AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR GLOBAL DECRIMINALIZATION OF SEX WORK
The Directors of Amnesty International have formally adopted a policy calling for the decriminalization of sex work around the world.
The story can found on Amnesty’s website… https://www.amnesty.org/latest/news/2015/08/global-movement-votes-to-adopt-policy-to-protect-human-rights-of-sex-workers/
Recently, Amnesty International launched a policy initiative calling for the global decriminalization of sex work. Decriminalization is also supported by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and a host of other non-government advocacy groups around the world.
Some studies report up to 20 million, mostly women and children, are caught up in sexual slavery and trafficking around the world. Criminals have long profited from the unwanted sexual exploitation of vulnerable people. In much of the world, sexual exploitation is illegal, but so is the exchange of money for sexual favor.
Amnesty’s position is that consent should the basis of whether or not sexual activity is legal or not. Decriminalization means that the mere exchange of money between sex workers and their ‘customers’ would not be illegal, as long as there is consent between the participants. Decriminalization will refocus police resources specifically on the criminal sexual exploitation by traffickers. It would also reduce or eliminate the exploitation of sex workers by police, who would no longer have the ability to use the threat of prosecution against them.
There are some, who suggest that decriminalization would make things worse, and make it easier for traffickers to exploit victims. That idea makes no sense. In an atmosphere where sex work is legal and regulated to assure the health and safety of workers and their customers, the work can provide income to people with limited options.
If all police resources wasted on catching and prosecuting sex workers and their customers were refocused exclusively on identifying and prosecuting the criminals, who force women and children into sex work, the global problem of criminal sexual exploitation would get the attention it deserves.
In many European nations, as well as in New Zealand and Australia, where ‘decriminalization is the law, the results are already in. Decriminalization substantially reduces ancillary crime, unwanted pregnancies, the transmission of sexually transmitted disease, and it puts criminal sex traffickers out of business.
Consent should be only question in determining whether sexual conduct is legal or not. That’s what Amnesty International believes. That’s what the United Nations and WHO believe, and that’s what we believe.
Here is a link to a statement from the NWSP – http://www.nswp.org/news/nswp-issues-statement-support-amnesty-international-and-launches-online-petition