I know the intent behind it is that sex work is nothing to be ashamed of, and it absolutely isn't. But there isn't a great deal of nuance to it, is there? So can we really expect the men who use sex workers to? I'm trying to think of a better slogan, but can't come up with anything quite as catchy. But maybe simple, catchy slogans aren't possible for complex issues. I emailed Amnesty Int asking them to clarify their views on sex work and Mr Fox. This is their reply if anyone is interested:.
Amnesty International adopted a policy on the issue of sex work back in , calling for the decriminalization model. Amnesty International spent two years developing our proposed policy to protect the human rights of sex workers. This policy is based on solid research and consultation with a range of organizations and people. Our policy is not about the rights of buyers of sex - it is entirely focussed on protecting sex workers who face a range of human rights violations that are linked to criminalization.
Douglas Fox was not in any way involved in drafting our policy on sex work, he has not been a member of Amnesty for some time and had absolutely no input into our policy β you can read a statement we issued about him in on our website here. The policy was drafted by Amnesty International researchers and law and policy experts from across the organization.
Our policy is based on research on the lived experience of sex workers, backed up by a wide range of academic and human rights based research, including Amnesty International's own, and hundreds of external submissions to our consultation. We know that this issue is not without controversy and we understand that some people hold passionate beliefs about it but we are a global human rights organization and we have a responsibility to look at what causes and what prevents human rights violations.
That often means making difficult decisions that some people may not agree with. The agreement to adopt this policy means that Amnesty International is saying that we believe that the rights of a group of people who are extremely vulnerable to human rights abuse should be protected. Amnesty International is by no means alone on this issue. Human rights groups aside, decrim is also supported by many health and anti-STD orgs. One reason is that with criminalisation or partial-criminalisation models this includes the Nordic Model , condoms are less likely to be used because the police use them as evidence.
