Decrim Now world news digest for May 2024

Queensland decriminalises sex work to better protect sex workers and bring itself in line with other Australian states

Australia, Brisbane

May 3, 2024

The Parliament of the Australian state of Queensland passed a bill on Thursday to decriminalise sex work. The Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 also includes new offences against child prostitution and coercion to perform sex work. The Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath stated that “sex workers should not have to choose between operating legally with safety risks and operating safely with legal risks – they will now be able to operate both safely and legally.”

The new legislation allows for solicitation, advertising, and working in groups. This enables sex workers to operate without fear of prosecution and for issues or crimes committed against them to be reported to police. Additionally, the new law updated the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 to include protection for sex workers, ensuring that sex workers could not be discriminated against by hotels and accommodations for believing that guests would be using a room for sex work.

Queensland non-profit advocacy group, Respect Inc., welcomed the legislation, stating that, “decriminalisation, including anti-discrimination protections, would send a message that discrimination would no longer be tolerated.”

Apart from decriminalising sex work, there are now offences to protect children from sexual exploitation and specifically to prevent children from being coerced to perform sex work. A new section 217A in the Criminal Code 1899 will make it an offence to obtain commercial sexual services from a person who is not an adult.

Sex work has been decriminalised in other states of Australia, including New South Wales in 1995, Victoria in 2022, and the Northern Territory in 2019.

Source jurist.org

Mexico’s sex workers seek employment rights both online and on the streets

Mexico, Mexico-city

May 7, 2024

On May 7, a group of sex workers in Mexico-city launched CLaP!, a first-of-its-kind coalition that wants the decriminalisation of sex work, its formal recognition as a job, and access to social security for those working online and in person.

Now the group is appealing to potential members online and on the streets of the capital, aiming to create enough momentum for sex workers to win long-sought labour rights.

To date (15^th of May), about 42 workers have joined CLaP!, according to Solis.

“[The coalition] recognises sex work as a life project, as a personal choice from which we don’t need to be rescued,” one of the founders of the coalition Natalia Lane said.

In Mexico City, sex work was legally recognised as unpaid work in 2013 and decriminalised in 2019 after three decades of protests against police harassment and abuse by organised crime.

But workers say these two legal victories have not brought safer working conditions or any of the standard labour rights.

Sex workers in Mexico City, regardless of whether they work online or on the street, typically encounter discrimination from police, hospitals, prosecutors’ offices and ambulances, according to the latest survey on sex work in Mexico City.

Those surveyed said the recognition of sex work as a job could lessen the daily discrimination, boost access to health services and help cut police violence.

Efforts are already under way in other Latin American countries to win social protections for sex workers.

Take Colombia, where the first initiative regulating access to rights, pensions and healthcare was discussed last week.

In the past two years, lawmakers have backed a host of initiatives to get social security to gig workers, a fast-growing sector that spans everything from food to sex work.

The efforts, however, have not translated into law.

Providing digital platform workers with social security is also a campaign promise of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s presidential front-runner. Her plan, however, leaves out sex workers, centering only on drivers and delivery workers.

For members of ClaP!, this is a familiar snub, as their work is generally not considered a real job by fellow workers.

Moreover, they face an uphill fight to be recognised as a workers’ union, due to a lack of contracts or invoices to prove their income.

“Violence lived by other workers are not different from the ones we live. The great difference is that no one will ever question whether what they do is work,” Lane said.

Source scmp.com

Belgian sex workers to get health insurance, pensions and maternity leave in world first

Belgium, Brussels

May 8, 2024

Belgium has become the first country in the world to approve a labour law on employment contracts for sex workers. It entitles the sex worker to health insurance, pensions, unemployment and family benefits, holidays and maternity leave.

“This law is a world first. I cannot stress enough how important this is,”  Daan Bauwens, a spokesman for the UTSOPI, the union for sex workers in Belgium, said.

“With this model, Belgium is really demonstrating that it aims to protect sex workers, regardless of any moral judgements about the profession people may have,” he told The Brussels Times.

He added: “We hope that this can lead to a reversal of the recent trend of criminalising clients in Europe. 

“We hope that other countries will copy this text, as they did on topics such as same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and transgender rights.”

The law makes it legal to give prostitutes employment contracts, after Belgium became the first country in Europe to decriminalise self-employed sex work in 2022.

It bestows certain rights on the worker and conditions on their employer. These include the right to refuse a client or a sexual act, as well as the right to interrupt a sexual act at any time without fear of dismissal or punishment.

Sex workers are also entitled to carry out a sexual act how they wish and to refuse to sit behind Amsterdam-style windows, which are also used in Belgium, or to advertise if their safety is at risk.

Invoking any of these rights more than 10 times in half a year can lead to the government mediation service being called by the worker or employer.

Sex workers can also end their contract at any time with no notice period and do not lose their right to unemployment benefits when terminating their employment.

Workers’ anonymity will be protected because the contracts will be provided under the same heading as those given to hospitality workers in the restaurant and hotel sector. This is intended to ensure they can apply for other jobs without fear of discrimination.

Source telegraph.co.uk

Sex workers picket at Parliament ahead of elections in South Africa. #WhoSpeaksForUs? campaign launched

South Africa, Cape Town

May 23, 2024

Over 50 sex workers and civil society activists picketed outside Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday.

The group, led by the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), launched its #WhoSpeaksForUs campaign, aimed at political leaders ahead of the elections next week as a “reminder that leadership should reflect the diversity of the people it serves”.

Megan Lessing, SWEAT spokesperson, said that the picket was “symbolic” as there were no politicians in Parliament on Thursday.

The campaign seeks to rally support for the decriminalise sex work and the fight for equality of all people regardless of their race, sexuality or class.

Sex workers at the picket said they worry about whether there would be political support for the decriminalisation of sex work after the elections.

The current draft bill, which has been through extensive public consultations, decriminalises sex work to ensure better protection for sex workers from violence, among other aims. However, critics of the bill say it does not provide for the effect it will have on existing regulations.

In May last year, deputy minister of the Department of Justice John Jeffery noted that state law advisors raised concerns that the bill “may not pass constitutional muster if it does not also provide for the regulation of sex work”, GroundUp previously reported. This means that the revised bill would be in the hands of the newly elected Parliament.

Nomsa Conguia, acting provincial coordinator at Sisonke National Sex Worker Movement, said that as elections loom, their members are asking, “Who speaks for us in Parliament? Who is representing us?”

Other advocacy groups joining the picket included Gender DynamiX, the Asijiki Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Sex Workers, Triangle Project, Imbawula Queer Podcast, Gender Equity Unit.

“None of us are free until all of us are free,” the group said in a statement.

Source groundup.org.za

Exotic dancer drama ’Anora’ wins Cannes Film Festival’s top prize

France, Cannes

May 26, 2024

"Anora," a darkly funny and touching drama about a young exotic dancer who becomes involved with a Russian oligarch’s son, won the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, on Saturday.

The film by U.S. director Sean Baker beat the 21 other films in the competition line-up, including entries by established directors like Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg.

"Anora" continues a streak of sex worker-focused films by Baker, including the 2021 Cannes entry "Red Rocket" and 2017’s "The Florida Project" starring Willem Dafoe.

This win is dedicated to "to all sex workers past present and future," he said as he accepted the award, while also thanking the film’s star, Mikey Madison, as well as Samantha Quan, his wife and producer.

Jury president Greta Gerwig, the director behind the pink-hued hit "Barbie," called "Anora" an "incredibly human and humane film that captured our hearts" when announcing the award that was handed out by George Lucas, of "Star Wars" fame.

Source saltwire.com