How Sex Workers Human Rights Are Being Violated Around the World? - Paper Example

Introduction

Sex work tends to be a highly controversial area of human conduct, which is burdened by, criminal opportunism, moral judgementalism, and subsequent human suffering. A sex worker is considered to be Any adult who either receives goods or money in exchange for consensual sexual services either occasionally or regularly. People of different ethnicity, socio-economic background and gender tend to involved in sex work due to various overlapping reasons that include poverty and deprivation of opportunities. In most cases, the deprivation of opportunities occurs due to the issues of racism, gender inequality, social exclusion, and oppression (Decker et al. 2015). In most countries around the world, sex workers tend to suffer from gross human rights violations. This study aims to identify how sex workers rights are being violated around the world.

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Physical and Sexual Violence

Most of the sex workers tend to experience increased levels of violence and sexual abuse across the globe. According to research, approximately a third of the global sex workers have been forced to engage in sex against their own will in the previous one year (Sable 2006). In most instances, the sex workers are vulnerable to violence from state officials such as the police. For example, through torture and inhuman treatment. The police officers tend to extort money from the sex worker who comes to report cases of rape or crime. The sex workers also report incidences of being arbitrarily arrested and detained with no charges so that the police officers can extort money from them. Also in other instances, the police officers tend to sexually abuse the sex workers while they are detained in the cells.

Being Denied Access to Health Care

Most of the sex workers find it hard to access the right healthcare treatment due to the increased discrimination they experience from health workers. For example, experiencing demeaning comments from the medical personnel, and experiencing incidences of sexual violence during treatment. The sex workers also tend to fear to access services from the HIV clinics due to the fear that their privacy will be bleached, other sex workers are told to wait all day for them to get the health care services because they are well known by the healthcare workers as sex workers. To avoid this discrimination the sex workers chose to seek health services from private hospitals outside their area or community.

Stigmatization and Marginalization

The sex workers often face high incidences of prejudice, stigma, and discrimination from their families, police, and health personnel. Sex workers are stigmatized by the medical personnel, media, and the police as being the HIV spreaders thus discouraging sex workers from obtaining services from either party. The transgender and male sex workers experience various forms of intersecting discrimination due to their sexual orientation and involvement in the sex work (Whitaker et al. 2011). The people not following the acceptable sexuality norms in the society are ostracized from the community, which triggers an additional barrier to housing and employment.

The Barrier to Protect Sex Workers From Crime and Violence

Most of the sex workers across the globe are reluctant to obtain police protection from crime and violence while in the streets, this is because the police do not take their cases seriously or follow up on their reports (Goodyear & Cusick 2007). Other police officers treat sex workers like criminals thus making them fear prosecution. In other countries, the police officers have been mandated the role of eliminating sex workers in the community by enforcing various laws instead of protecting the sex workers thus eliminating any possibility of sex workers protection.

Conclusion

Sex work is a controversial area of human behavior in which people of different ethnicity, gender, and social, economic background tend to join due to various reasons such as poverty. The sex workers tend to undergo various forms of human rights violations that include; first they experience physical and sexual violence mainly from the police officers who tend to mistreat them and even sexually abuse them. Secondly, they are denied access to healthcare. The sex workers mainly experience a lot of discrimination and demeaning comments from the health workers. Thirdly, stigmatization and marginalization, sex workers experience a lot of stigmatization particularly from families and health workers. Fourth, the barrier to protect them from crime and violent behaviors. In most cases, the sex workers fear reporting crime and violence cases to the police since no action or follow up is taken.

References

Decker, M. R., Crago, A. L., Chu, S. K., Sherman, S. G., Seshu, M. S., Buthelezi, K., ... & Beyrer, C. (2015). Human rights violations against sex workers: burden and effect on HIV. The Lancet, 385(9963), 186-199.

Goodyear, M. D., & Cusick, L. (2007). Protection of sex workers.

Sable, M. R., Danis, F., Mauzy, D. L., & Gallagher, S. K. (2006). Barriers to reporting sexual assault for women and men: Perspectives of college students. Journal of American College Health, 55(3), 157-162.

Whitaker, T., Ryan, P., & Cox, G. (2011). Stigmatization among drug-using sex workers accessing support services in Dublin. Qualitative Health Research, 21(8), 1086-1100.