Dr. Teresa Whitaker:

The main focus of Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, SWAI's submission is the issue of how violence against sex workers should and should not be addressed, and recommendations are provided on reducing violence against sex workers. The head of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, stated: "Stop persecuting sex workers". The United Nations Special Rights Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council, Mr. Anand Grover, recommended the repealing of laws criminalising sex work and practices surrounding it.

The question is whether we want a society where sex workers are persecuted and socially excluded or a society where sex workers are socially included and respected. The UNAIDS compiled a briefing note in recent weeks entitled The Legal Status of Sex Work: Key Human Rights and Public Health Considerations. Its main points are that sex work should not be conflated with human trafficking and that criminalisation of sex workers or their clients negates the right to individual self-determination, autonomy and agency.

Human rights bodies have called for the decriminalisation of sex work. They argue that the Nordic model of criminalising clients of sex workers raises serious concerns because it drives sex work further underground into the hands of criminals, increases societal disapproval, increases stigma against sex workers, and we know all about stigma in Irish society. We know the way gay people and Travellers were stigmatised historically. There are many out groups in Irish society. Sex workers are one of those out groups. If we criminalise the buyers of sexual services it means this group will be stigmatised, they are sitting ducks and it makes them targets of people who want to beat up or murder sex workers or treat them in a violent manner.

We know that the criminalisation of sex work has not worked in Sweden. We know that trafficking and prostitution still exist in Sweden but it has been driven further underground. That has happened in Norway also. The stigma around sex work, societal disapproval and violence against sex workers have increased. The sex workers are afraid to report it to the police or to draw attention to themselves, in other words, they are now a more socially excluded group than they were before the law was enacted.

We have a number of recommendations, including that the Government should not introduce a law that would criminalise the buyers of sexual services. Such a law as seen in Sweden and Norway has negative consequences for sex workers. We also recommend that the law be amended to exempt premises shared by sex workers, with no third party involvement, from the definition of a brothel to ensure that sex workers can work together to increase their safety; and that a new non-judgmental sex work project should be established. If the Government is serious about supporting and protecting sex workers it should establish a new sex worker project, in collaboration with sex workers, that would address their physical and psychological health and welfare needs. We also recommend that the Garda should work in partnership with local drug and specialist sex work agencies to develop strategies to reduce the risk of violence against sex workers; that the Garda would receive training in this area and that they be resourced to introduce an Ugly Mugs scheme in cities where there is known commercial sexual activity similar to what has taken place in Liverpool, in Merseyside; that all current and future policy and research be conducted with sex workers from across the range of opinion - those who wish to exit to those who intend to remain in this work; and that crimes against sex workers should be categorised as hate crimes.