The existing legal framework
in Russia makes sex work and related activities punishable offenses, leaving
sex workers stigmatized, vulnerable to violence, and disproportionally affected
by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In 2013, the Ministry of
Justice, supported by the courts, refused registration and official recognition
to the first all-Russia association of sex workers, referring to the fact that
sex work is under administrative and criminal punitive bans and therefore the
right of association for sex workers is unjustified.
In light of international
human rights standards, in particular the jurisprudence of the European Court
of Human Rights, we examine in this paper whether the overall punitive legal
ban on sex work in Russia is discriminatory. The government's positive
obligations concerning discrimination against sex workers whose activities are
consensual and between adults, and whose working conditions leave them among
society's most vulnerable, should outweigh their punitive laws and policies
around sex work. The scope of legal criminalization is narrow: it should apply
only in exceptional cases where it is clearly justified.
Full (PDF) article at: http://goo.gl/5jKIcf
By: Arps FS1, Golichenko M1.
- 1Legal researcher with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network based in Toronto, Canada.
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv_insight
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