Why Sex Work Should Be Decriminalised in South Africa
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WHY SEX WORK SHOULD BE DECRIMINALISED IN SOUTH AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Why Sex Work Should be Decriminalised in South Africa Copyright © 2019 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-6231-37533 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org 2 AUGUST 2019 ISBN: 978-1-6231-37533 Why Sex Work Should be Decriminalised in South Africa Map .................................................................................................................................... i Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 6 To the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development: ................................................ 6 To the South African Police Service: ......................................................................................... 6 To the Civilian Secretariat of Police and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate: ......... 7 To the Department of Health, the South African National AIDS Commission and the Commission on Gender Equality: .................................................................................................................. 7 To the South African Human Rights Commission: ...................................................................... 7 To the Committee on Multiparty Women’s Caucus, Parliament of South Africa: ......................... 8 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 9 Background ...................................................................................................................... 12 Sex work Under Current South African Law and the Potential for Reform .................................. 13 Violence against Women in South Africa ................................................................................. 17 I. Health Care and “De Facto” Decriminalisation in South Africa ........................................ 21 Sex Work and Efforts to End the HIV Pandemic ........................................................................ 23 “Things Have Really Improved” .............................................................................................. 26 Criminalisation of Sex Work is Still an Obstacle to Health Care ............................................... 28 II. Harassment, Coercion, Extortion: What Criminalisation Looks Like ............................... 30 Under Arrest! But for What? ..................................................................................................... 33 Police Station Detention: the Confusion Deepens .................................................................... 36 “I’ve Never Seen a Judge” ....................................................................................................... 38 III. Violence Against Sex Workers ..................................................................................... 40 Rape....................................................................................................................................... 42 Physical Violence ................................................................................................................... 45 Theft...................................................................................................................................... 46 Trafficking ............................................................................................................................. 48 IV. “I Do It for My Kids”...................................................................................................... 51 Why Sex Work? ....................................................................................................................... 51 Stigma and Struggle ............................................................................................................... 57 “If the Government Wanted to Help Sex Workers, What Should They Do?” ............................... 59 V.Sex Work and Human Rights in International and South African Law ............................. 62 Sex Workers’ Rights protected by South African Law ................................................................ 63 Sex Workers’ Rights under International Law .......................................................................... 64 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 69 Map i Summary Selling sex has been illegal in South Africa since at least the early 1900s and buying sex was criminalised in 2007. South African laws also prohibit other aspects of sex work, including running or owning a brothel, living off the earnings of “prostitution,” and enticing a woman into “prostitution.” The criminalisation of sex work has not deterred people from selling sex to make a living. Criminalisation has, however, made sex work less safe. It undermines sex workers’ access to justice for crimes committed against them and exposes them to unchecked abuse and exploitation by law enforcement officials, including police officers. And although the Department of Health’s National Strategic Plan on HIV for Sex Workers is grounded in respect for the human rights of sex workers, outreach, and nondiscrimination, criminalisation hinders sex workers’ efforts to access health care, including HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Most sex workers in South Africa are poor, black, and female, and sell sex primarily in order to support their children, as well as other dependents. This report attempts to represent some of the fear, emotional pain, and frustration that South African sex workers experience because the work they do to try to ensure a better life for their children is criminalised. The report calls for law reforms including the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa and encourages the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to take up this task now with seriousness and urgency after years of debate on the issue. Rofhiwa Mlilo (a pseudonym) is a 40-year-old sex worker and a single mother of two children. She grew up in rural Limpopo, South Africa’s most northern province, where she still lives. Almost none of the 46 women interviewed for this report matriculated from school; Rofhiwa Mlilo did not go at all. She sees sex work as one of the very few options available to earn an income to keep a roof over the heads of her children, for her, preferable to backbreaking farm work that brings in less money. Rofhiwa Mlilo described the sometimes dangerous contradictions inherent in selling sex in South Africa: her relationship with the police is characterized by arbitrary arrests, lack of due process, and abusive policing practices. One policeman “arrested” her and tried to make her have sex 1 AUGUST 2019 with him. When she was raped by a man who threated her with a broken bottle, she didn’t report because she could not see the police taking her seriously. This report is based on research conducted between May and June 2018 by Human Rights Watch in four provinces of South Africa. Interviews were conducted with female sex workers, including three transgender women, in ten sites in three provinces. Around 40 government and nongovernmental experts in health, law, and provision of services for sex workers and were also interviewed. The report documents how the criminalisation of sex work fuels human rights violations against sex workers, including by police officers, and undermines their right to health. The report provides recommendations to reform the legal system to provide protection for sex workers. Almost three-quarters of the sex workers Human Rights Watch interviewed have been arrested multiple times, some as often as two or three times per month. Sex workers who worked indoors were less vulnerable to arrests but were also targeted from time to time. The pattern of arrests described to Human Rights Watch suggest that sex workers are targeted for arrest because the police either know them from previous contact, or believe they match the profile of a sex worker, and not because they have been seen to engage in illegal activities. Every sex worker interviewed for this report with a history of arrest had been arrested or detained by police for apparently nothing more than standing or sitting where sex workers were known to wait for clients, or because they were already known to the arresting officers. Sex workers believed that their arrests were part of a wider pattern of police harassment that includes extortion, coercive sex, and insulting language. Academics and nongovernmental