Rayner Tan

This session highlighted the state of decriminalization of sex work in Kenya, the impact of decriminalization on the well-being of sex workers in other settings, the challenges that sex workers faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the general factors that increased sex workers’ health risks.

Phelister ABDALLA (Kenya Sex Workers Alliance, Kenya) highlighted how the legal environment plays a powerful role in the well-being of sex workers, through state-sanctioned stigma, discrimination and exploitation. Criminalization places sex workers at greater risks of violence, social exclusion, and abuses by the police, as well as clients. Decriminalization is defined as the removal of all criminal laws that prohibit sex work and associated activities, and Phelister highlighted how sex workers in countries that have decriminalized sex work, such as in Australia and New Zealand, have experienced improvements in workplace safety and overall mental and sexual health. A study published in The Lancet in 2014 indicated that decriminalization is the single intervention that would reduce new HIV infections among sex workers and their clients by between 33% and 46%. During the COVID-19 pandemic, physical distancing measures and curfews placed sex workers at greater risks of stigma, physical and economic violence from clients, as well as police brutality and harassment. These challenges take place in a backdrop of sociocultural, biological, economic and political factors that disproportionately place them at greater health risks. In conclusion, criminalization of sex work is a major barrier to addressing HIV and improving well-being for sex workers.

Stigma and state-sanctioned discrimination create precarious work environments for sex workers, placing them at disproportionate risks of experiencing violence, exploitation, and poorer sexual and mental health outcomes. Decriminalization paves the way towards achieving equitable health outcomes, and sex workers can lead the charge towards achieving this goal. In this session, one thing is clear: Sex work is work. While stereotypes around human trafficking or exploitation in sex work persist, sex workers must not be defined by them. Sex workers are now demanding for the right to their choice of profession, and the ability to work in safe and legal environments.