On 20th October 2014, the Northern Ireland Stormont Assembly became the first European jurisdicti... more On 20th October 2014, the Northern Ireland Stormont Assembly became the first European jurisdiction outside Scandinavia to criminalise the purchase of sex. This article recounts the process by which Clause 6 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Bill was enacted, and examines the political context which made its passage an inevitability.
In recent years, Ireland has seen the emergence of a well-organised campaign to introduce legisla... more In recent years, Ireland has seen the emergence of a well-organised campaign to introduce legislation that criminalises the purchase, but not the sale, of sexual services. While a domestic consensus has seemingly formed in favour of client criminalisation, global health and human rights bodies have increasingly taken a contrary position: that neither party to a commercial sex transaction should be criminalised, at least where the parties are adults and the exchange takes place on a voluntary basis.
This paper sets out the international legal basis for this alternative consensus among actors in the international health and human rights sectors. It argues against client criminalisation from a human rights perspective, focusing on sex workers' right to health. After a brief introduction to the right to health in international law, it sets out various elements of the right to health that are implicated in the proposal to criminalise sex workers' clients. Using examples from research in countries that penalise the purchase of sex - directly or indirectly - it shows how these laws may jeopardise the health of sex workers in a number of ways, impairing their right to health under international law. It considers and rebuts the argument that client criminalisation actually promotes the right to health, showing this to rest on unsupportable ideological assumptions and flawed interpretations of human rights law. Finally, it briefly examines an alternative model - that of New Zealand, in which neither sex workers nor their clients are criminalised, and sex work is treated as a form of labour.
Editor's summary: In a fascinating analysis Wendy Lyon challenges the paradigm of ‘trafficking’. ... more Editor's summary: In a fascinating analysis Wendy Lyon challenges the paradigm of ‘trafficking’. The legal framework that has developed around this concept is being exploited by the state who are using fears about the trafficking of sex workers as a form of border control to reduce the movement of different kinds of workers looking to improve the quality of their lives. The emphasis on ‘sex’ over ‘work’ means that from either a moral point of view or one of gender alone, NGOs, unions, some feminist groups and human rights organisations often support the paradigm’s exploitative framework. The irony remains that if anything, the imposed border restrictions are a commercial boon to traffickers while workers are once again caught between a rock and a hard place.
This paper demonstrated that laws that criminalise sex work or aspects thereof are associated wit... more This paper demonstrated that laws that criminalise sex work or aspects thereof are associated with negative outcomes for sex workers’ right to health under international law. It also showed that the right to health is an underused mechanism in judicial challenges to these laws.
The objective was to analyse, at practical and judicial levels, the relationship between prohibitory prostitution laws and the right to health. International treaties were examined to establish the relevant content of the right. Studies of the health-related effects of these laws, in various jurisdictions, were reviewed. Existing research into the effects of legalising prostitution under specified circumstances, and the effects of decriminalisation, was also examined. Case law was reviewed of judicial challenges to prostitution laws, and health-related aspects of relevant cases were discussed. The reasons that each court did or did not reach a decision protecting sex workers’ right to health were also considered.
The dissertation found that prohibitory laws lead to negative consequences for sex workers’ health by increasing their risk of violence and sexually-transmitted infections; adversely affecting their mental health, through these risks and through stigmatisation; denying them occupational health and safety; and excluding them from the process by which health-affecting decisions are made. It found positive health outcomes from removal of these laws, although excessive regulation of legal prostitution can have negative effects. It also found insufficient justification for health-based arguments in favour of prohibitory laws.
It showed that only a small number of challenges to these laws have highlighted their relationship to health, and the basis of these challenges has not been the right to health itself, although a breach of a derivative right has sometimes been asserted. Health has also, at times, served as a defence to these laws. It concluded that sex workers’ right to health can best be protected through a legal framework that decriminalises consensual commercial sex and explicitly protects their occupational health and safety rights. This must be accompanied by efforts to ameliorate stigmatisation. Judicial action can play a role, although it may require the assertion of a derivative right rather than the right to health.
On 20th October 2014, the Northern Ireland Stormont Assembly became the first European jurisdicti... more On 20th October 2014, the Northern Ireland Stormont Assembly became the first European jurisdiction outside Scandinavia to criminalise the purchase of sex. This article recounts the process by which Clause 6 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Bill was enacted, and examines the political context which made its passage an inevitability.
In recent years, Ireland has seen the emergence of a well-organised campaign to introduce legisla... more In recent years, Ireland has seen the emergence of a well-organised campaign to introduce legislation that criminalises the purchase, but not the sale, of sexual services. While a domestic consensus has seemingly formed in favour of client criminalisation, global health and human rights bodies have increasingly taken a contrary position: that neither party to a commercial sex transaction should be criminalised, at least where the parties are adults and the exchange takes place on a voluntary basis.
This paper sets out the international legal basis for this alternative consensus among actors in the international health and human rights sectors. It argues against client criminalisation from a human rights perspective, focusing on sex workers' right to health. After a brief introduction to the right to health in international law, it sets out various elements of the right to health that are implicated in the proposal to criminalise sex workers' clients. Using examples from research in countries that penalise the purchase of sex - directly or indirectly - it shows how these laws may jeopardise the health of sex workers in a number of ways, impairing their right to health under international law. It considers and rebuts the argument that client criminalisation actually promotes the right to health, showing this to rest on unsupportable ideological assumptions and flawed interpretations of human rights law. Finally, it briefly examines an alternative model - that of New Zealand, in which neither sex workers nor their clients are criminalised, and sex work is treated as a form of labour.
Editor's summary: In a fascinating analysis Wendy Lyon challenges the paradigm of ‘trafficking’. ... more Editor's summary: In a fascinating analysis Wendy Lyon challenges the paradigm of ‘trafficking’. The legal framework that has developed around this concept is being exploited by the state who are using fears about the trafficking of sex workers as a form of border control to reduce the movement of different kinds of workers looking to improve the quality of their lives. The emphasis on ‘sex’ over ‘work’ means that from either a moral point of view or one of gender alone, NGOs, unions, some feminist groups and human rights organisations often support the paradigm’s exploitative framework. The irony remains that if anything, the imposed border restrictions are a commercial boon to traffickers while workers are once again caught between a rock and a hard place.
This paper demonstrated that laws that criminalise sex work or aspects thereof are associated wit... more This paper demonstrated that laws that criminalise sex work or aspects thereof are associated with negative outcomes for sex workers’ right to health under international law. It also showed that the right to health is an underused mechanism in judicial challenges to these laws.
The objective was to analyse, at practical and judicial levels, the relationship between prohibitory prostitution laws and the right to health. International treaties were examined to establish the relevant content of the right. Studies of the health-related effects of these laws, in various jurisdictions, were reviewed. Existing research into the effects of legalising prostitution under specified circumstances, and the effects of decriminalisation, was also examined. Case law was reviewed of judicial challenges to prostitution laws, and health-related aspects of relevant cases were discussed. The reasons that each court did or did not reach a decision protecting sex workers’ right to health were also considered.
The dissertation found that prohibitory laws lead to negative consequences for sex workers’ health by increasing their risk of violence and sexually-transmitted infections; adversely affecting their mental health, through these risks and through stigmatisation; denying them occupational health and safety; and excluding them from the process by which health-affecting decisions are made. It found positive health outcomes from removal of these laws, although excessive regulation of legal prostitution can have negative effects. It also found insufficient justification for health-based arguments in favour of prohibitory laws.
It showed that only a small number of challenges to these laws have highlighted their relationship to health, and the basis of these challenges has not been the right to health itself, although a breach of a derivative right has sometimes been asserted. Health has also, at times, served as a defence to these laws. It concluded that sex workers’ right to health can best be protected through a legal framework that decriminalises consensual commercial sex and explicitly protects their occupational health and safety rights. This must be accompanied by efforts to ameliorate stigmatisation. Judicial action can play a role, although it may require the assertion of a derivative right rather than the right to health.
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Papers by Wendy Lyon
This paper sets out the international legal basis for this alternative consensus among actors in the international health and human rights sectors. It argues against client criminalisation from a human rights perspective, focusing on sex workers' right to health. After a brief introduction to the right to health in international law, it sets out various elements of the right to health that are implicated in the proposal to criminalise sex workers' clients. Using examples from research in countries that penalise the purchase of sex - directly or indirectly - it shows how these laws may jeopardise the health of sex workers in a number of ways, impairing their right to health under international law. It considers and rebuts the argument that client criminalisation actually promotes the right to health, showing this to rest on unsupportable ideological assumptions and flawed interpretations of human rights law. Finally, it briefly examines an alternative model - that of New Zealand, in which neither sex workers nor their clients are criminalised, and sex work is treated as a form of labour.
The objective was to analyse, at practical and judicial levels, the relationship between prohibitory prostitution laws and the right to health. International treaties were examined to establish the relevant content of the right. Studies of the health-related effects of these laws, in various jurisdictions, were reviewed. Existing research into the effects of legalising prostitution under specified circumstances, and the effects of decriminalisation, was also examined. Case law was reviewed of judicial challenges to prostitution laws, and health-related aspects of relevant cases were discussed. The reasons that each court did or did not reach a decision protecting sex workers’ right to health were also considered.
The dissertation found that prohibitory laws lead to negative consequences for sex workers’ health by increasing their risk of violence and sexually-transmitted infections; adversely affecting their mental health, through these risks and through stigmatisation; denying them occupational health and safety; and excluding them from the process by which health-affecting decisions are made. It found positive health outcomes from removal of these laws, although excessive regulation of legal prostitution can have negative effects. It also found insufficient justification for health-based arguments in favour of prohibitory laws.
It showed that only a small number of challenges to these laws have highlighted their relationship to health, and the basis of these challenges has not been the right to health itself, although a breach of a derivative right has sometimes been asserted. Health has also, at times, served as a defence to these laws.
It concluded that sex workers’ right to health can best be protected through a legal framework that decriminalises consensual commercial sex and explicitly protects their occupational health and safety rights. This must be accompanied by efforts to ameliorate stigmatisation. Judicial action can play a role, although it may require the assertion of a derivative right rather than the right to health.
This paper sets out the international legal basis for this alternative consensus among actors in the international health and human rights sectors. It argues against client criminalisation from a human rights perspective, focusing on sex workers' right to health. After a brief introduction to the right to health in international law, it sets out various elements of the right to health that are implicated in the proposal to criminalise sex workers' clients. Using examples from research in countries that penalise the purchase of sex - directly or indirectly - it shows how these laws may jeopardise the health of sex workers in a number of ways, impairing their right to health under international law. It considers and rebuts the argument that client criminalisation actually promotes the right to health, showing this to rest on unsupportable ideological assumptions and flawed interpretations of human rights law. Finally, it briefly examines an alternative model - that of New Zealand, in which neither sex workers nor their clients are criminalised, and sex work is treated as a form of labour.
The objective was to analyse, at practical and judicial levels, the relationship between prohibitory prostitution laws and the right to health. International treaties were examined to establish the relevant content of the right. Studies of the health-related effects of these laws, in various jurisdictions, were reviewed. Existing research into the effects of legalising prostitution under specified circumstances, and the effects of decriminalisation, was also examined. Case law was reviewed of judicial challenges to prostitution laws, and health-related aspects of relevant cases were discussed. The reasons that each court did or did not reach a decision protecting sex workers’ right to health were also considered.
The dissertation found that prohibitory laws lead to negative consequences for sex workers’ health by increasing their risk of violence and sexually-transmitted infections; adversely affecting their mental health, through these risks and through stigmatisation; denying them occupational health and safety; and excluding them from the process by which health-affecting decisions are made. It found positive health outcomes from removal of these laws, although excessive regulation of legal prostitution can have negative effects. It also found insufficient justification for health-based arguments in favour of prohibitory laws.
It showed that only a small number of challenges to these laws have highlighted their relationship to health, and the basis of these challenges has not been the right to health itself, although a breach of a derivative right has sometimes been asserted. Health has also, at times, served as a defence to these laws.
It concluded that sex workers’ right to health can best be protected through a legal framework that decriminalises consensual commercial sex and explicitly protects their occupational health and safety rights. This must be accompanied by efforts to ameliorate stigmatisation. Judicial action can play a role, although it may require the assertion of a derivative right rather than the right to health.