HUMAN RIGHTS

S &
EX WORKERS
HUMAN RIGHTS

S EX WORKERS
&

Jessa Prieto-Uychiat & Mary Jan G. Tirador

Sex Worker Rights = Human Rights ???

Who are considered as sex workers?

Human rights are rights that

every human being has
by virtue of his or her human dignity
 UNIVERSAL

ATTRIBUTES OF
INHERENT

HUMAN RIGHTS
EQUAL

INALIENABLE
Classification of Human Rights

Solidarity/Collective
Civil and Political Economic, Social and Rights
Rights Cultural Rights
(3rd Generation of
(2nd Generation of Rights)
(1st Generation of
Rights)
Rights)
- Right to Peace,
- Article on Social Justice and Development, Environment
- Bill of Rights in the Human Rights
- Rights of Women, Children,
Constitution Persons With Disabilities,
Indigenous Peoples
Introduction
Prostitution, often known as
the world’s oldest profession,
can be traced throughout
recorded history. Thus, the
common wisdom holds,
making prostitution appear as
a “natural” by-product of
human social transformation.
 Introduction
Tolerating Prostitution..

During the Middle Ages prostitution was

commonly found in urban contexts.
Although all forms of sexual activity outside
of marriage were regarded as sinful by
the Roman Catholic Church, prostitution
was tolerated because it helped prevent
the greater evils of rape, sodomy and
masturbation.
Entertainers and sex workers in the Ottoman empire.
 Introduction
Assailing prostitution…

▪ By the end of the 15th century attitudes

began to harden against prostitution due to
the outbreak of syphilis in Naples which later
swept across Europe.
▪ The prevalence of other sexually transmitted
diseases during the earlier 16th century
causing brothels and prostitution to be
outlawed.
▪ The prostitute was considered… who [was] French prostitutes being taken to the police station;
available for the lust of many men a "whore. painting by Étienne Jeaurat

▪ Prostitutes were even excluded from the

Church as long as they continued with their
lifestyle.
 Introduction
Prevalance of prostitution…
The houses of prostitution found in every mining camp
worldwide were famous, especially in the 19th century when
long distance imports of prostitutes became common.

Prostitution in the American West was a growth industry that

attracted sex workers from around the globe where they
were pulled in by the money, despite the harsh and
dangerous working conditions and low prestige.

Chinese women were frequently sold by their families and

taken to the camps as prostitutes, and were often forced to
send their earnings back to the family in China.
Three prostitutes in a doorway on Rue
Asselin, in Paris's red-light district, 1924
Prostitution now…
Prostitution in the Philippines
• Prostitution in the Philippines is illegal, although
somewhat tolerated, with law enforcement being rare
with regards to sex workers.
• “Oplan Magdalena” is a local ordinance, an anti-
prostitution drive in coordination with the PNP
members who chased suspected prostitutes in
streets.
• Based of a study entitled "Young Adult Fertility and
Sexuality Study“19% of young males had paid for sex
and 11% had received payment for sexual favors.
Penalties involving prostitution
The Prostitute.
- prostitutes are penalized of a penalty ranging from one day to
six months and one day imprisonment; or a fine not exceeding
2,000.00 pesos; or both depending on the discretion of the court.
(RA 10158 amended Article 202 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC))

The Customer Pimp/Trafficker/Bugaw

- Six months community service and a fine of
Php50,000.00 for the first offense; and, for second and - imprisonment for 20
subsequent offenses, imprisonment of one year and fine years and fine
of 100 thousand pesos. (Under Section 11 of RA 9208)
- for having sexual intercourse with a child exploited in
ranging from one
prostitution (the age of the child must be between 12 million to two million
years old and above but below 18 years old), he will be pesos. If found guilty
penalized for 14 years, four months and one day
minimum to forty years maximum imprisonment. of qualified trafficking,
(Under Section 5(b) of Republic Act 7610 otherwise known as
“Special Protection of Children Act”) the penalty is life
- The penalty is 20 years and one day to forty years imprisonment and a
imprisonment, if the age of the child is seven years old fine ranging from two
and above but below 12 years, he violated Republic Act
8353 or the Rape Law. to five million pesos.
- Death penalty will be imposed pursuant to RA 8353. If
(Sec. 10(a) in relation
the age of the child is below seven years old. to Sec. 4 of RA 9208)
Interesting facts
Interesting facts
Interesting facts
Interesting facts Stealthing: California bans non-consensual
condom removal

About 30 years ago, just months after starting

work as a prostitute, Maxine Doogan became
pregnant.

The California Governor Gavin Newsom signed

into law a bipartisan bill that outlaws non-
consensual condom removal, known as
"stealthing". The new legislation adds the act to
the state's civil definition of sexual battery,
making California the first US state to render
stealthing illegal.
Interesting facts
• Japan is offering sex workers financial aid. But they
say it's not enough to survive the coronavirus
pandemic

• Philippines: To cross coronavirus border,

prostituted women abused by cops first.
Reality check…
Reality check…
EXISTING LAWS & ORDINANCES

1. Article II, Section 11 of the 1987 Philippine

Constitution provides that “the State values the
dignity of every human person and guarantees full
respect for human rights”.

2. Article XIII, Section 1 of the fundamental law also

states that “the Congress shall give highest priority to
the enactment of measures that protect and enhance
the rights of all people to human dignity, reduce
social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove
cultural inequities by equitable diffusing wealth and
political power for the common good”.
EXISTING LAWS & ORDINANCES
3. Republic Act No. 9710 or the Magna Carta of
Women specifically recognizes that prostitution is an
act of violence against women from which women
should be protected.
- amendment or repeal of laws that are
discriminatory to women which include - Article 202
of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) on the definition of
prostitution

4. Article 341 in the Revised Penal Code on White

Slave Trade (as amended by B.P. Blg. 186)

5. Republic Act No. 9208 or the “Anti-Trafficking in

Persons Act” (as amended by R.A. No. 10364)
EXISTING LAWS & ORDINANCES
6. Republic Act No. 10158 or “An Act
Decriminalizing Vagrancy” only repealed
portions of Article 202 of the Revised Penal
Code that pertained to vagrancy, leaving
behind the portion that penalizes prostituted
women.

7. The Philippine Plan for Gender-

Responsive Development (1995-2025),

8. Quezon City Ordinance No. SP-1516, series

of 2005 recognizes persons in prostitution
as victims.
INTERNATIONAL LAWS & TREATIES
1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
2. The Convention for the Suppression of the
Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Other which was approved by
the UN General.
3. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW)
4. Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women
and Children (2000)
5. The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA)
ISSUES:
1. Sex worker rights are human rights?
2. Should sex work be decriminalized?
3. Prostitution, a form of sexual
exploitation and violence against
women and girls is a human rights
violation.
4. Sex Workers : victims or criminals?
Issue No. 1
 Human Rights Advocates Contentions against
Contentions prostitution
Each person must have the right to Sex for money is illegal not just
control their own bodies and their because it’s immoral, but because it’s
sexuality without any form of just plain bad for women at every
discrimination, coercion, or violence is level.”
critical for their empowerment.
Rejection of “whorephobia” Prostitution is degrading to a person.
It reduces them to merchandise to be
bought, sold and abused.
“rights, not rescue - sex workers are Sex worker needs to be “rescued” and
deserving only of universally applied must be “rehabilitated”
rights—like all people everywhere—by
simple virtue of their humanity.
Issue No. 2
The decriminalization of sex work
Decriminalization refers to the removal of all criminal and administrative
prohibitions and penalties on sex work.
ADVOCATES IN
DECRIMINALIZATION Philippine Sex
OF SEX WORK Workers Collective

Women Hookers
Organizing for Amnesty
their Rights and International
Empowerment

Joint United
World Health Nations
Organization Programme on
HIV/AIDS
1 DECRIMINALIZATION RESPECTS
HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIGNITY

2 DECRIMINALIZATION HELPS GUARD

AGAINST VIOLENCE AND ABUSE
3 DECRIMINALIZATION IMPROVES
ACCESS TO JUSTICE

4 DECRIMINALIZATION IMPROVES
ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES
5 DECRIMINALIZATION REDUCES RISK OF HIV
AND SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS

6 DECRIMINALIZATION PROMOTES SAFE

WORKING CONDITIONS
7 DECRIMINALIZATION ALLOWS FOR
EFFECTIVE RESPONSES TO TRAFFICKING
Criminalizing consensual sexual relations among adults is
incompatible with internationally recognized human rights,
including the rights to personal autonomy, bodily integrity, non-
discrimination, privacy and work. Sex workers are one of the most
marginalized groups in the world, and their rights should be
protected.
When sex work involving consenting adults is criminalized, sex
workers are have little legal protection. They are reluctant to seek help
when they are discriminated against, abused or excluded from health
services because they fear arrest or a criminal record that will haunt
them all their lives.

Margaret Huang, the deputy executive director for Amnesty

International
 “To be prostituted is humiliating enough; to legalise
prostitution is to condone that humiliation, and to
absolve those who inflict it. It is an agonising insult.”
“Normalizing the act of buying sex also
debases men by assuming that they are -Rachel Moran
entitled to access women’s bodies for sexual
gratification. If paying for sex is normalized, Former sex worker and Co-Founder
then every young boy will learn that women
and girls are commodities to be bought and
sold.” “It is not possible to protect someone whose source of
Jimmy Carter income exposes them to the likelihood of being raped on
39th President of the US average once a week.”
Inna Shevchenko
President of FEMEN International Association

“Decriminalization only increases flows of women

trafficked into the industry and provides a legitimate
front for organized crime, while at the same time
reducing police oversight of the industry.”

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia

Issue No 3.
Prostitution, a form
of sexual
exploitation and
violence against
women and girls is
a human rights
violation.
Issue No. 4 Sex Workers as Victims or Criminals?
Related Jurisprudence:
• PEOPLE vs. HEINRICH S. RITTER,
G.R. No. 88582, March 5, 1991

• PEOPLE VS SAYO
G.R. NO. 227704, April 10, 2019

• ZACARIAS VILLAVICENCIO, ET
AL., vs. JUSTO LUKBAN, ET AL,
G.R. No. L-14639, March 25, 1919

• PEOPLE v. HONG DIN CHU

G.R. No. L-27830. May 29, 1970
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES,
vs.HEINRICH S. RITTER,
G.R. No. 88582, March 5, 1991
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, vs.HEINRICH S. RITTER,
G.R. No. 88582, March 5, 1991
Facts: On or about October 10, 1986, accused Ritter brought Jessie Ramirez and Rosario Baluyot inside his
hotel room in Olongapo City. Inside the hotel room, the accused told them to take a bath. When Rosario
came out of the bathroom, she was told to remove her clothes by the accused and to join him in bed. At
that time, Jessie was already asleep but Rosario touched him to call his attention. When he looked, he saw
the accused placing his penis against the vagina of Rosario and that he was trying to penetrate but it
would not fit. The following morning the accused left after paying the children. Rosario then told Jessie that
the accused inserted something in her vagina. Sometime the following day, Jessie saw Rosario and he
asked her whether the object was already removed from her body and Rosario said "Yes". However, Jessie
claimed that on the evening of that same date, he saw Rosario and she was complaining of pain in her
vagina and when he asked her, she said that the foreign object was not yet removed.

Seven months later, Rosario was brought to the hospital with bloodied skirt, unconscious and foul smelling.
After 6 days, Rosario got serious and was pronounced dead subsequent to her operation with a portion of a
sexual vibrator extracted from her vagina.

A case for Rape with Homicide was filed against Ritter. The Regional Trial Court of Olongapo rendered a
decision declaring him guilty beyond reasonable doubt citing the rationale of Art 4 of the Revised Penal “He
who is the cause of the cause is the cause of the evil caused. The Supreme Court however, reversed the
judgment of the lower court and acquitted Ritter.
Issue:
Whether the trial court gravely erred and abused its discretion in finding
that the alleged offense was committed on October 10, 1986 and that it was
accused-appellant who committed it.

Ruling:
The Supreme Court acquitted Ritters from the crime on the ground of
reasonable doubt. However, the Supreme Court did not free the accused-
appellant from civil liability which is impliedly instituted with the criminal
action. Rosario Baluyot is a street child who ran away from her
grandmother's house. Circumstances forced her to succumb and enter
this unfortunate profession. Nonetheless, she has left behind heirs who
have certainly suffered mental anguish, anxiety and moral shock by her
sudden and incredulous death as reflected in the records of the case.
 “Though we are acquitting the appellant for the crime of rape with homicide, we
emphasize that we are not ruling that he is innocent or blameless. It is only the
constitutional presumption of innocence and the failure of the prosecution to
build an airtight case for conviction which saved him, not that the facts of
unlawful conduct do not exist. As earlier stated, there is the likelihood that he did
insert the vibrator whose end was left inside Rosario's vaginal canal and that the
vibrator may have caused her death. True, we cannot convict on probabilities or
possibilities but civil liability does not require proof beyond reasonable doubt.
The Court can order the payment of indemnity on the facts found in the records
of this case.”
 PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE VS SAYO
G.R. NO. 227704
Facts: In 2005, the victims, collectively known as the “plaza girls”, were under the control and supervision of
defendant Sayo as commercial sex workers. AAA was 15 years old and BBB was 16 years old when they started
working for Sayo. They were introduced to Sayo by other “plaza girls. Sayo acted as a pimp providing them
with male customers for a certain percentage of the profit. The international Justice Mission requested the
Philippine police for assistance on the rescue of minors exploited for prostitution in Pasig City. Acting on the
request, the police conducted surveillance, confirmed the report and planned an entrapment operation. Police
operatives posed as customers at the Pasig Plaza.

They were approached by Sayo who asked them if they wanted women and if they wanted 15 year old girls.
The officer agreed to the offer and the price. Thereafter, they proceeded to the house of defendant Roxas who
openly discussed with Sayo the transaction for the evening. After Roxas and Sayo accepted the payment for
the room and the girls, they were arrested.

The RTC found the Sayo and Roxas guilty beyond reasonable for the crime of Qualified Trafficking. They
appealed in the CA however the RTC decision was affirmed by the appellate court. Thus, appealed in the SC
Issue: Whether or not the accused-appellant is guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
Ruling:
The SC ruled that the RTC and the CA thus committed serious error as the proper
denomination of the offense is Acts that Promote Trafficking in Persons under Section
5(a). In this regard, it should be noted that the offenses punished under Section 5 cannot
be qualified by Section 6 as what the latter seeks to qualify is the act of trafficking and not
the promotion of trafficking. To be sure, this was clarified in the amendatory law, RA
10364 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 where Section 6 was
amended.

On the other hand, the Accused Appellant is liable for moral and exemplary damages to
AAA, BBB and CCC.
VILLAVICENCIO, ET AL., vs. JUSTO LUKBAN, ET AL,
G.R. No. L-14639, March 25, 1919

Facts: Respondent Justo Lukban, Mayor of the city of Manila, for the best of all reasons, to exterminate
vise, ordered the segregated district for women of ill repute, which had been permitted for a number of
years in the City of Manila, closed. The women were kept confined to their houses in the district by the
police. At about midnight of October 25, the police, acting pursuant to the orders from the chief of the
police and Justo Lukban, descended upon the houses, hustled some 170 inmates into patrol wagons, and
placed them aboard the steamers―Corregidor and ―Negros. They had no knowledge that they were
destined for a life in Mindanao. The two steamers with their unwilling passengers sailed for Davao during
the night of October 25, 1918.

The women were received as laborers in a banana plantation. Some of the women were able to escape
and return to Manila. The attorney for the relatives and friends of a considerable number of the
deportees presented an application for habeas corpus to the Supreme Court
Issue: Whether or not the Mayor and the Chief of Police has the power in deporting the 170
prostitute from Manila to another distant locality within the Philippine Islands?

Ruling: The Supreme Court condemned the mayor‘s act. Respondent‘s intention to suppress
the social evil was commutable. But his methods were unlawful.

Alien prostitutes can be expelled from the Philippines in conformity with an act of Congress.
The Governor-General can order the eviction of undesirable aliens after a hearing from the
Islands. One can search in vain for any law, order, or regulation, which even hints at the right
of the Mayor of the City of Manila or the Chief of Police of that City to force citizens of the
Philippine Islands, and these women despite their being in a sense, lepers of society are
nevertheless not chattels but Philippine citizens protected by the same constitutional
guarantees as other citizens.

The fundamental rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, considered as individual
possessions, are secured by those maxims of constitutional law xxx

―government of laws and not of men.

Separate Opinions
TORRES, J., dissenting:

If a young woman, instead of engaging in an occupation or works suitable to her sex, which can give
her sufficient remuneration for her subsistence, prefers to put herself under the will of another
woman who is usually older than she is and who is the manager or owner of a house of prostitution,
or spontaneously dedicates herself to this shameful profession, it is undeniable that she voluntarily
and with her own knowledge renounces her liberty and individual rights guaranteed by the
Constitution, because it is evident that she can not join the society of decent women nor can she
expect to get the same respect that is due to the latter, nor is it possible for her to live within the
community or society with the same liberty and rights enjoyed by every citizen. Considering her
dishonorable conduct and life, she should therefore be comprised within that class which is always
subject to the police and sanitary regulations conducive to the maintenance of public decency and
morality and to the conservation of public health, and for this reason it should not permitted that the
unfortunate women dedicated to prostitution evade the just orders and resolutions adopted by the
administrative authorities.
 PEOPLE v. HONG DIN CHU
G.R. No. L-27830. May 29, 1970
On 22 January 1966, Hong Din Chu was charged with grave oral defamation before the
Court of First Instance of Manila.

That on or about the 21st day of November, 1965, in the City of Manila, Philippines, the said
accused Hong Din Chu uttered to Mercedes Japco Ong the following statements:

• ‘Your daughter is a prostitute and she is a prostitute because

you too are a prostitute,’

• Issue: Did the alleged defamatory remark imputed on the

offended party constitute the commission of a public crime or of
a private offense that cannot be prosecuted de oficio?
Ruling:
The information in this case averred that the accused, with the malicious purpose of impeaching the
virtue, honor, character and reputation of Mercedes Japco Ong, a married woman, uttered against the
latter, publicly and in the presence of many people, the remarks — "Your daughter is a prostitute and she
is a prostitute because you too are a prostitute."

As thus alleged, it is clear that, while the utterance in effect also imputed on her the commission of
adultery, the offended party being a married woman, the disreputable conduct she was particularly
charged with was the crime of prostitution, not adultery. And it may be pointed out that prostitution and
adultery are not one and the same thing; the first is a crime against public morals, committed by a
woman, whether married or not, who, for money or profit, habitually indulges in sexual intercourse or
lascivious conduct, whereas adultery is in the nature of private offense committed by a married woman
who shall have sexual intercourse with a man not her husband.

In short, the essential element in prostitution is not simply a woman’s entering into marital relations with a
man other than her husband, if she happens to be married, but the existence of pecuniary or financial
gain as inducement to, or consideration for, that woman’s engaging in sexual activities. Thus, to call a
married woman a prostitute is not merely to proclaim her an adulteress, a violator of her marital vows; it
is to charge her of having committed an offense against public morals, of moral degeneracy far
exceeding that involved in the maintenance of adulterous relations.
 Conclusion
Sex Workers are part of the society. They are victims of the
circumstances that surround them. Despite their wrong doings, they
still deserve to be protected by our laws.
The stigma should be stop and allow them to live with equal rights
which was enjoyed by workers.
 As for you, is …

SEX WORKER’S RIGHTS

=
HUMAN RIGHTS