Prostitution is directly linked to patriarchy and its abuse of power and male sexual demand, says a new report. To be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 21, “Prostitution and Violence Against Women and Girls” provides much-needed clarity on the inherent nature of prostitution as a form of violence and its inextricable link to sex trafficking. The report compellingly calls for the abolition of prostitution.
In her study, Reem Alsalem, the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who was appointed by the Council, connects prostitution with the “patriarchal norms and the accompanying abuse of power and sexual demand by men.” She rightfully declines to use the term “sex work,” noting that it “wrongly depicts prostitution as an activity as worthy and dignified as any other work” and fails to consider the human rights violations inherent in prostitution.
Alsalem’s analysis is a welcome, stark contrast to the approach of the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls, which in December published a “Guidance document on eliminating discrimination against sex workers and securing their human rights.” Discrimination and violence against prostituted people, especially women, is rampant, and protecting their rights must be a critical priority of the human rights movement.
But the working group’s promotion of “sex work” ignores the reality, as noted by the committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) as well as the special rapporteur, who say that prostitution is by its very nature discriminatory and directly linked to sex trafficking, a multibillion-dollar scourge that profits from the commodification of human beings, mostly women and girls. Promoting the decriminalization of sex buyers and pimps, as the working group does, is misguidance rather than guidance.
Hopefully, Alsalem’s definitive new report will help the UNAIDS agency and others in the UN system to get back on track by focusing on prostitution as a lifelong harm for women and girls rather than as a welcome job opportunity. The special rapporteur’s approach is embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims that “all human beings are born equal in dignity and rights.” The 1949 UN anti-trafficking convention states clearly that prostitution is “incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and endanger[s] the welfare of the individual, the family, and the community.”
The new report builds on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and numerous UN human rights treaties, including Cedaw. Its Article 6 prohibits the trafficking in and exploitation of prostitution of women. In 2020, the Cedaw committee adopted General Recommendation 38, which recognizes such violations as a “phenomenon rooted in structural, sex-based discrimination, constituting gender-based violence.” It recognizes the links between trafficking and sexual exploitation as “indivisible.” Like the UN Palermo Protocol on Trafficking, it notes that where the forces of poverty and violence are inherently coercive, consent is “irrelevant.”
A human rights-based approach to prostitution must begin with the premise that women and girls have a right not to be prostituted, a right to education and employment and a life that honors their dignity and fulfills their potential. The idea embraced by the working group that “sex work” is a fulfillment of this right has been strongly rejected by sex-trade survivors, who have contributed invaluable first-hand experience to the understanding that prostitution is neither sex nor work. Nor is it compatible with any notion of gender equality or women’s empowerment. The buying of mostly women by mostly men is rooted in inequality and a dramatic illustration of the intersection of sexism, racism and classism.
The special rapporteur’s study reviews the various legal frameworks governing prostitution by characterizing regulation and decriminalization approaches as based on the premise that prostitution is inevitable. Research conducted across 150 countries shows that the male demand for prostitution increases when the system of prostitution is legalized or decriminalized. These frameworks also lead to higher rates of sex trafficking, violence, abuse and rape.
Based on these findings, as well as expertise provided by 300 organizations and specialists, the UN report supports the abolition of prostitution, also known as the “equality model,” the “Nordic” model in Europe or the “Sankara” model in Africa. This approach decriminalizes prostituted people, recognizing them as victims of systemic exploitation and offering them comprehensive services, while it criminalizes the buyers, the pimps and other third parties who profit from the exploitation of prostitution, holding them accountable for their predatory crimes.
As Alsalem notes, countries that have adopted this approach — including Sweden, Norway, Iceland, France, Ireland and Canada — have seen concrete positive results in reducing violence against women and eroding harmful gender stereotypes.
As one of the women’s rights advocates who proposed the creation of the working group on discrimination against women and girls almost 15 years ago, I was taken aback by their “Guidance document” promoting the legalization of an industry that embodies violence and discrimination against women and girls. This document has been widely circulated, although it has never been presented to the Human Rights Council or discussed by member states during its sessions.
Yet, the document received a UN General Assembly document distribution number and was formatted to look like an official report, which misleadingly suggests that it is a document of the Human Rights Council. Although it did not consult any survivor groups, the working group cites the Global Network of Sex Work Projects and its members more than a dozen times in the document.
The UN’s internal staff rules, known as the zero-tolerance policy, explicitly ban the exchange of money for sex, recognizing sexual exploitation as a “violation of international legal norms and standards.” Yet some years ago, UNAIDS started to use the term “sex work” and to promote the decriminalization of the prostitution industry. A much better approach to reducing HIV/AIDS would be to abolish the sex trade, which is an HIV/AIDS superspreader.
Alejandra Gil, a key advocate who originally steered UNAIDS in the “sex work” direction as co-chair of its advisory group on HIV and sex work, was later convicted of sex trafficking and is now serving a 15-year prison sentence in Mexico. Meanwhile, the UN Population Fund and other UN agencies have taken their cue from UNAIDS by advocating the “sex work” approach.
The special rapporteur’s report is an opportunity for UN member states to make their views known on the decriminalization of pimps, brothel owners and those who use their power and privilege to prey on those who are victimized by violence, discrimination and poverty. They should be guided by international law, human rights principles and an understanding of the harms of prostitution to women and girls. They should ensure that all of the UN does so as well.
This is an opinion essay.
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on the UN rapporteur’s report?
Jessica Neuwirth is the Rita E. Hauser Director of the Human Rights Program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute of Hunter College and a former director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
