Amnesty International considers proclaiming prostitution a human right

During Amnesty International’s meeting in Dublin this week, the organization will consider approving a resolution to declare the world’s oldest profession a human right. Five hundred Amnesty delegates from more than 80 countries will vote on whether to advocate for the elimination of all penalties for prostitution, as a matter of privacy between consenting adults.

While insisting it is not weighing on the morality of the issue, Amnesty International (AI) in its document, “Decriminalization of Sex Work,” states that current laws on prostitution were developed from “contradictory intentions to simultaneously punish and/or help sex workers,” reflecting “confusion, ambivalence, and fear about sex, desire, and women’s sexual autonomy.”

The proposal argues sexual desire is a fundamental need and that punishing buyers “undermines the rights to free expression and health.” It also claims pimps and johns should be free to “exercise their autonomy.” The document states men with disabilities require access to prostituted women to further their sense of “life enjoyment and dignity.”

Although the stance will not have any immediate impact, if accepted it will be the organization’s official position as it lobbies on issues in various countries.

The vote comes as many advocacy groups claim a direct relationship between prostitution and human trafficking. Amnesty International claims decriminalization of prostitution would actually lower the incidents of human trafficking.

And it isn’t the only human rights organization supporting such a move. Human Rights Watch also sees decriminalization as the best way to decrease human trafficking and exploitation of minors.

But countries with legalized prostitution have greater inflows of human trafficking, according to a study published in ScienceDirect. In New Zealand, Germany, and Australia, for example, decriminalization resulted in an increase in sex trafficking.

Amnesty International believes prostitutes are often mistaken for victims of human trafficking. The group describes rescue operations as “coercive interventions that violate human rights and decrease the safety for sex workers.”

That language is similar to arguments used by sex worker activists, whose latest mantra is “rights not rescue.”

Instead of calling them victims, Amnesty compares prostitutes to workers who manage their own roadside fruit stands or those who barter repair services.

“Everyone is entitled to safe and healthy working conditions,” the group’s proposal states, concluding decriminalization is the solution.

But there is no research documenting claims that legalizing prostitution leads to safer conditions for sex workers.

In 1999, Sweden voted to criminalize the purchase of sex while allowing its sale. This put the criminal burden on the buyer and not the prostitute, and assisted women who wanted out of the profession. A follow-up study by a government agency in Stockholm concluded the law lowered street prostitution by more than half and lowered the number of men who admitted purchasing sex by 40 percent.

France, England, Ireland, and Canada are considering measures that impose penalties on clients, using the Swedish model.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter denounced Amnesty’s proposal and started an online petition urging the group not to endorse the proposal. Several women’s groups, including the New York-based Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), and celebrities Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, and Gloria Steinem, also voiced opposition.

CATW joined more than 400 human rights advocates, medical doctors, actors and directors, fashion designers, and faith-based organizations from more than 30 countries in sending an open letter to Amnesty International.

“Should Amnesty vote to support the decriminalization of pimping, brothel owning, and sex buying, it will in effect support a system of gender apartheid, in which one category of women may gain protection from sexual violence, … while another category of women, whose lives are shaped by absence of choice, are set apart for consumption by men and for the profit of their pimps, traffickers, and brothel owners,” the letter states.