Who stole the tarts? By Sandhya Rao and Cath Sluggett A critique of human rights as they apply to sex workers From CASAM: The Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation.

Paradoxical and shocking though it may seem, human rights are
being used to violate sex workers rights. The very framework
of human rights does this because it depends on interpretation
– and interpretation is easily laced with social prejudice. When,
as is often the case, sex work is interpreted as removing a
woman’s ‘dignity’, and being of moral harm to all women, then
the principle of indivisibility – all rights are equally important –
becomes an oppressive tool to those who want to practice sex
work for economic or other reasons. The right to do sex work is
dismissed because sex work is deemed oppressive and a human
rights violation to women. Perhaps what is more disturbing is
that everybody thinks this is correct. In the name of human rights,
unethical and even violent actions against sex work populations
are not only widely endorsed, but given accolades.

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~ by apnswdollhouse on September 25, 2009.