Amnesty International and sex work

By Jason Lim

Prostitution is a huge industry in Korea. Although accurate figures are not available because of the underground nature of the trade, prostitution and related businesses (prostitution also channels significant economic activities to motels, beauty parlors, public baths, and bars) are estimated to employ up to 1 million people, about 4 percent of the economically active population in Korea. The sex trade was estimated to have an annual economic output of up to $24 billion dollars, 4.1 percent of Korea’s GDP in 2002.

When the government began a serious crackdown on the sex trade in the fall of 2004, the Ministry of Finance and Economy at the time expected to slash about 1 percent of GDP for 2005, which translated into $7 billion. I am not sure whether that figure proved accurate.

However, what proved accurate were the warnings that a crackdown would push the sex trade underground and create new social issues to be dealt with in the near future. Driven out from its traditionally protected locations, the business of prostitution expanded into formerly taboo residential and business areas, as well as innovate new store fronts that tapped into a whole new demographics of potential customers. With the advent of social media, prostitution has now moved into the virtual space as well. Also, the crackdown in Korea created a mass exodus of prostitutes from Korea to other nations, primarily Japan and America.

But reading about prostitution as a social or legal problem can be very misleading and obscure the real people behind this issue. This was driven home to me in a very real way when I found myself dumbfounded several years ago watching TV coverage of a massive demonstration by sex workers ― with their faces hidden by white masks – walk hand in hand with pimps and brothel owners. They were protesting for their right to make a living as sex workers.

The sight of hundreds of women who braved jeering and social stigma to protest for their rights ― whether you agree with their chosen profession or not ― made me think about who these women are instead of what they do.

I was stunned to realize that they are not some aliens; they are mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, church goers, neighbors, and everyone else that you know in your own lives. Surprisingly, they also have hopes, worries, plans, reflections, and everything else that occupies your thoughts. These women are not merely “problems” to be solved or “issues” to be dealt with by politicians, social activists, feminists, or pragmatists pursuing their own agendas with a skewed sense of right and wrong. But for the grace of God, these women could be our mothers, sisters, friends, and fellow workers whom we meet every day.

So, I watched with interest when Amnesty International recently announced, “We have chosen to advocate for the decriminalization of all aspects of consensual adult sex ― sex work that does not involve coercion, exploitation or abuse. This is based on evidence and the real-life experience of sex workers themselves that criminalization makes them less safe.”

The backlash was swift, even against an organization with unimpeachable credibility and respect. As strong as the argument that Amnesty put forth to decriminalize sex work was, there were equally strong counter arguments. Prostitution is a major public policy issue that different countries have dealt in different ways. Many have legalized it, with varying degrees of success and unintended consequences. I am not advocating here for any specific policy, but I do have problems with two specific vectors against decriminalizing sex work as proposed by Amnesty.

The first one is the moral argument that says prostitution is just plain wrong and should be abolished. First of all, morality is a shifting, relative concept subject to history and culture. Prostitution hasn’t always been considered morally wrong in different parts of the world throughout history. Second, you can’t abolish prostitution. It’s not called the world’s oldest profession for nothing. Third, Amnesty was not making a moral case for prostitution; they were proposing a legal framework so as to protect the human rights of sex workers as much as possible. It was a pragmatic proposal intended to enable their core mission ― protecting the human rights of the vulnerable population – among the sex workers whose rights were negatively impacted by the criminalization of sex work.

The second vector is couched as an exploitation argument that says prostitution is inherently predatory on poor women who are forced to engage in sex work as a last resort to survive. As such, prostitution is never an acceptable solution to economic survival. While seeming to protect women, I smell a certain patronizing hypocrisy in this argument. So poor women shouldn’t even have the choice? By keeping it illegal, are we really protecting vulnerable women from being forced to work in prostitution to survive? If we legalize sex work, are we afraid that women might actually choose prostitution as a job in a business decision?

I don’t know who’s right, but I do know that any public policy debate must begin by seeing these women as individual human beings, worthy of respect for their choices and deserving of help when they fall, like all creatures of God.

Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. He can be reached at jasonlim@msn.com, facebook. com/jasonlimkoreatimes and @jasonlim2012.