We are excited to announce our first independent submission to UN Women. UN Women is an entity, under the United Nations (“UN”), designed to promote gender equality and empowerment of women. Within its international capacity, UN Women formulates policies and global standards and then advises UN Member states on ways to implement them. In an effort to create an explicit policy position pertaining to “sex work, the sex trade or prostitution,” UN Women requested policy recommendations from organizations, all across the globe, interested in advocating for an international standard in the area of “sex work, the sex trade or prostitution.”
UN Women required all responses to be cognizant of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”), the Beijing Platform for Action, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”). Bearing these international documents in mind, UN Women sought responses in three distinct areas: first, an interpretation of principles from the 2030 Agenda, as they relate to prostitution; second, suggestions for policies on prostitution that promote the various SDGs; and third, solutions that would protect women from harm, violence, stigma and discrimination while living as prostituted persons.
The CSE Institute follows the abolitionist approach, which advocates for the adoption of policies consistent with the Nordic or Swedish Model, with regards to prostitution and the sex trade. We believe that rather than referring to the individuals in the industry with derogatory terms like “sex worker,” we should identify the individuals for who they really are: victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Terms that refer to those in the sex trade as “sex workers” imply that there is a choice, which is quite contrary to the reality of commercial sex situations throughout the world. More often than not, women and girls are forced into prostitution, where any form of choice is taken away from them.
In our response, we discussed why the recognition of prostitution as a legitimate form of employment is contrary to Agenda 2030’s commitment to universality, human rights, and belief that no one should be left behind. We encouraged the UN to adopt the Nordic or Swedish Model, wherein the individual selling sex is decriminalized. This approach is based on the core principle that criminalizing victims of sexual exploitation is a violation of their human dignity, and leaves victims inept to live within the global community with basic human rights.
Additionally, we concluded that the only way to promote SDGs, specifically the desire to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, is through the abolitionist approach. The abolitionist policy is consistent with established international perspectives on prostitution, including the 1949 Convention on the exploitation of the prostitution of others, which recognized that prostitution is “incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person.”
Finally, we set forth the premise that those who are sexually exploited, most often women and girls, can only be protected through the adoption of the abolitionist policy, which advocates for the elimination of any legal sanction against those who sell/are sold for sex. While victims are decriminalized, traffickers, pimps, and buyers are still held accountable for their egregious crimes. We also advocated for the provision of robust social services to those seeking to exit the sex trade, thereby ensuring real and acceptable alternatives for the women and girls harmed through prostitution.
Our response will be posted to the public by UN Women in 2017. We look forward to similar opportunities within the international context to advocate for the rights of sexually exploited victims. Review our submission to UN Women.