|
Submission
on the Interim Report of the Attorney-General's Street Prostitution Advisory
Group
To the Attorney-General's Prostitution Advisory Group
Legal Policy
Department of Justice
55 St Andrews Place
Melbourne VIC 3002
Executive
Summary
The "Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women Australia" is part of the international
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW). CATW has category II consultative
status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations
(UN). CATW - Australia works nationally and internationally against the
trafficking in women and children, and in support of Article 6 of the
Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
which calls for the prohibition of the exploitation of the prostitution
of others.
The Attorney-General's
Street Prostitution Advisory Group proposes that a harm minimisation approach
to street prostitution is the most appropriate solution to the serious
social harm caused by this practice in the City of Port Phillip. Our position
is that the harm minimisation approach is ineffective in achieving its
intended aims of creating a safe environment in which street prostitutes
can work, in ensuring public safety and in containing the growth of the
street prostitution. We would like to offer an innovative approach that
respects women's human rights while working towards eradicating street
prostitution.
1
Main Submissions
1.1 The focus
of the report is too narrow because it ignores the role of the men who
use women and boys in street prostitution. The focus is mainly on neighbourhood
amenity. This serves to discriminate against women* involved in prostitution
and at the same time maintain men's invisibility within this context.
We suggest that an effective policy on street prostitution has to concentrate
on reducing this demand.
1.2 We contend
that it is a human right of women to be free of the sexual exploitation
of street prostitution. The report's recommendations for designated
areas and 'safe' houses simply mean that the sexual exploitation occurs
in a less visible location. The proposals do little to diminish the
social harm done to street prostituted women, which can only be achieved
by seeking to end the demand and help the women to get out.
1.3 The stringent
Victorian prostitution legislation which is intended to ensure that
legal brothels remain criminal free and are not premises where illegal
activities can take place, (such as drug use), would have to be watered
down if 'safe houses' were introduced.
1.4 The proposed
'safe' houses will be state owned brothels managed by the local council
This will generate a financial incentive for Council to maintain and
even expand street prostitution.
1.5 Public
health and safety cannot be ensured, as street prostituted women, who
are acknowledged to be among the most vulnerable in prostitution, will
have little power to negotiate safe sex practices with their clients.
1.6 There
is little evidence based on the Victorian government's past failure
to support Exit Programs, that resources for the Exit Programs proposed
in the report will be forthcoming.
1.7 Public
space for all citizens will be curtailed as women and children will
have difficulty negotiating designated areas without being sexually
harassed.
1.8 The City
of Port Phillip will become a magnet for sex tourism.
1.9 The nexus
between drugs and prostitution would lead to a more concentrated market
in the Port Phillip district.
1.10 The
legitimisation of street prostitution within the City of Port Phillip
ignores wider social implications as the sexual abuse and exploitation
involved is not just a discrete problem unrelated to the whole of Victoria
and the global economy.
* We recognise that
street prostitution involves women, boys and transsexuals. We have chosen
to use 'women' when referring to those in street prostitution as women
make up the most significant number within this group and have become
significantly more prevalent in the past 15 years. However, our arguments
pertain to boys and transsexuals equally.
2
Alternative approaches to the problem of street prostitution
We agree with the
report's findings that prohibition of street prostitution as it has operated
within the State of Victoria - i.e. punishing the victims as well as the
perpetrators - is unfair and ineffective. We contend, however, that the
basic premise of the report - that street prostitution cannot be eradicated
- is unfounded. We propose a parallel approach to tackle longer terms
objectives and at the same time facilitate short-term responses that will
make a difference to prostituted women's lives in the interim.
2.1 We propose
legislative change based on the Swedish model be adopted. This decriminalises
prostitution for prostituted women and penalises the 'buying of sexual
services'.
2.2 We see
the implementation of exit programs, housing and temporary shelter,
outreach programs, targeted rehabilitation programs, educational and
vocational training and sexual violence counselling as pivotal in dealing
with street prostitution and consider this to be a priority if it is
to be eliminated.
2.3 An interim
measure would be the legalisation of self-employed, one or two person
brothels operating discreetly from their own home, an approach, which
would significantly empower street, prostituted women
2.4 Effective
and well-financed policing to ensure the arrest and prosecution of the
male users to deter demand for street prostitution. These men should
undergo compulsory health checks, diversion programs (eg. re-education
programs) and community service.
2.5 Provide
a public awareness message that street prostitution harms women and
children
Detailed
Submissions
1.1 Discrimination
against prostituted women and men's invisibility
The Advisory Group's focus has been to propose the best methods for 'minimising
harms to street sex workers, residents and the general community'. The
report's primary recommendation suggest that this will be accomplished
by removing sex acts from residential streets through the creation of
designated areas and 'safe' house, and police targeting of prostituted
women and 'clients' who operate outside these areas. At best this will
remove street prostitution from public sight.
The report ignores the buyer and his role and responsibility in creating
the demand for prostitution. It also does not question the validity of
men's exploitation of and violence against vulnerable and drug dependent
women. Planning language pervades the report. Male perpetrators are called
'clients' and no convictions are to be recorded for men who buy women
outside the designated areas, simply an infringement notice. Conversely,
the tone of the report places the blame on prostituted women. Recommendation
10, for example, states that 'service providers and outreach workers seek
to raise the awareness of street sex workers regarding the harms caused
to residents'.
Studies have shown
that in the main street prostituted women are the most vulnerable participants
in prostitution. Prostituted girls and boys enter below the legal working
age as a result of sexual abuse, homelessness, drug dependence, and poverty
(Davies and Feldman, 1999, Mitchell 2001). The report acknowledges, that
prostituted women involved in street prostitution in St Kilda 'are the
victims of serious abuse and violence, and confront problems of drug dependency,
homelessness, and mental and sexual health'. Street prostitution is obviously
constructed out of women's unequal status. Their so-called choice is constructed
out of women's subordination (Jeffreys, 1997). That women agree to be
prostituted does not prevent prostitution from being exploitative and
oppressive. The report is clearly discriminatory in that no human rights
of prostituted women are considered.
Why are men omitted
from the stakeholders list when without men's demand there would be no
prostitution? If men continue to create demands for street prostitution,
the problem will be escalated
1.2 'Safe' houses or 'rape' houses
The report suggests that designated areas combined with 'safe' houses
will provide a safe environment for prostituted women. Assumedly the police
would be able to monitor the activities of prostituted women in certain
areas and thereby increase their safety, although this role for the police
is never clearly stated in the recommendations. We contend that these
arguments are flawed.
Prostituted women
who use 'safe' houses are still open to sexual exploitation by the men
who purchase them. As most street prostituted women are drugged how will
the police deal with this? Who controls the male users of prostituted
women? Who controls the pimps and will they be permitted in the designated
areas?
The essential nature
of street prostitution is that prostituted women who work on the street
to support a drug habit or to earn money more quickly are picked up off
the street and taken in cars to unknown destinations by men who want to
remain anonymous and who are sexually aroused by the illegal nature of
buying a woman for sex (Hoigard, Cecilie, and Liv Finstad , 1992; Pyatt,
P., Warr, D. and Pope J. 1999). This power dichotomy is unlikely to be
changed by the setting up of 'safe' houses and designated areas. Disturbingly,
the rape, assault and murder that are associated with street prostitution
in St Kilda (see for example, Prostitutes Collective of Victoria, 1994)
will still occur.
Finally how will the
establishment of designated areas and safe houses eliminate the exploitation
of children in street prostitution? A study carried out by ECPAT (End
Child Prostitution and Trafficking) found that Victoria has the highest
number of children involved in prostitution in Australia. Of those children
who accessed state youth services the figure was 1 in 7 (ECPAT 1998).
In the St Kilda area health workers estimate that 3 in 10 of those involved
in street prostitution are under age (Victoria, 4 April 2001, 640). As
the report's proposals create an acceptance and tolerance of street prostitution
there will be ongoing exploitation of street prostituted children.
1.3 'Safe' houses
or illegal brothels
The report states that 'safe' houses will be 'established under a model
consistent with the regulation of the existing legal prostitution industry'.
We understand this to mean that they will be licensed and 'subject to
proper regulation, extensive probity requirements and appropriate health
inspections' (Victoria, 25 May 1999, 1191). Most importantly 'safe' houses
would be premises where no illegal activity would take place.
Most street prostituted
women, as the report acknowledges, have drug problems and would not be
able to work in legal brothels. If it were accepted that they cannot practice
in legal brothels and are expelled because of their use of illicit drugs,
the proposed safety houses will need to be different legal criteria and
occupational health and safety standards to the legalised brothels. Can
drugs be used in 'safe' houses but not other ones?
The report fails to
answer such questions as who will run the safety houses and how are they
different from illegal brothels? If they are to meet the needs of street
prostituted women they must be different from legal brothels. In fact
they will be the equivalent of illegal brothels that cannot be legalised
as they cannot meet the health standards and are run by criminals. This
would require the introduction of a watered down version of the current
prostitution legislation, which would defeat the intent of the original
prostitution acts and their amendments.
1.4 'Safe' houses
= state run brothels
The definition of 'brothel' under the principal prostitution act is:'
... any premises made available for the purpose of prostitution by a person
carrying on the business of providing prostitution services at the business's
premises' (Victoria, 22 May 2001, 873). As the safe houses are to be run
under the auspices of the local government and a fee is to be collected
from the street prostitute for the use of the safe house for the purposes
of prostitution, then the council is a brothel owner.
The setting up of safe houses effectively means that women are forced
to work in situations where third parties make profits from offering their
prostitution activities, in this case, the City of Port Phillip.
Council run safe houses
give the practice of prostitution an official imprimatur, and thereby
the practice will achieve a status in the community, which it should not
enjoy.
Moreover no provision
has been made for transparency in regard to who is to collect the fees,
how is it to be spent. Are funds derived from prostituted women to be
specifically utilised to contain street prostitution, facilitate exit
programs, or simply become part of general revenue.
1.5 Public health
and safety
The report recognises the importance of adequate health, welfare and outreach
programs to ensure public health and safety. It is suggested that trained
outreach workers 'would distribute harm-reduction resources (including
condoms, lubricant and health information) and provide referral to local
support services'. However, it is already acknowledged by health professionals
that the state's prostitution legislation does not adequately address
the provision of adequate resources to service the legal industry, let
alone street prostitution. Currently there are very few inspectors to
carry out HIV testing and the like at brothels and they are not employed
to do so on a full-time basis (Victoria, 25 May 1999, 1191)
The focus on outreach
programs for prostituted women rather than targeting the men who buy them
creates the anomaly that prostituted women are held responsible for the
spread of social diseases, rather than male users. There is no requirement
for male users of prostituted women to undergo routine health checks even
though it is widely recognised that these men come from across a wide
spectrum of the community, many married, living with partners or engaging
is casual sex (Victoria, 27 May, 1997, pp.1147ff.). How then is the community
protected?
The Victorian Health
Centre for Transmitted Diseases substantiated that women who are economically
vulnerable often have little choice to refuse sexual demands which they
find unacceptable or, from a health aspect, likely to cause diseases such
as hepatitis, Chlamydia and genital herpes, let alone AIDS. Street prostituted
women are the most vulnerable of all and the reports' recommendation of
health measures for prostituted women cannot protect them in the reality
of sexual exploitation.
Spokesperson for the
Prostitutes' Collective of Victoria have explained that men are becoming
more demanding in the type of services they want. The demand for oral
sex, for instance has been replaced b the demand for anal sex. Other normal
practices included sex without condoms. These views are supported by a
1998 study of brothel prostitution conducted by the Macfarlane Burnett
Centre for Medical Research done in conjunction with the Prostitutes Collective
Victoria. Spokesperson for the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria speaking
about the impact of legalisation on the conditions of exploitation faced
by prostituted women found 'The worst thing was the client's, the arrogance,
the smelliness, the violence, the demands. One in five clients still request
unsafe sex' (The Age, 28 February 1999). Prostituted women who need money
are forced to engage in whatever the customer requires.
1.6 Exit Programs
- Is it serious this time?
The report states that its findings require a package approach, fundamental
to which are exit programs to assist prostituted women to leave the industry.
This solution importantly recognises that street prostitution is not an
exercise of women's choice but a consequence of complex social forces
including homelessness, drug abuse, poverty, sexual abuse and violence.
Commitments to exit programs have been an inherent part of Victorian prostitution
legislation since the 1980s (Victoria, Inquiry into Prostitution, 1985;
Prostitution Control Regulations 1995) The regulations accompanying the
1994 Prostitution Control Act specifically required that exit programs
be instigated with funding provided from brothel licensing fees. Between
1995 and 1998, $991,000 was raised through licenses by the Victorian state
government (The Age, 28 February 1999) To date no exit programs to assist
women out of prostitution have been established, despite available models
such as Linda's House of Hope, in Perth, one resource run by and for prostitution
survivors (Compass, 29 April 2001).
1.7 Attack on public
space - A state run outdoor brothel
Access to public space is the right of all citizens. The report does not
mention public space taken away from women and children who are not in
prostitution. There is already ample evidence that users of prostituted
women and sex tourists harass women, both prostituted women and other
women. (See for example, Victoria, 16 November1994, p1869). If designated
areas are established does this mean that women and children are to be
restricted from these areas to ensure they are not subject to male violence.
If not how does the City of Port Philip intend to educate users of street
prostituted women that they may solicit some women but not others. How
are street prostitutes to be identified? Cleary this is not tenable, so
women and children are in fact being denied access to public space so
that men can exploit other women.
1.8 Prostitution
tourism
The acceptance of street prostitution in designated areas can only increase
the current expansion of street prostitution. The history of legalisation
of prostitution in Victoria has been one of expansion and diversification
of the sex industry. There has been an increase in brothels from 40 a
little over a decade ago to near 100 with 84 escort agencies. Ironically
the real growth area is in the illegal sector which trebled in 1999 and
which outnumbers the legal sex industry. Each week 60,000 Victorian men
spend $7 million on prostitution, drawing on some 45000 women and girls.
When one considers that Victoria's population is around 3.5 million these
figures attest to
how mainstream buying the right to sexually abuse women has become in
this state (The Age 28 February 1999) Apart from brothel prostitution
Victoria has witnessed a proliferation sexually explicit entertainment
with more and more women and girls being commodified for profit.
Once a designated
area is set up in the St Kilda area, it would appear inevitable that a
similar pattern of an upsurge in demand for prostitution created through
state tolerance of the sex industry will occur. Men from all Melbourne
suburbs will visit the area, as will overseas men attracted through the
Internet World Sex Guide.
A second problem with
the setting up of designated areas is how do these differ from red-light
districts? The report suggests that designated areas are not red-light
districts only because the council instead of sex businessmen runs the
'safe' houses. Visitors to the area may find it difficult to determine
the difference. This is especially so as St Kilda markets itself as a
sex precinct. St Kilda is likely to become famous as the prostitution
streets in Amsterdam.
Finally studies have
described how those who are called sex tourists in this report get excited
at the mere contemplation of buying a woman like a commodity. The violent
behaviour of men make sex tourists who prowl the street, exercising their
power over women by using physical and verbal abuse will not necessarily
be deterred by the creation of designated areas ((Hoigard, Cecilie, and
Liv Finstad , 1992)
1.9 Increased Drug
Use
It has been established that drugs are deeply involved in the street prostitution
scene (Victoria, 4 April 2000, 638). The establishment of designated areas
therefore would draw dealers and crime to the area, as street prostitutes
are already an established market. With drugs already a significant social
problem within Victoria, and the government and health professionals are
grappling to deal adequately with the expansion of the drug industry,
it is unlikely that the City of Port Phillip with its current resources
would be able to contain drug use and its impact on the whole of the city.
The St Kilda area would become ghettoised as an area of sex and drugs.
1.10 Not just Port
Phillip's problem
This report does not seriously take into account the experiences of women
in street prostitution or the impact on all of us when men have the right
to hire women's bodies by the half hour; it seeks merely to remove the
abuse of women to other areas. Accepting that men's demand to use women
in street prostitution cannot be ended, the council would become involved
through 'safe' houses and designated areas in servicing that demand by
supplying women for men's use. As street prostitution is increasing within
this state in areas such as Springvale and Footscray the model created
for street prostitution in the City of Port Phillip will be a prototype
for other cities.
The report also ignores
the reality that street prostituted women will not necessarily use the
designated areas. This may force them into other districts where the same
pattern of abuse and exploitation continues.
Conclusion
Street prostitution
has proved to be a tolerated part of the legal sex industry. Street prostitution
is not just an eyesore but also a problem of women's human right to be
free form violence. Any solution should start from this premise. Our strategies
as outlined on page 3 of our submission focus on penalising male users
and decriminalising street prostitution for women. These strategies have
never been tried.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Compass. (2001). ABC,
TV, 29 April.
ECPAT. (1998). Youth for Sale, Collingwood, Victoria: ECPAT
Jeffreys, S. (1997). The Idea of Prostitution. Melbourne: Spinifex
Hoigard, Cecilie, and Liv Finstad (1992). Backstreets Prostitution. Money
and Love. Cambridge: Polity Press
Mitchell, G. (2001). From Exclusion to Connectedness. Melbourne: Sacred
Heart
The Age (1999-2001)
Pyett, P.Haste, B. and Snow J. (1994) Profile of Workers in the Sex Industry,
Melbourne. Centre for the Study of Sexually Transmittable Diseases with
the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria
Victoria. (1985). Inquiry into Prostitution: Final Report (Neave Report)
Melbourne.
Victoria. (1995). Prostitution Control Regulations.
Victoria. (25 May, 1999, 4 April 2001; 25 May 2001;) Parliamentary Debates
|
