Members of the African Christian Democratic Party protesting in opposition to the decriminalisation of intercourse work in South Africa. Brenton Geach/Gallo Images by way of Getty Images
It is against the law to purchase or promote intercourse in South Africa. But this may increasingly quickly be a factor of the previous if a just lately printed draft invoice to decriminalise intercourse work is handed. Researchers and activists Marlise Richter and Monique Huysamen set out what’s within the new legislation, what’s good about it and what nonetheless wants work.
What’s envisaged below the proposed new legislation?
If the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill 2022 is handed, South Africa will develop into solely the second nation on this planet to completely decriminalise intercourse work. It would now not be unlawful to purchase or promote intercourse. New Zealand is the one different nation the place that is the place.
The draft legislation proposes the removing of the criminalisation of shopping for and promoting of intercourse. It additionally proposes to clear the prison information of those that have been prosecuted for purchasing or promoting intercourse.
Predictably, numerous teams have pushed again in opposition to the invoice, totally on ethical grounds. Opponents of the invoice advocate that both:
the present legislation that absolutely criminalises all facets of intercourse work stays in place; or
that intercourse employees are decriminalised however that purchasers stay criminalised.
This final thought is drawn from what’s known as the “Nordic mannequin” – an method adopted by some Nordic international locations, together with Sweden.
Why is full decriminalisation in South Africa so essential?
Women in South Africa face very excessive ranges of gender-based violence. Female intercourse employees are much more uncovered than different girls. A current examine confirmed that 70% of feminine intercourse employees had skilled violence up to now yr. More than half had been raped by intimate companions, police, purchasers or different males. Criminalisation normalises violence within the intercourse work context.
Another argument for decriminalisation pertains to well being. HIV prevalence of between 39% and 89% has been documented amongst feminine intercourse employees throughout totally different areas of South Africa within the final decade. This is extraordinarily excessive when in comparison with the nation’s nationwide HIV prevalence price of 13.7%.
Sex employees are significantly susceptible to HIV an infection due to the various risks related to intercourse work in a criminalised context. Sex employees sometimes have many sexual companions. Their working situations are precarious and unsafe. And the unequal energy relationship between intercourse employee and consumer makes it very arduous to persistently negotiate safer intercourse.
The social stigma hooked up to intercourse work additionally signifies that some healthcare suppliers maintain prejudiced and vindictive views in opposition to intercourse employees. These views can drive intercourse employees away from well being providers, together with HIV prevention, remedy and help.
The repeal of outdated apartheid-era legal guidelines would have a far-reaching, optimistic impression on particular person intercourse employee well being and well-being and subsequently additionally public well being.
If intercourse work was not against the law, purchasers and police wouldn’t have the facility to abuse intercourse employees. Sex employees would be capable of often negotiate secure intercourse. Police must take their complaints critically. Sex employees would additionally really feel extra assured to report discrimination and disrespectful healthcare employees.
Under decriminalisation, intercourse work could be recognised as work. Occupational well being and security and honest labour ideas would apply. Decriminalisation is especially essential for the dignity of poor black intercourse employees from working class backgrounds, who at the moment bear the brunt of the stigma related to the criminalisation of intercourse work.
What is the Nordic mannequin?
The Nordic mannequin is a authorized framework adopted by a number of Nordic international locations, together with Sweden and Norway.
According to this method, promoting intercourse ought to be decriminalised, however shopping for intercourse stays against the law.
The mannequin assumes that criminalising the purchasers of intercourse employees would dissuade folks from shopping for sexual providers, and thus finish the demand for intercourse work.
Research in international locations which have adopted this reveals that it has not made intercourse work safer for intercourse employees, nor has it eradicated intercourse work. Evidence additionally reveals that criminalisation of purchasers is unhealthy for intercourse employees’ well being.
If shopping for intercourse is against the law, intercourse employees have much less time to display out harmful purchasers and purchasers can put strain on intercourse employees to conform to dangerous transactions in compromising conditions.
South Africans have had painful classes about why the state has no enterprise in folks’s bedrooms. The apartheid-era state prohibited intercourse throughout “color” and “same-sex” configurations which South Africa subsequently strongly rejected below democracy. Yet this similar legislation nonetheless survives for grownup, consensual intercourse work.
Why arguments in opposition to criminalising purchasers ought to be resisted
Our analysis reveals that whereas a lot of the purchasers of intercourse employees in South Africa are males, they’re a various group from all walks of life. Some are violent and abusive in direction of intercourse employees. But many aren’t. Some intercourse employees report having mutually respectful interactions and contracts with purchasers.
In our analysis, only a few males self-reported perpetrating violence in opposition to intercourse employees. Most actively distanced themselves from the violence related to males who pay for intercourse, making it clear that they didn’t interact in or condone violence in opposition to intercourse employees.
Based on our analysis and that of others, we consider that the decriminalisation of purchasers would have optimistic spin-offs.
First, recruiting purchasers who’ve been recognized by intercourse employees as non-violent and respectful as peer educators may instil and reinforce optimistic norms amongst purchasers.
Second, purchasers are effectively positioned to function whistle-blowers after they discover human rights violations comparable to human trafficking or youngster exploitation within the intercourse trade.
Third, purchasers might be key to lowering HIV transmission. Scaling up antiretroviral remedy amongst purchasers of intercourse employees would avert nearly one-fifth of latest HIV infections in South Africa over the following decade.
Read extra:
Why South Africa’s HIV prevention programmes ought to embrace intercourse employee purchasers
The Nordic mannequin is flawed and demonises purchasers. Putting intercourse work purchasers in jail punishes them for purchasing a service. This is in the end unhealthy for everybody’s well being.
The draft invoice ought to be handed as it’s and as rapidly as doable.
It will make intercourse work much less dangerous and harmful, and our society safer.
Marlise Richter works for the Health Justice Initiative and is an affiliate with the African Centre for Migration & Society, college of the Witwatersrand. She served on the Sisonke Sex Worker Movement Board from 2017-2022.
Monique Huysamen is a Senior Research Associate at Manchester Metropolitan University and an Honorary Research Affiliate at University of Cape Town. Her analysis has been funded by The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), NRF, and Harry Crossley Research Foundation
