Resisting Prostitution as a Form of Sexualized Racism

Question 1.

The 2030 Agenda commits to universality, human rights and leaving nobody behind. How do you interpret these principles in relations to sex work/ trade or prostitution?

 

The 2030 Agenda represents a broad set of goals for sustainable development which must be viewed through a gendered lens, as UN Women rightly remarks¹. If, however, UN Women is to apply these principles of universality, human rights, and 'leaving nobody behind' to the question of women's rights round the world, prostitution and the sex trade must also be subject to such evaluation for its historical and present-day sabotage of women's equality and self-determination.

​

Universality

​

UN Women notes that women's equality requires international commitment and effort from all countries. International instruments already exist to support the evaluation of the rights of women and girls relative to violence against women, and trafficking in persons. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the UN, provides a clear position: "States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women".²

​

The framework of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, otherwise known as the Palermo Protocol, identifies trafficking of women into prostitution as a form of exploitation that must be interfered with by state parties as a criminal offence.³ Prostitution cannot be treated separately from trafficking.

​

Human Rights

 

The sex industry requires the abrogation of women's human rights in order to thrive. The sex buyer demands sexualized experiences that highlight and reinforce racist and sexist stereotypes. While some states may claim that industry regulation can provide women with protection, these so-called protections are afforded to those who control and use the sex trade industry, rather than the women who are prostituted. In states that have chosen to normalize prostitution as regular commercial activity, human trafficking has soared, women do not register for so-called government benefits and the organized crime syndicates that control prostitution venues avoid all employer obligations.⁴ ⁵ Women's access to human rights protections is impossible in an industry that caters to male demand for sexual access to women who are, for example "sexy Japanese schoolgirl" or "submissive China doll". This sexualized racism is embedded in male culture and affects Asian women in all spheres of life, regardless of whether or not we are individually engaged in prostitution, thereby undermining our access to human rights by undermining recognition of our humanity.

​

Policy about the sex trade and prostitution must deal with the exploitation and impact on women as a class in order to empower feminist advocacy. Neo-liberal emphasis on individual choice is decontextualized from social and economic factors, and blocks analysis of power structures. Responses to the question of prostitution from a neo-liberal philosophical position undermine the ability of feminist organizations to fight for substantive advancement of women's rights. Policy that supports women's human rights as group rights facilitates the possibility of structural change that supports the development of race, sex and economic rights.

​

Leaving Nobody Behind

 

The practice of prostitution prevents the achievement of Asian women's human rights in our countries of origin and in the countries that receive us as immigrants, temporary workers, refugees, trafficked persons, tourists, students, sponsored wives, etc. Asian Women applies the analysis of intersectionality⁶ that makes visible the overlapping oppressions imposed on us. Entrenched orientalism that positions Asians as a foil, for Westerners/ Europeans to define themselves,⁷ adds another layer of oppression by the Global North over the Global South.

​

Asian Women urges UN Women to reject the framing of prostitution as "work" or "trade", because such a paradigm locks Asian Women into the frame of corollary concepts such as "migrant sex worker". These conceptions harden the race-based divisions between women. They all but eliminate Asian Women's ability to access human and labour rights, and excuses states from acknowledging or responding effectively to Asian Women's exploitation and our states from acknowledging or responding effectively to Asian Women's exploitation and our vulnerability to prostitution recruiters, human traffickers, and male violence.