An Open Letter to Mrs. Gandhi: Re: Criminalizing the clients of sex workers.

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues,

Meena Saraswathi Seshu, SANGRAM, and the International Womens Health Coalition

(IWHC) urge you to contact Indian government officials today and discourage them

from making legal changes that will criminalize the clients of sex workers.

Support of sex workers is critical during these challenging and precarious

times, as policies and laws that compromise the well-being and rights of sex

workers are emerging worldwide. We need to move the discussion beyond vice and

victimhood to support womens rights and health together. The costs of not doing

so are great.

A coalition of organizations including SANGRAM and IWHC has sent the attached

letter to Mrs. Gandhi, President Indian National Congress. Please take

action by contacting Indian government officials and support our sisters in the

India Womens Movement in their historic endeavor to fight for the rights of sex

workers.

_____________

June 20, 2008

Mrs. Gandhi

President

Indian National Congress

10 Janpath/24

Akbar Road New Delhi, 110011, INDIA

Email: soniagandhi@...

Fax:+91 (0)1123017047

Dear Mrs. Gandhi:

It has come to our attention that the Parliament of India is considering an

amendment to India’s 2006 Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Amendment Bill that

proposes to criminalise the clients or buyers (usually men) of sexual services.

We wish to share with you some conclusions from the experience of a similar

statute in Sweden and raise concerns about this strategy from a human rights

perspective.

As you may be aware, in 1998 Sweden passed a law penalizing the purchase of

sexual services. It was argued at the time that this strategy would focus the

force of the law and law enforcement away from sex workers as the “weaker” and

“exploited” party in sexual transactions and would protect women sex workers

from the predatory impulses of their clients. After ten years, a number of

independent and credible evaluations of the impact of this law have shown that

far from protecting women in prostitution, the law has made them more vulnerable

in numerous ways not foreseen by the framers of the statute.

Studies indicate that the statute has had the effect of reducing street-based

prostitution. Fearing prosecution, men have made it clear that they prefer more

clandestine venues for sexual transactions, and a great deal of Sweden’s sex

industry has apparently moved indoors, a development greatly facilitated by the

use of the internet. Women sex workers still working on the street because they

are unable to move their work indoors have reported to researchers that the law

has made them more, not less, vulnerable to predatory and violent clients. They

note that the men who seek sex on the street are those who are most desperate

and violent.

Moreover, since there are fewer clients on the street, those who are still there

can be more demanding, including insisting on sex without condoms and other

unsafe acts. Some experts have noted that because of the evidentiary rules

attached to it, the law has provided an incentive for men to refuse to use

condoms because condoms can easily be brought into evidence against them in

court proceedings.

Swedish women who remain in street-based work also report that they are unable

to maintain their informal networks to warn each other about dangerous clients

or support one another in other ways. Transactions are more dangerous and

stressful as male clients want to hurry the negotiation, and it is harder for

the sex worker to assess whether the client is potentially violent or abusive.

While the political appeal of criminalizing the clients of sex workers is clear,

there is no evidence from any country that this is an effective strategy for the

protection of women sex workers from violence and abuse. Indeed, there is

growing evidence from numerous countries that criminalizing either the sex

worker or her client is likely to contribute to abuse and marginalization of sex

workers. Criminalization forces sex work to be clandestine –with all the

dangers noted above – and gives latitude to the police to be abusive of sex

workers, as well as opening the door for criminal elements to become prominent

in the sex trade.

We are sure you are aware that human rights and HIV/AIDS advocates around the

world have looked to India as a model for courageous and effective efforts of

sex workers and sex worker collectives as HIV/AIDS educators and key players in

HIV prevention. We have attended numerous international conferences where

representatives of sex worker organizations in India were influential leaders in

policy discussions on HIV prevention and awareness-raising. Therefore, what

India decides is vitally important.

We urge you to use your exceptional personal stature to prevent amendments being

brought to the ITPA. If amendments are brought to Parliament for consideration,

they must include public hearings that would allow people in sex work to comment

on proposed amendments from their unique perspective. I am sure that such

hearings would be a credit to Indian democratic processes and would result in

the most appropriate legislative outcome.

Sincerely,

Brad , Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch

Joanne Csete, Former Executive Director, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

Adrienne Germain, President, International Women’s Health Coalition

Geeta Rao Gupta, PhD, President, International Center for Research on Women

Ruth Messinger, President, American Jewish World Service

Aryeh Neier, President, Open Society Institute

Meena Saraswathi Seshu, SANGRAM, India

Please write to:

Raisina Hill, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh Prime Minister's Office

South Block, New Delhi , 110011, INDIA Email online:

http://pmindia.nic.in/write.htm

Mrs. Gandhi, President Indian National Congress 10 Janpath/24

Akbar Road New Delhi, 110011, INDIA Email: soniagandhi@... Fax:

+91 (0)1123017047

Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of State Science & Technology/Earth Sciences

19, Teen Murti Marg New Delhi, 110011, INDIA Email: ksibal@...

Fax: +91 (0)1123018705

__________________

Meena Seshu

e-mail: <sangram.vamp@...>