Ji-Eun Kim & Hannah van Voorthuysen, Prostitution and Human Rights

Prostitution Proposal 

Are domestic policy options constrained/facilitated by international law and politics?

The debate over prostitution is heady and passionate. The scope of the debate varies from those who argue that prostitution is a human rights violation/ a violation of women’s bodies, to those who argue that it should be decriminalised to protect sex workers and reconstructed as a human right under existing labour laws. 

The language and context of the international debate on prostitution is consequently framed within two fundamentally different paradigms: either under a paradigm of international trafficking or under a paradigm of labour rights. 

By analysing the international debate we would like to attempt to locate an international norm on this subject and use this to frame the context of the current debates around prostitution both Canada-wide and in Vancouver.

Research directions:

*Analyse the legal basis for prostitution based on UN declarations or resolutions.

*Assess at international and local cases/laws to establish precedents.

*Analyse the literature on international sex trafficking to determine the impacts for this on prostitution law.

*Connect with local NGOs and lobby groups to determine the situation in BC. 

We would then like to assess whether there is a disconnect between these international socialisation processes and the current situation in BC. 

Individual projects:

Ji-Eun:

Lay out the basis for a theoretical framework that attempts to redefine prostitution in the basis of human rights law based on individual choice and agency whilst acknowledging the problematic role of sex trafficking on definitions of prostitution/sew work. 

Hannah:

Examine the proposed Prostitutes Co-op in Vancouver in light of similar institutions internationally to determine whether there is a case to be made based on grander concepts of international law.

Comments

[Michael Byers]

As you already know, this is a minefield of a topic. But here are some places to start:

Check out the argument at: http://www.walnet.org/csis/papers/redefining.html

And contrast that with the argument that all prostitution is exploitative.

You should also find a copy of Melissa Ditmore, Encyclopedia of prostitution and sex work, which cover the international dimension.

Finally, you should set up a meeting with my fellow BCCLA board member Megan Vis-Dunbar: mvisdunbar [at] gmail.com

Before you do, check out: http://www.bccla.org/05autonomy.htm

Great work so far!

[Matt Robinson]

I had mentioned in class The John Howard Society's Prostitution Offender Program. It's a very cool program - you guys might want to check it out. If you do, try getting into contact with Ian Mitchell, whose contact info is available on this page: http://www.jhscso.bc.ca/programs/popbc.html

This program relies on section 213. I wonder if overturning 213 would affect other programs that are focused on harm and industry reduction?

[Pablo Antezana]

Here I copy the link to the Red Ribbon Award webpage where you will find lots of information regarding NGOs from around the world that engage with the promotion of human rights and better living conditions -especially among people living with AIDS, sexworkers and sexual minorities-. As an example of how the situation is evolving in other regions of the world, I would pay attention to the Asociación de Mujeres Meretrices de la Argentina (a network of 15,000 sex workers from Argentina) and to Mauritius' Chrysalide organization.

http://www.redribbonaward.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=184&Itemid=116&lang=en

[Mo]

Hi,
I'll be sending an e-mail to Constable Jodyne Keller, the Vancouver PD's liaison to the homeless, and Ann Livingston, who started the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users asking about water in the DTES. If you'd like to add questions or your contact details to either e-mail, let me know at mo-al-mehairbi@hotmail.com

(I have also sent this to the Insite project.)
Mo.

[Frank Halderman]

I found that New Zealand legalized, but appears to not have decriminalized, prostitution in June 2003, and the issue still remains contentious in 2010.
I thought I would include an article by Shiela Jeffreys - Womens Health Trust (2003)- that argues against the legalization of prostitution during the time when the New Zealand parliament considered a Prostitution Reform Bill.

http://www.womens-health.org.nz/index.php?page=the-legalisation-of-prostitution-a-failed-social-experiment

G Abel, L Fitzgerald, C Healy, (eds). Taking the crime out of sex work: New Zealand sex workers' fight for decriminalisation. Policy Press 2010

[Sam]

In a law class this week during a discussion of murders I was struck at how many are crimes against sex workers. I'm sure there's must be a body of social science that attempts to explain why men kill prostitutes specifically: Surely it's tied in part to the killers' own crossed wires connecting sex and violence and power. (Jack the Ripper is one example; another is Davey Mato Butorac, convicted this year in B.C. of killing three prostitutes: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/convicted+killing+prostitutes+faces+third+charge/3287381/story.html ) You may be able to make the case that violence toward prostitutes, similar to violence against other marginalized peoples, is in part due to the perception of social outsiders as somehow less human.

As you're considering sex workers' issues parallel to human trafficking and labour issues, consider also other avenues -- protections against other marginalized peoples -- that might bolster a view of prostitutes not as scofflaws but as people whose choice of occupation, and the perceptions of that occupation by the law and by society, exposes them to physical violence which could be mitigated by recognizing the workers as, in effect, full citizens.

In the U.S. we've lately seen laws passed to classify violence against homeless people as a hate crime. Could you argue that violence against a prostitute might be classified a hate crime?

[Hannah van Voorthuysen]

Thanks for all the comments!

Sam - I think this is a really important point that you raise and this concern with protection over punishment is the argument that we will be pursuing. I think part of the reason why sex workers are targeted is due to their marginalised position in society (they feel uncomfortable going to the police due to fears of prosecution), as well as other issues like ease of access to these people, and a current inability for sex workers to properly vet their clients combined with a lack of secure safe-houses for the jobs to be completed in.

This is something that I am hoping decriminalisation and sex worker co-ops may be able to help mitigate.

Your hate crime example is very interesting - I'll have to have a look into this!

Pablo - thanks for that link! Really great. At the moment my casestudies examine New Zealand and India, but I will definitely try to find out more about the Argentinian example.