2. Occupational Choice
The lack of educational and employment opportunities for women throughout the world has been well documented. Occupational choice for women (especially for women of color and working-class women), and also for men oppressed by class and race prejudice, is usually a choice between different subordinate positions. Once employed, women are often stigmatized and harassed. Furthermore, they are commonly paid according to their gender rather than their worth. Female access to jobs traditionally reserved for men, and adequate pay and respect to women in jobs traditionally reserved for women are necessary conditions of true occupational choice. Those conditions entail an elimination of the sexual division of labor. Prostitution is a traditional female occupation. Some prostitutes report job satisfaction, others job repulsion; some consciously chose prostitution as the best alternative open to them; others rolled into prostitution through male force or deceit. Many prostitutes abhor the conditions and social stigma attached to their work, but not the work itself. The ICPR affirms the right of women to the full range of education and employment alternatives and to due respect and compensation in every occupation, including prostitution.
3. Alliance Between Women
Women have been divided into social categories on the basis of their sexual labor and/or sexual identity. Within the sex industry, the prostitute is the most explicitly oppressed by legal and social controls. Pornography models, strip-tease dancers, sexual masseuses, and prostitutes euphemistically called escorts or sexual surrogates often avoid association with prostitution labels and workers in an effort to elevate their status. Also among self-defined prostitutes, a hierarchy exists with street workers on the bottom and call girls on the top. Efforts to distance oneself from explicit sex work reinforce prejudice against prostitutes and reinforce sexual shame among women. Outside the sex industry, women are likewise divided by status, history, identity, and appearance. Non-prostitutes are frequently pressured to deliver sexual services in the form of sex, smiles, dress or affection; those services are rarely compensated with pay and may even diminish female status. In general, a whore-madonna division is imposed upon women wherein those who are sexually assertive are considered whores and those who are sexually passive are considered madonnas. The ICPR calls for alliance between all women within and outside the sex industry and especially affirms the dignity of street prostitutes and of women stigmatized for their color, class, ethnic difference, history of abuse, marital or motherhood status, sexual preference, disability, or weight. The ICPR is in solidarity with homosexual male, transvestite and transsexual prostitutes.
4. Sexual Self-Determination
The right to sexual self-determination includes women’s right to set the terms of their own sexuality, including the choice of partner(s), behaviors, and outcomes (such as pregnancy, pleasure, or financial gain). Sexual self-determination includes the right to refuse sex and to initiate sex as well as the right to use birth control (including abortion), the right to have lesbian sex, the right to have sex across lines of color or class, the right to engage in sado-masochistic sex, and the right to offer sex for money. Those possibly self-determining acts have been stigmatized and punished by law or custom. Necessarily, no one is entitled to act out a sexual desire that includes another party unless that party agrees under conditions of total free will. The feminist task is to nurture self-determination both by increasing women’s sexual consciousness and courage and also by demanding conditions of safety and choice. The ICPR affirms the right of all women to determine their own sexual behavior, including commercial exchange, without stigmatization or punishment.
5. Healthy Childhood Development
Children are dependent upon adults for survival, love, and development. Pressure upon children, either with kindness or force, to work for money or to have sex for adult satisfaction, is a violation of rights to childhood development. Often the child who is abused at home runs away but can find no subsistence other than prostitution, which perpetuates the violation of childhood integrity. Some research suggests that a higher percentage of prostitutes were victims of childhood abuse than of non-prostitutes. Research also suggests that fifty percent of prostitutes were not abused and that twenty-five percent of non-prostitutes were abused. Child abuse in private and public spheres is a serious violation of human rights but it does not mean that the victims cannot survive and recover, especially given support and resources for development. A victim deserves no stigmatization either in childhood or adulthood. The ICPR affirms the right of children to shelter, education, medical or psychological or legal services, safety, and sexual self-determination. Allocation of government funds to guarantee the above rights should be a priority in every country.
6. Integrity of All Women
Violence against women and girls has been a major feminist preoccupation for the past decade. Specifically, rape, sexual harassment at work, battering, and denial of motherhood rights have been targeted as focal areas for concern, research, and activism. Within the context of prostitution, women are sometimes raped or sexually harassed by the police, by their clients, by their managers, and by strangers who know them to be whores. Prostitute women, like non-prostitute women, consider rape to be any sexual act forced upon them. The fact that prostitutes are available for sexual negotiation does not mean that they are available for sexual harassment or rape. The ICPR demands that the prostitute be given the same protection from rape and the same legal recourse and social support following rape that should be the right of any woman or man.
Battering of prostitutes, like battering of non-prostitutes, reflects the subordination of women to men in personal relationships. Laws against such violence are often discriminately and/or arbitrarily enforced. Boyfriends and husbands of prostitutes, in addition to anyone else assumed to profit from prostitution earnings (such as family and roommates), are often fined or imprisoned in various countries on charges of “pimping” regardless of whether they commit a violent offense or not. Boyfriends and husbands of non-prostitute women are rarely punished for battering, even when the woman clearly presses charges against them. The ICPR affirms the right of all women to relational choice and to recourse against violence within any personal or work setting.
Women known to be prostitutes or sex workers, like women known to be lesbians, are regularly denied custody of their children in many countries. The assumption that prostitute women or lesbian women are less responsible, loving, or deserving than other women is a denial of human rights and human dignity. The laws and attitudes which punish sexually stigmatized women function to punish their children as well by stigmatizing them and by denying them their mothers. The ICPR considers the denial of custodial rights to prostitutes and lesbians to be a violation of the social and psychological integrity of women.
7. Pornography: “Writings of Harlots”
Sexually explicit material or pornography refers specifically in original Greek to the writing of harlots. Today, pornography has been taken over by a male-dominated production industry wherein the female models and actresses rarely determine the content of their products. Moreover, like prostitutes, pornography workers are stigmatized as whores, denied recourse after abuse, and are often blamed for abuse committed against them. They are also denied adequate financial compensation for distribution of products in which they appear. The ICPR claims the right of sex workers (as opposed to managers) to determine the content, production procedure, and distribution procedure of the pornography industry. Such empowerment will require solidarity among sex workers, solidarity between women both within and outside the sex industry, and education of women in the production of sexually explicit material. In support of such a feminist self-determining movement, the ICPR calls for public education campaigns to change the demands of a market which eroticizes children and the abuse of women.
8. Migration of Women through Prostitution (“Trafficking”)
Trafficking of women and children, an international issue among both feminists and no
n-feminists, usually refers to the transport of women and children from one country to another for purposes of prostitution under conditions of force or deceit. The ICPR has a clear stand against child prostitution under any circumstances. In the case of adult prostitution, it must be acknowledged that prostitution both within and across national borders can be an individual decision to which an adult woman has a right. Certainly, force or deceit are crimes which should be punished whether in the context of prostitution or not. Women who choose to migrate as prostitutes should not be punished or assumed to be victims of abuse. They should enjoy the same rights as other immigrants. For many women, female migration through prostitution is an escape from an economically and socially impossible situation in one country to hopes for a better situation in another. The fact that many women find themselves in another awful situation reflects the lack of opportunities for financial independence and employment satisfaction for women, especially for third world women, throughout the world. Given the increased internationalization of industry, including prostitution, the rights and specific needs of foreign women workers must be given special attention in all countries.
The ICPR objects to policies which give women the status of children and which assume migration through prostitution among women to be always the result of force or deceit. Migrant women, also those who work as prostitutes, deserve both worker rights and worker protections. Women who are transported under conditions of deceit or force should be granted choice of refuge status or return to their country of origin.
9. A Movement for All-Women’s Rights
It is essential that feminist struggle include the rights of all women. Prostitutes (especially those also oppressed by racism and classism) are perhaps the most silenced and violated of all women; the inclusion of their rights and their own words in feminist platforms for change is necessary. The ICPR urges existing feminist groups to invite whore-identified women into their leading ranks and to integrate a prostitution consciousness in their analyses and strategies.
Prostitution and Health
Prostitute health and prostitute access to health care services are deeply affected by social stigma and legal discrimination. Those injustices function not only to deny healthy work conditions and effective services to prostitutes, but also to foster distorted beliefs about prostitutes among the general public. Historically, prostitutes have been blamed for sexually transmitted diseases and authorities have justified social and legal control of prostitutes as a public health measure. The assumptions that prostitutes are more responsible for disease transmission than other groups and that state control of prostitute behavior prevents such transmission are contrary to research findings. Presently, the assumption that prostitutes are carriers of AIDS and that forced AIDS testing will prevent the disease have been shown to be unfounded in the West. The situation in various third world countries is as yet unclear. Female prostitutes in the West are not a risk group for AIDS. The small minority of prostitutes who are needle-using drug addicts are at risk from shared needles, not from commercial sex.
The ICPR demands realistic portrayals of the health of diverse prostitutes and implementation of effective health education and treatment services. Those services must respect prostitute dignity and foster customer responsibility for disease prevention (i.e condom use) in sexual transactions. A list follows of injustices and rights which are crucial to prostitute health and public responsibility.
Human Rights Violations in Health Policy and Practice
I. Discrimination against women in public health laws and practices is a basic violation of human rights. The ICPR demands:
A. (1) Repeal of regulations which deny free choice of a doctor to prostitutes.
(2) Abolition of compulsory medical certificates.
(3) Repeal of laws to combat venereal disease which are invoked only against prostitutes.
(4) Prohibition of forced or incentive testing of prostitutes in prison for any purpose.
(5) Free, anonymous, and voluntary testing for venereal disease, including AIDS, at easily accessible health facilities available for all people, including prostitutes.
B. Widespread education and regular screening for sexually transmitted diseases among all sexually active people. Note that venereal disease is a risk for different groups of sexually active people, that condoms are the best known preventive measure against VD, and that prostitutes are more likely to be aware of sexual health care than other persons.
C. Health insurance and compensation benefits for all workers, including prostitutes. Note that the stigmas and regulations which prevent job mobility for prostitutes (such as the denial of required letters of good conduct to prostitutes) make it extremely difficult or impossible for prostitutes to change work when desired or when necessary for health reasons.
II. Registration of prostitutes with state and police authorities denies human rights to privacy and dignified employment. The ICPR demands:
A. Independent and confidential public health services for all people, including prostitutes. Collaboration between health providers and public authorities, such as police or researchers, should be illegal.
B. Abolition of mandatory registration of prostitutes and of unofficial pressure on prostitutes to register with the police.
III. Criminalization of prostitutes for purposes of public health is unrealistic and denies human rights to healthy work conditions. As outlaws, prostitutes are discouraged, if not forbidden, to determine and design a healthy setting and practice for their trade. The ICPR demands:
A. Decriminalization of all aspects of adult prostitution resulting from individual decision. Specifically, prostitutes must have the right to work indoors and the right to advertise; they must also have the right to solicit outdoors according to general zoning codes (i.e., active solicitation should be allowed in areas zoned for businesses). Denial of those rights forces prostitutes into medically unhygienic, physically unsafe, and psychologically stressful work situations.
B. Application of regular business codes to prostitution businesses, including codes for cleanliness, heating, and leave for sickness and vacation. Also, codes for mandatory condom use should be enacted. Regulations should be enforced by worker organizations and not by state authorities.
Medical and Counseling Services
I. Education of health workers about the realities of prostitution health issues is necessary to combat prejudice and misinformation within medical and counseling services. Prostitutes and ex-prostitutes should be employed to participate in such training.
II. Integration of prostitutes in the medical and counseling services is essential for effective policy-making and service delivery.
III. Vocational counselors must respect a woman’s decision to work as a prostitute or not. Leaving prostitution must never be a prerequisite for counseling service.
IV. Health authorities should disseminate information about safe sexual practices. In particular, condom use should be recommended for all vaginal, oral, or anal sexual transactions.
Drugs and Alcohol
I. Those prostitutes who are addicts, a minority in most branches of prostitution, usually entered prostitution to support their habit. Inadequate drug policies are responsible for addicts practicing prostitution; prostitution is not responsible for drug addiction.
Social alternatives to prostitution are needed for addicted women. Both drug laws and drug treatment programs need to be re-evaluated. A clinical and social rather than a criminal model should be considered for controlling addictive substances. Treatment programs should be given adequate funding and research support.
II. There are no inherent connections between drug addiction and prostitution. Laws which criminalize both and practices which utilize addicted prostitutes as police informants are largely responsible for the connection between drugs and sex work on the streets. Prostitution must be decriminalized and police must stop using prostitutes for illicit criminal investigations.
III. Addicted prostitu
tes who use needles, like other needle-using addicts, must have access to legal, inexpensive needles in order to prevent the spread of disease (specifically, hepatitis and AIDS).
IV. It should be illegal for any employer, including managers of sex businesses, to force employees to drink alcohol.
Prostitution and Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights was drafted within the Council of Europe in 1950 and came into force in 1953. All twenty-one of the member States have ratified it. Those States include: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. A published summary of the Convention is reprinted at the end of this statement.
The International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights (ICPR) demands that prostitutes, ex-prostitutes, and all women regardless of their work, color, class, sexuality, history of abuse, or marital status be granted the same human rights as every other citizen. At present, prostitutes are officially and/or unofficially denied rights both by States within the Council of Europe and by States outside of it. No State in the world is held accountable by any international body for those infractions. To the contrary, denial of human rights to prostitutes is publicly justified as a protection of women, public order, health, morality, and the reputation of dominant persons or nations. Those arguments deny prostitutes the status of ordinary persons and blame them for disorder and/or disease and for male exploitation of and violence against women. Criminalization or state regulation of prostitution does not protect anyone, least of all prostitutes. Prostitutes are systematically robbed of liberty, security, fair administration of justice, respect for private and family life, freedom of expression, and freedom of association. In addition, they suffer from inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment and from discrimination in employment and housing. Prostitutes are effectively excluded from the Human Rights Convention.
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