Redefining Prostitution
as Sex Work on the
International Agenda

Table of Contents

1. Abstract

2. Introduction
   
   1. Redefining prostitution as sex work
      
   2. Prostitution on the international agenda: The 'trafficking' framework
      
   3. The international agenda today: Prostitution and slavery
      
   4. Violations of sex workers' rights
      
   5. Defining sex work as a form of labour
      
   6. Conclusions
      

3. Country Overviews: Law and Practice
   
   1. Brazil
      
   2. England and Wales
      
   3. Ghana
      
   4. The Netherlands
      
   5. Thailand
      
   6. Turkey
      

4. Issues of Concern

5. Relevant Instruments
   
   1. United Nations
      
   2. International Labour Organization
      

6. The Application of Existing Standards to the Sex Industry
   1. Discrimination
      
   2. Restriction under criminal law
      
      1. Discriminatory treatment by police and judicial authorities
         
      2. Discriminatory treatment by other authorities
         

   3. Employment conditions
      
      1. Terms of employment
         
      2. Health and safety
         

   4. Slavery and self-determination
      
      1. Security of person and slavery
         
      2. Slavery -- ownership by another
         
      3. Slavery-like practices
         

   5. Transnational migrant workers
      
   6. Minors in the sex industry
      

7. Concluding Recommendations
   1. Recommendations for a further programme of research
      
   2. The sex, work and human rights programme of research
      
   3. Labour sub-programme
      
   4. Human rights sub-programme
      

8. Bibliography

References

Appendix: Survey Of Relevant Human Rights And Labour Standards

Acknowledgements

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1. Abstract

This finding is supported by an investigation of the applicability of existing human rights and labour standards to issues of concern to men and women in the sex industry. The investigation concludes that most of these issues are subject to existing standards, developed to curtail abuses in other industries. However, the marginal position of sex workers in society excludes them from the international, national and customary protection afforded to others as citizens, workers or women. Their vulnerability to human and labour rights violations is greater than that of others because of the stigma and criminal charges widely attached to sex work. These allow police and others to harass sex workers without ever intervening to uphold their most elementary rights.

The report finds that the dismissal of the entire sex industry as abusive obscures the particular violations of international norms which are of concern to sex workers. This approach also fails accurately to reflect the limited nature of the relationship negotiated between sex worker and client in the commercial transaction. This is not an employment relationship as the client does not have enduring power over the worker. Sex work can take place in the context of exploitative employment relationships, even slavery, where someone with enduring power over the worker constrains her power to negotiate with the client. This case does not support an assertion that all sex work is akin to slavery. Moreover, by distinguishing sex work from other forms of labour, such an approach reinforces the marginal, and therefore vulnerable, status of the sex worker.

The report recommends that all national legislation which, in intent or in practice, results in the placing of sex workers outside the scope of the rule of law, should be repealed. The redefinition of prostitution as sex work is proposed as a preliminary condition for the enjoyment by sex workers of their full human and labour rights. Investigation is recommended into the mechanisms which exclude sex workers from the protection of existing human rights and non-industry specific labour standards. It is recognised that existing labour standards may not be adequate to protect the right to security of person in the context of sex work. It is suggested that of the intergovernmental organisations, the International Labour Organization is in principle best suited to the task of regulating working conditions to accommodate the special features of the sex industry.

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2. Introduction

2a. Redefining Prostitution as Sex Work

The designation of prostitution as a special human rights issue, a violation in itself, emphasises the distinction between prostitution and other forms of female or low-status labour, such as cleaning or food-serving, however exploitative they are. It thus reinforces the marginal, and therefore vulnerable, position of the women and men involved in prostitution. By dismissing the entire sex industry as abusive, it also obscures the particular problems and violations of international norms within the industry which are of concern to sex workers.

The terms 'sex work' and 'sex worker' have been coined by sex workers themselves to redefine commercial sex, not as the social or psychological characteristic of a class of women, but as an income-generating activity or form of employment for women and men. As such it can be considered along with other forms of economic activity. An employment or labour perspective is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for making sex work a part of the mainstream debate on human, women's, and workers' rights at local, national and international level.

The lack of international and local protection renders sex workers vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace, and to harassment or violence at the hands of employers, law enforcement officials, clients and the public. The need for worker protection, including occupational health and safety provisions, is of particular relevance in the current context of HIV/AIDS. Sex workers without rights in their place of work are uniquely vulnerable to infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted disease, as they routinely lack the information, materials or authority to protect themselves and their clients.

This report is intended as a preliminary step in the process of ending the exclusion of sex workers. By looking at commercial sex as work, and at the conditions under which that work is performed, sex workers can be included and protected under the existing instruments which aim to protect all workers in a general way, all persons from violence, children from sexual exploitation, and women from discrimination. The focus of the report is on how much sex workers have in common with other people and workers, not on how they differ. This report demonstrates that the social discrimination faced by sex workers and the problems they face in their working lives are not, in general, unique. Rather, their experience resembles the experience of other persons and workers. An examination of international human rights and labour standards reveals that most issues of concern to sex workers could be subject to the international instruments already developed to protect the rights of others. This approach contrasts with the historic treatment of prostitution at international level.

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2b. Prostitution on the International Agenda: the 'Trafficking' framework

The Abolitionist approach declares that the institution of prostitution itself constitutes a violation of human rights, akin to the institution of slavery (in fact the term 'Abolitionist' was originally used to describe campaigners against the transatlantic slave trade). As such, no person, even an adult, is believed to be able to give genuine consent to engaging in prostitution. Prostitution only persists through the efforts of procurers or pimps, the 'third parties,' who induce a woman into prostitution, openly or by means of deceit and coercion, to extort her earnings from her. The Abolitionist approach requires governments to abolish prostitution through the penalisation of this 'third party', which profits from the transaction between prostitute and client. The prostitute cannot be punished, as she is the victim of a process she does not control. Without the 'third party', it is believed that the institution of prostitution will wither away.

The United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949) reflects the Abolitionist position to the point that its preamble states that "...prostitution (is) incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person...", and it specifically targets the 'third party.' Abolitionists nevertheless continue to call for the amendment of the Convention, to define all prostitution as a violation of human rights and call for its complete abolition.

The 1949 Convention has yet to be revised or replaced, but the discussion of 'trafficking' has arisen in other fora. In the 1990s, the UN Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women has been looking at "Trafficking in Women" in the context of her wider investigations into abuses directed at women for her report to the Commission in April 1997.

All acts involved in the recruitment and/or transportation of a woman within and across national borders for work or services by means of violence or threat of violence, abuse of authority or dominant position, debt bondage, deception or other forms of coercion.

Meanwhile, a European Union (EU) discussion has focused on migration and prostitution under the title "Trafficking in Women for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation." The Netherlands government took advantage of its position as President of the European Union in the first half of 1997 to follow up the activities of 1996. In June 1996 the European Commission hosted a conference on the issue jointly with the International Organisation for Migration on "Trafficking in Women", in Vienna. A European Commission Communication, on "Trafficking in Women for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation", in November 1996 reported that in September 1996 the work of Europol's Drug Unit was extended to include "trafficking in human beings." A ministerial conference in the Hague in April 1997 agreed Union-wide procedures for addressing the issue.

There is still no authoritative definition of the term 'trafficking' and so some commentators prefer to avoid the term completely, but debates on the sex industry and on female migration in various fora continue to be placed under the heading 'Trafficking' or 'Trafficking in Women.' Some activists distrust all definitions of 'trafficking' as the term continues to be associated with the image of 'white slavery,' with transnational migration or deception with respect to prostitution. This constitutes an anomaly in a world where most sex workers work in their country of origin and are not brought into the industry by deception. The focus on extreme abuses, they argue, demands justice for the deceived and enslaved prostitute, but neglects the ordinarily exploited person who is typical of the majority of sex workers, and indeed, workers in general. It runs the danger of reiterating the distinction between the 'innocent victim' who deserves pity and the punishment of those who have criminally abused her, and the willing 'whore' who has sacrificed her right to social protection through her degraded behaviour.

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The International Agenda today: prostitution and slavery

Slavery is a distortion of the employer-employee relationship and is predicated upon an enduring relationship characterised by the employer's abuse of superior power in relation to the employee. Without this enduring power to prevent the employee's resistance or escape, slavery and slavery-like practices are not possible. Some sex work is conducted in the structure of employment. Employment relations in the sex industry, and the working conditions associated with them, as in every other industry, can be more or less exploitative. The most exploitative relations in any industry are categorised as slavery and slavery-like practices. The 1926 Slavery Convention defines slavery as "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised." The 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery defines the practices applicable to the sex industry, debt bondage and child servitude. Debt bondage occurs where a debt is to be paid off with services but "the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined" (Article 1(a)). Child servitude is "Any institution or practice whereby a ...person under the age of 18 years, is delivered by ...his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour" (Article 1(d)).

It is no coincidence that slavery and slavery-like practices are disproportionately associated with the sex industry. The sex industry exists on the margins of society, beyond the legal and customary restraints on commercial and social behaviour which regulate the mainstream, and out of sight of those not directly involved. Moreover, the labour force is overwhelmingly made up of persons -- women and young persons, transgendered persons and men who have sex with men -- whose ability to defend their rights and whose economic opportunities are already restricted in society, limiting their ability to resist exploitation. Those most vulnerable are the poor, who face exploitation in every industry. However, the fact that some sex workers are subject to conditions of slavery does not constitute a logical basis for claims that all sex work amounts to slavery.

The sex worker who works outside an employment relationship may find her capacity to freely withhold consent is constrained by immediate economic necessity, rather than another person. This does not constitute slavery, as slavery means that a person is subject to "any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership". The street worker who accepts a client she would prefer to reject, for fear of being unable to meet daily expenses, or the worker in hired premises who must earn a minimum amount to pay the proprietor for that day's hire of the premises, is facing not slavery but simple economic and social injustice, of the kind which constrains workers in every field to accept inequitable or dangerous conditions. The solution to this injustice lies beyond the scope of law alone, in the field of economic and social rights.

As the Abolitionist model does not allow for the existence of the independent sex worker, the image of the 'pimp' has arisen, as the 'third party' associated with sex work outside the commercial sex-based business. The 'pimp' is a man who uses physical and emotional threats to force a woman into prostitution, and extorts from her the proceeds. Sex workers are understood to operate in association with male pimps, and male associates of sex workers are taken to be pimps and may be penalised as criminal.

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Violations of Sex Workers' Rights

This means that even in the many countries where prostitution itself is not illegal, sex workers cannot secure the minimum basic standards which other workers have acquired as far as conditions of work or their personal safety are concerned. It also means that the police frequently fail to take action to help the significant minority among prostitutes who really are victims of slavery.

To ensure the protection of sex workers' rights, it may be necessary to challenge, on human rights grounds, the very principle of restricting the sex industry under criminal law. The argument that sex workers should be entitled to the free choice of work, or indeed any of the labour or human rights discussed here, is of course, void if the State does not choose to define prostitution as work, but simply as unlawful activity.

However, the concept of Human Rights established by the UN requires governments to restrict their actions according to principles of justice. The legitimacy of legislation, in human rights terms, is dependent upon its conformity to the principle laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 29. This states that law may limit the individual's rights and freedoms "solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society". The right of the state to legislate on sexual morality is under question in many societies, while the effect of anti-prostitution legislation, by limiting the organisation of prostitution and encouraging its association with organised crime, can be widely observed to have a detrimental effect on "public order and the general welfare." The justice and legitimacy of penal restriction of the sex industry is not self-evident: the onus must be moved to States to defend or repeal such restriction.

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Defining sex work as a form of labour

Negotiation and performance of sexual services for remuneration

1. with or without intervention by a third party
   
2. where those services are advertised or generally recognised as available from a specific location
   
3. where the price of services reflects the pressures of supply and demand.
   

The location of sex work in the realm of personal services, combined with the legal sanctions associated with it, means that even under a 'tolerant' regime, such as in the Netherlands, it is likely to take place in the informal sector. There are difficulties associated with defining and regulating labour in the informal sector. In the case of sex work, the division between social and commercial contacts, between the public domain of labour and the purchase of services, and the private domain of sexual behaviour is not always clear. It is easy enough to identify sex work in a formal work setting, such as a brothel or flat, but less easy to separate sexual services provided within informal networks from sexual relations with multiple social contacts where gifts are expected.

Human rights are universal, and no boundary need therefore be drawn to apply human rights standards. However, for the purpose of applying labour standards, a distinction must be made between private, or social, and public, or commercial, behaviour. We have chosen therefore to define sex work in the public domain by association with a public 'market place'. The marketplace may be a publication or a physical location where services are advertised or generally known to be available, and transactions are based at least partially on a competitive price structure.

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Conclusions

Furthermore, many of the standards agreed by the United Nations and the International Labour Organization over the past 75 years could be invoked to prevent abuses against sex workers. It is therefore suggested that existing standards be more closely examined and their interpretation expanded where appropriate to give sex workers access to the rights concerned and promote respect for these rights in the sex industry. Social discrimination against sex workers can be fully addressed under existing human rights standards and most issues relating to working conditions in the sex industry could be subject to existing ILO standards. Further investigation is needed of the mechanisms which have prevented the incorporation of sex workers' rights into the mainstream human rights and labour rights arenas, and hindered the protection of sex workers under these standards.

There are, however, some special features of the sex industry with respect to the right to security of person. The right to refuse a client, to perform a sexual service, or to participate in the sex industry at all must be protected from penalties imposed by employers and from social security restrictions. Such unique features in other industries are addressed by ILO Conventions concerning particular occupational sectors, from seafaring or nursing to hotels and restaurants. On the basis of this report, it is suggested that the regulation of working practices to accommodate special features is a role best suited to the ILO, and that it should be this intergovernmental organisation which establishes minimum standards for working conditions in the sex industry.

The research process revealed the absence of a platform for sex workers' human rights in many countries. Organisation among sex workers can be impeded by the stigma and legal penalties attached to the sex industry, which can make them reluctant to assert themselves publicly. Where remarkable women and men have overcome these obstacles to start sex worker organisations, it may be difficult for them to find the allies they need among women's and human rights NGOs, and trade unions. Action is needed to support sex worker organisations and their linkage to other activist groups.

A further programme of research to develop and support discussion in these areas is proposed in the concluding recommendations.

This research has been principally funded by the Overseas Development Administration of the British Government. The researcher interviewed sex worker activists, health professionals working with sex workers and human rights activists in six focus countries: Brazil, Ghana, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the UK. The participation of the Network of Sex Work Projects proved invaluable in locating informants. Further information on the sex industry has been drawn from a wide range of published sources.

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3. Country Overviews: Law and Practice

3a. Brazil

As in other countries, a study of the law on prostitution in Brazil does not provide an accurate picture of the status of the industry. Local police practice varies enormously across this vast and diverse country, according to political and financial contingencies. The legal structures which have most impact on sex workers do not affect them alone: the use of the Vagrancy Act by the police, and debt bondage in inaccessible areas characterised by the absence of the rule of law. The absence of specific legal penalties for selling sexual services in no way protects sex workers from social exclusion and there is a marked stigma attached to sex work.

Commercial sex-based businesses -- motels and escort agencies -- are similarly dependent on informal arrangements with the police, generally involving extortion. The motels offering rooms by the hour are evident in all the major cities, advertising openly in the press. In Rio de Janeiro they are so established that there is even a city regulation that management must supply each couple with condoms on arrival. Recent campaigns against the commercial sexual exploitation of children have provoked police raids. Sex workers say that the police make no effort to target locations known for under age girls, but instead target premises used mainly by adults, taking everyone to the police station.

It is illegal in Brazil for a minor, defined as a person under 18, to have sexual relations with an adult. Minors are nevertheless widely involved in the sex industry in Brazil, with those in their early teens generally in the lowest-paid sectors, as street children selling sexual services among other economic activities, and as debt-bonded workers in the brothels of the mining camps or around construction sites. Health workers find the law an obstacle to providing care: they fear charges of promoting illegal relations if they supply teenagers with condoms. Recent exposes of child sex tourism have resulted in new government plans for child protection and in publicity campaigns in tourist areas. Their impact has yet to be assessed.

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3b. England and Wales

The main legislation regulating prostitution is contained in the Sexual Offences Act 1956, the Street Offences Act 1959 and the Sexual Offences Act 1985. The 1956 Act deals with off street prostitution, the 1959 and 1985 Acts relate to street prostitution and 'kerb crawling' -- driving slowly in a car in a sex work area to attract the attention of sex workers. Other Acts of Parliament are invoked when the evidential requirements of the 1956,1959 and 1985 Acts cannot be met, for example the Justice of the Peace Act of 1361 and the Vagrancy Act of 1824. As in other countries, enforcement of the laws differs widely between police forces.

Sex workers on the street are highly vulnerable to police intervention. On the third occasion that a woman is suspected of loitering or soliciting, she is labelled a 'common prostitute', on a national register. Only a 'common prostitute' may be charged with soliciting. She can be arrested on the uncorroborated word of a single police officer. If the woman is not subsequently prosecuted the caution will be expunged after a year. The charge must be challenged in the (local) Magistrates Court within 14 days. The police must then satisfy the Court that the woman was guilty of "loitering in a street or public place for the purposes of prostitution" under the 1959 Street Offences Act.

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3c. Ghana

Roamers working on the street are always at risk of arrest. Those working from hotels or bars try to evade legal restrictions on soliciting and house rules against unaccompanied women in many establishments by relying on male 'pilots' or taxi drivers to help them make contact with clients. The pilots collect a fee both from the sex worker and the client, but the fee is generally not unreasonable for the service provided, and the pilots do not exercise control over the women for whom they work. Women who work without pilots risk being cheated by the client or losing their client to the pilots and their groups. They must anyway establish a relationship with service staff to receive permission to stay, and sometimes help in identifying clients. Violence and assault does occur at the hands of clients, but a more common problem is refusal to pay or demanding money back.

The sex industry is believed to be growing in response to current economic pressures. The agricultural and informal sectors which traditionally provided female employment are being squeezed by the Structural Adjustment Programme, and the industry is perceived as having low entry qualifications and high returns. Increased competition is driving down prices and standards in both Seater and Roamer sectors but it is still possible to match the minimum wage without taking very many clients. A quarter of workers in Ghana receive the minimum wage or less and women's incomes tend to be at the lower end of the scale.

Sex work is acknowledged, from government ministries to the person in the street, to be primarily an economic issue and a woman is not automatically rejected by family and friends for engaging in sex work. Seaters generally have good relations with neighbours and they run their own traditional women's mutual aid societies. Ethnic sub-divisions of the association mediate between the individual and outsiders, approve and initiate newcomers to the settlement, and mediate disputes. Many Roamers consider the occupation a temporary one to allow them to build up capital: they do not regard it as an obstacle to having another business later, or another jobs concurrently, nor to finding a husband.

The pragmatic attitude nevertheless coexists with the notion that prostitution is a social and religious evil, and public awareness of HIV/AIDS reinforces the notion of sex workers as a source of disease. Groups concerned with human and women's rights do not take account of sex workers or else try to avoid the issue of sex work, and governmental and non-governmental interventions in the sex industry generally focus only on public health. In fact most sex workers have heard of AIDS and how to prevent it. Some Seater associations now include safe sex information in their induction procedures and many sex workers carry condoms, although it is not clear how often these are used. The risk comes from clients: safe sex is difficult to negotiate as most sex workers are in immediate financial need and cannot risk losing a client.

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3d. The Netherlands

Until very recently, prostitution in the Netherlands took place in the context of 'Abolitionist' laws. Under the Brothel Prohibition Act of 1911, working as a prostitute was not punishable, but it was an offence to profit from the earnings of a prostitute. In practice, however, prostitution -- even where illegally operated by a third party -- was widely tolerated. Since 1981, repeated unsuccessful attempts were made to bring the law in line with practice. In the autumn of 1996 the Dutch government finally adopted new legislation to abolish the criminalisation of brothels. Key elements of the new policy are:

• the distinction between 'forced' and 'voluntary' prostitution. 'Trafficking' and other forms of coercion and violence remain offences in the penal code.

• the regulation of prostitution is delegated by the state to the various regional and city governments.

The city can thus regulate, through the licensing of brothels, the number, if any, and type of commercial sex based businesses it will accept. Individual sex-workers will not, however, be required to register.

Some cities have begun, in anticipation of the new legislation, to regulate prostitution by issuing licenses. Conditions for licensing include those related to planning laws, building requirements for safety and sanitation, and those related to management of the business. Examples are the prohibition on requiring brothel workers to drink alcohol with clients, and the requirement that all sex workers using the premises have legal resident status in the Netherlands. This last provision that has had a major effect on sex workers. The number of police inspections of brothels has risen dramatically and several window brothels, where workers sit behind a large window to be visible from the street, in cities such as Amsterdam have been closed. Many non-resident sex workers have been deported, and it is expected that the new regulation will make it even more difficult for non-residents to migrate and work independently in the sex industry in the Netherlands. Non-resident migrant sex workers are thus excluded from the benefits of the authorised brothels and forced 'underground' into illegal brothels.

Sex work is organised in a variety of ways in the Netherlands. There is the well-known 'window prostitution' in Amsterdam and several other cities. Window workers usually work independently, paying a fixed amount of rent to the window owner, who takes no further commission on earnings. Street prostitution occurs in several cities. A few cities have established 'zones of tolerance' in which street prostitution may be practised. Outside these zones, and or in cities where they have not been established, street sex workers are often arrested by police and/or harassed by local residents. The tolerance zones are located in remote areas of the city, far from amenities such as shops, cafes and public toilets or telephones. To fill this gap, night shelters run by social workers provide a place for workers to buy food and drink, and offer medical advice and examination facilities.

Sex workers also work in brothels, which vary from simple 'private houses' with just a few women working where no alcohol is served, to larger clubs with up to 20 women working. Labour relations in these clubs are essentially 'employer-employee'. Workers are expected to adhere to rules on working times, dress, and behaviour with clients and may be expected to perform additional duties, such as cleaning the premises. Prices for sexual services are set by the management, and the worker receives from 30 to 60 per cent of the money paid by the client. Some sex workers use escort services, who mediate between sex workers and clients. These workers visit clients in their hotel rooms or at home. Prices are set by the agency, and the worker's share is comparable to that in brothels.

The sex worker population in the Netherlands is very diverse, and includes women, men, and transgender workers, Dutch nationals and migrants from many different countries. Working conditions for migrant prostitutes, especially those illegally in the country or legally in the country but without a work permit (i.e. on a tourist visa), are often significantly worse than those of legal workers. There is no recognised way for a non-EU citizen to obtain a working permit to work as a sex worker in the Netherlands. These and other immigration restrictions, force those from outside the EU who wish to engage in sex work in the Netherlands to seek the services of middlemen or agents to facilitate their entry into the industry. These services can be outrageously expensive, and may lead to situations of debt bondage.

In 1985, some sex workers established their own organisation: De Rode Draad (The Red Thread). The organisation focuses on sex workers' rights: on attempting to end the exclusion of sex workers from society. They run an information line for sex workers, organise discussion groups, publish a quarterly magazine for sex workers, and mount campaigns directed both at the general public and policy-makers.

The Netherlands' reputation for tolerance, often leads outsiders to assume that working conditions for sex workers in the Netherlands are always good or comparable to conditions in other industries. However, sex workers report that this appearance is misleading. It is true that the public and policy makers in the Netherlands have tended to take a pragmatic attitude towards sex work. However, stigma, and with it marginalisation and exclusion from human rights protection, continues to be a significant aspect of the lives of sex workers in the Netherlands.

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3e. Thailand

The new law is not expected to have much impact on the sex industry as, like the 1960 Act, it will most likely provide the basis for habitual extortion from sex establishments and sex workers on the part of the police. Sex workers fear contact with the police, which may include demands for cash or sexual favours, or detention in a 'rehabilitation' centre which is regarded as little different from a prison.

The country is known internationally for two kinds of commercial sex-based business. One is the neon-lit, relatively expensive bar aimed at male tourists. The other is the squalid closed brothel where the men who provide Thailand's cheapest labour, many of them illegal migrants themselves, visit debt-bonded migrant women. Neither of these examples can be regarded as the norm. The sex industry in Thailand is highly diversified and conditions vary widely.

Most of the sex industry in Thailand consists of businesses; brothels, hotels, massage parlours, restaurants, and bars of various types, such as karaoke or 'go-go'. These establishments are generally registered by the Sexually Transmitted Disease section of the Ministry of Health, which may attempt to provide health services to workers. In most of the establishments, the sex workers have a direct financial relationship with the management, but in hotels, some bars and discos, freelance sex workers, some of whom have other jobs, are tolerated or encouraged as a customer attraction, and many other service sector workers may offer sexual services as a sideline. Street trade is limited to those rejected by businesses as too old, too young or obviously drug addicted.

Local police are generally on very good terms with sex establishments, from whom they receive regular remittances. They may assist in returning debt-bonded runaways to brothels or otherwise enforce employer discipline. Police officers, like other Thai men, are often patrons of prostitution-based businesses and some invest in them. Raids on businesses, temporary closures or restrictions on opening hours may be used to discipline managers who do not meet financial or other obligations to the police, or as a political response to public pressure. Campaigns against child sexual exploitation have provoked more raids, and many establishments now take great care to avoid employing minors. These raids have however been criticised for heavy-handedness -- all employees may be detained or fined, and provision for the minors removed is inadequate.

The operation of the sex industry through businesses shields sex workers from exposure to the authority of the police, although they may pay for this security via deductions from their pay to cover the police bribes that are part of management overhead. This employment structure puts most of the problems faced by Thai sex workers into the realm of labour regulation. The worst conditions are associated with the slavery like practices of debt bondage and child servitude especially of migrants and others without full legal documentation.

Straightforward brothels, which offer no services aside from sex, represent the lower end of the market. These are most common outside Bangkok, serving low-income Thai men, and relying on high turnover for profits. Although many employ only adult workers, who are not confined to the accommodation offered and can choose which and how many shifts to work, this is the sector in which labour and human rights violations are most common. In closed premises, where communication with the client is not important, it is possible to profit from bonded and abused workers, some made more vulnerable by their young age or migrant status.

The women and girls are obliged to work until the debt is declared paid, whereupon they will be escorted home again. Workers are often confined to the brothel, sometimes physically, by violence or high walls, more often by fear. Women are told that if they leave they may be returned by the police, deported as illegal immigrants, abducted by other brothel keepers, or be unable to return home -- they must rely on the agents who brought them in to take them out of Thailand and locate their home village again.

The bonded women have no control over which clients or how many they service. Beatings may be used to enforce compliance, and workers anyway have an incentive not to resist high turnover as they want to pay off the debt and return home as soon as possible. They have no authority to negotiate condom use and some find condoms too painful after repeated intercourse. They are also at risk of HIV infection from common needles used by management for contraceptive or antibiotic injections. Some women may be obliged to take the contraceptive pill without accurate instructions for its use, or be forced to have abortions or to give up their babies to the management. Other contact with medical services is avoided as women fear adding to their debt.

Female virginity is prized, and many women only enter the sex industry when they are no longer virgins or their marriages have failed. Sex workers are generally regarded with disdain, or at best pity, and now as dangerous carriers of HIV. Sex work reduces the likelihood of a later marriage and may result in social or familial ostracism. However many commentators report that in the North, where filial obligations are very important, stigma may be reduced by the perception that a daughter who works in the sex industry is doing her duty to support her parents, and by the status attached to obvious material success, in the form of new property or consumer goods. This reduction does not generally take the form of overt approval, but more a willingness to avoid asking about the woman's activities 'down South' -- sex workers rarely work in their home area. Nevertheless, almost all sex workers, regardless of regional origin, attempt to conceal the nature of their work from family and others.

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3f. Turkey

In Turkey the state-licensed brothel, which was once common throughout western Europe, persists, and with it local commissions which must administer a plethora of restrictions upon the management of the brothel (called a genelev) and upon the life of the registered sex worker within it. Those women who attempt to evade the restrictions by working outside a genelev are to be forcibly registered following their third arrest and delivered to one. In fact, the practice of the authorities and police toward genelev and illegal sex workers varies, and most sex workers operate outside the licensed system.

Women who choose to register as prostitutes and work in the genelevs are assured protection from police intervention most of the time, and from abuse by clients. It is not customary for a woman to be forced to accept a customer she has rejected. In the case of any dispute, the manager is summoned and will usually decide in favour of the employee. However, the law places severe constraints upon their personal freedom at all times, although enforcement varies among local police forces. Genelevs may only employ registered sex workers. Only single, Turkish women over the age of 18 may register and registered women cannot marry while registered. The children of registered sex workers are barred from occupying high rank in the army or police, or marrying persons of such rank, although they can work in other areas of government service.

Registered women are forbidden to live or work outside a genelev and must inform the police if they change premises. They exchange the identity card carried by every ordinary citizen for special ones identifying them as prostitutes. They may later 'renounce' prostitution in order to obtain an ordinary identity card, but many women feared that files were kept which could be obtained by a future employer or husband. Married or foreign women, and men, can open genelevs but may not work in them.

Police enforcement of the rules varies. In many large cities the exchange of identity cards is not always required. In Istanbul registered workers can leave the genelev to accompany clients to hotels and even live outside it. They are not required to spend every night in their place of residence but they must declare the residence to the police and prove that it is not being used for prostitution: the mere presence of a man in their home can subject them to police attention. In other areas, prostitutes are confined to the brothel, perhaps with one day off per week, or only with permission, and must carry permits from the management to show that they are allowed out. Registered women complain that they are from time to time summarily called to the police station without any indication of the reason. This is seen as a way for new police officials to establish their authority over the prostitutes, and display that authority to subordinates. The renewal of registration may also be used to display authority, for example by demanding an employment history or other information for no apparent reason.

Registered women can expect a secure source of income, as there is apparently no shortage of clients in the genelevs. However, the genelev management takes the largest share of earnings. The genelev worker receives only 40 to 50 per cent of the set price paid at reception. Upstairs, the women bargain for tips, which are also shared with management. The enforcement of the tip rules is one of the working conditions considered when choosing to stay in a brothel, in an area where mobility is possible. In addition, a significant charge must be paid daily to the management for tea, electricity, water, paperwork and other overheads. It may also be forbidden to bring cigarettes, snacks etc., into the genelev -- these must then be purchased via the genelev servants. Agreements between brothel owners and local shop-keepers maintain prices at an artificially high level.

Brothel owners, unlike other employers, are not required to pay social security contributions for their employees. Although in other sectors of the economy this neglect is common, the other workers concerned can potentially sue the employer. A test case is underway: a genelev prostitute demanded a pension from her former employer but was refused. The case is now with a higher court but the legal system is very slow.

Registered sex worker informants felt that it was hard for them to assert their rights in the brothel, as a woman whose virginity is gone cannot command respect, and there is a threat of physical violence in those genelevs controlled by organised crime. Having a lover, especially if he works in the brothel or in organised crime, can make a woman more powerful in the brothel because he can defend her interests. In general, registered women can express their dissatisfaction with the level of financial exploitation there only by leaving the protection of the genelev system and joining the precarious life of the illegal sex workers.

Unregistered workers can potentially avoid some of the stigma and legal implications of prostitution by retaining their ordinary legal identity. The practice of forcible registration now appears to be rare. There are rumours of young women seduced and delivered to brothels in rural areas of Anatolia, but this has not been confirmed. The prevailing trend is against registration. Istanbul is no longer registering any new prostitutes and even outside Istanbul local authorities apparently no longer monitor suspected prostitutes. It has been suggested that the rise of religious political parties has made them reluctant to involve themselves with prostitution at all. In Kurdish towns the police apparently refuse to register women brought to them, or make it easy for them to revert to normal legal status.

Although no longer subject to compulsory confinement in a genelev, unregistered sex workers are still at the mercy of the police, facing violence and sexual abuse, and arbitrary detention in police stations. Police may also deliver sex workers to medical facilities and enforce detention therein. The head doctor at a hospital for sexually transmitted diseases in Istanbul described the staff as "at the same time psychologists, doctors, nurses, servants and prison managers." Prostitutes sometimes bribe the police to avoid being sent to the hospital, because of its overcrowded conditions and the loss of income that they suffered from missing work. Moreover, the food provided in the dormitory is poor, and the women are forced to depend on the expensive cafeteria for additional rations and for cigarettes until they are released.

The purpose of the medical detention programme is apparently to prevent women working while infected with sexually transmitted diseases. Women are detained for up to 10 days while treatment takes place, with severe restrictions on telephone calls and visitors. Testing for diseases, including HIV, is mandatory and doctors and police are informed of HIV status before the woman concerned. HIV-positive women are in fact discharged with the others, without counselling or treatment. All foreign women, mainly from Eastern Europe, are simply deported on removal from the hospital.

"The law says everyone is equal, but if arrested, the police do not treat everyone equally. They treat prostitutes even worse than other people," commented a registered sex worker in Istanbul. In addition to official violations of their rights, all sex workers are marginalised and former sex workers will be refused other employment if their history is revealed. Commenting on a proposed new law to bar prostitutes from giving evidence in a court, which is not expected to succeed, sex workers agreed that their evidence was routinely dismissed in court anyway. Transvestites and transsexuals, who invariably support themselves by prostitution as they are refused other work, face additional discrimination. Some sex workers have begun to organise, and women's groups have successfully campaigned in the past for the repeal of a law prescribing lighter sentences for men who rape sex workers. However, the stigma attached to their profession has made it very difficult for sex workers to work successfully with unions, women's, gay or human rights groups.

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4. List pf Issues of Concern

1. Discrimination

2. Restriction Under Criminal Law
   1. Discriminatory Treatment By Police And Judicial Authorities
      
      • Discrimination against sex workers as women, as male customers are rarely prosecuted.
        
      • Risk of arbitrary arrest
        
      • Police violence
        
      • Deprived of personal belongings following arrest
        
      • Lack of equality before the law as victim/defendant/witness
        
      • Convicted on accusation/police evidence alone
        
      • Unable to work in house together because of prohibition of brothels
        

   2. Discriminatory Treatment By Other Authorities
      
      • Legal or customary restrictions on sex workers' children
        
      • Compulsory HIV/AIDS testing/Compulsory STD testing
        
      • Employment discrimination/registration
        
      • Unable to claim social security, even if pay tax
        
      • Unable to form a union, because isolated or forbidden
        
      • Discriminatory immigration conditions
        

   3. Restrictions On Private Life
      
      • Forbidden to marry
        
      • Associates criminalised
        
      • Children removed by authorities
        
      • Residence restrictions
        

3. Employment Conditions
   1. Exploitative terms of employment
      
      • Wages withheld; not paid regularly or paid less than agreed
        
      • Denial of time off/holidays
        
      • Work day routinely longer than 12 hours
        

   2. Health and safety
      
      • No access to medical/health care
        
      • Unsafe, cramped or unhygenic working environment
        
      • Access to Occupational Health Services
        
      • No right/opportunity to use condoms
        
      • Use of communal needle for contraceptive/antibiotic injections
        

4. Slavery And Self-Determination
   1. Security of person and slavery

      Physical interventions without free or fully informed consent:
      

      • Coercion involving drugs: administering drugs without consent; inducing/exploiting drug dependency/compulsory alcohol consumption
        
      • Forced abortion/dangerous abortion practices
        

      Assaults which secure or express control:
      

      • Threat of reprisals against family
        
      • Personal belongings taken away
        
      • Psychological abuse (name-calling, insults, humiliation etc.)
        
      • Physical abuse (hitting, kicking, threatening with violence etc.) including murder
        
      • Sex without consent (including attempted or threatened); no right to refuse certain sexual acts/ no right to refuse certain customers/forced minimum number of customers per day
        
      • 'Pimping' (domestic violence and/or extortion)
        

   2. Slavery -- ownership by another

      Treatment as an object:
      

      • Not paid at all
        
      • No regular food
        

      Denial of self-determination:
      

      • Illegal confinement (movements controlled/restricted, no permission to leave the work place or allowed out only under supervision)
        
      • Isolation (prohibited from normal social contacts, interception of letters, calls)
        
      • Identity papers/passport confiscated/ false identity papers Lack of confidentiality of medical records
        

   3. Slavery-like practices
      
      • Debt Bondage
        
      • Coercion by agents in the course of migration
        
      • Deception/extortion by employment agencies
        
      • Forced to buy necessities through employer
        
      • Child servitude
        

5. Transnational Migrant Sex Workers
   
   • Vulnerability to abusive practices
     
   • Worse working conditions than local workers
     
   • Deception during recruitment of migrants
     

6. Minors In The Sex Industry
   
   • Child labour
     
   • Child sexual exploitation
     
   • Children and judicial authorities
     

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5. Relevant Instruments

United Nations

UDHR

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

ICESCR

International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966

ICCPR

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966

CEDAW

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979

CRC

Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989

DEVAW

Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, 1994

WHA 41.24

World Health Assembly Resolution: Avoidance of discrimination in relation to HIV-infected people and people with AIDS, 1988

WHA 45.35

World Health Assembly Resolution: Global strategy for the prevention and control of AIDS, 1992

1926

Slavery Convention

1956

Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, The Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery

1990

International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant workers and their families

Survey of Relevant Human Rights and Labour Standards...

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International Labour Organization

C29

Forced Labour Convention, 1930

C52

Holidays with Pay Convention, 1936

C79

Convention concerning the Restriction of Night Work of Children and Young Persons in Non-Industrial Occupations

C87

Convention concerning the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise

C95

Convention for the Protection of Wages

C96

Convention concerning Fee-Charging Employment Agencies (Revised 1949

C97

Convention concerning Migration for Employment (Revised 1949)

C98

Convention concerning the Application of the Principles of the Right to Organise and to Bargain collectively, 1949

C106

Convention concerning Weekly Rest in Commerce and Offices, 1957

C111

Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation, 1958

C132

Convention concerning Annual Holidays with Pay (Revised), 1970

C138

Convention concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973

C143

Convention concerning Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers, 1975

C155

Occupational Safety and Health Convention 1981

C161

Occupational Health Services Convention, 1985

R35

Recommendation concerning Indirect Compulsion to Labour, 1930 (furtherto C29)

R85

Recommendation concerning the Protection of Wages, 1949 (further to C95)

R86

Recommendation concerning Migration for Employment (Revised 1949), (further to C97)

R97

Recommendation concerning the Protection of the Health of Workers in Places of Employment, 1953

R100

Recommendation concerning the Protection of Migrant Workers in Underdeveloped Countries and Territories, 1955 (further to C97)

R111

Recommendation concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation, 1958 (further to C111)

R146

Recommendation concerning Minimum age for Admission to Employment, 1973 (further to C138)

R151

Recommendation concerning Migrant Workers, 1975 (further to C143)

R164

Recommendation concerning Occupational Safety and Health and the Working Environment, 1981 (further to C155)

R171

Recommendation concerning Occupational Health Services, 1985 (further to C161)

R178

Recommendation concerning Night Work, 1990 (further to C171)

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6. The Application of Existing Standards to the Sex Industry

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6a. Discrimination

In order to bring sex workers under the protection of UDHR Article 2 (and both ICCPR Article 2, ICESCR Article 2.2), which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of 'status' it seems reasonable to argue that they are discriminated against on the basis of their special 'status' as sex workers. While it is undeniably clear that much discrimination against sex workers, male and female, derives from their membership of a stigmatised group, there are dangers inherent in this approach.

The identifying of female prostitution as a characteristic or status, and not as an activity, can itself be considered an act of direct sex discrimination, thereby also violating ICCPR Article 3 and ICESCR Article 3 on the equality of the sexes. This identification defines a woman's status primarily in terms of her sexual behaviour. There is no corresponding status for men, based simply on sexual behaviour. Moreover, the sexual behaviour in question -- the acceptance of multiple sexual partners -- is widely considered to be transgressive in women, but is not always judged harshly in men.

CEDAW Article 5 obliges states to take measures against prejudice and stereotypes based on gender. The definition of the sex worker's economic activity as a characteristic, and the stigma which attends that characteristic, reflect prejudice and stereotypes around female sexual roles and states should be encouraged to take appropriate measures under this article.

Notwithstanding the discussion above, discrimination against sex workers can often be described in terms of indirect sex discrimination because the industry is predominantly female and so women are disproportionately affected. ICCPR Article 3 and ICESCR Article 3 guarantee equal treatment of men and women, and CEDAW Article 2 requires States Parties to eliminate discrimination against women by, inter alia, taking "all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women."

ICCPR Article 2.1 and ICESCR Article 2.2 require States Parties to ensure rights without discrimination in their territory and jurisdiction and ICCPR Article 2.1 demands incorporation of its terms into State legislation.

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6b. Restriction under criminal law

In Slovenia, for example, prostitution is covered by the Law on Offences against Public Order and Peace, which penalises any person who is engaged or assists in prostitution, allows or supports prostitution, or organises, prepares or supports practices of 'sexual immorality', with the exclusion of clients.

Wijers, Marjan and Lap-Chew, Lin, 1997. Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage, Domestic Labour and Prostitution. Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV), Utrecht, The Netherlands. p. 113.

In Greece, non-registered prostitutes are considered guilty of an illegal act; they are arrested, tried and imprisoned.

Europap, 1995. 1994: Final Report. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes). Ghent, Belgium, cited in Wijers, Marjan and Lap-Chew, Lin, 1997. Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage, Domestic Labour and Prostitution. Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV), Utrecht, The Netherlands. p. 116.

Can the principle of restricting the sex industry under a penal code itself be challenged on human rights grounds? Such a challenge begins with the right to the free choice of work enshrined in UDHR Article 23.1, ICESCR Article 6.1 and CEDAW Article 11, and to just and favourable work conditions in UDHR Article 23.1, which are violated by the placing of legal obstacles to engagement in sex work. This argument, and indeed the argument that sex workers should be entitled to any of the labour or human rights discussed here, is, of course, void if the State does not choose to define prostitution as work, but simply as unlawful activity.

However, UDHR Article 29.2 declares that the law may limit the individual's rights and freedoms "solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society." The right of the state to legislate on sexual morality is under question in many societies, while the effect of anti-prostitution legislation, by limiting the organisation of prostitution and encouraging its association with organised crime, can be widely observed to have a detrimental effect on "public order and the general welfare." The justice and legitimacy of penal restriction of the sex industry is not self-evident: the onus must be moved to States to defend or repeal such restriction.

Some women feel safer working on the street because of all the people around, but negotiations with clients are too hurried, the women are looking for the vice squad [police], so they can't decide if the client is all right or not.

Health Worker, Praed St. Project, London, UK, personal communication, 1997.

The legal definition of procuring is the cause of many problems for prostitutes, especially for those working in flats, who, according to the law, are compelled to be the owners. Indeed, if they rent their work place, the owner can be immediately prosecuted for brothel procuration. Similarly, two prostitutes cannot become co-owners of the same flat, for in legal terms one of them is automatically considered as the tenant and the other as the owner and can therefore be prosecuted for procuring. Furthermore, this law prevents any true solidarity between prostitutes, since any loan or financial donation from one person to another can be considered procuration.

Europap, 1995. 1994: Final Report. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes). Gent, Belgium. p62, and

Europap, 1996. France, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap, Gent, Belgium, p. 145.

In fact, anti-prostitution laws have a significant effect on sex worker welfare. Prohibitions on soliciting or on brothel-keeping mean that a worker's safety is compromised. On the street, she must often conclude negotiations as quickly as possible, reducing her ability to assess a potential client, to avoid being seen by police. Workers off the street may be obliged to work alone in premises, unable to share them with another worker for security if the two together would be regarded as operating a brothel. Prohibitions in this case violate the rights to freedom of association (UDHR Article 20.1) and to freedom of movement and choice of residence (ICCPR Article 12.1 and CEDAW Article 15.4).

In 1985, it became an offence for a male client to solicit prostitutes on the street. However, clients are prosecuted less often than prostitutes.

Europap, 1996. United Kingdom, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, pp. 317-8.

The stringent standards of proof which must be satisfied for the Crown Prosecution Service to proceed with a case [against a client] under the present legislation, were ...felt to be a major problem.

Benson, Catherine and Matthews, Roger, 1995. National Vice Squad Survey. School of Sociology and Social Policy, Middlesex University, Enfield, UK. p. 31.

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6b.i. Discriminatory treatment by police and judicial authorities

Before the penal code reform on 1 March 1994, French legislation did not distinguish between passive soliciting, that is for a woman to stand or wander along a street while staring at passers by, and active soliciting. Simply the fact of being seen in the street could be considered by the police as a sufficient cause to report a prostitute.

Europap, 1996. France, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, p. 145.

...repression by the Carabineros (national police) is frequent. It doesn't matter if we have the proper documents, they often arrest us or force us to have sexual relations with them to avoid fines or jail.

Elizabeth, president of the Chilean sex workers' organisation Angela Lina Pro-Women's Rights Association (APRODEM), quoted in Cabieses, Javier, 1995. Sex workers demand rights. Latin America Press. 19 October 1995.

We are at the same time psychologists, doctors, nurses, servants and prison managers. We keep the women for up to 10 days, or until they have completed treatment.

Head Doctor, Clinic for Sexually Transmitted and Skin Diseases, Istanbul, personal communication 1996.

It is rarely in the interest of the police or within their capacity to arrest everyone suspected of engaging in sex work. Instead laws against prostitution or soliciting custom are used to arrest on an arbitrary basis, often as an instrument of intimidation or extortion. Moreover, the denial of sex work as a legitimate source of income, even where selling sex itself is not illegal, allows the arbitrary arrest of sex workers under laws prohibiting vagrancy, in contravention of ILO R35(c). Sex workers may be detained on police authority in medical facilities, for a predetermined period or subject to medical treatment. Such practices violate the right to liberty enshrined in UDHR Article 3 and to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention in ICCPR Article 9.1. Male and transgendered sex workers may be particularly vulnerable to police attention.

[Of sex workers surveyed in 26 Ghanaian towns and cities], one third (40) reported problems with the police citing intimidation, periodic raids on hotels from which they operate, extortion of moneys and threats.

Pappoe, Dr Matilda, 1996. The Status of Prostitution in Ghana. GTZ Regional AIDS Programme for West and Central Africa, Accra, Ghana. p. 44.

Even in so-called democratic countries the list of mundane abuses against prostitutes carried out by the authorities will include raids, rapes, beatings, extortion, 'confiscation' of property and compulsory medical intervention.

Overs, Cheryl, 1994. Unfair cop. New Internationalist No.252. pp. 26-28.

Often the police rounds up women with their clients from the brothel on some pretext for extorting money from them. In such cases they also beat up women and manhandle their clients. Protesting prostitutes are taken to the police station where the physical abuse increases and the rates of fines go up.

Khan, Zarina Rahman and Arefeen, Helaluddin Khan, 1992. Prostitution in Bangladesh, draft report. Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In Bombay, for example, the police arrested 447 sex workers in raids on brothels. They were taken from the brothels without their belongings and, in some cases, without their children. Though prostitution in itself is not illegal in India, the women were kept in detention. They were tested for HIV and other sexual diseases without their consent, but were not given any medical treatment. Those who wanted to go back to work were not released: "If these women were in different occupations, there would have been considerable public outrage about this abuse and violation of rights."

GAATW (Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women), 1996. Report of fact finding tour on trafficking in Nepal, India, Bangladesh , Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. GAATW, Bangkok, Thailand. p. 22.

In many countries, an encounter with the police implies physical and psychological abuse, including sexual assault, especially where a sex worker is involved. These abuses violate the right to security of person (UDHR Article 3) and the right under ICCPR Article 10.1 to be "treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person". They also constitute "physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State," as described in Article 2, (c) of DEVAW. Detention may also result in the appropriation of cash or possessions by the management of a prostitution-based business during the absence of the sex worker.

Forty eight [prostitutes murdered in British Colombia over 8 years]. Imagine if it were 48 policemen, imagine if it were 48 women working in their homes, what kind of reaction you would see? ...The whole reaction of police, of newspapers, of anybody you can sort of look at, the reaction is the same: people don't seem to be particularly alarmed. The whole fabric of our society pretty much treats prostitutes as disposable.

Bindman, Stephen, 1996. Prostitute murders hard to solve, and no one cares. Ottawa Citizen, July 29 1996.

Local magistrates' courts hear cases brought by the police ...Prostitutes generally plead guilty because of perceived difficulties in negotiating the legal system and fears that they will be targeted subsequently by the police. Thus, the nature of the evidence against them remains unclear.

Europap, 1996. United Kingdom, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, p. 318.

Few sex workers feel able to seek the protection of the law as victims of fraud, extortion or assault, as they are often not regarded by police as citizens deserving of normal protection. Where police and judicial authorities are considering prosecuting an offence committed against a sex worker, they may drop a case on the grounds that the sex worker's testimony is unreliable. Police and judicial prejudice is particularly marked in cases of sexual assault of sex workers. Such exclusions violate UDHR Articles 6, 7 and 8, ICCPR Article 2.3 and 26, and CEDAW Article 15.1, on recognition and equality of protection by the law. As defendants on prostitution-related charges, sex workers in some countries may be convicted on police evidence alone in violation of the right to a fair hearing under UDHR Article 11 and ICCPR Article 14.

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6b.ii. Discriminatory treatment by other authorities

This may be illustrated by Canada, where the Criminal Code penalises "procuring or living on the avails of prostitution", including partners, room mates and children who share a swelling with a woman who works as a prostitute. Even if another source of income can be proven the simple fact that one member of a household works as a prostitute can be held against any other member of that house as "living off the avails of prostitution":...it has been enforced frequently against innocent family members and friends of prostitutes.

Sanghera, Jyoti, 1996. Preliminary Report on Forced Labour, Slavery-like Practices and Traffic in Women. Prepared for GAATW/STV. Canada, cited in Wijers, Marjan and Lap-Chew, Lin, 1997. Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage, Domestic Labour and Prostitution. Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV), The Netherlands. p. 133.

Brothel prostitutes [in Nevada] are required to register with police and, once hired, they are required to live on the premises while working.

Anderson, Laura, 1994. Working the Nevada Brothels. Gauntlet 1: 40, cited in Chapkis, Wendy, 1997. Live Sex Acts. Women performing erotic labour. Routledge, New York, p.163.

In France, the legal definition of this offence [procuring] forbids any prostitute from living with the person of her choice to form a genuine couple. Furthermore, Women who do not want or cannot find other employment (prostitution itself is not illegal), find it difficult to get national health insurance for themselves or their children since they are indirectly forbidden to have a family or a fixed address.

Europap, 1996. France, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, p. 145.

A criminal record clearly has further implications; ...known prostitutes may find it difficult to keep custody of their children....individuals encounter problems when they want to buy a house, pay tax, get a job, or register with the state for some other purpose.

Europap, 1996. United Kingdom, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, p. 319.

Sex workers may face a variety of restrictions on their private lives, violating UDHR Article 12 which protects against arbitrary interference with privacy, family and home. In some countries. registered sex workers lose their permission to work if they marry, despite UDHR Article 16 which protects the right to marry. In others, laws against profiting from prostitution, which can be used to punish associates of sex workers, restrict sex workers freedom of association (UDHR Article 20) and the ability to establish a home with others (ICCPR Article 12 on freedom to choose one's residence). The location of a sex worker's home may also be restricted, contravening UDHR Article 13 and ICCPR Article 12.1 on freedom of movement and residence, and CEDAW Article 15.4, which requires equal enjoyment of these rights by men and women.

In the context of an established system of welfare intervention in the family, sex work itself may constitute sufficient evidence that a parent is unfit to care for children. The removal of a child by authorities in this case is a violation of both the sex worker's and the child's rights under UDHR Article 12, and the sex worker's right under UDHR Article 16 to found a family. The child is further protected against interference in family life by CRC Article 16, and separation from his parents by CRC Articles 7 and 9, and by the freedom of association guaranteed by CRC Article 15.

In Turkey, the children of registered sex workers may not rise to high rank in the army or police, nor marry such persons. ...Registered women are forbidden to live or work outside a genelev and must inform the police if they change premises.

Health project worker, Human Resource Development Foundation, Istanbul, personal communication 1996.

Employment discrimination, registration, legal or customary restrictions upon the children of sex workers, and residence restrictions, are associated with the regulatory systems which persist in some countries. The registration of sex workers, declaring and recording their membership of a stigmatised group, constitutes violation of the principle of non-discrimination laid down in UDHR Article 2, ICCPR Article 2 and ICESCR Article 2.2), and ICCPR Article 3, ICESCR Article 3 on the equal rights of the sexes -- registration is generally confined to women. It violates several sections of CEDAW Article 2, notably (d), requiring States Parties to "refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation" and (f), to "take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to abolish or modify existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women."

Registered women can renounce prostitution and get an ordinary identity card, but the police keep records. An employer or a man who wants to marry you can go and look.

Registered sex worker, Istanbul, personal communication 1996.

Employment discrimination, on the basis of registration or other evidence, against sex workers or former sex workers, can be prohibited under C111 Article 1 as "nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation" while CEDAW Article 11 (b) and (c) require equal selection criteria and opportunity for men and women. R111 Article 11.2 calls for national policies to prevent discrimination.

In contrast to the civil rights afforded to other professional businesses, no similar protection is given to the profession of prostitution in Germany. The business' fundamental premise -- the agreement to provide a sexual service in return for payment -- offends the moral basis of the rules of the German Civil Code and is, therefore, not regarded as valid. Conflicting criminal laws also mean that it is not possible to conclude regular employment contracts. This leads to the total absence of social security.

Europap, 1996. Germany, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, p. 176.

The failure to recognise sex work as a legitimate source of income means that even where sex workers are regulated and taxed, they may not automatically be entitled to claim social security payments. This exclusion violates the right of everyone, and of women on a basis of equality with men, to social security under UDHR Articles 22 and 25, ICESCR Article 9, and CEDAW Article 11.1 (e).

Over the last years prostitutes have started to organise themselves to defend their rights and improve their working and living conditions. However, not in all countries are prostitutes permitted to do so. ...But, even when they are allowed to have their own organisation, it does not mean they are allowed to form their own labour or trade unions or join any existing ones as a specific population of workers. In general, prostitutes are denied union rights.

Wijers, Marjan and Lap-Chew, Lin, 1997. Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage, Domestic Labour and Prostitution. Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV), The Netherlands. p. 121.

Numerous attempts to organise have been blocked by violence or social control. In Ireland, for example, a prostitute who tried to organise her colleagues was killed; fire was set to her house and she was burnt to death. In Thailand, a few women tried to organise a kind of union called 'Thai Night Guard', but they failed because of family pressure, police harassment and threats from their managers. In Ecuador, brothel managers purposely rotate prostitutes each week to prevent them from grouping together and expressing their grievances about ill-treatment and bad working conditions.

Pheterson, Gail (ed.), 1992. A Vindication of the Rights of Whores. The Seal Press, USA. p. 7.

The right to establish or join free trade unions is protected by UDHR Article 23.4, ICESCR Article 8.1(a), C87 Articles 2 and 3, and C98. However, the nature of the sex industry, wherein workers may be isolated or reluctant to identify themselves for fear of social stigma or legal penalty, often precludes enjoyment of this right. Where isolation or illegality have not prevented them, the potential of sex workers to form unions to campaign for their rights has been amply demonstrated in various countries, most notably Australia. However, they often face reactions ranging from indifference to hostility from established labour unions or confederations if they try to join the established labour movement.

Some countries like the US, Japan, Turkey and Cyprus, explicitly exclude prostitutes from legal emigration or immigration. In Cyprus the Aliens and Immigration Law provides the "any prostitute or any person living on the proceeds of prostitution are prohibited immigrants and are not permitted to enter the country. These persons having entered the country, are ordered to be deported". In Turkey prostitutes are barred from entering the country under the Passport Act.

Council of Europe, 1994. Amended Summary of national replies to the questionnaire of forced prostitution and traffic in women, CDEG (94)32. Steering Committee for Equality between men and women. Strasbourg, France.

An alien can be refused entry on the basis of the Aliens Act if he/she plans to apply for residence in Sweden and it is assumed that he/she will not earn his/her livelihood or de facto not earn his/her livelihood in an hones fashion. What is meant in this case is professional prostitution. A person's residence permit can be revoked for the same reasons -- within two years of it being granted.

Europap, 1996. Sweden, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, p. 272.

Sex workers also face discriminatory immigration conditions -- some countries refuse to admit persons with previous prostitution-related offences.

The use of 'anti-trafficking' regulations or guidelines to restrict the movement of women from certain countries or in certain categories, for example, defined by age or marital status, on suspicion of engagement in sex work at destination, itself contravenes especially CEDAW Article 15.4 on equal freedom of movement, UDHR Article 2, ICCPR Article 2 and ICESCR Article 2.2) on discrimination, ICCPR Article 3, ICESCR Article 3 on the equal rights of the sexes.

See also 6e. Transnational Migrants in the Sex Industry, below.

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6c. Employment conditions

Due to the prohibition of exploitation and the frequent imposition of raids on bars and private houses by various police services, the managers are against keeping condoms on their premises.

Europap, 1996. Belgium, in Final Report '95-'96. Europap (European Intervention projects Aids Prevention for Prostitutes), Gent, Belgium, p. 118.

Under ICESCR Articles 2 and 3, all people, men and women, are guaranteed enjoyment of economic and social rights, and CEDAW Article 11, in particular sections 1.(d) and 1(f), calls upon States Parties to ensure equal protection for women from poor working conditions. Although some of the problems covered here -- in particular access to general health services and opportunities to use condoms -- lie in the realm of State responsibility. In the main, however, they relate to employer behaviour or negligence: poor working environments and a neglect of occupational health and safety, especially with regard to protection from disease; inadequate remuneration and time off; and long working hours. These problems are by no means exclusive to the sex industry, but are common throughout informal, and parts of formal, economies.

A large proportion -- probably the largest -- of sex work takes place outside the formal employment relationships which are regulated by the ILO and national authorities. It is performed on the casual, piece-work, or commission bases which characterise the informal sector. Conditions are not dictated by explicit contracts, but by legal and social restrictions on sex work combined with competition between individual sex workers for clients, or by systems of remuneration which are tied to shift work. The ILO and national authorities are very conscious of the difficulties of implementing labour standards in this context.

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6c.i. Terms of employment

Unfortunately, they can seldom get a proper income from their work because the income depends on the whims of the brothel owners, not on a law or contract. Interviews with many Burmese sex workers, as well as those of other nationalities working in Thailand, make it clear that it is almost impossible for sex workers to speak with the brothel owners about their rightful income.