60 Ibid.
61 Nevada Revised Statutes 201.358 (1995) , online: Nevada Legislature <http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-201.html#NRS201Sec358>.
States that engaging in sex work while knowingly infected with HIV is a felony with a minimum two year sentence.
62 Carole A. Campbell, Prostitution, AIDS, and Preventive Health Behaviour (1991) 32 Social Science and Medicine at 1372.
63 PRA, supra note 18, s. 9(2).

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theory, universal use of precautions and safer sex should eliminate the pressure for mandatory testing
of sex workers in a decriminalized setting. Mandatory testing is another contentious issue, as the next
section illustrates.
Disclosure of HIV-positive status
Mandatory condom use could also help circumvent the difficult issue of forcing sex workers to
disclose HIV infection. Under current Canadian law, an employer cannot legally compel a worker
to reveal that he or she is infected with HIV. It is imperative that a workers right to keep his or her
medical health private and confidential be respected. Because of a 1998 Supreme Court of Canada
decision,64 a workers right to keep his or her HIV-positive status confidential from clients would be
protected only when condoms are used.
In R. v. Cuerrier, the Supreme Court of Canada created a positive duty to inform sexual partners of HIV-positive status. The Court held that failure to disclose ones HIV-positive status prior to
unprotected sexual activity amounts to aggravated assault, because it constitutes a significant risk of
serious bodily harm. The court held that this logic could extend to other sexually transmitted diseases
that constitute a significant risk of serious harm.65
Regarding the degree of risk of serious bodily harm, the court suggested that, in some circumstances, the risk of harm is not great enough to require disclosure:
To have intercourse with a person who is HIV-positive will always present risks. Absolutely
safe sex may be impossible. Yet the careful use of condoms might be found to so reduce the
risk of harm that it could no longer be considered significant . . . To repeat, in circumstances
such as those presented in this case, there must be a serious risk of bodily harm before the
section can be satisfied. In the absence of those criteria, the duty to disclose will not arise.66

According to this logic, if condoms are used, HIV-positive sex workers or HIV-positive clients would
not be held criminally liable for failing to disclose their status. Some sex workers voiced their support
for disclosure even when condoms are used:
A. Someone who knows they have it, they knowingly have it and they sleep with someone who
doesnt, they should be charged, they should be automatically charged.
Q. So what if we have a sex worker who has AIDS, um but is really careful, he wears a
condom always and . . .
A. He should give forewarning.
A. You should know what youre getting yourself into.
Q. So thats one aspect that should be made criminal?
A. Oh for sure, well if youre going out deliberately . . . Destroying a healthy mans life,
or a womans life.
- male street-level sex workers

Generally, the Courts ruling in Cuerrier provides more support for the practice of mandatory condom
use in the workplace.
Accident
Section 5(4) of the WCA creates a presumption that a work-related injury arising out of employment occurs during the course of employment unless the contrary can be shown. While this presumption lowers the burden of proof on the worker, sex workers still expressed concern about the difficulty
64 R. v. Cuerrier, [1998] 2 S.C.R. 371, 162 D.L.R. (4th) 513 [Cuerrier cited to S.C.R.].
65 Ibid., at 137, Cory J.
66 Ibid., at 129, Cory J.

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in proving that an injury did actually occur in the course of employment, particularly with respect to
sexually transmitted diseases:
A. That would be too hard, I would think. That that would be too hard to to .
Number one, the client would refuse to he wouldnt say he saw you. Right away,
with any WCB thing, you have to have a witness. Whos that, your john? Your john is
going to run with his tail between his legs.
- female street-level sex worker)

A project participant supported the workers compensation scheme, but was concerned that it would
be too difficult to prove, for example, that a sexually transmitted disease was contracted on the job,
rather than from a boyfriend while off the job:
A. Um, in an ideal world, yes, but I, I dont think it would be workable . . . they dont
know what happened in that bedroom. And again, once the doors closed, and, yes,
maybe a client gave it to me. Which client? And, and if a client were pinpointed,
he should be the one liable in any case for having given it to me. And his insurance
should be the one thats covering my costs, not workers comp. I mean, to me, its far
more likely that I slip on a tile in the bathroom because a client didnt wipe up the
floor and I did the splits and I broke my kneecap. Now thats, thats something that
could happen and almost happened about a week ago, and, and, that sort of, thats
the kind of injury I can kind of see going to workers comp. and saying hey I cant
work because my knees in a cast for six weeks [laughs], and I wouldnt mind some
compensation while Im out. That, I can see happening far more likely, or, you know
the headboard fell on my forehead and conked me [laughs]. Thats happened too.
Because thats the kind of work injury that I see, but no, I cant see it being workable
if its an STD related thing, because who gave it to me? . . . I dont know. To me it
doesnt seem like it would be a workable thing. It just doesnt. Cause my boyfriend
could have given it to me.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

It may be useful for sex workers seeking compensation for illnesses contracted on the job to demonstrate that they were not infected with the disease prior to the alleged date of infection. Ensuring
proof in the event of such claims could lead to more pressure for legislated mandatory disease testing
in the workplace. Similarly, depending on the circumstances of a particular claim, a client would
likely have to prove that he contracted a disease in a particular commercial sexual encounter, and not
as the result of some other source of infection.
Mandatory disease testing
Some sex workers supported mandatory disease testing:
Q. Okay. Now this is a hard one. What about testing?
A. Every six months.
Q. Should it be mandatory? Should it be optional?
A. Mandatory. Every six months.
- male street-level sex workers

Against this view, many other workers opposed mandatory disease testing on several grounds: mandatory testing erroneously reinforces the notion that sex workers are vectors of disease; in the case of a
recent infection, it may be too early for a test to detect it, in which case mandatory testing may create
a false sense of security, potentially leading to unsafe practices and reckless behaviour; mandatory

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testing is intrusive and raises privacy issues. One massage parlour owner succinctly summarized these
concerns this way:
A. Yeah, I just I just dont see mandatory testing working . . . I just dont see how
workers compensation for STD could function in practice. I mean there is other
problems with tests, if its once every month. You could actually, just, contract something immediately after the test. Become contagious before the next yknow. And
as soon as you have a system of testing, it gives a false sense of security to clientele.
Yknow, people say that all the time. I dont even know where to start with it. When
a client says to me, Well, are your girls tested? . . . The only reason you should be
concerned if she has something, is if you want to have an unsafe practice with her. So
why are you even asking? And if she has been tested, the incentive to do the unsafe
practice becomes that much greater. Because well, everybodys clean . . . Any type
of, of testing. Even like down in Nevada, they, they test their staff at these brothels.
And its just sickening. Like, how can you sit there and tell your clientele, All our
girls are tested weekly. Tested for what? And why? Why what are you testing them
for? Because you are expecting them to have unsafe sex? Or youre basically telling your
clientele that well if you force her to have unsafe sex either physically, or offer her more
money, shes going to be safe. So feel good about that. Go for it.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Nevertheless, sound sexual-health practices should be encouraged, an issue that will be addressed
more in the section Occupational Health and Safety Regulations on page 121. Sexual-health practices should involve education and training, as well as voluntary disease testing, which is the approach
taken in New Zealand. The Guide to Occupational Health and Safety in the New Zealand Sex Industry67
recommends that sex workers receive comprehensive sexual-health examinations at least bi-annually, although it is ultimately up to sex workers to determine the frequency of such tests.68 The guide
also suggests that, in the case of condom breakage or slippage, tests be undertaken within 10 to 14
days.69 Regarding privacy concerns, the New Zealand guide recommends that employers may ask to
see certificates showing regular testing; however, certificates should not disclose test results, and nor
should they be displayed in the workplace. Test results remain the property of the employee.70
In the context of workers compensation claims, regular voluntary testing would help bolster
claimants cases that they acquired sexually transmitted illnesses during the course of employment. Sex
workers who could show they were free of illness prior to the date of alleged contraction would probably have a better chance of establishing their entitlement to compensation.
Privacy concerns
Disease testing, as well as the process of filing a workers compensation claim itself, raises potential
privacy issues. A Board representative conducts an investigation once a claim is filed. The investigation
can involve interviewing witnesses, and reviewing medical and employment records. In addition, the
WCA requires that both workers71 and employers72 fulfil a number of obligations in reporting injuries,
including the provision of the name and address of the affected worker.

67 Occupational Safety and Health Service, Department of Labour, A Guide to Occupational Health and Safety in the New Zealand Sex
Industry (Wellington, Department of Labour, 2004) online: <http://www.osh.govt.nz/order/catalogue/pdf/sexindustry.pdf>.
68 Ibid., at 34.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 WCA, supra note 6, s. 53(1).
72 Ibid., s. 54(1).

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Understandably, many sex workers expressed apprehension about revealing their highly stigmatized line of work:
A. See thats thats one of the issues that comes up. Is that in order to access a lot of this,
you do have to out yourself. Like, to get workers compensation, you have to make a
claim, then they investigate the claim, and in investigating the claim they go through
your medical records, they go through everything that happened. They interview all
potential witnesses.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Another project participant described her anxiety at the prospect of being labelled a sex worker:
A. Well just the label. I am just wondering how they will label it once you put it on your
income tax . . . And that once you have been a sex worker, you are a sex worker for
the rest of your life. You just carry it around like an anchor I was 20 years old and
I worked as a sex worker woahhhhhhhhhh, it said it on your income tax, little girl.
Meanwhile you are 60. So thats just my issue.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

However, provisions within the WCA make it clear that the Board should treat claim files as confidential, and not accessible to third parties upon their request.73 Similarly, medical reports should not be
disclosed, except for the purposes of administering the WCA and regulations.74

Occupational Health and Safety Regulations

The WCA has an associated set of regulations, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations75 (the
OHSR), which sets out the minimum requirements for health and safety standards in industries
covered by the WCA.76
Under the New Zealand PRA all sex workers, regardless of their employment or contractual status,
are under a duty to follow health and safety standards.
The WCA77 and the OHSR sets out general duties for employers to ensure the health and safety of
all workers and others in the workplace by remedying unsafe conditions, informing workers of their
rights, and ensuring that employers provide and maintain proper protective equipment. Also, the
WCA requires employers to establish an occupational health and safety program. Generally, such a
program would place responsibilities on employers and workers to ensure that all work is carried out
without undue risk of occupational disease or injury to any person.78 Duties include regular inspections of the workplace and work practices, instruction and supervisions of workers, investigations into
any unsafe occurrences, and the maintenance of records, all with an eye to preventing the development of unsafe working conditions.79 Under the OHSR, employers are accountable to the Board, and
the Board maintains the authority to enact health and safety regulations as it sees fit.80
The majority of sex workers stated that they would support the application of the OHSR to sex
work, and the resulting increased obligations for employers to ensure workplace health and safety.
One massage parlour owner explained that the onus should fall on the employer because sex workers
are often not in a position where they are able to protect their health and safety:
73 Ibid., s. 95.
74 Ibid., s. 156(1)(a).
75 OHSR, supra note 7.
76 Ibid., s. 2.1.
77 WCA, supra note 6, s. 115.
78 OHSR, supra note 7, s. 2.2.
79 Ibid., s. 3.3.
80 WCA, supra note 6, s. 225.

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A. Oh I am so for it. Mandatory. Mandatory. And and not just but I dont think the
law should target the sex workers. They should target the employers and the clients.
Cuz theyre the ones that are ultimately responsible. The sex worker does not have
the balance of power. In the negotiation process for the fee, the sex worker does not
have the balance of power physically with the client. They theyre nothing in that
transaction. The employer has an obligation to ensure that that not only his or her
staff know the risks and and should be fully informed, but they have an obligation
to ensure that it is being carried out. And clients are the ones that want unsafe sex,
not the sex workers. So I think that that sex workers should not be the targets of
any legislation. Its the employers and the user groups.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

New Zealands PRA places similar requirements on operators and businesses of prostitution to adopt
and promote safer sex practices.81 One sex worker who has been both an employee and a business
owner expressed support for this emphasis in the New Zealand legislation:
A. The legislation thats come out in New Zealand I thought was very revolutionary
where they really put a, they really shift the, the responsibility to owners and
employers um to oversee and regulate this, and I found that very interesting, and saw
that as quite innovative.
Training
Many sex workers felt that one major benefit of the application of the WCA and the OHSR would
be the provision of occupational health and safety training to workers. One former sex worker and
current sex work business owner described such training as a crucial preventative measure against
contracting sexually transmitted diseases:
A. So I see the problem as not how to band aid it afterwards, its its proactive. Its
how to stop people from getting a disease in the first place. Whether its a fatal one or
just something that you would carry for life. Like herpes, or hepatitis, theres a lot of
horrible ones out there.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Many sex workers said there is a lack of education and knowledge about transmission of sexually
transmitted diseases:
A. A lot of girls think, still to this day, even the girls inside, think that going down on
a guy, giving him a blow-job without a condom is safe, and in reality its not. They
dont understand that some free-cum, whatever, could be . . . you could have Hep C,
or have AIDS . . . they just dont understand that. They think that by doing oral sex
that its safe, and theres a lot of education that needs to be done.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A recurring opinion was that proper education could almost entirely prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases:
A. I really feel that if you basically use a condom, and youre very careful about what
you do and dont do, you really should never catch anything from a client. I mean,
most of the girls that Ive known have not caught it through a client. Theyve caught
81 PRA, supra note 18, s. 8.

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it through boyfriends, using drugs . . . you know. Stuff like that. So if youre careful at
work you really probably shouldnt catch it. This is my feeling . . .
- female off-street out-call sex worker

One massage parlour sex worker explained that proper education enabled her to work for years
without ever contracting a sexually transmitted disease:
A. I am not an exception. Ive never had a cold sore. And yet, I have been very successful
in this industry. With lots of regular clients, made lots of money and been very good
at what I did, without risking my health. Like it is possible. Girls dont have to risk
their health, to make lots of money. And I know dozens and dozens and dozens, like
myself, whove never had an STD. And people who, I dont say theyve just worked
a year or two, I mean people that who had a whole career of it, had never had an
STD.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Returning to the issue of enforcing mandatory condom use, one escort suggested that education
would be the best way to encourage safe practices, even in the face of economic need:
A. Once I shut the door, if I didnt use it, who would know? I mean, how can you
regulate something like that? I mean, to me, I cant imagine having sex without one.
If Im, Im, on the street, I need a quick fix and the guy offers me $20 extra I can
kind of appreciate the desperation that some people are in, and how can you bylaw
something like that, or how can you regulate? You cant. You can only supply them
and hope for the best.
Q. So the theme is education as opposed to regulation?
A. Exactly.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

All sex workers male and female, street-level, off-street in-call and out-call wanted training, be it
in the form of videos, lectures or courses. Some of them supported the idea of a licensing or certification program for individual workers. One escort explained that education should include access to
medical professionals:
A. I think that um I like to see health care, somewhere that a doctor knows I am
coming in, a doctor or healthcare for sex trade workers . . . that is what I would look
for the most a doctor who knows this is who I am, and that I am coming in what my
risks are and this is what they need to do, to be informed about . . . And and if we
were having, yknow, Addiction Services, and what will you do if you actually caught
up with an STD or something like that, and how youre going to deal with it, and
how you intend to do your work if you can or if you cant, or whatever and how to
keep your clients safe. There needs to be education and services to address all of this.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Improved education would give sex workers an increased awareness of their right to a safe, violencefree workplace.
Safe workplaces and violence prevention
Currently, many sex workers operate in a range of unsafe or harmful conditions, which include
being forced to engage in unsafe practices such as unprotected sex and being subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence. The WCA and OHSR contain several provisions that oblige
employers to ensure safe physical working conditions. Generally, the workplace safety scheme in

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the WCA places the ultimate responsibility for safety on the employer. For example, s. 3.10 of the
OHSR states that employees must immediately report any unsafe working conditions or acts to their
employer, who, in turn must investigate the condition and make sure that the problem is corrected.
The Board has the authority to intervene and order that work be cancelled where it has reasonable
grounds to believe that an immediate danger exists that would likely result in serious injury, illness or
death of a worker.82 The Board can impose penalties on non-compliant employers.83
The WCA and the OHSR apply to all workplaces. A workplace is defined as any place where
a worker is or is likely to be engaged in any work and includes any vessel, vehicle or mobile equipment used by a worker in work.84 Therefore, this legislation would apply to any location where an
employer expects employees to carry out work, whether the business offers in-calls (sex workers
meeting with clients at the place of business) or out-calls (sex workers meeting with clients in offsite locations such as private residences, hotel rooms, or vehicles).
Prostitution can be dangerous because it sometimes involves working in isolation. The OHSR
obliges employers to check on employees who work alone or in isolation at regular intervals, and at
the end of their shift. Employers also have to have a plan of action should workers find themselves in
trouble.85 The provision requires that these procedures be set up in consultation with workers.
Many sex workers, particularly female sex workers in massage parlours, voiced their concern about
being alone when an abusive client confronts them:
A. You know I am really disappointed because . . . when you are in the room you are on
your own. You can scream or whatever. You know. Well, whatever. He is so strong, he
is so big how can I? You know, I was screaming but nobody hear . . . Thats why I left
there.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

One owner of an escort agency suggested that a system of supervision would help ensure worker
safety:
A. Well, I guess, you know for me, in my business and for the ladies who work for me
its me being there and or my assistant or other assistants Ive had in the past, that
somebody knows where youre going, where youre supposed to be, and when youre
supposed to be out of there, kind of thing. Theres, you know, theres very few people
who are gonna mess with somebody who has somebody watching over them.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

Many workers agreed that they would want someone to know where they are, when they expect to
return, and whom they are with:
Q. Okay, how do you make it a safe place, what kind of rules do you have in place to
make it safe?
A. Well the first thing youre going to have in place is making sure your home is secure,
like if youre working for somebody, the employer knows that you have a client at
seven oclock at your place and theres somebody there to ensure that if anything does
go wrong, that you have backup. You have to know who the date is, and somebody
off-site or somebody other than yourself knows who they are. And they know that they
are known.
- male street-level sex worker
82 WCA, supra note 6, s. 191(1)(a).
83 Ibid., s. 196(1).
84 Ibid., s. 106.
85 OHSR, supra note 7, s. 4.21.

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Although the OHSR places the onus to protect the safety of workers on employers, alarmingly, some
sex workers reported that their employer condoned or even facilitated workplace violence:
A. Oh, yeah, and the scariest thing is like you are totally on your own, the owner say.
Cause I mean, he wont protect you. Like I mean he wont do anything. He even say
its my fault. Like the way he is trying to tell me. Its my own responsibility. Oh, my
God. I said like what can I do? Like a big guy, taller than me, like I am not even
up to his shoulder. And I was screaming until my voice gone. And you know, pretty
sure that somebody is around, you know. He should help . . . the owners its terrible.
They got a lot of rules. You have to follow the rules . . . like in the massage [parlours]
you feel totally got cut off from everything. Its like they are trying to cut you off from
outside. Like thats totally like feels like isolated, feels like you got cut from connection
to the world. I mean like the feeling is so terrible. Like when you got raped in the
massage parlour and the owner wont do anything. And he trying to tell you, its your
own fault.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Requiring employers to fulfill the safety standards mandated under the OHSR could make working
for an employer a much safer option for sex workers. As one massage parlour owner stated, under the
current legal framework, working for an employer is still the safest route, particularly in comparison
to street-level sex work:
A. I personally feel a massage parlour is the safest place to work, I mean the place Ive
been at now, Ive worked there now for six years, Ive never ever been present when
someones had a bad date, as a matter fact when we get new staff who have never
worked before, who have only worked outside, or have only worked for an escort
agency, they say well, whats your signal for a bad date? we laugh at them because
were like it just doesnt happen here. It just doesnt happen. If someone has a chip on
their shoulder or theyre . . . you know they dont go into a place where they dont have
the balance of power. If a guy is uh, is aggressive or violent, hes going to put himself
in a situation where he has the balance of power which is a one-on-one situation um,
obviously the street um, I think it is fairly obvious that is the unsafest way to work
. . . the most violent way to work would be street where it is entirely anonymous, you
have no back-up and youre by yourself one-on-one with somebody in a car. There
really is no recourse for you if you have a problem.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

One sex worker expressed this same preference for working for a responsible employer:
A. Me? Well I prefer to work for somebody. Because I mean I know from past experience working from for myself, right? eres like I got raped, I got beaten up, I
got shot at, and its like that if I had an employer, right? That I was working for I
would feel protected.
- female street-level sex worker

Another specific benefit of the OHSR is that it requires employers to provide and maintain minimum
levels of lighting in the workplace in order to provide safer working conditions.86 This provision means
that clients would no longer be able to control the lighting to facilitate assaults on employees:

86 Ibid., s. 4.65.

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A. One time . . . in that massage parlour. One time, I get in and its so dark. The
customer they can control the light. If they want to put it darker and I got raped.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

While it is clearly a criminal offence to physically or sexually assault another person,87 the OHSR sets
out several additional provisions requiring the workplace to be as safe as possible in order to minimize
the possibility of violent88 incidents in the workplace. Employers must inform workers of the risk
of violence, and this includes notifying workers of clients who have a history of violent behaviour.89
This requirement could result in creation and distribution of bad trick sheets or bad call lists. Some
sex workers reported that their employer permits some violent clients to continue frequenting the
establishment in which they work. The OHSR requires employers to conduct risk assessments and
develop appropriate policies, procedures and work arrangements to eliminate or at least minimize the
risk of violence where complete elimination is not possible.90 Such protections clearly are needed in
sex industry workplaces.
The OHSR authorizes workers to refuse to engage in unsafe work,91 while placing an obligation
on employers to investigate and remedy unsafe conditions. Further, the OHSR prohibits employer
discrimination against workers who refuse to undertake unsafe work.92 Permitting employees to refuse
to engage in what they deem unsafe practices without fear of reprisal could help avoid the situation
where employers force workers to engage in unsafe practices, or practices they are not comfortable
with, either explicitly or by implication. This provision further supports the principle that there
should be an industry-wide standard allowing the worker to dictate what services will be provided.
Because of the overlying sexual assault Criminal Code provisions regarding consent,93 individual
workers must be able to choose what services they will provide, as well as be able to withdraw their
consent to any activity at any time. A provision to this effect was explicitly included in New Zealands
legislation.94
Drug and alcohol use in the workplace
Drug and alcohol use were frequently mentioned as precipitating violence in the sex industry. One
massage parlour sex worker described the alarming situation where employers deliberately impair their
employees by supplying them with drugs in order to make them dependent and obedient:
A. One girl she got a pimp, and she said thats her boyfriend. But its totally does
not look like her boyfriend because it look like she is just a servant because she is
following his back and stuff like that. And couple of times, I go over to her place. Its
her boyfriend place, she said. And she has her own room, and it does not look like
her boyfriend. And her boyfriend is a dealer; and like he is supplying her with the
drugs. Like all the money its go to the dealer . . . But some girls does not. Like those
Thai girls. They do not usually use condoms. Because they do not know freedom. They
just listen to whatever . . . You know, peoples want. The just worry they could not get
the money. Because they are drug users. Because the owner is really terrible like you
87 CCC, supra note 1, ss. 265(1), (2).
88 Violence means the attempted or actual exercise by a person, other than a worker, of any physical force so as to cause injury to a
worker, and includes any threatening statement or behaviour which gives a worker reasonable cause to believe that he or she is at risk
of injury. OHSR, supra note 7, s. 4.27.
89 Ibid., ss. 4.30(1), (2).
90 Ibid., ss. 4.30(3), 4.28, 4.29.
91 Ibid., s. 3.12.
92 Ibid., s. 3.13.
93 CCC, supra note 1, s. 273.1(2).
94 PRA, supra note 18, s. 17(1).

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know they have the way to control them.

- female off-street in-call sex worker

Under s. 4.20 of the OHSR, workers would not be permitted to work while impaired by alcohol
or drugs95 and employers must not knowingly permit a person to remain at the workplace while
impaired.96 Similarly, under s. 3.19, workers with any kind of physical or mental impairment that
may affect their safety, or the safety of anyone else, are not permitted to work.
Sex workers generally agreed that employers should prohibit drug use on the job:
Q. Drug and alcohol, should they be allowed on the job?
A. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
A. No.
A. Its too dangerous. All the way.
A. Yeah.
A. Definitely too dangerous.
A. And violence comes of it.
Q. Who should make the rules and who should enforce them?
A. The house. The house.
- female street-level sex workers

Some sex workers were so opposed to drug use on the job that they advocated drug testing:
A. I think, sex trade, yknow, is definitely a unique employment situation so, I think,
being tested . . . I am sure there are other places where you, places of employment
where you have to have certain tests, before you go to work. . . . Drug tests, like to be
on the Police there are a lot of medical tests. I dont think you should take offence, I
think that it is the way that it should be. Because its the risks of the employment, of
the job . . . .
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. A smart person, who has a brothel, would not let drugs in their brothel . . . Same
thing. I just think that someone who is intoxicated either by drugs or by alcohol, is
not effective. They are not its harder to be on their game. Its harder to be aware of
your surroundings; its harder to be aware of danger. Thats the biggest thing. So . . .
its not safe.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

One project participant talked about the improvement she found in her work when she managed to
quit drugs:
A. But like now, since I have been off drugs its Ive noticed a considerable difference
in bad dates. Its almost gone down almost gone down to zero.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some sex workers reported that drug and alcohol use on the job is common. If prostitution is to be
made safer, further discussion about drug and alcohol use is needed. One of the primary objectives of
policy initiatives in this regard should be to reduce drug-related harms for sex workers.

95 OHSR, supra note 7, s. 4.20(1).

96 Ibid., s. 4.20(2).

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Hazardous substances
Blood and other bodily fluids are classified as hazardous substances under the WCA.97 Special
provisions apply regarding worker education and training that include providing information to
workers about the potential effects of exposure to hazardous substances, and the means to prevent
exposure.98 In addition, because blood and other bodily fluids can transmit disease causing organisms and toxins, the Workplace Hazardous Material Information System (WHMIS) classified them
as poisonous and infectious material (Class D) and as biohazardous infection material (Division
3).99 WHMIS applies to all workplaces, including healthcare and laboratory facilities. The WHMIS
system assumes that every sample is dangerous and encourages safety precautions in every instance of
handling hazardous substances.
The requirements under WHMIS are fairly extensive, and the onus falls on the employer to maintain an effective program in concert with the overall workplace health and safety program.100 One
provision relevant to prostitution is that the employer must maintain a list of job tasks that create the
potential for occupational exposure to blood borne pathogens, and implement a system of precautions
for each listed task.101 WHMIS requires that workers wear personal protective equipment to shield
them from biohazardous materials.102 These provisions applied to prostitution would mandate the
education of workers about the risks associated with each type of service provided, and would require
condom use where the contraction of sexually transmitted disease is possible.
Some project participants expressed support for this type of health and safety program, lamenting
the current lack of information and lack of awareness of risk:
A. You see I see it as rules that go along with the sex trade you know. Its safety. Not only
do you have to practice what you preach but you know youve got to teach it as well.
A. A lot of its just a given.
Q. Okay well these people dont know what the givens are so lets kinda lay them out.
What are the givens that people have to do to reduce . . .
A. You go out there; you have a date. You have to wear condoms. If the date turns
around and says well I dont want to do the date if you want to use a condom well
you know youve got to be able to hold your ground and say look Im sorry its not
going to go. And you shouldnt have to go that far because your employer should have
this date already pre-screened and already set up so that condoms and everything are
there. Theyre going to be used and its mandatory. There is no change.
A. The client agrees.
Q. The client agrees in advance. Thats a good point.
- male street-level sex workers

The application of the OHSR to prostitution would result in increased education and awareness,
and more fair and safe workplace practises by both employers and employees. Prior to applying any
law to prostitution, however, careful consultation with sex workers themselves should be undertaken
by government.

97 Hazardous substance means (a) a controlled product within the meaning of the Hazardous Products Act (Canada); (b) a substance
designated as a hazardous substance by regulation; and (c) a biological, chemical or physical agent that, by reason of its properties, is
hazardous to the health or safety of persons exposed to it. WCA, supra note 6, s. 106.
98 OHSR, supra note 7, s. 5.2.
99 B.C., WHMIS at Work (B.C. Workers Compensation Board, 2004) at 8, online:<http://www.worksafebc.com/publications/
Health_and_Safety_Information/by_topic/assets/pdf/whmis.pdf>.
100 WCA, supra note 6; OHSR, supra note 7.
101 OHSR, supra note 7, s. 6.35.
102 Ibid., s. 6.36(2).

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Supplies
Under s. 115(2)(d) of the WCA, employers must provide personal protective equipment and
ensure that it is used on the job. If the criminal laws were to be repealed, it would have to be determined through consultation with sex workers what supplies would be included as personal protective
equipment. Condoms are the obvious example, but the obligation also may include provision of birth
control pills, rubber gloves, dental dams, or water-based lubricants to prevent condom breakage. One
female street-level sex worker suggested that employers provide the morning after pill in the case of an
accidental condom breakage or a sexual assault.
Provisions requiring that employers provide workers with supplies are very important in the
context of prostitution, as many workers reported having to provide their own condoms. Many sex
workers stated that condom purchase is an added expense that sometimes they cannot afford. The
current pressure to provide their own condoms sometimes leads sex workers to reuse them:
Q. Now did they give you condoms there?
A. No, you have to have your own condoms.
Q. So, were you using condoms?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. All used or . . .
A. All used.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Another massage parlour sex worker described having to pay her employer for condoms:
Q. Right. So with the guys that you were having sex with that he was introducing you to,
where you using condoms with them?
A. He, hisself. With him I did not.
Q. With him you did not, but with the other guys you did?
A. He said remember to do that.
Q. Okay, and who was buying you condoms?
A. Him and he charge me.
Q. He charged you for the condoms?
A. And starting to charge guys more money. And he starting charging me for food too.
- female off-street in-call sex workers

Most sex workers believed that employers should be responsible for providing the equipment required
to work safely:
A. The house, or the - your employer. Youre working
A. Yeah . . .
A. Should all - should supply everything that you need as far as safety goes.
A. As far safety goes, yeah.
- female street-level sex workers

Some massage parlour sex workers reported that their employer did not give them free condoms
unless a non-profit organization promoting workplace health supplied them to the employer. One
sex worker in a massage parlour reported that her employer was selling condoms he had obtained for
free from a non-profit organization designed to help sex workers. Such exploitative practises would be
prevented by the application of the OHSR to prostitution, should it be decriminalized.
One WHMIS provision relating to supplies specifically deals with Hepatitis B. The provision
states that vaccination against Hepatitis B must be provided at no cost to workers upon request where

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there is a risk of infection.103 As there is a clear risk of Hepatitis B infection in prostitution even
where precautions are taken, the application of this provision would result in free vaccinations in sex
industry workplaces.
Hygiene
The OHSR includes various provisions concerning personal hygiene during employment.
According to s. 5.82(1)(c), employers must provide adequate washing facilities, this could include
showers. Similarly, the B.C. Health Act104 requires the provision of adequate washing facilities105 in
personal service establishments, where personal service establishment specifically includes massage
parlours, saunas and steam baths.106
Several project participants said they would like to see hygiene standards implemented:
Q. This is a kinda related thing. What about hygiene in the work place.
A. That should be provided by the work place.
A. Thats a mandatory.
A. Ya.
A. Hygiene for people who are doing this thing dont have the given on that. Having to
work all day and . . .
A. Ya, you know its like slap more lube on. You know its like no.
A. You have to be picky when its sticky and its icky.
Q. So now youre talking about hygiene for both the clients and the workers?
A. Ya.
A. Ya.
A. Yup.
Q. Which do you think is the bigger issue?
A. We pretty much have good hygiene.
A. Its tough to say though cause no offence but you know Ive had a lot of people tell me
that theyve picked somebody up, no names mentioned, but they gave them $20 and
said you know get the, you stink buddy.
A. Get out of the car.
A. But you know in the same instance Ive gone to go down on a couple of people and I
mean like fuck you know, like no. Im sorry that stinks and its just not happening.
A. Get a shower or douche.
A. Mandatory.
A. I dont think the hand sanitizer bottles big enough some days you know. Really.
A. I think again if youre working for somebody this is all going to be pre . . .
A. But you have to be showered.
A. Ya but you have to be showered. Showers are nice beforehand. Youre not going to
have some guy coming off the construction yard after 14 hours of working coming
around walking into your establishment and saying hi can I have one of your girls
for an hour you know and then expect to get laid. Its going to be okay like sure you
can but theres a shower and everything down there and if you dont want to shower
and everything then you dont get service. Stinky dinky no stinky.
- male street-level sex workers

103 WCA, supra note 6, s. 6.39.

104 Health Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 179 [HA].
105 Personal Services Establishments Regulation, B.C. Reg. 202/83, s. 2.
106 Ibid., s.1.

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Many of the massage parlours visited during the project had showers in the rooms. However, some
massage parlour sex workers reported that the showers are intended for clients, but they are not made
available to sex workers.
Public health
A final health-related theme that also figures prominently in the New Zealand legislation involves
the role that the government must play in monitoring public health. One relevant provision in the
B.C. Health Act specific to occupational health and safety at personal service establishments states
that, no person shall operate or cause to be operated a personal service establishment unless he maintains and operates it, and uses and maintains the instruments and equipment required for the service,
so as to prevent a health hazard occurring.107
Under s. 26 of the New Zealand PRA, medical health officers and qualified inspectors have the
power to enter and inspect premises where they have reasonable grounds to believe that a business of
prostitution is being carried out, and where they are seeking to determine whether the operators or
workers are following the safer sex practices mandated by s. 8108 and s. 9109 of the PRA.110
Analogous provisions exist in the B.C. Health Act. Under s. 61,111 public health officials have
numerous broad-ranging powers of inspection to determine whether a health hazard exists on a
premise. For example, they are able to enter premises and question residents, inspect records, and take
photographs. One additional measure in the Communicable Disease Regulation112 within the Health
Act, gives authority to medical health officers to close down public gathering places in order to control
the spread of communicable disease, and this could include, for example, a massage parlour that
demonstrates a poor record of occupational health.
There are many advantages to be gained by the inclusion of prostitution in the protections offered
in the WCA and OHSR. But again, it is important that the application of any laws to sex workers be
undertaken only with careful consultation with those workers.

Section 3: Unionization
The right to establish or join a trade union is protected by the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights113 and the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Civil Rights.114 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says quite simply that, Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions
for the protection of his [or her] interests. However, there are currently various legal barriers to the
unionization of sex workers.
A union is an organization or association of employees that act collectively to address common
labour issues on behalf of workers. One central purpose of a union is the regulation of relations
between employers and employees through collective bargaining, which means bargaining as a group,
rather than as individuals. The law governing unions in B.C. is set out in the LRC which guarantees
the right of provincially-regulated employees to join a union, and sets out the rights and duties of
employers, unions and unionized employees. Also it sets out the law on forming a union the process
107 Ibid., s.3.
108 PRA, supra note 18, s. 8.
109 Ibid., s. 9.
110 Ibid., s. 24.
111 HA, supra note 104, s. 61.
112 Communicable Disease Regulation, B.C. Reg. 4/83, s.18.
113 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948), art.
23.4.
114 International Covenant for Economic, Social and Civil Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, arts. 2, 3, 8.1(a), Can. T.S.
1976 No. 47, 6 I.L.M. 368.

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of certification collective bargaining, basic standards for collective agreements, strikes, lockouts,
picketing, grievances and mediation. The LRC provides unions with the right to bargain with the
employer on behalf of the employees it represents (the bargaining unit) and, on their behalf, to enter
into a collective agreement setting out the terms and conditions of their employment. In return for
that right, the union has the duty to represent all of the employees in the bargaining unit in a manner
that is not arbitrary, discriminatory or in bad faith.
Not every worker in B.C. is covered by the LRC. Only those persons who meet the definition of
an employee are entitled to be part of a union and exercise collective bargaining rights. Therefore,
independent contractors cannot unionize, and nor can personnel who perform a managerial role in
the employment context, or if a person is employed in a confidential capacity in matters relating to
labour relations or personnel. Some employees in B.C. are not covered by the LRC because they work
in industries that fall under federal jurisdiction. For example, the Canada Labour Code115 governs
collective bargaining rights for employees of the federal public service and Crown corporations,
employees of chartered banks, and the grain industry.
The ensuing discussion describes sex workers attitudes to unionization, how they feel a sex worker
union should be structured, who should represent sex workers, and how unionization would occur
under the current legislative framework. Current labour laws in Canada, with the exception of
Quebec, do not provide for the unionization of autonomous or contract workers where there is no
clearly defined employer/employee relationship, and this could be an obstacle to many sex workers
who may want to unionize. However, in this section, we assume that, if the industry is decriminalized,
sex workers who meet the definition of employee under the LRC will be eligible to join or form
a union. Also, we assume that provincial labour laws would cover sex workers, and not the areas of
federal jurisdiction listed above.

Do sex workers want to unionize?

Overall, support for the idea of having a union for sex workers was strong among all categories of
sex workers interviewed.116 There were two main reasons why sex workers want to unionize. First, sex
workers believed that unionization might result in higher wages. Second, many sex workers supported
the idea of having someone to represent their interests in negotiations with employers.
Among the workers we spoke to, the strongest support for unionization came from street-level sex
workers they all supported the idea of unionization. Some escorts and massage parlour workers were
more reluctant to unionize because they felt that they could get a better price than other workers, and
wanted the independence to do so. They also felt that by remaining independent, they would maintain
greater control over the type of work that they do and the clients they serve. This finding likely reflects
the fact that street-level workers are among the most vulnerable and lowest paid of all sex workers.

Wages
Some sex workers felt that unionization would provide them with greater bargaining power and, as
a result, the potential to receive higher wages:
A. Unionization implies that someone is paying you a wage, right and you are fighting
for a certain wage.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Another sex worker supported the prospect of an hourly wage, and felt that being part of a union
would increase the possibility of getting paid more than minimum wage:
115 Canada Labour Code, R.S., 1985, c. L-2.
116 Note: there were no data from male street-level sex workers about unionization.

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A. And the first thing we would do is fight for slightly above minimum wages. We would
have to have minimum $10.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Unionization could offer sex workers the opportunity to bargain collectively for better wages. Canadian statistics show that, on average, unionized employees and non-union employees working under a
collective agreement earn significantly more than non-unionized employees.117

Representation on issues faced by workers

Many sex workers supported unionization as a way to ensure that their concerns and grievances are
heard, that health and safety conditions are enforced, and that there is a formal mechanism enabling
them to negotiate with their employers:
A. [I]f we were unionized, and we had our union rep and like someone who would
speak for us girls, then I would be open to that.
- female street-level sex worker

Some sex workers felt that unionization would create solidarity with other workers, and would
provide a more powerful voice for sex workers:
A. And solidarity. Yknow, having somewhere to go, with issues and things? And have
some yknow, if enough issues come up? Then there is somewhere, a recognized organization, by the public, to give voice. Yknow, a dozen women have come forward
with this problem could speak in solidarity for everybody?
A. [Y]ou would be able to avail yourself of legal services if you needed them, you would
have a voice if you need a voice, the media would be well informed about needs,
maybe de-stigmatization could occur, that to health benefits and things like that,
coverage, so maybe, you know, maybe, maybe theyve got a point.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Other sex workers thought that unionization would create better occupational health and safety standards in a workplace and that workplace violence would be reduced:
A. What I think is happening, when bad dates happen . . . so when that happens there
is no effective way for us to deal with that. Rather than it just being put on a piece of
paper, and reported, it is like . . . there should be some sort of way to link them with
charges that stick. You know, do something. Right? You know, maybe a union or
something, it is not okay for these guys to come into town and doing what ever.
- female street-level sex worker

Another project participant suggested that her working conditions would improve of she had a formal
advocate:
A. . . . we could complain to somebody. You know, have[complaints] looked into. For
example, the work where I work now, she turns off the heaters on the floors in the
winter for us. So we have this one minute heater thats turning around in the room.
So we have 14 girls that are freezing without robes on. Thats cruel, and who are we
going to complain to? The girls have other issues too, labour complaints or whatever
but no one takes it seriously, no one comes in and inspects it.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

117 Average hourly wages of employees by selected characteristics and profession, unadjusted data, by provinces (monthly) (Canada), online: Statistics Canada <http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/labr69a.htm>.

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Another perceived benefit of unionization is protection from unfair and unequal treatment by
massage parlour owners via the enforcement of standardized working conditions:
A. I could see some good things about that [unionizing] . . . definitely for the fact of the
way, that the owners of these houses, that are run, yeah because they are not fairly
run where . . . this new girl, yknow, so they can control them and get away with
more. So then, these people who know what they are doing, and, expect what they
are worth back . . . they push them out. Yknow, and thats what I have been seeing
happening, because they dont want them informing the other ones. What is it that
they dont have to do or what is not to let people do certain things to them and for
their own safety reasons and their own respect of themselves. And how, in that sense,
it needs to be a standard set of what, yknow, its up to her and so that the clients, I
mean, so the agencies cant tell the girl that they have to be - put them into a fear
state that they have to do whatever that client wants. And that they get complaint, oh
then you go on probation, kind of bullshit, yknow and its just so then they are just
sitting there worrying and especially new to the trade. I know, because when I was,
you dont know what you can say no to, yknow? So that kind of standard thing is
definitely needed.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Concerns about working conditions could be addressed through a unions grievance procedure. This
is discussed in the section on Complaints and Grievances below. Also, unions could negotiate the
provision of work-related supplies, the allocation of tips, the creation of in-house rules, and employee
discipline.

Desire to retain independence and control over their own business

Some sex workers did not like the idea of unionization, because they felt that it would mean a loss
of their independence and a loss of control over the way that they conduct business:
A. Again, its giving control to one person or to one organization. And here in
Edmonton, I mean years ago when I was dancing and I got out of it because, I
mean, we were getting $125 a set, which meant work five songs. And basically, what
happened is the bikers came in and took it over and all the dancers are working for
the bikers now. So thats exactly what would happen if we went union . . . you know,
it would be the same thing.
- female street-level sex worker

Some sex workers were concerned that unionization would result in a loss of privacy:
A. I could see some good things about that [unionizing]. But then it depends on where
they settle with the union and what the terms would be. Also, the privacy of the girls.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Overall, project participants did not oppose unions on principle, but felt that each sex worker
should have the option of joining a union if they want to:
A. I am mixed on that because I am a bit of a monopolist, yeah, and I like supreme
privacy. But I think unions should be there and I think women should have a choice
between unions or not. However, most of the women who mention loss of independence as a concern also say that forming a union would depend on each employer or
employment situation and they note that people should have the option to unionize.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

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Some sex workers were concerned about union rules, and did not want to have to worry about
breaking them:
A. I would always want the option of being independent too. Even while working in a
union, I would always want the option without worrying about being thrown out for
whatever.
- female street-level sex worker

These viewpoints make it clear that the option of unionizing should be made available to those sex
workers who wish to reap the benefits of union protection.

Who will represent sex workers?

Project participants stated that they want a union run by sex workers, and driven by member
concerns. Sex workers described an ideal union representative as a seasoned sex worker who understands the work, and is caring and reliable:
A. We would all take a part of running it because we all look out for each others best
interests.
A. That is certainly an interesting point. Umm, so basically, just to make sure we are
clear here, because what you are in fact saying is that you would like the union to be
run by sex workers.
A. Yes, More preferably, because they would know . . . they would know what the other
girls are going through and make the other girls more comfortable. A comfortable
environment. You know, like being in a persons shoes. Having . . . just basically
having an idea of what these girls want.
- female street-level sex workers

Unionization of sex workers

Certification
Sex workers should be able to unionize through the normal certification process under Part 3,
Division 1 (Acquisition of bargaining rights) of the LRC. The key issue with respect to unionization
under the existing legal framework is whether sex workers can join an existing union or whether they
can form their own union. While opinion among the sex workers interviewed varied as to how a
sex workers union should be structured, in large part, the B.C. Labour Relations Board will determine sex worker union structure because the Board has the exclusive authority to determine whether
workers can form a new union, join an existing union as a new bargaining unit, or join an existing
bargaining unit.118 Guidelines for the determination of the appropriate bargaining unit are found in
the Board decisions and on its website.119 In seeking to determine whether a group of employees is
appropriate for collective bargaining the Board considers a number of factors, including:
similarity in skills, interests, duties and working conditions;
the physical and administrative structure of the employer;
functional integration;
geography;

118 LRC, supra note 5, s. 22.

119 Guide to the Labour Relations Code, online: Labour Relations Board of B.C. <http://www.lrb.bc.ca/codeguide/chapter4.
htm>.

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the practice and history of the current collective bargaining relationship; and
the practice and history of collective bargaining in the industry or sector.
All of these factors relate to what the Board calls a community of interest. There has to be a
sufficient community of interest for the Board to certify a bargaining unit. Where practical, the Board
prefers large bargaining units rather than small, fragmented groups.
The LRC requires that a union be local or provincial in character, and this can include local
branches of national or international unions. To form a new union, a group of employees must establish a constitution and by laws, sign up members and elect officers. When a union applies to be certified, it must be able to satisfy the Board that it meets the criteria for being defined as a union. More
typically, employees who wish to be unionized will contact, or be contacted by an existing union, and
apply to become a chartered local of that union or join an existing local union. As there are no existing
sex trade unions in B.C. or Canada, the most likely scenario if the laws pertaining to adult prostitution were to be repealed, would be for sex workers to start a new union for the sex trade. However, one
project participant suggested that sex workers could join an existing service industry union:
A. I think that getting backing and going unions would be the service industry. The
service industry does that . . . And it would probably be local 40.
- female street-level sex worker

Another possibility for sex workers to unionize would be to join an existing international sex work
union. Currently, there are sex work unions in several other countries.120 Although presently none
of these unions are international, at some point they may become so. In Britain, the GMB trade
union (Britains General Union that any worker can join) has union recognition agreements for three
lap-dancing clubs. Also, there is a unionized brothel. The London-based International Union of
Sex Workers joined the GMB in 2002. In Germany, the Verdi public sector union is recruiting and
organizing sex workers in Dortmund and Hamburg, where it has helped set up a works council in
one brothel. In the Netherlands, the long-standing Red Thread sex workers rights group has become
part of the Netherlands Trade Union Federation (the FNV), the largest trade union confederation in the Netherlands that is now organizing and representing sex workers. In the U.S., dancers at
the Lusty Lady peepshow in San Francisco gained union recognition in 1996. In Australia, two sex
workers rights groups (Workers in the Sex Industry, and the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria) joined
the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union in 1995. In 2002, the Striptease Artists of
Australia was formed as a union to represent lap dancers and strippers, while UNITE in New Zealand
organises sex workers and dancers.
How might established labour unions in Canada react to sex workers joining their bargaining
units? Some union members may be reluctant to ally themselves with the sex industry. It has been
noted that in other countries such as Australia, Germany and the Netherlands the interest of
established unions in helping sex workers to unionize reflects their attempts to tackle their own
membership declines. In the process, they have recognized the de facto employment relationship that
characterizes much sex work, and have become much more open to supporting prostitutes rights
discourse.121
A similar reaction may well occur in Canada given recent statements from the Canadian Union
of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Canadian Labour Congress. Both of these organisations have
committed themselves to working toward legislative reforms to help end the discrimination expe120 Gregor Gall, The Unionisation of Sex Workers, online: Word Power <http://www.word-power.co.uk/platform/PlatformStyle17>.
121 Ibid.

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rienced by sex workers. At the 2001 CUPE National Convention, members passed a resolution for
CUPE to take the lead in the Canadian Labour Congress for the repeal of the criminal laws pertaining
to prostitution in Canada.122 Also, in 2002, the Canadian Labour Congress, an organization that
represents 2.5 million workers in many different unions, called on the entire labour movement to
support sex workers.123
Union structure
If sex workers form their own unions, how would they structure their bargaining units? For
example, would sex workers doing different types of sex work such as street-level, escort or
massage parlour work be in one bargaining unit, in one union with separate bargaining units, or
in completely separate unions? Opinion among sex workers varied on whether different kinds of sex
workers should be in the same union or bargaining unit, or whether different categories of sex workers
should be in separate unions or bargaining units:124
A. Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think that it should be broken up into society. Like, if
there is a union rep. for like, a residential area, not a residential area, but some kind
of geographical area. Like two union reps for this geographical area, and then they
go back and let everyone know and then they hear the feedback and they take that
back to the table. Yknow . . . Because if you have it from each house, you are going
to have a lot of bickering and a lot of yapping. Not necessarily getting a lot of work
done.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Other project participants wanted to see all sectors of the sex industry in the same union:
Q. So like, would, would people would everybody be out-calls, in-calls, street-level,
would everybody be in the same Union, or would people have different Unions?
A. Same Union.
A. Same Union.
A. Same, yeah.
A. Yeah.
- female street-level sex workers

Another project participant thought the needs of workers in different sectors of the industry would
best be served by different unions:
A. [I]t would have to be a little bit more complex and thought of and planned out.
How would it work with certain, like, would just brothels be in it? Or would there
be everyone? Or what like? There would have to be guidelines. There would have to
be different for like, street-level or different unions for, yknow. I think that if it is
decriminalized, then I think that it would be a necessity. I do not see how it would
work without a system like that. There are a lot of different aspects, there are a lot of
medical, emotional needs, physical and medical needs when you are thinking about
sex work. Like counselling or whatever . . .
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Regardless of what workers might think about union structure, however, the Labour Relations Board
ultimately decides which employees are able to comprise a union.
122 Sex work: Why its a Union Issue, online: CUPE <http://cupe.ca/updir/BackgroundPaper-SexWorkEng.doc>.
123 Ibid.
124 As mentioned earlier, the final decision on the structure of a bargaining unit is up to the Labour Relations Board.

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Strikes and picketing

Part 5 of the LRC sets the rules for picketing and strikes. Some project participants said that they
would be willing to participate in picketing and strike if they were part of a union:
A. So would those strategies be useful to sex workers, striking and picketing?
A. Yeah.
A. Oh sure. Well if there is a reason for something happening, like somebodys, like you
wanna open up a house and its a unionized house of workers and next door they say
well no we dont want this house to open well then you have to picket and strike to
keep it open. Yeah, that would be yknow.
- female street-level sex workers

However, one out-call sex worker argued that, in order for a sex worker union to be successful
picketing and striking, it would have to be in a workplace setting, like that of a massage parlour,
where a group of employees work at one location waiting for business to come through the door.

Section 4: Complaints and grievances

In order to improve working conditions in the sex industry, employment standards should be
created along with a mechanism to enforce them. Presently, for a host of reasons, sex workers have
few, if any, options to report unfair or exploitative workplace conditions. One project participant
suggested that, as things stand, the police are the only available option:
A. Women get fired all the time, not showing up to work, late all the time, customer
complaints. Customers will complain if the girl rushed them out or a girl was too
cold, or not nice enough she would just walk away if something bad happened there,
there is no one she feels she could complain to unless maybe if she went to vice [police]
and said they are pimping the girls in this establishment.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

This is hardly a satisfactory situation, because many sex workers stated that police do not take their
reports seriously. Given that the police are not in a position to establish or enforce employment law,
sex workers feel they have few, if any options, to change poor working conditions. Workers in other
industries have access to a number of different complaint mechanisms to combat poor working conditions. For example, if a worker feels that an employer is violating an OHSR standard, they can make
a complaint to the Workers Compensation Board. Also, where an employee feels that their employer
is violating a provision of the ESA, they can make a written complain to the Employment Standards
Branch (the Branch).
Under the ESA, the Branch reviews the complaint and, if it suspects that a violation is occurring,
it will attempt to mediate a settlement between the employee and the employer. If this is not possible,
then the complaint may be taken to the Employment Standards Tribunal (the Tribunal) for a
hearing. The Tribunal comprises independent members who make a decision based on the facts as
presented to them. Complainants can request that their identity be kept confidential, and it will not
be disclosed unless the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of a proceeding, or the director believes
that the disclosure is in the public interest. The director of the Employment Standards Branch has
access to all relevant information during the course of the investigation.
Sex workers face a number of barriers should they wish to participate in this complaint process.
The main reason that sex workers do not report their employment concerns to government agencies
is that it could attract the attention of police and result in criminal consequences for the worker or
the business owner. Another reason is sex workers do not make complaints is that the existing bodies

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have likely never considered sex industry employment issues. One employer suggested that it is very
important for sex workers to be able to speak out when they feel that they are being exploited in the
workplace:
A. I mean, people in this business dont mobilize very often for a cause. And thats a
good example of a group of people coming together, current employees, ex-employees,
coming together and saying, we, we need to do something about this, its so wrong.
It takes a lot for a sex worker to say, this is wrong. A lot of what we do is wrong. We
swallow our pride everyday, yknow, men will make disgusting comments, and you
just sort-of smile, Oh youre, youre funny! Um yknow, part of the job is swallowing your pride. Because part of the job is playing to the male ego. And, again,
I am sorry for your gender. But part of the job, involves swallowing your pride. So
when it comes to what an employee will take from an employer, quite a bit! And
I mean, I have, myself. And and Im not a pushover. Its just part of your cost to
doing a lot of business. Ive worked for a lot of pigs. And Ive Ive never wondered
yknow, mobilize against someone it would have to be really bad.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

When asked whether they would be interested in having a mechanism for complaints against
employers, many participants said that sex workers need a mechanism for making complaints about
problems in the workplace. However, sex workers raised a number of concerns about a governmental
body, such as the Branch, handling complaints. They were concerned that a government body would
not understand prostitution and the particular workplace issues that sex workers face. Several project
participants felt that any government or other body that is made responsible for overseeing sex workplace standards will need to include sex workers in its membership if it is to understand and address
the problems that sex workers currently experience:
A. Regardless of the section of employer, I definitely think that there needs to be an
arbitration board or a complaint system. Because theres theres been known abuses
in this industry.
A. For sure.
A. And you dont have no voice. Traditionally, the women doing the work have no voice,
if there are problems and complaints.
A. You have to, yeah, establish like somebody that would listen to the hearings though.
A. And I think that should be a board of retired hos.
A. Yeah. Somebody who has been in the industry for years
A. Then it would be like a tribunal, not just a union, a tribunal always, only, like three
voices.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Some project participants identified ways that the existing ESA complaint system would have to be
modified to address the particular needs of sex workers. They felt sex workers should be able to make
anonymous complaints. Also, they suggested that it should be possible to make a complaint at any
time of day or night:
A. That there would be an organization that they could go to report these incidents of
that are occurring and how they are being treated. And so that, something that backs
their involvement. That they wont just be fired, that there is some sort organization
that can come in and say hey this is either the regulations, you cant do this and you
cant do that. So then they get penalized for it . . . You could make the complaint
anonymous, yknow, and just make a number, or something. To make it an anony-

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mous thing. To have it reported, yknow what I mean. Then if they get two of them,
then they will be knowing that there is something going on . . . Then they wouldnt
know which girls are doing that they are doing that. Amongst themselves they
would talk about be having this happen, and they all know it. So that would give
them a chance to do that without losing their jobs . . . So that they could report it. A
phone number, actually, that is a really good idea. A work line. For these agencies,
because the crap that goes on at, yknow, six oclock in the morning when they are
expecting, yknow, is putting your life at risk. And you are pressured into it. You need
to have someone that they dont know and yknow, to put that agency back in line.
Just because of that money-hungry thing, yknow. So. Yeah I think that phone line
thing is a really good idea. Because if they had more than one, and at the time, they
can be there even for that particular problem. A good idea.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Concerns were raised about the loss of privacy that occurs once a complaint is filed with the
government:
Q. Yah? Okay heres another one. If you make a claim for compensation, or if you file a
complaint against your employer, your workplace personal records, including your
medical records, can be inspected by people from the government. How do you feel
about that?
A. I dont like it, but thats something wed have to give up. It truly is . . .
Q. How do you guys feel about that? So Ill just say it again. The issue is whether, you
know, as a result of WCB, you can make a claim or complaint, they can look at your
files.
A. Hmm. I think if they want to do it, theyre going to find a way to do it anyways.
A. Thats right.
A. Cause theyre the government.
- male street-level sex workers

Aside from sex work, there are already concerns about the effectiveness of the ESA complaint process.
There is evidence that the complaint process does not work well for unrepresented workers. As the
Law Commission of Canada notes:
The effectiveness of complaint-driven enforcement mechanisms depends on the ability of
individual workers or their bargaining agent to take action. Unrepresented workers have a very
limited ability to take action against violations of labour standards. Moreover, many workers
are unaware of the protections they do have. Most complaints are made once the employee
leaves the workplace, a fact that demonstrates the real and perceived threat of reprisal against
employees who complain about their employment while on the job [I]t is not uncommon
for workers to be told that any kind of resistance to or complaint about work conditions will
be met with dismissal. Few workers are willing to take the risk. Many also find the complaint
procedure confusing and intimidating. Added to this is the problem of reduced spending on
enforcement and compliance. Budget cuts at all levels of government mean that even where
there is a willingness and desire to assist vulnerable workers, the resources are insufficient for
timely investigation and resolution of complaints.125

The point may be particularly pronounced in the case of what the Law Commission of Canada terms
stigmatized workers, including exotic dancers:

125 Is Work Working, supra note 10, at 22.

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Many freelance dancers could meet the test for employee status, because of the high degree
of control exerted by club owners. However, an exotic dancer, like any other worker with
minimal bargaining power, risks losing her status as a dancer at a particular club if she
complains about work conditions. She also risks being labelled a troublemaker and thus, being
banned from other clubs as well. Moreover, given the stigmatized nature of the work exotic
dancers do, many would be unwilling to risk public exposure by complaining about their work
conditions.126

These considerations are equally applicable to sex workers. We asked sex workers if they felt that
unionization would assist in a grievance process. The process for filing grievances in a unionized workplace is set out in the LRC. The grievance arbitration process is used for settling disputes between the
union and employer. Grievances can be filed for a number of reasons, but they usually arise in situations where an employee has been disciplined or terminated, or where there is a disagreement about
the interpretation of some part of the collective agreement. The grievance arbitration process attempts
to resolve the difference between union and employer representatives. If that fails, the parties appoint
an arbitrator to make a binding ruling. The decision of an arbitrator or arbitration board is final.
One major difference between the process set out for unionized employees and that set out in
the ESA for non-unionized employees is that, under the LRC, the union brings the grievance, not
the employee. The union is the complainant. There was support for having a union representative or
advocates assist workers with their complaints:
A. An advocate.
A. Yes, and having a mediator.
A. A mediator and an advocate, just like any other union would.
A. I think that the ideal situation just in in a house where there is a sort-of collective,
but maybe one person that or two people, that are basically taking care of keeping
the house safe. There should be an advocate or somebody in the house that is voted
on or picked or voted on in a collective to take in the complaint. And go over it, and
talk over with the person making the complaint and make sure that its in the proper
order and all the things that she wants complained about, are in it. Rather than just
a general idea, its an actual complaint and then take it from there.
A. Yeah that would be like having a shop steward. Like in a construction job I could tell
the Shop Steward I gotta bitch between this and this, my employer didnt pay me, I
did a double, he paid me for a blow job . . .
A. And Im pissed off so this is what he owes me Im gonna go to the Shop Steward, the
Shop Stewards gonna go to them and theyre going to fight my battle for me. Be an
advocate.
A. But I guess in this case were talking about a union.
A You would go to your Shop Steward.
A. Thats what they do. They always have a mediator.
- female street-level sex workers

Of course, unionization brings a set of different problems. Even if the employee believes that they
have a legitimate complaint, the union is not obliged to proceed with it. Because it takes ownership of
the complaint, it also decides whether to proceed with it.
Some project participants felt that a non-governmental regulatory body specifically created for sex
workers would be preferable to the existing mechanisms:

126 Ibid.

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A. Well, I mean, a non-governmental regulatory body would probably be [the] best solution there, right?
A. Non-government, yeah.
A. And do other places around the world have sex worker organizations, like that?
A. Theres an International Union of Sex Workers.
A. There is oh is that the one in Edmonton?
A. There is Coyote.
A. Oh yeah, Coyote.
A. London.
A. Oh in London. Oh.
A. If we could get help from something like that I would think we would choose to figure
things out too.
A. Like a backbone, a structure.
A. Yeah. I mean I think that was where we should go for help. To find out to help us
figure out what to do for ourselves. Because they would know. The government, and
these other things, they dont know. They are used to abusing us.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Some participants felt that sex workers will never have the economic power or social acceptance necessary to develop a strong professional body. Perspectives varied significantly as they discussed various
scenarios:
A. I think since its labour, it should be under something thats existing, like a union.
A. So, you dont think there should be like any regulating body for working girls like for
the escorts or for the sex industry?
A. Same as something that doctors and lawyers have? I dont think we have the economic
power, frankly.
A. . . . because being sex trade workers its going to be so different than just normally
working so if there was one [non-governmental professional regulatory body] I think
I would complain to them because they would know whats going on, they would
know everything instead of going to the labour.
A. Im just, Im afraid of starting too many things that are just for prostitutes. I think
we should fit instead of make ourselves stand out.
Q. Why dont you want it to stand out?
A. Because thats where we are now and to me progress would be integration.
A. And not special treatment.
A. Right.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

In the event of decriminalization, sex workers are entitled to the protections that unions offer.
Although some were less supportive of unions than others, many stated that they would favour the
protections that unionization would bring. Unions in Canada are beginning to encourage prostitution
law reform, and unions for sex workers have existed in other countries for several years. Unionization
is another means to improve the empowerment and safety of sex workers. Union leaders in Canada
have a significant role to play in helping sex workers unionize, assuming that they are open to the
guidance of sex workers about the specific characteristics of the sex industry.

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Section 5: Sex workers as independent contractors

The preceding discussion applies to sex workers who wish to be characterized as employees so they
are able to claim benefits and protections under the ESA and other employment related statutes such
as the LRC. However, some sex workers will prefer to work on their own as independent contractors.
Others may be forced to do so as a result of their inability to secure or retain employment. Many sex
workers who remain as independent contractors may be at greatest risk in terms of having to continue
to operate in unsafe working conditions. In response to this concern, many sex workers expressed an
interest in establishing working arrangements with other sex workers.

Section 6: Sex workers operating as a collective

Participants were asked for their opinion about working in a collective. For the purpose of these
discussions a collective was described as a group of sex workers with a common goal and vision
that upholds the equality of its members, and strives to ensure that its members have equal decisionmaking power and responsibility.
Some sex workers were sceptical of the potential for a group of sex workers to work together in an
environment where they work and share profit:
A. Theres just too much pettiness with the girls. Personally, I worked in them, but I
could not stand being around girls with pimp, for that long period of time. And
Right. Whoever, wherever. And them being its just a different mentality, being
in the business and not having your needing or wanting, a desire, or threatened by
it. And whereas, its a competition for money, so then theres the thing that goes on
between girls inside the trade, inside the massage parlours, is that they want that girl
oh, shes new, shes pretty shes taking business, our money now, so then they start
ganging up on that person and they push her out. So thats not really fun, either in
that fairness way, but, yknow, like all those little whiteys will stick together and do
their stupid little things.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

However, for many others, working in a collective environment was an appealing concept:
A. I would [prefer to work as an] independent, but more of a cooperative. Rather than
alone-independent, I think.
A. Like everyone, all the working girls having a share in the . . .
A. In the company, in the house.
A. And for a full service, you would have different times when you are on duty,
answering that phone. And then, yknow, the other time, when you are not, you
are doing the kid-care part. And then, it could even be one separate place, but not
totally.
Q. What do some other people think? Independently or for an employer?
A. Id say independently but I like the idea of a co-op too . . .
A. Yeah cause its always being alone its . . .
A. Yes, the girls would all, with the coop all the decisions would be made cooperatively.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Another project participant felt that it would be appropriate to have an elected position within the
collective for someone to handle complaints:

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A. I think that the ideal situation just in in a house where there is a sort-of collective,
but maybe one person that or two people, that are basically taking care of keeping
the house safe. There should be an advocate or somebody in the house that is voted
on or picked or voted on in a collective to take in the complaint. And go over it, and
talk over with the person making the complaint and make sure that its in the proper
order and all the things that she wants complained about, are in it. Rather than just
a general idea, its an actual complaint and then take it from there.
- female street-level sex worker

Some sex workers felt that working in a collective would create a healthy work environment and a
greater sense of community among women in the industry:
A. So everyone would have the same goal like the girls would want to make money
and they want to . . .
A. Equal, yes.
A. And I dont want to make more than this girl, but we all do the same.
A. The same amount of work.
A. It might help the cooperation instead of the competition actually, mightn it?
A. That would be something to be overcome maybe too. Because it is fierce competition.
But I like the idea of the co-operative or a collective. It seems to me . . . its the isolation factor is the biggest hardship in a way . . . . And for a lot of women there, thats
the only place, that if you dont show up, after a while, somebody is concerned and
wondering where you are. Cause for a lot of those women, theres no-one else. And
youre not necessarily all that close to anybody at WISH. But its the camaraderie,
right? You dont have to get like personal Without being personal. Its really beautiful. But it really struck me a few times, that its all that anybody has. Because you get
so isolated because you are out-cast and you are working alone. Like bus drivers, they
dont work alone. But they have such camaraderie between each other, and they are
always looking out for each other and they hardly ever make each other late to make
each other wait a shift, cause you might have to drive for two hours, to get off that bus,
if youre late. Yknow if the other guys late for a shift. So they all they are like us, they
all work alone, but they really have an acute understanding of the hardships . . .
A. Cab drivers are the same way.
A. Yeah, yeah. And they go to each others rescue, like that. Because they really know the
hardship and stuff. So they have a brotherliness, that weve got to develop.
- female street-level sex workers

General, the sex workers we interviewed embraced the idea of working in a collective as a means of
creating a safe, egalitarian and non-exploitive work environment.

Formal collective arrangements

While sex workers would be free to establish informal collaborative or cooperative structures, they
may wish to consider formalizing these by establishing a legal corporation or cooperative.
Incorporation would enable workers to formally set out the respective rights and obligations of
the owner members, as well as rules and decision-making procedures. Since the cost of forming a
company is currently less than $500, this should not be prohibitive for all but the most impoverished
sex workers, if shared between four or five workers.
The major attraction of establishing a formal corporate entity is that it would enable the owner/
workers to be hired by the company as employees in effect, they would hire themselves. While

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this would have little practical significance under the ESA as the employees would also be the owners
of the company, it would facilitate access to workers compensation and Canada Pension Plan benefits. Also, it could be used to facilitate the establishment of a pension or retirement scheme for the
owner/employees However, sex workers would still not be eligible for employment insurance since the
Act requires that employees and the corporate employer be at arms length.
In addition to these other benefits, it may be useful to establish a corporation or cooperative
because it could act as a support and lobby organization for all sex workers. Such an organization
could offer a number of services, including:
advice;
training;
access to supplies through bulk purchasing;
income replacement insurance as an alternative to Employment Insurance;
lobbying; and
dispute resolution.
The development of sex worker corporations or cooperatives would provide several of the functions that unions serve, but on a potentially broader scale, as it could function like a professional association for sex workers. Indeed, an aggregation of such entities could constitute an association with an
elected board composed of peers. An association comprising and operated solely by sex workers would
be best suited to providing the above noted services in a manner that is both sensitive and appropriate
for sex workers. Also, sex workers could benefit from the united front offered by a professional association to end exploitation and violence in the workplace.

Employment benefits and protections for sex workers recommendations

Repeal the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution
1. Repealing the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution (ss. 210, 211, 212(1), 212(3) and 213)
is the critical first step towards providing sex workers with access to the employment and labour
protections that are generally afforded to workers under the laws of B.C. and Canada.

Employment standards
Employment standards branch
2. Provide sensitivity training and education to all levels of staff at the Employment Standards
Branch so that they are able to handle cases involving sex workers in a sensitive and respectful
manner.
Recognition of sex work as work
3. Consensual adult sex work should be recognized as work.
4. Sex workers should be given full access to the rights and protections found in the ESA, LRC, WCA
and OHSR.
5. Persons who are coerced or forced to engage in prostitution against their will should have full
access to the protections found under the criminal laws of Canada, and specifically those provisions which prohibit sexual and physical assault, harassment, threatening, and extortion.

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Sex workers as employees versus independent contractors

6. Sex workers should be provided information to assist them to understand the different rights and
privileges that are offered to workers who are classified as being employees as opposed to independent contractors.
7. Sex workers who are deemed to be independent contractors by their employers, but whose
employment circumstances fit the legal definition of employee, should be given full access to the
Employment Standards Branch, Labour Relations Board or a court of law in order to seek recognition as employees, and have their rights protected as such.
Hiring practices
8. Employees in the sex industry should be provided with full access to the protections found in the
ESA relating to hiring practices, including the right to be fully informed about the nature of the
position and the conditions of employment.
Coercion
9. Job applicants and employees should have full access to the Employment Standards Branch and
the police in cases where, during the interview process or at any other stage of employment,
an employer coerces or forces a job applicant or employee to engage in sexual activity with the
employer or any other person.
Children and youth
10. The conduct of employers and clients should continue to be subject to the Criminal Code provisions that prohibit obtaining for consideration, or communicating with anyone for the purpose of
obtaining for consideration, the sexual services of a person who is under the age of 18 years.127
Limits on employment contracts
11. Enact a section in the ESA that sets out that the fact that a person has entered into a contract
to provide commercial sexual services does not of itself constitute consent for the purposes of
the criminal law if he or she does not consent, or withdraws his or her consent, to providing a
commercial sexual service. In other words, despite entering into an employment contract, a sex
worker must always maintain the right to refuse to provide sexual services and the right to withdraw consent at any time. This section should explicitly state that it applies to both employees and
independent contractors.
12. Enact a section in the ESA that permits persons to create contracts for provision of commercial
sexual services subject to the following proviso: despite any terms of a contract for the provision of
commercial sexual services, a person may, at any time, refuse to provide, or to continue to provide,
a commercial sexual service to any other person. If a person refuses to provide or continue to
provide a commercial sexual service, the other party may recover damages for a commercial sexual
service that is not performed. This section should explicitly apply to both employees and independent contractors.
13. Provide accessible plain-language information to employers and workers about the specific limitations that must be considered when drafting sex work employment contracts.

127 CCC, supra note 1, ss. 212(2), 212(2.1), 212(4).

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Termination
14. Enact legislation that stipulates that refusal to provide a commercial sexual service to any person
does not constitute just cause for the termination of an employee.
Terms of employment
15. Provide employees in the sex industry with the wage protections found in the ESA in order to
ensure that they do not earn less than the minimum wage.
16. Provide employees in the sex industry with information about what job training and business costs
the employer must pay under the provisions of the ESA.
17. Provide employees in the sex industry with full access to the Employment Standards Branch if
they are being subject to illegal penalties or fines by their employer.
18. Provide employees in the sex industry with information about their rights in relation to hours of
work, overtime, statutory holidays, vacation time and sick days.
Privacy
19. Protect personal information about sex workers and their clients by protecting that information in
existing B.C. privacy legislation.
Complaints and grievances
20. The existing grievance process for employees in B.C. is problematic in terms of its ability to handle
the employment issues that sex workers face. This system must be evaluated with the specific needs
and issues that confront marginalized workers, and particularly sex workers.
21. Sex workers should be supported if they chose to look further into the possibility of developing
their own professional regulatory body.
Unionization
22. Respect the rights of sex workers under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenant for Economic, Social and Civil Rights by decriminalizing employer/employee
relationships within the sex industry, and by providing sex workers with full access to the unionization process as set out under the LRC and the Canada Labour Code.
23. The Canadian Labour Congress should support the repeal of the criminal laws surrounding adult
prostitution and support sex workers in their efforts to become unionized.
24. Provide resources and information to sex worker groups for further discussions, consultation and
research on the question of union formation, certification and the creation of effective bargaining units.
25. Provide sensitivity training and education to all levels of Labour Relations Board staff and
members so that they are able to handle cases involving sex workers in a sensitive and respectful
manner.
Workers Compensation
26. Repeal the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution and provide sex workers with equal access to
the protections found in the WCA.
27. Ensure that coverage for independent workers is affordable and practical.
28. Add HIV/AIDS to the list of compensable diseases in Schedule B in order to protect workers in
any profession who face the possibility of contracting HIV in the course of their employment, and

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provide coverage for post exposure prophylaxis for workers who may have contracted HIV in the
course of their employment.
29. Acknowledge pregnancy as a workplace risk that must be accommodated within the WCA.
30. Inform sex workers, clients and employers that, in order engage in commercial sex as safely as
possible, and in order for workers to make a WCA claim, workers may be obliged to take reasonable steps to protect their health, and the health of their clients, through the use of protective
equipment.
31. Explain disease infection disclosure requirements to workers, clients and employers.
32. Do not impose mandatory HIV testing or medical certificates for sex workers, but do provide safe,
easy and confidential access to testing for workers and clients.
33. Engage in further consultations with sex workers on the issue of whether to enact legislation
prohibiting a person from providing or receiving commercial sexual services unless he or she has
taken all reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate barrier is used when those services involve
vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, or any other activity with a similar or greater risk of sexually
transmitted infection.
34. Enact legislation to ensure that a persons entitlement to Workers Compensation is not lost or
affected if he or she refuses to engage in, or refuses to continue to engage in sex work.
Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
35. Sex workers rights should be protected under occupational health and safety legislation.
36. The application of any occupational health and safety regulations to sex work should be undertaken only in careful consultation with sex workers.
37. Provide sex workers with protections found in the OHSR and require that employers provide safe
physical working conditions.
38. Issues around drug and/or alcohol use on the job should be addressed through the leadership and
direction of sex workers.
39. Educate employers about their obligation to provide personal protective equipment and adequate
washing facilities to their staff.
40. Give sex workers access to educational materials and training on occupational health and safety
and involve sex workers in the creation of these materials.
41. Subject employers in the sex industry to the provisions in the WCA and OHSR that oblige
employers to ensure safe physical working conditions.
42. Ensure that any legislation relating to condom use enables sex industry workers and employers to
establish working conditions that support consistent condom use,
43. Do not create intrusive legislation that is based on a punitive approach to sexually transmitted
disease infection.
44. Consult with sex workers to develop a list of personal protective equipment items that employers
must provide to sex workers pursuant to WCA s. 115(2)(d).
45. Ensure that the application of any OHSR laws to sex work is only undertaken after careful consultation with sex workers.

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PART 4: Income Assistance AND

Employment Insurance
Income Assistance: In 2002, the Government of B.C. introduced the
Employment and Assistance Act (the EAA) and Employment and Assistance
Regulations (the EAR). Together, these statutes set out the provinces
welfare program. Sex workers who participated in this project were critical
of four aspects of B.C.s welfare legislation: the work search and employment related requirements; the two-year prior work experience requirement;
the declaration of income requirement; and the three-week waiting period
requirement.
Work search/employment related requirements
In order to apply for income assistance, a person must meet a series of requirements. One of these
involves conducting and providing evidence of a three-week work search. The only exception to this
requirement is if the applicant can prove that such a work search would cause undue hardship. Once
a person has completed this work search, and if they are found to be eligible for income assistance,
they must agree to an employment plan setting out the basis of a continued work search.
According to the EAA, if at any time a recipient of income assistance fails to accept suitable
employment, is fired from employment for just cause, leaves employment voluntarily without just
cause or fails to continue searching for work, that persons income assistance will be reduced or
cancelled altogether. Because the EAA and the EAR do not provide definitions of suitable employment and just cause, it is unclear how these policies would apply if prostitution is decriminalized.
For example, in a decriminalized context, it is possible that prostitution would fit the definition of
suitable employment, and that income assistance recipients would be compelled to look for, accept,
and remain in prostitution.
Sex workers were asked how they felt about this possibility. Many respondents thought that
income assistance applicants should not be compelled to accept employment in prostitution as a
condition of welfare eligibility.
A. I dont think that you should be forced [to work] at McDonalds, nor should you be
forced to work as a sex worker too [in order to qualify for income assistance]. You
should not be forced to work in sex work.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Another worker suggested that prostitution should always be a last resort, and usually is not a choice
that someone with options would make.

 Employment and Assistance Regulations, B.C. Reg. 263/2002, s. 3.

 Ibid., ss. 3(1)(a), 3(1)(b).
 Ibid., s. 3(2).
 Employment and Assistance Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 40, s.13.

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A. Well I should say sex work, being in the sex trade is not an option; its just like a
survival thing. I mean . . . its usually . . . not by choice . . . . If someone were forcing
you to go back, . . . thats like a pimp, thats kind of saying, oh you have to go risk
your life. They do not know those circumstances. Its not like quitting a job, because
its not a job, yknow. Its a way to live.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A male sex worker felt that the danger sex workers face is a strong reason to never force anyone into
prostitution:
A. I dont think they should be forced into the trade [by an income assistance worker]
because of things that could happen in the industry as being a sex worker harmful
to the mind like bad dates and drug use . . .
- male street-level sex worker

In arguing that income assistance applicants should not be compelled to prostitute, and be denied
welfare if they do not, sex workers emphasized that prostitution is an intensely personal choice; the
government should not be able to influence that decision:
A. I just think that would be like the government pimping you . . . its just up to the person.
- male street-level sex worker

Another sex worker suggested that if financial aid workers are in a position to tell a person that they
must prostitute, then they should personally provide the employment training.
A. You know what Id say to [being forced into sex work by income assistance]? . . .
make that worker go out and show us how to do it first then.
- male street-level sex worker

Several workers stated that women and men must have autonomy and control over the decision to
enter prostitution.
A. Yeah, I dont think thats a very good idea [to make people look for sex work in order
to qualify for income assistance]. I mean, it got to be a choice. You know, I made this
choice. Its what Ive chosen to do. Nobodys made me do it. You know, its got to be a
choice.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. [Forcing someone to find sex work before qualifying for income assistance is] government slavery . . . Thats enslaving a woman into prostitution by the government.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. As a sex worker you cant have anybody say I want you to go out there and sell your
ass to get this money. It just doesnt happen. We go out there for ourselves and the
minute somebody pipes in to do it for them then its not a good situation.
- male street-level sex worker

Other sex workers pointed out that prostitution is not suitable work for everyone:
A. Thats sort of like saying that you could, you know, climb buildings and be a window
washer but youre afraid of heights or something, you know like, and not mention
that some jobs like they cant force you to do. Like they cant force you to be an astronaut. They cant force you to do things that scare the hell out of you or are against
your religion.
- male street-level sex worker

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A. Because not everybody has the emotional control to be a sex worker, or detachment.
Detachment to be a sex worker.
- female street-level sex worker

Many sex workers felt that prostitution is a very specialized type of work:
A. I believe that it is a very hard job to do, you are basically a sexual surrogate . . . and
I agree that it takes a certain . . . personality type to do that kind of job. Its a very,
very specialized occupation.
- female street-level sex worker

A. . . . to make people applying for income assistance go out and you know if you dont
go out and work on the street-you dont get benefits. Well of course not.
A. Theres a difference between selling your ass and selling a hamburger. The hamburgers
not personal.
- male street-level sex workers

By way of comparison, New Zealands Prostitution Law Reform Act 2003 (the PRA) contains a
provision which states that a persons refusal to work as a sex worker does not affect their entitlement to income assistance or other benefits provided by the government. Many sex workers strongly
supported this approach. However, some sex workers took the opposing perspective, arguing that
prostitution should be understood as suitable employment for the purpose of the EAA and EAR.
They believed that it is contradictory to argue that prostitution is legitimate work while also arguing
that it should not be considered suitable employment for the purposes of income assistance eligibility:
A. Actually Im not sure they should get benefits then if they could become a sex worker.
What gives them any right to benefits like when there is something that they can do
which others before them have had to do to survive, right? Like I mean if they want
to whine and say Oh well, I dont want to do that. I want benefits. Well then they
should work double hard to go find something else they could do, right? So they dont
have that as a last option.
- male street-level sex worker

A. Well if theyre gonna consider [sex work] a form of employment, right, then it should
apply all across the board.
- male street-level sex worker

That being said, there are strong arguments in favour of emulating the New Zealand model, so that
income assistance applicants who do not want to be involved in sex work are not forced to by the state.
Two-year employment requirement
The EAA imposes a general requirement, subject to numerous exceptions, that in order to qualify
for income assistance applicants must have worked for at least 840 hours in each of the two years
prior to making an application. At the present time, hours worked in prostitution are not considered
legitimate employment, nor do sex workers necessarily accurately record them. For this reason, we
asked sex workers if their hours worked should be considered as contributing to the 840 hours and, if
so, how would they go about maintaining a record.
Participants took the view that applicants should be allowed to include hours spent in prostitution
in order to meet this requirement.
 Prostitution Reform Act, 2003 (N.Z.) 2003/28, s.18
 Employment and Assistance Act, s. 8; Employment and Assistance Regulations, s. 18.

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A. Absolutely [hours working in the sex trade should count towards income assistance
eligibility]
A. Yeah [time as a sex worker should count towards income assistance eligibility] but if
the people are embarrassed to admit it, I guess it can be optional. To those who dont
want to have it in the record that they did that.
- male street-level sex worker

When asked whether there should be a special exemption from the two-year employment requirement
for sex workers, some participants argued that sex workers should not be exempt:
A. We dont want special privileges.
- female street-level sex worker

A. Yeah, if prostitution is legalized then, yes, they should have to prove theyve worked
[in order to qualify for income assistance].
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some thought that counting those hours would be either embarrassing or unworkable:
A. Its impossible to count the hours that you work per day.
A. I would feel degraded.
- female street-level sex worker

Others expressed concern about loss of privacy:

A. The proving hours thing What that means to me is is exposure. Again like this is,
yes its a business, but its private, its your sexuality. You dont throw that out for the
government to look at.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. Yeah, if prostitution is legalized then, yes, they should have to prove theyve worked.
Of course if it is legalized, I cant see how [sex workers are going to prove the amount
of hours that they have worked] how [are they] going to get receipts?
- female off-street out-call sex worker

The issue of prostitution aside, Pivot believes that the two-year employment rule creates an unreasonable barrier for individuals in need of welfare, and should be repealed. However, if this section
of the EAA remains in force, then prostitution should be recognized as employment and sex work
should count as contributing to the requisite 840 hours. Further, some kind of provision needs to
be made that acknowledges the difficulties some sex workers may have in keeping track of the hours
they work. For example, in order to accept prostitution as contributing towards the two-year requirement, employment and assistance workers may need to accept an applicants word. However, repeal
of the criminal laws relating to prostitution may result in improved systems of record keeping, such as
declaration of prostitution earnings in income tax returns, which could be used as proof of hours of
work in the sex industry.
Declaring income
Both earned and unearned income is usually deducted from a recipients income assistance
payment. However, if a recipient is classified as a Person with Disability (PWD) or as a Person with
Persistent and Multiple Barriers (PPMB) to employment, he or she is eligible for a $500 earnings
exemption. To be classified as a PWD or PPMB, a person needs a physicians opinion of a current
medical condition.
 Persons with Disabilities Fact Sheets, online: Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance <http://www.eia.gov.bc.ca/factsheets/2006/EarningsExemption.htm>.

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In the event that the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution are repealed, sex workers on
income assistance will be required to declare their income. Unless a sex worker qualifies for PWD or
PPMB, every dollar earned would be deducted from his or her income assistance check.
Sex workers were asked what they thought about having to declare income earned while on
income assistance, and then be subject to deductions as a result. Our participants suggested that, as
things stand, income assistance is not enough to live on; to have income earned from prostitution
deducted would cause hardship. One person described several factors that make it important for sex
workers to have access to a financial safety net, including the transience of many workers, the inconsistency of their earnings, and the personal toll of working in prostitution:
A. The thing is too, the sex trade, a lot of women that have been in the business, theyre
in it for a transient period of time. Theyre in and out throughout their lives at
different times when they need the money, it may not be a full-time thing for them
. . . . The sex trade is up and down. Its not a regular steady [job] . . . . . . Its like
some days are bad, some days are good, and some days are just in between. And
maybe I dont feel like working every day. Its a little hard on your brain. You dont
always want to do sex trade every single day. It gets to you so you may only work
part-time, which again reduces your income. I dont know, its hard to keep a tab on
some things like that. And if you get into the streetwalkers and the girls who are less
educated and drug addicts, it could be very hard to nail down their income or get
anything from them.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

One sex worker suggested that involvement in prostitution is already a result of the inadequacy of
current welfare rates.
A. Half of us probably end up in the sex trade because we are waiting for that next
welfare cheque to begin with, and we got kids to feed. . . .What are you going to do?
You got three kids. Your welfare cheque takes you where?
- female street-level sex worker

One participant supported the idea that sex workers should be able to legitimately claim prostitution
income, because it would be a relief to be able to be open about being involved in sex work.
A. I mean I would like to think that . . . if prostitution should be legalized, if you are on
disability, then a certain amount of income we all claim. I think it would be fabulous to claim that and be honest about who you are and what you do.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Others remarked that, at times, prostitution income is already being deducted from income assistance
cheques.
A. Basically, with myself, I had a child when I was 17 years old and I was on Social
Assistance at that time, and basically Social Assistance found out that
was a prostitute and cut me off Social Assistance because I had an income.
So I dont know what the difference really is. Yeah . . . it doesnt make . . . yeah . . . I
mean its happening here already.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Judging by the low income assistance rates currently available in B.C., it is hardly surprising that
 Seth Klein and Andrea Long, A Bad Time to Be Poor: An Analysis of B.C.s New Welfare Policies (June 2003) online: Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives <www.policyalternatives.ca>.

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sex workers were concerned that prostitution income, once declared, would be deducted from their
income assistance. In order to remedy this situation, be it in a criminalized or decriminalized context,
the B.C. government should raise its income assistance amounts to reflect the realistic cost associated
with having a reasonable standard of living. In addition, the B.C. government should grant earnings
exceptions to all income assistance recipients.
Three-week waiting period
Before an income assistance applicant qualifies for income assistance, he or she must complete a
three-week work search. During this three-week waiting period the applicant does not receive any
income assistance. This waiting period means that some people may have no financial resources for
weeks at a time; as a result, they may have to engage in prostitution to survive.
Several respondents stated that a three-week waiting period is inappropriate for persons in
desperate need, and for sex workers who are trying to exit the sex industry.
A. Those three weeks [of waiting for income assistance] screwed as far as I am concerned.
I mean you got to consider that most people, if theyre in the survival sex trade say,
they are not usually there because that is their first job of choice.
- female street-level sex worker

A. And that three weeks is a long time to wait. I mean, whos to say you are going to
make your money for the three weeks, that you are going to be able to eat for the next
three weeks while you are waiting for welfare? Thats not necessarily true. Just because
you are in the sex trade, does not mean that you make a lot of money. Not always.
Theres lots of days that you dont make nothing. three weeks is a long time to wait for
welfare.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. Well theres three chances I mean three weeks of chances to go missing and get
harmed. So it could mean loss of children, loss of life, loss of livelihood cause you got
a month of hurtin cause you cant turn the tricks no more. Then you got three weeks
of that.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Regardless of whether adult prostitution is decriminalized, the province should eliminate the threeweek waiting period. This legislative change is necessary in order to assist sex workers who wish to
exit the industry and to ensure that no one is forced to enter prostitution as a result of having to wait
three-weeks for income assistance.

Employment Insurance
The Employment Insurance (EI) program is administered through the Government of Canadas
Department of Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSD), and is set out in the Employment Insurance Act (the EIA). The legislation says that employers must make deductions from each
employees paycheque and remit those funds to HRSD which then provides insurance to employees
who experience periods of unemployment. Regular benefits are available to employees who lose
their job through no fault of their own, such as shortage of work, redundancy, or seasonal lay-offs. EI
also funds maternity, parental, and sickness benefits. EI provides for compassionate care benefits if an
employee has to be away from work temporarily to provide care or support to a family member who is
gravely ill with a significant risk of death. EI is only available to employees; consequently, in the case
 Employment Insurance Act, S.C. 1996, c. 23.

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of independent contractors, an employer is not required to make EI deductions or remittances.

When an employee applies for EI benefits, he or she must provide a extensive personal information to HRSD, including their Social Insurance Number, a Record of Employment from each job
held over the previous 52 weeks, complete bank information, a detailed version of facts if an employee
quit or was dismissed from any job in the last 52 weeks, and details regarding the most recent employment and the salary received. If applying for sickness or compassionate care benefits, an applicant
must provide a medical certificate.
Sex workers supported the idea of participating in the EI program. One explained her predicament when unable to work and had no safety net to carry her through a period of unemployment.
A. I, right now, have nothing. And it has been really hard trying to get up and there is
no services really . . . And even what is there, just everything has been cut. So if there
was unemployment [insurance], if they are paying from . . . [the] money that they
make, then they would receive unemployment, an income insurance, so I think that
is a good idea. And than that protects them to come back into yknow it decreases
the amount of space between the square world and the live world by allowing it to
have something integrated. Yknow, its like a, what would you call it? Just a package
in-between. So it makes it kind of easier.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Much like any other kind of worker, sex workers face periods of unemployment, including maternity
leave:
A. . . . maternity leave is something that interests me. Because I have so many people
just go on really hard times because, again, people dont have any savings in this business. And I am sure the hard person in all of us, says, oh thats their own fault, then.
Why arent they more responsible? Why dont they manage their own money? Blah,
blah, blah. But it doesnt really matter why. The fact of the matter is they dont. No
one ever really has any money. No one is a broad term. Ninety-five percent, doesnt
have any money saved. So, when they find out that they are pregnant, and no one
ever really plans a pregnancy, unless they have money saved. So, lets say most people
havent planned their pregnancy, and they find out they are pregnant, they realistically have four more months to make enough money to last another year which is
virtually impossible. And this is where you see people, taking a lot of chances. This is
these are the girls that will steal from clients, these are the girls that will steal from
each other, these are the girls that are all of a sudden they are desperate, because
no matter what, by about the five month mark, they cant hide it anymore. And they
have zero income, and they go from a lifestyle of a 25 hundred dollar a month rent,
$800 car payment and you cant go from that lifestyle to no income. Where do you
go? Where do you go get a job at five months pregnant and for what kind of money?
So maternity leave is an interesting one. Because I dont know what the solution is?
But theres need to be something in place for I dont know. I dont know what. Then
you have people hiding their pregnancy.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Many sex workers felt that they would benefit considerably by being eligible for maternity leave:
Q. Yup, what about EI and maternity leave?
A. Oh for sure, that would be wonderful. I always think about that, Im thinking about
having a baby lately and Ive just been like scrimping my money together because
obviously you cant work when you are pregnant. I have been thinking a lot about

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that lately. My only option is to save my money and to make sure that I have some for
the year I stay home.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Recipients of EI have to satisfy a complex set of criteria. For example, when receiving regular
benefits during periods of unemployment, an EI recipient must be able to demonstrate that they are
willing and able to work at all times. They must be able to demonstrate that they are looking actively
for work, and maintain a record of their work search. Claimants can be disentitled to benefits if they
fail to prove that, on any given working day, they were capable and available for work and unable
to find suitable employment.10 In light of these criteria, would HRSD see prostitution as suitable
employment, and under what circumstances would it be viewed as such? Depending on the interpretation, HRSD could disqualify a claimant for refusing to look for or accept employment as a sex
worker. Again, the New Zealand legislation deals with this eventuality by providing that a persons
refusal to engage in sex work does not affect his or her entitlement to benefits such as EI. The sex
workers we talked to agreed that this type of provision should be included in the Canadian EIA.
Even if sex work is completely decriminalized, Canadas EI scheme will still exclude specific groups
of sex workers who may need financial support during periods of unemployment. For example, independent contractors do not have EI deducted from their pay, and therefore cannot claim EI benefits.
A significant proportion of sex workers are currently categorized as self-employed workers or independent contractors, and will likely continue to be so even if the criminal laws are repealed. Therefore, it
is likely that many sex workers will continue to be barred from participating in EI.
Part-time workers and workers who are faced with fluctuating levels of work often are also
excluded from EI. Many of these workers are ineligible for EI because they do not meet the minimum
number of hours of insurable employment that is required during the qualifying period to be eligible
to claim EI. Most people will need between 420 and 700 insurable hours of work during their qualifying period to be eligible, depending on the unemployment rate in their region at the time of filing
their claim for benefits.11 These workers can be denied benefits even after having paid into the system.
Many sex workers currently work part time or experience fluctuating levels of work and, therefore,
could be denied benefits for not having worked an adequate number of hours in the period before
they became unemployed. Sex workers will benefit from the EI scheme if it is restructured to allow
self-employed workers to pay into the EI program, and if part-time and other vulnerable workers are
not subject to a requirement that they work a minimum number of hours of insurable employment in
their qualifying period.

Income Assistance recommendations

1. B.C. should enact legislation that is modelled after the New Zealand PRA which states that a
persons entitlement to social assistance may not be cancelled or affected in any other way by his or
her refusal to work, or to continue to work, as a sex worker.
2. Repeal the EAA two-year employment rule because it creates an unreasonable barrier for individuals who need welfare.
3. If the two-year employment rule remains in force, then prostitution should be recognized as
employment under the two-year employment requirement for income assistance.

10 Ibid, s. 18.
11 Ibid., s. 55.

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4. B.C. employment and assistance workers should include prostitution as a form of work contributing to the 840 hours that must be worked in each of the preceding two years in order to qualify
for welfare.
5. Income assistance rates should be raised to reflect current living costs and to provide a reasonable
standard of living.
6. All income assistance recipients should be allowed income exemptions.
7. Eliminate the three-week waiting period.

Employment Insurance recommendations

1. Enforce the requirement that employers in the sex industry pay into EI on behalf of their
employees.
2. The EIA should contain a provision which states that refusal to work in the sex industry does not
affect a persons entitlements to EI.
3. EIA should be amended so that self-employed workers are able to pay into the EI program.
4. Part-time and vulnerable workers should not be subject to a requirement that they work a
minimum number of hours of insurable employment in their qualifying period in order to qualify
for EI.

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PART 5: Income Tax LAW

Paying income tax and claiming income: Canadas Income Tax Act, R.S.C.
1985, (5th Supp.) c. 1 (the ITA) requires that every person who is a
resident in Canada pay tax annually on his or her taxable income. The
requirement to pay income tax even applies to income earned through
criminal activities. Sex workers are legally required to file tax returns and
pay income tax on income received from prostitution, even if they commit a
criminal offence in the course of their work. Many sex workers pay income
tax on their earnings in the escort business or in massage parlours. However,
some sex workers do not pay income tax, and have been somewhat shielded
from tax authorities because of the relative anonymity and secrecy that
results from the criminalized status of their work.
Income that independent or self-employed sex workers receive is classified as business income.
If sex workers are employees, they must report their salary, wages and other remuneration, including
gratuities to Revenue Canada as employment income. Income from criminal activities is deemed
to be business income subject to income tax. With the repeal of prostitution laws, the payment of
income tax by sex workers may become increasingly necessary as Revenue Canada increases its efforts
to collect tax from them.
Sex workers expressed a variety of opinions on the subject of taxation. Project participants raised
five main issues regarding taxation and prostitution:
Gaining access to the benefits of being a tax payer.
Protecting privacy interests of sex workers.
Calculating income from prostitution.
Calculating deductible business expenses.
Avoiding liability for retroactive tax.
 Income Tax Act, R.S.C. 1985 (5th Supp.), c. 1, s. 2.
 Ibid., s. 5(1).
 Ibid., s. 248(1) defines employment as the position of an individual in the service of some other person (including Her Majesty or
a foreign state or sovereign) and servant or employee means a person holding such a position. The status of sex workers as either
independent contractors or employees will likely take on new significance in a decriminalized environment. Currently many owners
of massage parlours and escort agencies treat sex workers as independent contractors and do not make contributions to E.I. If operating as independent contractors, sex workers are responsible for paying their own CPP, WCB, EI, etc.) See Revenue Canada pamphlet
RC4110 Employee or Self-employed? There are four common law tests used to help determine whether a person is an independent
contractor or an employee for tax purposes (Wiebe Door Services Ltd. v MNR, [1986] 2 C.T.C. 200 (F.C.A.); 671122 Ontario Ltd. v.
Sagaz Industries Canada Inc., [2001] 2 S.C.R. 983). Under the control test the more control the payor has over the service provider
the more likely there is an employment relationship; under the ownership of tools test if the service provider provides his or her own
tools for the job, there is more likely an independent contractor relationship; under the entrepreneurial test if the service provider has a chance to make more profit and has a risk of loss, there is more likely an independent contractor relationship; under the
integration/economic dependence test if the service provider wouldnt be providing services but for the existence of the payor, there
is more likely an employment relationship. No test is determinative of a service providers status - it is a fact specific inquiry and the
entire relationship between the employer and tax payer is examined.
 Revenue Canada Interpretation Bulletin, IT256R, online: Revenue Canada <http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it256r/it256re.html>.

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Several sex workers stated that they declare their income to Revenue Canada:
A. Many people like myself had to lie to find a way to claim income because without
claiming income you can never buy anything, . . . Many people own their own
homes or their apartments, or have RRSPs and RESPs for their children. You cant do
these types of things if you dont claim an income. Yes theres many people who claim
nothing again that would be the exception, because really you cant live without
claiming [something].
- female former off-street in-call sex worker

A. I do know that escorts . . . pay their taxes . . . most escorts anyway, or a large number
of them do pay their taxes. The few that dont, they really live hand to mouth.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Other participants commented that many sex workers do not claim their income:
A. Well maybe there is like, five percent that I . . . actually see pay tax, because they need
to, if they want to ever buy anything. And I know lots of people that have bought
their homes and or have gone onto start a business. Many have gone on to start a
business and failed. But those are the only people that claim their income.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Some sex workers said that they do not claim their income because of the criminalization of
prostitution:
A. Well I just dont think anyone should claim unless its legal.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

One sex worker was fundamentally opposed to the idea that the government should receive any of the
proceeds from prostitution because that places the government in the same position as a pimp:
A. No, I refuse to pay taxes to the government for selling my body. That makes the
government legalized pimps.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some emphasized the hypocrisy of the government taxing prostitution while at the same time
criminalizing living on the avails of prostitution:
A. No, I refuse to pay taxes to the government for selling my body. That makes the
government legalized pimps.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. Now as far as paying taxes go, it really depends on the person . . . . In fact many
people think that would be living off the avails and dont think that the government
should earn tax on that if the profession is illegal.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Overall, sex workers felt that the repeal of the criminal laws surrounding prostitution may mean
increased pressure to pay taxes on income generated from prostitution. Sex workers predicted a range
of benefits and disadvantages arising from this change.

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Benefits of paying tax

The benefits of inclusion
Sex workers stated that there would be benefits to paying income tax and becoming part of the
system. Some participants said that paying tax would increase the social acceptance of sex workers,
and promote their greater inclusion and equality in society. Some sex workers suggested that their
status as non-tax payers increases their marginalization:
A. The taxes thats the real marginalizing factor between us, what we do and the rest of
society. Thats what says youre lower than a snakes belly. You dont pay taxes; I do . . .
I want to be equal to the guy whose got the condo near where Im working, in a highrise somewhere, hes working right, hes paying taxes, that way he cant look down on
us and say theyre not paying taxes right? You dont have the police and law enforcement and everything, you dont get that, theyre not targeting you especially cause
youre not a tax payer right?
Q. So you think that paying taxes would make you more equal-in society?
A. Yep.
A. Oh good point, cause everybody else pays taxes.
A. See when youre, like I said Ill use myself as an example, when I was homeless, a
homeless drug-addict slash fag or whatever, cause I worked the stroll, everybody
pisses on you. Everybody thinks theyre better than you and mainly, a lot of the
biggest thing, is the thing of society where if you sell your body youre the lowest scum
of the earth. I think if you paid taxes like he said. I think you would make it equal.
- male street-level sex workers

Others commented that paying tax would reduce the stigma associated with being a sex worker:
A. Well the basic stigmatism of a known sex trade worker, which is something that is
going to be, in the next 10 years a lot of that attitude is going to go out the window,
I hope. But ah Other than that, no I really cant see I think it would benefit
everything to pay taxes.
- female street-level sex worker

Some commented that paying tax would increase sex workers credibility in the eyes of the general
public:
A. I think that we should actually pay into taxes and that might actually give us a little
boost as far as society looking down on us.
A. Right.
A. Credibility.
A. Yeah, credibility.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Across all genders and areas of the sex industry, sex workers stated that they should pay their taxes like
all other Canadians and, thus, be treated the same as other citizens:
A. Whatever we make, thats what we have to pay out. I will be on the higher bracket
. . . with the lawyers and stuff. They are getting their asses taxed off, probably. I feel
it has to be straight across the whole way if we were to be decriminalized. They cant
just make all these work exceptions for us . . .
- female off-street in-call sex worker

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A. To me its like any other business. If its legalized then you pay taxes on it. And boy, I
mean most people would probably disagree with me, but we gotta pay our fair share
too.
- male street-level sex worker

A. Oh I will list my job when it becomes decriminalized, sure, Ill tell them. Im going to
claim my income and submit my taxes like anyone else.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. If its gonna be decriminalized, and you are going to look at sex trade as a professional job, you cant pick and choose. Okay, well well do this, but we wont do that. I
mean, no other job gets to pick and choose.
A. If everybody has to claim their money that they made, as actual wage, then so should
you if you are a sex trade worker, right?
- female street-level sex workers

Nevertheless, many sex workers felt that they should not pay income tax under the current regime of
criminalization because they do not receive the benefits of full citizenship. Some described the unfairness of sex workers paying tax when they are denied the protection and consideration afforded to other
citizens:
A. Why should we pay our taxes as sex workers if were not going to be treated with
respect and if were not going to be able to call on the police to say so and so ripped
me off, or hurt me or whatever? Even if we can do it we may feel that we cant. We
may feel that theyll focus more on what directly did you do, how did you meet this
person, how did this happen, is it all your fault, kind of thing? So uh, really, I dont
want to play along with societys rules in terms of getting business licenses and paying
taxes and so on, if Im having to live as a second or third class citizen. It just doesnt
fly.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

A. Why should you have to pay the government of Canada money for income tax on
a profession that they do nothing to protect, help or even recognize, as a legitimate
choice for a profession? No.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

The economic benefits

Many sex workers are willing to paying tax if by doing so they gain access to the rights and
privileges of being a tax payer, including access to benefits that would improve their financial security,
such as CPP, EI and WCB. The reality, however, is that most of these benefits are only available to
employees. Sex workers do not have employee status, but work as independent contractors, because
criminal laws relating to procuring and living on the avails mean that they cannot be employed as
sex workers.
Some participants noted that paying tax allows sex workers, especially those earning high incomes,
to have bank accounts, purchase homes and pay into RRSPs, allowing them to establish longer term
 Some participants also expressed the opinion that income from sex work should be non-declarable income because of its unique
qualities.
 These sentiments echo the demands made by the International Union of Sex Workers that there be no taxation of sex workers unless
they have the right to work on the same basis as other independent contractors and employers and to receive the same benefits as
other self-employed or contracted workers online: International Union of Sex Workers <www.iusw.org>.

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financial stability. In order to pay into RRSPs, for example, a person requires what is termed contribution room in the ITA. Contribution room is calculated at 18 percent of earned income reported
to Revenue Canada for the prior year. Therefore, a person who does not claim any income is not
eligible to make RRSP contributions. Obviously, if they do not pay tax, they do not need the tax
relief that an RRSP payment provides, but as a consequence, they are unable to take advantage of the
customary vehicle that many citizens use to plan for their retirement.
One participant described the difficulty of planning for a financially secure future when not
claiming income:
A. If you dont want to pay your tax on, you cant put your money in the bank. So you
always have your money and you have to think about where you put your money?
Do you hide it in your house? Well thats not always a good idea, because you usually
have some shady fucking boyfriends, or some shady friends or theres people around.
So its not a safe thing to have this kind of money . . . . Well then you tend to carry
it around with you all the time. Well, what happens when you carry money around?
You spend it . . . . The fact that you cant make an effort to save your money, without
paying tax on it, that is a huge stumbling block, right there.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

One participant described the advantages of a legitimate income:

A. And then you could become legitimate too and then you could then, like, buy a house.
And then you could do this and then you could do that. If you are not paying taxes,
you cant prove your income. You cannot do those things.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Another talked about a sex worker she knows who pays income tax and has achieved financial security:
A. I met this woman a long time ago in C****. Shes still up there . . . She was, was a
prostitute in C****. Everybody knew and she always filed income tax, every year . . .
She claimed all her money and paid her taxes and in the end she got a lot more out
of it . . . So shes got her pension and thats think it is imperative to have pension
plus all the extra money that she made when she bought the house and her property
and all that now and shes set for life. . . . After a while you it was just like okay, thats
the town prostitute. It was just like nothing any more . . . Yeah, she still shopped at the
corner grocery store, she still raised the kids, just a regular woman. The whole town
got to see her finally. What a warrior for womens rights that beautiful lady!
- female off-street in-call sex worker

While higher paid sex workers commented that paying taxes would make it easier for them to
purchase houses and other assets, female street-level sex workers emphasized the advantage of gaining
access to government benefits, such as the Canada Pension Plan:
A. I dont want to be 65 and out there working . . . you have nothing to fall back on to.
You know, it is one of the disadvantages about it. If we had a union, and we all pay
taxes, and by rights we should have something to fall back onto. Especially [in] our
tax bracket. You know, we should be able to have something at the end of all that.
- female street-level sex workers
 Supra note 1, s. 146: Contribution room refers to the maximum amount a tax payer can deduct from contributions made to
RRSPs. The calculation is based, in part, on earned income from the previous year and unused RRSP deduction room from the previous year. Unused RRSP deduction room is a tax payers RRSP deduction limit for the year minus the amount deducted for RRSP
contributions for that year.

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A. Hey, they want this legalized, they wanna help us out, they want to make this a legal
thing? The government wants a piece of the pie? Fine. Tax us. Pension us. Everything
else like a regular job. It also gives you maternity leave, it also gives you paid leave,
workers compensation, in case you get hurt on the job, god knows you could get lock
jaw.
- female street-level sex workers

Q. Okay, so you would be willing to claim income taxes on your work?

A. I would.
A. I think in my situation, having . . . claiming the taxes . . . yeah, I think that would
be okay with me. I would want to see . . . ah, what is that, workers compensation
and stuff.
A. That would be good! That would be really good. Because if we got beat up . . .
A. Yeah, and we cant work for . . .
A. Thats fine!
A. A lot of times, us girls, we do get beat up and stuff like that. So that would be alright
because a lot of times if we got really badly hurt, and we had those things around . . .
A. And we cant work for that month, or those months . . .
A. Exactly, exactly.
- female street-level sex workers

Some sex workers noted that they are hesitant to claim income to Revenue Canada for fear that they
would then be subject to investigation for breach of the criminal laws related to prostitution. And
many are bothered by the double standard involved in taxing a criminal activity:
A. Unfortunately thats a double standard that I dont agree with. Because on one hand
they are saying, Pay your taxes. And oh sure, they are going to decriminalize it. But
on the other hand it is still illegal and they are arresting people for it . . . How can
they make you pay taxes on something thats illegal? And you can sit in jail for it? Its
bullshit. Its bullshit. Its a double standard. They say one thing and do another.
- female street-level sex worker

Other sex workers reported that Revenue Canada treated them scornfully:
A. Even with Revenue Canada. I asked them a few times . . . I said, well, what can we
claim and what cant we claim? And I said to the guy, I said well look . . . for my
work . . . to bring up my income, I went in and had a boob-job. Can I claim that?
He started laughing and said no. I said, well, why not? If I were mechanical and
buy more tools, you know . . . and I said, okay, listen, how about condoms? And he
said, no, you cant claim that. And I said, well, whats the difference between me
buying 10 boxes of condoms or the guy in the office buying ten boxes of paper clips?
. . . until we get through that barrier, we have to find out . . . we dont even know
what we can and cant claim on taxes.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Such experiences with tax officials lead many sex workers to refrain from attempting to obtain more
information about filing of taxes, their personal tax liability, and entitlement to deductions. One
participant indicated the need for much more information:
A. That would be great if Revenue Canada would work with us and tell us what we can
and cant do. But they dont give us any guidelines . . . Well . . . I want to know what
I can and cant claim. You know, I want to know what I can . . . how much income

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Im allowed to make before I have to pay GST. Like, all of that. But they just wont
work with us, they wont tell us . . . I dont know why they wont tell us. I mean when
I phone them and ask them, its like, you can feel their face go red on the other end of
the phone, you know?
- female off-street out-call sex worker

These comments suggest that two major barriers prevent sex workers from paying tax: criminalization, and a lack of understanding and willingness on the part of Revenue Canada employees to understand sex work. The repeal of the criminal laws surrounding adult prostitution would solve the first
issue, but not necessarily the lack of sensitivity on the part of Revenue Canada employees. It appears
that specialized education and sensitivity training will be required in order to make the income tax
system accessible to sex workers.

Concerns about paying tax

Concerns about loss of privacy
While sex workers felt there were benefits to paying tax, they expressed concern about having to
disclose personal information to Revenue Canada. Some sex workers expressed their distrust about the
degree to which Revenue Canada would protect their confidentiality:
A. How would we be stigmatized though, because we would still probably be confidential? Or is it that people doing our files and our taxes would see what we are and
then it would just get through the . . .
A. Well, yeah it would.
A. Yeah.
A. Definitely would. Yknow
A. So you definitely have to be prepared to go public.
- female street-level sex workers

Some of these concerns may be well founded. While personal information collected by Revenue
Canada is protected by the Privacy Act and specific provisions of the ITA regarding confidentiality,
release of information occurs in certain situations. Information must be disclosed if criteria in the
Privacy Act are met, such as complying with a subpoena issued by a court of law. In addition, specific
provisions in the ITA allow taxpayer information to be shared with other federal and provincial
departments or agencies ( ie. for administering CPP, EI, WCB, social assistance, and family maintenance programs). Of particular relevance to sex workers, the ITA allows taxpayer information to be
disclosed to police officers for the purpose of investigating whether an offence has been committed
under the Criminal Code.10
Further, Revenue Canada is allowed to make inquiries and compel people to give information for
any purpose related to the administration of the ITA.11 For example, Revenue Canada could ask a sex
worker to disclose who their clients are for the purposes of an audit on the sex worker. In addition,
Revenue Canada can seek judicial authorization to compel a taxpayer to reveal information regarding
 Supra note 1, s. 241(1).
 See Income Tax Act, s. 241(4) for a list of the exceptions to confidentiality.
10 Ibid., s. 341(4)(p).
11 Ibid., s. 231.2: (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Minister may, subject to subsection (2), for any purpose
related to the administration or enforcement of this Act, including the collection of any amount payable under this Act by any
person, by notice served personally or by registered or certified mail, require that any person provide, within such reasonable time as is
stipulated in the notice,
(a) any information or additional information, including a return of income or a supplementary return; or
(b) any document.

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a third party.12 This means a sex worker could be compelled to provide information about a client who
is being audited.
Revenue Canada does not require specific details about the type of business a taxpayer is engaged
in for the purposes of filing income tax, and sex workers could use a general category such as entertainment business on their tax returns.13 Similarly, a detailed list of business expenses is not required
on a tax return. Expenses for condoms, etc. may be listed as miscellaneous expenses. However, in
circumstances where a taxpayer is being audited, it is necessary to disclose detailed information to
Revenue Canada. All taxpayers risk being audited.
Despite the safeguards in the Privacy Act and the limited disclosure initially required in a tax
return, many sex workers fear the prospect of Revenue Canada knowing what they do for a living. In
contrast to the relative secrecy afforded by the illicit status of prostitution, legal reform could mean
much greater exposure of sex work to Revenue Canada.
Some participants expressed concern about the implications of being labelled as a sex worker:
A. Well just the label. I am just wondering how they will label it once you put it on your
income tax.
A. And that once you have been a sex worker, you are a sex worker for the rest of your
life. You just carry it around like an anchor I was 20 years old and I worked as a
sex worker woah, it said it on your income tax, little girl. Meanwhile you are 60.
So thats just my issue.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Another sex worker describes how she is willing to pay tax as long as she does not have to disclose her
means of making a living.
A. Sure, as long as it says nothing about an escort . . . just like, a business licence has
nothing to do with the trade, nothing whatsoever, I would have no problem with
that.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

For some sex workers the thought of filing a tax return is embarrassing. Female and male streetlevel sex workers discussed the highly personal nature of disclosing ones status as a sex worker:
Q. How do you feel about having to submit a tax return and pay your tax returns in
regards to your regular income?
A. Its degrading.
A. Its like telling the tax man that you suck cock.
A. Its too personal.
A. Even if its legalized, it will be hard to make an industry out of it because you are not
going to go public about it.
- female street-level sex workers

A. I think that kind of tax would be embarrassing. . . . Oh how many did you do in
this time? I would keep that under wraps.
- male street-level sex worker
12 Ibid., s. 231(3): On ex parte application by the Minister, a judge may, subject to such conditions as the judge considers appropriate, authorize the Minister to impose on a third party a requirement under subsection 231.2(1) relating to an unnamed person or
more than one unnamed person (in this section referred to as the group) where the judge is satisfied by information on oath that
(a) the person or group is ascertainable; and
(b) the requirement is made to verify compliance by the person or persons in the group with any duty or obligation under this Act.
13 A tax payer does not have to give specific details about the type of business he or she engages in when filing a tax return, see Form
T2124, Statement of Business Activities, online: Revenue Canada <http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2124/README.html>.

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Some sex workers worry that information given on a tax return could be used against them in other
ways. For example, one sex worker expressed concern about being discriminated against by other
countries where she may wish to travel.
A. Its a really good point, because, yeah, you start doing your taxes, and you start, you have
some card in your wallet. And you are not going to be able to go to America anymore.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

When discussing disclosure of work-related information to Revenue Canada, sex workers expressed
a conflict between two competing interests: the desire to become accepted as a legitimate profession, and fear about ongoing discrimination as a result of having prostitution become more public.
It is quite likely that increased exposure of the sex industry would create challenges for individual sex
workers, as decriminalization may not reduce the stigma of sex work.
Concerns about increased tax law enforcement by Revenue Canada
The repeal of the criminal laws related to prostitution may make the sex industry more visible,
potentially increasing Revenue Canadas ability to track and assess sex workers. Some participants were
concerned that legal reform would result in Revenue Canada enforcing tax laws against sex workers
more rigorously. A business owner felt that many sex workers are not ready to pay the amount of tax
that the government demands:
A. So 10 grand a month, no matter what wonderful things, awesome things, would
come with decriminalization, that is to our benefit, and all those things that would
go along with it I think, the one question thats a 45 percent tax bracket. I think
if you told them did you know that you would have to give up 45 percent of that
money? Thats your tax bracket? First they would never believe you, as most of these
women have never paid tax in their lives. And, if you told them, that yknow, that
when you go do a blow job then, for $200, youre really only going to get $110. They
would laugh at you . . . But I think, if you were able to pull off street sex workers,
and after going through every wonderful benefit, they could get from decriminalization, and said, But to be decriminalized, you would have pay the tax man, 40-45
percent of your income. Do you still want it to be decriminalized? The resounding
answer would be no, because at the end of the day, you have to remember why we are
in this business to make money.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

As one female street-level sex worker put it, the disadvantages would be that the government knows
exactly where you are located and . . . tax time!
Concerns about retroactive taxation
An individual who fails to file a tax return as required by the ITA is guilty of an offence, and
may be liable to a pay a fine and/or face imprisonment.14 Also, they may be subject to penalties that
increase the amount of tax owing.15 Revenue Canada can assess individuals for taxes not paid on
income received in prior years.16 Although sex workers already face the prospect of retroactive tax
assessment, sex workers were concerned that the repeal of criminal laws could increase the priority
14 Supra note 1, s. 238(1).
15 Ibid., s. 162.
16 Ibid., s. 152(4): In general there is a three year limitation period in which Revenue Canada can reassess a tax payer. However if a
misrepresentation can be attributed to neglect, carelessness, wilful default or fraud, Revenue Canada is not subject to any limitation
period.

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Revenue Canada places on retroactive tax collection from sex workers, and its ability to track sex
workers.17 Participants were concerned that retroactive assessments could result in some sex workers
having to increase their involvement in the sex industry to pay back taxes and penalties.
Revenue Canada could seek to exempt sex workers from retroactive assessment should prostitution be decriminalized. Such an exemption is rare and requires the approval of the federal Minister
of Finance. Revenue Canada does not have the authority to waive taxes owed. There have been past
examples where the Minister of Finance has waived taxation for certain groups. One example is s. 87
of the Indian Act which exempts those who qualify as status Indians from taxation on their personal
property including employment income that is situated on a reserve.18 Participants felt it was
appropriate to provide an exemption from retroactive tax assessment for sex workers so that they are
taxed only on income earned after the date that the Criminal Code provisions relating to prostitution
are repealed.
Some sex workers suggested that there should be an exception for all sex workers:
A. Oh definitely, an exception. Once Once its legalized it should be just start fresh.
Because no Whos going to remember? Yknow street-level or what Which it
basically is, now, is street-level. I mean who is going how much you made? Yknow,
I dont count how many tricks that I did last week. Or how many this I did. So no
there should be an exception. As soon as you start payin taxes, thats when you start
getting taxed . . .
Q. Do you think the exception should only be made for street-level sex workers? Or for
all sex workers?
A. All sex workers.
- female street-level sex workers

Some sex workers felt that liability for retroactive tax would force them to work more to pay off their
debts to Revenue Canada.
A. I was thinking that if you did it, retroactively. What about if you were out of the
business and they were to say, Oh! You owe this money. And now you would have to
get back into it. I mean thats not very good.
A. Oh well, that could easily happen. What would they care?
A. Oh yeah! Thats my point, thats all my point.
A. I mean thats thats like absolutely ridiculous like, to make people do that.
A. And And by what I am saying is by asking for taxes, that is essentially the message
you are sending; get to work, make it up and pay us.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Some participants felt it would be unfair to expect them to pay retroactive tax:
A. Well it was illegal before so what about right when they put the law into place then
say, okay, heres your start date if you continue on to do sex work, because some
people started when they were teenagers just to survive and the government didnt do
nothing for them back then . . .
17 Canada Customs and Revenue Agency [CCRA] notice released June 12, 2003: Revenue Canada has a program, administered by
the Investigations Division, to identify people who support themselves through illegal activities and ensure that they file income tax
returns and financial statements, if necessary, every year. CCRA auditors have a network of special contacts in the various police forces
and in governmental and para-governmental bodies who carry out criminal investigations and gather information. The auditors also
receive information from the media and leads provided by the public.
18 Therefore, if an Indian earns employment income, what must be determined is whether that income is situated on a reserve. When
making this determination, the approach taken by the Supreme Court of Canada, in the case of Glenn Williams v. The Queen, 92 D.T.C.
6320, [1992] 1 C.T.C. 225, must be followed. This approach requires the examination of all factors connecting income to a reserve.

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A. Yeah I was going to say that many of the sex trade workers got into the, when they
started they got into this type of work through unfortunate circumstances
A. And it, when it was to uh, you know desperate measures for food or for drugs or whatever, so they shouldnt, that unfortunate shouldnt be exploited to take taxes out of it.
A. So that person has already suffered enough as it is.
- male street-level sex workers

Under Revenue Canadas Voluntary Disclosure Program an individual can make a voluntary
disclosure to Revenue Canada that allows him or her to avoid the penalties and prosecution that
would otherwise be imposed under the ITA for outstanding taxes.19 A voluntary disclosure occurs
when a person contacts Revenue Canada and provides information to correct inaccurate or incomplete information, or to disclose information not previously reported. If a valid voluntary disclosure20
is made, Revenue Canada does not have the authority to waive the taxes owed, but can refrain from
assessing interest and penalties.21
Where a taxpayer is unable to meet his or her tax obligations because of extraordinary circumstances, such as financial hardship, it is also possible to make a fairness application.22 Under a
fairness application, an individual can ask Revenue Canada to waive the penalties and interest owing.
Both of these options require being able to navigate the many complex aspects of our income tax
system, and being prepared to pay taxes owed to Revenue Canada.
Concerns about calculating income
Another issue participants discussed concerned how income from prostitution would be calculated and recorded for tax purposes. The ITA defines business as including a profession, calling,
trade, manufacture, or undertaking of any kind whatsoever and includes an adventure or concern in
the nature of trade but does not include an office or employment.23 This broad definition encompasses sex work. In reporting business income, the ITA requires a taxpayer to calculate income using
commercially accepted accounting practices.24 This means sex workers would need to keep proper
records of the income received from customers, as well as expenses incurred.25 As most payment
is received in cash and customers do not require receipts, it may be difficult to prove sex workers
income. However, even without receipts, if sex workers could record the amount of money they
receive and the expenses they incur, this may be sufficient for tax purposes.
If Revenue Canada suspects that a person is under-reporting their income, then it performs an
assessment to figure out a taxpayers net worth.26 From the net worth assessment, Revenue Canada
calculates the taxpayers tax liability. Once Revenue Canada makes a net worth assessment, it is up to

19 CCRA Information Circular 00-1R Voluntary Disclosure Program, September 30, 2002, online: Revenue Canada < http://www.
cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/ic00-1r/ic00-1r-e.html>.
20 For a valid voluntary disclosure a person must be facing a penalty and the information provided must be complete and given
voluntarily.
21 Supra note 1, s. 220(3.1) gives Revenue Canada the authority to waive or cancel penalties and interest.
22 Ibid., s. 152(4.2).
23 Ibid., s. 248(1).
24 Ibid., s. 9.
25 Ibid., s. 230(1): Every person carrying on business and every person who is required, by or pursuant to this Act, to pay or collect taxes or other amounts shall keep records and books of account (including an annual inventory kept in prescribed manner) at
the persons place of business or residence in Canada or at such other place as may be designated by the Minister, in such form and
containing such information as will enable the taxes payable under this Act or the taxes or other amounts that should have been
deducted, withheld or collected to be determined.
26 Ibid., s. 152(7). The net worth assessment is calculated by determining the taxpayer assets and liabilities at the end of the taxation
year and at the end of the last previous year for which tax could be determined; and assuming that the taxpayers income was equal to
the increase in his or her net worth in the period plus an estimated amount spent for personal and living expenses (Canadian Master
Tax Guide, 59th ed. (2004) at part 12100).

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the taxpayer to prove Revenue Canada wrong if they believe its assessment is inaccurate.27 Therefore
sex workers should keep a record of each transaction in order to be able to challenge Revenue
Canadas net worth assessment should such a need arise.
Some participants felt that sex workers would not accurately report their income or would choose
not to report it. As one sex worker stated:
A. As soon as you would legalize prostitution, theres a black market for it. As soon as
you say, like, oh say its okay, theres an underground market. Because I dont know
any hos that would like to work oh this is what I made tonight to the government
or anything like that, right? So then it is going to create a black market, first of all.
- male street-level sex worker

Some participants noted that sex workers declaring income do not report their full income because
customers rarely ask for receipts for the sexual services they pay for. As one massage-parlour owner
commented:
A. And of course you are in the same situation with taxes. I mean, yes, they pay their
taxes. Yeah, on the people that want receipts. No one wants receipts from us. They
dont, strangely enough. Two a year, maybe. Can I get a receipt please? Sure, what
would you like me to put on that?
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Participants felt that income was easier to calculate for sex workers who work in an organized environment. These sex workers may have the resources to consult an accountant. As one explained:
A. . . . a lot of escorts do pay their taxes. And interestingly enough, the ones that I know
that pay their taxes most consistently originally worked for agencies. And their agency
owners were the ones that insisted that they go to their accountants and, and, do their
taxes. And of course the reason being is that they didnt want anything coming back
to them, the agency owners [laughs] so, so, most escorts anyway, or a large number of
them do pay their taxes. The few that dont, they really live hand to mouth.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Under the ITA tips count as fully taxable income. For an employee, all tips or benefits, such as gifts
received in the course of employment, must be included in employment income.28 Self-employed sex
workers must declare tips as business income.29 Sex workers noted the importance of tips in earning
their living and the difficulty of proving this type of income:
A. I am sorry to say, on the street with all the girls, it was. No matter what you do, you
are in a negotiation with a guy, you dont get enough money, you get some money
back in tips and it should not be taxed.
A. And so you get more money back, on your tips, than the guy could ever give you in a
given date.
- female street-level sex workers

A. I dont mind the income tax thing, but when you get tipped out, . . . like, when you
go see a client, your initial amount agreed on is, like, $200. Well, then, any other up
27 Dezura v. Minister of National Revenue (1947) 3 D.T.C. 1101 (Exchequer Court of Canada).
28 Supra note 1, s. 5: a taxpayers income for a taxation year from an office or employment is the salary, wages and other remuneration, including gratuities, received by the taxpayer in the year. Ibid., s. 6: There should be included in employment income the
value of board, lodging and other benefits of any kind whatever received or enjoyed by the taxpayer in the year in respect of, in the
course of, or by virtue of an office or employment.
29 Ibid., s. 9.

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and above over that is your tip out . . . $100, $200, $300. I mean, that is game. The
most money you get, for the least amount of work. And then that money shouldnt be
taxed, because you cant regulate it. And you cant prove it (female escort).
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A group of sex workers described how fees and tips were treated at one establishment.
A. Who was talking about Ottawa? That massage club in Ottawa? Remember?
A. Yeah.
A. It was at the pink house session, right? And it was so much, they were paid the
minimum, whatever it was. As the massage. And they were taught how to do a light
massage thing? And then the rest was, the rest.
A. Right.
A. So it could be, like, priceless. Anything thats sexual, on top of it, like giving a client
a massage, or whatever your specialty was. Card reading, counselling session . . . And
thats what you are paid on. And the sex is a gratuity, an extra, a tip, and no-ones
bloody business.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

A group of sex workers commented that sex workers tips could be taxed the in same way as tips
earned by waiters or waitresses.
A. When they legalized liquor, they made bars, then, yknow, paid people to work in the
bars, and yknow, you make tips at the bars. So shouldnt it be somewhere along that
lines? Like legalize prostitution, you do it here, this is your wage, and then, this is
your extra that you make. Then you claim off of that.
A. Dont the waitresses have to claim a portion of their tips?
A. They have to claim all of their tips.
A. Exactly. Well they should have to claim off of that.
A. In big fancy hotels, and stuff, waitress and what-not, you are charged x amount of
money, automatically, for taxes on your tips.
A. You have to pay that much taxes, just because thats because thats sort of the
common level that everybody gets tipped up?
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Some participants were concerned that Revenue Canada would rely on informed estimates about
what a sex worker earns and then may disbelieve sex workers if they report different amounts:
A. It wouldnt be like that. It would be like the government would say so much for a
blow job, and thats how much for this. Because they couldnt do it in any other way
and if they did, like, everybody would be making something different, but paying the
same tax.
- male street-level sex worker

A. Well, because it would be . . . you would, there would be so much . . . you know, they
could . . . there would be so much other legal things that they could go after you on.
Like, they could say, Okay, we . . . Okay, so say you have a slower week . . . month,
or you didnt make as much money for a couple of months or whatever like that, then
they could go . . . they could harass you, and do audits on you and all this bullshit
thinking that you are lying and you are claiming what you should be claiming. That
would be not good.
- female street-level sex worker

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Judging by the experience in other countries,30 this concern about the prospect of arbitrary standards
being used to assess sex worker incomes is well founded. Current Canadian taxation practices give
further substance to these concerns. For example, with respect to claiming income from tips, Revenue
Canada accumulates data on the average amount of tips earned by workers in a particular profession,
and then compares amounts claimed against what these data indicate. With respect to prostitution,
this could be a matter of particular concern given the considerable range in tips across the sex trade.31

Tax deductions
Business expenses
Under the ITA, taxpayers earning business income are entitled to deduct expenses incurred for
the purpose of earning business income.32 All business expenses can be deducted, except for deductions specifically prohibited by the ITA. Personal or living expenses cannot be deducted from business
income,33 and all deductions must be seen as reasonable in the circumstances.34 Sex workers earning
business income have a right to deduct their business expenses if they file income tax returns. The
Supreme Court of Canada has held that, if business income is taxed, deductions for business expenses
cannot be prohibited on the basis of public policy considerations.35 Expenses for condoms, lubricants,
sex toys, costumes, taxi rides, classified ads, and other items may be deductible business expenses
under the ITA. For sex workers working out of their homes, the home office exemption allowing a
portion of rent or mortgage to be deducted would be available.36 While an argument can be made
that expenses for enhancing a sex workers appearance, such as breast implants or gym memberships,
are business expenses, Revenue Canada may consider these to be personal or living expenses. The line
between personal or living expenses and business expenses is blurry, and is determined on a caseby-case basis. The test is whether the expense was incurred for the purpose of gaining or producing
income from a business. To determine whether the test has been met the court may ask:
1. What is the need that the expense meets?
2. Would the need exist apart from the business? and
3. Is the need intrinsic to the business?37

30 The English Collective of Prostitutes and US PROStitutes Collective website states that some of the work they do is helping
women fight extortionate tax demands. The site goes on to say that women have successfully challenged tax demands based on
biased assumptions about what sex workers earn rather than the facts on the situation of each individual woman. Summary of Work
by the English Collective of Prostitutes and the US PROStitutes Collective online: All Women Count <http://www.allwomencount.
net/EWC%20Sex%20Workers/IPCpage.htm>.
See also Petra stergren, Sexworkers Critique of Swedish Prostitution Policy online: Petra stergren <www.petraostergren.com>.
The legal situation regarding taxation is unclear and varies from city to city. Some tax authorities will leave sex workers alone, others
will seek them out and tax them according to an arbitrary estimate. This worries sex workers. Some of them have been subjected to
this procedure with disastrous financial consequences. Others have only heard about it and worry it will happen to them.

31 Some sex workers in massage parlours stated that they earned up to $10,000 month while sex workers in other areas of the industry, such as the street level, earn barely subsistence amounts.
32 Supra note 1, s. 18(1)(a).
33 Supra note 1, s. 18(1)(a).
34 Ibid., s. 67.1: In computing income, no deduction shall be made in respect of an outlay or expense in respect of which any
amount is otherwise deductible under the Act, except to the extent that the outlay or expense was reasonable in the circumstances.
35 The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in its decision in 65302 B.C. Ltd. v. The Queen, 99 D.T.C. 5799, that taxpayers are
allowed to deduct expenses incurred for the purpose of earning income from an illegal business activity. The Court noted that even
though the deduction of such expenses might appear to frustrate the intent of the Criminal Code, the tax authorities are not concerned with the legal nature of an activity (at 5811).
36 Supra note 1, s. 18(12).
37 Scott v. Queen, F.C.A. 98 D.T.C. 6530 at para 9.

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Expenses are context-dependent. For example, the Federal Court of Appeal held that a foot and
transit courier was entitled to deduct as a business expense an amount for extra food and water that
his body needed for fuel.38 The court concluded that, because the automobile courier is allowed to
deduct his or her fuel, the foot and transit courier should be able to deduct the fuel his body needs.
However, he could only deduct the extra food and water consumed above and beyond the average
persons intake in order to perform his job. Food and water are normally considered a personal or
living expense because the need for their consumption exists apart from the business. In this case, the
taxpayer had no choice but to eat more than the average person in order to perform his job. Arguably,
sex workers should be able to deduct expenses related to their personal appearance, as that expense is
made over and above what an average person would spend on clothes, make-up and fitness, etc. Sex
workers, like all taxpayers, need to keep proper records of expenses in order to deduct them.
Sex workers argued that they should be allowed to claim all of their business expenses if they are
paying income tax:
A. Realistically, sex trade workers make a lot of money. If its legal, if its above board,
you are going to have to have the same tax. If someone is self-employed though, things
are going to have to be a little different. They are going to have to be able to claim
everything. I am talking from shoes to clothing to if they bring tricks back to their
house; they have to be able to claim that. They have to be able to claim, any sex toys,
lube. Everything you can think of. Even if you are doing outcalls, taxis. All of it
I mean, that could be an advantage because your taxes would significantly change.
Because realistically, sex trade workers spend a lot of money on what they wear and
what they use . . .
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some participants suggested that Revenue Canada ought to provide information describing allowable
business deductions for sex workers. Some sex workers who had contacted Revenue Canada did not
receive answers to their questions about deductible business expenses.
Personal deductions
Under the ITA various personal tax credits and tax deductions are available to taxpayers earning
business or employment income. These include tax credits for supporting a spouse, child or other
dependant, GST credits for low income tax payers, and tax deductions for child-care expenses,
medical expenses, moving expenses, charitable donations, RRSP contributions, etc. Sex workers filing
tax returns are entitled to take advantage of applicable credits and deductions. Sex workers stated that
they want such benefits:
A. Women should get that, of course. Like I mean if Im supporting my husband in this
business, I should get tax benefits for if Im paying taxes, for my husband, he should
be my dependent.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. No, I definitely support any woman who would not claim tax because of that the
laws. I definitely support that. I mean just like, just for me, its more of a census thing
for me. I want the government to know? And then I got diseases and then I started
making less money. I think that its really important that they know that all my
medical bills are on there, yknow?
- female off-street out-call sex worker

38 Ibid.

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As with all taxpayers, sex workers should be provided with accessible information about the personal
deductions that are available to them.

Income tax law recommendations

1. Provide information and education to sex workers who have not paid taxes on the income they
have earned through prostitution so that they may understand the fundamentals of the Canadian
tax system and learn how to file a basic income tax return.
2. Should prostitution be decriminalized, Revenue Canada and the federal Minister of Finance
should exempt sex workers from retroactive tax assessments of income earned prior to the date the
provisions in the Criminal Code relating to prostitution are repealed.
3. Provide specialized education and sensitivity training for Revenue Canada personnel in order to
give them the information necessary to assist sex workers with the taxation information they need
in a respectful and non-discriminatory manner.
4. Consult with sex workers about how to address their specific privacy concerns.
5. Ensure that sex workers are not subject to discriminatory treatment, such as unwarranted audits or
disproportionate penalties.

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PART 6: COMPANY LAW

Business structures: In B.C., businesses can be structured in several ways
a business may be set up as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, or a cooperative. Sex workers felt that they should be able choose
among the various structures that are available to businesses in general, and
their industry should not be subject to any specific restrictions. Sex worker
described how the diversity within the sex industry creates a need for a
number of different types of business structures.
A. Theres a place set up for co-ops, theres a place in it for individual houses, and theres
a place in it, for a corporation.
- female street-level sex worker

Several participants expressed the view that sex workers should have the freedom to choose a
structure that best suits their particular business objectives.
A. It depends, people are going to have different preferences right? They make different
choices. Its where the profits best.
- male street-level sex worker

A. I think that we should have the same freedoms as any business, really.
A. I think it should just be as broad as any other business. No restrictions.
A. Anything could really happen . . . as long as its beneficial to the people working.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Many sex workers felt strongly that sex work should be recognized as a legitimate business:
A. But to me, its like, the big thing, is that its not called the oldest profession for
nothing its you know, the, almost, the most basic, simplest transaction that ever
occurred and it goes a long long long way back, and as far as Im concerned, all other
enterprises probably followed it and based itself upon that original transaction. So I
see it as the, you know, sort of the initial, or the basis for entrepreneurialism, really.
For free enterprise. So it ought to be respected as such.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

The following discussion illustrates how sex workers see a number of potentially suitable business
structures for prostitution.

Sole proprietorships
A sole proprietorship is the simplest way to structure a business, and is the easiest and least expensive business to organize. A sole proprietor is a self-employed individual who is fully responsible for
all aspects of the business. He or she establishes the business, retains all profits, is responsible for paying
taxes, and assumes all risks. While sole proprietors enjoy complete control over the business, they have
unlimited liability by virtue of being legally responsible for all debts in a situation where they place both
their business and personal assets at risk.

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Many participants liked the idea of being their own boss, particularly because of the autonomy of
being self-employed.
A. You just have your own decision-making capabilities. And why not be your own boss?
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Another escort believed that she would get more business by working independently:
A. I mean, this business is really . . . a lot is determined upon your looks, okay? So
Im older, all of my friends are older, and so if I was to go work for a place with 30
women, I would never get picked because Im not 20, and Im not blond with big
boobs and the whole nine yards of what they want so for me, its better to work independent.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

An owner agreed that sex workers should have the freedom to work independently:
A. I just like most of what I do to be encouraging that person to be self-employed and
be in charge of what theyre doing for themself. I think in sex work, thats a really
good way to handle it in that if youre employed by someone, you may start to feel like
youve got to do whatever they tell you to do, whenever they tell you, and I like the
idea that theres an independence and you can say, you know this doesnt work for
me. Cuz its a sensitive area, you know, you never want to be told, you know, you
must this or you must that.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

In sum, a sole proprietorship is a simple and inexpensive business structure that appeals to many sex
workers because of the independence it affords.

Partnerships
In a partnership, two or more people carry on a business together with a view to making a profit.
In B.C., partnerships are governed by the Partnership Act (the PA). Partnerships are relatively
simple to set up and dissolve. The partners may have a written partnership agreement that sets out
how profits will be shared, decisions will be made, disputes will be resolved, future partners will be
admitted, and how a partner can leave the partnership. The partners may decide how much time and
capital each will contribute to the partnership. Alternatively, a partnership may arise without a formal
agreement if two or more people are carrying on business together with the goal of generating profit.
In either case, the partnership is governed by the terms set out in the PA.
Partnerships are not legally recognized as distinct entities. Rather, the profits and losses of the
partnership flow through to the individual partners, who must pay taxes on these amounts in their
personal tax returns. Each partner who is active in the management of the business is fully liable for
all obligations of the business, even if other partners incurred the obligations. Like sole proprietorships, partners put their personal assets at risk, but enjoy the benefits of working and sharing profits
with others.
A partnership appears well suited as a business structure for prostitution. Many participants
indicated a desire to work with other sex workers, and to maintain control over their working conditions. Safety concerns were a significant factor in many participants preference for some form of partnership with other sex workers. This desire for a supportive workplace is illustrated in the following
discussion:
 Partnership Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 348, s. 2.
 Ibid.
 Ibid., s. 7(2).

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A. Actually I like working with other people.

A. I wouldnt work for anybody but Id work with a group of guys, you know what I
mean? But I wouldnt want to work for a business.
A. More supportive support structure there, whereas if youre on your own you make sure
you get some support here and there but its not there in the same way.
- male street-level sex workers

Sex workers felt that working with others would help increase their safety:
A. Well, I think I prefer to work independently, but I would prefer to work with
another girl for safety reasons. Just somebody, you know, the two of us could work
together. We could kind of watch each others back kind of thing. And the guy would
also know that you arent there by yourself; but the way it is now, they know were
here by ourselves, so you know, its dangerous. Well, I, you know, its like I say, just
someone could sort of be here while Im here, you know. We can make sure that each
other are safe, the guy isnt beating you up and vice-versa, and you know, we could
close together, walk out together at night, walk each other to our cars. It would be
much safer, and plus, they know theres somebody else here so they wont likely try
something. When they know youre by yourself, theyll try anything.
Q. So would you work like in a partnership with somebody? Is that what youre
describing, more like a partnership?
A. Yeah. Like a partnership.
Q. Okay. And why is that, again?
A. Safety.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Partnerships would allow sex workers many of the same freedoms they would enjoy as sole proprietors, with the added benefit that they could work together in a formally organized group, thereby
establishing support networks and improving the safety of their working conditions.

Corporations
A corporation is a legal entity separate from its owners. It has all the powers of an individual: it
can acquire assets; go into debt; enter contracts; borrow; lend; and sue or be sued. The owners of a
corporation are called its shareholders. Shareholders invest in the corporation, and elect directors who
appoint officers and make decisions about the corporations operations. The number of votes each
shareholder gets is often, but not always, proportional to the number of shares she or he owns in the
corporation.
Unlike a sole proprietorship or a partnership, when a company is incorporated, there are limits
on the amount of risk that investors face. A shareholders possible losses are limited to the amount
paid for his or her shares; if the corporation becomes insolvent the shares may be worthless but the
shareholder will not be required to use personal assets to satisfy the unpaid debts of the corporation.
For this reason, a corporation is an attractive business structure for investors who do not want to play
an active part in the management of the business and want to know the extent of their risk.
A corporation may be created under either federal or provincial legislation. Federally incorporated
corporations are regulated under the Canada Business Corporations Act. If the business of the corporation will be carried on in only one province, it is usually incorporated provincially. In B.C., the
 Business Corporations Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 57, s. 30.
 Ibid., s. 87(1).
 Canada Business Corporations Act, R.S. 1985, c. C-44.

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applicable statute is the Business Corporations Act.

While participants believed that sex workers ought to be able to structure their business as they
wish, some were concerned that within a corporation, the shareholders might have too much power
over decision-making. One escort felt that shareholders who are not involved in the day-to-day
operations of the business might not be adequately informed to make decisions about it. Although
shareholders do not necessarily play any part in day-to-day operations of a business, they do elect the
directors who control the management.
A. The shareholders, if theyre not involved in the everyday running of the business, that
they would not be able to properly assess. I mean you can have a situation in the
facility and if they are not there than they will not be able to properly assess, unless
they are specialists, you know, if they were, they need to be informed and aware
though too.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Some participants indicated that a sex industry business should be permitted to grow to any size,
without restrictions on the number of people that they employ. Therefore, in the case of large-scale
enterprises, incorporation is likely the preferable business structure because the capital required to
establish and maintain such enterprises could come from a number of investors rather than one
person. Also, incorporation is best suited to a business franchise, which was suggested by a business
owner as a direction she has considered with her company:
A. I guess because theres a Wal-Mart out there does not mean theres not small hardware
stores. There may not be as many small hardware stores as there once were as a result
of that, but really, in a free enterprise system, there should be, you should be able to
you know grow your businesses as big as you can I suppose. It, I guess you have the
concern, is that making it a monopoly, but you know, I cant see in this business that
there wouldnt be individuals still doing their own thing anyway, so it may be fine.
I mean Ive certainly thought is this a business I could franchise at some point? I
am interested in growing into other locations other than just Vancouver, and that
may still mean that you know, Im totally in charge of those other zones, but is there
a point at which I would just apply my own you know, evolution of the way I do
things for the last 25 years as a franchise business. It could happen and I dont see
any reason why it couldnt basically, if its a model that works, then its better to have
that out there than a bunch of floundering businesses that are still trying to figure out
what theyre doing I guess. That would be my take.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

While it may seem like an unusual way to organize a sex industry business, it is certainly possible that,
if the sex industry is no longer subject to criminal prohibition, a corporate business structure would
be a viable option for this type of business.

Cooperatives
Unlike other business structures that are wholly profit driven, cooperatives are established to meet
the economic, social, and/or cultural needs of the members. Cooperatives operate democratically
on a one-member, one-vote basis. Surplus income from the cooperative is distributed among the
members and members may elect to put this money back into the cooperative as retained earnings.
 Supra, note 4.
 Cooperative Associations Act, S.B.C. 1999, c. 28, s. 40(1).
 Ibid., s. 9(1).

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There are many different types of cooperatives; virtually any business can be structured as a cooperative. In B.C., under the Cooperative Association Act, any three or more persons or eligible organisations may be incorporated as a cooperative association for the purpose of carrying on any lawful
business or activity on a cooperative basis.10
Worker cooperatives are owned by their employees, so members are both workers and owners of
the business. Worker cooperatives are generally established to provide workers with employment and
full control over their work environment. Some participants expressed a strong interest in the cooperative model as an appropriate way to structure a sex industry business. A male street-level sex worker
liked the way cooperatives facilitate worker ownership:
A. I think ideally there would be some sort of cooperative. A cooperative would work
where, if youve been there for a length of time, that you end up owning a part of the
company, as time goes on sorta thing.
- male street-level sex worker

Participants were attracted to the collaborative and democratic decision-making nature of the cooperative business structure, particularly with respect to setting prices.
A. So all the girls get together and discuss a set price and then agree to it, girls could
work in cooperatives and set rates themselves. Cooperatives I think would spring up.
Like literally. Like, you guys were saying that you had sort of something like that
going, for a while? Youd have a house, youd all have a room, you know what I mean?
- female off-street out-call sex worker

The idea of working together with other sex workers as equals was seen as very desirable:
A. I think that it works as long as everybody knows that nobodys the boss, nobodys
better than the other person, and that youre all there to do the same job.
- male street-level sex worker

A former sex worker and current owner of a massage parlour thought that working cooperatively
would give workers more of a stake in the business:
A. . . . everyone has a vested interest in the longevity of the business. Theres a common
vision for how the place should be run.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Participants felt that a cooperative business model would be an excellent way of building camaraderie
between workers.
A. I like the idea of the cooperative or a collective. It seems to me, its the isolation factor
is the biggest hardship in a way. Because you get so isolated because you are outcast
and you are working alone. Like bus drivers, they dont work alone. But they have
such camaraderie between each other, and they are always looking out for each other.
So they all, they are like us, they all work alone, but they really have an acute understanding of the hardships.
A. Cab drivers are the same way.
A. Yeah, yeah. And they go to each others rescue, like that. Because they really know the
hardship and stuff. So they have a brotherliness that weve got to develop.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Participants suggested that some tasks, such as housekeeping, could be shared among cooperative
10 Ibid., s. 10(1).

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members. Participants suggested that a cooperative might provide other services to workers, such as
education and childcare.
A. And for a full service, you would have different times when you are on duty,
answering that phone. And then, yknow, the other time, when you are not, you
are doing the kid-care part. And then, it could even be one separate place, but not
totally.
A. So I see it functioning like that too its all inclusive, doable, cooperative setting,
yeah. So you could take care of the sick and the old, the babies, and the pregnant.
And so like thered be spaces for all kinds of women, not just the sex workers. But
all their support . . . so that any woman who doesnt have a home elsewhere could
find some kind of work she wants to do in a safe setting. You know learn become a
teacher, go do education. Whatever you want . . . yknow, stay awhile or stay a long
time.
Q. And how would it be funded?
A. I didnt work out all the details but yknow, we have working women now, dont we?
And then if you, well, yknow, if you learn, and stuff if you want to be more like
a nun? Then you work and help clean the place, then you got your room and board.
That takes care of some of it, the education part could be funded through education.
Kay, when you get an education, you could send money back, to thank you for help.
Well, thats one thing. Working women would pay a monthly rent. If they are making
good money, hopefully. You could have a little theatre, yknow, like . . .
A. Fundraising.
A. Yeah, and little businesses, gift shops for women who wanted to learn how to make
arts and crafts, and stuff like that. So through a little self-reliance, a little community. Yeah. And of course, we would not be like these current women-only places, who
are very hateful towards men, wed be user friendly towards the guys, of course. Wed
be like hey!
- female off-street out-call sex workers

One escort was concerned that a cooperative structure could function as a cover for pimps:
A. The girls . . . they have to be, again, very honest, people that would be running these
co-ops, because I can see somebody say theyre running the co-op and actually the girl,
or the women that are running it having a pimp behind them.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Overall, sex workers felt that a cooperative business model is a very desirable way to structure the sex
trade, allowing sex workers to share their business expenses and increase workplace safety.

Housing cooperatives
Housing cooperatives are incorporated non-profit businesses formed by people who wish to
provide and own their housing jointly. Like other cooperatives, a housing cooperative is a selfgoverning organization owned collectively by its members. The units in a housing cooperative are
owned by the cooperative and cannot be bought or sold for a profit. Housing cooperative members
pay a monthly housing charge that is set when the members approve the cooperatives yearly operating
budget. Members agree to be involved in the cooperatives operation and to participate in membership meetings.
B.C.s Cooperative Association Act contains several special provisions applicable only to housing
cooperatives. Housing cooperatives are exempt from the provisions of the Residential Tenancy Act (the

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RTA). The RTA regulates the relationship between landlords and tenants; in a housing cooperative,
members collectively act as landlord.
A housing cooperative could provide a way for sex workers to share housing and maintenance
costs while continuing to work independently.
A. Pure run by sex trade workers. Period. Licensing. When we talked about the co-ops
before and it was brought up that if we had a house, and we all used it, paid into it,
to keep it running, we would all be the bosses of the house, and pay into it, so that the
laundry was done, the maintenance was done. Security was present, blah, blah, blah.
But there wasnt so-called . . . There wasnt a hierarchy, right? It was pure run by the
sex trade workers.
Q. Like do you mean a co-op?
A. Yeah, co-op.
- female street-level sex workers

These comments highlight the importance of work autonomy to most sex workers, and the need to
explore ways that different business structures facilitate autonomy.

Company law recommendations

1. Sex workers believe that a range of business structures will be necessary to accommodate the
diverse ways in which they would like to conduct business.
2. Sex workers want access to various business structures, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships,
corporations, and cooperatives, all of which provide potentially suitable business structures for
prostitution.
3. Ensure that sex workers are free to choose the way in which they structure their business activity;
do not place any legislative restrictions on the way that prostitution businesses are structured.
4. Autonomy, choice, privacy and safety are paramount concerns for sex workers when selecting a
business structure.

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PART 7: HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Human rights and discrimination: Many sex workers feel stigmatized and
discriminated against because of their work. They described taking a very
cautious approach in deciding when to reveal their line of work. They
maintain a high level of secrecy within their personal lives, in society overall,
and specifically in the context of accessing services such as medical care,
loans or legal protections. Sex workers reported that the effect of this sense
of stigmatization is that they often refrain from taking advantage of legal,
health and other forms of protection and treatment because of their desire
to conceal their work.
The type of stigmatization that sex workers described was often rooted in commonly held perceptions of sex and prostitution. Many of the workers we interviewed did not believe that the repeal of the
criminal laws surrounding prostitution would, by itself, be sufficient to eliminate stigmatization and
discrimination entirely. Nevertheless, decriminalization was identified as an important first step.
A. Its not difficult at all, but you have to start with the legalization. You cant just you
cant just create a system. You cant just create another system which is going to stigmatize prostitutes.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. Yeah, I think [decriminalization is] one step towards removing the stigma of prostitution as a valid career choice, as a form of work. That is not going to remove the
stigma for a long time. There is many, many things that will be needed. For example,
whats a good example? Being a stripper, okay? Lets look at being a stripper. Its,
its legal. It still has a certain connotation to it. Its kind of a slutty thing to do. You
must be a bit of a slut to do that. And thats something that they would always think
of a sex worker as well. You couldnt possibly be moral or ethical. And, yknow, you
must be a slut, if you do that. You must have very low moral and ethical opinions
on everything, if you sell yourself out like that. And this stigma, this stigma is a lot
harder to remove then the illegality about it. Its one variable thats involved, I guess.
I dont know. Thats a tough question.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

It is clear from the opinions expressed by sex workers in the course of this project that they experience
a high degree of discrimination and stigmatization in their everyday lives. Human rights legislation
may provide an important tool for addressing some of their specific concerns about discrimination
and stigmatization.

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Human rights law generally

Canadas human rights legislation at both federal and provincial levels aims to create an inclusive
society in which all individuals are free from discrimination and inequality. Human rights codes
provide protection against discrimination on prohibited grounds such as sex, race and age in
relation to listed practices, such as the provision of goods, services, and accommodation.
The Canadian Human Rights Act (the CHRA) provides protections against discrimination, but
only in relation to federal private businesses and the Government of Canada. Therefore, the CHRA
would apply to employers and service providers who fall under areas of federal jurisdiction, including
national airlines, federal departments and agencies, and Crown corporations. Thus, even in a decriminalized setting, few if any sex workers would fall under the jurisdiction of the CHRA.
In B.C., the B.C. Human Rights Code (the BCHRC) presents sex workers with the greatest
potential for protection, both at present and in the event that prostitution is decriminalized. The
BCHRC offers protection against discrimination in the areas of employment, services, and accommodation that do not fall under federal jurisdiction.
In order to be covered by human rights codes in Canada an individual must be discriminated
against in a context that includes employment, provision of services and accommodation, or on
the basis of some other ground listed in the legislation. Interaction between persons outside of one
of these relationships or contexts is not covered under the legislation. For example, if an individual
walking down the street receives verbal insults from a stranger, a claim cannot be made against that
person under the BCHRC. To bring a claim under the BCHRC, you must file a complaint with the
B.C. Human Rights Commission within six months of the date of the harassing or discriminatory
behaviour.
Discrimination involves the treatment of an individual differently, and less favourably, because of
certain personal characteristics or grounds, such as race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion,
age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, or disability. Some Canadian human rights
legislation, including the BCHRC, also prohibits discrimination based on past criminal convictions.
This is significant in the context of sex work, where workers may have previously been convicted of
prostitution-related offences, and may suffer discrimination in the context of their employment or in
their attempts to access services to the public. A claimant may be eligible for compensation for lost
wages, injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect flowing from the discriminatory behaviour.

Human rights protections for sex workers

There are two main areas where sex workers would benefit from the protection of human rights
legislation should they seek such protection: discrimination based on lawful source of income occurring in the context of housing and provision of services, and discrimination based on sex through
sexual harassment occurring in the context of employment. Even under the current system that criminalizes most activities surrounding sex work, many of the protections under the BCHRC are available
to sex workers. However, it is clear from sex workers that very few, if any currently avail themselves of
such protection.
The next two sections look at sex workers experiences of discrimination based on lawful source of
income and discrimination based on sex, and consider how B.C.s human rights legislation can offer
protections for sex workers. Also B.C.s human rights laws are examined to see how they could be
deployed should the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution be repealed.
 See, for example, the statements of purpose at s. 2 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, R.S. 1985, c. H-6 and s. 3 of the
B.C. Human Rights Code, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 210.
 Canadian Human Rights Act.
 Human Rights Code.
 Ibid., s. 22.

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Discrimination based on source of income

Experiences of discrimination in housing
The BCHRC prohibits landlords from discriminating against potential renters on the basis of a
persons lawful source of income. However, this section offers only limited protection to sex workers,
many of whom described difficulty finding housing due to discrimination based on their source of
income.
Q. Okay, [name omitted], you mentioned housing, do you want to talk a little bit about
that?
A. There should be some organizations that take care of just strictly housing. Have lists
of housing, apartments. That when you are leaving the sex trade, you dont have to
go through all this rigmarole of references and nah-nah-nah. You just kinda proven
yourself by getting that far and they should be there should be some places that can
lead you on to good housing.
A. Well the thing that . . .
A. Because thats the number one importance when you leave, is the housing.
A. Well the thing is too, is like, even even if its decriminalized, people are still gonna
be people that are always gonna look at you as lower class. And there always gonna
be people who discriminate against more jobs, or housing. I mean, Ive been turned
away and not because its illegal, but because they have moral issues with it. Oh, well
we dont want you here. We wont rent to you. We wont this, we wont that, right? So
I mean, even if its legalized, you are still going to have, people are still gonna.
- female street-level sex workers

Many sex workers reported that landlords refuse to rent to sex workers. In order to be protected from
discrimination in the housing market on the basis of their source of income, sex workers must first
establish that their source of income is lawful.
Section 10(1) of the BCHRC prohibits landlords from discriminating against tenants because of
their lawful source of income. This means landlords cannot refuse to rent to someone, or impose
unfavourable terms on their tenancy agreement on the basis of their lawful source of income. This
ground has been applied to protect people receiving social assistance from such discrimination, but
has not yet been applied to other types of wage earners, including sex workers.
The requirement that the source of income be lawful creates an added barrier for sex workers.
Currently, the sale of sex between consenting adults is legal under Canadian law. However, certain
activities associated with sex work are criminalized under s.s 210 to 213 of the Criminal Code. Many
establishments that currently offer both sexual services and non-sexual services are legally licensed;
their work can be described as both legal and illegal under Canadian law. On this basis, depending on
the circumstances of the case, it may be possible for some persons employed in such establishments to
successfully argue that they are lawfully employed for the purposes of making a human rights claim
under s. 10(1). For example, an employee of a licensed massage parlour, depending on the particular
facts in evidence, could make a valid argument that they are lawfully employed. However, based on
the available information, it appears that such an argument has never been made before the B.C.
Human Rights Tribunal. After the criminal laws are repealed, sex workers would enjoy full protection
under s. 10(1) of the B.C. Human Rights Code against discrimination in renting tenancy premises, as
there work would be fully legal.

 See, for example, Neale v. Princeton Place Apts. Ltd. (2001), B.C.H.R.T. 6 and Tanner v. Vlake (2003), B.C.H.R.T. 36.

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Experiences of discrimination in the provision of services

Although the BCHRC prohibits discrimination in the provision of services on the basis of race,
national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status,
disability, or criminal record, it does not prohibit discrimination in the provision of services against a
person on the basis of their lawful source of income. This is problematic because, when attempting to
access various kinds of services, many sex workers felt they had been discriminated against on the basis
of their profession. For example, many sex workers thought that they had experienced discrimination
when trying to access medical services.
A. Theres lots of times we dont go to the doctor because we dont have the option of going
into the clinic and they treat us like shit down there and we dont want to tell them
what we do. I made that mistake before, telling the doctor that I want to do tests for
everything, and I am a sex trade worker. And just the attitude you got, its not good.
They just start freaking out and wanting to test you for everything under the sun. We
are probably cleaner than the typical girl that a guy meets in a bar over the weekend
cause those girls get drunk and they dont have even one condom in their purse.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Several sex workers identified advertising services as another area where they experienced discrimination by virtue of their involvement in prostitution. Specifically, the rates for advertising services
related to prostitution were identified as being much higher than the rates offered to the general
public for comparable classified ads.
A. Unfortunately, the cost of doing business is not sort of on a level playing field as other
businesses. Advertising costs, you pick up the phone and find out this. You gotta call
a major newspaper in Vancouver and ask for their classified rates for, for, you know
maybe selling a fridge, and then ask them for their body care section rates, theyre
about three times higher, the cost of doing business is, is really quite high and what
you find is a lot of women who cant afford to keep the agency running or the massage
parlour running unless theyre working at the same time.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Also, she described receiving inconsistent and discriminatory treatment regarding what and how she
could advertise:
A. If I owned a magazine, I think, I guess I should have the right to say who can and
cannot advertise in it. And if so, what I decide what has a level of taste and what
doesnt. And I guess, as a publisher, that should be my right. Do I have the right to
apply that unequally? No. So can I charge some people more to do a more risqu ad
over others who cant afford to pay more, so they just get to do just an average ad?
I dont agree with that . . . All of sudden, all of the advertisers have gotten really
restrictive with my ads. Why is that? I was used to do whatever I wanted in a lot
of my ads. Or you will be told say by a certain telephone book company that
no, no we are not allowing any more body parts in the ads. You will have to do up
something that does not have any body parts whatsoever. No faces, no hands, no feet.
So you pay an artistic designer to do up something, and try and look sexy with no
body parts in it. Yknow, you have some wine glasses maybe, and a limousine, some
roses you try and do something up kind of sexy. I believe that if I am a publisher
of a big thing, or a little thing, I guess I should have the right to say of what goes in
and what doesnt. But I guess there should be some sort-of discrimination type appeal,

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when the rules are not being equally applied to everybody. And I object hugely that
people in my industry pay two to ten times more than other businesses to put our
ads somewhere. Just because they think that we can afford it. And you should count
yourself fucking lucky that we even let you advertise in there, so shut up and dont
complain, or I wont let you put your ad in there at all. Who do you complain to? No
one. Theres no one to complain to. And even if there was, do you want to attach your
name to that, and make that statement? Make that public outcry? No. So you are
like, constantly just swallowing your pride and writing a cheque here you go.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

We examined the classified advertising rates for home appliances as compared to sex industry businesses in six periodicals and newspapers in the Vancouver area. The results provide support for the
concerns voiced by sex workers. Our review of advertising rates revealed that advertising in the adult
classified sections was more expensive than advertising for sale of a home appliance in all six publications. The paper with the smallest discrepancy between the two prices still had 20 percent higher
prices for advertising sex work than for advertising home appliances, while the greatest discrepancy
was nearly 300 percent higher for advertising sexual services as compared to home appliances.
Two local newspapers justified the higher rates for advertising sexual services as a deterrent: the
more expensive the ads for sexual services, the less likely people would be to run them. Another local
newspaper stated that sex ads are more expensive because of the market, but declined to elaborate.
One paper stated that the ads were more expensive because there is more involved in placing an adult
ad, such as verifying phone numbers and checking identification.
Participants reported that it is common for escorts to pay between $60 and $100 per week in
advertising costs. The costs of such discriminatory advertising rates are not merely monetary. Many
sex workers indicated that advertising is the key to building an independent off-street client base.
Given that independent escort work is one way for a sex worker to exit street prostitution discriminatory advertising rates appear to make working off-street that much more difficult.
A different form of discrimination occurred in the way various financial and insurance companies
react to prostitution. Sex workers stated that they face discrimination on the basis of their source of
income when seeking loans, credit, or insurance.
A. Well its rampant. Its everywhere you look. I mean, all you can do about it is pretend
that you do something else. I mean youre not going to go to the bank and say Id
like a mortgage and say Im a madam you know, youre not going to a hotel and say
I have this kind of a business and I want to have a function in your ballroom . . .
You know, youve got to hide it or minimize it or whatever you can do at every turn.
Absolutely. You have to use euphemisms or complete fabrications for what you do for
a living, all over the place. Now, you know, I rebel against that having been in this
business 25 years Im less apt to want to play that game any longer and so Im more
and more interested if somebody chatting at the bar or whatever says what do you do,
I tell them what I do. And if theyre okay with it, great, and if theyre a little shocked,
thats their problem kind of thing. You know, it means I probably tend to hang out at
places I know Im kind of understood and accepted. The discrimination is everywhere
it really is everywhere. You cannot today be completely open about what you do,
how you earn your money, at all, and I think thats criminal. I think you should be
able to say this is what I do, this is how much I make, I dont disparage any other,
 The six newspapers studied were: The Vancouver Sun; The Vancouver Province; Westender; Buy and Sell; The Georgia Straight; and
Xtra West.

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I want credit or a loan, some kind of insurance, whatever. I at one time had home
insurance or something like that and then when they found out that maybe there was
some business going on in that home, they wouldnt pay off for some items that got
stolen, somebody broke in and stole some things or whatever. And I just went, fine, I
just wont use insurance service . . . But theres many many situations like that where
you just cant be a full member of society. You have to sort of be on the fringe.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A final barrier that sex workers mentioned due to the stigma of being employed in prostitution was in
terms of access to legal protections.
A. One of the major issues with all of the legal protections available is anonymity. In
order to avail yourself of a legal protection, you have to, as a sex worker, you have to
out yourself basically, as a sex worker. Either through signing some forms saying that
this happened and I am signing a grievance or I am filing a claim, that had something to do with sex work, with your name on it, of course. Some sex workers feel that
it is the anonymity that they want to keep, which keeps them from, yknow advocating for increased legal protection. So its kind of like catch-22. It is. And its even
if you are told that yknow, its not about being prosecuted or that isnt that type of
assurance that we are looking for. It is because of the stigma. You cant ever come out
and speak on behalf of your profession. And then if you speak anonymously, then it
just doesnt carry the weight behind it. Because what would carry some weight is for
a person in the community, such as myself, where I lived, stand up and say I am a
prostitute, how does that make you feel?
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

It is clear from the foregoing evidence that sex workers currently experience a high degree of discrimination on the basis of their source of income, and that they require protection from such discrimination. The BCHRC does not currently provide protection for people in B.C. who experience discrimination on the basis of their lawful source of income in regards to accommodation (other than tenancy,
as previously discussed), service or facility customarily available to the public. This means that even
after legal reform, a sex worker who is deprived of medical treatment because he or she earns income
from sex work would receive no protection from such discrimination under the BCHRC. The data
suggest that the rights of sex workers would be better protected if discrimination on the basis of lawful
source of income should be added as a prohibited ground listed in all sections of the BCHRC.

Discrimination based on sex: sexual harassment

Forms of sexual harassment encountered by sex workers
Sex workers experience sexual harassment in many forms from both employers and clients. Sexual
harassment involves conduct of a sexual nature that may be verbal or non-verbal, subtle or obvious.
Sexual harassment can include such behaviour as pinching, grabbing, hugging, kissing, leering,
propositioning, gender-based insults, and remarks regarding a persons appearance or sexual habits.
To constitute harassment, these acts must be unwelcome. They may be characterized by persistent
and repetitive behaviour or a single incident depending on the degree of severity of the alleged act.
In some cases, the harassing behaviour need not occur within the workplace itself for it to be covered
under the BCHRC. For example, if an employer sexually harassed an employee at an after-work party
 Janzen v. Platy Enterprises Ltd., [1989], 1 S.C.R. 1252 at 1284 [Janzen].

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or a weekend office function, that behaviour would be considered to be sexual harassment within the
context of their employment.

Sexual harassment by employers

Many sex workers reported incidents of sexual harassment by employers. Several sex workers
explained that owners of escort agencies and massage parlours often required the performance of
sexual acts as part of the interview and training process:
A. This is pretty disgusting, but this is happens to every single one. I mean every massage
parlour that have it. I am pretty certain, hundred percent sure. Cause I have been
some like you know three different massage parlours. I did not really work for the
first one. What happens is the first thing when you go for interview, and they will ask
you, do you know how to do massage? They will want you to get into the room. And
like you know they will asking you to wear dress, skirt usually. What happens is they
say, you know I am the test. And the test is you have to have sex with the guy.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Escorts described sexual harassment as a common part of their work experience:

A. Okay, when I went around looking for a job or to become an escort . . . I mean, every
one of those guys that interviewed me, I had to have sex with them. Like that, to
me, is sexual harassment. The escort owners want to try you out. I dont know of any
other profession that, when you go in to be a secretary, you have to give your boss a
blow-job. You know, that is a form of harassment. You know . . . and its no different
from escort to massage and so forth . . . its all the same. And I dont think thats ever
going to change
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Such conduct is not only sexual harassment as prohibited under the BCHRC, but it may also be found to
be sexual assault and punishable under the Criminal Code.
In the context of their employment, many sex workers described being subject to unwanted sexual
advances by their employers. Sex workers felt that such conduct should be considered sexual harassment and be prohibited, as it would be in any other workplace:
Q. Do you think theres any place for sexual harassment law in sex work?
A. Well, yes. I do.
Q. Okay, and where would you draw the line between what is included in when you
talk about sex work and where sexual harassment starts?
A. I think it kind of could be pretty much the same as any other employee. The thing
is again education. So when were going to assume that all these people are going to
be licensed, and currently even in Edmonton, they are being interviewed, [name
omitted] does try and if he does find somebody brand new he does spell it out for
them that theyre not really going to be escorting anyone anywhere and are they
aware of what theyre going to do. So, I mean, lets make those people actually earn
some of the money that theyre soaking us for. And uh, go once step further and say
look, heres the deal, if this, uh, pimp of yours does this, this, this, or this, you come
back and you talk to me, because, uh, then we can do something about it. And you
know, I mean its not a perfect world and even if Im working as a waitress, and my
boss is you know, pinching my behind, its not guaranteed that just because I know
Im being harassed that Im going to do anything about because I want my job, so you
know, even, thats reality. But that doesnt prevent us from at least trying to educate

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people and to knowing it.

Q. Okay, so from a legal perspective, if a sex worker wanted to bring a sexual harassment claim against a client, the first thing a court would say is where do you draw
the line basically.
A. Woah, woah, woah. Im sorry, I misunderstood you, I thought against the pimp.
Q. Oh no, I meant sort of more, certainly against an employer, but also against a client.
A. Okay, from the point of an employer I think yes, they are the ones that take advantage, theyre the ones that believe in free sampling of the wares. You know? Youd be
surprised.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Business owners agreed that sexual harassment by employers should be prohibited. They suggested
that, because of the nature of the work, sexual advances by employers is more prevalent in workplaces
within the sex industry than in other industries.
A. In the employee-employer relationship there should be [a place for sexual harassment
claims]. There should be no situation when an employer should ever be involved with
staff. Absolutely not. Well if it were like other work places you would want to say
that the owner of the business or the employees the office staff or whatever would
not really be able to grope the escort, that that wouldnt be fair game. In the escort
field, people tend to be a little more open minded about their sexuality than in other
work places, so there might be a certain amount of kidding around, and, you know,
hugging and kissing, and stuff that might be off limits in an office environment that
we would think nothing of in our business. For instance a lot of my ladies will go to
my photographers place and studio and be photographed in various stages of dress
and undress. You know, nothing dirty goes on but he sees them walking around and
takes their pictures and so on and so forth. That wouldnt fly in an office environment
but it makes perfect sense given what theyre up to in their work.
- female escort agency owner, former sex worker

It is clear from the opinions and experiences conveyed that sex workers must receive the full protection of the law from harassing employers. Sex workers, perhaps more than other types of workers,
endure sexual harassment from employers on a regular basis.

Sexual harassment by clients

Many sex workers described experiencing unsolicited and unwanted sexual advances at the hands
of clients, although they doubted that a clear line could be drawn between contracted sexual services
and sexual harassment. Nevertheless, many sex workers want protection from unwanted touching,
verbal insults, and coercion by clients. Many of the sex workers we interviewed stated that they
frequently experience unwanted behaviours on the job. Sex workers generally agreed that they deserve
legal protection from sexualized conduct that falls outside the scope of the agreed upon services.
Although it may be difficult to draw the line between services contracted for and unwanted behaviours, it is clear that certain client acts can be considered sexual harassment, or even sexual assault,
depending on the particular circumstances. It would be up to human rights tribunals to determine
case-by-case whether the conduct that is the subject of a complaint is part of the contract between a
client and worker, or whether it constitutes sexual harassment. Under the current legal regime, it is
difficult for sex workers to seek protection under human rights codes.

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Current protections against sexual harassment

The Supreme Court of Canada has defined sexual harassment as constituting discrimination on
the basis of sex. Although the BCHRC does not expressly prohibit sexual harassment, it does prohibit
discrimination based on sex. Consequently, even when a human rights code does not explicitly
prohibit sexual harassment, it is considered to be discrimination on the basis of sex under provincial
human rights codes.
More specifically, s. 13(1) of the BCHRC prohibits discrimination in the context of employment,
or any term or condition of employment on the basis of sex,10 as do the human rights statutes of
all other Canadian provinces and territories. In the context of employment, the Supreme Court of
Canada has defined sexual harassment as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which detrimentally
affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for the victim of the harassment.11 Thus, it is clear that unwanted sexual behaviours, including sexual assault, in a workplace
environment by either clients or employers would constitute sexual harassment. Consequently, a
victim of sexual assault could file a human rights complaint in addition to pressing criminal charges.12
Sexual harassment by employers in the sex industry clearly constitutes an abuse of both economic
and sexual power; it undermines and demeans the dignity and self-respect of the victim, both as
an employee and as a human being.13 Provincial human rights codes provide a form of protection
from discrimination and harassment by making employers liable for discriminatory conduct.14 Such
protections are not extended to persons engaged in work that constitutes criminal behaviour. For
this reason, sex workers who are able to argue that they are lawfully employed such as employees of
licensed massage parlours have greater access to the protections available under human rights codes.
In addition to being held accountable for their own conduct, employers may be found liable for
sexual harassment by clients. Courts and human rights tribunals have held employers vicariously liable
for sexual harassment of their employees when that harassment is perpetrated by co-workers under the
employers direction, and even sometimes when it is perpetrated by non-employees where the environment is, to some extent, under the employers control. Under the law, employers are required to take
reasonable steps to maintain a workplace free of sexual harassment. This has been interpreted to mean
that when an employer knows or should know of sexual harassment in the workplace, and fails to take
reasonable steps to remedy or prevent the harassment, the employer may be held liable for violating
human rights statutes. In situations involving sexual harassment of an employee by a client or other
non-employee, the level of employer liability would depend on the employers extent of control
over the non-employee. Therefore, employer responsibility for sexual harassment by non-employees
depends on the circumstances of each case.15
Another potential barrier to sex workers accessing full protection under human rights codes,
even if adult sex work is completely decriminalized, is the fact that many sex workers are classified as
independent contractors under the law, and not as employees. Where sex workers are independent
contractors but work on contract within another business, it is likely that they would be considered
employees for the purposes of human rights legislation, particularly when the victim and the perpetrator interact within the workplace that is controlled by the employer.
 Ibid.
 See ss. 11-13 for the protections in the context of employment. The Code also offers protections in other contexts: see ss. 7-10, 14.
10 Human Rights Code, s. 13(1).
11 Janzen, supra note 7.
12 Since Janzen, supra, it has been accepted in Canadian law that sexual assault can constitute sexual harassment and a victim of
sexual assault in the workplace may choose to file a human rights complaint and/or press criminal charges. Skelly v Karp (1994),
B.C.C.H.R.D. 24 at para. 69 (QL).
13 As explained in Janzen, supra note 7.
14 Robichaud v. Canada (Treasury Board) (1987), 8 C.H.R.R. 680.
15 Arjun P. Aggarwal. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, 2d ed. (Toronto: Butterworths, 1992) at 218-222.

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However, even if adult prostitution is completely decriminalized, workers who operate outside of
any form of employment relationship such as street-level workers and independent escorts will not
be protected against harassment by clients. Instead, harassment by clients would have to be dealt with
under criminal law. Alternatively, independent sex workers could try to argue that they are protected
against discrimination in their workplace because they are actually employed by their client, rather
than being self-employed.

Human rights law recommendations

1. Repeal the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution in order to afford greater protection to sex
workers from sexual harassment by both employers and clients.
2. Ensure that sex workers have full access to the human rights complaint process in cases where they
are subject to sexual harassment by their employers and clients.
3. Educate sex workers, employers and clients about the laws relating to harassment and the potential
for employers to be held partially responsible for failing to provide a workplace free from discrimination.
4. Ensure that members of federal and provincial human rights tribunals understand that an activity
can only be considered part of sex work when the worker provides consent, and that sex workers
can experience the same emotional and psychological trauma from all forms of discrimination,
including sexual harassment, as any other type of worker.
5. Human rights tribunals should consult with sex workers on the appropriate criteria to apply in
distinguishing sexually harassing behaviour from contracted sexual services so that sex workers
may enjoy protection from sexual harassment by clients.
6. Discrimination on the basis of lawful source of income should be added as a prohibited ground
listed in all sections of the BCHRC.
7. Canadas human rights tribunals should work with sex workers to develop new ways to offer full
human rights protections to self-employed sex workers.
8. Canadas human rights tribunals should be provided with information concerning the appropriate
means for adjudicating claims involving sex workers.

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PART 8: IMMIGRATION LAW

The legal issues faced by migrant sex workers can be extremely complex given the way in which their lives are affected by both criminal and immigration law. Migrant sex workers may be subject to two punitive systems. First,
they may be criminalized due to their involvement in sex work which may
contravene one or more Criminal Code sections that relate to prostitution.
Second, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (the IRPA),
they may be subject to removal or deportation. Their right to remain in
Canada may be tenuous if they have not secured permanent resident status.
Given these vulnerabilities, migrant sex workers are frequently subject to serious human rights
violations in their work environments. These violations often go unnoticed and unreported as many
migrant sex workers are unable to avail themselves of legal and social protections that could make
their work and lives safer. Under these conditions, migrant sex workers are in a position of extreme
vulnerability.
In this chapter, we use the term migrant sex worker to refer to a person born outside of Canada
who engaged in sex work once having migrated to Canada. This Part begins with a discussion of prevalent assumptions about migrant sex workers, examines the rights that sex workers who find themselves at various stages of the immigration process, provides an overview of the research into human
trafficking and smuggling, and concludes with a list of recommendations for law and policy reform.

Are all migrant sex workers trafficked persons?

The experience of migrant sex workers is often subject to overgeneralizations given the tendency to
label all migrant sex workers as trafficked persons. The label trafficked persons certainly describes
the situation faced by many migrant sex workers who have become involved in sex work as a result
of coercion and exploitation. However, our interviews with sex workers suggest that the term trafficking should not be applied indiscriminately to all persons who migrate to Canada and become
involved in the sex industry. Some migrant sex workers asserted that they did not end up in sex work
as a result of exploitation or coercion and choose to engage in prostitution.
Central to any discussion of trafficking in persons is the issue of consent. From a legal perspective, consent involves a persons capacity for agreement free from fraudulent representation, force or
undue pressure. There is ample evidence that many women and children involved in the sex trade are
subject to exploitation, including coercion, blackmail and physical brutality. Trafficking in persons is
commonly referred to as the modern-day slave trade. Against the view that all sex work-related migra Criminal Code, R.S., c. C-34 [Criminal Code].
 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2000, c. 27 [IRPA].
 While the term trafficked persons is used to describe many situations involving people forced to perform labour, it will only be
used in the context of sex work in this report.
 Sex work involving children is outside the scope of this report. Therefore, sex work-related trafficking and migration involving
children will not be discussed in this chapter.
 A. Cockburn, 21st-Century Slaves (2003), online: National Georgraphic magazine <http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/

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tion is a form of trafficking, our project participants suggested that migrant women have various degrees
of control over their situations:
A. [My friend] told me about two kind of girls. When you reach her at your homeland,
you got money to pay for fake passport, and you have money for airplane ticket. You
are free. What do they say? Free body . . . So, they can choosing where they want to go
to work. They can choosing who they want to work for. And they can choosing when
do they want to go . . . And you know so much better than some girls because they are
so poor, their families need the money, need some money for food or whatever. So,
they will sell the girl. So, the girl will belong to the guy; she does not belong to herself
anymore.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

This chapter discusses how the fundamental rights and freedoms of migrant sex workers as enshrined
in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, are being routinely violated.

Migrant sex workers in Canada

While there are currently no reliable statistics available on the number of migrant sex workers in
Canada, it is clear from our interviews that a significant number of sex workers in Canada are nonCanadian:
Q. So, let us talk about that a little bit. Lets talk about the difference between the Canadian girls and the non-Canadian girls . . . in the [massage] parlours that you worked
in, what percentage do you think were actually Canadian, what percentage were not?
A. Let me think about it. I remember at the older place . . . one was Chinese. Five to six
girls is coming from Thailand and Malaysia and its not Canadian . . . they are not
allowed to work in Canada because they are coming in from, you know like, visitor.
Q. Out of how many girls would that be like? Out of ten girls that were working there,
maybe five of them were not Canadian?
A. Right.
Q. Okay, and do you think that the owners preferred girls that were not Canadian or
just whoever came along and was willing to work?
A. I think . . . He wanted both.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

Current working conditions of migrant sex workers

The experience of migrant sex workers in Canada runs across a broad spectrum from those who
have a high degree of personal freedom and autonomy to those who have virtually none. The women
no freedom or autonomy are treated as property. Almost every aspect of their lives is controlled, and
they are kept in servitude. At the other extreme are migrant women who do act independently. As one
female migrant sex worker explained:
Q. I know a girl . . . Her name is [name omitted]. She is Malaysian. Chinese Malaysian
and she is gone now and I think its okay to say that now. Like she is using your fake
ngm/0309/feature1/>; E. Vitagliano, Malevolent Bargains: Slavery continues in the form of forced prostitution (April 2004), online:
AFA Journal <http://www.afajournal.org/2004/april/404culture.asp>; Lieut-Colonel Dawn Sewell, Sexual Trafficking: Fighting the
New Slave Trade (2005), online: The Salvation Army International <http://www1.salvationarmy.org/ihq%5Cwww_sa.nsf/0/F2E8F
16550A2461A80256EDD007A73DD?opendocument&id=0B976C67E8CF7C9D80256EDD006E3BB0>.
 The term Canadian will be used to define the status of a person who holds Canadian citizenship.

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passport and she is a traveler. She is not supposed to be here and she travel all over
the place and making money with prostitution.
Q. So she travels around to different countries or different cities?
A. Different countries . . . Her last stop was the United States before she come to
Vancouver.
Q. So she travels around and works sex trade herself and thats how she makes money?
A. Yeah. And what happened is she told me two kinds of girls. Two kinds. One kind like
her, is free like her, which means she knows those dealers for sex . . . and because she
got money in Malaysia so she can pay for her own passport. Fake passport money . .
. And she can pay for the . . . airplane ticket. And thats why she is free so she chooses
who she work for . . . And she told me there is a different one. The different one is the
. . . I met later on at the massage parlour . . . they do not have freedom. They have to
stay in certain places. They cannot walk out; they cannot talk to people. They cannot
tell people their real name and stuff like that because like those dealers, those people
dealers they pay for the passport and for the airplane and ticket and stuff like that.
Q. So where does those girls usually come from or does that not matter?
A. Usually those girls coming from Thailand or Malaysia around those countries
between those countries.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

Many of these women are held in a system of debt bondage that is tantamount to sexual slavery.
As a result of issues such as language barriers and employer-imposed restrictions on their activities,
some migrant sex workers have limited access to information about their legal rights in Canada, and
consequently are vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse. One female migrant described a situation
where migrant sex workers are kept in isolation and forbidden to interact with other people, even in
their work environment:
Q. Now, what is the relationship in the massage parlour between the Canadian girls and
the other girls? Like do you guys get to spend time together? Do you guys talk?
A. I remember one time . . . I was not working, but [name omitted] was working in
that massage parlour because I always hang out with her too. Cause I go with her for
drugs, right? . . . So, we talk to each other. Not all of them are that bad. But when
they are not free; like they belong to somebody else, that, they pretty much got separate.
Q. So they do not get to talk to you?
A. Not at all. I met them few times. Like we know each other in the big room.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

This same woman explained that some migrant sex workers are hidden in massage parlours and other
establishments, and are denied access to anyone other than customers:
Q. Do you think this is the problem that we are having at [name of parlour omitted]?
Why we always see the same girls over and over?
A. Right.
Q. I wondered about that. So you think there are more [non-Canadian] girls there?
A. I believe that and they are. Especially he is Chinese . . . Because they have their own
connections for getting those girls . . . So when they are owner, they have their own
way . . . To dealing with that. That kind of guy. . .
Q. So, if they sell the girl in Thailand or Malaysia to a massage parlour over here?
A. . . . They have a few guys in Thailand. And they Chinese Thailand people whatever.

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Because I heard about a couple of guys still there. And the wife is over here. And they
work together, which means . . . over there he is the dealer. He does all the work of
paying like every year, they send money to the family, thats all.
Q. Okay, so he buys the girl from the family and brings her to Canada to where his wife
is waiting, who owns the massage parlour?
A. Actually . . . I think that lady at the time. I am pretty sure because I used to work in her
house. Not her house because she would rent some house and would hide the girls there
. . . They were doing business there. Starting to run out of business there, and thats why
she starting to send the girls to the massage parlour . . . she is not the only one.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

Some migrant sex workers experience language barriers or employer-imposed restrictions on their
activities, and are therefore very limited in their ability to seek assistance from police, health care
services, government agencies, social service organizations, faith-based groups or their peers. For
example, one migrant sex worker explained that, in general, migrant sex workers are more vulnerable
to sexual assault than other sex workers and face substantial barriers to legal redress:
A. Like two girls coming from Thailand or whatever . . . They got raped a couple of girls
of them. They got raped more than two times . . . And they just have to settle.
Q. At the new, the other one on [location omitted] did anything like that ever happen
there? Did you ever feel unsafe?
A. I do feel unsafe, but its not that bad. The guy did not raped me. He just . . . he was
trying to like having sex with me. Its a Vietnamese guy. He was trying to have sex
with me without a condom. I said no. And then he trying to grab me. Starting to
grab me really hard, trying to forcing me to do it. Like he want to rape me, like
possible. So, I was screaming. And my friend, that is my friend was just passing by
and she knocked on the door. Like, knock, knock, go, go. Thats why I was lucky.
Thats why I was [able to get] away . . .
Q. So she rattled on the door and he got scared?
A. Yeah, and then he stopped. I went out and I said, I do not want to do him . . . This is
the difference when you are Canadian; you have a choice to say I do not want to do
this guy . . . In all those massage parlours if you are not, like you cannot say no.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

Even when in need of immediate medical care, some migrant sex workers are forced to continue to
work, and to do so in dangerous conditions:
Q. But you wont get a chance to talk to [non-Canadian sex workers] and find out
whats going on?
A. Not at all. But I remember once, the girl was crying and I was trying to talk to
her. And she do not really speak English very well. But she was trying to tell me the
sponge, the boss was telling her to put it inside her vagina because she was bleeding .
. . And she, because its really hurting; its really painful. She trying to put a smaller
one in. And the customer complaining because he saw blood. So, the owner, like
apparently, slapped her or whatever because she was crying.
Q. Oh, so he hit her?
A. Yeah, I think so and she needs to put a bigger sponge inside. She told me that and
then she said like, like she hate her life and stuff like that. I feel so bad.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

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In some establishments, wages are higher for Canadian than for migrant sex workers. In some massage
parlours, workers are not paid an hourly wage their income consists only of tips they may receive
from clients for the sexual services they provided. In these cases, the client pays the establishment for
the massage, and then negotiates the sexual services with the individual worker. This means that when
business is slow, or in instances where the client receives a massage only, a sex worker does not get
paid:
Q. Yeah, so do you think that [non-Canadian sex workers] charge the same as Canadian
girls?
A. No, its totally different. I know that. I am pretty sure.
Q. What do you think the difference is?
A. Okay, like Canadian girls when they work in the massage parlour. Say, I do not
really remember, but say one hour you get $25 an hour pay. For one session, not one
hour, like 45 minutes. Me myself I only got $15 for an hour because I do not have
a license . . . But I was complaining and thats why they pay me. Because before, I
having argument with them. I do no have pay for hours . . . And I find out, that all
the girls. They are working when they dont have. First off, when they do not have the
license.
Q. The massage certificate.
A. License. And some girls they are not even supposed to live in Canada . . . And they do
not get paid for hours . . . Its crazy. You know, how much money the owner makes?
I mean like one hour, the owner charges 50 bucks. Like at that time. Like now its
lower prices. But at that time, its 50 bucks . . . So, the girls 25 bucks an hour, you
got 25 bucks. But now when the girl do not get the $25, he gets 50 bucks for nothing.
Q. And what does the girl get?
A. The girls get zip. The girls get the money if they have sex with the guy.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

Having to acquire a massage certificate or a license creates an additional barrier for a migrant sex
worker. For example, she may not have the financial means to do so, or she may not want to register
any information with the government or educational institutions for fear that she may be arrested or
deported.
In the following excerpt, the same migrant massage parlour worker explained how Canadian sex
workers are paid for their work even if they do not engage in the sale of sex acts, while their migrant
counterparts are not paid:
Q. The owner gets paid for the room and time, and the girl gets paid for whatever sex
that she does. So, if he just wants a massage, do you get paid?
A. I do.
Q. And how do you work that out?
A. They got a paper.
Q. Right.
A. When you get it you gonna put your name on and how many hours you are in there.
This is the problem here. When the girl is not Canadian, they do not get paid for an
hour. So, if the guys does not do anything, they got nothing. But usually they will pay
tips, at least 20 bucks.
Q. Oh, okay. But for you because you are Canadian, you get a . . .
A. They have to.
Q. Paid for the hour.
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

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In addition to being denied wages for their work, some migrant sex workers are not paid at all. Their
earnings for sexual activity sold are paid directly to their owner, pimp or boyfriend:
A. I know a couple of guys that always come to the massage parlour to take the girl. And
I believe the owner does not own the girls sometimes. Sometimes, they may own one
or two, but sometimes like what I saying they are richer. But most of the girls are not
richer; they just have a pimp to do it. So they have their own pimp.
Q. So, its not necessarily the massager parlour thats buying them? Its somebody else.
A. They do too, but they probably got one or two. And actually, what they doing because
they do not want to get caught, they will find some guy to do them that job. So, they
dealing with all the pimps.
Q. Yeah, so what about the . . . You have suffered some violence, but you had the right to
say no. Did you see any of those other girls suffering?
A. I saw some girls suffering . . . One girl she got a pimp, and she said thats her
boyfriend . . . And her boyfriend is a dealer; and like he is supplying her with the
drugs. Like all the money its go to the dealer. Like the boss over at the massager
parlour, he wont give the girl money . . . You can say they are professionally doing
sexually, you know like prostitution and stuff like that. Because the money its to the
boss and the boss would give it to the pimp. Because the pimp would tell him if the
customer pays, you get the money and you give it to me. You know, they have a deal
first. And the girl says, this is my boyfriend, so they have to listen. You know what I
mean, aye?
- female migrant off-street in-call sex worker

Because some migrant sex workers have limited information about their legal rights, they can be more
vulnerable to intense levels of exploitation and abuse. As a result, many migrant sex workers prefer to
work at street level even though they will continue to be vulnerable to violence and other abuses:
A. I mean like you the owners its terrible. They got a lot of rules. You have to follow the
rules. Like you know, at least I am more happy on the street. I mean like its totally
they give you a lot of stress. Because the girls there are alone and stuff like that. On
the streets, when something bad happens, the girls. If the girls know you, they stand
by. They help you . . . And I got a lot of help like those services. I go to doctor; I have
a counsellor. And thats I turn my life back around.
Q. So, you get more service when you are working in the streets than when you are
working in a massage?
A. Oh, yes. Yes, because like in the massage you feel totally got cut off from everything.
Its like they are trying to cut you off from outside . . . Like thats totally like feels like
isolated, feels like you got cut from connection to the world. I mean like the feeling is
so terrible. Like when you got raped in the massager parlour and the owner wont do
anything. And he trying to tell you, its your own fault . . . You know on the streets
when I am in a bad day, I go ask for help. I report it you know. People help me to
calm down. I got people take care of me. They report it, they write down for other
girls. And this is what I found, you know. This is why I like to be. I am clean; I do
not do drugs anymore. I want to helping other girls because . . . I found that a lot of
girls, they do not even know that. They do not even know a lot of rights; they do not
know they have rights. Just say something.
- female migrant street-level sex worker

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Health concerns
The criminalization of prostitution and the risk of deportation make the working conditions of
migrant sex workers much worse, increasing their risk of being subject to violence and making them
less able to insist that clients use condoms. These conditions place them at greater risk of contracting
HIV and other STDs.
Some migrant sex workers may have a limited understanding about the health risks inherent in
their work. Further, they may live in poverty or with an addiction which can reduce their control over
the way they do their work:
Q. Do you think that some of the customers offer [non-Canadian sex workers] more
money not to use a condom?
A. Yes, I believe that.
Q. And the girls that do not have papers. You said last time that maybe they do not
use condoms. Is that because they do not know or because they need to make more
money?
A. I think its because they need to make more money because they do not get paid per
hour.
Q.
Right. So, tell me a little about . . . Do you know, does the massage owner
ask you about diseases, STDs, HIV?
A. No, they do not . . . [W]e know we are supposed to [use condoms]. But some girls does
not. Like those Thai girls. They do not usually use condoms.
Q. And did you know that Thai girls did not use condoms?
A. Because they do not know freedom. They just listen to whatever . . . You know,
peoples want. They just worry they could not get the money.
Q. Oh, okay so they are scared about not getting the money.
A. Because they are drug users. Because the owner is really terrible like you know they
have the way to control them.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (the IRPA) is federal legislation relating to immigration and refugee protection in Canada. Foreign nationals can apply to immigrate to Canada under a
specific class of immigrant, such as through the skilled worker class, business class, or family
class. Also, foreign nationals can apply as refugee claimants or as persons in need of protection if they
fear persecution or may face torture or cruel and unusual treatment or punishment in their country of
origin.
IRPA sets out the conditions for inadmissibility to Canada. It states that a foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of criminality and a permanent resident is inadmissible on grounds of serious
criminality. These provisions are highly relevant to migrant sex workers because they may break
the law in the course of their work and may be vulnerable to removal from Canada if convicted of a
criminal offence. The method by which a migrant sex worker applies to enter or remain in Canada
 IRPA at s. 36. 36. (1) A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of serious criminality for
(a) having been convicted in Canada of an offence under an Act of Parliament punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of
at least 10 years, or of an offence under an Act of Parliament for which a term of imprisonment of more than six months has been
imposed; 36 (2) A foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of criminality for
(a) having been convicted in Canada of an offence under an Act of Parliament punishable by way of indictment, or of two offences
under any Act of Parliament not arising out of a single occurrence.

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will affect whether or not she can be subject to removal from Canada for being convicted of criminal
activity within Canada. The right to remain in Canada will also be affected by the stage a sex worker
is at in the immigration process. The following discussion provides a brief overview of a range of
possible immigration scenarios, and discusses whether a criminal conviction can lead to removal or
deportation in each situation.
First, a migrant sex worker may be in Canada without having adhered to the procedures set out
in IRPA. In that case, she or he is in Canada illegally and can be detained and removed or deported at
any time.
Second, a migrant sex worker may come to Canada temporarily on a tourist, work or student
visa, all of which provide them with permission to stay in Canada for a defined period. However,
by committing a criminal offence in Canada, a sex worker or any other foreign national who is in
Canada on a visa can be prosecuted, subject to enforcement action and required to leave the country.
If a sex worker has applied to immigrate to Canada under one of the above-mentioned immigrant
classes and has been granted permanent resident status, she can be removed from Canada if found
to have engaged in serious criminality. Serious criminality is defined by IRPA as being convicted
of an offence which is punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years, or of an
offence for which a term of imprisonment of more than six months has been imposed.
Therefore, a single conviction under the communicating law10 or being found in a common
bawdy house,11 will likely not result in removal from Canada because these offences carry a maximum
sentence of six months imprisonment.12 However, the sentence that may result from a conviction
under s. 210(1) of the Criminal Code, keeping a common bawdy house,13 or s. 212 of the Criminal
Code, procuring,14 could meet the threshold for serious criminality. In either case, the fear that
deportation may result from a criminal conviction will often have the effect of driving sex workers
underground.
Refugee claimants can also be found to be inadmissible on the basis of serious criminality.15 If
they are in the process of making a refugee claim and have yet to be granted permanent resident status,
they can be found to be ineligible on the grounds of serious criminality. However, for refugees, serious
criminality means having been convicted of an offence that is punishable by a maximum term of
imprisonment of at least 10 years and for which a sentence of at least two years was imposed.16
Migrant sex workers often fear arrest, detention and removal from Canada, and this fear can have
the effect of driving them underground, particularly when they are in Canada illegally or on temporary visas. While trying to hide from the authorities, migrant sex workers are often forced to work
in very poor conditions, including dangerous and slavery-type conditions and may avoid seeking the
assistance of law enforcement, emergency services, community organizations, and other social services.

Human smuggling and trafficking

Definitions of trafficking in persons
While the terms smuggling and trafficking are often used interchangeably, they are different
phenomena. The term smuggling is commonly employed to describe the movement of a person
across an international border in contravention of applicable immigration laws. Smuggling is as a
 IRPA, s. 36(2).
 IRPA, s. 36(1)(a).
10 Criminal Code, s. 213.
11 Criminal Code, s. 210(2)(b).
12 Criminal Code, s. 787.
13 Criminal Code, s. 210(1).
14 Criminal Code, s. 212.
15 IRPA, s. 101(1)(f ).
16 IRPA, s. 101(2)(a).

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fee-for-service operation the business transaction and association between the parties ends at the
destination.17
In contrast, trafficking involves an association that continues beyond the persons arrival at the
destination, and frequently is exploitative and violent. In some cases, smuggling turns into trafficking.18 Trafficking does not necessarily contravene immigration laws; trafficking can occur in the
context of legal entry into a receiving or transit state. Unlike smuggling, the movement of a person
to a different location is not what constitutes trafficking, rather it is the deception, coercion or force
exercised on a person to become or remain in servitude that defines trafficking.19
The key components of trafficking include the use of some form of deception, coercion or force
in order to exploit the trafficked person upon their arrival at the destination. Usually, the trafficked
person is subject to either sexual exploitation or forced labour. Most cases of trafficking investigated
by the Canadian law enforcement involve individuals engaged in the sex industry.20
Canada is a known to be a country of transit and destination for trafficked persons. Internal trafficking of both Canadians and non-Canadians takes place throughout the country. For example, law
enforcement agencies are aware that some organized crime groups engage in the trafficking of persons,
both Canadians and non-Canadians, among provinces for the purposes of prostitution and other
activities.21
Trafficking in persons is described as a modern-day form of slavery involving victims who are typically forced, defrauded or coerced into sexual or labour exploitation. Some agencies and organizations
argue that it is among the fastest growing criminal activities, occurring both worldwide and in individual countries.22 A UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children defines trafficking in persons as:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the
threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the
abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or
benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose
of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution
of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.23

Consent of a person to exploitation is irrelevant if there has been any coercion or deception involved.24
Statistics
Each year, it is estimated that anywhere between 700,000 to four million persons are trafficked
globally.25 Approximately 80 percent of global trafficking victims are female, 70 percent of whom are
trafficked in the commercial sex industry.26 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimates
that 800 persons are trafficked into Canada per year. However, some non-governmental organizations

17 RCMP, Project Surrender: A strategic intelligence assessment of the extent of human trafficking to Canada, 30 Jan 2004 at 18.
18 Ibid. at 6.
19 Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons , Trafficking in Persons Report 3 June 2005 (U.S. Department of State) at
10, online: <http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/47255.pdf>.
20 Supra note 17 at 8.
21 Protection Project, The, 2005 Human Rights Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, 2005 at 1,
online: <http://www.protectionproject.org/report/canada.doc>.
22 Supra note 19 at introduction.
23 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, United Nations, 2000, Article 3(a).
24 Ibid. at Article 3(b).
25 Supra note 17 at 5.
26 International Rescue Committee, Trafficking Watch, Issue No. 5, Summer 2004 at 9.

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(NGOs) estimate that as many as 16,000 persons are trafficked into Canada per year.27 In Canada,
trafficked persons are usually discovered through police raids or when victims seek asylum. These
incidents likely represent only a fraction of this activity commonly-cited statistics suggest that only
one in ten victims of trafficking come to the attention of police.28 Therefore, it is possible that the
estimates above depict only a small portion of a much larger phenomenon.29
Trafficking procedure
In Canada, it is believed that trafficking in persons is coordinated mostly in Vancouver and Toronto
by organized criminal groups from South Asia and Russia, respectively.30 These organized groups are
believed to recruit women, men, and children for the purposes of prostitution or the drug trade.31
Most of the Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, and Thai women found in raids on brothels, massage
parlours, and karaoke bars across the country told police that an agent in their home countries
charged them for transportation to Canada and for job placement. 32The agents then sold the women
to bar and brothel owners for prices ranging from $7,500 to $15,000.33
Revenue generated from trafficking in persons
According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, human trafficking generates an estimated
$9.5 billion in annual revenue.34
The potential for profits in [trafficking] in Canada is staggering . . . The attraction for human
commodity lies in the fact that it is a resource that offers multiple opportunities to turn a
profit. Persons can be used, reused and resold.35

In some cases, instances of smuggling can turn into trafficking. Migration to Canada is geographically
challenging, and can be financially challenging for some people as well. These challenges may increase
the vulnerability of someone migrating illegally, or being smuggled, to being trafficked. Smugglers
will move someone from Canada to the United States for a fee of $800 to $6,000, and from Asia to
Canada for a fee of $30,000 to $60,000. These amounts owed to smugglers can represent a significant
debt that may require servicing through illegal activity, which can translate into years of debt-bondage
and servitude.36
Challenges facing law enforcement
Jurisdictional issues
One logistical challenge to combating trafficking in Canada is that it involves multiple government departments and agencies. For example, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is responsible
for illegal migration, whereas individuals or groups who finance and engage in human trafficking
fall under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency, the Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Department of Justice, the RCMP, and Solicitor General

27 Donna E. Stewart and Olga Gajic-Veljanoski, Trafficking in women: the Canadian perspective, online: <http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/
content/full/173/1/25>.
28 Supra note 17 at 11.
29 Ibid.
30 Supra note 21 at 1-2.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid. at 3.
33 Ibid.
34 Supra note 19 at 13-14.
35 Supra note 17 at 13.
36 Ibid. at 14.

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Canada.37 Additionally, the covert nature of trafficking makes it difficult to detect and estimate its
frequency, since the parties involved hide their activity.38
Detection difficult due to mobility
Detection of trafficking is difficult due to the mobile nature of the businesses and individuals who
are involved. Research suggests that women are quickly circulated between different cities. This practice of moving sex workers to different cities or different establishment is considered to be a profitable
way to do business while facing less inherent risk than retaining the same staff over a longer period of
time.39 For example, one suspected mastermind behind a trafficking scheme told undercover police
that he had a contact in Vancouver who owned a brothel filled with Malaysian women and moved
them every six months to avoid detection.40
Due to the ease of moving sex workers from location to location, and the mobility of massage
parlours, de facto brothels and other commercial sex establishments, the owners and operators of
these establishments can be difficult to apprehend:
Q. Okay, so [location omitted], but its closed down now. So the police busted it? . . .
A. So like what happened, its like . . . Okay because she is not. She could not stay here
thats why she got locked up for a few days.
Q. Because from immigration?
A. From the cops . . . But the cops help her out.
Q. Wait, wait. Why did they lock her up?
A. Because she is not Canadian, but we are Canadian. So we out. They just lock us up
around 24 hours.
Q. Oh, so you were working at the massage parlour too?
A. Yeah.
Q. And you got busted too? So when the police came in there what did they say to you
guys? Like what were their reasons for going in there?
A. Well, actually they got guns and everything so they are coming in. Actually, what
happened, the one that got busted is not a real massage parlour. Its somebody rent a
place and say we are doing massage, but we actually are doing sex.
Q. What was their reason for entering was it to look for drugs or was it prostitution?
A. They thought it was prostitution. They do not want the drugs but they found the
drugs. They found out all girls doing drugs and the wanted to charge them . . . So
they need witnesses . . . So they offered me and one other girl. She is Canadian too;
they offered us like to be witness so that they wont charge us . . . Okay and [name
omitted] got a little problem because she is not
supposed to stay here, but they help her. They get the immigration letters to let her
stay for the case . . . Cause they need her . . . because she knows a lot of things more
than they know at that time . . . Like she knows how the girls are coming over and
stuff like that . . . They need us to prove [the massage parlour owner] is selling drugs
there to control the girls . . . He need us to prove that he, he is using us in prostitution
over there . . . And he make a lot of money and stuff like that.
Q. But he had not been arrested so he got away.
A. He . . . he got arrested in the jail three days but he is out.
37 Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, Fact Sheet: Trafficking in Human Beings, 29 July 2003, online: <http://
www.psepc.gc.ca/policing/organized_crime/FactSheets/trafficking_e.asp>.
38 Ibid.
39 Supra note 21 at 3.
40 Ibid.

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Q. Oh, okay so when he is out he run away. Oh, okay I get it . . . sorry.
A. And okay when he is out when the day when supposed to be in the court he ran away
because he saw us.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Difficulty obtaining witness testimony

Another challenge facing law enforcement agencies is the difficulty of obtaining witness testimony. In October 2001, police infiltrated a Vancouver prostitution ring involving eleven Malaysian
women, at least five of whom reported being deceived by traffickers before their arrival in Canada. It
was discovered that all eleven women had been subjected to slave-like conditions while working in
Canada. Nevertheless, none of the victims were willing to testify against their traffickers, and Canadian authorities deported them to Malaysia.41
IRPA gives witnesses very little incentive to testify about being trafficked into Canada because
the possibility of deportation to her country of origin remains even if a sex worker testifies in legal
proceedings. Further, she could face retaliation by her traffickers or their associates in Canada or in
her county of origin. Finally, the social stigma of being engaged in prostitution, regardless of her
consent or lack thereof, increases her fear of deportation. A woman who has been trafficked and then
must return to her country of origin may be ostracized by her own community and family.
In order to protect victims of trafficking and encourage their testimony, Canada could provide
visas for potentially trafficked persons, similar to the arrangements made by Australia in 2003.42
Australias initiatives include the provision of a permanent visa for trafficked persons in certain
circumstances, a comprehensive victim support scheme that includes assistance with accommodation, expenses, training and access to social support, legal, medical and counselling services. Further,
reintegration assistance measures have been created for trafficking victims who are returned to source
countries in South East Asia, spearheaded by AusAID and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Changes to anti-smuggling and trafficking laws

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
IRPA was Canadas first legislation to specifically address the issue of trafficking in persons. IRPA
defines the offence of trafficking as organizing the coming into Canada of one or more persons by
means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion.43 Under IRPA, trafficking
in persons includes their recruitment or transportation and, after their entry into Canada, the receipt
or harbouring of those persons.44 The maximum punishment under IRPA is life imprisonment, a
fine, or both.45 Also, the courts may order forfeiture of any property seized in relation to the offence.46
The first charges under IRPA for trafficking in persons were laid in April 2005.47
Under IRPA, a person without Canadian citizenship is inadmissible to Canada on grounds of
organized criminality which means being found to be a member of an organization that is believed
41 M. Trepanier, Trafficking in Women for Purposes of Sexual Exploitation: A Matter of Consent? Canadian Woman Studies,
Migration, Labour and Exploitation: Trafficking in Women & Girls, Volume 22, Nos. 3, 4, Spring/Summer 2003.
42 HumanTrafficking.org: A Web Resource for Combating Human Trafficking. Academy for Educational Development, Washington,
DC. Last modified August 2005, online: http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/eap/australia/bestpractices.html.
43 IRPA, Article 118(1).
44 IRPA, Article 118(2).
45 IRPA, Article 120.
46 IRPA, Articles 118(1) and 137(1).
47 Legislative Summary, Bill C-49: An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Trafficking in Persons), Prepared by Laura Barnett, Law
and Government Division, 7 July 2005, online:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/Bills_ls.asp?Parl=38&Ses=1&ls=C49#12backgroundtxt.

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to be or to have been engaged in activity such as people smuggling, trafficking in persons or money
laundering.48
The Criminal Code of Canada and Bill C-49
The Criminal Code of Canada (Criminal Code) currently prohibits trafficking in persons in
sections which include offences such as fraudulent documentation, prostitution-related offences,
physical harm, abduction and confinement, intimidation, conspiracy, and organized crime.49 Bill
C-49, which received Royal Assent on November 25, 2005, adds to the existing Criminal Code provisions by targeting specific forms of exploitation and abuse that are inherent in trafficking. Bill C-49
goes beyond the issue of international trafficking to address trafficking of persons within Canada.
Trafficking in persons
Bill C-49 creates a new Criminal Code provision, s. 279.01(1), which treats the offence of trafficking as any circumstance where a person recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals
or harbours a person, or who exercises control or influence over the movements of a person, for the
purposes of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation.50 If convicted of this offence, a person
may be imprisoned for up to 14 years, or for life if the person also kidnaps, commits an aggravated
assault or sexual assault against, or causes death to the victim during commission of the trafficking
offence.51
Profiting from trafficking
The new Criminal Code s. 279.02 creates the offence of economic gain obtained by trafficking in
persons: A person who receives a material benefit, financial or otherwise, knowing that it results from
trafficking in persons, has committed an offence and may be imprisoned for up to 10 years.52
Withholding or destroying documents
The new Criminal Code s. 279.03 outlines the offence of withholding or destroying documents including identity, immigration, or travel documents in order to facilitate the trafficking of
persons, carrying a penalty of imprisonment for up to five years. For the purposes of s. 279.03, the
document(s) in question would not need to be either authentic or Canadian.53
Restitution
The Criminal Code currently allows for restitution to a victim of bodily harm54 Bill C-49 extends
restitution to victims subjected to psychological harm.55
Protection of vulnerable witnesses
Bill C-49 provides for enhanced witness protection where the witness is under the age of 18 and
the accused is charged with any trafficking offence.56 Such enhanced witness protection would include
expansion of a judges ability to exclude the public from the courtroom, and allow a witness to testify
outside the courtroom or behind a screen so as to be able to avoid seeing the accused.57
48 IRPA, Article 37(1)(b).
49 Supra note 47.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.
54 Criminal Code, section 738(1)(b).
55 Bill C-49: An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Trafficking in Persons), Royal Assent: 25 November 2005, S.C. 2005, c. 43,
clause 7 [hereinafter referred to as Bill C-49].
56 Supra note 47, clause 4.
57 Supra, note 47.

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Public policy
In addition to humanitarian and compassionate considerations, the government may consider
public policy in determining whether a person may enter or remain in Canada as a permanent resident, or be granted an exception from any criteria or obligation under IRPA.58
We are unaware of any circumstance where a victim of trafficking has been allowed to stay in
Canada, although she or he could claim refugee status or request to be allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds. In the event that trafficking victims are allowed to stay in Canada, some groups and
organizations argue that this is not sufficient protection since there are no government programs
designed to help them transition to a life where they are not compelled to engage in prostitution.59
The Canadian authorities are in a position to provide some protection to trafficked sex workers in
Canada by not deporting them as a matter of course; instead they could consider their circumstances
on humanitarian and compassionate grounds as per the current provisions of IRPA. Trafficked sex
workers are not perpetrators but victims of crime, and should be protected as such. Australia has
acknowledged this, and in 2003 introduced a new visa arrangements for potentially trafficked persons,
including a permanent visa in certain circumstances.60

Immigration law recommendations

1. Migrant sex workers need greater access to the rights and protections found in the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms.
2. Not all migrant sex workers should be characterized as trafficked persons or victims.
3. Trafficked persons should be seen as having suffered significant human rights abuses and be
granted permanent resident status so that they do not fear removal or deportation as a result of
coming forward.
4. Trafficked persons should not be compelled to testify without appropriate witness protections in
place.

58 IRPA, Article 25(1).

59 Supra note 21 at 7.
60 Supra note 42.

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PART 9: FAMILY LAW

Because of the nature of their work, many sex workers have been subjected
to questions about their ability to parent when the Courts become involved
in a dispute over child custody, or when B.C.s Ministry of Children and
Family Development (MCFD) initiates a child protection investigation.
If adult prostitution is decriminalized, it is likely to become more visible,
in which case it may become more difficult for sex workers with children
to conceal their involvement in prostitution. In this chapter, we examine
family-law issues that may arise for parents who work in the sex industry.
We focus on the ways that government agencies and the Courts should
protect the rights of sex workers and their children.
Child custody, access and guardianship
When parents live together they share custody and guardianship of their children. If they separate
or divorce, custody and guardianship may continue to be shared or may be awarded to one of the
parents. When parents separate, the custodial parent lives with and provides daily care for the children. In a sole custody arrangement, only one parent has legal custody of the children. In a joint
or shared custody arrangement, the child spends time living with both parents. In a split custody
arrangement, each parent has custody of one or more of the children. Guardianship refers to the
responsibility for making decisions about important aspects of the childs life, such as the education
or health care the child will receive. Like custody, guardianship can be retained by one parent only or
can be shared between the parents.
Access refers to the time a parent is permitted to spend with their child when they do not
have legal custody of that child. Usually, if one parent has full custody of a child, the other parent is
granted access. In rare cases where a judge believes that a parent might harm or kidnap the children,
the judge may refuse to allow that parent access to his or her children. Alternatively, the judge might
order supervised access, meaning that the non-custodial parent may spend time with the children
only when another adult is present.

Parental involvement in prostitution and the best interests of the child

The best interests of the child is the paramount criterion in custody determinations. However,
this concept is elusive and difficult to define; its application is highly contextual and varies from case
to case. When attempting to establish what is in the best interests of the child, the Court considers
such factors as the childs health and emotional well-being, the views of the child where appropriate,
the love and affection that exist between the child and others, the potential for the childs education
and training, and the capacity of each person to whom custody or access may be granted to exercise
adequately the rights and duties of custody or access.
 Guardianship also refers to the responsibility for the estate of a child. [Family Relations Act, R.S.B.C 1996, c. 28, s. 25.]
 The Family Justice section of the B.C. Ministry of the Attorney-General website provides basic information about custody, access,
and guardianship issues. It is available at: <http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/family-justice/index.htm>. Legal definitions and terms can be
found in the Divorce Act, Child Support Guidelines, and Family Relations Act.
 Divorce Act, R.S. 1985 (2nd Supp.), c. 3, s. 16(8); Family Relations Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 128, s. 24

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In making custody and access decisions Courts must not consider parents past conduct, unless
it has a substantial effect on the best interests of the child. This factor may be significant for sex
workers who are involved in child custody and access disputes. Unless a parents involvement in the
sex industry substantially affects the best interests of his or her children, courts must not take that
parents profession into account when making determinations of custody or access. However, there
are cases where continuing involvement in prostitution has been taken into account because of its
perceived impact on the best interests of a child. In some cases the Courts have taken a parent or
relatives engagement in prostitution as a potentially undesirable factor affecting that persons right
to be granted custody or access.
In N.F. v. H.L.S., the B.C. Supreme Court overturned the lower courts decision to allow a
grandmother who worked as an escort to have access to her seven-year-old grandchild. The Supreme
Court found that the mother of the child had the right as the childs custodian to make moral decisions regarding the childs upbringing, including denying access to the grandmother for as long as she
remained active as a sex worker. The case went to the Court of Appeal which upheld this decision on
the ground that the grandmother bore the onus of proving that her access was in the best interests
of the child, rather than the mother having the onus of establishing that access was contrary to the
childs best interests.
In L.B.S. v. S.T., the mother and the father each sought interim sole custody of their two-and-ahalf-year-old daughter. The mother admitted to being a sex worker and the father admitted that he
was a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Both parents accused each other of being unfit
to have custody of their child for a variety of reasons, including drug use, abusive behaviour and
alleged criminal activities. The Court found that the parents should share joint custody, reasoning
that neither parent would intentionally allow their questionable activities to become known to their
child, nor would either of them promote the undesirable aspects of their lifestyles and activities to
their child. The Court explained:
Even though most of the allegations of misconduct have not been made out, in my opinion,
the present lifestyles of both Mr. L.B.S. and Ms. S.T. will probably be harmful to M.M.S.
if continued for another year or two. By then, she will probably begin to learn about, and
understand to some limited extent, the activities of her parents, and will begin to form opinions of her own about them. If that point is reached, then in my view their conduct would
be relevant to M.M.S.s health and emotional well-being, and to the capacity of her parents
to adequately exercise the rights and perform the duties associated with her guardianship and
custody, which are factors in s. 24(1) of the Family Relations Act that must be considered.
However, I am satisfied that neither parent would intentionally allow their questionable
activities to become known to their child, nor would either of them promote the undesirable
aspects of their lifestyles and activities to M.M.S. And so I find that their lifestyles are relevant
only to a limited extent, at this time.
I continue with the mandatory analysis under s. 24(1) of the Family Relations Act. I am
satisfied that, at the present time, both parents have suitable homes and are capable of safeguarding, preserving, and promoting M.M.S.s health and emotional well-being [s. 24(1)(a)],
they both have much love and affection for M.M.S., and competent and reliable support
persons who also have strong ties with her [s. 24(1)(c)], they are both capable of providing
proper education and training for the child [s. 24(1)(d)], and that they both have adequate
capacity to exercise the rights and duties associated with guardianship and custody of M.M.S.
[s. 24(1)(e)].

 Family Relations Act, ibid., s. 24(3).

 N.F. v. H.L.S. [1998] B.C.J. No.1739 (B.C.S.C.).
 L.B.S. v. S.T. [2000] B.C.J. No. 2304 (B.C.S.C.).
 L.B.S. v. S.T., [2000] B.C.J. No. 2304 at paras. 43-45.

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Although the Court granted shared interim custody to the parents, clearly the parents present
lifestyles, including the mothers participation in the sex industry, were seen as potentially harmful to
the best interests of the child as she grew older.
Participation in the sex industry in and of itself should not preclude a parent from being granted
custody of a child or children.
A. I should not be discriminated against because of my employment. Same thing as if
Im working as a lawyer, a job is a job.
- female street-level sex worker

A. Also if youre If the citys intent on the sex trade to say that women cant have a
child, cuz shes a prostitute thats bullshit.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Many sex workers described the negative consequences of the stigmatization of prostitution, including
its impact on family relations:
A. The one girl that I know that has a child he has zero respect for her. And I know
that its because of the job she does.
A. Because men come in and have no respect for her, and use her and he doesnt get it.
And I dont think that he is going to grow up and have How is he going to treat
women?
A. Well all the kids that I have known, to grow up around this industry? Absolutely no
respect for women. Absolutely none. And absolutely no respect for themselves.
A. I disagree.
A. And its really sad. And I know, thats just my experiences.
A. Its not the business, its the attitude.
A. Well, yeah. Definitely, definitely its the attitude.
A. The culture teaches them to stigmatize.
A. Basically the mother has to say to them, yknow you have to lie about this. You cant
tell anyone about this.
A. Exactly.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

In a decriminalized environment, the stigma currently attached to prostitution may well diminish
over time, so that sex workers have greater freedom to disclose what they do for a living. However,
in order to remove this stigma, lawyers, judges and family law mediators must be educated to
recognize and avoid the biases and misconceptions that often cloud perceptions of prostitution. Individual circumstances must be considered in all custody and access decisions, not stereotypes
and assumptions.
While involvement in prostitution alone should not be a reason to bar custody or access, factors
that affect a childs well-being are relevant in these decisions. Sex workers agreed that child custody
decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis.
A. Should it affect [custody decisions] that shes a sex trade worker? No, absolutely not.
Oh . . . depending on what kind of sex trade work it is though. If its a sex trade
worker on Hastings Street, thats doing crack, or it is someone like me that stays in
the clear, and this is how they make their money.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

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A. I guess it should have something to do with the sex trade worker. Its the circumstances of whats going on.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Working out of the family home

Sex workers expressed concerns about a parent who sees clients in the family home; some participants felt this would be unacceptable, while others thought that it might be a viable choice for sex
workers with children. Some participants suggested that a double standard is at play whereby sex
workers who bring clients into their home are frowned on, while parents who bring several different
sexual partners into their home are not.
A. One point. Just if the child sees that, and like, sees the sex trade worker, working?
Then yeah, that should be considered [in custody decisions]. But other than that? No.
A. Like the the guy coming into the house and then going into the bedroom. And then
of course, they would hear what was going on. So on, so forth. Whether they saw the
act or not, just I mean, kids absorb everything, right?
A. And that would really hurt them. Because they they would never understand that.
A. If it was was kind-of working outside of the home, then no, that should have
absolutely nothing to do with . . . child custody. But if it is in the home, and the child
sees it, yes it should have.
A. But a guy can so easily get child custody by getting the kid to lie about what the
kids mother its mother was doing.
A. And I mean, okay. I thought about this cuz it comes up every meeting and Im
always for like in my heart, I am in agreement with it and how it should be
away from the kids but then all of a sudden my brain kicks in and Im going wait a
minute, is this two faced or what? If were trying to say it shouldnt be stigmatized but
at the same time were saying, kids shouldnt see it, I think theres some stigma with
that.
A. Thats . . . the same thing as like having a boyfriend
A. Many boyfriends coming in and the child will become gradually messed up, because
of that. Just seeing different boyfriends coming in. So I am sure that would happen
whether theyre getting paid or not.
A. It depends on how you can be present to your child when youre having to work in the
building. All those things sort-of factor in, yknow?
A. And saying that the child shouldnt be there and it shouldnt be affected, is really
talking from the lap of luxury.
A. Yes well theres the issue of childcare. Can you find your sitter? And can you afford to
pay her?
- female off-street out-call sex workers

One escort felt that prohibiting sex workers with children from working in the home would limit
their freedom to organize their work in the manner they deem most appropriate.
A. Yeah, thats right, what if a woman is choosing to work at home, for the same reasons
that we do, because we like it, but she has a kid. Then what? Is she going to be forced
to then work in a massage parlour, with all of the complications? Working with other
girls, and all the bullshit being the employer-employee, yknow?
- female off-street out-call sex worker

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Despite the wide range of opinion about working out of the same home that children are raised in,
our participants all agreed that the best interests of the child should be the paramount consideration
in custody and access considerations. The same types of issues arise when it comes to child protection
legislation.

Child protection
In B.C., the Child, Family and Community Service Act (the CFCSA) is the law governing child
protection services. A child is defined as any person less than 19 years of age. Under the CFCSA,
MCFD has a legal duty to investigate reports about children who are suspected of being abused or
neglected, or who may be in danger. If MCFD believes that a child is not safe, a social worker may
remove the child from the home; children who are removed live in care, usually in a foster home or a
relatives home, until a judge determines what living arrangements are in their best interests.
The safety and well-being of the child must be the paramount consideration for decision-makers
applying the CFCSA10 which stipulates that children are entitled to be protected from abuse, neglect,
harm, and threats of harm. Protection can mean a number of things: apprehension of the child
or other forms of intervention, such as family support services, supervised care, or a combination
of these measures.11 According to the CFCSA, protection may be required in several circumstances.
Protection is warranted when a child has been or is likely to be physically or sexually abused or
exploited by the childs parent,12 or by some other person and the childs parent is unable or unwilling
to protect the child.13 Protection is warranted when a child has been or is likely to be physically
harmed due to neglect by a parent,14 or if the child is emotionally harmed by a parents conduct.15
Also, protection may be necessary where parents are unable or unwilling to care for the child, and
have not made adequate provisions for the childs care.16
Parents facing the removal of a child or children through the application of the CFCSA have
certain rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A parent whose child has been
apprehended has the right to legal information, to be represented by a lawyer, and to know about the
court process and the options available, as well as the consequences of any court decisions or actions.
Also, parents have the right to due process and to make a complaint about unfair procedures.17

Parental involvement in prostitution and parenting ability

Participants believed that a parents involvement in prostitution should not automatically raise
child protection concerns or create grounds for the removal of a child from the family home. Sex
workers can be competent and nurturing parents; their occupation alone must not be a reason to
deem children to be in need of protection. However, the prevalent stereotypes about sex workers may
influence the decision making of MCFD workers or the Courts. Determinations about child protection and apprehension must not be misinformed by myths or stereotypes about prostitution
 Child, Family and Community Service Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 46.
 Ibid., s. 1(1).
10 Ibid., s. 2.
11 Child, Family and Community Service Act, ss. 25-33.
12 Ibid., ss. 13(1)(a), 13(1)(b).
13 Ibid., s. 13(1)(c). Sexual abuse and exploitation include coercing or assisting a child to engage in prostitution [ss. 13(1.1)(a),
13(1.1)(b)].
14 Ibid., s. 13(1)(d).
15 Ibid., s. 13(1)(e).
16 Ibid., s. 13(1)(h).
17 In New Brunswick Minister of Health and Community Services v. G.(J.), [1999] 3 S.C.R. 46, the Supreme Court of Canada held
that a mothers right to security of the person, protected by s. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, was violated when she
was denied legal aid for a custody hearing after MCFD apprehended her child.

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A. Your profession should have nothing to do with your ability to raise a child.
A. Or the courts decision to take a child away.
A. I think that if a parent is public about it that is fine. They should be allowed to say
what they do and it should be no problem. I think if you go public I dont think
[being in sex work] should determine . . . the fate of the children.
- female street-level sex worker

Many sex workers expressed the view that ability to parent is unrelated to ones work in the sex trade.
A. I dont think [sex work affects an individuals ability to parent] . . . its the individual. I have seen girls that are wonderful parents and that are not. But I have also
seen that when I have worked in daycare centers . . .
- female off-street in-call sex worker

A. Absolutely not, [being involved in sex work does not affect ones ability to parent].
Cuz parenting is totally different than being a prostitute. I mean being a great prostitute and a great mother at the same time, thats just because you are, doesnt mean
you cant be a great mother.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

Again, several participants expressed concern about the stigma associated with prostitution, and how
that stigma might influence determinations of a sex workers fitness to parent:
A. But the way society looks upon [sex work], yknow, no way . . . Its an automatic unfit
mother.
A. Yeah but thats society stigmatizing . . .
- female off-street out-call sex worker

A. Even though, I may be a good parent,all of a sudden, they stick you with, if you are a
sex trade worker, youre not a good parent.
- female street-level sex worker

Sex workers with children may be subject to having their children apprehended if their conduct is
perceived to be causing emotional harm to the child.18 Court decisions are not consistent with regard
to whether a parents work in the sex industry constitutes emotional harm to a child that merits state
intervention. In B.C. (Director of Family and Child Services) v. K.B.,19 the Court dismissed this notion
stating:
. . . prostitution alone is not a reason for a continuing custody order as long as a child is
adequately cared for while the mother is working or if she sleeps during the day.

In B.C. (Director of Family and Child Services) v. R.P.F.M.,20 however, the Court did consider the
mothers sex work to be detrimental to her child, and a factor to be considered when evaluating
whether the child needs protection. The Court stated:
No specific instances were alleged of harm to N.R.D.M. because of Ms. C.B.s activities as
a prostitute. Ms. C.B. testified that she never conducted the business of prostitution in the
presence of the children. Her lifestyle certainly cannot be said to be beneficial to N.R.D.M.
It brought danger into her life, as evidenced by the fact that she was assaulted in November.
Raising a child in an environment where the mother-figure is involved in an unhealthy life18 Child, Family and Community Service Act, s. 13(1)(e).
19 B.C. (Director of Family and Child Services) v. K.B. [2000] B.C.J. No. 2606 (B.C. Prov Ct.) at para 4.
20 B.C. (Director of Family and Child Services) v. R.P.F.M. [2003] B.C.J. No. 780 (B.C. Prov Ct.).

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style such as this is a factor that I believe I must consider in determining if the child is in need
of protection.21

In conclusion, the court stated:

In this case, I find that N.R.D.M. is in need of protection as contemplated under the CFCSA.
I reach this conclusion based not on any one concern by itself, but by the cumulative effect
of all of the concerns raised by the Director. Each ground alone may be insufficient to show
a need for protection. Taken as a whole and in light of the Court of Appeals comments in
S.(B)., I conclude that a need for protection has been shown. The lifestyle of Ms. C.B. and
its potential for emotional harm to N.R.D.M., as well as the possibility that the injuries
to N.R.D.M. may have resulted from neglect, merge together to lead me to conclude that
someone should be looking out for N.R.D.M. It is the combined effect of all of these circumstances which bring me to this conclusion. For these reasons I find N.R.D.M. to be in need of
protection as contemplated by the CFCSA.22

This excerpt reveals that the Courts will make a determination after looking at those circumstances
they deem relevant; involvement in prostitution will be seen as relevant if it creates the potential for
harm to the child.
Our participants felt that, as long as children are well cared for, a parents involvement in prostitution should not be assumed to be harmful to a child.
A. I dont [think that being involved in sex work affects ones ability to parent]. People
automatically assume because you are a sex trade worker, youre not a good parent. As
far as I am concerned, I am a better parent because I will go to put my butt out on
the street, for to make sure that I have milk for my kid, than for another parent, to
sit there and watch her kid starve
A. Well, and you know, you know, what morals you stand by at home.
A. Well, yeah.
A. Everybodys got different morals . . .
A. Right, right.
A. Different morals.
A. Thats like saying a child of a doctor who performs abortions is moralistically challenged.
A. Yeah, yeah.
A. I mean, like cmon! Yknow, really? And everybody has got different moral standards.
A. And being able to talk to your child about sex better. Bringing them up with a better
attitude towards sex. You wouldnt have the predators that you have now, if the
children of the new generation are brought up properly . . . So no, its a as far as I
think and seen, kids that are brought up by sex trade workers are a lot more versatile
than a lot of other kids. They are not as closed-minded.
A. Well-adjusted.
A. Yeah. My kids pretty damn well-adjusted.
A. Yes, she is.
- female street-level sex workers

Some sex workers described experiencing discrimination from MCFD because of their involvement in
prostitution. They feared that their work could be misrepresented, or framed in such a way as to make
them appear to be unfit parents thereby putting their children at risk:
21 Ibid., at para. 24.
22 Ibid., at para. 27.

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A. I had social workers try to imply that my son had seen me in the act, so that they
could keep himbecause they wanted to take my child into permanent custody.
A. I think welfare like, literally, or . . . specific social workers, and these workers in
particular that theyre . . . totally discriminating against sex workers. And . . . its just
like, I dont care what happens, I want your kid away from you because you do this
as a living and I dont like it.
A. So when it comes to child custody, the father can fabricate the stories, child welfare
can fabricate the stories and the mother is devastated . . .
A. Women really dont have very much power in this society, do they?
- female off-street out-call sex workers

One escort mentioned other factors that are stereotypically associated with the decision to engage in
prostitution such as drug and alcohol use and expressed concern that they might influence, or be
thought to influence, a sex workers ability to care for a child. However, sex workers argue that the
stereotype that drug use and prostitution are automatically linked is erroneous a contention borne
out by Canadian research23 and thus very harmful. Some sex workers certainly do use illicit drugs,
but many do not, a profile that characterizes many occupations:
A. Its another job, like any other job, you know. She can still be a good parent. A lot of
women I know are in this job because they have . . . you know, theyre single mothers,
they are supporting their children as best they can, and they love their children. As
long as theyre not exposing them to drugs and doing drugs in their house . . . but you
know thats a different issue. Theres a lot of straight people that do drugs, or unemployed people who do drugs, so just because youre a sex-trade worker it doesnt . . .
no, you should still be allowed to have your children.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

While many participants agree that the ability of some sex workers to parent may be affected by their
addiction or use of drugs, the parental competence of sex workers must be evaluated on a case-by-case
basis. Sex workers should not be subject to stereotypes linking prostitution and addiction.
Many participants raised the issue of whether it is appropriate for sex workers to carry out their
work in their home. Many argued that prostitution should not occur in homes where children reside
for fear it could be detrimental to a childs well-being.
A. I dont think being a prostitute has any bearing on whether or not you can care for
your child. I think a lady of the evening, or working women can care for children so
long as they are not working out of the home.
- female street-level sex worker

Many sex workers felt that children could be adversely affected by seeing clients come and go from the
home.
A. I mean if you go to work, and thats your job, and you go to work, and you you
come home, then I dont think that would affect your child. I think that if you work
at home the way I do then definitely it affects your child because they see men come
and go and like you said earlier sex trade work is degrading for women. What kind
23 Committee on Sexual Offences Against Children and Youth. Sexual Offences Against Children, Ottawa: Supply and Services
Canada, 1984) and The Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution, Pornography and Prostitution in Canada. (Ottawa.
Supply and Services Canada, 1985).
C. Benoit and A. Millar. Dispelling Myths and Understanding Realities: Working Conditions, Health Status, and Exiting Experiences of Sex
Workers, online: Cecilia Benoit, University of Victoria <http://web.uvic.ca/~cbenoit/papers/DispMyths.pdf>.

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of respect will your son or your daughter have for you, if they see you I dont think
they should see that. I think if you have children and you are in sex work you should
work outside the home. Still absolutely, if thats the job that you want to do, then you
should absolutely do that, but you should do it outside the home . . .
A. I agree. Not around children.
A. I dont think that people with children should work out of their home. Like, I dont
think you should use that home. If theres children in the home, there should be no sex
trade going on in that house. Then you need to rent an apartment with a girlfriend
and you need to go to work everyday and send your children to daycare, and you
should not bring it to your house if theres kids. Its just not right.
A. I have never met a woman, who has children, that is happy in heart about what she
is doing, when she does when she works out of her home. Yknow, they are always
nervous about the kid waking up, and there seems to have been, I have dealt with
extra guilt over that. So, thats the only thing that I have about operating out of your
own home. And the safety factor whos, yknow, whos going to be there for you if
you need somebody? But, I mean, if a woman sucks in some regular customers, and
its a happy home-based business, I think thats kind of yknow the best solution?
Yknow, for some people? But, for women with kids, the system does not seem to work
very well, in their own homes.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Other participants disagreed with the argument that a parent engaging in prostitution in the family
home would adversely affect children.
A. What about a single mother who is dating? Or theres a new guy coming for every . . .
A. Yeah, yeah. Like, I agree, completely. Thats no better than when you are getting
money for it.
A. Well thats when its labour you are respecting yourself, it is your labour . . .
A. When you are getting money for it, you are offering yourself, you are employing yourself and that should be given a bit more respect.
A. Well exactly! I think it should be that kids should see that.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

The divergence of opinion suggests that decisions regarding whether children are in need of protection
in such a situation should be made on a case-by-case basis. Judges must be cognizant of the fact that
sex work is not a homogenous industry; sex workers are a diverse group. As such, they must be treated
as individuals, and their ability to parent must be assessed as objectively as possible. Education of
judges may be necessary to ensure that stereotypes and biases about the nature of prostitution do not
influence judicial decision making.

Family law recommendations

1. Protecting their safety and human rights is the best way to support sex workers to be positive
parents. The health and well-being of a parent is central to the health and well-being of a child.
2. Educate judges, lawyers, mediators, MCFD officials and the general public that a parents involvement in prostitution should not automatically be relevant to the determination of the best interest
of the child, nor does it automatically mean that a person is an unfit parent.
3. In child protection cases, determinations that a child is being harmed or neglected must be made
on a case-by-case basis after a consideration of all relevant factors, and should not rely on stereotypes and assumptions about sex workers.

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PART 10: Criminal Law

In Canada, the vast majority of criminal offences are set out in the Criminal
Code of Canada. The Criminal Code is federal legislation, meaning that it
applies throughout the country. This chapter focuses on areas of criminal
law that are of specific concern to sex workers: assaults, offences involving
youth, indecency laws, and laws with respect to the transmission of disease.
The discussion does not address the existing laws of specific application to
prostitution (i.e. the bawdy-house provision, the procuring provision,
and the communicating provision) because these are analyzed in detail
in, Voices for Dignity. The problem of trafficking is addressed in Part 8 on
Immigration Law.
Assault
Under Canadian law, any intentional application of force to another person without her or his
consent is an assault, regardless of whether the degree of force is slight or severe. An assault does
not have to result in physical injury in order to be a criminal offence. Many sex workers experience
violence in their work, often at the hands of clients, and also from employers and pimps. Most participants were of the view that the existing laws with respect to assault are sufficient to address instances
of violence that occur in the sex industry. Therefore changes to the assault laws are not required to
address the concerns of sex workers.
A. Okay, okay, rule number one no still means no. But they are all horny.
A. But theres still those types of guys out there [who commit violent acts] otherwise they
wouldnt be a bad date.
A. For sure.
A. So it still happens.
A. But its already illegal already, you dont need a special regulation for it.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

A. [T]here does not need to be any special laws, around violence. Theres plenty of laws
already around violence.
- female off-street out-call sex worker

However, the existing assault laws are only useful if they are properly enforced. The evidence set
out in Voices for Dignity suggested that many sex workers feel the police are not sufficiently diligent
 Criminal Code of Canada, R.S. 1985, c. C-46 [Criminal Code].
 Ibid., ss. 210, 211.
 Ibid., s. 212.
 Ibid., s. 213.
 Voices for Dignity: A Call to End the Harms Caused by Canadas Sex Trade Laws. Pivot Legal Society: Vancouver, 2004 [Voices for
Dignity].
 Criminal Code, s. 265(1); R. v. Burden (1981), 25 C.R. (3d) 283 (B.C.C.A.).
 Voices for Dignity, supra note 5.

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in investigating assaults on sex workers; many sex workers receive substandard treatment by police. It
appears likely that the criminalization of many aspects of prostitution contributes to under-enforcement when sex workers are the victims, as those who report assaults can be subject to discriminatory
treatment by police and, in some cases, treated as a criminal rather than as a victim of crime.
One issue raised by several sex workers is the potential for the current assault laws to protect them
from being forced to engage in sex with an employer or prospective employer in order to secure or
maintain a position in an escort agency or massage parlour. A massage parlour worker described this
alarming and common job requirement:
A. No, I tell you something. This is pretty disgusting, but this is happens to every single
one. I mean every massage parlour that have it. I am pretty certain, hundred percent
sure. Cause I have been some like you know three different massage parlours. I did
not really work for the first one. What happens is the first thing when you go for
interview . . . And they will ask you do you know how to do massage. They will want
you to get into the room. And like you know they will asking you to wear dress, skirt
usually. What happens is they say, you know, I am the test. And the test is you have
to have sex with the guy [the owner], with the manager. Usually, what happens is
some of them, they have managers. They say manager but I think thats just a pimp.
Usually we call them dealers because they do not treat the girl as a person. They just
called dealers. Doing the deal.
- female off-street in-call sex worker

Another former worker and current massage parlour owner described a similar situation:
A. The type of stuff that takes people over the edge is the type of the stuff that happened
in [massage parlour] where youre, yknow, where you have to let the owner go
perform oral sex on you on a regular basis, to hold your job.
- female massage parlour owner, former sex worker

Sex workers expressed a need for protection in cases where they are coerced into engaging in sexual activities
with an employer in order to keep a job, or if they feel they are forced to provide particular sexual services
to a client. This issue is looked at in more detail in the following discussion of sexual assault.

Sexual assault
The term sexual assault is not defined in the Criminal Code, but case law has determined that it
means any non-consensual touching of a sexual nature.&10 In other words, any assault that is sexual in
nature is a sexual assault.

Consent general considerations

Section 265(3) of the Criminal Code states that consent is not obtained if a person submits or does
not resist by reason of actual or threatened application of force, fraud, or the exercise of authority.
Consequently, the law offers protection to those who are intimidated into consenting to unwanted
sexual contact. Therefore, one issue that arises is whether the law of assault would apply to protect sex
workers who are compelled to engage in sex with an employer or prospective employer in order to
secure a position at an escort agency or massage parlour.
For such a prosecution to succeed, the court would have to decide that the economic power of
an employer amounts to an exercise of authority within the meaning of s. 265(3) of the Criminal
 Voices for Dignity, supra note 5.
 Criminal Code, s. 271.
10 R. v. Ewanchuk (1999), 22 C.R. (5th) 1, 131 C.C.C. (3d) 481 (S.C.C.).

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Code. Usually this provision has been invoked in the circumstances of doctor-patient or therapistpatient relationships. However, the sort of authority envisaged by 265 (3)(d) is not limited to situations in which the more powerful person has a right to issue orders and enforce obedience.11 In R. v
Matheson,12 the Ontario Court of Appeal concluded that the purpose of s. 265(3)(d) is to criminalize
coerced sexual relations: a person who extracts consent to sex by exercising his or her authority will be
caught by this section if he or she had the power to influence the conduct and actions of others and
used that power to compel the complainant to engage in sexual activity.

Consent sexual assault

Section 273.1(2) of the Criminal Code includes a non-exhaustive list of factors that can vitiate
consent.13 In the context of sexual assaults, s. 273.1 (2)(c) provides that consent is not obtained in
situations where the accused induces the complainant to engage in the activity by abusing a position
of trust, power or authority. The courts have held that 273.1(2)(c) aims to protect the vulnerable and
the weak, and to preserve the right to freely choose to consent to sexual activity. For instance, a drug
addicts consent to sex with her drug dealer may be invalid if their relationship created a dependency
which meant that she could not give consent to his advances freely and independently.14
The expression a position of trust, power or authority is not defined in the Criminal Code. In
R. v. Hogg, the Ontario Court of Appeal noted that the dealer-addict relationship was not one of an
imbalance of power per se: it is not a case of a position of authority or trust, such as in the typical
doctor-patient or teacher-student relationship, where vulnerability is inherent to the relationship
itself.15 When it is unclear whether the accused was in a position of trust, power or authority, the
Crown has to prove that there was a significant level of dependency.
Whether an employer-employee relationship would be characterized as conferring the necessary
power on an employer is yet to be determined. While it is not the type of relationship that involves
the similar moral obligations found in a teacher-student or doctor-patient relationship, the courts
in numerous sexual harassment cases have acknowledged the inherent imbalance of power in the
employer-employee relationship.16 It is arguable that if the requisite degree of vulnerability is present
in the employer-employee relationship, a sex workers consent to sex with the employer as a condition of employment will likely be deemed to be invalid, as per s. 273.1(2)(c). This provision may also
apply to the requirement that a sex worker agree to offer certain services to clients or risk dismissal
from her position.
The assault and sexual assault laws require that a sex worker always maintain control over whether,
where, when and how she or he provides sexual services. Therefore, should the provisions of the
Criminal Code related to adult prostitution be repealed, employers would find that sex workers cannot
enter contractual arrangements requiring them to engage in sexual relations which they do not consent
to at the time that the sexual encounter is to take place. This will likely result in employer dissatisfaction with the restrictions upon what can be demanded of their employees, but sex workers argued that
it is important for them to maintain control over the extent and nature of services they offer.

11 R. v. Saint-Laurent (1994), 90 C.C.C. (3d) 291 (Qc. C.A.).

12 R. v. Matheson (1999), 23 C.R. (5th) 269, 134 C.C.C. (3d) 289 (Ont. C.A.).
13 Criminal Code, s. 273(3).
14 R. v. Hogg (2000), 148 C.C.C. (3d) 86 (Ont. C.A.), obiter.
15 Ibid.
16 See, for example, the early case of Janzen v. Platy Enterprises Ltd., [1989] 1 S.C.R. 1252, in which the Supreme Court held that
even an employee could be in a position of authority with respect to other employees where he had the power to terminate them.

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Youth
In Canada, the general age of consent to sexual activity is 14 years, although special provisions
apply to criminalize sex within relationships of dependency, or those in which the older party is in a
position of trust or authority towards a person between the ages of 14 and 18 years.
In the context of prostitution, the relevant age limit is found in s. 212, which creates several
offences intended to prevent the sexual exploitation of individuals under 18 years of age. Section
212(2) of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to live wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution
by a person under 18. Further, s. 212(2.1) says that if the person living on those avails encourages a
young person to engage in prostitution, or uses coercion in relation to that person, then an aggravated
offence has been committed and a minimum five-year sentence applies.17 Finally, s. 212(4) makes it
an offence to purchase sexual services from a person under 18, or to communicate with anyone under
18 for the purpose of purchasing such services. Related offences include s. 170 (a parent or guardian
procuring sexual activity by a young person), s. 171 (a householder permitting criminal sexual activity
with a young person), and s. 172 (corrupting children).
Sex workers agreed that a minimum age for prostitution is appropriate, and were satisfied with 18
years as the minimum age, as the comments of these male street workers attest:
A. Age limits. There should be an age limit . . . between clients and john.
A. You cant say its right for a 60-year-old man to pick up a 15-year-old boy. Thats not
right.
A. I think there should be a legal age of prostitution. You cant have kids out there, thats
not right.
A. Eighteen.
A. But then again thats the way some kids survive.
A. You know, hey man, I survived the same way. I wish someone kicked my ass when I
was 13 and I was out there. I wished someone had kicked my ass outta there.
A. Not me I was having a good old time.
A. Every time I see those kids out there I say go home. Go home, you dont need to be out
here.
- male street-level sex workers

Many participants were of the view that no change is required to the age restrictions contained in ss.
212(2) and 212(4). If any reform is to be introduced, Canada may chose to follow the New Zealand
Prostitution Reform Act 2003, (the PRA), which expressly protects youth by exempting them
from prosecution.18 While we did not directly discuss this issue with our project participants, many
academics and sex worker advocates argue that sexually exploited youth should not be criminalized for
their involvement in prostitution.19

Indecency
Canadian criminal law contains several offences intended to protect the public from offensive
or indecent sights or sounds: laws prohibiting obscene publications,20 a ban on sending obscene or

17 Pivot has previously recommended reform of some aspects of the procuring law (s. 212), inasmuch as the extortion-related aspects
of the section are redundant. The same wrongful activity is already subject to general extortion offences (Voices for Dignity, supra
note 5).
18 Prostitution Reform Act, 2003 (N.Z.) 2003/28, s. 23(3) [Prostitution Reform Act].
19 D. Brock, Making Work, Making Trouble: Prostitution as a Social Problem (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998).
20 Criminal Code, s. 163.

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indecent materials through the post,21 and a law making it an offence to expose or exhibit an indecent
display in a public place.22
Participants made few comments about the role of criminal laws relating to indecency, other
than with respect to the need to control advertising for sex work in the same way that all commercial
displays are regulated.
Q. What do you guys think about advertising for sex work? So right now you dont see
television ads advertising sex work. You dont see billboards that are you know . . .
A. Agencies or bus stops.
Q. Thats because theres laws.
Q. Do you think there should be any restrictions on the content or location of advertising for sex work?
A. Do you think it should be done just like any other business?
A. As long as you dont show like naked . . . because we have to realize that okay there
are children so you have to do it in a way that is not too visual kind of thing.
A. Discreet.
A. Existing obscenity laws apply. Theyre out there right now.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

As our participants observed, existing obscenity laws would apply to the advertisement of sexual
services. Sex workers did not comment on whether they felt that the issue of indecency required
clarification in criminal legislation, or whether it could be better dealt with through civil legislation.
By way of comparison, New Zealands PRA imposes special restrictions on the advertising of sexual
services.23 It is an offence to advertise such services by means of television or radio advertisements or
cinema trailers. The PRA also gives territorial authorities the power to make by-laws regulating signage
advertising commercial sex, but only if the authority is satisfied that the by-law is necessary to prevent
nuisance or offence, or to preserve the character of an area.

Non-disclosure of HIV-positive status

Fear of sexually transmitted diseases was the principal justification offered for 19th century laws
regulating and restricting prostitution.24 Fear of disease is again a recurrent theme in discussions of
prostitution and the law.25 Canadian criminal law addresses the issue of deliberate or reckless disease
transmission through the assault law. Sexual or other physical contact is an assault absent a valid
consent. One way in which consent may be vitiated is if it is obtained through fraud. One example
is the case R. v. Cuerrier, where it was established that if a person who is HIV-positive either fails to
disclose that status, or deliberately lies about it, and through this fraud puts another party at significant risk of bodily harm, then the other party is deemed not to have consented to sex.26
The exposure of another person to a significant risk of HIV transmission is enough to make the
fraudulently-obtained consent an aggravated assault as defined in s. 268(1) of the Code, because
it endangers the life of the complainant. There is no need for the complainant to actually become
infected in order for the act to constitute aggravated assault: the risk of infection is considered to be
21 Ibid., s. 168.
22 Ibid., s. 175.
23 Prostitution Reform Act, ss. 11-14.
24 For a discussion of Englands Contagious Diseases Control Act, which was the model for similar laws in many Commonwealth
countries, see: S. Metzenrath, To Test or not to Test (1999) 18(3) Social Alternatives 25.
25 K. Bastow, Prostitution and HIV/AIDS (1996) 2(2) Canadian HIV/AIDS Policy & Law Newsletter 13; D. R. Brock, Prostitutes are Scapegoats in the AIDS Panic (1989) 18(2) Resources for Feminist Research 13.
26 R. v. Cuerrier, [1998] 2 S.C.R. 371.

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sufficient endangerment.27 Other criminal offences that have been used to punish those who knowingly expose others to the risk of HIV infection through unprotected sex include criminal negligence
causing bodily harm,28 and common nuisance.29 The issue of criminal law and non-disclosure of
HIV-positive status is an extremely contentious and complex. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association,
the B.C. Persons with AIDS Society, the Canadian AIDS Society, and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal
Network have all argued against the use of criminal sanctions in cases of non-disclosure.30
There was no consensus among our participants when asked for their views on the appropriate
way to deal with STD transmission. Many male street-level sex workers argued that HIV-positive sex
workers should be obliged to inform clients of their health status:
Q. So what if we have a sex worker who has AIDS, but is really careful, he wears a
condom always
A. He should . . . give forewarning
A. You should know what youre getting yourself into
Q. So thats one aspect that should be made criminal?
A. Oh for sure, well if youre going out deliberately . . .
A. Destroying a healthy mans life, or a womens life
- male street-level sex workers

One male street sex worker, who was HIV-positive himself, agreed that HIV-positive status should be
disclosed:
A. I agree. I myself am HIV-positive right and I myself, I agree with it. If somebody does
sleep with someone and doesnt tell them, youre damn right you should send their ass
to jail.
- male street-level sex worker

Another male street-level sex worker stated that non-disclosure of HIV-positive status should be a
criminal offence:
Q. Lets say theyre infected and someone asks them are you infected and the person says
no Im not and they have sex.
A. They outright lie?
A. I think it should be criminal.
- male street-level sex worker

Some female sex workers were similarly equivocal:

A. [I]t would be nice to be able to determine whether or not everyone has a disease but
it is not realistic.
A. Yeah. And . . . we are talking about if you come down with HIV and you discover the
other person never revealed it, right?
A. Then if . . . they used a condom, then so far, you didnt break the law. They didnt . . .
A. Well, I think that they should have to take that out. That if you have HIV, you should
have to tell them. Whether you use a condom, or not. Because its just not perfect
using condoms
- female off-street out-call sex workers
27 Ibid.
28 R. v. Mercer (1993), 84 C.C.C. (3d) 41 (Nfld C.A.).
29 R. v. Summer, [1989] A.J. No. 784 (Prov. Ct.) (QL), affg 73 C.R. (3d) 32 (Alta. C.A.).
30 Richard Elliot, After Cuerrier: Canadian Criminal Law and the Non-Disclosure of HIV-Positive Status (1999), online: Canadian
HIV/AIDS Legal Network <http://www.aidslaw.ca/Maincontent/issues/criminallaw/finalreports/cuerrier/e-cuerrier.pdf>.

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Some respondents, including the sex workers quoted below, stated that in order to protect both clients
and sex workers, commercial sex without a condom should be illegal:
A. And a lot of men like to pay extra, for yknow, unsafe sex.
A. That . . . should be illegal . . .
A. Because if you are a sex trade worker, you are having sex with lots of different people,
or getting them off or whatever you want to call it.
A. Right.
A. And so, yeah, you should . . . be responsible and you should do your business.
Q. So who should be penalized for offering it? Should it be the john, or should it be the
girl for accepting it?
A. Both, both, definitely both.
- female off-street out-call sex workers

Many sex workers felt that disclosure of HIV-positive status was an important prerequisite to
conducting business as safely as possible. These views are inconsistent with the recommendations of
the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (the Network), which has argued that criminalizing HIV
transmission or exposure would be counterproductive, and would further stigmatize people living
with HIV/AIDS. The Network argues that the possible benefits of criminalization are outweighed by
the social and economic costs of applying criminal sanctions that are less effective than public health
measures. The Network noted that, although the use of criminal sanctions might be seen as getting
tough in the fight against AIDS, it would have little real impact on transmission rates, may deter
people with HIV/AIDS from getting tested, and would divert attention and resources away from
more effective public health initiatives.31 Given the complexity of this issue and the limited time dedicated to it in this project, further consultation and dialogue with sex workers is recommended.

Criminal law recommendations

1. Repeal s. 210, 211, 212(1) and 212(3) and 213 as set out in Pivots 2004 report, Voices for
Dignity.32
2. Provide education to police and improve police accountability so that sex workers receive equal
protection when they are victims of crime.
3. Ensure more proactive enforcement of criminal assault laws by police and Crown prosecutors in
order to protect sex workers from violence.
4. Educate sex workers and employers about the potential for assault laws to be used to protect sex
workers who are coerced or forced to engage in sex with an employer or prospective employer.
5. Educate sex workers and employers about the rights of sex workers to determine what services they
provide and to whom.
6. Educate employers about the Criminal Code interpretation of consent to sexual activity and how it
affects an employers expectation of the duties performed by sex-worker employees.
7. Do not criminalize youth who are involved in the sex industry.

31 Criminalization: Does It Make Sense? (March 1999), online: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network <http://www.aidslaw.
ca/Maincontent/issues/criminallaw/e-info-cla4.pdf>.
R. Elliott, Criminal Law and HIV/AIDS: Final Report (1997), online: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network & Canadian AIDS
Society <http://www.aidslaw.ca/Maincontent/issues/criminallaw/finalreports/CRFR-COVER.html>.
32 Voices for Dignity, supra note 5.

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8. Uphold the criminal laws which prohibit the purchase or procuring of sexual services from anyone
under 18 years of age.
9. Consult further with sex workers about the impact of indecency laws on sex industry advertising.
10. Consult further with sex workers about the use of criminal law to address non-disclosure of HIVpositive status.

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PART 11: CALL TO ACTION

The widespread and systemic rights violations experienced by sex workers
in Canada must be addressed. Sex workers are routinely denied the rights
and protections accorded to other workers and, as a result, are forced to live
and work in dangerous and demeaning conditions. In many instances, sex
workers are not entitled to avail themselves of these legal protections because
of their source of income. In other cases, they are entitled to these rights and
protections, but face practical barriers as a result of pervasive stigmatization
and prejudice.
The purpose of this report is to provide a comprehensive overview that will serve as a starting
point for discussion of the many complex and controversial issues surrounding sex work and regulation of the sex industry. Sex workers themselves should be provided with a prominent role in any law,
policy, or social reform. This report highlights the issues to be considered by all levels of government
as they engage in the process of law reform. As illustrated by the information presented, sex workers
have expertise, knowledge and insight into the legal issues they face and the ways in which laws can be
applied or amended to provide them with the equality, liberty and personal security that is guaranteed
under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Although there is considerable diversity among sex workers, they share the experience of systemic
discrimination, marginalization and social alienation. If they are to achieve full citizenship, sex
workers should have access to the human rights complaint process and equal opportunities when
it comes to availing themselves of the other protections offered by law. All legislation effecting sex
workers must be consistent with the Charter.
The starting point when considering the issue of sex work and legislative reform is the need for
criminal law reform. Pivots research suggest that the only way to evolve towards a legal framework
that is empowering and allows for the safety of sex workers is to repeal the Criminal Code provisions
relating to adult prostitution. Repealing the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution, ss. 210, 211,
212(1), 212(3) and 213, will create the opportunity for sex workers to access the employment and
labour protections that are afforded to other workers under the laws of B.C. and Canada.
With the repeal of these criminal laws, sex workers will face fewer barriers to accessing the protective services of the police. Clearly, the criminal laws that are in place to protect all Canadians from
exploitation and violence should be applied equally to sex workers in cases where they are victims
of crime. Sex workers emphasized that they want full access to police protection as well as rigorous
enforcement of laws when they are victims of crime, including when they are subject to exploitation
by pimps or clients. Sex workers deserve equal access to the criminal justice system. Persons who are
coerced or forced to engage in sex work against their will should have full access to the protections
found under the criminal laws of Canada, and specifically those provisions that prohibit sexual and
physical assault, harassment, threats and extortion. While they want and deserve equal access to these
existing laws, sex workers indicated that no additional laws designed specifically for their protection
are necessary.
 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (U.K),
1982, c. 11 [Charter].

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Like other industries, the laws that regulate employment, labour and occupational health and
safety should be applied to improve working conditions in the sex industry. This report has found that
there are a wide range of employment standards that could provide sex workers with the rights and
protections they seek. Sex workers did not demand amendments to the existing employment standards; they felt that the existing protections are sufficient in the context of their work. However, they
suggested that the legislation should contain an explicit provision that sex workers never lose their
right to terminate a contract for sexual services at any time for any reason.
Consensual adult sex work should be recognized as a legitimate form of labour. It is of utmost
importance that sex workers have information concerning their rights and, specifically, the knowledge
that only they can control what services are provided to whom. Sex workers should never be denied
their right to personal autonomy, and empowering them to consistently exercise this right is a crucial
human rights measure.
Finally, the right of sex workers to unionize as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Civil Rights must be respected. This
objective can only be achieved with the decriminalization of employer/employee relationships within
the sex industry. Only when sex workers are recognized as legitimate employees can they achieve full
access to the unionization process as set out under the Labour Relations Code and the Canada Labour
Code.
Municipalities should begin contemplating the legal and practical issues that lie ahead. Specifically, municipal governments should begin to meaningfully engage sex workers in planning in order
to develop a mechanism of licensing and zoning that fits both the needs of sex workers and their
communities. Any licensing scheme should meet the following objectives. First, sex workers who wish
to work independently or in small owner-operated businesses should not be limited or restricted from
doing so by an oppressive licensing regime.
Any applicable licensing scheme should be fair and not disproportionately costly or restrictive.
All municipal by-laws that impose disproportionately high licensing fees should be repealed. Further
consultation with sex workers from all facets of the sex industry is necessary to inform the issue of
where to locate sex-work businesses. With respect to zoning, any relevant scheme should be guided by
concerns for the safety, privacy and autonomy of sex workers.
Many sex workers are willing to participate in the Canadian income tax system. However, training
is required for all Revenue Canada employees to ensure that they can provide sex workers with accessible and accurate information in a respectful manner, and also ensure that sex workers and sex work
businesses are not subject to disproportionately high instances of audits. Sex workers are conscious
of the potential loss of privacy resulting from filing income tax returns; therefore government should
work closely with them to create a system for their safe and equitable integration into the taxation
scheme.
In the family law context, criminal law reform is necessary to lessen the current stigma
surrounding sex work and allow for safer working conditions; protecting the safety and human rights
of sex workers is one of the best ways to support them as parents. Judges, lawyers, mediators, MCFD
officials and the public should be sensitized to the fact that a parents involvement in sex work is not
automatically relevant to the determination of the best interests of the child, nor is it automatically a
negative factor. In child protection and custody cases, determinations of the best interests of the child
should be made on a case-by-case basis in consideration of all factors, and the process and outcome
 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948), art. 23.4.
 International Covenant for Economic, Social and Civil Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, arts. 2, 3, 8.1(a), Can. T.S.
1976 No. 47, 6 I.L.M. 368.
 Labour Relations Code, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 244.
 Canada Labour Code, R.S., 1985, c. L-2.

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should not be clouded by assumptions, discrimination and prejudice surrounding a parents involvement in sex work.
A full range of business structures should be available to accommodate the diverse ways in which
sex workers will want to conduct business. Sex workers should have the freedom to choose the way in
which they structure their businesses, just as other businesses do, and not be subject to any legislative
restrictions on possible business models. Additionally, sex workers should always have the ability to
work independently, and not be pressured financially or otherwise to work for an employer.
Sex workers will require education and support to negotiate for employee status and the rights and
protections that flow from it. Sex workers expressed the need for education for officials and employees
of government and tribunals, including the Employment Standards Branch and Labour Relations
Board, to reduce the stigma and prejudice that they often endure.
Sex workers requested explicit legislative protection whereby a persons entitlement to social
assistance and Employment Insurance may not be cancelled or affected in any other way by his or her
refusal to work, or to continue to work, as a sex worker.

Law reform is not enough

Law reform is not enough. Social and economic initiatives should be designed to assist women
and men who are involved in sex work and are seeking alternative options by which to earn their
livelihood. However, it should not be assumed that all sex workers are seeking to exit the sex industry.
In order to ensure that any such initiatives are appropriate and effective, education and sensitivity
training should be provided for all levels of government, law enforcement and emergency services staff
who make decisions that affect sex workers and the sex industry.
The intersection of criminal and immigration issues makes migration and sex work a very complex
matter. If a non-Canadian sex worker is in Canada contrary to immigration laws and procedures, then
she or he can be detained and deported at any time. If a sex worker is in Canada on a temporary visa
and commits a criminal offence, she or he can be subject to criminalization and required to leave the
country. If a sex worker has permanent resident status, he or she would probably not be deported,
but may be subject to criminalization. The potential of arrest, detention and removal from Canada
means that migrant sex workers can be doubly punished for engaging in sex work. This has the effect
of driving migrant sex workers underground, particularly those who are in Canada illegally or on
temporary visas, and will often prevent them from seeking the assistance of police, emergency services,
community organizations, and other social services.
Women and men engage in sex work for a wide variety of reasons and, regardless of their motivation or personal circumstance, they deserve safe working conditions and access to the same rights and
protections as other workers in Canada.
The Charter acknowledges that Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the rule of law.
The Charter also establishes that every person is equal before and under the law and has the right to
the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. Sex workers, a distinct and
marginalized class of persons, will not begin to realize their individual and collective right to equality
before and under the law until the criminal laws surrounding adult prostitution are repealed. This is
the first step towards recognizing the human rights of sex workers and moving towards a new, progressive legal framework for the sex industry.

 Charter, supra note 1.

 Charter, supra note 1, s. 15.

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APPENDIX A: THE ALLOCATION OF

LEGISLATIVE POWER UNDER
CANADAS FEDERAL STRUCTURE
If the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution are repealed, the provincial
and federal governments will need to consider their respective areas of jurisdiction to determine which level of government has the constitutional power
to regulate prostitution, either by using existing legislation or by enacting
new laws.
Section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867 defines the scope of the power of the federal government
and s. 92 sets out the powers of the provincial governments. Areas of law relevant to prostitution
that fall under federal jurisdiction include: criminal law, immigration law, federal taxation law, some
aspects of family law, federally incorporated companies, the federal pension plan, and employment
insurance. Provincial jurisdiction includes: employment law, some aspects of family law, provincially
incorporated companies, employment law, provincial labour law, and many aspects of social welfare.
The provincial government delegates some of its powers to municipal governments via the Municipalities Act.
If a government enacts a law in an area outside its jurisdiction (i.e. it is ultra vires), that law is
unconstitutional. Therefore, any new laws designed to regulate prostitution in Canada must be
enacted by the appropriate level of government for them to be constitutionally valid. Given the way
powers are divided between the federal government and the provinces, the federal government does
not have the authority to enact one piece of overarching national legislation that regulates all aspects
of prostitution. In fact, should prostitution be decriminalized, the majority of new laws enacted to
regulate it will fall within provincial jurisdiction, with the result that very different standards and
regulations could be created in different provinces. There are some safeguards to curb discriminatory
legislation at the provincial and municipal levels, but in the event of decriminalization, it will ultimately be impossible for the federal government to retain control over the regulation of all aspects of
prostitution.

How current laws would apply

Because the regulation of prostitution cannot fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction, no single
binding federal legislation regulating every aspect of the industry can be enacted (in contrast to New
Zealand, a unified state which enacted a single regulatory mechanism when prostitution was decriminalized). Instead, in a decriminalized context, the sex industry would be subject to laws of general
application that regulate all industry and commerce, and protect civil rights. Many of these laws fall
under provincial jurisdiction.
 Constitution Act, 1867 (U.K.).
 Prostitution Reform Act, 2003 (N.Z.) 2003/28, s.18
 These include: s.92(7) public health; s.92(8) municipal institutions in the province; s.92(9) licenses in order to raise revenue for
provincial, local, or municipal purposes; s.92(10) local works and undertakings; s.92(13) property and civil rights in the province; and

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Some aspects of federal jurisdiction would still apply to prostitution, as it does to other workers,
such unemployment insurance, and the raising of money by any mode or system of taxation.
However, most of the existing laws that would apply to the sex industry are provincial, or have been
delegated by the provinces to their municipal governments.

Provincial powers and sex work

In a completely decriminalized context, the provinces would have the authority to apply existing
legislation as a way of regulating some aspects of prostitution. The provinces may also choose to create
new legislation that is specific to prostitution.

Limitations on provincial government powers

There are limitations on the provincial power to legislate in the area of prostitution. For example,
provinces cannot intrude on the federal power over crime, and they cannot regulate morality. In
addition, Charter constraints and the doctrine of paramountcy may apply.
Provinces cannot regulate morality
Although provinces do not have the power to enact penal provisions, they are entitled under s.
92(15) of the Constitution Act, 1867 to create offences in order to enforce any laws with respect to all
s. 92 enumerations. Such provincial offences would have to serve provincial legislative purposes and
cannot be attempts to encroach upon the federal authority over crime.
Because of the federal authority over crime, provinces are not permitted to regulate morality and
public order. In other words, provinces cannot enact legislation that contains a prohibition, a penalty
and attempts to achieve a criminal public purpose. In the Supreme Court of Canada decision, Reference re: Dairy Industry Act (Canada) s. 5(a), the court defined a crime as, an act which the law, with
appropriate penal sanctions, forbids; but as prohibitions are not enacted in a vacuum, we can properly
look for some evil or injurious or undesirable effect upon the public against which the law is directed.
That effect may be in relation to social, economic or political interests; and the legislature has had in
mind to suppress the evil or to safeguard the interest threatened.
In Westendorp v. The Queen,10 the Supreme Court of Canada held that a Calgary municipal by-law
prohibiting prostitution was unconstitutional because the city and the province did not have the
jurisdiction to enact legislation to control street prostitution, which at that time was prohibited by
Criminal Code s. 195.1.11 The City of Calgary attempted to enact this by-law as within its power to
regulate the streets, but the court found it to be a colourable attempt to punish prostitution, and that
was not within its constitutional jurisdiction. Similarly, in Goldwax v. Montreal (City),12 a City of
Montreal municipal by-law forbidding any person from remaining in a public place for purposes of
prostitution or approaching another person for that purpose was deemed to be unconstitutional.
s.92(16) generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in the province.
 Constitution Act, 1867 s.91(2)(a).
 Ibid. at s.91(3).
 Ibid. at s.92(8) gives provinces authority over municipal dealings.
 Ibid. at s.92(15): The Imposition of Punishment by Fine, Penalty, or Imprisonment for enforcing any Law of the Province made in
relation to any Matter coming within any of the Classes of Subjects enumerated in this Section.
 The Reference as to the Validity of Section 5(a) of the Dairy Industry Act (Margarine Reference), [1949] S.C.R. 1, affd [1951] A.C.
179. Also, see for example R. v. Morgentaler, [1993] 3 S.C.R. 463. In this case, Nova Scotia enacted legislation prohibiting the private
delivery of abortion after the decriminalization of this service in 1988 (R. v. Morgentaler, [1988] 1 S.C.R. 30).
 Reference re: Dairy Industry Act (Canada) S. 5(a) [1949] S.C.R. 1.
10 Westendorp v. The Queen [1983] 1 S.C.R. 43.
11 Criminal Code, R.S., c. C-34 [Criminal Code].
12 Goldwax v. Montreal (City) [1984] 2 S.C.R. 525.

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In a more recent case involving licensing and regulation of body rub massage parlours, Pimenova v.
Brampton (City),13 the city sought to place a number of restrictions on these establishments, including
limiting the number of parlours to eight, despite the fact that 16 such licenses already existed. The
City of Brampton took the position that it was within its municipal jurisdiction to enact these
by-laws. The Ontario Superior Court ruled that the section of the by-law regulating the number of
facilities was in Citys jurisdiction. However, the sections of the by-law regulating dress and physical
contact in the parlours were deemed to be unconstitutional because they represented an attempt to
regulate morality, thereby intruding into the federal power over crime. Two other sections dealing
with limitations on the transfer of licenses and on hours of operation were found to be discriminatory
and unfair, and struck down.
Human rights legislation
Protections against discriminatory legislation created by the provinces include the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms14 and provincial Human Rights Codes. In the context of prostitution,
it could be argued that overly stringent and unreasonable limitations on advertising by sex workers are
in violation of their s. 2(b) right to freedom of expression under the Charter.15

Paramountcy
The doctrine of paramountcy holds that otherwise valid provincial legislation will be rendered
inoperative where it is found to be inconsistent with a valid federal law. Where there is no inconsistency, both laws operate concurrently. Paramountcy may therefore be a relevant consideration even if
the criminal laws surrounding prostitution are not completely repealed, and certain aspects of prostitution remain under criminal jurisdiction.
However, it should be cautioned that the determination of validity and paramountcy of legislation
is inconsistent across provinces, and depends on the specific wording of the legislation in question.
For example, in the context of provincial prohibitions against possession of the drug LSD within
Alberta and B.C.s respective Health Acts, the relevant Courts of Appeal came to opposite conclusions
regarding the validity of the legislation.16 In Alberta, provincial prohibition was deemed to be valid
because it related to public health, a provincial jurisdiction. In B.C., similar legislation was held to be
invalid, because it relates to a matter of criminal law, thus falling under federal jurisdiction. In a 1987
case pertaining to strip clubs, an attempt by New Brunswicks Liquor Licensing Board to impose a
prohibition on nude entertainment was deemed intra vires the province as a legitimate regulation of
local industry.17 And while the provincial legislation dealt with an activity that falls under the
Criminal Code, there was no express conflict or intrusion, so paramountcy was not invoked.

National standards
The overall ability of the provinces to regulate those aspects of prostitution that fall under their
s. 92 enumerated power although limited in some respects means that it would be difficult, if not
impossible, to ensure a national set of standards and objectives regarding prostitution. For example,
Sectuib 3 of New Zealands Act, sets out its purpose:
13 Pimenova v. Brampton (City) [2004] O.J. No. 2450.
14 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (U.K.),
1982, c. 11 [hereinafter referred to as the Charter].
15 Ibid. at s.2(b).
16 Regina v. Snyder and Fletcher (1967) 61 W.W.R. 112 and 576 (Alta. C.A.) compared to Regina v. Simpson, Mack and Lewis (1969)
1 D.L.R. (3rd) 597, 1196913 C.C.C. 101 (B.C.C.A.).
17 Rio Hotel Ltd. v. New Brunswick (Liquor Licensing Board), [1987] 2 S.C.R. 59.

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The purpose of this Act is to decriminalise prostitution (while not endorsing or morally sanctioning prostitution or its use) and to create a framework that:
safeguards the human rights of sex workers and protects them from exploitation;
promotes the welfare and occupational health and safety of sex workers;
is conducive to public health;
prohibits the use of prostitution in persons under 18 years of age;
implements certain other related reforms.

Thus the New Zealand legislation is based on national objectives All New Zealand territorial authorities authorized to enact legislation pertaining to sex work must abide by the objectives laid out in the
national legislation.18
Because Canada cannot proceed this way, decriminalization would leave most regulation of
prostitution in the hands of provincial and municipal governments, in which case a patchwork of
provincial schemes with varying standards and objectives is likely to develop. Indeed, such a situation
has developed in Australia. Australia has a similar federal structure to Canada, and there currently
exists a patchwork of regulatory schemes across the territories regarding prostitution. Criminal law
in Australia is a territorial and not a federal power, so its federal structure does differ slightly from
Canadas.

Federal influence over the regulation of sex work

The federal government may attempt to influence regulation of prostitution by leaving some of the
Criminal Code provisions in force, and carving out exceptions within the Criminal Code or through
federal spending power, much like it does with gambling.

Criminal code exceptions

One scheme that the federal government could develop to maintain some control over prostitution would be to retain the current criminal provisions while creating some limited exceptions; prostitution would remain illegal with exceptions allowing the provinces to regulate certain aspects of the
trade. Thus the federal government could set the standard of regulation that a province would have to
meet for it to be able to regulate prostitution.
This strategy of carving out limited Criminal Code exceptions is currently used to regulate
gambling. Under s. 207(1) of the Criminal Code,19 lawful lottery schemes may be conducted by the
government of a province, or by a charitable or religious organization, or board of a fair or exhibition
in accordance with the terms of a licence. Section 207(2) gives the Lieutenant Governor in Council
the authorization to issue licences in accordance with the Criminal Code.
In principle, the strategy of transferring control to the provinces where they fulfil certain criteria
should enable the federal government to retain some control over regulation. However, this strategy
can still result in inconsistent regulatory schemes in different provinces. For example, in the case of
gambling, carving out Criminal Code exceptions has meant a liberalization of gambling regulation and
a gradual transition from criminal prohibition to legalization, but it has also resulted in regional variations in the interpretation of the law. The Law Commission of Canadas 2005 study, The Legalization
of Gambling in Canada, describes four models of regulation.20 Gambling is either managed through a
Crown Corporation, through a hybrid model where it is regulated in partnership with private companies, through a charitable organization under license, or through First Nations groups.
18 Supra note 2. For example, ss.12 14: Territorial authority to make bylaws .
19 Criminal Code at s.207.
20 C.S. Campbell, T.F. Hartnagel & G.J. Smith, The Legalization of Gambling in Canada (6 July 2005), prepared for the Law
Commission of Canada [Campbell].

228

BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform

Canadas use of the criminal law to regulate gambling has been criticized as an illegitimate means
to consolidate and legitimise a provincial government monopoly over gambling as a means to generate
revenue.21 In addition, loose federal regulation and a desire to maximize profits has been criticized for
creating a massive expansion of gambling at a significant social cost.22 In particular, the federal government has ignored issues of gambling-related crime and gambling addictions,23 and critics have argued
that the federal government has done this deliberately as a way to abdicate responsibility for these
social concerns.24
Viewed sceptically, gambling legislation can be seen as an example of a permissive money-making
scheme, and its rationale differs from that of Parliament carving out exceptions for provinciallyregulated prostitution. However, the potential for similar inconsistent provincial interpretations of the
law and different policy development clearly exists in the context of prostitution.
Parliament can only create exceptions within its criminal power where it is a bona fide use of this
power, and not a colourable attempt to encroach on provincial jurisdiction. For example, any standards that the federal government might set before it permits provinces to assume jurisdiction cannot
intrude into the provinces power to regulate in the area of property and civil rights. Indeed, the
federal governments control over gambling within the Criminal Code can be criticized as an improper
use of its jurisdiction over criminal law: it seems incongruous that the federal government seeks to
regulate gambling through the Criminal Code, and yet promotes it as a revenue-generating instrument.

Federal spending power

In addition to creating exceptions within the Criminal Code, the federal government could also
attempt to retain some control over how the provinces and municipalities regulate prostitution
through their use of the spending power. This power arises from s. 91(1)(a) of the Constitution Act,
1867 which is the power to legislate in relation to the public debt and property. The federal government can provide financial gifts to the provinces with conditions attached in order to encourage the
provinces to follow a certain course. Perhaps the best existing example is the health insurance program
under the Canada Health Act. While payments to the provinces are authorized by the Act, some
payments are subject to the fulfilment of certain criteria and conditions. In the context of prostitution, the federal government could use its spending power to encourage the provinces to enact legislation regulating this industry in a manner that is consistent with federal policy.

21 Ibid. at 8.
22 Ibid. at 27.
23 Ibid. at 36-37.
24 Ibid. at 91.

229

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

GLOBAL COMMISSION ON

HIV and the

AW

Risks, Rights & Health

JULY 2012

ABOUT THE GLOBAL COMMISSION

ON HIV AND THE LAW
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law consisted of fourteen distinguished individuals who advocate on issues of HIV,
public health, law and development. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil, chaired the Commission.
The Commissions unique convening power allowed it to focus on high-impact issues of HIV and the law, which have important
ramications for global health and development. The Commission advocated for evidence and human rights based legal environments
for eective and ecient HIV responses.
The life experiences of the Commissioners gave them a formidable ability to access a wide cross-section of society. This means
they are well placed to inuence change on complex issues that require the engagement of multiple stakeholders across a
range of sectors.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso

(Brazil)

Ana Helena Chacn-Echeverria

(Costa-Rica)

Charles Chauvel
(New Zealand)

Shereen El Feki
(Egypt)

Bience Gawanas
(Namibia)

Dame Carol Kidu

(Papua New Guinea)

Michael Kirby
(Australia)

Barbara Lee
(United States)

Stephen Lewis
(Canada)

Festus Gontebanye Mogae

(Botswana)

JVR Prasada Rao

(India)

Sylvia Tamale
(Uganda)

Jon Ungphakorn
(Thailand)

Miriam K. Were
(Kenya)

ABOUT THE COMMISSIONS REPORT

HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health is the Commissions agship publication. Released in July 2012, the report
presents public health, human rights and legal analysis and makes recommendations for law and policy makers, civil society,
development partners and private sector actors involved in crafting a sustainable global response to HIV.

PREFACE
The end of the global AIDS epidemic is within our reach. This will only be possible if science and action are accompanied by a
tangible commitment to respecting human dignity and ending injustice.
Law prohibits or permits specic behaviours, and in so doing, it shapes politics, economics and society. The law can be a human
good that makes a material dierence in peoples lives. It is therefore not surprising that law has the power to bridge the gap
between vulnerability and resilience to HIV.
We came together as a group of individuals from diverse backgrounds, experiences and continents to examine the role of the
law in eective HIV responses. What we share is our abiding commitment to public health and social justice. We have listened
with humility to hundreds of accounts describing the eects of law on HIV. In many instances, we have been overwhelmed by
how archaic, insensitive laws are violating human rights, challenging rational public health responses and eroding social fabric.
At other times, we have been moved by those who demonstrate courage and conviction to protect those most vulnerable in
our societies.
Many would say that the law can be complex and challenging and is best left alone. Our experience during this Commission
has shown us a very dierent perspective. We have been encouraged by how frank and constructive dialogue on controversial
issues can sometimes quickly lead to progressive law reform, the eective defence of legislation or better enforcement of
existing laws. Even in environments where formal legal change is a slow and arduous process, we have witnessed countries
taking action to strengthen access to justice and challenge stigma and discrimination.
As we listened and learned over the past eighteen months, many of us found our perspectives and opinions changing on a
range of complex issues. Ultimately, we chose to be guided in our nal recommendations by the courage and humanity of
those who have died of AIDS and the thirty four million strong who live on with HIV.
This report presents persuasive evidence and recommendations that can save lives, save money and help end the AIDS epidemic.
The recommendations appeal to what is common to all our cultures and communitiesthe innate humanity of recognising
and respecting the inherent worth and dignity of all individuals. This report may make a great many people uncomfortable
hopefully uncomfortable enough to take action. Undoubtedly, dierent countries will prioritise dierent recommendations.
Each country needs to develop its own road map for reform, depending on its legal and political environment. Nevertheless,
we are condent that all of the recommendations are relevant in every country of the world, given that the drivers of the HIV
epidemic exist all over the world. The time has come to act on these recommendations. We cannot continue to let people suer
and die because of inequality, ignorance, intolerance and indierence. The cost of inaction is simply too high.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Chair, Global Commission on HIV and the Law

Executive Summary I 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
WHY THE LAW
A M
MA
ATTERS
Annual number off n
new HIV inffections
ons
among adults aged 1549
549
4

3.5
3.0

historical trend
structural change*
n
* change to legal and policcy environmentt

millions infec
f ted

current trend

Curr
Current
Cur
rrrren
e legal and
polic
liiicy environment

2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0

With iinteerv
r entions
for enhanced
nh nc legal
and polic
o y
environmen
on ent

0.5
0.0
1980

1985

1990

1995

200
00

200
05

2010

2015

2020

2025
02

2030

Source: Results ffor Development Institute, Cosstts & Choic

Choices:
hoic Financing the Long-Term
T
Fight
ht Against AIDS, An aids2031
s2
Projec
Pr
o t, 2010.

In just three decades, over 30 million people have

died of AIDS, and 34 million more have been
infected with HIV. The HIV epidemic has become
one of the greatest public health challenges of
our time. It is also a crisis of law, human rights
and social justice. The good news is that we
now have all the evidence and tools we need to
radically slow new HIV infections and stop HIVrelated deaths. Paradoxically, this comes at a time
when bad laws and other political obstacles are
standing in the way of success.
34 million people are living with HIV, 7,400
are newly infected daily and 1.8 million died
in 2010 alone. The legal environmentlaws,
enforcement and justice systemshas immense
potential to better the lives of HIV-positive people
and to help turn the crisis around. International
law and treaties that protect equality of access
to health care and prohibit discrimination
including that based on health or legal status
underpin the salutary power of national laws.
But nations have squandered the potential of the
legal system. Worse, punitive laws, discriminatory
and brutal policing and denial of access to
justice for people with and at risk of acquiring
4 I HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health

HIV are fueling the epidemic. These legal

practices create and punish vulnerability. They
promote risky behaviour, hinder people from
accessing prevention tools and treatment, and
exacerbate the stigma and social inequalities
that make people more vulnerable to HIV
infection and illness. HIV-positive peoplebe
they parents or spouses, sex workers or health
workers, lovers or assailantsinteract intimately
with others, who in turn interact with others in
ever-larger circles, from the community to the
globe. From public health to national wealth,
social solidarity to equality and justice, HIV aects
everyone. The prevention, treatment and care
of HIVand the protection and promotion of
the human rights of those who live with itare
everyones responsibility.
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law
undertook 18 months of extensive research,
consultation, analysis and deliberation. Its
sources included the testimony of more than
700 people most aected by HIV-related legal
environments from 140 countries, in addition
to expert submissions and the large body of
scholarship on HIV, health and the law.

The Commissions ndings oer cause for

both distress and hope for people living with
or at risk for HIV. In June 2011, 192 countries
committed to reviewing legislation and creating
enabling legal and social environments that
support eective and ecient HIV responses.
The Commissions recommendations oer
guidance to governments and international
bodies in shaping laws and legal practices
that are science based, pragmatic, humane
and just. The ndings and recommendations
also oer advocacy tools for people living
with HIV, civil society, and communities
aected by HIV. The recommendations take
into account the fact that many laws exist for
purposes beyond public health, such as the
maintenance of order, public safety and the
regulation of trade. But they place the highest
priority on creating legal environments that
defend and promote internationally recognised
human rights and legal norms.

Where sex education, harm reduction and

comprehensive reproductive and HIV services
are accessible to youth, young peoples
rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections (STIs) drop. These interventions are
rare, however, and in both developed and
developing nations, the denial of the realities
of young peoples lives is reected in the
high physical, emotional and social toll of HIV
among the young.

In over 60 countries it is a crime to expose

another person to HIV or to transmit it,
especially through sex. At least 600 individuals
living with HIV in 24 countries have been
convicted under HIV-specic or general
criminal laws (due to underreporting, these
estimates are conservative). Such laws do
not increase safer sex practices. Instead, they
discourage people from getting tested or
treated, in fear of being prosecuted for passing
HIV to lovers or children.

In many countries, the law (either on the

books or on the streets) dehumanises
many of those at highest risk for HIV: sex
workers, transgender people, men who
have sex with men (MSM), people who use
drugs, prisoners and migrants. Rather than
providing protection, the law renders these
key populations all the more vulnerable to
HIV. Contradictory to international human
rights standards, 78 countriesparticularly
governments inuenced by conservative
interpretations of religionmake same-sex
activity a criminal oence, with penalties
ranging from whipping to execution.
Similarly, laws prohibitingor interpreted
by police or courts as prohibitinggender
nonconformity, dened vaguely and broadly,
are often cruelly enforced. The criminalisation
of sex work, drug use and harm reduction
measures create climates in which civilian
and police violence is rife and legal redress for
victims impossible. Fear of arrest drives key
populations underground, away from HIV and
harm reduction programmes. Incarceration
and compulsory detention exposes detainees
to sexual assault and unsafe injection
practices, while condoms are contraband
and harm reduction measures (including
antiretroviral medicines) are denied.

Women and girls make up half of the global

population of people living with HIV. Laws
and legally condoned customsfrom
genital mutilation to denial of property
rightsproduce profound gender inequality;
domestic violence also robs women and girls
of personal power. These factors undermine
womens and girls ability to protect themselves from HIV infection and cope with its
consequences.

A growing body of international trade law

and the over-reach of intellectual property
(IP) protections are impeding the production
and distribution of low-cost generic drugs.
IP protection is supposed to provide an
incentive for innovation but experience
has shown that the current laws are failing
to promote innovation that serves the
medical needs of the poor. The fallout from
these regulationsin particular the TRIPS

Among the Commissions findings:

123 countries have legislation to outlaw discrimination based on HIV; 112 legally protect
at least some populations based on their
vulnerability to HIV. But these laws are often
ignored, laxly enforced or aggressively outed.

Executive Summary I 5

frameworkhas exposed the central role of

excessive IP protections in exacerbating the
lack of access to HIV treatment and other
essential medicines. The situation is most
dire in low- and middle-income countries but
reverberates through high-income countries
as well. Provisions allowing some low- and
middle-income countries exceptions to and
relaxations of these rules could help alleviate
the crisis, but pressure against their use is
substantial. A small number of countries
have been able to take advantage of the few
international legal exibilities that exist.

The Commission has found reason for

hope. There are instances where legal and
justice systems have played constructive
roles in responding to HIV, by respecting,
protecting and fulfilling human rights.
To some such an approach may seem
a paradoxthe AIDS paradox.a But
compelling evidence shows that it is the
way to reduce the toll of HIV.
Where the police cooperate with community
workers, condom use can increase and
violence and HIV infection among sex workers
can decrease. Where governments promulgate
harm reduction, such as clean needle
distribution programmes and safe injection
sites, HIV infection rates among people who
use drugs can drop signicantly.
Eective legal aid can make justice and equality
a reality for people living with HIV, and this
can contribute to better health outcomes.
Advocates can creatively use traditional law in
progressive ways to promote womens rights
and health. Court actions and legislative
initiatives, informed by fairness and
pragmatism, can help nations shrug o
the yoke of misconceived criminalisation,

introduce gender-sensitive sexual assault law

and recognise the sexual autonomy of young
people.
Despite international pressures to prioritise
trade over public health, some governments
and civil society groups are using the law to
ensure access to aordable medicines, while
exploring new incentives for medical research
and development.
These successes can beand need to be
expanded. It will take money and will. Donors,
whose giving has agged, must step up and
reverse this trend, especially if the latest advances
in science and in prevention programming are
to benet those in need. Countries must honour
international human rights and national legal
obligations. Where laws do not enhance human
well-being and where laws do not respond to
contemporary realities, they must be repealed
and replaced by those that do. For justice and
dignity, human rights and human life, the world
can aord no less.

To ensure an effective, sustainable

response to HIV that is consistent with
human rights obligations, the Commission forcefully calls for governments,
civil society and international bodies to:
Outlaw all forms of discrimination and violence
directed against those who are vulnerable to
or living with HIV or are perceived to be HIVpositive. Ensure that existing human rights
commitments and constitutional guarantees
are enforced.
Repeal punitive laws and enact laws that
facilitate and enable eective responses to
HIV prevention, care and treatment services
for all who need them. Enact no laws that

According to The Hon. Michael Kirby, the AIDS paradox can be described as follows: It is a paradox, one of the most eective laws
we can oer to combat the spread of HIV is the protection of persons living with HIV, and those about them, from discrimination.
This is a paradox because the community expects laws to protect the uninfected from the infected. Yet, at least at this stage of
this epidemic, we must protect the infected too. We must do so because of reasons of basic human rights. But if they do not convince, we must do so for the sake of the whole community which has a common cause in the containment of the spread of HIV.

6 I HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health

explicitly criminalise HIV transmission, exposure

or non-disclosure of HIV status, which are
counterproductive.
Work with the guardians of customary and
religious law to promote traditions and
religious practice that promote rights and
acceptance of diversity and that protect
privacy.
Decriminalise private and consensual adult
sexual behaviours, including same-sex sexual
acts and voluntary sex work.
Prosecute the perpetrators of sexual violence,
including marital rape and rape related to
conict, whether perpetrated against females,
males, or transgender people.
Abolish all mandatory HIV-related registration,
testing, and forced treatment regimens.
Facilitate access to sexual and reproductive
health services and stop forced abortion and
coerced sterilisation of HIV-positive women
and girls.
Reform approaches towards drug use. Rather
than punishing people who use drugs
but do no harm to others, governments
must oer them access to eective HIV and
health services, including harm reduction
programmes and voluntary, evidence-based
treatment for drug dependence.
Enforce laws against all forms of child
sexual abuse and sexual exploitation, clearly
dierentiating such crimes from consensual
adult sex work.
Ensure that the enforcement of laws against
human tracking is carefully targeted to
punish those who use force, dishonesty or
coercion to procure people into commercial
sex, or who abuse migrant sex workers through

debt bondage, violence or deprivation of

liberty. Laws against human tracking must
be used to prohibit sexual exploitation, but
they must not be used against adults involved
in consensual sex work.
In matters relating to HIV and the law, oer
the same standard of protection to migrants,
visitors and residents who are not citizens
as is extended to citizens. Restrictions that
prohibit people living with HIV from entering
a country and/or regulations that mandate
HIV tests for foreigners within a country
should be repealed.
Enforce a legal framework that ensures
social protection for children living with and
aected by HIV and AIDS. Laws must protect
guardianship, property and inheritance
rights, and access to age-appropriate,
comprehensive sex education, health and
reproductive services.
Develop an eective IP regime for pharmaceutical products. Such a regime must be
consistent with international human rights law
and public health needs, while safeguarding
the justiable rights of inventors.

The Commission forcefully calls for a

renewed and vigorous international
collaboration in response to HIV. It calls
on donors, civil society and the UN to hold
governments accountable to their human
rights commitments. It urges groups outside
government to develop and implement
humane, workable HIV-related policies and
practices and to fund action on law reform, law
enforcement and access to justice. Such eorts
should include educating people about their
rights and the law, preventing violence as well
as challenging the stigma and discrimination
within families, communities and workplaces
that continue to feed a worldwide epidemic
that should have ended long ago.

Executive Summary I 7

SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS
IONS
ONS
To ensure an effective, sustainable response to HIV that is consistent with human rights obligations:

1. DISCRIMINATION
1.1

Countries must ensure that their national HIV policies, strategies, plans and programmes include eective, targeted action
to support enabling legal environments, with attention to formal law, law enforcement and access to justice. Every country
must repeal punitive laws and enact protective laws to protect and promote human rights, improve delivery of and access
to HIV prevention and treatment, and increase the cost-eectiveness of these eorts.

1.2

Where they have not already done so, countries must explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived
HIV status and ensure that existing human rights commitments and constitutional guarantees are enforced. Countries
must also ensure that laws and regulations prohibiting discrimination and ensuring participation and the provision of
information and health services protect people living with HIV, other key populations and people at risk of HIV.

1.3

Donors, civil society and private sector actors, and the UN should hold governments accountable to their human rights
commitments. Groups outside government should develop and implement rights-based HIV-related policies and practices
and fund action on HIV-related law reform, law enforcement and access to justice. Such eorts should include educating
people about their rights and the law, as well as challenging stigma and discrimination within families, communities and
workplaces.

2. CRIMINALISATION OF HIV TRANSMISSION, EXPOSURE AND NON-DISCLOSURE

2.1

Countries must not enact laws that explicitly criminalise HIV transmission, HIV exposure or failure to disclose HIV
status. Where such laws exist, they are counterproductive and must be repealed. The provisions of model codes that
have been advanced to support the enactment of such laws should be withdrawn and amended to conform to these
recommendations.

2.2

Law enforcement authorities must not prosecute people in cases of HIV non-disclosure or exposure where no intentional
or malicious HIV transmission has been proven to take place. Invoking criminal laws in cases of adult private consensual
sexual activity is disproportionate and counterproductive to enhancing public health.

2.3

Countries must amend or repeal any law that explicitly or eectively criminalises vertical transmission of HIV. While the
process of review and repeal is under way, governments must place moratoria on enforcement of any such laws.

2.4

Countries may legitimately prosecute HIV transmission that was both actual and intentional, using general criminal law,
but such prosecutions should be pursued with care and require a high standard of evidence and proof.

2.5

The convictions of those who have been successfully prosecuted for HIV exposure, non-disclosure and transmission must
be reviewed. Such convictions must be set aside or the accused immediately released from prison with pardons or similar
actions to ensure that these charges do not remain on criminal or sex oender records.

8 I HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health

3. KEY POPULATIONS
3.

To ensure an eective, sustainable response to HIV that is consistent with human rights obligations, countries must
prohibit police violence against key populations. Countries must also support programmes that reduce stigma and
discrimination against key populations and protect their rights.

PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS

3.1

Countries must reform their approach towards drug use. Rather than punishing people who use drugs who do no harm
to others, they must oer them access to eective HIV and health services, including harm reduction and voluntary,
evidence-based treatment for drug dependence. Countries must:
3.1.1

Shut down all compulsory drug detention centres for people who use drugs and replace them with evidencebased, voluntary services for treating drug dependence.

3.1.2

Abolish national registries of drug users, mandatory and compulsory HIV testing and forced treatment for people
who use drugs.

3.1.3

Repeal punitive conditions such as the United States governments federal ban on funding of needle and syringe
exchange programmes that inhibit access to HIV services for people who use drugs.

3.1.4

Decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use, in recognition that the net impact of such sanctions is often
harmful for society.

3.1.5

Take decisive action, in partnership with the UN, to review and reform relevant international laws and bodies
in line with the principles outlined above, including the UN international drug control conventions: the Single
Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961); Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971); the Convention against the
Illicit Trac in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988) and the International Narcotics Control Board.

SEX WORKERS
3.2

Countries must reform their approach towards sex work. Rather than punishing consenting adults involved in sex work,
countries must ensure safe working conditions and oer sex workers and their clients access to eective HIV and health
services and commodities. Countries must:
3.2.1

Repeal laws that prohibit consenting adults to buy or sell sex, as well as laws that otherwise prohibit commercial sex,
such as laws against immoral earnings, living o the earnings of prostitution and brothel-keeping. Complementary
legal measures must be taken to ensure safe working conditions to sex workers.

3.2.2

Take all measures to stop police harassment and violence against sex workers.

3.2.3

Prohibit the mandatory HIV and STI testing of sex workers.

Executive Summary I 9

3.2.4

Ensure that the enforcement of anti-human-tracking laws is carefully targeted to punish those who use force,
dishonesty or coercion to procure people into commercial sex, or who abuse migrant sex workers through debt
bondage, violence or by deprivation of liberty. Anti-human-tracking laws must be used to prohibit sexual
exploitation and they must not be used against adults involved in consensual sex work.

3.2.5

Enforce laws against all forms of child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation, clearly dierentiating such crimes from
consensual adult sex work.

3.2.6

Ensure that existing civil and administrative oences such as loitering without purpose, public nuisance, and
public morality are not used to penalise sex workers and administrative laws such as move on powers are not
used to harass sex workers.

3.2.7

Shut down all compulsory detention or rehabilitation centers for people involved in sex work or for children
who have been sexually exploited. Instead, provide sex workers with evidence-based, voluntary, community
empowerment services. Provide sexually exploited children with protection in safe and empowering family settings,
selected based on the best interests of the child.

3.2.8

Repeal punitive conditions in ocial development assistance such as the United States governments PEPFAR
anti-prostitution pledge and its current anti-tracking regulations that inhibit sex workers access to HIV services
or their ability to form organisations in their own interests.

3.2.9

Take decisive action to review and reform relevant international law in line with the principles outlined above,
including the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Tracking In Persons, Especially Women And Children
(2000).

MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN

3.3

Countries must reform their approach towards sexual diversity. Rather than punishing consenting adults involved in same
sex activity, countries must oer such people access to eective HIV and health services and commodities. Countries must:
3.3.1

Repeal all laws that criminalise consensual sex between adults of the same sex and/or laws that punish homosexual
identity.

3.3.2

Respect existing civil and religious laws and guarantees relating to privacy.

3.3.3

Remove legal, regulatory and administrative barriers to the formation of community organisations by or for gay
men, lesbians and/or bisexual people.

3.3.4

Amend anti-discrimination laws expressly to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation (as well as gender
identity).

3.3.5

Promote eective measures to prevent violence against men who have sex with men.

10 I HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health

TRANSGENDER PERSONS
3.4

Countries must reform their approach towards transgender people. Rather than punishing transgender people,
countries must oer transgender people access to eective HIV and health services and commodities as well as
repealing all laws that criminalise transgender identity or associated behaviours. Countries must:
3.4.1

Respect existing civil and religious laws and guarantees related to the right to privacy.

3.4.2

Repeal all laws that punish cross-dressing.

3.4.3

Remove legal, regulatory or administrative barriers to formation of community organisations by or for transgender
people.

3.4.4

Amend national anti-discrimination laws to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity (as well as
sexual orientation).

3.4.5

Ensure transgender people are able to have their armed gender recognised in identication documents, without
the need for prior medical procedures such as sterilisation, sex reassignment surgery or hormonal therapy.

PRISONERS
3.5.1

Necessary health care is available, including HIV prevention and care services, regardless of laws criminalising
same-sex acts or harm reduction. Such care includes provision of condoms, comprehensive harm reduction
services, voluntary and evidence-based treatment for drug dependence and ART.

3.5.2

Any treatment oered must satisfy international standards of quality of care in detention settings. Health care
services, including those specically related to drug use and HIV, must be evidence-based, voluntary and oered
only where clinically indicated.

MIGRANTS
3.6.1

In matters relating to HIV and the law, countries should oer the same standard of protection to migrants, visitors
and residents who are not citizens as they do to their own citizens.

3.6.2

Countries must repeal travel and other restrictions that prohibit people living with HIV from entering a country
and/or regulations that mandate HIV tests for foreigners within a country.

3.6.3

Countries must implement regulatory reform to allow for legal registration of migrants with health services and to
ensure that migrants can access the same quality of HIV prevention, treatment and care services and commodities
that are available to citizens. All HIV testing and STI screening for migrants must be informed and voluntary, and all
treatment and prophylaxis for migrants must be ethical and medically indicated.

Executive Summary I 11

4. WOMEN
4.1

Countries must act to end all forms of violence against women and girls, including in conict situations and post-conict
settings. They must:
4.1.1

Enact and enforce specic laws that prohibit domestic violence, rape and other forms of sexual assault, including
marital rape and rape related to conict, whether perpetrated against females, males or transgender persons.

4.1.2

Take judicial or legislative steps to remove any immunityor interpreted immunityfrom prosecution for rape when
the perpetrator is a married or unmarried partner.

4.1.3

Fully enforce existing laws meant to protect women and girls from violence, and prosecute perpetrators of violence
against women and girls to the full extent of the law.

4.1.4

Formulate and implement comprehensive, fully resourced national strategies to eliminate violence against women
and girls, which include robust mechanisms to prevent, investigate and punish violence. Provision of health
services, including post-exposure prophylaxis, legal services and social protection for survivors of violence, must be
guaranteed.

4.2

Countries must prohibit and governments must take measures to stop the practice of forced abortion and coerced
sterilisation of HIV-positive women and girls, as well as all other forms of violence against women and girls in health care
settings.

4.3

Countries must remove legal barriers that impede womens access to sexual and reproductive health services. They must
ensure that:
4.3.1

Health care workers provide women with full information on sexual and reproductive options and ensure that
women can provide informed consent in all matters relating to their health. The law must ensure access to safe
contraception and support women in deciding freely whether and when to have children, including the number,
spacing and methods of their childrens births.

4.3.2

Health care workers are trained on informed consent, condentiality and non-discrimination.

4.3.3

Accessible complaints and redress mechanisms are available in health care settings.

4.4

Countries must reform property and inheritance laws to mandate that women and men have equal access to property and
other economic resources, including credit. They must take measures to ensure that in practice property is divided without
gender discrimination upon separation, divorce or death and establish a presumption of spousal co-ownership of family
property. Where property and inheritance practices are inuenced or determined by religious or customary legal systems, the
leaders of these systems must make reforms to protect women, including widows and orphans.

4.5

Countries must ensure that social protection measures recognise and respond to the needs of HIV-positive women and
women whose husbands have died of AIDS and that labour laws, social protection and health services respond to the
needs of women who take on caregiving roles in HIV-aected households.

12 I HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health

4.6

Countries must ensure that laws prohibiting early marriage are enacted and enforced.

4.7

The enforcers of religious and customary laws must prohibit practices that increase HIV risk, such as widow inheritance,
widow cleansing and female genital mutilation.

5. CHILDREN AND YOUTH

5.1

5.2

Countries must enact and enforce laws that:

5.1.1

Ensure that the birth of every child is registered. This is crucial for supporting childrens access to essential services.
Ensure that their rights are protected and promoted, as per the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

5.1.2

Ensure that every orphaned child is appointed an appropriate adult guardian. This includes provisions for transfer
of guardianship of AIDS orphans from deceased parents to adults or older siblings who can ensure their well-being.
In selecting a guardian, preference should be given to adults from the biological or extended families. HIV-positive
adults who are otherwise in good health should not be prohibited from adopting children.

5.1.3

Support community-based foster care for children orphaned by AIDS as an alternative to institutionalization, when
formal adoption is not possible or appropriate.

5.1.4

Ensure HIV-sensitive social protections as required, such as direct cash transfers for aected children and their
guardians.

5.1.5

Prohibit discrimination against children living with or aected by HIV, especially in the context of adoption, health
and education. Take strict measures to ensure that schools do not bar or expel HIV-positive children or children
from families aected by AIDS.

Countries must enact and enforce laws to ensure that children orphaned by AIDS inherit parental property. Children
orphaned by AIDS should inherit regardless of their sex, HIV status or the HIV status of family members. Such enforcement
includes:
5.2.1

Collaboration with the enforcers of religious and customary laws to ensure justice for children orphaned by AIDS.

5.2.2

Reconciliation of conicts between discriminatory customary laws and traditional practices and international
human rights standards to ensure compliance with international law.

5.3

Countries must enact and enforce laws ensuring the right of every child, in or out of school, to comprehensive sexual
health education, so that they may protect themselves and others from HIV infection or live positively with HIV.

5.4

Sexually active young people must have condential and independent access to health services so as to protect
themselves from HIV. Therefore, countries must reform laws to ensure that the age of consent for autonomous access to
HIV and sexual and reproductive health services is equal to or lower than the age of consent for sexual relations. Young
people who use drugs must also have legal and safe access to HIV and health services.

Executive Summary I 13

6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW AND THE GLOBAL FIGHT FOR TREATMENT

6.1

The UN Secretary General must convene a neutral, high-level body to review and assess proposals and recommend a new
intellectual property regime for pharmaceutical products. Such a regime should be consistent with international human
rights law and public health requirements, while safeguarding the justiable rights of inventors. Such a body should include
representation from the High Commissioner on Human Rights, WHO, WTO, UNDP, UNAIDS and WIPO, as well as the Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Health, key technical agencies and experts, and private sector and civil society representatives,
including people living with HIV. This re-evaluation, based on human rights, should take into account and build on eorts
underway at WHO, such as its Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property
and the work of its Consultative Expert Working Group. Pending this review, the WTO must suspend TRIPS as it relates to
essential pharmaceutical products for low- and middle-income countries.

6.2

High-income countries, including donors such as the United States, European Union, the European Free Trade Association
countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and Japan must immediately stop pressuring low- and middleincome countries to adopt or implement TRIPS-plus measures in trade agreements that impede access to life-saving
treatment.

6.3

6.2.1

All countries must immediately adopt and observe a global moratorium on the inclusion of any intellectual property
provisions in any international treaty that would limit the ability of countries to retain policy options to reduce
the cost of HIV-related treatment. Agreements such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) must be
reformed; if ACTA is not reformed to exclude such intellectual property provisions, countries should not sign it. All
countries must cease unilateral practices to this same, access-limiting end.

6.2.2

High-income countries must stop seeking to impose more stringent, TRIPS-plus intellectual property obligations
on developing country governments. High-income countries must also desist from retaliating against countries
that resist adopting such TRIPS-plus measures so that they may achieve better access to treatment.

While the Commission recommends that WTO Members must urgently suspend TRIPS as it relates to essential
pharmaceutical products for low and middle income countries, we recognise that such change will not happen overnight.
In the interim, even though individual countries may nd it dicult to act in the face of political pressure, they should, to
the extent possible, incorporate and use TRIPS exibilities, consistent with safeguards in their own national laws.
6.3.1

Low- and middle-income countries must not be subject to political and legal pressure aimed at preventing them
from using TRIPS exibilities to ensure that infants, children and adolescents living with HIV have equal access to HIV
diagnosis and age-appropriate treatment as adults.

6.3.2

It is critical that both countries with signicant manufacturing capacity and those reliant on the importation of
pharmaceutical products retain the policy space to use TRIPS exibilities as broadly and simply as they can. Lowand middle-income countries must facilitate collaboration and sharing of technical expertise in pursuing the full
use of TRIPS exceptions (for instance, by issuing compulsory licences for ARVs and medicines for co-infections such
as hepatitis C). Both importer and exporter countries must adopt straightforward, easy-to-use domestic provisions
to facilitate the use of TRIPS exibilities.

14 I HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health

6.3.3

Developing countries should desist from adopting TRIPS-plus provisions including anti-counterfeiting legislation
that inaccurately conates the problem of counterfeit or substandard medicines with generics and thus impedes
access to aordable HIV-related treatment.

6.3.4

Countries must proactively use other areas of law and policy such as competition law, price control policy and
procurement law which can help increase access to pharmaceutical products.

6.4

The WTO Members must indenitely extend the exemption for LDCs from the application of TRIPS provisions in the case
of pharmaceutical products. The UN and its member states must mobilise adequate resources to support LDCs to retain
this policy latitude.

6.5

The August 30, 2003 Decision of the WTO General Council has not proved to be a viable solution for countries with
insucient pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity. It is essential that the system established by that decision be revised
or supplemented with a new mechanism, to allow the easier import of pharmaceutical products produced under
compulsory licence. WTO Members should desist from ratifying the adoption of the August 30, 2003 Decision as a new
Article 31 bis of the TRIPS Agreement, and they must pursue eorts to reform or replace the system.

6.6

TRIPS has failed to encourage and reward the kind of innovation that makes more eective pharmaceutical products
available to the poor, including for neglected diseases. Countries must therefore develop, agree and invest in new systems
that genuinely serve this purpose, prioritising the most promising approaches including a new pharmaceutical R&D treaty
and the promotion of open source discovery.

Executive Summary I 15

THE FULL COMMISSION REPORT IS AVAILABLE AT:

WWW.HIVLAWCOMMISSION.ORG

Financial support for the Commission was generously provided by the American Jewish
World Service (AJWS), Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Ford
Foundation, Health Canada International Affairs, Norwegian Agency for Development
Cooperation (Norad), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Open Society
Foundations, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), UNDP,
UNFPA, UNICEF and the UNAIDS Secretariat.
Copyright @ UNDP 2012
Graphic: Myriad Editions
Design & Printer: Consolidated Graphics

The content, analysis, opinions and policy recommendations contained in this publication
do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Development Programme.

For further information contact: info@hivlawcommission.org or

visit: www.hivlawcommission.org
Follow the Commission on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/HIVLawCommission and
on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HIVLawCom
GLOBAL COMMISSION ON

HIV and the AW

Secretariat, Global Commission on HIV and the Law

UNDP, HIV/AIDS Group, Bureau for Development Policy
304 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017
Tel: (+1 212) 906 6590 Fax: (+1 212) 906 5023

UN WOMEN
NOTE ON SEX WORK, SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND TRAFFICKING

The views of UN Women on the subject are grounded in the relevant human rights principles1
and provisions, intergovernmental normative frameworks and the best available scientific and
epidemiological evidence. UN Women is attentive to the important input of civil society across
the wide spectrum of opinion that pertains to the subject.

The issues of sex work, sexual exploitation and trafficking are complex issues which have
significant legal, social and health consequences. Due to such complexity, it is important that we
do not conflate these three issues which deserve to be considered in their own right. We cannot
consider sex work the same way we consider trafficking or sexual exploitation which are human
rights abuses and crimes.

The conflation of consensual sex work and sex trafficking leads to inappropriate responses that
fail to assist sex workers and victims of trafficking in realizing their rights. Furthermore, failing to
distinguish between these groups infringes on sex workers right to health and selfdetermination and can impede efforts to prevent and prosecute trafficking.

Sex workers2 are right holders like all other women and men and should be recognized as such.

We understand the concerns of different sections of civil society that in many cases sex work is
not always a choice and we acknowledge that it is often bound up with poverty, vulnerability
and discrimination and can lead to violence against women.

We recognize the importance of simultaneously addressing structural and root causes for
women to engage in sex work, including poverty and discrimination.

It is important that we recognize the rights of sex workers by striving to ensure safety in and
through the workplace, so that they can be free from exploitation, violence and coercion.

We recognize the right of all sex workers to choose their work or leave it and to have access to
other employment opportunities. We encourage and applaud efforts to provide sex workers
with economic alternatives to sex work.
1

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) addresses the issue from the perspective
of exploitation of prostitution; the CEDAW Committee in its concluding observations to States Parties to CEDAW also addresses the
issue from the perspective of exploitation of prostitution and forced prostitution.
2

Sex workers are considered the adults who receive money or goods in exchange for sexual services (UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV
and Sex Work, 2009, and UNFPA Guidance Note on HIV/AIDS, Gender and Sex Work).

Sex workers are particularly vulnerable to the HIV infection and this vulnerability is increased by
attitudes of stigma and discrimination in many countries, where those engaging in sex work are
marginalized and often face abuse and violence.

UNAIDS, of which UN Women is a co-sponsor, supports the decriminalization of sex work in

order to ensure the access of sex workers to all services, including HIV care and treatment. UN
Women also supports the regulation of sex work in order to protect sex workers from abuse and
violence.

Where any form of coercion, violence and exploitation is involved in sex work, this should be
subject to criminal law. Sex workers should be able to bring cases of such exploitation, coercion
and violence to the police, and to be provided with protection and redress.

We strongly condemn and work towards the prevention and elimination of any form of
coercion, violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking in persons in any shape or form.
Trafficking is a human rights violation and there should be no compromise in efforts to
address it.

9 October 2013

10 reasons to
decriminalize

SEX
WORK

For more information, contact:

Sexual Health and Rights Project
Open Society Foundations
400 W 59th Street
New York, NY 10019 USA
http://www.soros.org/topics/sexual-health-rights

Open Society Foundations

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies
whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Working with local
communities in more than 70 countries, the Open Society Foundations support
justice and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health and
education.
Public Health Program
The Open Society Public Health Program aims to build societies committed
to inclusion, human rights, and justice, in which health-related laws, policies,
and practices are evidence-based and reflect these values. The program works
to advance the health and human rights of marginalized people by building
the capacity of civil society leaders and organizations, and by advocating for
greater accountability and transparency in health policy and practice. The Public
Health Program engages in five core strategies to advance its mission and goals:
grantmaking, capacity building, advocacy, strategic convening, and mobilizing
and leveraging funding. The Public Health Program works in Central and Eastern
Europe, Southern and Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia, and China.

10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A REFERENCE BRIEF

Sex workers are adults who receive money or goods in exchange

for sexual services, either regularly or occasionally.1 A sex worker
can be male, female, or transgender. In most countries, sex work
and activities associated with it are criminal acts.2

Sex work is criminalized either through direct prohibitions

on selling sexual services for money or through laws that
prohibit solicitation of sex, living off of the earnings of sex
work, brothel-keeping, or procuring sexual services. In
addition, sex workers are frequently prosecuted for noncriminal offensesoften municipal-level administrative
offensessuch as loitering, vagrancy, and impeding the flow
of traffic. By reducing the freedom of sex workers to negotiate
condom use with clients, organize for fair treatment, and
publicly advocate for their rights, criminalization and
aggressive policing have been shown to increase sex workers
vulnerability to violence, extortion, and health risks.3
This document provides ten reasons why decriminalizing
sex work is the best policy for promoting health and human
rights for sex workers, their families, and communities.
Decriminalization refers to the removal of all criminal and
administrative prohibitions and penalties on sex work, including
laws targeting clients and brothel owners. Removing criminal
prosecution of sex work goes hand-in-hand with recognizing
sex work as work and protecting the rights of sex workers
through workplace health and safety standards. Decriminalizing
sex work allows workers to access financial services like bank
accounts and insurance and other financial services. Moreover,
decriminalization means sex workers are more likely to live
without stigma, social exclusion, and fear of violence.
To effectively protect the health and rights of sex workers,
governments must remove all criminal laws regulating sex
work, including laws that criminalize the purchase of sex.
Systems that maintain criminal penalties for clients who
purchase sexual services continue to put sex workers at
risk. Rather than ending demand for sex work, penalties on
clients force sex workers to provide services in clandestine
locations, which increases the risk of violence and limits the
power of the sex workers in the transaction.4 When sex work
is decriminalized, sex workers are empowered to realize
their right to work safely, and to use the justice system to
seek redress for abuses and discrimination.5 Even if sex work
is decriminalized, the prostitution of minors and human
trafficking can and should remain criminal acts.

E1

1 
Open Society Foundations (2007).
What are key terms related to sexual
health and human rights for LGBT and
sex workers? Health and Human Rights:
A Resource Guide. Available at http://
www.equalpartners.info/Chapter5/
ch5_6Glossary.html.
2 
UNAIDS, Global Network of People
Living with HIV, et al. (2010). Making
the law work for the HIV response.
Available at http://www.unaids.org/en/
media/unaids/contentassets/documents/
priorities/20100728_HR_Poster_en-1.
pdf.
3 
Shannon K and Csete J. Violence,
condom negotiation and HIV/STI
risk among sex workers. Journal of
the American Medical Association
304(5):573-74.
4 
Norway Ministry of Justice and the
Police Working Group on the Legal
Regulation of the Purchase of Sexual
Services. (2004). Purchasing Sexual
Services in Sweden and the Netherlands:
Legal Regulation and Experiences, An
Abbreviated English Version, available
at, http://www.regjeringen.no/en/
dep/jd/Documents-and-publications/
Reports/Reports/2004/PurchasingSexual-Services.html?id=106214.
See also UNAIDS Advisory Group
on HIV and Sex Work. Report of the
UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and
Sex Work. Geneva, 2011, available
at http://www.unaids.org/en/media/
unaids/contentassets/documents/
unaidspublication/2011/20111215_
Report-UNAIDS-Advisory-group-HIVSex-Work_en.pdf, and Ostegren, P.
(1999). Sex Workers Critique of Swedish
Prostitution Policy. Available at http://
www.petraostergren.com/pages.aspx?r_
id=40716.
5 
Abel G, Fitzgerald L, Brunton C (2009).
The impact of decriminalisation on the
number of sex workers in New Zealand,
Journal of Social Policy 38(3):515-531.

E2

6 
See e.g. Devine et al. (2010) Pathways to
sex-work in Nagaland, India: Implications
for HIV prevention and community
Mobilisation, AIDS Care 22: 228 -237.
7 
International Committee on the
Rights of Sex Workers in Europe,
Declaration of the Rights of Sex
Workers in Europe (2005), available at
http://www.sexworkeurope.org/en/
resources-mainmenu-189/declarationmainmenu-199.
8 
Sex Workers Rights Advocacy Network
(SWAN) (2009). Arrest the Violence:
Human Rights Violations Against Sex
Workers in Central and Eastern Europe
and Central Asia, available at http://
www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/
sharp/articles_publications/publications/
human-rights-violations-20091217/
arrest-violence-20091217.pdf.
9 
Jenkins, C. (2006). Violence and
Exposure to HIV Among Sex Workers
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, USAID.
http://www.sexworkeurope.org/en/
resources-mainmenu-189/declarationmainmenu-199.
10 
New Zealand Ministry of Justice (2003).
Report of the Prostitution Law Review
Committee on the Operation of the
Prostitution Reform Act. Available
at http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/
commercial-property-and-regulatory/
prostitution/prostitution-law-reviewcommittee/publications/plrc-report/
documents/report.pdf.

10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A REFERENCE BRIEF

Decriminalization reflects
respect for human rights and
personal dignity

DECRIMINALIZATION
REDUCES POLICE ABUSE
AND VIOLENCE

There are many reasons why adults enter into sex work, including as
their main livelihood or temporarily for survival or short-term revenue.6
Regardless of their reasons for engaging in sex work and the nature of
their work, all people should be treated with respect and dignity. Sex work
should be acknowledged as work and sex workers must be entitled to the
fundamental right to work to support themselves and their families. Sex
workers in many parts of the world have organized to fight for their human
rights.7 These rights cannot be fully realized while criminal laws threaten
sex workers access to justice and to health and social services, undermine
their right to workplace and labor protections, and expose them to
arbitrary arrest.

Police are often the perpetrators of abuses against sex workers. Where
sex work is criminalized, police wield power over sex workers in the
form of threats of arrest and public humiliation. They use this power
to coerce, extort from, and physically abuse sex workers. In Central and
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a high proportion of sex workers have
reported suffering sexual assault by police at some time, ranging from 20
percent of sex workers in Bulgaria to as high as 90 percent in Kyrgyzstan.8 In
Cambodia, reports indicate that 42 percent of freelance sex workers have
been beaten by police and 44 percent have been raped by police officers.
Similarly, 72 percent of brothel-based sex workers have been beaten by
police and 57 percent have been raped by police.9 Police in these contexts
enjoy impunity for their offenses, in part because sex workers fear they
will be arrested or subjected to further abuse if they report these crimes.
Although decriminalization may not solve all of the problems of police
abuse and misconduct, it can empower sex workers to come forward to
register complaints against police who act unlawfully, and to bring offenders
to justice without fear of negative consequences for their own livelihoods.
This is exactly the experience that was documented following the 2003
law reform in New Zealand, as sex workers reported they could turn to the
police and courts for help without fear of prosecution for the first time in
their lives.10 Decriminalization should be paired with access to legal services
to promote the health and rights of sex workers.

10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A REFERENCE BRIEF

Decriminalization
increases sex workers
access to justice

Decriminalization
promotes safe working
conditions.

The incidence of rape is high among sex workers in many settings. A

survey of sex workers in Kenya, for example, revealed that 58 percent
had experienced forced sexual encounters.11 But sex workers who are
criminalized are unlikely to feel safe going to the police to report violence
perpetrated against them. The criminal law is also a barrier to access to
civil protections, such as restraining orders, or to obtaining treatment
and support after rape and abuse. In a 2011 ruling, the Ontario Superior
Court decided that certain criminal prohibitions on sex work violated the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, citing evidence that most sex
workers dont report violence because they fear they may be arrested or
punished in other ways, such as losing custody of their children, losing
their lawful employment, or being stigmatized for their association with sex
work.12 Decriminalization removes a major barrier to sex workers reporting
of rape and other crimes and makes it harder for violence against sex
workers to be committed with impunity.

Decriminalization of sex work in New South Wales in Australia has been

associated with sex workers decreased risk of occupational injury or
insecurity as compared to other Australian jurisdictions.13 One important
way in which decriminalization promotes safer working conditions for sex
workers is by enabling workers to organize. Collectively, sex workers can
address risk factors in their workplaces and insist upon improved conditions.
The power of collectivization to promote health by increasing access to
condoms and other HIV prevention materials, as well as to establish health
services and access to financial services, is evident from the successes of
collectives in India, including the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee
in Sonagachi (Kolkata) and VAMP/SANGRAM in Sangli.14 The mobilizing
efforts of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective have had similar results for
improving workplace safety. Decriminalization in New Zealand brought sex
workers under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, resulting in the
creation of occupational health guidelines, which sex workers have used to
assert their rights with employers and clients.15

E3

11 
Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya
(2008). Documenting Human Rights
Violations of Sex Workers in Kenya: A
Report Based on Findings of a Study
Conducted in Nairobi, Kisumu, Busia,
Nanyuki, Mombasa and Malindi Towns In
Kenya.
12 
Bedford v. Canada, 2010 ONSC 4264
13 
Harcourt C et al. (2010). The
decriminalization of sex work is
associated with better coverage of
health promotion programs for sex
workers. Australian and New Zealand
Journal of Public Health 34(5): 482-486.
14 
Jana S, Basu I, Rotheram-Borus MJ,
Newman PA (2004). The Sonagachi
Project: A sustainbale community
intervention program. AIDS Education
and Prevention 16:405-414; Shetty
P (2010). Meena Saraswathi Seshu:
Tackling HIV for Indias sex workers.
Lancet 376(9734):17. See also
SANGRAMs collectives: Engaging
communities in India to demand their
rights, AIDSTAR-One Case Study Series.
15 
New Zealand Ministry of Justice (2003)
Report of the Prostitution Law Review
Committee on the Operation of the
Prostitution Reform Act, available at
http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/
commercial-property-and-regulatory/
prostitution/prostitution-law-reviewcommittee/publications/plrc-report/
documents/report.pdf

E4

16 
Harcourt C et al. (2010). The
decriminalization of sex work is
associated with better coverage of
health promotion programs for sex
workers. Australian and New Zealand
Journal of Public Health 34(5):482-486.
17 
Jana et al., op.cit.
18 
Blankenship K and Koester S. Criminal
law, policing policy and HIV risk in
female sex workers and injection drug
users (2002). Journal of Law, Medicine
and Ethics, 30: 548-559.
19 
New Zealand Ministry of Justice, op.cit.

10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A REFERENCE BRIEF

Decriminalization
increases access
to health services

Decriminalization
reduces sex workers
risk of HIV

In Australia, laws regulating sex work vary from state to statefrom

decriminalization to legalization of only licensed brothels to criminalization
of all prostitution, including brothel, street-based, and private sex work.
Researchers have assessed whether different legal contexts affect the
delivery of health services and occupational health and safety outcomes
among sex workers.16 One study found that decriminalization is associated
with the greatest financial support for sex worker health programs and
the best access to brothels for outreach workers. Better financial support
means greater capacity to conduct health outreach in the evening, an
important feature because the evenings are often the busiest times for
sex workers. Condom access and rates of use among sex workers are
also higher in New South Wales, where sex work is decriminalized, than
in other jurisdictions. In addition, when sex workers are able to work in
collectives, they can organize health services for themselves, which are
likely to be more respectful and more frequently used than other non
sex worker-led services.17 Removing criminal penalties against sex work
also facilitates partnerships between government and sex workers in
addressing health and safety issues in sex work. Collectives are generally
more difficult to organize where sex work is criminalized and criminal laws
are harshly enforced.

Criminalization diminishes sex workers bargaining capacity and the time

and space available to negotiate condom use with clients.18 Fear that
visible condoms, or the process of negotiation, will make sex workers
more vulnerable to arrest is a likely deterrent for condom use, particularly
among street-based sex workers who are often at highest risk for HIV.
When sex work is decriminalized, sex workers are more empowered
to insist on condom use by clients. Sex workers in New Zealand have
reported that Ministry of Health guidelines about the requirement that
clients and sex workers use condoms have helped inform them of their
rights and have proven useful in safer-sex negotiations with clients.19

10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A REFERENCE BRIEF

Decriminalization challenges
stigma and discrimination and
the consequences of having
a criminal record

In many countries, harsh application of criminal law ensures that a large

proportion of sex workers will have criminal records and will be put
in jail or police lock-ups at some time in their lives. Sex workers are
particularly susceptible to physical and sexual abuse in prisons, pretrial
detention facilities, and police lock-ups, with dire health and human rights
consequences.20 In addition, being a former prisoner with a criminal
record is a deeply stigmatized condition; the intersection of this stigma
and the stigma already associated with sex work is a heavy burden. In
some parts of the United States, for example, people convicted of sex
work-related crimes are registered as sex offenders and must carry
documents identifying them as such. They are then ineligible for public
housing and other social services and are greatly impeded from finding
non-sex work employment.21

Decriminalization does
not result in an increase in the
population of sex workers

There is no evidence to support the claim made by some that removing

criminal prohibitions on sex work will result in an expansion of the sex
industry.22 In New Zealand, a study estimating the number of sex workers
in five locations throughout the country before and after decriminalization
demonstrated that the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 had little impact
on the number of people working in the sex industry.23

E5

20 
Shannon K and Csete J. Violence,
condom negotiation and HIV/STI
risk among sex workers. Journal of
the American Medical Association
304(5):573-74.
21 
Best Practices Policy Project. Report
on the United States of America
submitted to the UN Human Rights
Council for the 9th Universal Periodic
Review, 2010, available at http://
www.bestpracticespolicy.org/
UPRreport20101.html.
22 
Harcourt C, Egger S and Donovan B
(2005). Sex work and the law. Sexual
Health 2:121-128.
23 
Abel et al, op.cit.

E6

24 
United States Department of State,
Trafficking in Persons Report (2010),
available at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/
rls/tiprpt/2010/index.htm.
25 
UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and
Sex Work (2009), at p 12, available
at http://data.unaids.org/pub/
BaseDocument/2009/jc1696_guidance_
note_hiv_and_sexwork_en.pdf.
26 
Transgender people are rarely protected
by law from discrimination based on
gender identity, and discrimination in
employment may be one factor that
leads them to engage in sex work. See,
e.g., K Slamah, S Winter and K Ordek.
Stigma and violence against transgender
sex workers. RH Reality Check, 16
Dec. 2010. Available at http://www.
rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/12/16/
stigma-exclusion-violence-against-transworkers.

10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A REFERENCE BRIEF

DECRIMINALIZATION
FACILITATES EFFECTIVE RESPONSES
TO TRAFFICKING

Concerns that decriminalization will promote sex trafficking are

founded on a mistaken conflation of sex work and trafficking. In fact,
jurisdictions that decriminalize sex work can retain and even strengthen
criminal prohibitions on trafficking, sexual coercion, and the prostitution
of minors. Decriminalizing sex work does not cause an increase in
trafficking. For example, New Zealand, which decriminalized sex work
in 2003, continues to be ranked in Tier 1 by the United States State
Departments Trafficking in Persons reportthat is, the country is
judged to be among those doing the most effective work on human
trafficking.24 Laws and policies that encourage or enable collectivization
of sex workers may also facilitate enforcement of anti-trafficking
laws. When not themselves under the threat of criminal penalties, sex
workers and their organizations can work with law enforcement to
combat trafficking. The UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work
highlights sex worker organizations as best positioned to refer women
and children who are victims of trafficking to appropriate services.25
Criminalization of sex work can impede the anti-trafficking efforts of sex
worker organizations and make it easier for sex workers to be wrongly
categorized as trafficked persons.

10

Decriminalization
challenges state control
over bodies and sexuality

The different treatment of sex work from other types of work is an

example of governments long history of exerting control over bodies
and sexuality. Decriminalization is an issue of gender equality and sexual
rights. Laws against sex work intrude into private sexual behaviors
and constitute a form of state control over the bodies of women and
transgender women, who make up a large majority of sex workers
worldwide.26 Like state controls over reproductive rights and limits on
abortion, criminal laws prohibiting sex work attempt to legislate morality
without regard for bodily autonomy. Decriminalizing sex work is a step in
the direction of recognizing the right of all people to privacy and freedom
from undue state control over sex and sexual expression.

10 Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work: A REFERENCE BRIEF

Criminal laws contribute to social marginalization not only through the

imposition of legal penalties on sex workers prosecuted for specific acts,
but also through the assignment of criminal status to all sex workers,
regardless of any particular arrest, charge, or prosecution.27 This sweeping
condemnation leads to widespread discrimination, stigma, and ill
treatment in social institutions and services, by health providers, police,
and the general public. Decriminalization removes one source of stigma,
the criminal label that serves to validate mistreatment or social exclusion.

E7

27 
Csete J and Cohen J (2010). Health
benefits of legal services for criminalized
populations: The case of people who
use drugs, sex workers and sexual
and gender minorities. Journal of Law,
Medicine and Ethics, 38: 816-828.

E8

Open Society Foundations

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies
whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Working with local
communities in more than 100 countries, the Open Society Foundations support
justice and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health
and education.
Public Health Program
The Open Society Public Health Program aims to build societies committed
to inclusion, human rights, and justice, in which health-related laws, policies,
and practices are evidence-based and reflect these values. The program works
to advance the health and human rights of marginalized people by building
the capacity of civil society leaders and organizations, and by advocating for
greater accountability and transparency in health policy and practice. The Public
Health Program engages in five core strategies to advance its mission and goals:
grantmaking, capacity building, advocacy, strategic convening, and mobilizing
and leveraging funding. The Public Health Program works in Central and Eastern
Europe, Southern and Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia, and China.
Sexual Health and Rights Project
The Sexual Health and Rights Project, part of the Open Society Public Health
Program, promotes human rights-based approaches to advancing the health of
sex workers and transgender individuals. The project often aims to develop, pilot,
and disseminate information on innovative approaches to improving the health of
sex workers and transgender individuals in order to integrate these approaches
into wide-scale health programs and plans.
www.soros.org

This document provides ten reasons why decriminalizing sex work

is the best policy for promoting health and human rights for sex
workers, their families, and communities. Removing criminal
prosecution of sex work goes hand-in-hand with recognizing sex work
as work and protecting the rights of sex workers through workplace
health and safety standards. Decriminalizing sex work means sex
workers are more likely to live without stigma, social exclusion,
and fear of violence.

SEX WORKER RIGHTS

(Almost) Everything You

Wanted to Know
but Were Afraid to Ask
July 2013

Acknowledgements
Written by Corinne Goldenberg, Sarah Gunther, Anne Lieberman, Jesse Wrenn and Gitta Zomorodi

FRONT COVER Las Golondrinas works to protect and respect sex workers rights through human rights education, sexual and reproductive health trainings, and
advocacy with local authorities in Nicaragua. Photo by Stefanie Rubin.
BACK COVER Sex Workers from Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) in West Bengal march at the Sex Worker Freedom Festival in Kolkata, July 2012. Photo
by Dale Kongmont, Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW).

the questions
1 What is sex work?
2 Why does AJWS fund sex worker rights?
3 Who are sex workers?
4 Why do people do sex work?
5 In places where sex work is illegal, what human rights do sex workers have?
6 Whats the difference between sex work and human trafficking?
7 If sex work and human trafficking are two different things, what are sex worker rights
organizations doing to combat human trafficking?
8 Why not just help sex workers leave the industry, instead of focusing on making it better
inside the industry?
9 Whats wrong with the criminalization of sex work?
10 What does it mean to decriminalize sex work?
11 What is the difference between decriminalization and legalization?
12 Why not just criminalize people who buy sex? Wont that help end sex work?
13 Im a feminist. Why should I condone sex work?
14 Whats the history of sex worker rights organizing?
15 What has AJWS done in support of sex worker rights? What are we doing now?
Appendix:
Dos and Donts
Glossary

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) is the leading Jewish organization working
to promote human rights and end poverty in the developing world. AJWS advances the
rights of women, girls and LGBTI people; promotes recovery from conflict, disasters
and oppression; and defends access to food, land and livelihoods. We pursue lasting
change by supporting grassroots and global human rights organizations in Africa,
Asia and the Americas and by mobilizing our community in the U.S. to advocate for
global justice. Working together, we strive to build a more just and equitable world.

We are sex workers. We are workers who use our brains and our skill to earn an income.
We are proud to support ourselves and our extended families. We look after each other at
work; we fight for safe and fair standards in our industry and equal rights within society.
We are a major part of the Thai economy, bringing in lots of tourist dollars. We are
active citizens on every issuepolitics, economics, environment, laws, rights etc. We try
and find the space in society to stand up and be heard. Some see us as problem makers
but actually we are part of the solution. We are sex workers. AJWS grantee EMPOWER

1. What is sex work?

Although an official definition of sex work does not exist, AJWS refers to sex work as the act of providing sexual
services in exchange for money, goods or favors. This term has replaced the word prostitution, which is marked by
years of social stigma. The term sex work and, in turn, sex worker, better describes the work and the adults engaging
in it. It separates the economic activity from a personal identity and recognizes that sex workers, like all people, have
identities beyond their occupation.

2. Why does AJWS fund sex worker rights?

AJWS believes in the essential dignity of every human being and recognizes that marginalized communities must
take the lead in addressing the challenges they confront if we are to make lasting progress toward social justice.
Through its grantmaking, AJWS supports organizations led by sex workers and their allies that are working to pursue
the full spectrum of rights associated with sexuality, safety, health, control over ones body, and economic justice for
sex workers.
In many of the countries where AJWS works, sex workers face extreme stigma, violence and discriminationwith
severe consequences for their health and human rights. They face multiple barriers to accessing health services and
information, including denial of treatment by health care providers. Because sex work is considered illegitimate and
immoralif not illegalmost sex workers do not experience just or favorable working conditions. Even where sex
work is not illegal, sex workers are criminalized through laws on loitering and public indecency. There is widespread
resistance from health workers, police and government officials to actively promote and protect the rights of sex
workers. Often, sex workers face abuse at the hands of fellow citizens and by authorities responsible for their
protection. Sex workers are often reluctant to report human rights abuses to police; in many cases, when they do report
abuses, they encounter additional harassment and violence and have limited access to legal recourse. For example:

In April of 2012 in a city in Maharashtra, India, a pregnant sex worker named Anu Mokal was beaten so severely
by the police inspector that she suffered a miscarriage. During the beating, the police commissioner allegedly
called women like her a shame.1

In November 2012, AJWS grantee Las Golondrinas received a call to support a sex worker who had been severely
beaten in a bar in Mulukuk, Nicaragua. She had injuries to her head and hand, and would eventually lose three
fingers. When the director of Las Golondrinas, Fany Trrez Rodrguez, arrived at the clinic where the sex worker
was supposedly being treated, she found that the health provider had neglected to treat her for two days. After
the staff had asked her what her profession was, they did not provide her with the same level of treatment as the
other patients and did not even bother to change her blood-soaked sheets and clothes.

In May 2012, police arrested two staff and three members of AJWS grantee Womens Organization Network
for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA), a Ugandan sex worker rights organization that runs a drop-in center

1 Activists protest against police violence. The Hindu. 15 May 2012. Web. 2013.
American Jewish World Service

www.ajws.org

for sex workers that provides information on sexual

and reproductive health. The five peoplethree of
them sex workerswere charged with living on the
earnings of prostitution under Ugandas penal code.
In addition to violating these peoples rights to freely
associate, the polices actions posed real threats to
public health efforts.
In the face of these challenges, grassroots sex worker
rights organizations have emerged around the world
to stake powerful claims for their rights. They are
organizing fellow sex workers into labor unions and
educating them about their health and human rights.
They are providing skills training including financial
literacy and support to diversify their livelihoods.
They are organizing sex workers to lobby health
service providers, police and governments for access
to services and protection; raising awareness about
Sex workers from Asia and Africa march through Sonagachi red light district
the destructive impacts of violent brothel raids and
as part of the Sex Worker Freedom Festival in Kolkata, July 2012. Photo by Dale
other misguided efforts to help sex workers; and
Kongmont, Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW).
pursuing legal strategies to decriminalize sex work.
To strengthen their ability to advance their rights, sex workers organizations are also building alliances with other
human rights movements.
Funding for these organizations, however, is extremely limited. When available, it is most often restricted to specific
projectsmost of them focused on HIV prevention or anti-trafficking measures. While such measures are important
and there have been positive byproducts (over the last decade, funding for HIV and AIDS has played a significant
role in supporting sex workers to organize and has raised the visibility of sex worker rights), these initiatives are not
comprehensive enough to address the full spectrum of issues sex workers face. The overwhelming emphasis on HIV
and AIDS prevention has meant that other important issues that sex workers face have been overlooked. Few donors
provide long-term funding to sex worker rights organizations, and even within the human rights funding community,
there is not a strong base of support for sex worker rights. Many funders are not aware of the human rights approach
to sex work or if they are aware, they fear taking on the controversial issues surrounding it.
These funding challenges were further exacerbated by the U.S. governments anti-prostitution pledge, which
severely limited funding for sex worker rights groups.2 According to the pledgewhich was struck down by the U.S.
Supreme Court in a landmark 6-2 decision on June 20, 2013any group receiving federal anti-AIDS or anti-trafficking
funds was forced to adopt an organization-wide policy opposing prostitution in order to be eligible for these funds.
There were several problems with the policy, one being that it failed to clearly define what promoting prostitution
constituted. This led to fear among organizations seeking funds for HIV prevention and treatment that they would
not be compliant with the policy if sex workers were included in their programs. As a result, many programs
excluded sex workers3 and many organizations have been unable or unwilling to collaborate with sex worker rights
organizations out of fear that they would lose their funding. In an attempt to overcome this unjust policy, some
organizations publicly refuted it. In 2005, AJWS grantee SANGRAM gained international attention when it refused to
sign the pledge and, instead, returned a grant to USAID. Sex worker activists and allies around the world celebrated
this positive decision by the Supreme Court, but it is important to note that it applies only to U.S. organizations.
2 The anti-prostitution pledge, also known as the anti-prostitution loyalty oath, was first included in the 2003 Global AIDS Act, which authorized U.S.
government funds to combat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria internationally. The pledge prohibited funds from being used to promote or advocate the
legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking and required funding recipients to have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.
These limitations were initially applied only to foreign non-governmental organizations; in 2005, they were expanded to include U.S.-based organizations. H.R.
1298--108th Congress: United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003. 2003. January 2, 2013.
3 See for example: Ditmore, Melissa Hope and Allman, Dan. An analysis of the implementation of PEPFARs anti-prostitution pledge and its implications for
successful HIV prevention among organizations working with sex workers. Journal of the International AIDS Society. 16. (2013). Web. 2 Jan 2013.
American Jewish World Service

www.ajws.org

Local organizations in the developing world are still covered by the anti-prostitution pledge, and further action by the
U.S. government is required to address the barriers it poses to their work.
In this very challenging context, AJWS is among a very small number of donors that provide comprehensive, flexible
funds to grassroots sex worker rights organizations. AJWSs grants provide general support and technical assistance,
support networking among like-minded organizations, promote inclusion of sex workers and other minorities within
mainstream human rights movements, and help sex workers amplify their voices in the international arena.
Advancing a human rights agenda that includes the voices of sex workers requires a long-term investment. Over the
last eight years, we have witnessed our grantees successes as they have worked to build strong organizations and
movements, provide critical services to their communities, change attitudes and behaviors, and fight harmful laws
and policies. Because we believe in the importance of this issue, we prioritize support to organizations promoting the
rights of sex workers in countries across all three regions where AJWS worksin Africa, Asia and the Americas.

3. Who are sex workers?

Sex workers come from diverse backgrounds across the globe, representing a wide range of class, ethnic and racial
identities, and sexual orientations. While the majority of sex workers throughout the world are female, some are men
and trans*4 people. Though many conversations about sex work center around womens vulnerability to sexual and
physical abuse, male and trans* sex workers are also at risk of violence and are often stigmatized because of their
sexual orientation or gender identity. Sex workers also span the range of marital and employment status: some are
partnered or married; some are not. They may work part-time, full-time or just occasionally; from their homes, from
bars or brothels, or on the street.
Data about the number of sex workers in the world is extremely limited for a number of reasons.5 Sex work is illegal in
most countries, and many people who exchange sex for money or goods do not identify themselves as sex workers.
Most surveys focus on female sex workers, leaving out male and trans* sex workers. In addition, methodologies for
calculating the number of sex workers vary widely and surveys are often limited in geographic scope; estimates may
come from outreach through sex workers peer networks (i.e. asking sex workers to count other sex workers), or by
extrapolating from surveillance reports on HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) conducted by national
or international agencies. Such extrapolations may over-represent those working in established settings like bars
or brothels, and underestimate the number of sex workers working independently, part-time, episodically or in less
formal settings. Migrant sex workers may also be overlooked in such surveys because of language barriers or their
fear that participating in a survey will jeopardize their ability to remain in the country where they work.

4. Why do people do sex work?

People enter into sex work for a variety of complex reasons and circumstances. Some sex workers could pursue any
career but choose their job simply because they enjoy doing sex work. Others have extremely limited options and
do sex work in order to survive. As UNAIDS puts it, many people enter into sex work as a result of conditions that,
while deplorable, do not involve direct coercion and/or deceit by another; such conditions include poverty, gender
inequality, indebtedness, low levels of education, lack of employment opportunities, family breakdown and abuse,
dependent drug use, humanitarian emergencies and post conflict situations.6

4 Some global activists use trans* instead of transgender, with the asterisk indicating a placeholder for the diversity of gender identities, many of which are
specific to local cultures. The Global Action for Trans Equality defines trans* as those people who transgress (binary) (western) gender norms, many of whom
face human rights issues as a result This includes, among many others, transsexual and transgender people, transvestites, travesti, cross dressers, no gender and
genderqueer people. As a funder, AJWS uses the word trans*with the acknowledgement that our partners may self-identify in a variety of different ways under
the larger umbrella of trans* identity.
5 Vandepitte, Judith, Rob Lyerla, Gina Dallabetta, Franois Crabb, Michel Alary, and Anne Buv. Estimates of the number of female sex workers in different
regions of the world. Sexually Transmitted Infections. 82 (2006): iii18-iii25. Web. 2 Jan. 2013.
6 UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). March 2009. Web. 13 February 2013.
American Jewish World Service

www.ajws.org

Most people choose sex work because they see it as the best option among a limited range of economic
opportunities. In this regard, sex workers make calculations and weigh choicesjust as all people do who need to
make money to care for themselves and their families. For example, many people choose sex work because it offers
flexible working hours. This is a significant factor for people who want or need to spend time caring for their children.
Sex workers are often self-employed and can choose when, where and how to work. Sex workers can often earn
more money in less time than when engaged in other types of work, such as domestic work or manual labor. Finally,
for some, earning money from sex work feels more empowering and dignified than cleaning someones house or
performing backbreaking physical labor.
The criminalization of sex work denies
sex workers their fundamental rights and
freedoms, including:

Regardless of why people do sex work, they have the right to

self-determination, should be treated with dignity and deserve
equal protection under the law.

5. In places where sex work is illegal, what

human rights do sex workers have?

Sex workers, like all people, are entitled to the human rights
recognized in international legal instruments including the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women. According to the UNAIDS Guidance Note on
HIV and Sex Work (2009), The United Nations system affirms
the universality, inalienability and interdependence of rights, and
promotes and supports their application in practice, including
for sex workers, their clients and otherwise in the context of sex
work, even where sex work is criminalized.7

Despite this, many governments deny sex workers their basic

freedoms, including their rights to non-discrimination and equal
protection under the law.

Freedom from abuse and violence

Freedom from stigma and
discrimination
Freedom of movement
Freedom from arbitrary arrest or
forced rehabilitation
Freedom to access quality health
services
Freedom to safe and healthy
working conditions
Freedom to associate and unionize
Freedom to be protected by
the law
Freedom to work and choose ones
occupation
The rights to privacy, bodily
autonomy and sexual expression

6. Whats the difference between sex work and human trafficking?

Sex work and human trafficking are often conflated. There is, however, a fundamental difference: sex work is a
voluntary and consensual choice within a persons range of economic options, while human trafficking is forced
labor for the purposes of sexual or other exploitation. The conflation of sex work and trafficking is often caused by
paternalistic assumptions that people make about sex workers, including the notion that sex workers are so exploited
by their trade that they cannot be responsible for making their own decisions. AJWS and our partners seek to
reexamine and challenge the assumptions underlying this erroneous conflation of sex work with human trafficking.
Sex work should also be distinguished from child trafficking or prostitution. While adult sex work is a legitimate
form of work, child prostitution is a human rights violation. The Convention on the Rights of the Child declares in its
Optional Protocol regarding the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography that states must prohibit
child prostitution or the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any form of consideration and cover
it under criminal or penal law. 8 Children found in sexually exploitative situations should be removed and provided
access to services to protect their rights.

7 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 5.

8 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. UN General Assembly. May
2000. Web. 2. Jan 2013.
American Jewish World Service

www.ajws.org

Despite this critical distinction, many governments and non-governmental organizations fail to distinguish between
sex work and trafficking, and do not respond appropriately. In countries where sex work is criminalized, police often
carry out raids on adult brothels under the guise of rescuing sex workers from exploitation. And children in sexually
exploitative situations are often arrested when they should be given access to social services.

7. If sex work and human trafficking are two different things, what are sex worker
rights organizations doing to combat human trafficking?

AJWS and our grantees make a very clear distinction between sex work and human trafficking. While they promote
the rights of adults to do sex work, AJWSs partners are against all forms of trafficking. In fact, supporting sex worker
rights is an effective way to combat human trafficking and child prostitution. Many sex worker rights organizations
work proactively against trafficking. In contrast to police or non-governmental organizations that carry out raid
and rescue operations, sex worker-led organizations have the trust of sex workers and their communities and
thus are often able to identify children and adults that are victims of trafficking and refer them to social services.
Decriminalizing sex work would aid the fight against child prostitution because sex workers could safely and
effectively act as allies to police and government agencies.

8. Why not just help people leave sex work instead of focusing on improving
conditions for sex workers?

AJWS and our partners all believe that sex workers can and should make their own decisions about their lives and
livelihoods. Respecting the self-determination of sex workers means putting their needs and priorities at the center
of any interventions to support them, whether they choose to continue doing sex work and want improved working
conditions or choose to pursue other livelihoods. Programs that assume that all people want to leave sex work
undermine the autonomy of sex workers and delegitimize sex work as work. Speaking of sex work as work enables
a focus on improving working conditions and increasing sex workers ability to negotiate the different aspects of
services they offerwhen, where and how they have sex.
Programs aimed at supporting sex workers
to leave sex work are unlikely to be effective
unless they address the complex reasons
why people choose to do sex work, including
offering livelihood opportunities with
equivalent levels of income and flexibility.
Moreover, alternative employment options
do not always offer less exploitative working
conditions. Factory work, for example, isnt
necessarily more empowering, dignified, or
well-paid than sex work.
Thus, none of AJWS partners pressure or
coerce sex workers to leave sex work. Instead,
they aim to equip sex workers with the skills
and abilities to live and work in health and
Illustration from Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) used for the International
dignity. In addition to engaging in human rights Sex Workers Day march on March 3, 2013.
advocacy, many AJWS partners run programs
that aim to expand sex workers economic options through vocational training and financial literacy programs. Such
programs help sex workers who wish to leave sex work develop alternative livelihoods; they also support sex workers
to diversify their livelihoods and increase their ability to negotiate with clients.

American Jewish World Service

www.ajws.org

9. Whats wrong with the criminalization of sex work?

The criminalization of sex work has many negative effects on the health and human rights of sex workers, their
families and communities. Criminalization includes any legal statute that makes consensual adult sex work illegal,
including criminal law as well as administrative statutes. Even in countries that have no criminal laws against sex
work, sex workers are frequently arrested or harassed by law enforcement officials under disorderly conduct or
other public order statutes. Criminalization results in sex workers being deprived of their basic rights as citizens.
When sex work is criminalized:

Sex workers are stigmatized by their societies, which leads to discrimination by members of their
communities and reduced access to health care, legal systems and educational institutions. Sex workers often
have to lie in order to access health care and sometimes delay seeking care because they fear negative attitudes,
discrimination or arrest.

Sex workers and all people are more vulnerable to the spread of HIV and STIs, because criminalization
decreases sex workers ability to negotiate safer sex with clients. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that
condoms are often used as evidence for the crime of prostitution, 9 discouraging sex workers from using them.
This increased risk of HIV and STIs affects not only sex workers and their clients but also sex workers non-paying
partners, the partners of their clients, the partners of those partners, etc.

Sex workers experience high levels of physical and sexual violence from clients as a result of the covert
nature of their work and often lack to the ability to seek justice via law enforcement or the court system. A Kenya
study indicated that 58 percent of sex workers have experienced forced sexual encounters.10

Sex workers face coercion, extortion, harassment, physical and sexual abuse, arbitrary detention and
other due-process violations at the hands of police, who are able to perpetrate these acts with impunity. One
report in Cambodia documented that 72 percent of brothel-based sex workers have been beaten by police and
57 percent have been raped by police.11 Sex workers also report that police often demand unprotected sex in
exchange for not arresting them for doing their work.

Sex workers are vulnerable to other crimes and abuses, such as non-paying clients, robberies and unjust
evictions, because they arent seen as rights-bearing citizens and dont have access to protection by law
enforcement or courts.

The often negative relationship between sex workers and law enforcement makes it challenging to carry
out effective anti-trafficking interventions. When police intervene by carrying out brothel raids, for example,
they arrest all sex workers, not just those being coerced.

Sex workers are denied their rights to privacy, freedom, bodily autonomy and sexual expression. The
criminalization of sex work and the differentiation of sex work from other work is one of many ways that
governments seek to control peoples bodies and sexualities. In this way, criminalization of sex work is a denial of
the sexual rights of all people.

10. What does it mean to decriminalize sex work?

Decriminalization means the removal of all criminal prohibitions against sex work. When its decriminalized, sex
work is governed by the same laws that affect all employment and protect all workers, including provisions for
health and safety. For example, sex workers are able to work as independent contractors or as employees. They
are able to unionize, participate in developing regulations for their industry, and can expect protection from the
police. Brothel operators and management are expected to comply with existing employment and health and
safety legislation. With a decriminalization model, sex workers are more empowered to make decisions about their
bodies and the way they work.
9 Shields, Acacia. Criminalizing Condoms: How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United
States, and Zimbabwe. Open Society Foundations, July 2012. Web. 2 Jan. 2013.
10 Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya. Documenting Human Rights Violations of Sex Workers in Kenya: A Report Based on Findings of a Study Conducted in
Nairobi, Kisumu, Busia, Nanyuki, Mombasa and Malindi Towns in Kenya. FIDA Kenya, 2008. Web. 2 Jan. 2013.
11 Jenkins, Carol. Violence and Exposure to HIV Among Sex Workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
March 2006. Web. 2 Jan. 2013.
American Jewish World Service

www.ajws.org

Decriminalizing sex work is an important demand

of many of AJWSs grantees. It is also a policy
recommendation of UNAIDS,12 the UN Development
Programme (UNDP),13 the UN Population Fund
(UNFPA) and the Global Commission on HIV and
the Law.14 In its 2012 Guidance Note on HIV and Sex
Work, UNAIDS stated that States should move away
from criminalizing sex work or activities associated
with it. Decriminalisation of sex work should include
removing criminal laws and penalties for purchase and
sale of sex, management of sex workers and brothels,
and other activities related to sex work. To the degree
that states retain non-criminal administrative law
or regulations concerning sex work, these should be
applied in ways that do not violate sex workers rights
or dignity and that ensure their enjoyment of due
process of law.
When sex work is decriminalized:

A man in Uganda receives condoms to distribute, courtesy of Crested Crane

Lighters. Photo by Evan Abramson.

Sex workers can realize their fundamental right to work and be treated with respect and dignity.

Sex workers have increased ability to negotiate safer sex and engage in condom use, reducing risks of HIV and
STI transmission and promoting public health.

Sex workers have increased access to public health services and can more easily organize health services for
themselves.

Sex workers have increased access to financial services and opportunities for earning livelihoods.

Sex workers can report crimes against them without fear of extortion, abuse, violence by police or negative
repercussions for their livelihoods.

Sex workers can more easily organize for their rights to safe working conditions and can access protection for
occupational health and safety.15

Sex workers will not face the stigma, discrimination and consequences of having a criminal record.

Sex workers and law enforcement officers can work collaboratively to combat human trafficking, as sex workers
will not fear arbitrary arrest at the hands of the police or repercussions by the judiciary system.

Sex workers come one step closer to realizing their rights to privacy, freedom, bodily autonomy and sexual
expression.

Decriminalization is necessary in order to fully realize the rights of sex workers, their families and communities, but
its important to note that its not sufficient in and of itself. In New Zealand, where sex work was decriminalized in
2003, evaluations reveal significant gains but some remaining challenges. Sex workers have indeed realized their
rights to organize, challenge employers labor practices, report crimes to the police and access government services;
they are more empowered and more likely to negotiate safer sex and better working conditions. Yet, the evaluations
also noted that sex workers still face some level of violence, discrimination, and stigma and that many still harbor
some distrust of authorities. These findings indicate a need to accompany decriminalization with a variety of longerterm interventions, including but not limited to: human rights education for both sex workers and government
12 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 6.
13 New UN report takes a stark look at links between sex work, HIV and the law in Asia and the Pacific. United Nations Development Programme. 18 October
2012. Web. 2 Jan, 2013.
14 Levine, Judith. Global Commission on HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health. United Nations Development Programme. July 2012. Web. 2 Jan. 2013
15 Decriminalization in New Zealand, for instance, enabled the creation of occupational health guidelines that sex workers have used to demand their rights with
employers and clients.
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officials, campaigns to change public attitudes and

discriminatory laws, and the provision of inclusive
and respectful public health services.16

11. What is the difference between

decriminalization and legalization?
Most sex worker rights movements advocate
for decriminalization, rather than legalization.
Legalization means that the government has
special regulations for the sex industry and can
declare some kinds of sex work to be illegal and
other kinds to be legal under strict conditions. In
some countries, this has resulted in increased state
control over the bodies and choices of sex workers.
Decriminalization, on the other hand, is the removal
of all criminal prohibitions on consensual adult
sex work, the treatment of sex work as work, and
the governing of sex work by the laws that affect
employment and labor.

Delegates from EMPOWER Thailand march through Sonagachi red light district
as part of the Sex Worker Freedom Festival in Kolkata, July 2012. Photo credit:
Dale Kongmont, Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW).

12. Why not just criminalize people who buy sex? Wont that help end sex work?

One well-meaning but misguided approach to helping sex workers is to end demand. This school of thought is
sometimes referred to as the Swedish model because Sweden was one of the first countries to implement it as a
national policy. This model advocates for the criminalization of buying sex, rather than the criminalization of selling
sex. In other words, clients would be subject to criminal penalty while sex workers would not. However, there is little
evidence that ending demand for sex work is effective. Rather than ending demand, this model has been proven to
export demand, pushing sex workers underground or across country borders. Evidence shows that efforts to reduce
demand by criminalizing the buying of sex results in more dangerous working conditions for sex workers.17 18
Pushing sex work underground has many implications for the safety, security and sexual health of sex workers
and their clients. When demand is criminalized, clients are less comfortable sharing their personal information.
Consequently, sex workers find it more difficult to verify client identity, which is a key element of safety and security
on the job.19 Research also shows that when sex work is driven underground, sex workers are more likely to accept
violent or dangerous clients. Sex workers and clients have fewer incentives to engage in safer sex practices like
condom use, as condoms are often used as evidence by police. Sex workers also face increased police harassment.
Sex workers and clients alike are less willing to report violent clients or employers to the police, especially if they are
undocumented workers. This creates an enabling environment for violence against sex workers to persist.20
While well-intentioned, the end demand model fails to protect the rights of sex workers. It invalidates sex work as
16 Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform Act. New Zealand Ministry of Justice. 2003. Web. January 15,
2013.
17 A report by the Swedish Ministry of Justice and the Police in 2004, five years after Sweden introduced a law that criminalizes clients who purchase sexual
services, indicated the following negative consequences for sex workers: fewer clients, a larger proportion of whom are dangerous; less time to assess clients;
decreased prices for sexual services; more clients willing to pay for unprotected sex; and sex workers feeling an increased risk of encountering violence while
working. The most vulnerable women, including sex workers who work on the street, have psychiatric problems, are homeless or are immigrants were most
affected by these effects. Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. Decriminalizing sex work(ers): law reform to protect health and human rights. Canadian HIV/AIDS
Legal Network, . Web. 2 July 2013.
18 Thomas, Nikki. 5 Reasons Criminalizing Sex Worker Clients Doesnt Work. Web. 2 July 2013.
19 Thomas, Nikki. 5 Reasons Criminalizing Sex Worker Clients Doesnt Work. Available online at: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/nikki-thomas/criminalizing-clientsdoesnt-work_b_3432643.html
20 Kulick, Don. Talk delivered at Beijing Plus Ten meetings on the Swedish model. Web. 2 July 2013.
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work, and it exacerbates rather than addresses the violence and health risks that sex workers face in the workplace. It
characterizes all sex workers and victims and doesnt recognize the ability of adult sex workers to make choices about
their bodies and their work.

13. Im a feminist. Why should I condone sex work?

Within feminist movements and feminist theory, there are a wide variety of views toward sex work. Some feminists
do not condone sex work, believing that sex work is inherently exploitative and promotes violence against women.
They argue that sex work exists within the framework of unequal power relations between men and women and,
therefore, serves only to oppress women. This model often conflates sex work and trafficking (see question 5). Many
feminists who support this perspective advocate for stricter laws against sex work and, whether they intend to or
not, promote a perspective that all sex workers are victims in need of rescue. They see the existence of sex work as
undermining the respectability of all women.
Yet other feminists reject the notion that sex work is inherently oppressive to women. They recognize the
complexities of how people secure their livelihoods and see sex work as one of the options that people employ. They
claim that women are able to exercise power within transactions with clients, and at the same time, they recognize
that unequal power relations are embedded in sex work. Accordingly, they support sex workers efforts to increase
their power individually (e.g. negotiating higher prices or safer sex) and collectively (e.g. organizing to form a union).
These feminists point out that, in many parts of the world, sex work is a viable and sometimes preferable option
for women with limited access to employment and education. They fight for sex workers and all womens rights to
employment that includes regular pay and working hours, equal pay for equal work, safe work environments, freedom
to organize, access to child care, and freedom from sexual harassment, discrimination and violence in the workplace.
Some feminists also point to the stigma around sex work as an example of societies unwillingness to recognize
womens sexual and reproductive rights, including the right to choose ones sexual partners, to choose whether to
have sex at all, and to enjoy sexuality and pleasure. Similar to their positions against bans on interracial or same-sex
marriage, these feminists believe that the state should not interfere with consensual sex between adults. Further,
many involved in sex work argue that the image of sex worker as helpless victim serves only to enhance stigma,
ignores the realities that sex workers face, and is ultimately disempowering.
Regardless of ones opinion on the intersection of gender, power and oppression in sex work, AJWS firmly believes
that fighting for the human rights of sex workers is an inherently feminist thing to do. Supporting the rights of
sex workersthe vast majority of whom are women or trans*means advocating for sex workers freedom from
violence and police brutality. It means supporting womens access to health care and safe working conditions. It
means recognizing sex workers voices and supporting everyones right to a safe, healthy and dignified life. Feminism
demands the equal rights of women and an end to sexist oppression. Supporting the rights of sex workers is a natural
extension of that value.

14. whats the history of sex worker rights organizing?

Sex worker organizing has a long and vibrant history. Although most of what has been researched and written about
it chronicles the sex worker rights movement in North America and Europe, the movement blossomed around the
world in the latter part of the 20th century and continues to grow exponentially today. While AJWS is a relatively
recent supporter of the sex worker rights movement (we began funding sex worker-led organizations in 2005), we are
still among a very small number of donors.
Here is a brief timeline of the movement and AJWSs role in supporting sex worker rights organizing:

The inception of sex worker organizing in the United States and Europe began in the 1970s, and sex workers
began to organize and mobilize globally in the early 1980s. According to Netherlands-based funder Mama
Cash, thats when German, Italian, Canadian, Australian, Austrian, Ecuadorian, Thai and Swedish sex workers
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began to form their own networks. During the 80s, EMPOWER (Education Means Protection of Women Engaged
in Recreation), an AJWS grantee based in Thailand, began to advocate for the legalization of sex work.21 (AJWS has
funded EMPOWER since 2005.)

In 1985, the First World Whores Congress was held in Amsterdam, which convened leadership from
sex workers movements from around the world. Delegates to the congress established the International
Committee for Prostitutes Rights (ICPR) and wrote the World Charter for Prostitutes Rights, a declaration
delineating the basic human rights of sex workers including speech, travel, immigration, work, marriage and
motherhood, as well as issues relating to public opinion, movement building, access to services and working
conditions for sex workers.22 This was a definitive moment in the international sex worker rights movement, as
the charter linked strategies for change to the greater human rights movement.23

In 1986, more sex workers continued to organize, developing trade organizations and networks,
particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Sex worker organizations were formed in Uruguay, Ecuador,
Chile, Argentina, Peru and the Dominican Republic. That same year, the ICPR held the Second World Whores
Congress. 24 The momentum from the 1980s opened the space for the sex worker rights movement to expand and
grow in decades to come.

In the 1990s, sex work became linked to the spread of HIV and AIDS and, as a result, labeled a public health
issue. Although it is problematic to view sex workers simply through this lens, the institution of international
AIDS conferences during this time created new opportunities for organizing and opened the doors for more
funding for sex worker organizations. 25

National sex workers rights movements across the developing world were also gaining momentum in the
90s. In 1990, the organization Flor de Piedra (which in 2006 would become the first sex worker-led grantee to

21 Out From Under: Sexworkers United for Rights and Respect. Mama Cash. Web. 10 September 2012.
22 World Charter for Prostitutes Rights. Walnet. 1985. Web. 10 September 2012.
23 Saunders, Penelope. Fifteen Years after the World Charter for Prostitutes Rights. Carnegie Council. August 2000. Web. 12 September 2012; Pheterson, Gail
and St. James, Margo. $ex Workers Make History: 1985 & 1986The World Whores Congress. Walnet. Web. 14 September 2012.
24 Out From Under: Sexworkers United for Rights and Respect. Mama Cash. Web. 10 September 2012.
25 Kempadoo, Kamala. Globalizing Sex Workers Rights. Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 22.3,4 (2003): 143-150.

Staff from Crested Crane Lighters give away free condoms during sex worker outreach in the slums of Kampala, Uganda. Photo by Evan Abramson.
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be supported by AJWS in the Americas) was founded in El Salvador to defend and promote the human rights
of sex workers in San Salvador, where they often confront gender-based violence and police brutality. National
organizations were also emerging in the region at this time in Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and
Suriname. In 1994, the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) (which AJWS began funding in 2005)
was founded as a federation of organizations in the Asia and Pacific region working to reduce sex workers
vulnerability to human rights abuses, HIV and social marginalization. In 1996, Movimiento de Mujeres Unidas
(MODEMU) (supported by AJWS since 2011) began organizing in the Dominican Republic and Haiti to promote
the human rights of sex workers through advocacy and health education. The first sex worker group in Nicaragua
was formed a year later, opening the door for future Nicaraguan groups like AJWS grantee Las Golondrinas
(founded in 2004 and supported by AJWS since 2011).

2008 was a turning point for the emerging sex worker rights movements in East Africa and Southern Africa.
In East Africa, feminist organization Akina Mama wa Afrika held the first regional convening of sex worker rights
activists in Kenya. Organized as a human rights training, the forum created space for sex workers from Uganda,
Kenya and Tanzania to build solidarity and strategize collectively about their rights agendas. In Southern Africa,
Open Society Foundations and Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), a pioneering NGO that
defends the rights of sex workers in South Africa, carried out participatory research entitled Rights not Rescue
in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The research process supported emerging sex worker rights activists to
raise their voices and clarify their demands.

In 2009, AJWS began supporting the first sex worker rights organization to emerge in Uganda. Since then,
the Ugandan movement has grown significantly. Today, AJWS funds a diverse cross-section of the movement,
including groups led by female sex workers, transgender sex workers and refugee sex workers. AJWSs partner
UHAI: The East Africa Sexual Health and Rights Initiative (UHAI-EASHRI) is a local activist-led fund that
provides critical support to the sex worker rights movement in the region.

In July 2012, over 1,000 sex workers from 42 countriesmany of them AJWS granteescame together
in Kolkata, India, for a Sex Workers Freedom Festival, which was organized as an alternative to the
International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Washington, D.C., from which most sex workers were excluded. Sex
workers were prevented from attending the conference in Washington due to a discriminatory U.S. immigration
law that prohibits anyone who has engaged in prostitution within 10 years from entering the country,26 and
the festival served as a powerful protest. In addition to supporting AJWS grantees participation in the festival,
AJWS signed on to an amicus brief drafted by U.S.-based sex workers and their allies calling for a change in U.S.
policies related to sex workers, including the repeal of the anti-prostitution pledge that organizations must sign
to receive U.S. funding for AIDS or trafficking work.

On April 20, 2012 the Red Umbrella Fund (RUF) launched as the first-ever international grantmaking
collective directed by and for sex workers. The establishment of this fund represented a significant
accomplishment for the movement and arguably represents increasing cross-regional collaboration within the
international sex worker rights movement. Formed in response to the dearth of funding for sex worker rights,
RUF is a project of the Collaboration to Advance the Human Rights of Sex Workers, a group of donors and sex
workers who have been in dialogue since 2008. AJWS has participated in the Collaboration to Advance the
Human Rights of Sex Workers since its inception and has been a member of the steering committee since 2011.
The Collaboration is committed to the principle of nothing about us, without us and, as such, the Red Umbrella
Fund places sex workers at the heart of the design, implementation and evaluation of programs. The funds
decision-making bodies are composed of a team of sex worker activists representing regional organizations,
networks and movements, and donors. Many of AJWSs grantees participated in the establishment of the Red
Umbrella Fund and will continue to be key leaders as the fund distributes grants globally.

26 Immigration and Nationality Act. Act 212 General classes of aliens ineligible to receive visas and ineligible for admission; waivers of inadmissibility. Web. 2 Jan.
2013.
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14. What has AJWS done in support of sex worker rights? What are we doing now?

Since 2005, AJWS has made grants and sent volunteers to organizations promoting the human rights of sex workers.
We provided our first grant to a sex worker-led organization in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
to support emergency assistance and relief to sex workers and their families. Since then, we have provided over $2
million to 23 sex worker-led organizations and about $1.5 million to allied organizations to promote the rights of sex
workers in Asia, Africa and the Americas.
AJWS continues to be one of a few donors to provide long-term, general support funding to sex worker rights
organizations. Our flexible funding allows groups to develop long-term strategies, respond quickly to opportunities
and emergencies and build sustainable organizations. We also fund capacity-building activities for nascent sex worker
groups by providing support for leadership and organizational
development. With AJWS funding, grantees build alliances
with peers, opinion leaders and mainstream human rights
Through our grantmaking, advocacy
organizations to increase participation of sex workers in
and communications efforts, AJWS
decision-making and promote the inclusion of sex workers
promotes the positions on sex work
sexual and reproductive health and rights in public agendas.
developed by the Red Umbrella Fund:
Our grantees spearhead documentation, awareness-raising and
advocacy initiatives at the local, national and international level
We recognize sex work as work;
to prevent violence, discrimination and stigmatization against
We speak out against
sex workers.
criminalization and other legal
oppressions of sex workers;
AJWS collaborates with and advocates among peer donors
We provide a nuanced critique of
in support of sex worker rights. In 2008, we joined the
the anti-trafficking paradigm;
Collaboration to Advance the Human Rights of Sex Workers.
We advocate for universal access
This group has been responsible for developing the Red
to health services;
Umbrella Fund, the first-ever international grantmaking
collective directed by and for sex workers.
We speak out about violence
against sex workers, especially
We undertake advocacy domestically to promote U.S. policies
from state officers;
that uphold the rights of sex workers internationally. For
We oppose human rights abuses:
example, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the
coercive programming, mandatory
anti-prostitution pledge was filed in 2005 and is ongoing. In
testing and forced rehabilitation;
2006, AJWSalong with other leading humanitarian, public
We challenge stigma and
health, and human rights organizationssigned an amicus
discrimination against sex workers,
brief highlighting how the pledge was impeding NGO efforts to
their partners, their families, and
combat HIV and AIDS. In 2009, AJWS and other U.S.-based allies
others involved in sex work; and
submitted comments on the case criticizing the regulation as a
We advocate for economic
complicated funding barrier that many NGOs in the developing
empowerment
world could not or feared to navigate.27 In 2013, the U.S. Supreme
and social
Court heard oral statements on the case, after lower courts had
inclusion of sex
already rejected the constitutionality of the anti-prostitution
workers as sex
pledge.
workers.
In coming years, AJWS will continue to promote the rights of sex
workers through our international grantmaking and domestic
advocacy. As a result of the work of our partners, we hope that the laws, policies and government programs that
affect sex workers lives will increasingly recognize their human rights. We hope and expect that sex workers will
have improved access to health services and experience less violence. Through our capacity building and networking
support, we aim to bolster our partners efforts to build strong, vibrant networks, coalitions and movements led by
sex workers that collaborate and partner with mainstream human rights movements.
27 AMICUS BRIEF ON BEHALF OF AIDS ACTION AND 25 OTHER PUBLIC HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS AND PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS IN SUPPORT OF
PLAINTIFFS-APPELLEES.2009. Web. January 10, 2013.
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Dos and Donts

Do say sex worker. Dont say prostitute. The word prostitute is rife with negative connotations. Make the shift
to language that recognizes sex work as work. To say sex worker is to clearly place sex work within a greater
framework of labor rights and human rights.
Do always distinguish between adult sex workers and children who are being sexually exploited. Consensual
sex between adults should never be conflated with sexual exploitation of children who are forced to work in the sex
industry.
Dont refer to all sex workers as women. Sex workers are a diverse population and identify as such. Sex workers can
be women, men, trans* or intersex.
Dont call sex workers victims. Using the word victim suggests that sex workers have no agency. It is important to
acknowledge the complexity of the sex industry and sex work; sex workers have a range of reasons for doing sex work.
Dont assume all sex workers are HIV positive. While sex workers are one of the most at-risk populations for HIV,
they should never be referred to or treated as so-called disease vectors. It is imperative that sex workers voices be
includedand listened toin any local or global discussion about HIV vulnerability and transmission. They are toooften excluded from the conversation, and their input is critical in ending the pandemic.
Dont assume sex workers have pimps. As AJWS grantee EMPOWER so succinctly says, When we work
independently we do not need pimps but friends and co-workers.28
Do say client; dont say John. John was used in certain countries during the Vietnam War (Thailand, for example)
as a reference to American soldiers shortly after the release of the song, A Dear John Letter. Many sex workers
prefer to use the term client or customer instead of the more dated John.29
Dont assume that sex workers are bad parents. The flexibility of sex work can make it possible for parents to
provide for their children and be present in their lives in a way that people working in other occupations in the
developing world cannot.

Glossary
Bodily autonomy: The idea that people have the right to control their bodies as they choose.
Child prostitution: The use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of payment.30
Criminalization: Criminalization includes any legal statute that makes consensual adult sex work illegal, including
both criminal law and administrative statutes. Even in countries that have no criminal law against sex work, sex
workers are frequently arrested or harassed by law enforcement officials under disorderly conduct or other public
order statutes.
Decriminalization: Decriminalization is the removal of all criminal prohibitions on consensual adult sex work, the
treatment of sex work as work, and the governing of sex work by the laws that affect employment and labor.
Gender identity: A persons internal, deeply felt sense of being male, female, or something other than male
or female.

28 Empower. Bad Girls Dictionary. Nothaburi: Thailand, 2007. Print.

29 Empower, 41.
30 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. UN General Assembly.
May 2000. Web. 2. Jan 2013.
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Legalization: Legalization of sex work means that the government has special regulations for the sex industry and often
declares some kinds of sex work to be illegal and other kinds to be legal under strict conditions. In some countries, this has
resulted in increased state control over the bodies and choices of sex workers.
Most-at-risk populations (MARPs): People who have a higher-than-average risk of acquiring or transmitting STIs because
of particular practices or behaviors, including but not limited to: unprotected sex, having multiple sexual partners or
sharing needles for drug injection. Depending on the social, political and cultural context, MARPs can include the following
populations and their partners: sex workers and their clients; intravenous drug users; men who have sex with men; and
mobile populations such as military personnel and long-distance truckers.
Raid, rescue and rehabilitation: Raid, rescue and rehabilitation operations are a key aspect of many government and
NGO anti-trafficking programs. This method is a process by which brothels are raided, usually by the police, and occupants
are removed by force and then placed in rehabilitation facilities. The raid and rescue is the initial stage of this process and
is often violent for those accused of being traffickers and sex workers alike. These tactics often violate due process rights
and, in some cases, detain people for periods of days, weeks or months with no recourse to leave or seek legal assistance.
In the next phase, sex workers are taken to centers for rehabilitation and are eventually released. Raid, rescue and
rehabilitation programs have come under scrutiny by public health and sex worker groups concerned for the health and
safety of the individuals removed from brothels. In many countries, rescue raids conducted by police officers exposed sex
workers to violence and otherwise threatened their safety.31 Raid and rescue also significantly increases risk of deportation
for undocumented sex workers.
Sexual orientation: An individuals romantic or sexual attraction, whether to individuals of a different sex (heterosexual),
same sex (homosexual),both sexes (bisexual), to individuals who do not identify as one of the binary genders of male and
female (queer), or to no one (asexual).
Sexual rights: Based on evolving international human rights standards, sexual rights encompass the rights of all people
to autonomy in the exercise of sexuality and reproductive health without fear of persecution, discrimination, violence or
social or state interference. Sexual rights include, but are not limited to: the right to bodily integrity and freedom from
all forms of discrimination, coercion, ill treatment or torture; the right to comprehensive sexuality education; the right to
choose ones sexual partner; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (including access to
sexual and reproductive health care services); and the right to pursue a satisfying, safe and pleasurable sexual life.
Human trafficking: The illegal trade of people for the purposes of forced labor, including commercial sexual exploitation.
Transgender/trans*: Transgender is an umbrella term used for people whose gender identity or expression differs from
the gender assigned to them at birth. Transgender people may or may not choose to alter their bodies hormonally or
surgically. Transgender is not about sexual orientation; transgender people may identify as heterosexual, lesbian, gay,
bisexual, queer or other.
Some global activists use trans* instead of transgender, with the asterisk donating a placeholder for the diversity of
gender identities, many of which are specific to local cultures. The Global Action for Trans Equality defines trans* as those
people who transgress (binary) (western) gender norms, many of whom face human rights issues as a result This includes,
among many others, transsexual and transgender people, transvestites, travesti, cross dressers, no gender and genderqueer
people.

31 Violence against sex workers and HIV prevention. The World Health Organization and Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. 2005. Web. January 5, 2013.
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NOTES

American Jewish World Service

45 West 36th Street
New York, NY 10018
t: 2 12.792.2900
800.889.7146
f: 212.792.2930
ajws.org ajws@ajws.org
facebook.com/americanjewishworldservice
twitter.com/ajws

Inspired by the Jewish commitment to justice,

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) works
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Amnesty International members only

32nd International Council Meeting

Circular No. 18
2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work
AI Index: ORG 50/1940/2015
To: Sections and structures
From: International Board
Date: 7 July 2015

Amnesty International
International Secretariat
Peter Benenson House
1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW

SUMMARY
This document contains a resolution on a draft policy on respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of sex
workers for consideration at the ICM. The document also provides a draft policy and a summary of related Amnesty
International research on this issue. The draft policy has been informed by the findings of a two year consultation and
compiled based on the discussions and input of an internal working group on the issue. The research summary details
the headline findings of four research projects requested by the CA/DF 2014 and conducted by the IS (with support
from relevant Sections). This document is proposed to inform discussion and debate during the International Council
Meeting 2015 of a potential policy on respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of sex workers.
DISTRIBUTION
This is an internal organizational circular which is being sent to all sections and structures. All ICM related documents
are available on the ICM wiki site: https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015
A dedicated wiki site has been set up as a repository for essential documentation and the full research reports
summarised in this documentation: https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/ILPD/Sex+Work+Policy
RECOMMENDED ACTIONS
Please circulate this document to all people in your section/structure who are involved in ICM preparations and provide
access for them to the dedicated wiki space detailed above.

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

LIST OF 2015 ICM CIRCULARS

No. *

N/A

10

11

12

13

14

15

Index number &

circulation date Title
Required reading
ORG 50 002
2014
(October 2014)

Welcome letter and call for facilitators

ORG 50 003
2014
(October 2014)

Call for people: Internationally elected positions

ORG 50 006
2014
(November
2014)
ORG
50/1061/2015
(March 2015)

N/A

4
https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015

Preparing for key conversations and ICM 2015

Standing Orders

1
https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015

Topics for key conversations

https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015
An integrated approach to the 2015 ICM

ORG
30/1079/2015
(March 2015)

GTP Interim assessment

ORG
50/1620/2015
(May 2015)

Update on implementation of 2013 ICM outcomes

ORG
50/1724/2015
(5 June 2015)

ICM draft agenda

ORG
50/1622/2015
(5 June 2015)

Section & structure ICM voting entitlements

ORG
50/1728/2015
(5 June 2015)

Fundraising discussion

ORG
50/1726/2015
(5 June 2015)

Governance Reform (revised version)

ORG
50/1727/2015
(5 June 2015)

Distribution model

ORG 50 1621
2015
(12 June 2015)

Second batch of key topics for conversation

(including preliminary budget costings)

ORG
50/1939/2015
(24 June 2015)

2015 ICM Strategic Goals circular

1) Cover letter
2) The revised Strategic Goals resolution
3) Taking injustice personally: Amnesty
Internationals Strategic Goals (2016-2019):
version 3
4) Summary draft Theories of Change

(7 July 2015)

Agenda
session

https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015

ORG
50/1103/2015
(March 2015)

ORG
50 1980 2015

AI intranet space for additional information

https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015

https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/TMT/GTP+Interim+Assessment

Full ICM
agenda
Full ICM
agenda
11, 12,
14, 17
3, 4, 22

https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015
Full ICM
agenda
https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015
4, 26, 27
https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015
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Full ICM
agenda

Full ICM
agenda

https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015

Second version ICM Agenda and how to prepare for

the ICM

Full ICM
agenda
https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/ICM%202015

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2015
(7 July 2015)

State of the movement report

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(7 July 2015)

Organizing AI nationally supplementary paper

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18

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2015 ICM Sex Work policy circular:

1) Draft policy
2) Amended resolution
3) An initial draft research summary

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2015
(7 July 2015)

International Board and International Treasurer's

report

20

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ORG 50 1992
2015

(7 July 2015)
(13 July 2015)

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Secretary General's report to the ICM

3, 22
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Nominations to internationally elected positions

and INC Report (Please make sure that your
delegation meets to review the information on
candidates for election to our international
committees.)

Background reading
POL
50/021/201
Organizing AI nationally for greater human rights
4
impact
(November
2014)
ORG
41/1076/20
15
Performance Assessment
(March
2015)
ORG
41/1096/20
15
Governance Reform vision paper
(March
2015)

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https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/download/attachments/77404379/
Performance+Measurement+and+Development+Framework+for+AI+Enti
ties_EN.pdf?
version=1&modificationDate=1425049662000

https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/GHPP/Governance+Reform+C
onsultation

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ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

CONTENTS PAGE
International Board resolution: Policy calling for the decriminalisation of sex work . page 4
Draft policy on state obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of sex workers. page 6
Summary of Amnesty International Research Findings. page 12

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

Resolution 2.3. International Board - Policy calling for the decriminalisation of sex work
The International Council
REQUESTS the International Board to adopt a policy that seeks attainment of the highest possible protection of the human rights of sex
workers, through measures that include the decriminalisation of sex work, taking into account:
1. The starting point of preventing and redressing human rights violations against sex workers, and in particular the need for
states to not only review and repeal laws that make those who sell sex vulnerable to human rights violations, but also refrain
from enacting such laws.
2. The harm reduction principle.
3. That states can impose legitimate regulations on sex work, provided that such regulations comply with international human
rights law, in particular in that they must be for a legitimate purpose, provided by law, necessary for and proportionate to the
legitimate aim sought to be achieved, and not discriminatory.
4. The principle of gender equality and non-discrimination
5. Amnesty Internationals longstanding position that trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation should be criminalised
as a matter of international law; and, further that any child involved in a commercial sex act is a victim of sexual exploitation,
entitled to support, reparations, and remedies, in line with international human rights law, and that states must take all
appropriate measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse of children.
6. Evidence that some individuals who engage in sex work do so due to marginalisation and limited choices, and that therefore
Amnesty International should urge states to take appropriate measures to realize the economic, social and cultural rights of
all people so that no person enters sex work against their will, and those who decide to undertake sex work should be able to
leave if and when they choose.
7. The obligation of states to protect every individual in their jurisdiction from discriminatory policies, laws and practices, given
that the status and experience of being discriminated against are themselves often key factors in what leads people into sex
work.
8. States have a duty to ensure that sex workers from groups at risk of discrimination and marginalisation enjoy full and equal
protection under relevant international instruments, including for example, those pertaining to the rights of Indigenous
Peoples and ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.
9. The evidence from Amnesty Internationals research on the actual lived experiences, and human rights impact of various
criminal law and regulatory approaches, on the human rights of sex workers.

Explanatory note

The policy should be capable of flexible application across different jurisdictions. The available evidence indicates that the
criminalisation of sex work is more likely than not to reinforce discrimination against those who sell sex, placing them at greater risk of
harassment and violence, including ill-treatment at the hands of police. This, in turn, interferes with and undermines sex workers right
to health and public health interventions, in particular HIV prevention, and serves as a contributing factor in the denial of access to
justice, police protection and legal due process, as well as the exclusion of sex workers from social protections such as health services,
housing, education, and immigration status.
Amnesty International is increasingly encountering evidence of these violations in our work. Amnesty International recognizes the urgent
need to robustly address abuses against sex workers. In doing so, we acknowledge that the factors underlying sex workers
marginalization are manifold and intricately entwined with global economic inequalities and multiple forms of intersectional
discrimination and oppression. Amnesty International does not ignore these factors and will continue to demand that states and the
international community address these overarching issues through human rights based approaches, and will seek to hold them to
account where they fail to do so. Amnesty International also acknowledges variability in state approaches to the regulation of sex work,
but holds the position that such approaches ought to conform to international human rights law standards.
4

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

The International Board has reflected on the various discussions on this issue and particularly the session at the Chairs Assembly &
Directors Forum (CA/DF) in 2014 and the CA/DF in 2015. Through this resolution, we:

Affirm the broad agreement that has been reached through various consultations, including the 2014 CA/DFs
general agreement about decriminalisation of the seller; and the establishment of a Working Group at the 2015
CA/DF, and its subsequent refinement of positions on issues such as gender, violations perpetrated by third parties,
overbroad criminalisation of operational aspects of sex work, and the overrepresentation of some groups in sex work;
Draw attention to the importance of having the CADF and the ICM consider the range of variables involved in making
policy on this question, including the research outcomes and the complex and varied legal, socio-economic, and
human rights questions implicated in sex work, but also that given the multiple inputs to be weighed and
balanced the International Board, guided by consultation feedback received to date, the inputs of the Working
Group, and those at the CA/DF 2014 and 2015 meetings, as well as the ICM, is tasked to carefully draw together
these discussions and to finalise the text of a policy under the nine specific parameters indicated in this resolution.

ENDS

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

DRAFT POLICY ON STATE OBLIGATIONS TO RESPECT, PROTECT AND FULFIL THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF SEX WORKERS
Introduction
This policy has been developed in recognition of the high rates of human rights abuses and violations that sex workers experience
globally. This document identifies the most prominent barriers to the realisation of sex workers rights and underlines state obligations
to address them. This policy should not be considered in isolation from Amnesty Internationals existing human rights policies and
positions. All of Amnestys positions, including those on gender equality, violence against women, non-discrimination, human
trafficking, sexual and reproductive rights, access to justice, rights to and at work and the right to adequate housing, apply equally to
sex workers as to any other individuals facing human rights abuses. In fighting for the full realisation of sex workers rights, Amnesty
International must both acknowledge and prioritise the issues raised in this document and mainstream the rights of sex workers into all
other relevant areas of work.
This policy reflects a growing body of research from UN agencies1, human rights organisations2 and social science which indicates that
criminalisation, in its varying forms, exposes sex workers to increased risk of human rights abuses. The policy is based on principles of
harm reduction and the human rights principles of physical integrity and autonomy.
This policy does not change Amnesty Internationals longstanding position that forced labour and human trafficking (including for the
purposes of sexual exploitation) constitute serious human rights abuses and must be criminalised. Under international law, states have
a range of obligations to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children.3
Amnesty International considers children4 involved in commercial sex acts to be victims of a grave human rights abuse. Under
international law states must ensure that offering, delivering or accepting a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation is covered
under criminal or penal law, and must take all appropriate measures to prevent the exploitation and abuse of children.5
States have a duty to ensure that sex workers from groups at risk of discrimination and marginalisation enjoy full and equal protection
under relevant international instruments, including for example, those pertaining to the rights of Indigenous Peoples6 and ethnic,
religious and linguistic minorities.7
Terminology
Sex worker and sex work: Sex workers are adults (18 years of age and above) who receive money or goods in exchange for sexual
services, either regularly or occasionally. Amnesty International recognises that the terms used to refer to sex work and sex workers vary
across contexts and by individual preference and that not all people who sell sexual services identify as sex workers. Where possible,
Amnesty International will employ the terminology used by rights holders themselves. However, generally Amnesty International uses the
terms sex work and sex worker. These terms are gender neutral, as people of all genders, including cis8 and transgender women
1See:

Human Rights Council, Report of Anand Grover, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/14/20, p. 46-50. Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Risks, Rights and Health, p. 43. (2012) [hereinafter Risks,
Rights and Health]. HIV/AIDS Programme, Prevention and Treatment of HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections for Sex Workers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries:
Recommendations for a Public Health Approach (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012), p. 8. [hereinafter: Prevention and Treatment of HIV]. The Report of the UNAIDS Advisory Group
on HIV and Sex Work, p. 8. (2009, updated 2012). [hereinafter: UNAIDS Guidance Note]. Lin Lean Lim. The Sex Sector: The economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast
Asia edited by, International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, 1998 [hereinafter The Sex Sector].
2
Human Rights Watch, Open Society Foundations and Anti-Slavery International among other groups, have also called for the decriminalisation of sex work. Most significantly, a large
number of sex worker organisations and networks, including the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, support the decriminalisation of sex work as a means to realise human rights.
3 See: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nation Convention Against Transnational Organized
Crime, United Nations, (2000).
4 A child is any person under the age of 18, regardless of the age of majority in a particular country.
5 See: Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations (1989); Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child
Pornography, United Nations (2000).
6 In some contexts the rights of Indigenous Peoples to the exercise of Free, Prior and Informed Consent may apply to decision making on some aspects of broader regulation of sex work, as
well as, support programmes targeted at indigenous communities.
7 Amongst other things, these require states to combat human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples and other discriminated against groups, which have the effect of driving
people into poverty, can restrict their employment options, and increase their risk of being subjected to trafficking, forced labour and other forms of exploitation and violence. See: United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, (2008). Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992).
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990). Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2006)
8 Cis gender is a term used to describe a person whose gender identity corresponds with the gender they were assigned at birth.

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

and men, sell sexual services. As outlined above, the terms sex worker and sex work are not applicable to children.
Sex work involves a contractual arrangement where sexual services are negotiated between consenting adults, with the terms of
engagement agreed between the seller and the buyer of sexual services. By definition, sex work means that sex workers who are
engaging in commercial sex have consented to do so, (that is, are choosing voluntarily to do so), making it distinct from trafficking.9
Sex work takes many forms, and varies between and within countries and communities. Sex work may vary in the degree to which it is
more or less formal or organised.10
This policy does not apply to dancing or the production of sexually explicit material. This exclusion does not indicate that Amnesty
International condones violence, coercion or discrimination in these contexts. Rather, Amnesty International scrutinises such conduct
and expression in accordance with relevant international human rights principles and standards.11
Criminalisation: For the purposes of this policy, criminalisation means measures that directly seek to punish sex workers through
sanctions such as criminal prosecution, detention and/or fines because of their involvement in sex work. It also refers to the indirect
criminalisation of sex workers through laws which, in prohibiting activities associated with sex work, such as buying sexual services or
general organisation of sex work, proscribe actions that sex workers take to manage their safety, and, in doing so, violate sex workers
human rights, including their rights to security of person, to just and favourable conditions of work and to health. 12
Decriminalisation of sex work does not mean the total absence of any regulation of sex work. Rather, it means that any regulation must
be focussed on respecting and protecting sex workers human rights, for example through requirements such as occupational health
and safety standards.
Intersectional discrimination and oppression
Amnesty International recognises that intersectional discrimination and oppression have an impact on the lives of many sex workers
and can play a role in an individuals decision to engage or remain in sex work and their experiences whilst in sex work. Systems of
oppression such as gender discrimination, racism, socio-economic inequality and legacies of colonial occupation, deny people power
and lead to poverty and deprivation of opportunity. Groups most at risk of discrimination and oppression are frequently over represented
in sex work. Women face entrenched gender discrimination and structural inequality in most societies and bear a disproportionate
burden of poverty. They also make up the majority of sex workers globally. 13 Transgender people and men who have sex with men also
account for a significant proportion of sex workers in many states.14 People subject to discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity,
caste15, Indigenous status16 or who are migrants17 can also be commonly represented among individuals selling sexual services, as are
people who live in situations of poverty.18
While systemic factors and personal circumstances related to poverty, discrimination and gender inequality can have a bearing on
some individuals decisions to do sex work, Amnesty International holds the position that such conditions do not inevitably render
individuals incapable of exercising personal agency in these contexts. Approaches that categorise all sex work as inherently nonconsensual, actively disempower sex workers; denying them personal agency and autonomy and placing decision-making about their
lives and capacity in the hands of the state. They also limit sex workers ability to organise and to access protections which are
9 Used in accordance with the definition employed by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). See: UNAIDS Guidance Note p.15
10 Used in accordance with the definition employed by World Health Organization. See: Prevention and Treatment of HIV p.12
11 For example dancing and other sexually explicit entertainment involving adults (18 years and over) are protected activities as a form of expression. The involvement of children in the
production of sexually explicit material is a grave human rights abuse and must be treated as a criminal offence. See supra note 3.
12 See for example the judgement, based on an unanimous decision, by the Supreme Court of Canada: Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, 2013 SCC72
13. Vandepitte et al. Estimates of the number of female sex workers in different regions of the world. (2006) Journal of Sexually Transmitted Infections 82. HIV and STI Control Board,
National Centre for AIDS and STD Control: Mapping and size estimation of most at risk populations in Nepal, Vol 3: Female Sex Workers (2011). ) Vuylsteke et al, Capturerecapture for
estimating the size of the female sex worker population in three cities in Cote dIvoire and in Kisumu, western Kenya (2010) Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health
14 In some countries up to 43% of the transgender population have been estimated to have had experiences in sex work. See: Hounsfield, V.L., et al., (2007) Transgender people attending
Sydney sexual health services over a 16 year period, Sex Health, 4. See also: Adebajo et al, Estimating the number of male sex workers with the capture-recapture technique in Nigeria
(2013). HIV and STI Control Board, National Centre for AIDS and STD Control: Mapping and size estimation of most at risk populations in Nepal, Vol 1. Male Sex Workers, Transgenders and
their Clients (2011).
15 See for example: Sahni, R & Shankar, KV: The First Pan-India Survey of Sex Workers: A summary of preliminary findings. Center for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation (2011)
16 See for example: Hunt, S. Decolonizing Sex Work: Developing an Intersectional Indigenous Approach. UBC Press (2013)
17 See for example: TAMPEP, Sex Work Migration and Health, (2009)
18 Overs, C. Sex Workers, Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation in Ethiopia. Institute of Development Studies, (2014)

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

available to others (including under labour laws or health and safety laws). Notably, human rights bodies, experts and instruments
increasingly reference individuals capacity to consent to selling sex,19 and critique criminalisation of sex work as a human rights
concern.20
Amnesty International considers that policies which aim to support and improve the situation of marginalised people must focus on
empowering individuals and groups and not devalue their decisions, compromise their safety and/or criminalise the contexts in which
they live their lives. Amnesty International recognises and respects the agency of sex workers and their decisions to engage, remain in,
or leave sex work. Globally, the voices of sex workers are frequently obscured or silenced as a result of the marginalisation they
experience, including at the hands of civil society. Amnesty International will take a participatory approach to its work on sex work;
ensuring that sex workers themselves help shape the movements future efforts in this area.
Entry into sex work
Sex workers are not a homogenous group. People of different genders, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds undertake sex work for a
variety of reasons and report a diversity of experiences.21 For some, the decision to undertake sex work may be a reflection of limited
options. For example it may be one of few sources of earnings open to a transgender person facing discrimination in employment. For
some sex workers the decision to sell sexual services is a matter of suitability or preference- it may offer flexibility and control over
working hours or a higher rate of pay than other options. Other individuals may turn to sex work as a means of immediate survival
because of extreme poverty or other forms of social exclusion.
With regards to entry into sex work, states must:

adopt and implement effective programmes, laws and policies, in line with obligations under international human rights law,
that ensure no person is coerced into sex work and provide effective remedies to people who have been coerced.
provide appropriate support, employment and educational options that actively empower marginalised individuals and groups,
respect individual agency and guarantee the realisation of human rights.
take all necessary measures to eradicate discrimination against marginalised individuals and groups who are commonly
represented in sex work, including discrimination in employment.
develop relevant policies and programmes in participation and consultation with sex workers, including those facing multiple
forms of discrimination.

Participation in sex work

Sex workers experience high rates of human rights violations and abuses globally. These abuses occur at the hands of a range of state
and non-state actors including: law enforcement officials, clients, third-parties involved in sex work, other private individuals,
landlords and healthcare providers. State responses to sex work and sex workers, via criminalisation and resulting stigmatisation,
actively disempower sex workers and support a culture of impunity for human rights abuses against them.
Stigma and discrimination
Sex work is generally a highly stigmatised activity and sex workers routinely face prejudice and discrimination at the hands of state and
non-state actors. Sex workers are frequently judged to have transgressed social norms of sexuality and gender and can subsequently be
portrayed as deserving of punishment, blame and/or social exclusion. The criminalisation of sex work in most countries places a
criminal status on sex workers that can follow them in every aspect of their lives. This affirms and compounds a discriminatory view of
sex workers as criminals who, in undertaking sex work, invite harm, punishment and judgement on themselves. Conversely, sex workers
19 See: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2000/68 (2000), 56th sess., Commission on Human Rights, para.
36; Lin Lean Lim, The Sex Sector. Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking: Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Addendum, U.N. ESCOR, Substantive Sess. 2002, Provisional Agenda Item 14(g), addendum 1, U.N. Doc. E/2002/68/Add.1, Guideline 8.1 (2002); UNAIDS Guidance Note at Annex 3, p.16;
Risks, Rights & Health, p. 39; see also UN Fourth World Conference on Women International, Beijing Platform for Action, para. 96(1995).
20 Supra note 1.
21 Weitzer, R. The Mythology of Prostitution: Advocacy Research and Public Policy (2010); Weitzer, R. Sociology of Sex Work. Annual Review of Sociology (2009). [hereinafter: Sociology of
Sex Work]

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

can also encounter stigmatisation from those who purport to help them. The frequent stereotyping of all sex workers as victimised
and/or psychologically damaged individuals is harmful and disempowering to sex workers, and unsupported by evidence.22 In many
instances, the fact that sex workers are from communities that are already marginalised and oppressed compounds the prejudice they
face; meaning that they experience multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination and often face the highest levels of judgment, blame
and criminalisation.
In addressing stigma and discrimination against sex workers, states must:

ensure that sex workers enjoy equal protection under the law and are protected from discrimination.
take measures to eradicate stigma against sex workers.
ensure that sex workers are not denied access to health, housing, education, social security and other services or any
government programs because of their occupational status.

Physical and sexual violence

In many countries sex workers face high levels of violence at the hands of both state and non-state actors. This violence is a
manifestation of the stigma and discrimination directed towards sex workers. It is also compounded by criminal laws that make sex
workers the focus of punitive police responses and/or force sex workers to operate in covert ways that compromise their safety. In most
countries law enforcement is not adequately focused on the protection of sex workers from violence but instead on prohibition of sex
work through enforcement of criminal law. This creates an adversarial relationship between sex workers and law enforcement which
compromises the safety of sex workers and offers relative impunity to perpetrators of violence and abuse against sex workers.
The fact that various aspects of sex work are treated as criminal conduct in many countries means that sex workers cannot rely on
support or protection from the police. For many sex workers, reporting crimes experienced during the course of their work means putting
themselves at risk of punishment for sex work offences and/or potential loss of their livelihood through related sanctions.23 This means
that they are frequently unable to seek redress for crimes committed against them, thereby offering relative impunity to perpetrators.24
In addition, the stigmatised and criminalised status sex workers experience gives law enforcement officials scope to harass, extort, and
perpetrate physical and sexual violence against them, also with impunity.25
Other laws that criminalise the buying of sex or general organisational aspects of sex work- such as brothel-keeping or solicitation,
often force sex workers to work in ways that compromise their safety. Bans on buying sex can lead to sex workers having to take risks to
protect their clients from detection by law enforcement, such as visiting locations determined only by their clients26. Arbitrarily broad
laws prohibiting organisational aspects of sex work often ban sex workers from working together, renting secure premises, or hiring
security or other support staff, meaning that they face prosecution themselves if they try to operate in safety27. In prohibiting activities
that help keep sex workers safe, criminalisation denies sex workers their right to security of person.
In order to protect sex workers from violence, states must:

22 Claims that suggest the majority of sex workers enter the sex industry as children, that most were sexually or physically abused as children, are forced against their will to undertake
sex work and/or are addicted to drugs have been shown to be misrepresentative of a large proportion of sex workers. See: Vanwesenbeeck, I, Another decade of social scientific work on
prostitution. Annual Review of Sex Research (12) (2001) See also: Sociology of Sex Work.
23 See for example: Amnesty International, The Criminalisation of Sex Work in Hong Kong. P.52-54. (2015) [Hereinafter Criminalisation in Hong Kong]. Amnesty International. Skin bilong
mi, laik bilong me meri sex woka: The Criminalization of Sex Work and Consensual Sex in Papua New Guinea p.43 (2015) [Hereinafter Criminalisation in PNG].. Amnesty International,
The Criminalization of Sex Work in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (2015). [Hereinafter Criminalisation in Argentina]. Amnesty International, The Criminalisation Aspects of Sex Work in Norway
(2015). [Hereinafter Criminalisation in Norway]
24 Ibid. See C.M. Lowndes et al., Injection Drug Use, Commercial Sex Work, and the HIV/STI Epidemic in the Russian Federation, 30 SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES 47 (2003); Rights, Risks &
Health, p.37 (citing UNIFEM, A Legal Analysis of Sex Work in Anglophone Caribbean (2007); USAID, Carol Jenkins, Cambodian Prostitutes Union, Womens Network for Unity and Candice
Sainsbury, Violence and Exposure to HIV Among Sex Workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (2006)); A. Crago, OUR LIVES MATTER: SEX WORKERS UNITE FOR HEALTH AND RIGHTS 31-32 (2008); I. Pauw
and L. Brener, You Are Just WhoresYou Cant Be Raped: Barriers to Safer Sex Practices among Women Street Sex Workers in Cape Town, 5 CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY 465-81 (2003).
25
See Criminalisation in Hong Kong; Criminalization in PNG; Criminalization in Argentina. Amnesty International, Welcome to Hell Fire: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Nigeria (2014),
pp. 32-34. See also Rights, Risks & Health p. 37; Human Rights Watch, Off the Streets: Arbitary Detention and other Absues Against Sex Workers in Cambodia (2010). WHO, Violence
Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections, Violence against Sex Workers and HIV Prevention, Information Bulletin Series, No. 3 (2005).
26 See: Criminalisation in Norway. See also: Bjrndah,l U. Dangerous Liaisons: A report on the violence women in prostitution in Oslo are exposed to. Oslo, 2012. Vista Analyse, Evaluering
av forbudet mot kjp av seksuele tjenester 2014 (English Summary- available at: http://vista-analyse.no/site/assets/files/6813/eng1.pdf)
27 Supra note 11. See also Amnesty International: Criminalisation in Hong Kong, Criminalization in Argentina, Criminalisation in Norway.

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

ensure that sex workers enjoy full and equal protection, and effective remedies, under laws on rape and sexual violence
(including offences involving abuse of authority), assault, trafficking in persons and all other crimes of violence.
introduce all necessary measures to ensure the effective investigation, prosecution and punishment of violence against sex
workers (including legal or procedural reforms where appropriate, such as standards of good practice for police).

Criminalisation
In addition to the above concerns, evidence also indicates that criminalisation interferes with and undermines sex workers right to
health services and information, in particular HIV prevention, testing and treatment, and serves as a contributing factor in the denial of
access to justice, and legal due process.28 It can also limit sex workers ability to access, housing, education and social security
schemes29.
The enforcement of criminal laws against sex work can lead to forced eviction, arbitrary arrests, investigations, surveillance,
prosecutions and severe punishment of sex workers.30 Where sex workers face penalisation when reporting crimes, their capacity to
demand payment from or condom use with clients is also compromised.31 Notably, police routinely confiscate and/or use condoms as
evidence of sex work in a number of countries around the world.32
The criminalisation of sex work also frequently works to exclude sex workers from protections available to others under labour and
health and safety laws and can impede or prohibit them from forming or joining trade unions to secure better working conditions, and
health and safety standards. This, in turn, can render sex workers at greater risk of exploitation by third parties. 33
In response to the human rights violations caused by the criminalisation of sex work, states must:

repeal existing and/or refrain from introducing laws that criminalise (directly or in practice) the consensual exchange of sexual
services for remuneration.
limit criminal prohibitions on the organisational aspects of sex work to those involving clearly defined acts of coercion (such
as compelling a person to sell sex through abuse of authority).34
refrain from the discriminatory enforcement of other laws, not specific to sex work, such as those on vagrancy, public nuisance
and immigration that in effect criminalise sex work or sex workers.
ensure that sex workers are entitled to equal protection under the law and are not excluded from the application of labour,
health and safety and other laws.

Regulation of sex work

States have an obligation to ensure that all persons, including sex workers, are able to access just and favourable conditions of work
and are protected against exploitation, including those who are self-employed or who make their living in informal settings.35 Amnesty
International recognises that some form of regulation will be necessary and that different contexts necessitate some flexibility of
approach.36 Amnesty International does not take a position on the exact form such regulation should take, or whether it is necessary for
such measures to extend beyond the general laws that broadly regulate other businesses or employment practices in a country. Rather,
this should be determined based on the specific regulatory and human rights situation that vary between and within states.

Supra note 1.
See: Criminalization in Argentina. Criminalization in Norway. Risks, Rights and Health.
30 See for example: supra notes 1, 18 and 20.
31 See UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, Annex 2, 8 (2009)
32 See Criminalisation in Hong Kong; Criminalization in PNG; Criminalsation in Norway. See also Open Society Foundations, Criminalizing Condoms, How policing practices put sex workers
and HIV services at risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States and Zimbabwe. (2012), Human Rights Watch, Sex Workers at Risk: Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution
in Four U.S. Cities (2012) [hereinafter Sex Workers at Risk]; M.H. Wurth et al., Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in the United States and the Criminalization of Sex Work, 16 JOURNAL OF
THE INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY 18626 (2013)
33 NSWP, Sex Work and the Law: Understanding Legal Frameworks and the Struggle for Sex Work Law Reform, Briefing Paper (2014)
34 See for example Sections 16 and 17 of The Prostitution Reform Act 2013, New Zealand on Inducing or compelling persons to provide commercial sexual services or earnings from
prostitution and Refusal to provide commercial sexual services.
35
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, (Article 7), United Nations (1976) (recognizing the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions
of work which ensure among other thing: fair wages and equal remuneration safe and healthy working conditions and reasonable limitation of working hours.
36 See also: The Impact of Different Regulatory Models on the Labour Conditions, Safety and Welfare of Indoor-based Sex Workers, CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE (2014)
28
29

10

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

As a minimum however, regulation should respect the agency of sex workers and guarantee that all individuals who undertake sex work
can do so in safe conditions, free from exploitation, and are able to stop engaging in sex work when and if they choose. Additionally,
such restrictions must comply with international human rights law (i.e. they must be for a legitimate purpose, appropriate to meet that
purpose, proportionate and non-discriminatory). States should also ensure the participation and consultation of current sex workers,
including those facing multiple forms of discrimination, in the development of any regulatory frameworks.
States must:

respect and protect the right of sex workers to just and favorable conditions of work, including fair wages, safe and healthy
conditions and limits on working hours.
utilise regulatory frameworks that comply with international law and prioritise the safety of sex workers
ensure the participation and consultation of sex workers, including those facing multiple forms of discrimination in the
development of any regulatory frameworks
recognise the rights of sex workers to form and/or join trade unions.

Leaving sex work

In the same way that intersectional discrimination and oppression can limit employment options for people considering selling sex, it
can also curtail individuals ability to leave sex work when they want to. States have an obligation to ensure that no person continues to
sell sex against their will and that everyone can leave freely when and if they choose.
In ensuring that individuals can leave sex work when and if they choose, states must:

provide adequate and timely access to support- through, for example, state benefits, education and training and/or alternative
employment.
develop and implement support programmes, in consultation with sex workers- including those facing multiple forms of
discrimination, that are responsive to the lived experiences of sex workers and respect individual agency.
guarantee that sex workers are not compelled to participate in such programmes (through threat of sanctions etc).
take measures to remove common barriers to employment that sex workers face (such as issues relating to criminal records or
employment history checks).

ENDS

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ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

Summary of Amnesty International Research Findings

with racism and anti-migrant sentiment.

In June 2014 the Chairs Assembly and Directors Forum (CA/DF)

directed the International Secretariat (IS) to conduct countrybased research on the human rights impact of criminalisation
of sex work. Between September 2014 and June 2015, the IS
(together with support from relevant Sections) produced four
research reports that explore the situation in high, middle and
low-income countries across four regions. Research was
conducted in Argentina (with a focus on the Autonomous City
of Buenos Aires (CABA), Hong Kong, Norway (with a focus on
Oslo) and Papua New Guinea (PNG). AI conducted interviews
with over 80 sex workers and numerous others with NGOs,
activists, law enforcement and government officials.

The police do what the masses want. People in the street say
go back to your monkeys.
Its mostly women [but] sometimes men who insult us. Its
happened lots of times. You prostitute go back to you own
country. Fuck off out of my sight.
When they see you in the street they say fuck off. They dont
think you are a human being.
I hope in many years they will respect us like other people.
One woman told AI about how she had been blocked from
returning to work by two regular employers in industries
outside sex work. When she queried why they were no longer
prepared to hire her, they cited the fact that people knew she
was a sex worker- telling her they didnt want an image
problem saying: Can you imagine what theyd say about us if
we hired you again?

This document provides a summary of the overarching findings

from these research projects. The findings of these projects
are highly relevant for delegates taking part in the ICM
discussion on a draft policy on the human rights of sex
workers. The full reports, including executive summaries, are
available at:
https://intranet.amnesty.org/wiki/display/ILPD/Sex+Work+Polic
yDelegates should request access to the wiki-space through
Section Directors.

In PNG, AI learned how women, particularly sex workers, who

choose their sexual partners or who have multiple sexual
partners are at risk of violence for defying cultural
expectations and societal norms, and for potentially causing
the family to lose income in the form of bride price.

Key Findings
1. Criminalisation of sex work compounds stigma and
discrimination against sex workers

It [sex work] is illegal as PNG culture is very strict. Police hit

us, chase us, say sex work is not allowed in PNG. We say you
are not going to feed us, clothe us, help our children so we
need to do this. We fight for our rights. Its the only way to
benefit and live.

AI found that sex workers face high levels of stigma and

discrimination and that the criminal status placed on them
by an array of different sex work laws, compounds prejudice
against them. Sex workers are frequently shamed and
marginalised on the basis of their occupation- by police,
friends, family, other private individuals, providers of public
services such as healthcare and by alternative employers. This
stigmatisation can impact nearly every aspect of their lives
and severely impedes the realisation of their human rights. In
particular, the othering of sex workers through
criminalisation sets them apart from communities and at odds
with police, increasing the risk of violence against them and
offering relative impunity to their abusers. In all of the
countries visited, AI found that government and law
enforcement were not adequately focused on the protection of
sex workers from violence, or on the impact that laws and
policies have on their human rights, but instead on prohibition
of sex work through enforcement of criminal law.

Its illegal due to our tradition, culture, but they must

understand the circumstances and the current life we are
facing.
Sex workers were also stigmatised as being spreaders of HIV;
discouraging them from obtaining sexual and reproductive
health information and services. A sex worker in Port Moresby,
PNG indicated that the manner in which sex workers were
treated when accessing health care made them reluctant to
return. The behaviour of nurses and other staff prevents them
from going back, she said, and while the rest of the public is
treated fairly, sex workers are gossiped about and judged.
Sex workers interviewed by AI in CABA reported being judged by
health care providers and/or otherwise treated in ways that
were not medically indicated. For example, one sex worker
recalled a traumatising experience attending hospital after a
condom broke during sex with a client. Rather than being
provided standard sexual and reproductive health services, she

In Norway, sex workers frequently told AI about negative

experiences they had had with members of the public. The
discrimination that women described was often interwoven
12

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

was sent directly to the Infectious Diseases Unit. She said that:
I run out of there crying . . . and, well, I went to another centre
and they took out of me the broken piece . . . .

responsible for operating businesses whilst simultaneously

denying them the right to work legally or access labour
protections. Laws which criminalise advertising for sexual
services in the CABA primarily impact indoor sex workers,
leading some to resort to selling sex in the streets, in more
precarious, less safe conditions.

A transgender former sex worker recounted that:

Whenever I was sick I went to the hospital but people always
mistreated us. They told us to go to other hospital[s] because
they couldnt treat us there or something like that. Thats why
most of us didnt go to hospitals. . . . We also used to medicate
each other; recommending pills to take and stuff like that. We
didnt have any real access to health care services because
whenever we went to hospitals we were laughed at or the last
ones to be attended to by doctors.

The act of selling sex is not illegal in Hong Kong, and many sex
workers AI spoke to were careful to operate in ways that comply
with the law. Nevertheless, many of the activities associated
with sex work are illegal. Sex workers can be prosecuted for
soliciting customers, for sharing premises with other sex
workers, and for living off the proceeds of sex work. One
scholar has described the legal framework adopted in Hong
Kong as a prohibition in all but the narrowest sense.38 Those
who work on the street are at particular risk of arrest because
they are easy to identify and have difficulty operating without
violating the prohibition on solicitation.

2. Sex workers are criminalised and negatively

affected by a range of sex work lawsnot just
those on the direct sale of sex

When two or more sex workers work together in Hong Kong,

police consider the apartment a vice establishment, or
brothel, in violation of the law. AI found that police induce sex
workers to fall foul of the requirement that they must work
alone. Kendy Yim, from local NGO Action for Reach Out, told us:
The police will set up the girl. An undercover cop will ring the
bell and ask her to invite another girl to have a threesome. This
becomes a vice establishment, and shes charged with
managing a vice establishment.

AIs research indicates that even when the sale of sex is not
explicitly criminalised, laws that criminalise activities related
to sex work, such as bans on buying sex or on solicitation,
promotion, brothel keeping or other operational aspects of sex
work, are frequently used to criminalise sex workers and/or
work in effect to make their working environments more
dangerous.
In the CABA, the law regulating street-based sex work does not
ban the sale of sex, rather it aims to prevent public nuisance
by criminalising the ostentatious37 offer and demand of sex
in public places. Under this law sex workers are repeatedly
stopped and asked to show identification, and can be
subjected to fines and probation. While it is unlawful for police
to consider individuals dress, appearance or mannerisms
when enforcing this law, AI found that this type of profiling
frequently occurs and is often the basis for police stops and
citations. Notably, transgender sex workers receive the majority
of citations, while clients of sex workers are rarely, if ever,
cited.

A police initiative that ran until 2011 in Oslo, Norway called

Operation Homeless focused on increased enforcement of the
law against promotion of sex workspecifically the
subsection that makes it an offence to let premises . . . . for
prostitution. This led to the systematic and rapid eviction of
many sex workers from their places of work and homes. For
example, the police told AI that the vast majority of massage
parlours were closed in Oslo using this mechanism in 2009,
following a period of increased enforcement. Based on AI
findings, this practice is still a common feature of the police
response to sex work in Oslo. In particular, migrant streetbased sex workers repeatedly spoke about being forcibly
removed from their homes with little to no notice or time given
to collect their belongings.

AI also found that indoor sex workers in the CABA are being
harassed through code inspections conducted by municipal
authorities or police. The legal basis for these raids is unclear
as sex workers are unable to register their services as a
business under the law. These code inspections disperse sex
workers from the safe work spaces they have established, to
more uncertain environments. They also hold sex workers

Many of the sex workers in Norway that AI spoke to talked

about being able to work with others as a means to increase
safety, regardless of whether they were street and/or indoor
based. However, under the promotion section of the penal
code (202) this is effectively illegal. Working together also

There is no clear definition of what qualifies as ostentatious offer and demand of

sex. The term is generally defined as a vulgar or pretentious display, and/or attempting
to impress or attract notice.
37

Nga Yan Cheung, Accounting for and Managing Risk in Sex Work: A Study of Female
Sex Workers in Hong Kong, Ph. D. thesis, University of London, 2011, p. 54.
38

13

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

increased the likelihood of police raids and subsequent

evictions as this would be viewed by police as organised
prostitution. One indoor sex worker told AI:

that it is the only way they can avoid legal sanctions.

The majority of sex workers that AI spoke to did not, or were
reluctant to, seek police protection from or redress for, violence
and crime. In some countries this can be due to the fact that
police are often the perpetrators of such crime. Because of
their criminalised status, sex workers often fear prosecution or
punishment if they go to the police, believe that no action will
be taken to help them seek justice, and/or fear that they will
lose their livelihood as a result of subsequent police action.
The police also do not commonly see it as their priority to
contribute to making sex work safer, ratherthey are tasked
with its eradication.

I was asking a guy who owns a security firm. I asked can I

rent a bodyguard to take me to an outcall, wait for me and take
me back. He said If I do that I will lose my license. I was so
shocked. So every other person in Norway can rent a
bodyguard- except me because I am a sex worker. Why? I am
not a criminal.
Many of the sex workers that AI interviewed in Norway also
talked about high levels of anxiety and nervousness among
buyers about being caught and fined by the police. Most of the
sex workers we spoke with reported being asked to visit buyers
homes to protect them from detection by the police. Streetbased sex workers that AI spoke with were most likely to agree
to this because they face discriminatory exclusions from hotels
under the promotion law, they feared eviction by police if they
brought clients to their own homes and they needed to make
money.

A sex worker in PNG told AI that when she tried to report abuse
by a client to the police, they told her they did not want to
waste time on sex workers. When she later faced abuse, she
did not bother reporting it to the police, explaining that: If I
am abused and I go to the police, theyll tell me, thats what
you deserve.
A homeless sex worker in Port Moresby described being gang
raped by police officers in August 2012; after which she and
her client were fined 600PGK by the perpetrators:

Customers cant hurt you so much [at home]. Im more

relaxed there. Its more dangerous going to a customers
house. I went to a house of a man- he tried not to pay me so
much. He punched me two times in the jaw. I didnt tell the
police. If he had broke much I would have told them. But I
dont want it on my records.

It was 6pm, I was having sex with one of my friends [clients]

at Jack Perry Park in a bus. Police start to beat my friend and
me. They tried to make me do group sex with the six policemen.
Then they told me to suck my friends dick. Six police officers
did sex to me one by one. They were armed with guns, so I had
to do it. I dont have any support to come to court and report
them. It was so painful to me, but then I let it go. If I go to the
law, they cannot help me as sex work is against the law in
PNG. The police have the law to do that.

Customers want to go to their place. You have to be calm. If

he hurts you there is no-one there to rescue you.
Some customers can hurt you at their apartments. They can
hurt you because they know we are too scared to go to the
police. We have to obey their rules because we are in their
house. We cant bring them to ours.

Sex workers in Hong Kong face entrapment, extortion and

coercive police interrogations. Notably, the Hong Kong Womens
Coalition on Equal Opportunities confirmed that: Police
officers, during undercover operations, are allowed to solicit
sex workers to perform certain sexual services [in order to
secure evidence].

When you go to a customers house there could be five of

them there.
3. Criminalisation gives police impunity to abuse sex
workers and acts as a major barrier to police
protection for sex workers

AI did not find substantive evidence of police violence towards

sex workers in Norway. However, the practice of evicting sex
workers from their homes under the promotion law and the
criminalisation of clients was regularly identified by sex
workers as reasons why they would not report crimes to the
police.

Police abuse featured in research findings in the CABA, Hong

Kong and PNG. For example, in PNG AI found that police extort
money from, rape and sexually abuse sex workers, often with
impunity. In the CABA, police collect bribes to give sex workers
and third parties notice that they plan to raid or inspect
apartments where sex work is suspected, and/or commit
violence and theft during these raids. In Hong Kong, police
extort money and coerce sex workers into sex by telling them

In order to evict sex workers under the promotion law,

Norwegian police must identify sex workers, where they live or
work and ascertain whether they are selling sex from those
locations. In most cases this information is then used by police
14

ORG 50/1940/2015: 2015 ICM circular: Draft policy on Sex Work

4. The most marginalised sex workers often report the

highest levels, and worst experiences, of
criminalisation

to threaten landlords with prosecution, who then rapidly evict

sex workers.
AI learned of a number of methods used by the police to
identify sex workers. These include document checks of women
in the areas where street-based sex work occurs and police
contacting sex workers through advertisements and posing as
potential customers. Police and sex workers also confirmed
that sex workers are identified by police following the reporting
of crimes, including reports by sex workers of crimes against
them. AI interviewed a number of people involved in a recent
case where a number of migrant sex workers were violently
attacked and raped in the apartment in which they lived by
individuals posing as police officers. They reported the incident
to police and spent the next two nights in hospital and a hotel.
They told us that they returned to their apartment to find the
police had removed all their money and electronic equipment.
Four days after the attack they were forcibly evicted by their
landlord who gave them only a few hours to leave.

Migrant street-based sex workers in Norway spoke frequently

about their feelings that the police would not support them
because of the intersectional discrimination they face.
The other day a guy was harassing my friend on the street.
The guy kept taking pictures of her. He was a Norwegian guy.
She asked him to stop taking photos then. He started to insult
her- called her a prostitute or something. She took the phone
off him and threw it away. The guy just slapped her and they
started to fight. The guy called the police. Both of them were
taken to the station and the police took the guys side. [They
said:] Hes Norwegian-youre not from here. Youre African.
Most customers do harass us because they can do anything to
us. White women [even if they are] not Norwegian are more
relaxed because they know police will help them. Customers
know that police will react if white girls are hurt. They know
they wont do anything to help black women.

Other sex workers In Norway told us about how reporting

violence to the police represented too much of a risk in terms
of losing their livelihood:

In the CABA, transgender street-based sex workers received the

majority of citations issued under the law criminalising the
ostentatious offer or demand of sex, whilst clients were
rarely, if ever, cited under the law. The head of ATTTA, a
transgender rights NGO, told AI:

Most clients are nice and dont give me a problem. Ive

worked for a long time in sex work. Before I close a door when a
customer comes in I always listen to who is on the stair behind
them. This time I heard a 2nd person on the stairs. Asked who is
this? He said: his friend. I told him to get out. He pulled a gun
on me. I fought him. If Im going to die then everyone is going
to jail. The other person came upstairs. I didnt tell the police.
If I go to the police I have to tell the police where I live. They
will have a car at my door to fine my clients. If one or two
clients get a fine- I will lose all of them.

The main violence against transgender sex workers is the

structural one because [the] police [are] the one[s] who
imprison us and abuse us. [The police] are aware of our
vulnerability and they make a profit of it and take our money.
They control us that way. . . . Before the gender identity law
was approved the police used to ask us for money in order to
let us work on the streets. Now they ask us for money in order
to take care of us and give us security [from human trafficking
networks and thieves]. There's a constant persecution. [In
fact,] sometimes [the police] free the zone so that thieves
can go in and steal from sex workers and clients.

If we knew for sure they [police] would help us that would be

great. But then they [police] disturb you. I prefer to resolve
problems myself. Only if they [perpretators] come to my house
and fight me hard- send me to hospital- I will tell the police.
If a customer is bad you need to manage it yourself to the
end. You only call the police if you think you are going to die. If
you call the police you lose everything.

It is not possible for migrants to lawfully engage in sex work in

Hong Kong. As such all migrant sex workers are in breach of
condition of stay. A migrant sex worker prosecuted for sex
work related offences will receive a more severe penalty than a
Hong Kong resident, often an immediate 2 month custodial
sentence, for having breached the same provisions, because a
non-resident will also be charged for having breached the
Immigration Ordinance.

Research in PNG and Hong Kong also found that law

enforcement officials use condoms as evidence of sex workrelated crimes. This practice leads to sex workers greater
reluctance to carry and use condoms, thus negatively
impacting their health and HIV prevention efforts. Police in
Norway also informed AI that condoms found in premises are
used as evidence of sex work.

15

SEX WORK

AND
THE
LAW
THE CASE FOR DECRIMINALIZATION

www.worldaidscampaign.org

SEX WORK AND THE LAW

THE CASE FOR DECRIMINALIZATION

Dialogue around the South Africa-based 2010 Soccer World Cup, proposals to introduce a
moratorium on the harassment of sex workers by the South African Police Force, and the
continued criminalization of sex workers and their clients in South Africa sparked the production
of this work. With the eyes of the global media on the World Cup, held for the first time on the
African continent and in the country with the highest number of people and one of the highest
proportions of people living with HIV and AIDS, there was an opportunity to draw attention
not only to issues around the epidemic itself but also to the multiple human rights violations
experienced by many sex workers in South Africa and around the world. There was also a need
to counteract the significant disinformation around law reform to reduce the pressure of the law
and law enforcement systems on sex workers and others involved in the sex industry.
The resultant work has a significant emphasis on why decriminalisation of sex work is as
much a public health issue as an HIV and AIDS prevention issue. It outlines several key issues,
considerations, challenges and recommendations for policy-makers, NGOs, sex workers and
other actors in the fields of HIV and human rights, to help build a supportive and enabling
environment for sex workers to realise their rights.
Decriminalisation is the legal model of choice for sex workers and those who advocate
for their rights. It allows for access to human rights protections, including delivery of gender
equality and the ability to achieve labour protections; it creates a more open relationship
between police and sex workers, thus making it easier to expose trafficking, the involvement
of children and the abuse of sex workers; and it enables delivery of public health interventions,
including `HIV prevention and treatment. All these benefits can be expressed in moral terms,
which can be used to counter religious objections to the removal of criminalisation.
We would like to thank the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), the New
Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) and Marlise Richter in particular for their time, effort,
support and input into these factsheets.
The World AIDS Campaign
Cape Town MMX

Table of Contents

1. Human Rights and Sex Work Decriminalisation

2. Sex Work Decriminalisation, Feminism and Womens Rights

3. The Right to Work and Sex Work Decriminalisation

4. Children and Sex Work Decriminalisation

5. The Client and Sex Work Decriminalisation

10

6. Economics and Sex Work

13

7. HIV, Public Health and Sex Work Decriminalisation

15

8. Legal Approaches to Sex Work

18

9. The Swedish Legal Model for Sex Work

21

10. Religious and Moral Arguments for Sex Work Decriminalisation

23

11. The Impact of Decriminalisation of Sex Work on The Values of Society

25

12. Trafficking and Sex Work

28

31

Sources for the Sex Work Factsheets

SEX WORK AND THE LAW

1. Human

Rights and Sex Work Decriminalisation

Every person is entitled to their human rights, including sex workers

Many governments and individuals ignore sex workers rights to equal treatment and non-discrimination
Ignoring sex workers rights increases their risk of violence, HIV, stigma and workplace abuse
Decriminalisation of sex work would protect sex workers against violence, discrimination and abuse

What are human rights?

Human rights are basic freedoms and entitlements that all human beings can claim. Examples of human rights include the right to freedom
of speech, the right to life, the right not to be tortured and the right to non-discrimination and equality.
There are a number of international legal documents that set out the human rights that everyone in the world is entitled to, including
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the
International Protocol on Civil and Political Rights. South Africa ratified the Optional Protocol to this in 2002, thus allowing people to
complain about breaches of these rights to the UN Human Rights Committee.

Do sex workers have human rights?

Every person is entitled to basic human rights, and all sex workers are entitled to the same rights as anyone else. Yet many individuals and
governments ignore the fact that sex workers have the right to equal treatment and sex workers are often particularly vulnerable to be
abused, raped and even murdered, while their dignity is violated on a daily basis. Even in countries where sex work is considered a crime,
such as South Africa, the state may not ignore sex worker rights. As Charlesworth and Chinkin (2000:214) state The right of women to
equal treatment and non-discrimination on the basis of sex is part of the traditional canon of human rights.

What happens if we do nothing about sex work and human rights?

1. Sex workers will continue to suffer violence from clients, their partners and the police.
2. Sex workers will continue to work in unsafe and dangerous conditions.
3. The stigma around sex work will continue.
4. Sex workers will not have easy access to health, social, police, legal and financial services.
5. Sex workers will find it hard to protect themselves and their clients from HIV.
6. Sex workers will find it hard to get tested for HIV and get treatment for HIV.
7. Sex workers will find it difficult to find other jobs.

The New Zealand Case Study

In New Zealand, where sex work has been decriminalised, these rights are realised. Sex workers have the same employment rights as
other workers, and can no longer be coerced into doing work they do not want to do (Mossman & Mayhew, 2007: 43). Sex workers in New
Zealand can now challenge brothel operators on such things as sexual harassment, unfair treatment and employment practices, and are
able to access government sponsored mediation services, Disputes Tribunals, and join unions. Sex workers are able to request employment
contracts and negotiate, and challenge, working conditions.

SEX WORK AND THE LAW

The New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act 2003 states that all reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that safer sex practices are
adhered to this protects sex workers and their clients from HIV. Sex workers have complained to the police, who investigated these
complaints, about clients who remove condoms during sex (R v Morgan, name suppressed). Furthermore, sex workers have said the Act
had helped to increase the reporting of violence to the Police, and that Police had moved from the role of prosecution to that of protector
(Mossman & Mayhew, 2007: 10, 11). Because sex workers in New Zealand are no longer stigmatised by criminal convictions related to sex
work that they feel more confident in applying for other work, knowing they wont be exposed by a criminal record (Bennachie & Healy, 2010).
A sub-section of human rights is called sexual and reproductive health rights. This is an umbrella term for entitlements such as the
right to choose who one has sex with, when and where, and whether one wants to have sex at all. This means that all governments should
protect the right of people to engage in sex between consenting adults and that the state should not interfere with peoples sexual choices.
If adults want to buy or sell sex from other adults, this is their choice and provided no-one gets hurt or held against their will, or coerced,
the state has no legitimate reason to criminalise that choice. Constructive approaches recognise that realising sexual and reproductive
health rights is essential for achieving equity and social justice in societies.
Sex workers in the decriminalised New Zealand sex industry have had their right to refuse sex reinforced under the Prostitution Reform
Act 2003. Sex workers are aware they have the right to say no to having sex with any client for any reason, or for no reason. This means
they can choose who they have sex with, and can stand up to coercion. The fact that sex work is their job does not remove this right.
Research has shown that, following decriminalisation, New Zealand sex workers found it easier to refuse clients when they did not want
them (Abel, Fitzgerald & Brunton, 2007: 116). Prior to decriminalisation, only 37% of sex workers felt they could refuse a client. Following
decriminalisation, this increased to 62% within 4 years (Abel, Fitzgerald & Brunton, 2007: 117). Sex work advocates argue that legal
frameworks that make sex work illegal violate a number of important human rights principles not only of sex workers, but also of their
clients and other people in the sex industry (Agustin, 2007; Erickson, 2006; Kempadoo & Doezema, 1998; Monnet, 2006).

Rights of sex workers that are violated by the criminalisation of sex work:
The right to dignity
The right to non-discrimination
Access to health care services
The right to bodily and psychological integrity
Freedom of thought, belief and opinion
The right to choose ones trade, occupation or profession freely
If sex workers human rights are truly respected, consensual adult sex work would not be illegal and sex workers would have the
same labour rights as all other workers. The decriminalisation of sex work means that sex workers would be protected against sexual
harassment, violence, rape and unfair working conditions. Sex workers would be able to access non-discriminatory health care services, be
able to form unions and be assisted by the police and, where it exists, social security.

SEX WORK AND THE LAW

2. Sex

Work Decriminalisation, Feminism and Womens Rights

Feminists have differing views towards sex work

It is possible to be a feminist and support sex work decriminalisation
Arguing for decriminalisation of sex work does not have to mean endorsement of sex work
There are multiple reasons why womens rights groups advocate for sex work decriminalisation
Current laws violate sex workers rights and increase their vulnerability to HIV
A decriminalised sex work system is the most effective method of addressing violence against women

Why is sex work a gender issue?

Sex work is essentially the sale of sexual services. All over the world, the majority of sex work clients are male and the providers of sexual
services are female. Gender is relevant to this since it examines the relationships and power between men and women (and intersex and
transgender people) and asks important questions about who has access to resources, money and decision-making structures and how
people make a living.

Isnt sex work bad for womens rights and feminism?

Feminism is an ideology and therefore includes a variety of views and perspectives on the position of women in society. Some branches
of feminism believe that sex work is destructive for women and for equality for women. Religious feminists, conservative feminists, some
liberal feminists and radical feminists often support this view. They argue that sex work is always, at its heart, an issue of violence against,
and abuse of, women and that sex work should be abolished. Many of these feminists argue that sex workers should find other jobs, that
the laws that criminalise sex work should be toughened and that sex workers should be rescued from their situation. In this perspective,
sex workers are cast either as victims of a male-dominated society, or as psychologically unstable women that should be helped.
Some radical feminists even argue that all sex acts subordinate women. Radical feminists1 in particular argue that sex work is based on
violence against women and that the overarching context is that of unequal power relations between men and women. In this view, sex work
and trafficking are conflated (Carter & Giobbe; Stark; Pateman; MacKinnon & Baldwin, all in Spector, 2006). Many sex workers point out
that this approach to sex work is judgmental and not helpful to the women in the sex industry.
Some women take up sex work as it provides them with more money than they would be able to earn otherwise, and with flexible
working hours. They are also often their own bosses and have the power to decide when they want to work and how. Not many jobs with
these features are open to women particularly to women living in poverty or those who have little formal education or training.
However, many liberal and radical feminists are divided on the subject of sex work. Wendy Chapkis, a radical feminist who previously
opposed sex work, concludes from her interviews with sex workers in the US and the Netherlands: While feminists have been deeply
divided for more than twenty years on whether prostitution should be conceived of as sexual violence or sex work all who are concerned
with womens rights and well-being might unite around proposals to enhance womens power within the trade and to increase their options
beyond it , (Chapkis 2000:200).

1 Radical feminism sees the male controlled capitalist system as the main source of womens oppression. They believe that women can only free themselves truly when they have
brought an end to the oppressive patriarchal system.

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Sex-positive feminists2 argue that sex work is not inherently oppressive to women and that they are able to claim power from the
sexual transaction. Third-world feminists3 are particularly critical of the view of conservative, radical and religious feminists on sexuality
and sex work and raise important concerns about the realities of women from developing countries. They emphasise that many women who
live in low income countries in Africa, South-East Asia and Southern United States have limited access to education and literacy, to jobs
and are often the sole-providers for extended families. For women in these contexts, sex work is an option to ensure their survival and that
of their families, and these sex workers also claim power from their transactions with their clients. The financial independence that many
experience from sex work empowers them and their families. Criminalising the industry or efforts to abolish sex work make their working
conditions worse and increase their risk of violence and of contracting HIV. When sex work is pushed underground, it is harder to engage
with sex workers in a meaningful way. Feminists who feel uncomfortable with the symbolism and underlying power dynamics of women
selling sexual services to men can still support decriminalisation of sex work, without compromising their feminist principles.
Arguing for the decriminalisation of sex work does not necessarily mean an endorsement of sex work. It shows an awareness of the
dangers of the criminal law; an awareness that criminalising sex workers will neither eradicate the industry, nor alter the set of power
relations that may be associated with it. It recognises that the laws that criminalise sex work punish women and particularly women living in
poverty, and women of colour most severely and create a dangerous environment for working and living. A decriminalised sex work system
is therefore the most effective and pragmatic way of addressing the conditions of women in the sex industry.
We are harassed, abused by the police, instead of them protecting us they are busy asking for bribes. I think the best way to solve this
would be if the laws change, for sex workers to be treated like everyone else, for their rights to be recognized. We deserve to be treated
equally, we need our privacy, access to the law and we need for our jobs, sex work, to be recognized as work. Police need to do their jobs to
catch criminals not sex workers because we are not criminals. Busie, Johannesburg-based sex worker, South Africa.
In contrast, in New Zealand, in a decriminalised environment, a police officer who attempted to coerce a sex worker into providing
him with sexual services, was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for this crime. When the Bill to decriminalise sex work was being
discussed in Parliament in New Zealand, it was supported by a variety of feminist groups. Fifty-six submissions were written by feminist
individuals or organisations or based on feminist arguments. Forty of these supported decriminalising prostitution (Laurie, 2010). One of
these, the National Council of Women (NCW), representing 43 nationally organised societies, strongly supported decriminalising sex work
as it: Aims to safeguard the rights of women and children, provides for protection from exploitation and seeks to create an environment
that promotes public health. It is essential that women working in the sex industry have protection regardless of whether they have chosen
the industry as a career or have come into the industry because of a lack of options (NCW, 2001). Importantly for New Zealand, indigenous
womens groups also supported decriminalisation: Te Puawai Tapu, and the Maori Womens Welfare League were foremost in this support.

Why should womens rights advocates support sex work decriminalisation?

There are a number of reasons why people who are committed to womens rights should advocate for sex work decriminalisation:
Sex work is a source of income for women and has a long history of existence
For centuries, societies that have viewed sex work as wrong or sinful have tried to abolish it by imposing a range of criminal penalties
for sex work from stoning, deportation, flogging to imprisoning women. Despite these brutal sanctions by the state, there is no country

2 Feminists who focus on issues of womens sexual pleasure, freedom of expression, sex work, and inclusive gender identities.
3 Feminists mainly from so-called developing or third world countries who concentrate on the role of colonialism and globalisation in womens oppression.

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in the world where sex work has been eradicated. Sex work is here to stay and for good reasons! The service is a useful and necessary one
for many people. The law needs to be responsive to this reality. Support for decriminalisation is support for womens rights.
The laws criminalising sex work are out-dated and patriarchal
Many of the laws that criminalise sex work at present were introduced at a time when men were the law-makers and law-enforcers. These
laws embody out-dated and repressive ideas on sexuality, relationships, who owns womens bodies and the position of women in society.
Current laws violate sex workers rights
Sex workers are entitled to the same human rights as everyone else. Sex workers have the right to bodily integrity, dignity, freedom from
violence, the right to a profession of their choice and the right to fair labour practices. The on-going criminalisation of sex work violates all
of these human rights.
Violence against women can only be addressed in a fully decriminalised system
Sex workers are often women who may experience violence, including rape and abuse. Laws and strategies that assist women to access
restraint orders against abusive men, obtain the necessary treatment and support after rape, and bolster the penalties for abuse make very
little difference to the lives of sex workers. In a system where sex work is illegal, sex workers often do not have the means, the knowledge
or the power to make use of the remedies that may be available to other women. The single most powerful strategy in reducing violence
against sex workers, is to recognise sex work as viable work and protect those who are doing it-by decriminalising the sex industry.
Current laws increase womens vulnerability towards HIV/AIDS
The criminalisation of sex work increases sex workers risk of contracting HIV. It reduces their power in negotiating safer sex, limits access
to HIV education, condoms and treatment, and increases their risk of violence and rape. If sex workers are not empowered to prevent the
spread of HIV through the creation of safe working and living conditions, it increases the risk to the population as a whole.
The decriminalisation of sex work makes sex workers safer, more empowered and brings them into the ambit of protective labour and
occupational health & safety laws, where such laws exist. It is a vital component towards the global affirmation and implementation of
womens rights and equality.

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3. The

Right to Work and Sex Work Decriminalisation

The UNs International Labour Organisation indirectly advocates for the legalisation of sex work
Criminalisation of sex work prevents sex workers from protection from labour, occupation and health and safety laws
Increasing numbers of sex workers today form part of sex worker unions
Brothels have an international obligation to promote safer sex
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) was established in 1919 as part of the Versailles Treaty ending World War I, with the principal
role of setting international labour standards. The labour standards were designed to eliminate unjust and inhumane labour practices with
the main purpose to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen
dialogue in handling work-related issues. In 1946, after the formation of the United Nations, the ILO became a specialised agency of the
UN (ILO, 1996-2010). After many years of lobbying from the sex industry, the ILO has begun to indirectly advocate for the legal recognition
of sex work by calling on governments for its recognition as an economic sector and a legal occupation with protection under labour law
and social security and health regulations (Raymond, 1998).
In countries whose legal systems criminalise sex work, despite international labour standards, sex workers are unable to exercise
protection from labour laws, occupation laws or health and safety laws. As a result, many sex workers say they feel incapacitated by the
state and not respected (stergren , 2010). They are unable to demand basic working conditions or legal work contracts (SWEAT, 2006).
The case of Kelly, a South African sex worker who went to court over unfair dismissal from the massage parlour where she worked, is an
example of this inability to demand basic rights. Even though the lower court agreed that she was an employee in terms of the Labour
Relations Act, it found that because she was a sex worker, which is an illegal profession in South Africa, it would not enforce her rights
(Sapa, 2008).
Over the past two decades sex workers have begun to unionise (Gall, 2007). Sex worker unions campaign for a variety of human,
civil and labour rights for people who work in the sex industry (International Union of Sex Workers, undated). The South African non-profit
organisation SWEAT (The Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce) advocates for decent working conditions for sex workers and
decriminalisation of sex work. SWEAT argues that workers in brothels would also benefit from labour law and would get pensions when
they retired. The Department of Labour would also monitor working conditions and the sex workers would be treated with the same dignity
afforded to other workers under the Bill of Rights (SWEAT, 2006).
SWEAT (2006) indicates that the following issues could then be addressed:
The Labour Relations Act and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act could be applied for sex workers.
Safer and more hygienic working conditions would be required most sex workers want to practice safer sex but are unable to enforce
it as there is no legal obligation.
Limits to legal working hours many sex workers in criminalised systems report working days of over 14 hours.
Paid vacation time and sick leave - sex workers frequently report no paid leave or sick leave.
Obligation to display safer sex information, to provide condoms, or to screen clients if international labour standards were applied
brothels would be obliged to promote and perform safer sex, helping to alleviate the HIV risk.
In New Zealand, decriminalisation has allowed sex workers to negotiate employment contracts, and they are able to challenge unfair
labour practices. Sex workers also have more choice in respect to work place conditions, and are able to work in big or small brothels,
with other sex workers in collectives, or by themselves in environments that they control.

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4.

Children and Sex Work Decriminalisation

In most countries sexually exploiting children for commercial purposes is already illegal
Sex work decriminalisation does not mean the decriminalisation of child sex work
When sex work is decriminalized, operators rather than children are prosecuted for under-age sex work
Research shows that decriminalization of sex work hasnt increased numbers of sex workers or under-age workers

What does sex work have to do with children?

The term sex work generally relates to adult, consensual sex work. It does not include trafficking or sex-for-reward transactions with
children. In many countries in the world it is an explicit criminal offence to sexually exploit children for commercial purposes.4

Do sex work decriminalisation advocates also want to decriminalise child sex work?
No.
Children should be in school - not in the sex industry. Campaigns on sex work decriminalisation focus specifically on changing the criminal
law on adult, consensual sex work to reflect human rights principles. This has little to do with the laws on child sex work or trafficking.
Shamefully, children are sometimes criminalised for their involvement in sex work in countries where sex work is not decriminalised.
Criminalising children and arresting them for soliciting and other sex work related crimes does not help them in any way.

How will sex work decriminalisation impact on child prostitution?

In countries where sex work is criminalised, the state and police authorities are sources of fear and distrust for sex workers. If sex work
is decriminalised, the sex industry becomes more open and the role of the police changes from persecutor to protector of sex workers.
If a young person is found doing sex work in a decriminalised environment, it is the welfare bodies who become involved in assisting the
young person. The police will then take action against those who benefit from the sex work of children. Sex workers often move in contexts
in which they could identify children in the sex industry. Sex workers could therefore become important allies to the police and social
services in detecting children who need assistance. In New Zealand, it is important to remember that people who are under 18 and working
as sex workers are not the law breakers, and vulnerable to prosecution. The focus has shifted to one of providing services related to the
protection of children.
Following decriminalisation in New Zealand, several brothel operators and clients have been prosecuted for hiring sex workers who
are under 18 (R v Barnett, 2006; R v Booten, 2008; R v Gillanders, 2005; etc). As at March 2008, five years following the passing of the
Prostitution Reform Act, there had been 34 convictions for people who had hired or taken money off sex workers who were under 18
(Prostitution Law Review Committee, 2008: 106). It should be noted that it is not the young person who is breaking the law, but the client or
brothel operator/manager.

4 See for example The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Profiting from Abuse - An investigation into the sexual exploitation of our children New York, 2001, available: http://
www.unicef.org/publications/files/pub_profiting_en.pdf

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Will sex work decriminalisation mean that my child might want to take sex work up as a
career? Or that more young people get involved in sex work?
Many peoples biggest fear of the decriminalisation of sex work is that their children might choose sex work as a legitimate occupation
when they grow up. This correlates with the anxiety that some people in New Zealand had when that country decriminalised sex work in
2003: that there would be a significant increase in the number of people who would take up sex work. Yet, systematic research showed
that the decriminalisation of sex work did not have an impact on the number of sex workers, nor children involved in sex work, in New
Zealand (Abel, Fitzgerald, & Brunton, 2009).
Philosopher and advocate for decriminalisation, Laurie Shrage (1996), answers the above question in the following way:
Anyone who advocates for the legalization of prostitution needs to address the But would you want your daughter.... argument.
I suppose the only way to answer this question/objection is to take it personally I happen to have a daughter who is now eight. The
argument is meant to expose the hypocrisy of anyone who has made the assertions [on decriminalisation] I have made. For, not surprisingly,
my answer is No, I wouldnt want my daughter to be a prostitute. So how can I accept this occupation for others? Well, first of all, this isnt
all of my answer. The more nuanced answer is that, although I would prefer my daughter to be a mathematician, pianist, or labour organizer,
were she to seek employment in the sex trade, I would still want the best for her. Her choice would be less heartbreaking to me if the work
were legal, safe, reasonably well paid and moderately respectable.

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5.

The Client and Sex Work Decriminalisation

The legality of buying and selling sex depends on the country and its legislation
Criminalisation of sex work clients makes them and sex workers more vulnerable, and doesnt prevent the sale of sex
Decriminalisation of sex work allows the sex industry to be regulated by employment and health & safety legislation.
There is no evidence that criminalising sex work reduces the number of sex workers, they are simply less visible

Who are the clients of sex workers?

Clients are people who pay sex workers for sexual services. The vast majority of sex work clients are male. Some are in highly functioning
relationships, some are not.

Is being a client of sex workers illegal?

The answer depends on your countrys legal system.
In the past, some countries had legislation that only made the sale of sex illegal but not the buying of sex. This means that sex
workers were seen as criminals, but there were no consequences for the other party to the transaction: the client. Some countries like
Sweden have legal frameworks that do not penalise the selling of sex (the sex worker), but it is a criminal offence to buy sex. In the United
Kingdom, penalties are imposed on clients of street-based sex workers for kerb-crawling (driving slowly to look for street sex workers)
and can include warning letters, naming and shaming strategies, taking their drivers licences away and confiscating their vehicles. In
some American states, convicted clients may appear on television, and/or be sent to John Schools for rehabilitation. Kinnell (2002) has
reported that both kerb crawling legislation and sending clients to be rehabilitated are ineffective. Efforts to criminalise sex work clients
have not stopped the buying of sex, but rather make sex workers and clients vulnerable.

Call for ban on Kings Cross (London, UK) kerb crawlers

[Extracts]
KERB crawlers who plague Kings Cross could be barred from the notorious red light district or be forced to take courses to confront their
sexual urges.
...Sarah Walker, of the English Collective of Prostitutes, based in Kentish Town Road, Kentish Town, said she would oppose any move to
crack down on kerb crawlers because it would make women more vulnerable.
The clients would want women to jump into their car more quickly if they knew they were being watched, giving the women less time to
judge the situation, she said.
We also fear any ASBOs (anti-social behaviour orders) issued against clients are much more likely to be used against Black or Asian men.
If people want to help these women they should start by abolishing the prostitution laws and let them work from premises rather than in the street.
Going for the client looks like a quick fix but you must look at the consequences. ...

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Eady (2002)

10

What impact does decriminalisation have on clients?

Decriminalisation of sex work protects sex workers and clients and allows the sex industry to be regulated by employment and health &
safety legislation. It makes the sale of sex less secretive and dangerous for sex workers and for clients. In a decriminalised system, sex
workers and clients do not have to rush the negotiation of their transaction and can do so in a safe area. Both sides have a greater ability
to have recourse to support services, and legal protection if they are working in poor conditions e.g. no condoms available, clients
perpetrating violence, sex workers not being paid for the services they have provided, sex workers money being withheld by others,
etc. Trade unions feel they are more able to support sex workers if they call for their labour rights. In an open environment, the stigma
associated with the selling and buying of sex can be tackled, and sex workers and their clients can demand protection from the police.

What impact does criminalising clients have on sex workers?

In Sweden, the client has been criminalised, while the sex worker remains decriminalised. The 1999 law that criminalised clients was
passed without any consultation with sex workers. When sex workers tried to raise their concerns, they were ignored, and accused of
either being non-representative or of having a false consciousness (Jacobsson, 2009). This ignores and belittles the real experiences of
sex workers.
It is often claimed that criminalising clients led to a reduction in the numbers of sex workers. Although it is true that the number
of street-based sex workers declined by about 33% following the criminalisation of clients in Sweden, it did not reduce sex work as
such.Even the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has admitted that rather than work on the streets, many sex workers moved
indoors (Socialstyrelsens, 2000). There is no evidence that the number of clients has reduced.
It is not for nothing that Jacobssons (2009) article is titled We want to save you! (And if you dont appreciate it, you will be punished!).
Sex workers who remained working on the streets are subjected to a programme of harassment and abuse by police, beingvideotaped
having sex with clients in their cars, strip searched without cause, and being searched for condoms.When they are the victims of violence
at the hands of clients and others, these sex workers are unable to complain to police because of these actions (Eriksson, 2005).
In 2008 Petra stergren, a Swedish researcher examining the effects of the 1999 law on sex workers, visited the New Zealand
Prostitutes Collective (NZPC). While visiting, a police officer came in to talk to NZPC about issues affecting sex workers. During this, a
street-based sex worker came in, and the police officer asked the sex worker if there was anything she needed help with, and reminded her
that if she was having any problems on the street, to contact her immediately. Surprised at this willingness to help, stergren stated the
Swedish police would never do this, but would rather treat the sex worker as a suspect in a criminal act.

How does the Swedish law and criminalising clients affect men?
As Don Kulick (2005) indicates, the immediate effect of the Swedish law criminalising clients was that Sweden suddenly acquired hundreds
of thousands of new perverts. Noting that Swedish authorities were claiming that One man in eight has bought sex, Kulick (2005) notes
that in sheer numbers this must mean, the report tells us, that more than four hundred thousand men over eighteen years of age have at
some point in their lives paid for sexual services. Using figures from the Statistics South Africa (2009), this would mean there were over
1,680,000 men over 20 in South Africa who could be clients and therefore classed as perverts. This pathologises clients and treats them
as criminals, and, by extension, implies that all men are, or could be, perverts. Clients, and men in general, are demonised.

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11

Has the Swedish law criminalising clients ever been evaluated?

When passed, the Swedish law that criminalised clients did not require an evaluation to be completed to assess its effectiveness. To
date, there has never been any evaluation to establish the effects of the law on sex workers health or welfare. In 2001, the UN CEDAW
Committee stated:
354. While welcoming the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services, the Committee expresses concern that this might have
increased the incidence of clandestine prostitution, thereby rendering prostitutes more vulnerable. It also expresses concern that Sweden
has become a country of destination for trafficked women.
355. The Committee encourages the Government to evaluate the effect of the current policy of criminalizing the purchase of
sexual services, especially in view of the complete lack of data on clandestine prostitution which may have incidental effects
on the trafficking of women and girls.
However, Sweden did not comply with their request to evaluate the law, and at its next periodic report, the CEDAW Committee stated:
32. While noting the information provided by the delegation that an evaluation of the prohibition of prostitution, including the effects of
the 1999 Law on Purchase of Sexual Services, is scheduled for 2008, the Committee regrets the lack of information and data on the
prevalence of prostitution in the State party, including clandestine prostitution.
33. The Committee requests the State party to provide full information and data on the exploitation of women and on
prostitution in its next periodic report, including clandestine prostitution.
Sex workers report, that as at June 15 2009, said the evaluation has been completed, and that it only looked look at how the law may be
strengthened, and therefore may make it worse for sex workers (Jacobsson, 2009).

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6.

Economics and Sex Work

Sex workers can earn much more selling sex than doing domestic, low-salaried or unskilled work
The internet may increase or decrease the deman for sex in different regions of the world
There are few barriers to entry and exit into the sex work industry: the dominant driver is immediate financial needs
Radical and comprehensive social change would be needed to dramatically reduce sex work in poorer countries
Decriminalisation would mean the taxation, and police protection of, sex workers

Why would a person choose to become a sex worker?

Economically speaking, a person may choose to become a sex worker because it maximises their utility (Ahlberg & Jensen, 1998)
that is to say a sex worker, either male, female or transgendered, may be able to earn more selling sex than they could do in other jobs
commensurate with their level of education and compatible with the rest of their lives. In a South African study, it was reported that a sex
worker with only a primary school education could earn more than five times per month what he or she would earn in other types of work
(Gould, 2008). This finding is not limited to South Africa (Dandona et al, 2006). Therefore, in economic terms it can be considered a rational
choice to forego domestic, low-salaried or unskilled work in favour of sex work (Gould, 2008). The financial benefit of such a decision
becomes increasingly crucial when it is understood that many sex workers are responsible for supporting other dependents. A South
African study found that on average the income generated by each sex worker was also supporting two other individuals (Fick, 2005).
Well, I worked for many years in a factory in the clothing industry, but then with all the difficulties in the industry, I was retrenched. I am the
only person bringing in money in my family and I needed to make money. (Gould 2008)

The Demand and Supply for Sex Work

The demand for sex work stems primarily from men, particularly single or divorced men (Ahlberg & Jensen, 1998). Therefore an increase in
their numbers is likely to increase the demand for sex work (Ahlberg & Jensen, 1998). Various factors can influence this increase including
high average age of marriage, prohibition of sexual activity for women during pregnancy and migration (Ahlberg & Jensen, 1998). Globally,
it is estimated that the demand for sex work will rise (Aral & Ward, 2008) due in part to an increase in divorce rates, an increase in the
number of people living alone as well as the increased possibility of wide and frequent travel. In addition, a South African report found
that brothel owners often employed extra sex workers during the summer months to meet the increased demand (Gould, 2008). Indeed,
the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, drew extra attention to the sex industry as the huge influx of foreign and mainly male tourists,
increased the demand for sex work; coupled with high prevalence of HIV, this ran the risk of increasing transmission of HIV both in South
Africa and abroad. Effective HIV prevention interventions and the decriminalization of sex work were discussed to help reduce this impact.
Conversely, urbanisation and internet dating have been seen to decrease the demand for sex work since, from an economic
perspective, the cost of finding various sexual partners is reduced (Philipson & Posner, 1995). Still, significant increases in price would
have to be enforced in order for a considerable impact to be seen on demand (Philipson & Posner, 1995) and with comparatively high pay
for sex work commensurate with education it is unlikely that sex work will disappear (Philipson & Posner, 1995). Instead, the focus should
be on safe sex and making the profession of sex work safer.

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13

Few barriers to entry and exit

Sex workers typically fall into three categories street-based sex workers, brothel-based sex workers (including those based at clubs
and massage parlours) and escorts (who provide home visits). On the street the pay is lower and the risk of violence higher (Leigh,
2009). Economically speaking, there are few barriers to entry and exit into the sex work industry and most do so in accordance with their
immediate financial needs (Gould, 2008).
On average, sex workers who are based in brothels earn substantially more than street-based sex workers. Internet escorts in the US
and Canada have been found to earn high wages, up to $280 an hour (Leigh, 2009). Indeed, easy access to the internet has facilitated the
expansion of sex work, particularly at the high end. Advertising ones services via the internet therefore carries a premium as it avoids the
middle man and more discretely connects sex workers and clients without the need for brothel visits or street cruising (Shuger, 2000).

Economics of Exit programmes

Exit programmes are programmes set up to provide support to sex workers who may wish to leave the industry but typically are faced with
multiple challenges around employment, housing and healthcare. Many programmes provide life skills training, mentoring and counselling.
Many sex workers are drawn into sex work because the money that they can earn in the industry is better than they would be offered
elsewhere. Countries that have undergone major economic restructuring, such as those of the former Soviet Union, have seen increases
both in unemployment and sex work (Ward & Aral, 2006). From an economic perspective it would be difficult to dramatically reduce
sex work, particularly in many poorer countries, without a push for radical societal change, a restructuring of available employment
opportunities and education, in particular for women (Salazar, 2009).
It has been argued therefore that from an economic perspective exit programmes may be less likely to succeed unless they can offer
a path to an equivalent income to that of a sex worker in the industry. However, it should be noted that for younger workers this may not
quite be true the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective was involved in a social work support programme for workers aged under 18 which
focussed successfully on training opportunities.
The income differentials indicate that it would be very hard to eradicate sex work by offering women (and men) on the street alternative
jobs that are commensurate with their level of skill and education (Gould 2008)

The Economics of Decriminalisation

Decriminalisation implies that sex workers will be included in the tax base; by paying tax, employees are indirectly entering into a contract
with Government, and can reasonably claim that their work is recognised. SWEAT (Sex Worker Education and Task Force) argues that
similar to other businesses the supply will mirror the demand (SWEAT, 2010). Without decriminalization many clients may fear potential
arrest or prosecution and so seek encounters away from the public and the police, therefore putting the sex worker at greater risk of
robbery, assault or even murder (SWEAT, 2010)

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7.

HIV, Public Health and Sex Work Decriminalisation

Increased risk of HIV transmission is associated with multiple socila nd personal factors
Drugs and alcohol lower ones inhibitions, and can have a negative impact on the practice of safer sex
Unprotected sex spreads HIV not any one group of people
Criminalisation of sex work is the most powerful factor in making sex workers vulnerable to HIV

What is the link between sex work and HIV?

There are a number of factors that make sex workers particularly vulnerable to HIV:
i. Sexual intercourse is one of the main ways that HIV is passed from one person to another. Concurrent, multiple sexual partnerships (MCP)
are one of the key drivers of the HIV epidemic. UNAIDS defines MCP as overlapping sexual partnerships where sexual intercourse with one
partner occurs between two acts of intercourse with another partner. A sex workers job is to have sex, to have sex often, and to have a
number of sexual partners. Sex workers and their clients are therefore at increased risk of contracting HIV if they do not practice safer sex
every time they have sex.
ii. The link between violence and HIV is well-documented. Many sex workers work in violent and dangerous circumstances particularly in
countries where sex work is illegal. Many sex workers experience frequent and high levels of violence and rape from their clients and nonpaying partners as well as the police. In this situation, the risk of contracting HIV is high.
iii. Where women are often subordinate to men they may be unable to fully negotiate safer sex. This may mean that sex workers are
subjected to violence when they try to get male clients to wear condoms or use femidoms without the support of the law. It is therefore
important that sex workers are not disadvantaged by their illegal status and can draw on the support of the law to back them in their right
to have safe sex.
Sex workers living and working conditions are sometimes oppressive and some sex workers use alcohol and other drugs as a coping
mechanism. The majority of sex workers, however, do not have addictions. Some places where sex work is often initiated such as bars and
night clubs are also closely associated with heavy drinking and the use of drugs. Drugs and alcohol not only lower ones inhibitions, but can
have a negative impact on the practice of safer sex (Saxton & Hughes, 2009; Saxton, Dickson, Hughes, 2006). Many sex workers report
that they feel unwelcome at health care centres and that health care workers have negative or judgmental attitudes towards them. This
means that sex workers may not seek health care services when they need medical help and treatment. Untreated sexually transmitted
infections (STIs) increase the risk of HIV infection. Health care centres are also the main disseminators of condoms and safer sex
information, which means that sex workers are often not reached by their services. All the factors that make sex workers more vulnerable
to HIV are aggravated in a context where sex work is illegal. At the same time, it does not mean that all sex workers and their clients are
HIV-positive and one should guard against stereotypes.

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But arent sex workers making the HIV/AIDS epidemic worse?

Unprotected sex spreads HIV not any one group of people. Most sex workers would like to use condoms and protect themselves, their
clients and their non-paying partners from HIV. It is, after all, in the personal and work interests of sex workers to be healthy and to be free
from sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Research has shown that many clients and non-paying partners of sex workers refuse to
use condoms during sex. In a context of unbalanced power relations and a high threat of violence and abuse, many sex workers are not in a
position to insist on the use of condoms and could contract HIV from their clients or partners.

How would sex work decriminalisation impact on HIV and AIDS?

The criminalisation of sex work hampers every aspect of HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care. If sex work is decriminalised, there
is evidence to suggest that it will have the following positive effects on HIV and public health:
1. It will open up the sex industry and facilitate the flow of HIV information, condoms and lubrication. Sex will not have to take place in illicit and
dangerous places and sex workers will be empowered to refuse and report abusive clients or those clients who do not want to practice safer sex;
2. Sex workers will be able to enforce their rights. Occupational Health and Safety laws as well as labour laws will apply to sex work. This
means that sex workers bargaining power will increase, with the weight of the law supporting them. They will also have more protection
against violence by the police and others.
3. Health care workers who discriminate against sex workers will be held accountable. This means that health care centres are likely to be
more sex worker-friendly and will encourage sex workers to seek health care services and treatment early.
4. Sex workers will be free to form collectives and unions, share information and speak out on sex worker rights. This will impact on the
stigma that attaches to sex work, counter negative stereotypes of sex work and have a positive impact on HIV prevention and care.
In New Zealand, following decriminalisation in 2003, research has indicated that sex workers are more likely to have a personal doctor
and to disclose that they are sex workers (Plumridge & Abel, 2000; Abel, Fitzgerald & Brunton, 2007). Furthermore, Occupational Safety
and Health Guidelines were published following consultation with the sex industry in 2003. These guidelines are available online, and help
sex workers and brothel owners understand their obligations and rights in respect to workplace safety.
New Zealands Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) requires that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that safer sex practices are adhered
to. This ensures that sex workers can insist that condoms and dental dams are used for oral, vaginal and anal sex. Sex workers and brothel
operators have reported that it is now easier to get clients to use condoms (Mossman & Mayhew, 2007: 33). Because sex work has been
decriminalised, sex workers are more willing to report bad client behaviour to the police, stating that the PRA had helped to increase the reporting of
violence to the Police, and that Police had moved from the role of prosecution to that of protector (Mossman & Mayhew, 2007: 10, 11).
The Prostitution Reform Act enables the Ministry of Health to produce posters promoting safer sex which are displayed in brothels,
along with condoms, water based lubricants and other safer sex materials. Massage parlours, brothels, and street based sex workers no
longer have to hide their condoms in order to avoid detection by the police. Massage parlours can now call themselves brothels, which
reflects the true nature of their business and creates an explicit culture in the work place that supports safer sex.

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How do politics and ideology impact on HIV and public health interventions?
Because sex work is seen as a sensitive political issue, very few HIV and AIDS programmes on sex work focus on law reform. This is
despite the fact that the criminal law is the single most powerful factor in making sex workers vulnerable to HIV. This also regrettably holds
true for the multi-billion dollar HIV and AIDS funding organisation PEPFAR (the Presidential Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief), which has made
its funding conditional on grant recipients pledging that they will not promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or
sex trafficking.These approaches are short-sighted, and not based on evidence; it severely hampers effective HIV strategies. Although
UNAIDS and the World Health Organization who did not mention decriminalisation of sex work in their recent guidelines on sex work and
public health, in December 2009 the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidib, has called for the removal of punitive laws, policies,
practices, stigma and discrimination that act as obstacles to national AIDS responses (UNAIDS, 2009). They also do not adhere to the
International Guidelines on HIV and AIDS and Human Rights, see below.

International Guidelines on HIV and AIDS and Human Rights

GUIDELINE 4: CRIMINAL LAWS AND CORRECTIONAL SYSTEMS

21. States should review and reform criminal laws and correctional systems to ensure that they are consistent with international human
rights obligations and are not misused in the context of HIV or targeted at vulnerable groups.
(b) Criminal law prohibiting sexual acts (including adultery, sodomy, fornication and commercial sexual encounters) between consenting
adults in private should be reviewed, with the aim of repeal.
(c) With regard to adult sex work that involves no victimization, criminal law should be reviewed with the aim of decriminalizing, then legally
regulating occupational health and safety conditions to protect sex workers and their clients, including support for safe sex during sex
work. Criminal law should not impede provision of HIV prevention and care services to sex workers and their clients.
Furthermore, UNAIDS (2009b) has stated:
Laws that provide criminal penalties for populations at high risk of HIV infection, such as sex workers and men who have sex with men, drive
these populations underground and out of reach of HIV services that protect their health and the publics health.

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8.

Legal Approaches to Sex Work

Legal approaches to sex work greatly vary between countries, from total criminalisation to full decriminalisation
Legalisation and decriminalisation differ with regard to the degree of state control of the sex industry
The law does not have to uphold morality; not everything deemed immoral by society is criminalized eg lying
Human rights advocates argue that the state should not interfere when it comes to consensual sex between adults
Decriminalising the sex industry does not mean that violence and coercion are decriminalised

What is the relationship between sex work and the law?

There are a number of different legal approaches to sex work, and they vary from country to country. Some countries perceive sex work
as a crime that should be punished violently, while others recognise it as a legitimate form of work. On the one side of the spectrum there
are countries (particularly those that follow Sharia law) that can impose the death penalty on sex workers; while on the other side of the
spectrum one finds New Zealand following a decriminalisation approach, which enables the sex industry to work within mainstream law.
There are also countries that do not have explicit laws on sex work, but where sex work is still strongly stigmatised.

What legal models regulate sex work?

There are different ways of classifying the law on sex work. The four most significant ones are:
Total criminalisation
All aspects of sex work are illegal (or de facto illegal, and therefore criminalised) and carry criminal penalties. It therefore means that the
sex worker, the client and a third party such a brothel-owner could be prosecuted. South Africa and some Muslim countries are examples
of this model.
Partial criminalisation
This means that certain aspects of sex work are illegal, while others are not. In this model, sex workers are generally viewed as victims;
they are generally not criminalised under partial criminalisation laws. For example, in Sweden the buying of sexual services is criminalised, while
the selling of sexual services is not. In this case, while the sex worker is not criminalised, the client, brothel-keeper or sex worker manager could
be prosecuted. Sex workers maintain that this model renders them unsafe as they have to protect their clients from being prosecuted. They are
also reluctant to report crimes against them, as it can lead to police surveillance to catch their clients (Jacobsson, 2009).
Legalisation/regulation
This means that the state regulates the sex industry and can declare certain kinds of sex work to be legal, under strict conditions. The
Netherlands is an example of a country in which sex work is legal under certain circumstances, including location and licensing of individual
sex workers. In other countries where sex work is regulated, some of the following conditions have been imposed on sex workers: some
sex workers have to carry cards to show that they are sex workers; sex workers have to go for compulsory health checks and are issued
with health status cards; the registration of sex workers are registered with the authorities and, in very few jurisdictions, specific areas
are designated as sex worker business areas so-called street-walker zones also known sometimes as tolerance zones or red light
districts. Under this approach street work is often illegal, i.e. Victoria and Queensland in Australia, Nevada in the US.

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Decriminalisation
This means that all laws that criminalise sex work in a country are removed, and sex work is governed through the same laws that affect
other employment, such as health & safety and employment legislation. In this model, sex workers are able to work as independent
contractors, or as employees. Sex workers are able to unionise, mostly regulate the industry themselves, and can expect protection from
the police. Brothel operators and management are expected to comply with existing employment and health and safety legislation.
In this model, sex workers have a range of options in terms of places to work. They can work in managed brothels, be street based,
on line, or from their own home, or any combination of these. They may choose to work in small collectives with other sex workers, or by
themselves. There is a balance of power as managed brothels do not hold a monopoly and sex workers can find a situation that suits their
personal circumstances, and ensure they are not in a position where they may be coerced or exploited.

What is the difference between legalisation and decriminalisation of sex work?

Many people assume that the legalisation and decriminalisation of sex work are the same thing. This is incorrect. The main distinction
between legalisation and decriminalisation is the degree of state control of the sex industry, whether sex work is treated as something
needing special laws or not. In a legalisation model, the state will be the main regulator of the industry and will decide on the conditions
under which sex work could take place. With a decriminalisation model, sex workers are more empowered to make decisions about the
way they would like to work. Under decriminalisation, consensual activity between an adult sex worker and client would not be illegal; under
legalisation it could be.
For example, Victoria, in Australia, legalised sex work, resulting in a model that works against individual sex workers having choices of
work places, and favours big business. Street based work is usually outlawed, or unrealistically zoned, rendering these sex workers vulnerable
to being ostracised from support. Sex workers are sometimes unable to fit into the onerous legal requirements and end up working illegally.
On the other hand, New Zealand decriminalised sex work across the board, and uses mainstream law to regulate the sex industry.
Under a legalisation model, sex workers position in society does not necessarily improve substantially from a position of total or
partial criminalisation. If the state decides that a red light district should be proclaimed in an area in a city that not many people frequent,
sex workers would be forced to move to a more popular area in order to bring in an adequate income. If a sex worker is caught working in
an area that is not designated a red light district, she/he will be guilty of an offence and will not receive the benefit of the protection of the
law that a decriminalisation model has.

But wont decriminalising sex work mean that a society endorses sex work as a good thing?
Many people feel that morality should be enforced by the law. This logic is that if something is deemed immoral then it should
automatically also be illegal and there should be a law against it. There are a number of problems with the morality as law or law as
morality argument. Firstly it is very hard to determine exactly what a society or a countrys common morality is particularly so when
it comes to sex and relationships. Secondly, not all laws are moral. Certain countries made it a criminal offence for people to have
relationships across the colour bar a good example is apartheid South Africa. Most people today would agree that those laws were racist
and immoral. Thirdly, not everything that is regarded as immoral is prohibited through the criminal law. A large number of people may
regard lying as immoral, but yet there is hardly any country where it is illegal to lie to another person.

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19

Sexual morality and the law are even more complex topics. Human rights advocates argue that the state should not interfere, or keep
interference to a minimum, when it comes to consensual sex between adults. These arguments have been used with great success to get
rid of conservative and destructive criminal laws on adultery and same sex relationships. These same arguments hold true for sex work.
The criminal law should have no place in adult, consensual sex work. Therefore, while some people may feel that sex work is immoral or
sinful, this is not a good enough reason to make it a criminal offence.
Although sex work has been decriminalised in New Zealand, the Prostitution Reform Act does not endorse or morally sanction sex
work. As a result, government employment agencies cannot refer unemployed people to jobs in the sex industry. This means that no one
can be forced to take up sex work and a sex workers right to say yes, or no, to sex is further strengthened.

Positives of a Decriminalised Sex industry

When the sex industry was decriminalised in New Zealand, many people claimed a lot of harmful things would happen more violence,
more coercion, more gang involvement, more trafficking, more children involved, and so forth. Evidence-based research has proved these
claims to be false. Sex workers now have rights that they can realise. If something is perceived to be unsafe, sex workers, and even clients,
have blown the whistle, to report their concerns. They can approach the police to inform them. For example, when children or young people
are seen in brothels, or on the streets, adult sex workers and concerned clients have become proactive in approaching an authority. Sex
workers can complain to the police if they feel fearful about the actions of clients or brothel operators, or about the person who assaulted
or robbed them, or who coerced them.

Decriminalising the sex industry does not mean that violence and coercion are decriminalised.
It does mean that sex workers can make complaints about these without fear of being arrested on sex work related charges. Sex workers
in New Zealand have reported that Police had moved from the role of prosecutor to that of protector (Mossman & Mayhew, 2007: 10, 11).
Sex workers there now have the same employment rights as other workers, and can no longer be coerced into doing work they do not
want to do (Mossman & Mayhew, 2007: 43). The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 states that all reasonable steps must be taken to ensure
that safer sex practices are adhered to this protects sex workers and their clients from HIV. Sex workers have contacted the police about
clients deliberately taking condoms off during sex. The police have investigated these sex workers concerns (R v Morgan).

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9.

The Swedish Legal Model for Sex Work

In Sweden:
The sale of sex is legal, the purchase of sex is illegal
Sex work is seen as an expression of inequality between the sexes
There is no evidence the model has reduced sex work, only relocated it underground
Prohibiting the purchase of sex increases the risk of HIV transmission.
In Sweden, on the 1st January 1999, the law on prohibition of the purchase of sexual services came into effect following recommendations
from three government committees that criminalisation of sex work was necessary for the protection of women (Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal
Network, 2005) . Although the sale of sex remains legal, the law made the purchase of sex illegal for the client, in light of the Swedish
governments view that the purchase (or attempted purchase) is a form of violence by men against women (Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal
Network, 2005). In the Swedish model, sex work is seen as asymptom of the inequality between the sexes (stergren, 1999). All sex
workers are seen as victims, needing protection by the State and although the law is formally gender neutral, all proceeding discussion
referred to sex workers as women and clients as men (Mak, 1997). Female clients as well as male or transgender sex workers do not
feature. Although the law does not criminalize sex workers, all other aspects of the industry are open to prosecution (brothel owners,
clients, people who live off sex work earnings).
Even before the law was passed, sex work was not particularly visible in Sweden, and the sex workers movement was weak (Eriksson,
2005). Paradoxically, Swedish sex workers have now begun to form their own union as a result of the negative effects experienced since
the law was passed (Mak, 1997). Swedish sexworkers felt they were not included in the decision-making process (stergren, 2010).
When sex workers tried to raise their concerns, they were ignored, and accused of either being non-representative or of having a false
consciousness (Jacobsson, 2009), which ignores and belittles the real experiences of sex workers. Swedish sex workers feel that if they
had a stronger voice against criminalisation, the law would have met more difficulty being passed (stergren, 1999). Unlike countries
where sex work is legal and regulated, the radical feminist discourse has featured heavily in public debate and helped to shape the Swedish
model of criminalisation (stergren, 1999).
The Swedish model was structured around the following three arguments (Gould, 2001: 440-441):
1. The purchase of sex is a barrier to a gender equal society.
2. In countries where sex work is accepted, it is claimed to have had increased.
3. The social costs of disease and crime associated with sex work are damaging to society.

How the model is failing

Although the law was expected to reduce the number of sex workers, the evidence suggests that very few have stopped working (First
Decriminalize Sex Work Now! 2009). Several official reports were produced to monitor the effect of the law. Although there was an initial
drop in the number of street based sex workers, there was no evidence that sex work was lower overall (stergren, 1999, 2010). Even
the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has admitted that rather than work on the streets, many sex workers moved indoors
(Socialstyrelsens, 2000). There is no evidence that the number of clients has reduced.
Through criminalisation of the client, the Swedish model forces sex workers to work underground in isolation, making it less safe,
harder to control and putting them at increased risk of violence and abuse (The Economist, 2004). While the law has made sex work less
visible, street sex work in Sweden is estimated to have decreased by half (stergren, 1999), it has shifted demand rather than reduced it.

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Instead, there has been an increase in sex work in other forms and places (stergren, 1999). Neighbouring Denmark has noted a marked
increase in demand for sex work from Swedish clients (stergren, 1999). Jacobsson (2009) indicates that sex workers who remained
working on the streets are subjected to a programme of harassment and abuse by police, beingvideotaped having sex with clients in their
cars, strip searched without cause, and being searched for condoms.When these are subjected to violence at the hands of clients and
others, they are unable to complain to police because of this harassment by police (Eriksson, 2005).
As Kulick (2005: 209-210) reports:
In reality, however, the law has had entirely predictable and deeply negative consequences for street prostitutes, who by all accounts
do not number more than 650 to 1,000 in the entire country. These consequences include increased police harassment; reduced power to
choose between clients, since they have become scarcer (hence prostitutes tend to find themselves with precisely the violent and unstable
clients they would have avoided before); and the immediate deportation of non-Swedish sex workers discovered in the company of men
arrested for purchasing sex.9 Despite these outcomes, the law is touted by government representatives as a beacon of hope in what they
term the fight against prostitution .
By prohibiting the purchase of sex the risk of HIV transmission increases, since sex workers are given less time outdoors to negotiate
safe sex with clients (e.g. prior to getting into a clients car to avoid the potential arrest of the client) (Mak, 1997). Another consequence of
the law has been reduced prices on the street due to increased competition for fewer clients. As income is negatively affected, sex workers
can be more vulnerable and consequently an increasing number engage in unsafe sex and take more clients in order to survive (stergren,
2010). Combined with increased difficultly and discrimination in accessing health services, since many sex workers feel they are denied
the benefits of the welfare state, (stergren, 2010) the law could serve as an indirect driver of the HIV epidemic in Sweden, precisely the
opposite of its intended effect. In contrast, the Prostitution Reform Act of New Zealand, which decriminalised sex work in 2003, protects
the health of sex workers and their clients by taking steps to minimize the transmission of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (Canadian
HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 2005).

What evaluations have been done to measure the effects of this law on sex workers?
When passed, the Swedish law that criminalised clients did not require an evaluation to be completed to assess its effectiveness, unlike the
Prostitution Reform Act in New Zealand. To date, there has never been any evaluation on the Swedish law to establish the effects of that law
on sex workers health or welfare. In 2001, the UN CEDAW Committee wanted Sweden to evaluate the law and its effects on sex workers.

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10.

Religious and Moral Arguments for Sex Work Decriminalisation

Culture, religion and education all contribute to interpretations of morality

Decriminalisation ends the moral hipocracy of laws prohibiting sex work
Sex work is mentioned in many key religious texts as having a role in society
Society should place its focus on gender equity issues, not morality
A common dictionary definition of morality is a personal or social set of standards for good or bad behaviour and character, or the quality
of being right, honest or acceptable (Cambridge, 2010). Multiple interpretations of morality exist at the individual and societal levels,
formed as a result of culture, religion and education. Indeed, some interpretations of morality may arise from prejudice, discrimination and
ignorance (Wikipedia, 2010a). What one person views as immoral another may deem acceptable.
In Germany for example it was not sex work itself that was deemed immoral by locals, but a recently introduced flat rate fee being
promoted in struggling brothels, which promised sex with as many of the sex workers as the client desired for a single charge in an attempt
to generate business (Adams, 2009).

What are the primary moral objections to the decriminalisation of sex work?
Sex work is viewed as immoral and should therefore be illegal.
Decriminalisation of sex work challenges the values of multiple faiths.
Decriminalisation of sex work gives the sex work profession legitimacy and therefore normalizes it in society.

What are the primary moral arguments that justify the decriminalisation of sex work?
Decriminalisation supports and protects sex workers, who in most societies are a particularly marginalized and vulnerable group.
Decriminalisation contributes to upholding the well-being, health and human rights of sex workers, enabling them to gain further control
over their lives and avoid exploitation. Such an environment is better enabling for sex workers to exit the sex work industry if they so
choose (Putsch, 2002).
Decriminalisation challenges the moral and unjust double standard of the many prohibition laws which place more blame (and
punishment) on the sex worker than the client.
Decriminalisation facilitates the exchange of information with, and positive relationships with, policing authorities necessary for
identifying and assisting trafficked sex workers. If clients are not criminalised they will be more likely to come forward with information
regarding suspected trafficked victims they may encounter.

Difference between law and morality

In the past, certain laws would be considered void if they were not considered moral (Steiner, Alston, & Goodman, 2008). Today, however,
many countries recognize the difference between law and morality. A good example of the separation of the law and morality is the
treatment of adultery by law. While many individuals, from a range of faiths, may argue that adultery is immoral (since for some adultery is
considered a sin), in much of Europe as well many other countries including Chile, China, New Zealand and South Africa, adultery carries
no punishment by law. The decriminalisation of sex work would similarly recognize this fundamental difference between law and morality.

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In some countries such as Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan, adultery is illegal but the law is not enforced. In other countries including the
Pakista, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and United Arab Emirates, adultery does remain a crime and attracts a severe punishment, even death
(Religious Tolerance, 2002).
The YWCA does not condone prostitution on moral ground. They do, however, believe it is important to make a distinction between
morality and law in the case of sex work. In the time of Jesus, adultery was a criminal act punishable by death by stoning. Jewish law
defined adultery as unlawful sex with a married (or betrothed) woman. A married man was not however, considered an adulterer as long as
the women he slept with were unmarried. Most people nowadays would recognise the injustice of such a double standard and indeed law
has been changed in many parts of the world adultery has been decriminalised.

Religious and moral arguments for the decriminalization of sex work

Sex work is known to many as the oldest profession. It has played a role in society throughout human history, with multiple references to
its existence in the Koran, Torah and Bible among other religious texts. As a Rabbi of the Movement for Reformed Judaism argues With so
little changing in human nature over the millennia, the government is probably right not to try to eradicate prostitution, but instead ensure
it is as safe and crime free as possible. If that includes permitting mini-brothels, or even full-scale ones, then religious protests against
immorality should be put aside, recognising that condemnation has not made any difference and that regulation might achieve more
(Romain, 2007).
Most of the prohibitions against, and condemnations of, sex work in the Old Testament, particularly in the first five books, are
specifically dealing with the kadeshah (f), kadesh (m), and kadeshim (pl) (Cohen, 1983). Similarly, in the New Testament, the condemnation
of sex work is aimed at the porneia, temple prostitutes. What therefore appears to be condemned in the Bible is not sex work per se, but
religious prostitution, where sex was used as a method of worship (Bennachie, 1996: 10). Interestingly, while there are severe penalties in
Iran and Iraq for adultery (and by default sex work if the client and sex worker are unmarried), there is a Muslim law that arguably facilitates
sex work at some level. The practice of Nik al-Mutah which in Arabic roughly translates as marriage for pleasure, allows couples to have
sex for a limited period of time, anywhere between an hour and more than year - with possible renewal (Lapidos, 2008). Payment from the
man to the woman is typical since the practice was established as a way of enabling widows to receive an income (Wikipedia, 2010b). Since
the sex is sanctioned there are fewer questions of its morality.
Historically the Church/Bible has had an ambiguous position on sex work. At times sex work has been outlawed because of
associations with non-Christian religions. At other times it has been openly tolerated as a necessary outlet for mens uncontrollable lusts,
thus protecting the nuclear family. Rahab, an ancestor of Jesus, was a sex worker and he was a known friend of prostitutes (Luke 7: 36-50).
The South African organisation SWEAT (Sex Worker Education and Task Force) emphasizes that rather than focusing on the immorality
of sex work, society should focus on gender equity issues, appropriate exit programmes and decriminalisation (Sutherland, 2009). These
reforms would ultimately lead to a more just society where the rights and lives of sex workers are recognized rather than exploited
(Sutherland, 2009).

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11. The

Impact of Decriminalisation of Sex Work on The Values of Society

Where a social and consensual activity is prohibited or criminalised, criminal activity increases
Sex workers are more likely to be victims of crime than offenders
Decriminalisation of sex work would free police resources to deal with crimes which have victims
Claims that decriminalisation will increase numbers of sex workers are inaccurate

Crime and Sex Work

In 1919, America instituted prohibition of alcohol. Subsequently, 95,933 places of manufacture of alcohol were seized in 1921, increasing to a
total of 172,537 in 1925, and then to 282,122 in 1930. Arrests in relation to these seizures were 34,175 in 1921, which increased to 62,747 by
1925, and to 75,307 in 1930 (US Internal Revenue Service, 1921: 95; 1966: 6; 1970: 73). This indicates that where a social, consensual and
victimless activity is criminalized, enforcement is virtually impossible and unaffordable and there is a lack of public buy-in to it.
Nothing is and nothing could be more certain, from all the evidence, than that prohibition is an unqualified failure and a colossal
calamity to the Nation. Whatever promotes drunkenness and drug addiction and all forms of intemperance also promotes crime of
every kind. We have the unimpeachable evidence of our senses that certainly more than half the crimes and misdemeanors perpetrated
throughout the land and sensationally featured and headlined in the newspapers are crimes which are the result of prohibition. Prohibition is
a double-headed hydra of lawlessness, for we have on the one hand the crimes that infract the law of prohibition, and crimes that result from
alcohol and drug intemperance that follow in the wake Of prohibition; and on the other hand we have the crimes of attempted enforcement
of prohibition and the crimes of punishment, which are no less crimes because they have the sanction of expediency of prohibition law
enforcement (Maxim, 1926).
In the Prohibition example given above, crime increased. The consumption of alcohol is a social activity, undertaken by the majority
of the population. Therefore, it can be inferred that where other social activities, such as adult consensual sex, are criminalised, crime
related to that social activity increases. Where that adult consensual sex is sex work, the crime related to that will continue. It is the law
making it criminal that makes the crime continue. As Pearl (1987: 784-5, in Chapkis, 1997: 133) states, arrests for Prostitution cases raise
the closed by arrest rate for total crime indices. Prostitution is one of the only offenses for which nearly one hundred percent of reported
incidences result in arrest. To the extent that total arrest rate indices are elevated by the inclusion of this high percentage for prostitution,
they engender a false account of overall police protection
The South African Law Reform Commission (2009: 63) noted that:
where prostitutes are brought before court, the charges are often withdrawn at the first court appearance. Upon their release, prostitutes
either return to their previous workplaces or, less frequently, move on to new areas, where resident complaints may eventually lead to a
fresh round of arrests. In this way, a cycle of complaint and arrest is created, often leading to the violation of rights of prostitutes without
addressing the concerns of residents on a long-term basis (see Diagram 1).
Prior to decriminalisation of sex work in New Zealand, the police identified that while not all sex businesses are under the influence or
control of organised crime, they found that organised crime is extensively involved in the indoor sex industry in New Zealand in the form
of organised crime groups and criminal entrepreneurs (New Zealand Police, 2001). However, since the sex industry was decriminalised in
New Zealand, the Police Association told the Committee that prostitution was not a big issue for its members and evidence did not exist of
a link between the sex industry and general crime. Sex workers were more likely to be victims of crime rather than offenders (Prostitution
Law Review Committee, 2008: 163). As a result of this and other comments by the Police Association, the Prostitution Law Review

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Committee (PLRC) (2008: 164) stated that the links between crime
Pressure
on police

and prostitution are tenuous. The Committee could not find any
evidence of a specific link between crime and prostitution.
Therefore, it appears that in a decriminalised sex industry,
connections to organised criminal gangs are reduced as they
have a lack of interest in doing so, since it is high risk for little

Community
concerns

Mass arrests of
street prostitutes

reward (PLRC, 2008: 163). Furthermore, the South African Law

Reform Commission found, in relation to adult prostitution, that
criminalisation of prostitution may encourage rather than reduce
connections to crime (2009: 56).

Violence and sex work

A study of attitudes of business, neighbourhood, and police

Prostitutes return
to community

Charges withdrawn/
Fines paid

groups towards sex work in Boston, Massachusetts, indicated

that seventy-seven percent of people believed sex work is often
accompanied by muggings and violent crimes (Weitzer, 1991: 29,

DIAGRAM 1: CYCLE OF COMMUNITY COMPLAINTS AND MASS ARRESTS

in Chapkis, 1997: 141). However, this violence may be as a result of the

continued criminalisation of sex work. The South African Law Reform Commission states the criminalisation of prostitution and the attendant
social stigma contribute to a climate in which society treats prostitutes with discrimination and violence, often with impunity and further notes
(2009: 21-22) the climate of criminalisation means that prostitutes are abused financially, sexually and physically by gangsters, clients, brothel
owners and pimps ,often with impunity. Research shows that irrespective of the legal option followed, women and girls in prostitution have a
mortality rate 40 times higher than the national average.
Furthermore, the South African Law Reform Commission (2009: 71) stated: Existing laws against rape, assault, robbery and harassment are
often not applied to prostitutes when such offences are committed against them signifying a lack of adherence to local and international law.
Serial killers have often targeted prostitutes as a vulnerable population. In pleading guilty in 2003 to the murders of sex prostitutes,
Gary Leon Ridgway, from the U.S. Pacific Northwest, told a judge he targeted streetwalkers because I thought I could kill as many as I
wanted to without getting caught.
In 2003, Green River Killer Gary Ridgeway confessed to having strangled 90 women to death and having sex with their dead bodies.
He stated, I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported
missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted
without getting caught.
Sadly some Seattle area prostitutes, their boyfriends or pimps, knew the Green River Killer was Gary Ridgeway for years. But they were
either afraid to come forward for fear of being arrested themselves, or when they did come forward the police didnt believe them over the
upstanding family man Gary Ridgeway. It seemed as though the police werent working very hard to find the Green River Killer.

SEX WORK AND THE LAW

26

If the victims had been teachers, nurses or secretaries or other women, I suspect- as Ridgeway did - that the killer would have been
caught much sooner.
Ridgeway remained at large for 20 years. Annie Sprinkle, 2008
Indications are that decriminalisation in New Zealand has meant that sex workers are more likely to report crime against them, and that
police are more likely to take action when complaints are made (Mossman, 2007: 10). This may mean that cases like that above are unlikely
to occur in a decriminalised environment.

Drugs and Sex Work

When an activity such as sex work, is criminalised, it allows for other criminal elements to enter sex worker more easily. The South African
Law Reform Commission (2009: 56) indicated that the criminalisation of prostitution may encourage rather than reduce connections to
crime (2009: 56) and as Pearl (1987: 784), in Chapkis, 1997: 133) states, arrests for Prostitution cases raise the closed by arrest rate
for total crime indices. It therefore appears that the decriminalisation of sex work would therefore free police resources to deal with other
crimes, such as violence and the supply illicit drugs.

If we decriminalise sex work, we will get more of it

During Prostitution Law Reform in New Zealand, the Maxim Institute, which was opposed to the Bill, claimed that there would be more
brothels, more sex workers, and so forth. Such claims are difficult to counter when made, as they are often based on unfounded
allegations and anecdotes. However, the Prostitution Law Review Committee (PLRC), established by the Prostitution Reform Act, found
(2009: 33):
The number of sex workers in Auckland in 2006 (1,513) was less than half that estimated at the time of decriminalisation (3,390). Wellington
(377 vs. 400) and Christchurch (392 vs. 528]) also had fewer numbers than were reported in the Committees first report.
Not only this, but despite a claim that the numbers of street-based sex workers in Auckland increased by 400% as a result of
decriminalisation. This claim cannot be substantiated, and was not based on systematic or robust research (PLRC, 2009: 40); The PLRC
(2008: 40) found: The figure of a 400% increase has been re-reported several times, demonstrating the ease with which opinion can be
perceived as fact. In his speech to the House during the second reading of the Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill,
Gordon Copeland MP attributed the report of a 400% increase to the Maori Wardens submission on the Bill in 2006. The Maori Wardens may
have been influenced by an article in the NZ Herald in 2005 in which Mama Tere Strickland was reported to say, Numbers have quadrupled
since that Bill [Prostitution Reform Act] (New Zealand Herald, 2005).
In the Committees first report, the number of street-based sex workers in Auckland was estimated to be 360 (PLRC, 2005). An increase
of 400% would mean there would now be 1,440 sex workers on Aucklands streets. The Committee considers that the research undertaken
by the CSOM conclusively refutes an increase of this magnitude, with the 2007 figures estimating the number of Auckland street-based sex
workers at 230.
It is therefore quite clear that claims that decriminalisation will cause more sex workers are inaccurate and cannot be believed.

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12.

Trafficking and Sex Work

At the time of writing this section, the Soccer World Cup in South Africa was about to happen. It starts with two sections indicating the
concerns expressed at that time about trafficking, and then focuses on more general material on that topic.

There is repeated and gross exaggeration of figures concerning trafficking for sexual purposes
Trafficking does exist, and decriminalisation helps minimise it by increasing legal transparency
The harms caused by trafficking are paralleled by the harms caused by criminalization of sex work

Why was there a lot of anxiety about sex work and the 2010 World Cup?
Big international sport events such as the Soccer World Cup in Germany (2006) and the Olympics in China (2008) sparked popular interest
and concern over the sex industry. The fears about the 2010 World Cup related specifically to South Africas high HIV prevalence rates.
Media disquiet seemed to focus on international tourists travelling to South Africa, contracting HIV and returning to their countries with
it. Unprotected sexual intercourse is the main cause of spreading HIV and the focus therefore seemed to fall on the sex industry. South
Africa is one of the few countries in the world that criminalises all aspects of sex work selling sex, as well as all other acts relating to sex
work are illegal. There were fears that sex work clients (tourists) might be prosecuted under South Africas conservative sex work laws and
spend time in notorious South African jails.
The audience attending the Sweden Paraguay game of the football World Cup at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin had many odd costumes,
from face paint to silly hats. But even for them, the two women dressed as enormous penises stood out. When a group of beefy, blonde
Scandinavians wearing blue and yellow jerseys stopped to stare at the cheerfully bobbing phalluses, a petite grey-haired woman in a T-shirt
and cap quickly approached them. She smiled broadly, holding out a hand full of plastic-wrapped gifts. You want to know what we are doing?
she asked brightly. Handing out condoms so that men will use them when they go to prostitutes. The young men stared at her in surprise,
then tentatively reached out to grab the proffered condoms. One of them decided to double-dip. Then Ill need one more, he said with a grin.
The idea of distributing condoms at sporting events came a few years ago. Schenk says she was discussing the issue of safe sex with
some of her clients, and it became clear that while prostitutes almost always wanted to use protection, it was the men who usually resisted.
Football matches, they realised, were an ideal place to spread the word. We were thinking: where can we find the men? Because there is
no organisation of johns. The condom distribution project, complete with phallus mascots, has now been picked up by womens groups in
towns across Germany.

Loewenberg (2006, p105-106)

What about trafficking and the 2010 World Cup?

The bulk of media attention fell on trafficking. Fears about thousands of young children and women being trafficked into South Africa to
satisfy the demand of soccer revellers often circulated in the popular media. Anxiety over trafficking is often exaggerated and is eventually
stated as fact. Anti-sex work groups repeated the claim used before the Berlin World Cup in 2006 that there would be about 40,000 new
prostitutes being recruited to come into the country for the World Cup (Telegraph, 2010). However, these anecdotal statements were
without foundation, and appear to almost mirror the claims made prior to the World Cup being held in Berlin, from the actual claimed
figure of 40,000 to the description of porous borders, put into a South African context. Needless to say, these claims cannot be verified.
They can only be classed as hearsay evidence, and the burden of proof lies with those who make such claims to prove that they are true.
Systematic research conducted for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics shows unequivocally that the panic over trafficking and large sports
events is unfounded, as detailed below.

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28

Prostitution and trafficking activities as related to mega sporting events first came to public attention in Athens (2004) and Germany
(2006). An increased number of sex workers and trafficking victims were expected to flood into these locations during their respective
mega events. Neither location experienced any increase that could be attributed to their hallmark event. The commonly held notion of a link
between mega sports events, TIP (Trafficking in Persons) and sex work is an unsubstantiated assumption.
- Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting, 2010

What has happened at other major sporting events in other countries?

In 1995, New Zealand hosted the Americas Cup, an international yachting event, and Police were pressured to clean up central Auckland
streets. This resulted in sex workers being targeted for soliciting on the streets in a concentrated campaign. Sex workers were displaced
from these inner city streets that were known for their sex work activities. There was a tolerance in the neighbourhood, and even a culture
that traded on this diversity. Several street workers relocated at this time to other more conservative areas of the city, where this tolerance
never existed. Fifteen years later, councils and the police are having to deal with vigilante groups who have still not accepted the presence
of sex workers in these newer sites and are illegally harassing sex workers and their clients. There is a danger when cities approach sex
workers as a problem to be got rid of, rather than part of the fabric of society. It is extremely important to enable sex workers to operate
in areas where they normally work when these events occur. This ensures they stay in contact with the services they regularly access, such
as condom distribution schemes, etc.
Although anti-sex work organisations claimed that trafficking increased in Vancouver during the Winter Olympics in February 2010, sex
worker groups indicate that this claim is not based on fact. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police state that claims that trafficking increased
as a result of the 2010 Winter Olympics are not correct and that they have to go with the hard evidence and empirical evidence, [and that]
is that there has been no documented increase during the Olympic Games (Kardas-Nelson, 2010).
The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), an Alliance of more than 90 non-governmental organisations from all regions
of the world, also states that claims that trafficking increases during major international sporting events are without foundation. Three of
GAATWs members are from Canada, including GAATW Canada, based in Victoria; another of their member organizations is Ban Ying, who
worked on trafficking in Germany during the 2006 World Cup. GAATW states that Data from previous sporting events indicates that an
increase of trafficking in persons into forced prostitution does not occur around sporting events (GAATW, 2009: 1).
Furthermore, GAATW notes there were claims that there would be an anticipated increase of 20,000 forced prostitutes, many to
be trafficked, in Athens during the 2004 Olympics. In reality, some 181 trafficked persons were reported in all of 2004 in Greece, and
according to Greeces Annual Report on Organised Crime and International Organisation on Migration (IOM) Athens, there were no instances
of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation during the 2004 Olympics (GAATW, 2009: 1).
While anti-sex work organisations are quick to point out that this is a 95% increase in the number of trafficked women over the previous
year, they omit that the Greek anti-trafficking law was passed in 2002 (McKnight, 2009), and that such an increase would be normal
over that two year period. Similarly, GAATW (2009: 1) reports that anti-sex work groups estimated there would be up to 40,000 forced
prostitutes who would be introduced to Germany for the World Cup. In reality, all data, information and expert statements strongly indicate
this did not occur either during or after the World Cup.

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29

People opposed to decriminalisation, are found of claiming 40,000 or 400% as a figure they liberally apply to indicate the number
of sex workers trafficked, or the number by which brothels have increased, or the increase in the number of children involved in sex work.
Either way, they cant count.

Why trafficking is unlikely during a major international sports event

While numerous groups who oppose sex work claim that trafficking will increase (by 40,000, by 400%, by 4xxxx...) during a major
international sports event in a country, these claims are not based on fact, and are without foundation. Ban Ying, a non-governmental
organisation in Berlin which works on trafficking in Germany and provides assistance to trafficked women, and member of GAATW, gave
four reasons why trafficking is unlikely to increase during a major international sports event. These are:
1. Trafficking in persons is a business; traffickers want to make profits. It is costly to bring a woman without valid residence papers into
another country. Women forced into prostitution would not make enough money for the perpetrators through the duration of the event.
2. Trafficking in persons in most cases means that the women are residing illegally in [the country]. Large sporting events have an
increased police presence in the cities where the games are being played. Therefore, the risk to be uncovered is much higher than during
other times. In practice, it is evident that traffickers are avoiding places where they could raise suspicion due to the illegality of the women
under the immigration laws.
3. Some sources are claiming that some brothels have opened their business just for the World Cup. One should look at the relation
between the costs to build such an establishment which could be up to six million euro and the duration of the sports event (four
weeks). The absurdity of this claim becomes obvious.
4. The priority of soccer fans travelling to a city where the games are taking place is to watch the games. How much money, time and
energy will then be left for a visit to a sex worker? (Prasad & Rohner, 2006: 1-2).

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30

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FeatureStories/archive/2009/20090424_Consultation_Sexual_Partnerships.asp
UNAIDS, (2008). Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights Recommendations
regarding the UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work (April 2007). Available:
http://data.unaids.org/pub/BaseDocument/2008/2080215_rghr_statement_
sexworkguidance_en.pdf
UNAIDS, (2009b). UNAIDS urges Rwandan leadership in rejecting punitive
laws which setback the AIDS response. Available: http://data.unaids.org/pub/
PressStatement/2009/20091218_ps_rwanda_en.pdf
World Health Organization, (2005). Toolkit for targeted HIV/AIDS prevention and care in
sex work settings. Available: http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/prev_care/sexworktoolkit.pdf
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2006). International Guidelines on HIV/
AIDS and Human Rights 2006 Consolidated Version. Available: http://data.unaids.org/
Publications/IRC-pub07/jc1252-internguidelines_en.pdf

LEGAL APPROACHES AND SEX WORK

Abel, G., Fitzgerald, L., & Brunton, C., (2007). The Impact of the Prostitution
Reform Act on the Health and Safety Practices of Sex Workers. Christchurch School of
Medicine. Available from http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy-and-consultation/legislation/
prostitution-law-review-committee/publications/impact-health-safety/prostitution-lawreview-committee.
Amnesty International, (2002). Death Penalty, Amnesty International News March
2002. Available: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT53/02/2002/en/
d6b1550b-d872-11dd-9df8-936c90684588/act53022002en.html
Jacobsson, P., (2009). We want to save you! (And if you dont appreciate it, you will be
punished!). Stockholm: Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. Available: http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=7D7nOh57-I8
Mossman, E., & Mayhew, P., (2007). Key Informant Interviews Review of the
Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Crime and Justice Research Centre, Victoria University
of Wellington. Available from http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy-and-consultation/
legislation/prostitution-law-review-committee/publications/key-informant-interviews/keyinformant-interviews-review-of-the-prostitution-reform-act-2003
Sex Work Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), (2006). Why you should
support decriminalisation even if you are against sex work.. Available: http://www.sweat.
org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=19
South African Law Reform Commission (2009). Discussion Paper: Adult Prostitution.
Available: http://www.doj.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp001-2009_prj107_2009.pdf

32

SWEDENS MODEL FOR SEX WORK

THE IMPACT OF SEX WORK ON THE VALUES OF SOCIET Y

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (2005) New Zealand and Sweden: two models of
reform. Available: http://www.bayswan.org/swed/Canada_law_reform_models.pdf, last
accessed 17 Feb 2010.
CEDAW Committee, (2001). Concluding observations of the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Sweden. New York, NY: United Nations.
Available: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/SwedenCO25.pdf
CEDAW Committee, (2008). Concluding observations of the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Sweden. New York, NY: United Nations.
Available: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N08/298/66/PDF/
N0829866.pdf
Eriksson, J., (2005). Whats wrong with the Swedish model? In, Cantin, ., Clamen,
J., Lamoreaux, J., Mensah, M.N., Robitaille, P., Thibout, C., Toupin, L., Tremblay., F.,
(Eds.), eXXXpressions: Forum XXX proceedings. Stella: Montreal. Available: http://www.
chezstella.org/docs/eXXXpressionsE.pdf?PHPSESSID=d9d4ec0b1869ff0ab688149bc
4aa155
First Decriminalize Sex Work Now! (2009). Available: http://www.firstadvocates.org/
events/sex-workers-clients-and-law-first-public-forum last accessed 18 Feb 2010
Gould, A., (2001). The Criminalisation of Buying Sex: the Politics of Prostitution, Journal
of Social Policy, 30: 3, pp437-456.
Jacobsson, P., (2009). We want to save you! (And if you dont appreciate it, you will be
punished!). Stockholm: Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. Available: http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=7D7nOh57-I8
Kulick, D., (2005). Four hundred thousand Swedish perverts, GLQ, 11: 2, pp 205-235.
Mak, R., (1997). Prostitution in Sweden. Available: http: www.bayswan.org/swed/
flashback_sweden.html, last accessed 18 Feb 2010.
stergren, P. (1999). Prostitution in Sweden. Available: http://www.bayswan.org/
swed/flashback_sweden.html last accessed 18 Feb 2010
stergren, P. (2010). Sexworkers Critique of Swedish Prostitution Policy. Available:
http://www.petraostergren.com/pages.aspx?r_id=40716 last accessed 19 Feb 2010.
The Economist, (2004). Sex is Their Business, The Economist, September 2nd 2004.
Available: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3151258

Abel, G., Fitzgerald, L., & Brunton, C., (2007). The Impact of the Prostitution Reform Act
on the Health and Safety Practices of Sex Workers. Christchurch, NZ: University of Otago.
Maxim, H., (1926). Testimony on the National Prohibition Law before the Subcommittee
of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Sixty-Ninth Congress, April 5
to 24, 1926.
New Zealand Police (2001). The Vice Scene in New Zealand. Wellington, NZ: National
Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, New Zealand Police.
Prostitution Law Review Committee, (2008). Report of the Prostitution Law Review
Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Wellington, NZ: Ministry
of Justice.
Sprinkle, A., (2008). Stopping the terror: A day to end violence against prostitutes.
Available from http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/cafe2.php?id=21
South African Law Reform Commission, (2009). Discussion paper project 107:
Sexual offences, adult prostitution. Pretoria, SA: South African Law Reform Commission.
US Internal Revenue Service, (1921). Alcohol and tobacco summary statistics.
Washington, DC: US Internal Revenue Service.
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Washington, DC: US Internal Revenue Service.
US Internal Revenue Service, (1970). Alcohol and tobacco summary statistics.
Washington, DC: US Internal Revenue Service.

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL ARGUMENTS FOR SEX WORK DECRIMINALISATION

Adams, W.L., (2009). From Bangkok to Berlin, Hard Times Hit the Sex Trade,
Time.com. Availble:http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1901396,0.
html#ixzz0iCJYnkdR
Bennachie, C., (1996). Biblical proscriptions on prostitution. Paper presented to
Massey University, September 1996.
Cambridge, (2010). Dictionary, Available: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?
key=51866&dict=CALD
Cohen, A., (1983). The Soncino Chumash. Brooklyn, NY: Soncino Press.
Lapidos, J., (2008). How to Spot a Persian Prostitute: Street walkers in chadors.
Available: http://www.slate.com/id/2189816/
Putsch, H, (2002). Theological and Moral Aspects of the Prostitution Reform Bill.
Wellington, New Zealand.
Religious Tolerance, (2002). Punishment for Adultery in Islam. Available: http://www.
religioustolerance.org/isl_adul2.htm
Romain, J., (2007). Jewish Attitudes to Prostitution. Available: http://news.
reformjudaism.org.uk/assembly-of-rabbis/jewish-attitudes-to-prostitution.html
Steiner, H; Alston, P; Goodman, R (2008) International Human Rights in Context: Law,
Politics, Morals. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Sutherland, C., (2009). Sex Work in South Africa An argument for decriminalisation.
Available: http://www.ngopulse.org/article/sex-work-south-africa-%E2%80%93-argumentdecriminalisation
Wikipedia, (2010a), Morality. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality
Wikipedia, (2010b). Nikah mutah. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigheh
YWCA, (2001). Submission to the Justice and Electoral Committee on the Prostitution
Reform Bill. Wellington: YWCA

SEX WORK AND THE LAW

TRAFFICKING AND SEX WORK

Bowen & Shannon Frontline Consulting (2009). Human Trafficking, Sex Work
Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments and Recommendations. Research report
commissioned by the Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group, Vancouver. Available:
http://www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, (2009). Trafficking in Persons and the
2010 Olympics: Briefing paper. Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, February
2009. Available: http://www.chabdai.org/canada_files/Trafficking%20in%20Persons%20
and %20the%202010%20Olympics.pdf
IRIN, (2009). South Africa: Safer sex for soccer fans and sex workers, PLUSNEWS 8
December, Available: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=87370
Kardas-Nelson, M., (2010). Human trafficking and The Games, Rabble News, 25 Feb
2010. Available: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/02/human-trafficking-and-games.
Loewenberg, S., (2006). Fears of World Cup sex trafficking boom unfounded, The
Lancet Vol 368 July 8, p105-106.
McKnight, P., (2009). Forced prostitution and sports a weak link, Vancouver
Sun, 22 Jun 2009. Available: http://www.vancouversun.com/story_print.
html?id=1717223&sponsor=
Prasad, N., & Rohner, B,., (2006). Dramatic Increase in Forced Prostitution? The World
Cup and the consequences of an unscreened rumour. Berlin: Ban Ying. Available: http://
www.ban-ying.de/downloads/Worldcup&Trafficking.pdf
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) & South African
National AIDS Council, (2009). Consultation on Consultation on HIV, Sex Work and the
2010 Soccer World Cup: Human Rights, Public Health, Soccer and beyond. Proceedings,
26 27 November 2009, Cape Town.
Telegraph, (2010). World Cup 2010: 40,00 prostitutes to enter South Africa,
Telegraph, 5 Mar 2010. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/worldcup-2010/7374301/World-Cup-2010-400-prostitutes-to-enter-South-Africa.html

33

38 Hout Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa

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Decriminalization of Sex Work: Policy Background Document

I.

Policy Overview

Amnesty International is opposed to the criminalization or punishment of activities

related to the buying or selling of consensual sex between adults. Amnesty
International believes that seeking, buying, selling and soliciting paid sex are acts
protected from state interference as long as there is no coercion, threats or violence
associated with those acts. Legitimate restrictions may be imposed on the practice of
sex work if they comply with international human rights law (i.e., they are for a
legitimate purpose, appropriate to meet that purpose, proportionate and nondiscriminatory).
Amnesty International believes states have a positive obligation to reform their laws
and develop and implement systems and policies that eliminate discrimination against
those engaging in sex work. Additionally, states must actively seek to empower the
most marginalized in society, including through supporting the rights to freedom of
association of those engaging in sex work, establishing frameworks that ensure access
to appropriate, quality health services and safe working conditions, and through
combating discrimination or abuse based on sex, sexual orientation and/or gender
identity or expression.
Amnesty International understands the imperfect context in which individuals choose
to become sex workers (or miners or foreign domestic workers). We know that some
individuals engaged in sex work do not have the necessary resources or information to
leave commercial sex work when they want to. At the same time, we believe human
rights principles requires policy-makers to value the voices of those who are directly
affected by inequality and discrimination. We believe that policies which purport to
support and improve the situation of the resource-poor must focus on empowering the
disenfranchised and directly addressing structural disadvantages such as poverty, not
on devaluing their decisions and choices or criminalizing the contexts in which they
live their lives. We believe that a policy based on human right principles that values
the input and experiences of sex workers is the most likely to ensure that no one
enters or stays in sex work involuntary.
Amnesty International considers children involved in commercial sex acts to be
victims of sexual exploitation, entitled to support, reparations, and remedies, in line
with international human rights law. States must take all appropriate measures to
prevent violence and exploitation of children. The best interests of the child should, in
all cases, be a primary consideration and the state should preserve the right of the
child to be heard and to have his or her views given due weight in accordance with
their age and maturity.
See Amnesty Internationals policy on decriminalization of sex work for a more
detailed explanation of the organizations policy position.

II. Key Definitions

Sex work. The exchange of sexual services for some form of remuneration. Notably,
the terms sex work and prostitution are sometimes used interchangeably. Many
sex workers feel the term prostitute is demeaning and organized sex worker groups
generally prefer the term sex worker or person in the sex industry. Others utilize
the term prostitution to reclaim and/or destigmatize the term and practice. Where
possible, Amnesty International will use the terminology of those engaging in sex
work or the prevailing terminology used in a particular context. Where referring to
the general situation or policy, Amnesty International prefers the term sex work and
sex worker.
Sex worker. Many jobs involve using some aspect of sexuality for economic gain.
Throughout this policy, we refer to sex workers as those who exchange sex acts for
money or some other form or remuneration (i.e., food or shelter). While sex acts
are not solely limited to intercourse, for purposes of this policy, the phrase is
interpreted to exclude dancing and the production of sexually explicit entertainment
such as pornographic films and materials, where all individuals engaged in the
production of such material are remunerated.1 Moreover, the term sex worker is
intended to be gender neutral, as both men and women provide commercial sexual
services.
Child. For the purposes of this policy, child means anyone under the age of 18,
regardless of the age of majority in a specific country, as established in international
law.
Criminalization. State authorities use a variety of methods to discourage certain
behaviour, ranging from financial incentives to the imposition of criminal sanctions.
For the purposes of this policy, criminalization means measures that seek to punish
sex workers and clients through the threat of sanctions such as detention, fines, or
exclusion from benefits or care.

Pornography and other sexually explicit material are distinguished from sex work and not specifically
included within this policy because in addition to involving remuneration for individuals involved in
the production of such material, there is no identifiable paying client. The policy exclusion does not
indicate in any way that Amnesty International condones violence, threats or coercion that may
accompany the production of pornography and other sexually explicit material. Rather, Amnesty
International would similarly scrutinize such conduct in accordance with international human rights
principles and standards. Dancing and other sexually explicit entertainment are distinguished from sex
work as they a re protected activities as s form of expression.

III. Additional Context Amnesty International Policy on Sex Work

Amnesty International does not take a position on the morality of sex work. Our focus
is on how to ensure that all human beings, including those who engage in sex work,
are most empowered to claim their rights and live free from fear, violence and
discrimination. Amnesty International believes individuals are entitled to make
decisions about their lives and livelihoods, and that governments have an obligation to
create an enabling environment where these decisions are free, informed, and based
on equality of opportunity.
Amnesty International is also acutely aware that in a world in which 3 billion people
live on less than $2.50 a day, and 80% of the global population live in countries
where income differentials are widening, individuals make transactional arrangements
with regard to sexual relationships that are not always a matter of direct coercion, but
rather a reflection of limited options. This is particularly true for girls, women and
other individuals who are marginalized. Marginalized individuals do not enjoy the
equal protection of the law and are often greatly disadvantaged in their ability to
claim their rights, including their right to effective remedies for rights violations.
Amnesty International neither judges those choices nor attempts to negate them,
because to do so would ignore the ways that individuals act thoughtfully and
deliberately to, at a minimum, survive or to empower themselves. Amnesty
International observes that criminalizing or otherwise punishing people for their
choices in selling or buying consensual sex in any way fails to address these structural
inequalities, and rather serves to further disempower individuals.
Amnesty International does not take a position on whether sex work should be
considered work for the purposes of regulation, though some individuals clearly
engage in commercial sex acts to earn a living. However, any regulation of sex work
must aim at guaranteeing that individuals who undertake sex work do so voluntarily
and in safe conditions, and are able to stop engaging in sex work when and if they
choose to.
Human trafficking into forced prostitution, or any other aspect of non-consensual sex,
should be criminalized as a matter of international law. Victims of such crimes are
entitled to protection and remedies, regardless of their sex, nationality, health status,
sexual orientation, gender identity, prior work history, willingness to contribute to
prosecution efforts, and/or other factors.
Amnesty International believes that the conflation of sex work with human trafficking
leads to policies and interventions which undermines sex workers sexual autonomy,
and causes them to be targets of exploitation and abuse, as well as may enable
violation of their human rights. The disproportionate focus on trafficking into forced
prostitution by some governments also ignores the human rights violations suffered
by people trafficked into domestic work, construction, agricultural work, or other
forced work, in which they often suffer a range of violations, including exploitation
and violence. It further ignores that some people who are trafficked into other forms
of forced labour are often subjected to sexual abuse and violence.
Amnesty International believes that human trafficking laws and policies should
clearly reflect that trafficking is a crime and a human rights violation. By contrast,

laws and policies on adult sex work should reflect that those who voluntary engage in
sex acts, regardless of whether remuneration is involved, are exercising their
autonomy, and as such, should be permitted to do so free from interference from the
government.
As stated in the Amnesty International policy, any child who is engaged in
commercial sex work should be treated by the government as a victim and the best
interest of the child should define all government interventions on behalf of that child.

IV. Key Background

Criminalization and Punishment of Sex Work
Across the world, people who engage in sex work are subject to criminal sanctions in
three general ways.
First, states criminalize the selling of sexual services, with the imposition of penalties
upon sex workers themselves.
Second, and more commonly, states impose criminal or other sanctions on activities
related to sex work. Such sanctions are applied to those who keep a brothel, procure
or buy sexual services, recruit for or arrange the prostitution of others, live off the
proceeds of sex work, or facilitate sex work through the provision of information or
assistance. Sanctions are often attached to the act of solicitation, rather than the
selling of sex itself.
Third, authorities use other laws, not specific to sex work, to harass, intimidate or
justify the use of force against or exploitation or arrest of individuals engaged in sex
work. Laws on vagrancy, public lewdness, public nuisance, homosexuality, crossdressing and gender expression are all used against people engaged in sex work. In
many cases, the mere existence of these lawseven if they are rarely appliedis
used to justify the harassment and extortion of sex workers both by police and others.
Those individual sex workers who are non-gender conforming, or who work in public
spaces such as on the street or in bars, are at increased risks of being targeted for
harassment or extortion.
The Swedish Model and Other Regulatory Approaches to Sex Work
The criminalization of the clients of sex work, but not the sex workers themselves, is
sometimes referred to as the Swedish Model, as it was prominently adopted by
Sweden in the late 1990s.2 This approach is also taken by the governments in
Norway, Iceland, Nepal, India, Korea, Finland, and Israel. At present, the French
government is considering adopting this approach to sex work, as is the government
of Argentina. Some countries impose criminal sanctions on both the sex worker and
the client. Most countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East impose some form of
penal sanctions on activities related to sex work. Sex work is legal, but subject to
some restriction, in New Zealand, parts of Australia and the United States of America,
the Netherlands, and Denmark, and in practice, in other countries where nonlegislative policing or sentencing tolerance agreements exist.
Reasoning behind Criminalizing or Punishing Sex Work

As noted within Amnesty Internationals policy on sex work, the organization is opposed to
criminalization of all activities related to the purchase and sale of sex. Sexual desire and activity are a
fundamental human need. To criminalize those who are unable or unwilling to fulfill that need through
more traditionally recognized means and thus purchase sex, may amount to a violation of the right to
privacy and undermine the rights to free expression and health.
2

Around the world, laws on sex work have been developed from contradictory
intentions to simultaneously punish and/or help sex workers. These conflicting laws
reflect confusion, ambivalence and fear about sex, desire, and womens sexual
autonomy.
Some argue that sex work, or prostitution, is inherently a form of violence against
women that must be eradicated.3 Their rationale is that those who claim to sell sex
voluntarily are coerced to do so by circumstances or by structural disadvantages that
they may be blind to such as poverty or gender inequality. Consequently, the men and
women who buy sex are seen as perpetrating abuse through maintaining unequal
power-structures that keep sex workers disadvantaged, whether or not they are aware
of it or believe themselves to be doing so. From this perspective, the individual
selling sex is considered to lack agency and to be a victim of violence. This analysis
largely ignores the complexity of human sexual interactions particularly those that do
not fall within the framework of traditional heterosexual relationships in which the
man is presumed to be the more powerful actor.
Others rely on principles of autonomy to assert that not all sex work is akin to
violence. They interpret testimony of sex workers who report that they engage in sex
work voluntarily as evidence of consent, when no evidence of violence or direct
coercion exists. 4 Their rationale is that the circumstances that lead some adults to
engage in commercial sex acts are no less legitimate than those that lead others to
make decisions regarding how to earn a livelihood, best provide for oneself and their
family, and/or express their sexuality.
Along similar lines, men and women who buy sex from consenting adults are also
exercising personal autonomy. For somein particular persons with mobility or
sensory disabilities or those with psycho-social disabilities that hamper social
interactionssex workers are persons with whom they feel safe enough to have a
physical relationship or to express their sexuality. Some develop a stronger sense of
self in their relationships with sex workers, improving their life enjoyment and
dignity. At a very basic level, expressions of sexuality and sex are a primary
component of the human experience, which is directly linked to individuals physical
and mental health. The states interference with an adults strategy to have sex with
another consenting adult is, therefore, a deliberate interference with those individuals
autonomy and health.
At times, sex work is conflated with trafficking, leading to coercive or overreaching
interventions such as brothel raids or rescues that often violate human rights and
actually decrease the safety for sex workers.5 For example, such interventions may
drive people engaged in sex work away from established sex work collectives or
See, for example, the justification of the European Womens Lobbys recent campaign, Together for
the Europe Free of Prostitution, at http://www.womenlobby.org/spip.php?rubrique187 (accessed on 8
January 2012).
4
See John Goodwin, Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific, UNDP/UNAIDS/SNAP, 2012, at
http://www.snap-undp.org/elibrary/Publications/HIV-2012-SexWorkAndLaw.pdf (accessed on 8
January 2012).
5
See UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, available at:
http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaidspublication/2009/JC2306_UN
AIDS-guidance-note-HIV-sex-work_en.pdf (accessed on 6 May 2013).
3

contribute to them moving continually from one place to another, undermining the
connections and social fabric that can help keep them safe.
Health Considerations
People engaged in sex work are often presumed to face particular health risks because
of their work they do. These include an additional risk of contracting sexually
transmitted infections, being subjected to violence and abuse by police and clients,
and health complications specifically related to working in public spaces for streetbased sex workers (i.e., pollution, lack of access to sanitation, constant standing, etc.).
While individuals engaged in sex work may face increased health risks, these risks are
less related to the act of sex work itself, and more to the policies, practices, and
cultural biases that limit their health-related decisions and choices, and access to
health services. In other words, while sex work carries certain risk factors, these are
exacerbated by the threat of criminal sanctions and stigma attached to sex work in
many jurisdictions. For example, the criminalization of sex work adds to rather than
subtracts from, the risk of police abuse and extortion.6 Additionally, the use of
condoms as evidence in criminal cases against those accused of sex work has shown
to detract from sex workers ability to protect themselves against sexually transmitted
infections.7
The blanket criminalization of the clients of sex work, or of support functions such as
body guards and receptionists, has also proven to drive those engaged in sex work
underground, increasing the risk of violence and abuse. Where aspects of sex work
remain criminal, those engaging in sex work are less inclined to seek both routine care
and urgent protection.8 Moreover, the criminalization of living off the proceeds of
prostitution, while perhaps intended to cover those who exploit sex workers, has
been shown to apply to both help-functions (guards, receptionists, landlords), as well
as roommates, family, and even children.9
IV. Human Rights Legal Context

WHO, (2005), Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS: Critical Intersections, Violence Against
Sex Workers and HIV Prevention, Information Bulletin Series, No 3, available at:
http://www.who.int/gender/documents/sexworkers.pdf (accessed on 20 March 2013)
7
PROS Network and Leigh Tomppert, (2012), Public Health Crisis: The Impact of Using Condoms as
Evidence of Prostitution in New York City, PROS Network and the Sex Workers Project at the Urban
Justice Center, available at: http://sexworkersproject.org/downloads/2012/20120417-public-healthcrisis.pdf (accessed on 20 March 2013).
8
See, for example, UN General Assembly, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone
to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Anand Grover,
Human rights Council, Fourteenth session, Agenda item3, para 35. A/HRC/14/20, April 27, 2010;
available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/14session/A.HRC.14.20.pdf
(accessed on 15th May 20130
9
Crago AL (2008), Our Lives Matter Sex Workers Unite for Health and Rights, Open Society Institute,
available at: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/our-lives-matter-sex-workers-unite-healthand-rights (accessed on 20 March 2013); Oishik Sircar and Debolina Dutta, Beyond Compassion:
Children of Sex Workers in Kolkatas Sonagachi, 18 CHILDHOOD 3, 333-49 (2011).

The criminalization of voluntary sex between adults, whether for direct monetary gain
or otherwise, threatens the rights to health, non-discrimination, equality, privacy, and
security of person. In addition, the right to freely chosen gainful work (Article 6,
ICESCR) may be jeopardized by the criminalization of sex work.
International human rights law stipulates that everyone is entitled to safe and healthy
working conditions (Article 7(b), ICESCR), including those who are self-employed or
who make their living in informal setting such as selling fruit on the side of the road
or bartering repair services, or, indeed, through exchanging sex for remuneration. Safe
working conditions in such circumstances could include adequate access to clean
water in public spaces, public sanitation services, street security, and otherwise. These
factors often overlap with obligations to guarantee adequate underlying determinants
of health, which are critical to the right to health more generally.
International human rights law also confers the right to privacy, which has been
applied to some extent to sexuality and individuals autonomous decisions with regard
to their bodies (Article 17(1)(2), ICCPR; Article 16(1)(2), ICRC; Article 22(1),
ICRPD; K.L. v. Peru, CCPR/C/85/D/1153/2003 at [6.4] and [6.5]; CESCR, General
Recommendation 24).
At least one human rights body has directly applied the right to privacy to sex outside
of the confines of marriage. For example, the Human Rights Committee in Toonen v.
Australia, held that laws criminalizing same-sex activity in private were in breach of
the ICCPR. Notably, the Committee rejected the governments public morality
justification for its criminal law. Moreover, the Committees reasoning did not solely
focus only on sexual orientation-based discrimination, but rather it found a violation
of the right to privacy because the laws interfered with adult consensual sex in
private. This reasoning suggests that all laws prohibiting sex outside marriage may be
in breach of Article 17 (privacy) of the ICCPR.
While no human rights instruments explicitly address the right to privacy in the
context of sex work, standards and interpretations that apply this right in the context
of expression of sex, sexuality and gender identity can be applied to recognize certain
aspects of sex work that invoke aspects of privacy. Specifically, governments would
need to articulate a compelling state interest in interfering in individual sexual
interactions.
The right to privacy is illusory for those who live in grave poverty and for other
marginalized individuals and communities. The enforcement of laws on vagrancy,
public nuisance and public lewdness is often a badly disguised attack on people
simply because they are poor. The appropriate response of the state should be to fulfil
the right to adequate housing as well as public sanitation not to criminalize those
who live their lives without adequate shelter. Additionally, sex work often takes
place in public spaces, where individuals struggle to avoid public scrutiny and
policing. Nevertheless, to the extent that sex work invokes principles of privacy, such
protections should be applied.
Article 6 of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against
Women requires states to protect women and girls against exploitation of
prostitution. CEDAW does not define the terms exploitation or prostitution. The

language used in Article 6 suggests that not all instances of sex work are inherently
exploitative. When the text of CEDAW was being drafted, a proposal for the
amendment of article 6 to call for the abolition of prostitution in all its forms was
rejected. The CEDAW Committee has consistently over time expressed concern with
the criminalization of women engaging in sex work, while noting, in line with the
Convention text, that criminal sanctions should be reserved for those who profit from
the exploitation of prostitution.10 The Committee has not, over time, taken a
consistent approach to whether or not the clients of sex work should be criminalized.
That said, the overwhelming majority of comments on this issue seem to indicate that
the Committee believes only exploitation should be punished, and that not all clients
are exploitative. The Committee is very clear in its expectations that State Parties
provide proper opportunities for women and girls to leave sex work when they want
to.
The right to health contains both freedoms and entitlements, including the right to
control ones health and body, including sexual and reproductive freedom, and the
right to be free from interference, as well as equality of opportunity for people to
enjoy the highest attainable level of health.11 Like other rights, the right to health is
subject to non-discrimination guarantees, including the right to non-discrimination on
the basis of sex, property, or other status. The CEDAW committee has recommended
that special attention should be given to the health rights of women belonging to
vulnerable groups, which include women in prostitution.12
The criminalization of sex work and related activities has increasingly been
recognized as a major impediment in the global fight against HIV/AIDS 13 because it
prevents sex workersand sometimes their clientsfrom taking necessary
precautions to lower the risk of transmission, and it serves as a chilling effect to deter
sex workers from testing or seeking treatment for fear of arrest.
The importance of recognizing and promoting sex workers human rights is a basic
building block of sound HIV prevention as reflected in the policy positions of the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The UNAIDS strategy for 2011-2015, Getting
to Zero, commits UNAIDS and its cosponsors to empower sex workers and push for

10

See, for example, CEDAW Committee, Concluding Observations on Fiji, 17 and 22 January 2002,
UN Doc A/57/38, paras. 64-65; Concluding Observations on Hungary, 20 August 2002, UN Doc
A/57/38, paras. 323-324; Concluding Observations on Kenya, 27 July 2007, UN Doc
CEDAW/C/KEN/CO/6, paras 29-30; Concluding Observations on Republic of Korea, 31 July 2007,
UN Doc CEDAW/C/KOR/CO/6, paras. 19-20; Concluding Observations on France, 1 February 2008,
UN Doc CEDAW/FRA/CO/6, paras. 30-31; Concluding Observations on Germany, 2 February 2009,
UN Doc CEDAW/C/DEU/CO/6, paras. 49-50; Concluding Observations on Japan, 7 August 2009, UN
Doc CEDAW/C/JPN/CO/6, para. 39.
11
Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14 (2000), The right
to the highest attainable standard of health (article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights), E/C.12/2000/4, 11 August 2000, para. 8.
12
CEDAW Committee, General Comment 24, Women and health.
13
Global Commission on HIV and the Law Risks, Rights & Health, (UNDP, 2012) p.38.

the repeal of punitive laws, policies, practices, stigma, and discrimination that block
effective HIV responses.14
In 2008, the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia called for the removal of
legislative, policing, and other barriers that prevent sex workers from organizing
collectives, and asked donors to remove conditionalities that prevent partners from
working with sex worker organizations.15 In 2009, the Independent Commission on
AIDS in the Pacific called on countries to undertake progressive legislative reform to
repeal legislation that criminalizes high-risk behaviour[, identified in report to include
sex work]. The Commission noted that [c]hanging the laws need not imply approval
of the behaviour but would signal a greater concern for people.16 More recently, in
2012, the Global Commission on HIV and the Law 17 recommended the
decriminalization of sex work and called for laws and policies to ensure safe working
conditions to sex workers.18
Criminalizing elements of buying or selling of adult consensual sex also threatens the
right to liberty and security of person where sex workers or their clients are arbitrarily
detained or held in shelters or re-education centers from where they cannot leave
voluntarily. Any person detained on grounds that are not in accordance with the law
is detained arbitrarily and therefore unlawfully. Detention can also amount to
arbitrary detention, even if it is authorized by law, if it includes elements of
inappropriateness, injustice, lack of predictability and due process of law.19 The UN
Human Rights Committee has determined that legally authorized detention must be
reasonable, necessary and proportionate taking into account the specific
circumstances of a case.20
14

UNAIDS Strategy 2011-2015, Getting to Zero, (UNAIDS: Geneva, 2010), p. 7. UNAIDS issued
an updated Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work in 2009 and some additional Annexes to the
Guidance Note in 2001. See UNAIDS, Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work (Annexes included),
available at
http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaidspublication/2009/JC2306_UN
AIDS-guidance-note-HIV-sex-work_en.pdf (accessed on 6 May 2013). In addition to calling for the
reduction of demand for unprotected paid sex, differentiation between trafficking and sex work, and
economic empowerment of sex workers, the Guidance Note calls for removal of all penalties for sex
work. While the Annexes contained within the updated Guidance Note are not necessarily policy
positions of the various UN bodies represented by UNAIDS, the statements contained within the
Annexes are the most far-reaching for the UN with regard to sex work.
15
The Commission on AIDS in Asia, Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response,
(Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 2008), p. 187, para. 5.3.
16
The Commission on AIDS in the Pacific, Turning the Tide: An Open Strategy for a response to
AIDS in the Pacific, (UNAIDS: Bangkok, 2009), p. 89, para. 4.
17
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law was an independent expert body created under UN
auspices to develop actionable, evidence-informed and human rights-based recommendations for
effective HIV responses that promote and protect the human rights of people living with and most
vulnerable to HIV.
18
Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Risks, Rights & Health, (UNDP: New York, 2012), p.
99.
19
See, Communication No. 458/1991, A. W. Mukong v. Cameroon (Views adopted on 21 July 1994),
in U.N. doc. GAOR, A/49/40 (vol. II), p. 181, para. 9.8.
20
Van Alphen v. The Netherlands, Communication No. 305/1988, adopted 15 Aug. 1990, U.N. GAOR,
Hum. Rts. Comm., 39th Sess., 5.8, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/39/D/305/1988 (1990); A v. Australia,
Communication No. 560/1993, adopted 30 Apr. 1997, U.N. GAOR, Hum. Rts. Comm., 59th Sess.,
9.2, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/59/D/560/1993 (1997).

10

In the context of migration, the International Convention on the Protection of the

Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families applies to sex workers
who travel between States to engage in sex work, regardless of whether this
immigration is legal or illegal.
International law is clear with regards the prohibition on the involvement of
childrenthat is all those under 18in commercial sex acts. This prohibition is
spelled out through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, its Optional Protocol
on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, and in ILO
Convention Number 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor. Under these treaties, states are
obliged to protect children from economic exploitation, sexual exploitation, and any
work that is likely to be hazardous or harmful to a childs health or physical, mental,
or social development.21 The use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution
or pornography is considered a worst form of child labor, for which states shall
design and implement action programs to eliminate as a priority.22 States are also
required to criminalize offering, obtaining, procuring or providing a child for use
in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration.23
Importantly, states must take all feasible measures to ensure that all children who
have been involved in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of
consideration receive all appropriate assistance including their full social
reintegration and their full physical and psychological recovery.24 Such assistance
should include the necessary and appropriate direct assistance for the removal of
children from such work and ensuring access to free basic education, and, wherever
possible and appropriate, vocational training, for all children removed from the worst
forms of child labor.25

Further reading:
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/sex-work-laws-policies20120713.pdf
http://www.snap-undp.org/elibrary/Publications/HIV-2012-SexWorkAndLaw.pdf
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/decriminalize-sex-work20120713.pdf
http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/6/1/1

21

CRC arts. 32(1) and 34.

ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the
Worst Forms of Child Labour (Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention), adopted June 17, 1999, 38
I.L.M. 1207 (entered into force November 19, 2000),arts. 3(b) and 6(1).
23
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography, (Optional Protocol CRC SC), adopted May 25, 2000, G.A. Res.
54/263, Annex II, 54 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 6, U.N. Doc. A/54/49, Vol.III (2000), entered into
force January 18, 2002, ratified by Cambodia May 30, 2002, arts. 2(b) and 3(1)(b).
24
Ibid, art. 9(3).
25
ILO Convention 182, arts. 7(2)(b) and (c).
22

11

July 2015
To
Mr. Salil Shetty
Secretary General,
Amnesty International
We are writing in regard to Amnesty Internationals global policy consultation on sex work. As
organizations working to apply the international human rights framework to sex work, we would like to
offer our support for Amnestys proposed policy in favour of the decriminalisation of sex work.
We support Amnestys assertion that states have an obligation to reform their laws and develop and
implement systems and policies that eliminate discrimination against those engaging in sex work.
Amnesty calls on states to actively seek to empower the most marginalised in society, including
through supporting the rights to freedom of association of those engaging in sex work, establishing
frameworks that ensure access to appropriate, quality health services and safe working conditions
and through combatting discrimination or abuse based on sex, sexual orientation and/or gender
identity or expression. This echoes the voices of sex workers around the world, who argue that states
are responsible for proactively protecting fundamental rights1 and call on them to undertake measures
that will help protect, respect, and fulfil these rights for all.2
In environments where many aspects of sex work are criminalised including, for example, soliciting,
living off the earnings of a sex worker (the latter generally penalizing families and children of sex
workers the most), or other provisions criminalising third parties3 sex workers face discrimination
and stigma which undermine their human rights, including to liberty, security of the person, equality,
and health. Evidence suggests that sex workers risk of HIV infection is inextricably related to their
marginalized and illegal status, which drives their work underground and increases police abuse and
exploitation. According to the UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, even where services
are theoretically available, sex workers and their clients face substantial obstacles to accessing HIV
prevention, treatment care and support, particularly where sex work is criminalized. In countries
where sex work is decriminalized, there is evidence that violence directed at sex workers is reduced,

1 Eight rights that have been recognised and ratified by most countries as fundamental human rights and that are established in various
international human rights treaties, as well as national constitutions.
2 http://www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/ConStat%20PDF%20EngSum.pdf
3 http://www.sangram.org/resources/sex_work_and_laws_in_south_asia.pdf

relations between sex workers and the police are improved, and access to health services is
increased.4
Punitive laws that criminalise and punish sex work act as instruments through which sex workers are
harassed and regularly have their human rights violated by law enforcement agencies, health
authorities and clients. In many countries, sex workers are a primary means by which the police meet
arrest quotas, extort money, and extract information. Police wield power over sex workers in the form
of threats of arrest and public humiliation and use condoms as evidence of illegal activity, undoing
years of effective public health promotion and campaigning around STIs and HIV.567 Forced testing for
HIV is commonplace, along with breaches of due process and privacy. Sex workers in many
jurisdictions are the targets of frequent harassment, physical and sexual abuse, and forced
rehabilitation. Where sex work is illegal, sex workers often feel there is little they can do to address
the violations perpetrated against them and are deterred from accessing health services for fear of
further stigma and abuse.
Sex workers across the globe support Amnestys analysis of the human rights context of sex work and
the health considerations and other implications for sex workers. The removal of punitive laws and
policies targeting sex workers is imperative. International agencies such as the Global Commission on
HIV and the Law8, UNAIDS9, the World Health Organization10, the Global Alliance Against the
Trafficking in Women (GAATW)11 and Human Rights Watch12 have all called for or support the
decriminalisation of sex work.
Decriminalisation is not an attempt to legalise pimps, nor does it increase exploitation of sex workers.
Such arguments are made with a limited understanding of the sex trade and undermine sex workers
struggle for the right to health and justice. Decriminalisation will help sex workers organise and
address all forms of exploitation, including abusive, sub-standard or unfair working conditions
instituted by both state and non-state actors.

4 Prostitution Law Review Committee. Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the operation of the Prostitution Reform Act
2003. Wellington, NZ; Ministry of Justice: 2008
5 http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/criminalizing-condoms-20120717.pdf
6 http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014
7 http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/sti/sex_worker_implementation/en/index.html
8 http://www.hivlawcommission.org/index.php/report
9http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaidspublication/2009/JC2306_UNAIDS-guidance-note-HIV-sexwork_en.pdf
10 http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/guidelines/sex_worker/en/
11 http://www.gaatw.org/statements/GAATWStatement_05.2013.pdf
12 http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014

The sex workers rights movement is aligned with the human and womens rights movements in
condemning the abuse and violation of the rights of women, including sex workers. Sex work must not
be equated with sexual exploitation or sex trafficking. As noted by the Global Commission on HIV and
the Law, Sex work and sex trafficking are not the same. The difference is that the former is
consensual whereas the latter coercive. Any point of view that casts voluntary prostitution as an
oxymoron erases the dignity and autonomy of the sex worker in myriad ways. It turns self-directed
actors into victims in need of rescue.13
We call for the full decriminalisation of sex work as demanded by sex workers themselves.
Yours sincerely,

Meena Saraswathi Seshu

SANGRAM, India.
Attached Endorsements by Organisations and Individuals.

13

http://www.hivlawcommission.org/index.php/report

Endorsements by Allies to the Amnesty Position on Decriminalising Sex Work

Sr.No. Endorsements by Organisations
Country
Counselling, Education and Support for Migrant
1
Austria
Women
2
Belize
United Belize Advocacy Movement
3
ABIA
Brazil
4
Anlises Socioculturais
Brazil
5
Brazil
Coletiva das Vadias de Campinas
6
Da Cia de Teatro Pessoal do Faroeste/SP
Brazil
7
Davida, Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
8
Brazil
Departamento de Cincia Poltica UNICAMP
9
GEMPAC/Rede Brasileira de Prostitutas
Brazil
10
Brazil
Marcha das Vadias- Campinas
11
Brazil
Ncleo de Estudos de Gnero - Pagu/Unicamp
12
Brazil
Sexuality Policy Watch
Brazil
Social Medicine Institute, Rio de janeiro State
13
University
14
UFPE
Brazil
15
UNICAMP
Brazil
Program for Vulnerable Groups at Health and Social Bulgaria
16
Development Foundation
17
Solidarite Pour Les Droits Des Travailleuses De Sexe Burundi
Women's Network for Unity
Cambodia
18
Association for Women's Rights in Development
Canada
19
(AWID)
20
Canada
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Sex Workers' Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN)
Central Eastern Europe
21
and Central Asia
22
Refugee Law Project
Columbia
Democratic Republic of
23
Groupe TUnited Statesidiane
Congo
24
Gadejuristen // The Danish Street Lawyers
Denmark
AIDS Information, Support Centre, Medical Centre
25
Estonia
TERVISEKESKUS ELULOOTUS
26
AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW)
Europe
Europe
The International Planned Parenthood Federation
27
European Network
Eurasian Harm Reduction Network
28
Europe/Asia
29
Feminist Initiative Network
Finland
30
Pro-tukipiste
Finland
Global
Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights
31
(WGNRR)
Akshara
India
32
Aneka
India
33
Center for International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
India
34
University
Centre for Health Law, Ethics and Technology, Jindal GIndia
35
Chetan India
India
36
37
India
CREA

38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86

INSAF
MASUM
Muskan
Mitra
Me and My World
Mumbai Mobile Creches
Nazariya
National Network of Sex Workers India
Partners For Law In Development
Point Of View
Saheli
Samraksha
SANGRAM
Sneha Mahila Sangha
South India AIDS Action Program (Siaap)
Spandana Mahila Okkuta
Swathi Mahila Sangha,Banaglore
TARSHI
Vidrohi Mahila Manch
VIMOCHANA, Forum for womens Rights, Bangalore
WINS,India
WOMEN'S INITIATIVES (WINS)
Sangama
Sex Work Allies Global
Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation
JATN
Feminist Ire
Italian League for Fighting AIDS
Keeping Alive Societies' Hope (KASH)
KELIN
Survivors Group
Podruga
Shah-Aiym
Tais Plus Dva
Ulukman Daryger
Coalition Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized
Communities
ESSE
Healthy Options Project Skopje (HOPS)
Opcija-Ohrid
Open Gate
Clset de Sor Juana AC
TAMAUIPAS DIVERSIDAD VIHDA TRANS A.C.
JMMS
AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW)
Red Umbrella Fund
Rights4Change Cooperation U.A.
WPF
Instituto de Medicina Social
Carusel Association

India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
Ireland
Italy
Kenya
Kenya
Kenya
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Macedonia
Macedonia
Macedonia
Macedonia
Macedonia
Mxico
Mxico
Nepal
Netherlands
Netherlands
Netherlands
Netherlands
Portugal
Romania

87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115

Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition and

AIDS Action Foundation
Advocacy Triangle
AIDS Accountability International
Centre for Applied Legal Studies
GRIP Rape Intervention Programme
One in Nine Campaign
School of Public Health & Family Medicine, University
of Cape Town
Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce
(SWEAT)
Sonke Gender Justice
Triangle Project
Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research
(WiSER)
Womens Legal Centre
Women's Legal Centre
Comite de Apoyo a las Trabajadoras del Sexo (CATS)
Association Boulevards
Sexual Rights Initiative
Empower Foundation
Red Umbrella Sexual Health and Human Rights
Association
Global Coalition of Women Against AIDS in Uganda
(GCOWAU)
WONETHA
Northumbria University
American Jewish World Service
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)
International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School
International Women's Health Coalition
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of
New York
MuJER: Women for Justice, Education, and
Awareness
Open Society Foundations, Public Health Program

Saint Lucia
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
South Africa
Spain
Switzerland
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
Uganda
Uganda
United Kingdom
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States

117

School of Social Policy and Practice, University of

Pennsylvania
The Ellis Franklin Foundation

United States

118

The Urban Justice Center

United States

119

Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights (UAF) United States

120

Women's ReEntry Network-WREN

United States

121

Transgender Law Center

United States

122

Mujer y Salud en Uruguay - MYSU

Uruguay

123

Sexual Rights Centre

Zimbabwe

116

United States

Individual Endorsements
No

Name

Medea Lavalie

Denmark

Bug Powder

3
4

Hristijan Jankuloski, ,
Raminta Stuikyte

France
Macedonia
Lithuania

Antonio

Afghanistan

Donata South

Africa

Filan

Albania

Barbara Fogola

Argentina

Csar Tisocco

Argentina

10
11

Fernando Ferrioli
Juan Marco Vaggione

Argentina
Argentina

12

Juan Pablo Cuello

Argentina

13

Maria Julia Bustamante

Argentina

14

Marisa

Argentina

15

Violeta Arce

Argentina

16

Alain

Australia

17

Beth

Australia

18

Cameron Cox

Australia

19

Chris Lemoh

Australia

20

Clyde James Roberts

Australia

21

Colin Ross

Australia

22

Conor Montgomery

Australia

23

Debolina Dutta

Australia

24

Dominique Kohoron

Australia

25

Elizabeth clark

Australia

26

Erica

Australia

27

Francesca Ebel-Sweett

Australia

28

Ginger

Australia

29

Hilary Caldwell

Australia

30

Jackie McMillan

Australia

31

Jackie Parker

Australia

32

Jason Branigan

Australia

Country

33

Jayke Burgess

Australia

34

Jdl

Australia

35

Jed Arkell

Australia

36

John Reynolds

Australia

37

Joseph Tobin

Australia

38

Julianne Elliott

Australia

39

Julie Bates

Australia

40

Justin LeMay

Australia

41

Kerrie jordan

Australia

42

Larissa Clifford

Australia

43

Lisa

Australia

44

Martin Plaza

Australia

45

Megan Stapleton

Australia

46
47

Melissa Newby
Michael Kirby

Australia
Australia

48

Narelle Brookes

Australia

49

Nassim Arrage

Australia

50

Natalie Aylward

Australia

51

Nellie Blitz

Australia

52

Nina

Australia

53
54

Norrie MAy-welby
Oishik Sircar

Australia
Australia

55

Okapi

Australia

56

Paula Dunne

Australia

57

Pawel Nowak

Australia

58

Peter

Australia

59

Phoebe

Australia

60

Raquel More

Australia

61

Samuel

Australia

62

Sarah

Australia

63

Sarah Sherlock

Australia

64

Saul Isbister

Australia

65

Steven Smith

Australia

66

Tarkwin Coles

Australia

67

Tayce

Australia

68

Taylor Richards

Australia

69

Vinnie

Australia

70
71

Zoe Gross
Nancy Hudson - Rodd

Australia
Australia

72

LEF

Austria

73

Hena Akhter

Bangladesh

74

Sultana

Bangladesh

75

Riya

Bangladesh

76

Adrienne Arnot-Bradshaw

Belgium

77

Barnaby Falck

Belgium

78

Ella Watson

Belgium

79

Jon

Belgium

80

Laura

Belgium

81

Linda Van Loon

Belgium

82

Louise

Belgium

83

Malin Helland

Belgium

84

Marie-Caroline

Belgium

85

Shruti Datar

Belgium

86
87

Zamy
Vicky Claeys

Belgium
Belgium

88

Caleb Orozco

Belize

89

Ronald

Bolivia

90

Aline Godois de Castro Tavares

Brasil

91
92

Andreia Skackauskas Vaz de Mello

Flavio Cruz Lenz Cesar

Brasil
Brasil

93

Cristina Cmara

Brazil

94

Cristina House

Brazil

95

Elaine Bortolanza

Brazil

96

Fernanda Maria Vieira Ribeiro

Brazil

97

Helena Rizzatti Fonseca

Brazil

98

Iara Beleli

Brazil

99

Lara Beleli

Brazil

100

Laura Murray

Brazil

101

Magali Mendes

Brazil

102
103

Manuela Magalhes
Oliveira Rosa

Brazil
Brazil

104

Paulo Roberto de Faria Pinto

Brazil

105

Rosa Oliveira

Brazil

106

Sonia Corra

Brazil

107

Soraya Silveira Simes

Brazil

108

Maria Luiza Heilborn

Brazil

109

Rayna Dimitrova

Bulgaria

110

Ntataroka Guillaume

Burundi

111

Christian Andres Gonzales

Calla Bolivia

112

Ly Pisey

Cambodia

113

Chris Atchison

Canada

114

Courtney Dollar

Canada

115

Frederique Chabot

Canada

116

Jean McDonald

Canada

117

Katarina Kolar

Canada

118

Kayleigh

Canada

119

Kerry Porth

Canada

120

Laura Feer

Canada

121

Mary Veltri

Canada

122

Nicole D. McFadyen

Canada

123

Nicole Tirona

Canada

124

Richard Elliott

Canada

125

Sara Fabris
Shareen Gokal

Canada
Canada

Sherry Walter
Paul

Canada
Canada

130

Vreer
Franklin Gerly Gil Hernandez

Chile
Colombia

131

Carole S Vance,

Columbia

132

Dr Chris Dolan

Columbia

133

Asha Jamilla

134

Jury Kalikov

Democratic Republic of
Congo
Estonia

126
127
128
129

135

Anke van Dam

Europe

136

Sesenieli Naitala

Fiji

137

Jaana Kauppinen

Finland

138

Niina Vuolajrvi, researcher, Finland

Finland

139

Bertrand AUBINEAU

France

140

Charles

France

141

Chloe martin

France

142

Illud Shone

France

143

Krystel Odobet

France

144

Morgane Merteuil

France

145
146

Nicolas Milcent (Bug Pwder)

Melanie Berard

France
France

147

Stuart Halford

Geneva

148

Doris Antony

Germany

149

Francisca Funk

Germany

150

Max

Germany

151

Sonja Dolinsek

Germany

152

Arpita

Hungary

153

Deveshwar

Iceland

154

Ujwala

Iceland

155

Aapurva Kaiwar

India

156

Aarthi Pai

India

157

Abha Bhaiya

India

158

Abhinay

India

159

Abu Mohammad

India

160

Akshay Thakre

India

161

Amarjit Singh

India

162

Amit India

India

163

Anagha Sarpotdar

India

164

Anchita Patil

India

165

Ankit Rai

India

166

Anubha Singh

India

167

Anupriya

India

168

Aparna Gupta

India

169

Archana Dwivedi

India

170

Ashwini Mishra

India

171

Asif Basra

India

172

Baishali

India

173

Bhagwan

India

174

Biplab Goswami

India

175

Bishakha Datta

India

176

Biswajit Padhi

India

177

Bobby Ramakant

India

178

Brian Lobo

India

179

C. Gopalkrishnan

India

180

Ch. Narendra

India

181

Chaitali

India

182

Chandrima Chatterji

India

183

Chayanika Shah

India

184
185

Chetna Birje
Chhaya Datar

India
India

186

Chitra

India

187

Colin Gonsalves

India

188

Daniel Jamang

India

189
190

Daniel Vinod
David Bodapati

India
India

191

Debashish Das

India

192

Dileep Kumar

India

193

Dinesh Gautam

India

194

Dipika Jain

India

195

Dr Gopal Dabade

India

196

India

197

Dr Smarajit Jana
Dyuti

198

El Biswajit

India

199

Esha Sarswat

India

200

Gaurav Kalra

India

201

Gauri Vij

India

202

Geeta Seshu

India

India

203

Geetika

India

204

Gitu Bali

India

205

Harish Iyer

India

206

Haseena

India

207

Hemant

India

208

Hyash Tanmoy

India

209

Suneeta

India

210

Ishani

India

211

Iskhit Sharma

India

212

Jashodhara

India

213

Jaya Velankar

India

214

Jayashree

India

215

Jayati Majumder

India

216

Joe Thomas

India

217
218

Joy Sengupta
Juhi Jain

India
India

219

Jyotirmoy Samajder

India

220

Kabir Kapoor

India

221

Kalyani

India

222

kamayani balimahabal

India

223

kamiya

India

224

Karan

India

225

Kaveri R I

India

226

Kiran Jeet

India

227

Krishna.B

India

228

Kuldip Chand

India

229

Kumar Das

India

230

Leni Chaudhuri

India

231

Mahasweta Satpati

India

232

Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere

India

233

Manish

India

234

Manisha Bhalla

India

235

Manisha Gupte
Manjima Bhattacharjya

India
India

236

237

Mary E. John

India

238

Meera Raghavendra

India

239

Megha Pandey

India

240

Mili Shet

India

241

Minoo Mantri

India

242

Monica Sharma

India

243

Montu

India

244

Mukesh Kaushik

India

245

Mukta Srivastava

India

246

Murari M Choudhury

India

247

Nabonita Bandyopadhyay

India

248

Nandinee Bandyopadhyay

India

249

Nandita Gandhi

India

250

Neelanjana Mukhia

India

251

Nisha Gupta

India

252
253

Paramita
Madhu Mehra

India
India

254

Pinky

India

255

Piyush Garud

India

256
257

Piyush Manush
Pooja Badarinath/CREA

India
India

258

Prabha Nagaraja

India

259

Prabha Desai.

India

260

Pradeep Esteves

India

261

Prakash Sonawane

India

262

Pranav Bhardwaj

India

263

Praveer Peter

India

264
265

Preeti Sampat
Nivedita Menon

India
India

266

PT George

India

267
268

Pujarini Sen
Pushpa Achanta

India
India

269

Pushpendra

India

270

Radhika Chitkara

India

271

Rajiv Rajiv

India

272

Rashmi

India

273

Rebina Subba

India

274

Reekdeb Mal

India

275

Reetu Sethi

India

276

Renu Khanna

India

277

Reshma Singh

India

278

Richa

India

279

Richa Minocha

India

280

Rimple Mehta

India

281

Rohini

India

282

Rohini Bali India

India

283

Rose Venkatesan

India

284

Sabah

India

285

Sachit

India

286
287

Sandhya
Sanghamitra Iyengar

India
India

288

Sanjai Sharma

India

289

Santosh

India

290

Sapna Bhavnani

India

291

Sapna Shahani

India

292

Saptarshi Mandal

India

293

Sarojini

India

294

Satbir Singh Bedi

India

295

Sathish Chandra

India

296

Sathyasree

India

297

Satyen K. Bordoloi

India

298

Seema Grewal

India

299

Seema Rajput

India

300

Shabnam Shaikh
Shakun.M. Doundiyakhed

India
India

303

Shikha India
Shohini Ghosh

India
India

304

Shraddha Chickerur

India

301
302

305

Shubha Chacko

India

306
307

Shubhra
Shyamala Nataraj

India
India

308

Siddharth Dube

India

309

Sidharth India

India

310

Simpreet Singh

India

311

Sneha Khandekar

India

312

Sreekanth Kannan

India

313

Subhash Kunnath

India

314

Subhash Lomte

India

315

Sujata Patel

India

316

Sumi Roy

India

317
318

Suparna Mukherji
Sushma Luthra

India
India

319

T R Jayachandar

India

320

Ujwala Kadrekar

India

321

Ulhas Mahabal

India

322

Urmila Saluunkhe

India

323

Urvashi Bali India

India

324

Urvashi Bali India

India

325

Vijaya Jori

India

326

Vikas

India

327

Vikram Vincent

India

328

Vimochana

India

329

Vinay Kulkarni

India

330
331

Virginia Saldanha
Vrinda Grover

India
India

332

Wilfred Dcosta INSAF

India

333

Zarina

India

334
335

Zulfiya Hamzaki
Deepak Bhosale

India
India

336

Durga Pujari

India

337

Bimmava Gollar

India

338

Shabana Goundi

India

339

Rajender Naik

India

340

Asma NA

India

341

Bijaya Bhakal

India

342

Sakina Sayyad

India

343

Indumathi Ravishankar

India

344

Rituparna Borah

India

345

Sudeer Patil

India

346

Kamlabai Pani

India

347

Shalan Bagde

India

348

Maya Gurve

India

349

Sadanand Nagrale

India

350

Nita Jog

India

351

Suvarna Ingelgave

India

352

Rezaeezadeh

Iran

353

Hasina k

Iraq

354

Aidan Rowe

Ireland

355

Jim

Ireland

356

Mary Keogh

Ireland

357

Sabrina Nolan

Ireland

358

Wendy Lyon

Ireland

359

John Flavin

Ireland

360

Alessandra Cerioli

Italia

361

Adrian Hook

Italy

362

Alessandra voutsinas

Italy

363

Angela Colucci

Italy

364

Anna

Italy

365

Assunta Signorelli

Italy

366

Carlotta

Italy

367

Claudia Riani

Italy

368

Enrico Vincenzi

Italy

369

Francesca Sai

Italy

370

Giulia Savino

Italy

371

Laura Percoco

Italy

372

Marco

Italy

373

Maristella

Italy

374

Natina Bi

Italy

375

Paolo

Italy

376

Rosalba Di Giuseppe

Italy

377

Sandro Kensan

Italy

378

Saverio Zumbo

Italy

379

Simona Sorrentino

Italy

380

Luigi

Italy

381
382

Evelina Crespi
Silvia Pallaver

Italy
Italy

383

Caroline Kemunto

Kenya

384

Larry Gelmon

Kenya

385

Parinita Bhattacharjee

Kenya

386

Allan Maleche

Kenya.

387

Aiday Alymova

Kyrgyzstan

388

Baigazy Ermatov

Kyrgyzstan

389

Dinara Bakirova

Kyrgyzstan

390

Nadejda Abidova

Kyrgyzstan

391
392

Michael Ahrne
Maya Paley,

Lea Norway
Los Angeles, CA

393

Careva Ruvinova

394

Irena Cvetkovic, ,

395

Jasmina Dimishkovska Rajkovska

396

Jasminka Friscik

397

Deyanira Gonzalez de Leon

Mexico

398
399

Joan Carles Guisado

Ana Karen lopez quintana

Mexico
Mxico

400

Aprobase AC Cynthia Navarrete

Mxico

401

Josefina Valencia Toledano

Mxico

402

Pramod

Nepal

403

A Santana

Netherlands

404
405

Borislav Gerasimov
Ine Vanwesenbeeck

Netherlands
Netherlands

406

Marjan Wijers

Netherlands

Macedonia
Macedonia
Macedonia
Macedonia

407

Nadia van der Linde

Netherlands

408
409

Rootman
Isabella Malbin

Netherlands
New York

410

Adi

New Zealand

411

Felicity Maera-Wallace

New Zealand

412

Matthew Brenycz

New Zealand

413

Moss Arnot

New Zealand

414
415

Aaron King
Patrick Welsh

New Zealand
Nicaragua

416

Anne Johnsen

Norway

417

Anniken Fleisje

Norway

418

Astrid Renland

Norway

419

Kari Utne

Norway

420

Lars Thomas Soensteby

Norway

421

Monica Clef

Norway

422

Senia Miloud

Norway

423

Miguel Angel Saurin

Peru

424

Agata Dziuban

Poland

425

Anna Ratecka

Poland

426

Horacio F. Svori

Portugal

427

Ana

Romania

428

Dr Marian Ursan

Romania

429

Veronica Cenac

Saint Lucia

430

Keely Tongate

San Francisco, CA

431

Tinu Verghis

Singapore

432
433

Andries Grove
Barbara Kenyon

South Africa
South Africa

434

Carrie Shelver

South Africa

435
436

Maria Stacey
Marlise Richter

South Africa
South Africa

437

Phillipa Tucker

South Africa

438

Sally Shackleton

South Africa

439

Stacey - Leigh Manoek

South Africa

440

Cherith Sanger

South Africa

441

Dawn Cavanagh

South Africa

442

Agnes Villamor

Spain

443

Angel Alvarez

Spain

444

Anselmo Garca Poveda

Spain

445

Fuensanta Gual

Spain

446

Henty Amenty

Spain

447

Inma Rodriguez

Spain

448

Jorge Enrique Semper Fabregat

Spain

449

Jose luis Carrascosa

Spain

450

Josep Canals Sala

Spain

451

Mike Booth

Spain

452

Nacho Pardo Benavente

Spain

453

Anders Johansson

Sweden

454

Lea

Sweden

455
456

Linda
Lotta Samelius

Sweden
Sweden

457

Louisa Leontiades

Sweden

458

Manuel Solsona

Sweden

459

Marinette Sjholm

Sweden

460

Sara

Sweden

461
462

Tommy
Marcus

Sweden
Sweden

463

Bill Wergen

Sweden

464

Staffan

Sweden

465

Martin

Sweden

466

Rickard Jonsson

Sweden

467

Nathalie

Sweden

468

Fabian Chapot

Switzerland

469

Jaime Todd-Gher

Switzerland

470

Kristina Mahnicheva

Tajikistan

471

Graham Neilsen

Thailand

472

Jay Tiparat Uppasuk

Thailand

473

Shiba Phurailatpam
Kemal Ordek

Thailand
Turkey

474

475

Megan Schmidt-Sane

Uganda

476

Ms. Namakula Proscovia

Uganda

477

Dr Jay Levy

UK

478

Prof Jane Scoular

UK

479

Julia

Ukraine

480

Ahonaa Roy

United Kingdom

481

Alan Green

United Kingdom

482

Beth Charley

United Kingdom

483

C K Dean

United Kingdom

484

Cally Milsom

United Kingdom

485

Cat Stephens

United Kingdom

486

Charles

United Kingdom

487

Chris Wakeham

United Kingdom

488

Dr Mary Laing

United Kingdom

489

Dr Nicki Smith

United Kingdom

490

Edinburgh Jewel

United Kingdom

491

Ekta

United Kingdom

492

Eva Davidson

United Kingdom

493

Ian Brooks

United Kingdom

494

Ian Sturrock

United Kingdom

495

Isaac

United Kingdom

496

J L Moore

United Kingdom

497
498

Jane Pitcher
Jerker Edstrom

United Kingdom
United Kingdom

499

Jessica Sawyer

United Kingdom

500

Joe Carrichi

United Kingdom

501

Kathryn Saunders

United Kingdom

502

Lorna Davies

United Kingdom

503

Louise

United Kingdom

504

Madhu

United Kingdom

505

Matthias Lehmann

United Kingdom

506

Megan

United Kingdom

507

Molly Berentson O'donnell

Naomi Hossain

United Kingdom
United Kingdom

508

509

Nathalie Margi

United Kingdom

510

Persephone Despoina

United Kingdom

511

Phil McDuff

United Kingdom

512

Pippa Grenfell

United Kingdom

513

Ron Roberts

United Kingdom

514

Rupert Crow

United Kingdom

515

Ruth Jacobs

United Kingdom

516

Ruth Morgan Thomas

United Kingdom

517

Ryan Tennant

United Kingdom

518

Sarah Artt

United Kingdom

519

Satish Barot

United Kingdom

520

Scott Dempster

United Kingdom

521

Steph Wilcock

United Kingdom

522

Stuart Taylor

United Kingdom

523

SUnited Statesn Francis

United Kingdom

524

Sweet Chill

United Kingdom

525

Terry Cole

United Kingdom

526

Tim Jones

United Kingdom

527

Yasmin Paterson

United Kingdom

528

Florence

United Kingdom

529

C Stephens

United Kingdom

530

Michela

United Kingdom

531

Gemma Smithson

United Kingdom

532

Kirsty Murray

533

Eka Iakobishvili

United Kingdom
United Kingdom

534
535

Addison Zarzosa-grier
Adrienne Germain

536

Alice M. Miller, J.D

537

Allard K. Lowenstein

538

Alyxx S Berg

539

Ambrosia Lionstone

540

Amelia Aviles

541

Angelique

542

Anna Forbes MSS

United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America

543

Aphrodite Phoenix

544

Ashley

545

Barnali Ghosh

546

Bill Lee Maltba

547

Bridget Robertson

548

Bruce Boston

549
550

Caley Murray
Caroline Cotter

551

Cecil Milsap

552

Charles Steele

553

Chase

554

Chris Gray

555

CHRIS W

556

Claire Poulin

557

Cristine Sardina BWS, MSJ

558

Crystal A. Jackson, Ph.D.

559
560

Cyd Nova
Cynthia Rothschild

561

Daina Manning

562

Dan Clore

563

Dana Netherton

564

Danielle Feliciano

565

Deborah Thornton

566

Denise Brennan

567

Dennis Aman

568

Devilla

569

Elizabeth Cantafio

570

Elle

571

Ethel M

572

Gus Grannam

573

Heather Parker

574

Heidi Hoefinger, PhD

575

Howard Fredrics

576

Inness P

United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America

577
578

Jackie
Javid Syed

579

Javier Marin

580

Jeff Robertson

581

Jennifer Reed

582

Jesse A. Moore

583

Jessica Dickens

584

Jessica Talamantes

585
586

JoAnna Morse
Joanne Csete

587

John Harrison

588

John Littlehale

589

Johnny Leland Robinson

590

Juan Iglesias

591

Judy Lewis

592

Justin Doolittle

593

Kate Zen

594

Katie Meghan

595

Katie s

596

Kristina Dolgin

597

Lara Brooks

598

Laura Helen Marks

599

Laura Stefan

600

Laura Stefan

601

Lilithe

602

Lilliana Lamour

603

Lily

604

Lisa Berberian

605

Lisa Lefkort

606

Liz Bucar

607

Lora Lepoudre

608

Lynne Schmidt

609

M. Shores

610

Maggie McNeill

United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America

611

Marileta Robinson

612

Mark Bose

613

Marleen Thibodeau

614

Matthew Howard

615

Megan Wheelehan

616

Michael Roach

617

Mike Chase

618

Mike mader

619

Mikhaela McCullough

620

Molly McCann

621

Nat Duran

622

Natanya Robinowitz

623

Nicholas de Villiers

624

Peter Schafer

625

Peter Werner

626

Plucky McFeatherton

627

Preeti Kaur

628

Rachel Grey

629

Ron
Rosalind Petchesky

630
631
632

Rose
Ryan Thoreson

633

Sambuddha Chaudhuri

634

Sandy Nutt

635

Sarah

636

Savannah

637

Savannah O'Neill

638
639

Serpent
Serra Sippel

640

Stacy Ayer

641
642

Stefan Lucke
Supriya Pillai

643

SUnited Statesn VanPelt

644

Tasasha Henderson

United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America

658

Kate Zen
Rachel Grinstein

659

Chanel Elise

660

Roderic D. Schmidt

661

J. Gaines

United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of
America
United States of America

662

John Friedenberg

United States of America

663

Lori Adorable

United States of America

664

Elise McQuaide

665

Elise

United States of America

United States of
America

666

Kristen

United States of America

667

Peter

United States of America

668

Joni Weiss

United States of America

669

Natalie Goldschmidt

United States of America

670

Kelsey K

United States of America

671

Brian

United States of America

672

Lois Greene

United States of America

673

L Mintz

United States of America

674

Cosette ValJean

United States of America

675

Leigh Steiner

United States of America

676

Vanessa Forro

677

Kimberly Rhoten
Monica Enriquez-Enriquez

United States of America

United States of
America
United States of
America

645

TC Williams

646

Terri Jones

647

Thalia Syracopoulos

648

Theresa

649

Thomas L. Knapp

650

Tiara Trans-Platypus

651

Tina Belge

652

Todd Vickers

653

Tommy Moore

654

Tori

655

V Williams
Doug Upp

656
657

678

679

Aswini Pai

United States of America

680
681

Vijay Bhat
Lilin Abracinskas

United States of America

Uruguay.

682

Sian Maseko

Zimbabwe

EMPOWER FOUNDATION

57/60 Tivanond Road

Nonthaburi 11000, Thailand
Tel:/Fax + 662-526-8311
email: noi@empowerfoundation.org
www.empowerfoundation.org
August 7, 2015
To Mr Salil Shetty, Secretary-General Amnesty
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street, London
WC1X 0DW, UK
salil.shetty@amnesty.org
In Support of Amnesty Internationals Draft Policy on Sex Workers Human Rights
Dear Mr. Shetty,
I am writing on behalf of Empower Foundation. Empower Foundation is a Thai sex worker
organization with 30 years of experience promoting rights and opportunities for sex workers.
Empower is a member of NSWP and our regional network APNSW. In addition Empower joins
with 10 other sex worker organizations in our region in our project Sex Workers of ASEAN,
these countries and their national sex worker organizations are listed below.
The ten Governments who make up the ASEAN Economic Community estimate there to be at
least 1.2 million sex workers in our region. Sex workers of ASEAN have been organizing for full
recognition of their human rights at National, Regional and International level for decades. One
of the key steps in order for sex workers to assert their human rights is the decriminalization of
sex work as outlined in Amnesty proposed policy.
We work in a range of sectors e.g. brothels, massage parlors, A Go Go, bath houses, Karaoke
lounges, bars etc. Our legal environments are not the same. Some of us work in countries
where religious law and practice is stronger than state law, some of us work on top of strict
regulations, and most of us work on top of a mountain of criminal laws.
Our political, economic, social and cultural contexts are also diverse. Even though we do not
share a common language, whenever sex workers of ASEAN have come together we share two
common human rights abuses directly caused by corrupt police and stigma.
Buying and selling sex has been illegal for over 60 years in most of our countries but has not
led to any reduction in sex work or an end to prostitution. The sex industry has grown faster
than ever in the last 60 years. More importantly it has not led to better lives for sex workers or
for our families. Criminalization has not led to increased human rights or reduced abuses; it has
only led to more stigma and more real crimes.
Law does not protect us but becomes a wall we must climb over to reach our human rights.
EMPOWER FOUNDATION
57/60 Tivanond Road
Nonthaburi 11000, Thailand
Tel:/Fax + 662-526-8311
email: noi@empowerfoundation.org
www.empowerfoundation.org

We need to get rid of the real crimes in sex work. The real crime in our work is not the buying
and selling of sex, but rather the real crimes include, but are not limited to, the abuse of power
by authorities, corruption, extortion, discrimination, violence with impunity, state neglect or our
rights as workers, exploitation of our labor, denial of justice, arbitrary arrest detention and
deportation, and entrapment.
Keeping our work criminalized means we cannot be treated as human beings but must be
treated as criminals by society, including health workers, police and media. Our workplaces are
not expected to be safe and healthy but must be treated as dens of vice and crime which do
not need things like OH&S or even fire exits. Our employers are not expected to be responsible
and fair employers but must be treated as mafia figures pimps and traffickers who do not
need to worry about labor law, wages, health coverage or hours etc. Our customers are not
expected to be respectful but must be treated as abusers and exploiters who do not need to
pay properly or behave appropriately. Changing our status to victim is not an improvement.
Experience has shown us that both criminal and victims must be kept in a cage; they cannot be
free like other humans to make our own decisions and build our own futures.
Decriminalization of the sex industry means the real crimes in sex work can be addressed and
ensures sex workers are able to better assert our human rights.
The human rights abuses that result from criminalization are not limited to a single country or
region. This is a global human rights issue impacting tens of millions of sex workers therefore it
makes sense that international human rights agencies should have a common global policy and
position.
Amnesty International has a strong history of upholding the rights of marginalized groups.
Amnesty has not been afraid to take the lead in standing against other laws even when that is
unpopular. For example Amnesty has stood against laws that criminalize LGBTQI and
reproductive rights e.g. safe abortion.
We congratulate Amnesty International for your sincere consultation with sex workers in
drafting your policy supporting the urgent need for decriminalization of sex work.
We thank you for standing beside us and trust you will decide your policy based on evidence
and the lived experience of sex workers.
Regards,

Chantawipa Apisuk
Director
Empower Foundation
EMPOWER FOUNDATION
57/60 Tivanond Road
Nonthaburi 11000, Thailand
Tel:/Fax + 662-526-8311
email: noi@empowerfoundation.org
www.empowerfoundation.org

Sex workers of ASEAN (SW-ASEAN)

Sex Workers of Cambodia
Womens Network for Unity
Sex Workers of Indonesia
PKBI and OPSI
Sex Workers of Laos
Sao Lao Empower
Sex Workers of Malaysia
PAMT and CEO
Sex Workers of Myanmar
AMA and SWiM
Sex Workers of Philippines Philippines Sex Worker Collective
Sex Workers of Singapore Project X
Sex Workers of Thailand
MPlus and Empower Foundation
Sex Workers of Timor Leste Scarlet Collective Timor
Sex Workers of Vietnam
Vietnam Sex Worker Network
EMPOWER FOUNDATION
57/60 Tivanond Road
Nonthaburi 11000, Thailand
Tel:/Fax + 662-526-8311
email: noi@empowerfoundation.org
www.empowerfoundation.org

http://freedomnetworkusa.org/freedom-network-letter-to-unaids-in-support-of-its-position-ondecriminalizing-prostitution/

Freedom Network Letter to UNAIDS in Support

of its Position on Decriminalizing Prostitution
Posted on 10.17.2013 by Freedom Network Community

October 17, 2013

Re: HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights and Health and Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the
Pacific
Dear Mr. Sidib and other interested parties:
The Freedom Network (USA), which was established in 2001, is a coalition of 35 nongovernmental organizations and individuals that provide services to, and advocate for the
rights of, trafficking survivors in the United States. Since the enactment of the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), Freedom Network (USA) members have worked
closely with trafficked people to ensure that they receive necessary services guaranteed
under the TVPA and have also been engaged in ensuring effective implementation of the
law. The Freedom Network, through its members, has served the majority of individuals
certified in the United States as victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons. We are
recognized experts on the scourge of trafficking and hold annual national conferences for
service providers, policy advocates, government agencies, and law enforcement to share
resources and information and formulate a collective strategy to combat trafficking. The
Freedom Network adopts a rights-based framework which our members apply to for their
anti-trafficking services, outreach, collaboration, and training.
We write in response to the campaign by Equality Now to discredit certain findings and
recommendations in the Global Commission on HIV and the Laws report, HIV and the Law:
Risks, Rights and Health (2012), published by UNDP, and the UNDP, UNFPA and UNAIDSbacked report, Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific(2012). Equality Now contends
that decriminalizing prostitution will increase human trafficking, and that the UN should
reconsider its position. Equality Now has stated that anti-trafficking organizations support this
campaign, however, not all anti-trafficking organizations ascribe to the same approach to
prostitution. The Freedom Network finds it concerning and misleading to call for
continued criminalization of sex work in the name of ending human trafficking. In

contrast, the Freedom Network believes that policy-makers can work to bring an end to
human trafficking without compromising the rights of individuals engaged in commercial sex.
Sex workers have lived on the margins of society through most of history. The human rights
of sex workers are routinely abused in countries around the globe. One extreme form of
abuse sex workers suffer is human trafficking. The international human rights community
should be concerned with eradicating this harm. However, protecting the rights of all sex
workers, promoting their health and safety, and teaching sex workers about human
trafficking are some of the best ways to prevent human trafficking.
We find it important to highlight key facts:

Sex workers are human beings and are entitled to human rights.Because sex
work is stigmatized and criminalized, sex workers often face discrimination, violence,
and abuses of their rights. Human trafficking survivors who have engaged in sex work
face these same violations.

Attempts to eradicate sex work often violate the basic human rights of sex
workers. Crackdowns on the sex industry usually fall heaviest on sex workers, who
are at high risk of sexual and physical assault by police.

Human rights violations of sex workers create an environment where trafficking

can flourish. When sex workers are afraid of law enforcement, dangerous working
conditions result. Sex workers who cannot rely on one another or the police for
protection are more likely to become involved with abusive third-parties such as
traffickers. Sex workers who are afraid of law enforcement will be unlikely to report
crimes, like trafficking, that they experience or observe.

Not all people who work in the commercial sex industry are trafficked.Some
choose to do sex work, while others find sex work to be the only way of supporting
themselves and their families given their circumstances.

Equality Now espouses the Swedish Model under which clients of sex workers are
criminalized. However, even some laws intended to penalize patrons, pimps, and traffickers
can negatively impact sex workers. For example, laws may criminalize certain acts sex
workers do to keep themselves and their peers safe, like sharing clients, space, or
resources. In many cases, clients of trafficking victims have come forward to police with
information leading to successful prosecutions of traffickers. Increased criminalization of
sex workers clients will make it more difficult for them to come forward, and divert resources
from prosecuting abusive traffickers.

We applaud the UN for the approach taken in their reports, which prioritize the health
and safety of sex workers. We find the cited UNDP reports to be helpful in recognizing the
human rights concerns affecting many sex workers and other vulnerable populations around
the globe. These reports have recognized that inequity, social injustice, and laws have had a
hand in making HIV a public health crisis. The drafters of these reports went to great lengths
to include sex workers who are directly affected by HIV and criminal justice policies, as
recently issued statements from the Global Network of Sex Work Projects,1 Asia Pacific
Network of Sex Workers,2 the African Sex Workers Alliance,3 and the National Network Of
Sex Workers India 4 attest. Not all individuals who have engaged in commercial sex or
have been trafficked agree on the best legal approach to prostitution, but these voices are
equally important. Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacificprovides a valuable critique
of practices such as harassing sex workers for carrying condoms and compulsory HIV
testing, detention, and re-education. HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health calls for
vigorous enforcement of anti-trafficking laws but repeal of punitive laws that target sex
workers, concluding that the legal environment in many countries exposes sex workers to
violence and results in their economic and social exclusion. These reports rightly focus on
reducing harm to sex workers while treating sex workers as valuable partners in the fights
against HIV and for the rule of law.
We cannot understand the spread of HIV, human trafficking, or other harms affecting sex
workers in isolation from the social and legal structures that either prevent or promote these
harms and these reports are an important contribution to the conversation. We commend
the UNDP, UNAIDS, and UN Women for their work. We ask that they continue to promote
and work towards the recommendations outlined in these reports.
Sincerely,
Freedom Network