The Philippines and other Asian countries should decriminalize
sex-related jobs in order to provide sex workers access to basic rights and to
control the spread of sexually transmitted infections especially HIV, a new
United Nations report said.
"The legal recognition of sex work as an occupation enables
sex workers to claim benefits, to form or join unions and to access
work-related banking, insurance, transport and pension schemes," the
report dubbed "Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific" showed.
It added that "in decriminalized contexts, the sex industry
can be subject to the same general laws regarding workplace health and safety
and anti-discrimination protections as other industries."
Decriminalization, the report said, involves the repeal of laws criminalizing
sex work, being clients to sex workers or engaging in activities associated
with sex work.
It should also repeal laws that require mandatory testing or
treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other STIs, as well as laws
that allow detention of sex workers for rehabilitation or correction. The
report stressed that Filipino sex workers remain highly vulnerable to STIs
including HIV as well as sexual and physical abuse due to stigma. This, even as
it noted that the Philippines has introduced laws aimed at preventing HIV and
protecting the rights of infected patients.
These laws offer "limited protections" to sex workers,
the report said, amid "the continued enforcement of criminal laws against
sex workers and difficulties in accessing the justice system to enforce these
rights." Sex work as well as businesses engaged in sex are illegal under
Philippine laws, with penalties up to 30 days imprisonment for first offense
and up to six months imprisonment for repeat offenders.
The UN also noted that broad definitions open to abuse and
misinterpretation some provisions of laws on sex work. Article 201 of the
Revised Penal Code, which covers immoral doctrines, obscene publications and
exhibitions and indecent shows "may be used by police to lay charges as a
result of raiding entertainment establishments," the report said.
"Establishment-based sex workers are at risk of arrest as a result of
police raids conducted under the anti-trafficking law," it added.
Most of these workers are also not given health insurance, with
the UN saying that "employers take advantage of a loophole in relevant
employment laws by claiming that sex workers are not regular employees..."
Sex workers operating independently, however, are still "more vulnerable
to arrest and police abuses," the report said. "Street-based sex
workers are commonly charged with vagrancy offences," it noted. Laws also
remain inadequate in addressing issues of discrimination against sex workers,
especially for those infected with HIV or other STIs.
The AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998, for instance,
provides "no specific provisions to protect sex workers from
discrimination," the report said. Sex workers who are sexually assaulted
are also unlikely to "successfully bring a charge of rape against an
offender" despite the Anti-Rape Law, the UN added. "Police
confiscation of condoms for use as evidence remains a controversial
issue," the report noted.
Although noting that the government has backed efforts to promote
condom use among sex workers over the last decade, UN said the presence of
condoms in establishments raided by police is still used as evidence in
criminal complaints.
UN stressed, however, that "significant progress has been
achieved through sex workers educating their peers about their rights,
organizing legal representation and securing changes to law enforcement
practices... At the local level, this approach has shifted the power balance in favor of the vulnerable, and has been associated with positive HIV prevention
outcomes such as increased condom use rates and reduced stigma," the
report said.
Source: Yahoo News
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