Regulatory Regimes (Labor, Health, Occupational Safety)

• Pages: 109-111

Contenidos

• The Issue.
• Legal and Policy Considerations.
• Practice Example.
• References.

Page 109

The Issue

While many countries criminalize sex workers under the law and subject them to harassment and vilification, some jurisdictions have chosen instead to decriminalize, normalize, and regulate sex work. The UNAIDS & IPU Handbook for Legislators on HIV/AIDS, Law, and Human Rights recommends this approach, endorsing decriminalization of sex work where no victimization is involved, and regulation through occupational health and safety standards. These standards can create a less judgmental framework within which public health efforts are more likely to succeed. In turn, decriminalization and regulation can help to protect sex workers as well as their clients from dangers including HIV transmission and violence.

Legal and Policy Considerations

Regulatory regimes that have been applied to sex workers include regulations specific to the sex industry as well as those generally applicable to occupational health and safety regimes. Some of the rules common to the regulation of sex workers are designed to limit the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and otherwise protect sex workers from danger and violence in the workplace. Common features of regulation include establishing "tolerance zones," or areas of a town, city, or state where sex work is permissible. Inside these tolerance zones, sex workers should not be subjected to harassment or detention by the police.

Many regulations also require periodic (ranging from every week to every three months or less frequent) testing for sexually transmitted infections. These provisions often include an identification, work permit card, or certification that is given only if test results are negative (or, alternatively, the document notes that a test result was positive). Regulations may also require that these cards be registered with the police. When considering any sex-industry specific regulations, it is important to consider that controls on operators or workers that are extremely onerous may spark a second, illegal industry, where no regulations are enforced and health education does not penetrate.

More helpful regulation includes requiring safe sex, as well as the provision of condoms by establishments. Posting notices regarding the requirement of the use of a condom in multiple languages ensures that both clients and sex workers are aware of their obligations. (The success of...