From the estimable Paula Dupraz-Dobias for The New Humanitarian:
In their policies, many aid groups recognize the agency of sex workers while in practice framing them as victims, says Anna Shapiro, policy lead at Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), an organization advocating for sex workers’ health and human rights.
“They’re supposed to provide humanitarian assistance under the principles of impartiality and neutrality, but when it comes to sex work, their responses are often ideologically fuelled,” she told The New Humanitarian in a recent interview.
Shapiro co-authored an NSWP policy brief outlining how sex workers are disproportionately affected in crises, and urging the aid sector to include them in humanitarian planning for disasters and conflicts.
The concerns of Shapiro and other advocates for sex workers speak to policy divisions within the wider aid system. In June for example, a report by Reem Alsalem, a Jordanian intersectionalist who is the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, called for the purchase of sexual acts to be criminalized – counter to guidelines from agencies like the World Health Organization or UNAIDS.
Prostitution, she wrote, is “a system of exploitation and an aggregated form of male violence against women and girls that intersects with other forms of structural discrimination.” Alsalem rejects the terms “sex work” and “sex worker”, saying women and girls need to be considered “victims” and provided exit paths.
On the other hand, advocates for sex workers have called for the decriminalization of sex work, saying that criminalization deepens the risk of harm. They see Alsalem’s report as the latest example of how the UN system confuses sex work with exploitation and abuse, and say that sex work should be viewed simply as work.
Shapiro spoke with The New Humanitarian about the contradictions in aid policy when it comes to sex workers:
How are sex workers affected during humanitarian crises?
Anna Shapiro: Where there’s a breakdown of law and order, we see more impunity for perpetrators of violence. Most violence against sex workers goes unpunished because sex work is largely criminalized and heavily stigmatized. Socio-economic challenges increase, including a loss of income and housing, food insecurity, and family separation. These are particularly challenging as sex workers are largely excluded from social protection schemes and emergency response measures.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, sex workers were largely excluded from aid because their work is criminalized and not considered a legitimate form of employment. Financial challenges can exacerbate sex workers’ vulnerability due to reduced negotiation power with clients. In humanitarian crises, there may be fewer income opportunities for sex workers, which may compel them to make compromises regarding health and safety . . . .
Your report describes how humanitarian responses are often biased against sex workers. Why does this happen?
Shapiro: Sex workers often report that they’re discriminated against by service providers, which makes them reluctant to access services. Part of the issue is that we often see the conflation of their work with trafficking in humanitarian responses, and workers are mistaken for trafficking victims or pressured to exit sex work as a condition for accessing services. That adds to alienating sex workers from services and it makes it harder for sex work-related organizations to collaborate.
The UN’s zero tolerance policy for sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), considers purchasing sex services from a sex worker as a form of SEA regardless of the legal status of sex work in that country. It sends a really strong message to UN staff that purchasing sex is exploitative, fundamentally and morally reprehensible, no matter what the circumstances are.
How did we get there?
Shapiro: Policies and narratives stem from a certain sector of the feminist movement which views all sex work as a form of exploitation, abuse, or trafficking. These ideologies may also be intertwined with stereotypes about gender, race, and class, and when all of those things coalesce, it forms a very dire and dis-empowering narrative of these so-called poor, helpless women who need protection and saving. In reality, that’s not the case at all for the vast majority of sex workers.
Read more at The New Humanitarian
