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Building Advocacy Capacity: Materials Developme nt

Building Advocacy Capacity: Materials Developme nt. Olive CHEUNG Hong Kong. A NGO formed by people from different backgrounds -Social workers, labour activists, researchers specializing in women studies, law and sociology, etc. Sex work is work

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Building Advocacy Capacity: Materials Developme nt

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  1. Building Advocacy Capacity: Materials Development Olive CHEUNG Hong Kong

  2. A NGO formed by people from different backgrounds • -Social workers, labour activists, researchers specializing in • women studies, law and sociology, etc. • Sex work is work • All workers should have a right to live in dignity and to have • human rights respected as other workers do. 2

  3. Sex Work in Hong Kong In general people still have negative feelings towards sex workers. The result of a survey of undergraduate students about their views on sex work (2002) There were 82 respondents, with 68.3% between aged of 19 to 22. The mass media was the major source of the respondents’ knowledge of sex workers (89%), while sex workers support groups such as Zi Teng was the second major source of their knowledge (12.2%), and the second major factor which influenced their attitudes towards sex workers.

  4. For the respondents, buying sex is immoral, but they agreed that there was a need to improve the rights and situations of sex workers. -By conducting research and publishing the results, Zi Teng aims to let the public know about the situation of sex workers in order to minimize the social prejudices against people involved. 4

  5. The regulation of sex work in Hong Kong Sex work is NOT illegal Criminal offences: Soliciting brothel-keeping, Living off immoral earnings

  6. The police always arrest self-employed sex workers, even though they are voluntarily involved in sex work. • Abusing of power by members of the police is one of the threats of violence faced by sex workers. • Getting free services - Strip-searching - Physical assault - Forcing sex workers to sign testimonies • Forbidding sex workers to make phone calls

  7. The case of Miss Yuen-Yee LI Li was a self-employed sex worker. She was arrested by a police officer during an undercover operation. The police officer refused to pay Li, and the evidence of having oral sex was destroyed.

  8. In order to defend her reputation, Li committed suicide in October 2005.

  9. It is necessary to stop the police abusing power and receiving free sexual services. With the help of some legislators, Zi Teng has taken the issue to the Legislative Council Security Panel. The legislators pressurized the police to revise the Code of Practice and to stop the undercover agents to receive free sex services. In April 2006, Zi Teng provided statistics to the legislators showing how sex workers were abused by the police agents.

  10. Zi Teng successfully gained support from some of the legislators. The issue of the abuse of police power against sex workers and the request to revise the Police Code of Practice has been taken to the Legislative Council.

  11. Zi Teng believes that Li was unlikely to be the last victim unless the policy on the regulation has changed. In order to pressurized the Government to change the policy on sex work, Zi Teng has conducted research in this area.

  12. Projects: A Research Report on theWorking Experiences ofHong Kong's Female SexWorkers (2003) Project Investigator: Dr Travis Kong A Comparative Study of Law Controlling Sex Work in Hong Kong and OtherJurisdictions (2005) Project Investigator: Dr Man-Chung CHIU The Regulation of Sex Work in Hong Kong and Other Countries (2006) Project Investigator: Olive CHEUNG

  13. Findings: Currently the law fails to protect sex workers. The regulation of sex work is unfair to self-employed sex workers. • Recommendations: People involved in sex work should be identified as workers. Sex workers should be protected by law as other workers do. Decriminalized sex work.

  14. Efforts to decriminalize sex work: As an election is coming up, a seminar on the regulation of sex work will be held in October 2006. Gaining support from legislators by presenting the findings of the research studies. To change people’s attitude towards sex work – by publishing stories of sex workers, we aim to let the public know about the situation of sex workers.

  15. Publications: Asian sex workers’ stories (2002) My life: Photographs of Sex workers (2005) Sex is bread and butter (1999)

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