There has been some recent controversy in the news over a policy created by Amnesty International, a renowned human rights organisation, who have set forward a vote that protects sex workers by decriminalising their profession if it is consensual.
The policy calls for states to guarantee sex workers receive proper legal protection from acts such as exploitation, abuse, trafficking and all forms of violence. The policy has no intent to decriminalise human trafficking or acts against the underage.
The vote has been fought against in an online open petition and a letter written by some of Hollywood’s ladies, including Lena Dunham, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway and Kate Winslet. They specifically highlight the issues involved with enabling the notion that female bodies are for consumption, as well as the dangers involved with legalising brothels and pimps. Their letter states that the policy is “incomprehensibly proposing is the wholesale decriminalization of the sex industry, which in effect legalizes pimping, brothel owning and sex buying.”
Sex workers themselves seem to largely be in support of the policy. Barba Moyo, a Zimbabwean Sexual Rights Paralegal Officer (who has twenty years’ experience in the sex industry), told The Guardian: “I seek justice for the sex workers I know who have been murdered in clients’ homes and cars, lacking safe or legal spaces to work. I seek justice for my fellow sex workers who are routinely denied healthcare services and police protection.”
Serra Sippel, president of CHANGE (The Centre for Health and Gender Equity), said that the policy was a “good health policy, as research has shown that decriminalisation of sex work can reduce HIV infections globally. Human rights are universal and for everyone, sex workers included.”
Although the intent of those opposing the policy is to protect women in the way they see fit, those supporting the policy are similarly trying to ensure the protection of women in a way they see logical and practical. Amnesty has accepted that this is a “complex” issue that would not have a simple answer. This is a debate that is likely to continue without one resolution.
Words by Charlie “Ginger” Jones