Do you hear sex workers sing?
By: Anna Lee
Tags: Sex Work, Sex Workers, Thailand, Politics

I wrote this article in November, 2020 for current affair class

Spin-off: Thai women use pro-democracy protests to challenge the open-secret taboo — to repeal the outdated prostitution law.

Gist: Gender activism started by ‘Empower foundation’ using the demonstrations as a platform to collect signatures to repeal the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act to allow the proper regulation and control of the sex industry to genuinely tackle human trafficking and ensure that the sex workers receive welfare and protection under labour laws.

What will be covered:

Background information:

Democracy demonstrations

The 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act

Empower Foundation

Human trafficking

Stigmatization, Discrimination

What prostitute needs

Interview with Thanta Laovilawanyakul, 49, a member of Empower Foundation, a Thailand-based NGO for sex workers.

Thai anti-government protesters from the LGBT community hold a pride parade in Bangkok, Thailand, November 7, 2020.REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

The large numbers of young Thai women calling publicly for change, emboldened by widespread demonstrations to 3 demands — the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, ending intimidation of the people, and reforms to the powerful monarchy.

Thailand’s pro-democracy protests have already broken one taboo by demanding reform of the monarchy. Now they are helping to break another— legalize sex workers. At protest sites throughout the country, people are being asked to sign petitions calling for prostitution to be decriminalized.

Empower Foundation, a Chiang Mai-based group that supports sex workers, said it hoped to collect 10,000 signatures and present the petition to parliament to help persuade lawmakers to consider changing the country’s prostitution law. Now they have about 5,000 names already.

But why sex workers in Thailand calling for prostitution to be decriminalized and urging the authorities to remove all the penalties for selling sex? What’s wrong with the law we now practice? To be exact, there’s no law stated directly that prostitution is a crime, however, there are criminal punishments for people who publicly introduce themselves as a prostitute, who associated with prostitute or advertiser of prostitution as written in the prostitution act article 5–7. These 3 articles allow police officers to arrest, prosecute, or even abuse sex workers. More than 24,000 people were arrested and fined for sex-work related offenses last year according to the Royal Thai Police. And many of them experienced the situation where police collecting bribes from them in form of money or sex in exchange for letting them work.

Assumably, some Thais said that prostitution law shouldn’t be decriminalized because they are concerned that canceling this prostitution act may increase human trafficking. This argument seems to be rational as one research found out that on average, countries with legalized prostitution, for example, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, experience a larger degree of reported human trafficking inflows than those countries with illegal sex works. (Young Cho et al., 2013)

The likely negative consequences of legalized prostitution on a country’s inflows of human trafficking might be seen to support those who argue in favor of banning prostitution. But the truth is human trafficking always remains illegal even if prostitution becomes legal. Such a line of argumentation overlooks potential benefits that the dropping of the prostitution act might have on sex workers. Working conditions could be improved for prostitutes. Decriminalize prostitution allows sex workers to get protection and welfare under labor law.

Also, K.Thanta, a member of the Empower Foundation, a Thailand-based NGO for sex workers, stated that it is even better to combat human trafficking by repeal the prostitution act. She told me that there is a blurred line between human trafficking and sex works in term of the law enforcement that some people take advantage of it, for example, there was a case where one commit human trafficking act but he/she got away from it by telling the police that these people (you know, the people that they provided) are sex workers who willing to sell sex services. From this case, the prostitution act seems to be the front-line law that people or police can easily use to protect themself or to prosecute someone in every single case that relates to sexual service, even if it isn’t always that case. The other laws, for instance, the Child Protection Act, the Labour Protection Act 2019, and The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2008 are overlooked due to the wrong practice of the Prostitution Act. So, the cancellation of the 1996 prevention and suppression of prostitution act will be a sustainable solution to suppress human trafficking in the sex industry.

Another concern is about stigmatization. Let’s say, some people are questioning that if sex works are officially legal, will the situation of sex workers worsen in term of decriminalization?

Well, to clarify, what gender activism try to do here is not about drafting a new law to legalize sex workers, they just need to drop the existing prostitution law which is used to oppress sex workers by arrest and fine them, driven them into further poverty, instead of protecting them. So, there won’t be any stigmatization as sex workers will register themself as labor, just like the other kind of workers, under the labor law.

As I interviewed with K.Thanta, she stated that what sex workers truly need is they need to be recognized by law. They need social security. They want to pay for income tax instead of bribery. They need the right to negotiate at their workplace. They need to get legal protection and welfare from the state they’re living in. Most importantly, Thanta leaves me speechless by saying that criminal record will follow sex workers to the rest of their lives if they ever get caught, which make it hard for them to leave the sex industry or to get decent jobs. That’s why the prostitution act need to be repeal, so no sex workers would be the criminal for the crime they didn’t commit.

To sum up, democracy demonstration helps people to connect politics with various issues. Democracy would bring a better quality of life for sex workers because more public participation would mean policies could better deliver. The main issue of sex workers is the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, which did nothing to protect them, moreover, it turned them into criminals. Sex workers need the cancellation of the 1996 prostitution act to ensure a better life by allowing sex workers to receive legal protection and fair treatment as citizens under labor law that they can speak up against abuses and injustice.

Isn’t now a time to brings an open secret business of Thailand — prostitution to the light, to drop the morality down, and let sex workers be protected by the labor law.