An Interesting Article From Sangonet :
Sex workers’ hopes of practicing their trade under a decriminalised environment in South Africa are fading, despite calls from human rights activists to legalise prostitution. With 50 days to go before the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we live with the reality that sex workers will continue operating within a criminalised environment. Legalising sex work could enable prostitutes to pay tax, go through mandatory HIV testing, and work under conditions that will not expose them to gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Failure to legalise sex work could compromise prostitutes’ ability to access health, legal and social services, force them to work under unsafe conditions, remain stigmatised and will not afford them an opportunity to negotiate safer sex.
In this week’s issue of the NGO Pulse, we bring you an article by Daniel Agbiboa, external consultant at Consultancy Africa Intelligence’s HIV and AIDS unit, who calls for legal frameworks to regulate the practice of sex workers rather than discriminate against them.
Agbiboa argues that: “Legalising sex work may make fans safer, but South Africa realises that its long-term identity will not be defined solely by 2010, and needs to carefully weigh the detriments compared to the benefits of such a drastic policy shift that may spell disaster for the country in the long run, if the country is not ready for it.”
In another article, Melanie Judge, a human rights activist at Inyathelo – The South African Institute for Advancement (writing in her personal capacity), criticises the country’s failure to address gender prejudice and priorities, which continue to shape dominant HIV and AIDS debates and responses. Judge argues that the country has not progressed in prioritising ‘female-controlled preventative measures’, despite the fact that gender is linked to women’s social, biological and economic vulnerability to the HIV risk.
She adds: “This failure to prioritise female-controlled preventions is a lost opportunity to transform gender power relations – which create the very conditions in which HIV and AIDS flourish.”
As always we invite your comments and suggestions.
Siyasizana Community Development 