Joint Submission by TAC and SECTION27 supporting the decriminalisation of sex work
TAC and SECTION27 made a joint submission in response to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s Invitation for Public Comments on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill, 2022. The primary purpose behind this submission is to present evidence on the health-related consequences of the Bill in its current iteration. TAC and SECTION27 unequivocally support the total decriminalisation of sex work as is set out in the Bill.
Sex workers, like everyone else in South Africa, have a right to dignity, equality, security in and control over their body, and health. Yet the continued criminalisation of sex work has long marred South Africa’s progress towards realising sexual and reproductive health and rights. It adversely affects the lives of sex workers by subjecting them to criminal sanction, reduced access to healthcare services and subjecting them to greater risk of experiencing violence. The stigma attached to sex work, as enabled by criminalisation, contributes to the marginalisation of sex workers and undermines their ability to access healthcare services. Criminalisation also undermines the State’s response to the HIV epidemic by inhibiting the ability of sex workers, a key population, to access HIV prevention and treatment measures that have individual and public benefit. The criminalisation of sex work is simply incompatible with the right to health.
Evidence from Ritshidze – the world’s largest community-led monitoring system – shows ongoing abuses against sex workers in the public healthcare system. The 2022 Ritshidze State of Healthcare for Key Populations report found that only 42% of sex workers surveyed said staff were friendly to them, and 13% had been denied services because they engage in sex work.
One sex worker in the Eastern Cape told Ritshidze: “There is a high rate of rape cases among sex workers, and the clinic doesn’t help at all… The nurses have such a bad attitude and make funny comments, like why are you selling your bodies? They criticise and judge us once you mention that you are a sex worker, and you receive very slow or no treatment for your injuries. The nurses have an attitude that sex workers are looking for trouble and it is their fault that they are being raped. There are a few sex workers who have decided to stop taking treatment because of the ill-treatment of the nurses.”
Only 28% of sex workers surveyed thought privacy was well respected. A sex worker in the Free State told Ritshidze: “The nurse who was supposed to consult me told me in front of other patients that I should retire as a sex worker. They do not respect our privacy. I practically stopped to go to the facility when I was exposed in front of other patients who did not know that am a sex worker. Talking about my profession and sexual partners, it made my life a living hell at the facility, and they are treating me worse now than before.”
The Bill, which decriminalises sex work, is a most welcome step towards affirming sex workers’ human rights, particularly those that pertain to sexual and reproductive health. In the circumstances, SECTION27 and TAC support the enactment of the Bill in its current iteration.
Read our full submission here: https://www.tac.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Joint-Submission-by-SECTION27-and-the-Treatment-Action-Campaign-31012023-1-1.pdf
