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The Nexus Between Sex-Work and Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Transitional Societies of Southeast Asia

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Current Issues in Transitional Justice

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Transitional Justice ((SSTJ,volume 4))

Abstract

In this chapter we attempt to create a dialogical space exploring the need for transitional justice processes to engage in development issues by examining the meaning of women’s empowerment within the sex-work discourse in transitional societies. Drawing on sex workers’ narratives in Southeast Asia we discuss the diversity of the sex industry and the motivations to enter into it. Inclusion of sex workers’ narratives in the debate becomes instrumental in helping to appreciate the complexity of pathways of women’s empowerment in transitional societies by highlighting how women’s sexual relationships define and affect women’s political, social and economic empowerment. By focusing on sex-work within the empowerment discourse we attempt to illustrate the dangers of generalisations and the negative impact of development and transitional justice mechanisms that lack sensitivity to the local context. We argue that for wider social transformative changes to take place in transitional societies women’s rights must not merely be acknowledged, but rather transitional processes and mechanisms must prioritise the facilitation of empowerment of the vulnerable, including women and the particular groups within.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Daniel Aguirre and Irene Pietropaoli, “Gender Equality, Development and Transitional Justice: The Case of Nepal”, The International Journal of Transitional Justice 2 (2008): 357.

  2. 2.

    See, for example, the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment research and communication project, established in 2006 with funding from the UK Department of International Development, and currently funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), with additional funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.pathwaysofempowerment.org

  3. 3.

    See, for example, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Michael Hamilton, “Gender and the Rule of Law in Transitional Societies”, Minnesota Journal of International Law 18 (2009): 389.

  4. 4.

    Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, “Political Violence and Gender during Times of Transition”, Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 15 (2006): 830.

  5. 5.

    We use the term “sex-work” as opposed to “prostitution”, and “sex workers” rather than “prostitutes” (unless citing directly) throughout this chapter as it is the preferred term used by those in the profession, as well as denoting that it is a form of labour. It is also a more inclusive term aiming to capture the broad range of behaviours and activities related to the subject matter; see, for example, TAMPEP (European Network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers), an international networking and prevention project in Europe, “Glossary of Terms for Sex Work”, available at: http://resources.tampep.eu/documents/sw_glossary_EN.pdf

  6. 6.

    We acknowledge that the situation of transgender people, and transgender sex workers in particular, is even more complex but as this research focuses on the link between discrimination and empowerment of women in general, and the treatment of female sex workers in particular, the focus remains on female sex workers only, notwithstanding the importance of acknowledging the obstacles and discrimination that transgender sex workers face.

  7. 7.

    This relates to the perceived two dominant social powers in sex-work; that is, sex and money, see for example Sigma Huda, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Aspects of the Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, (United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 20 February 2006, E/CN.4/2006/62). http://www.refworld.org/docid/48abd53dd.html

  8. 8.

    Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge (London: Penguin, 1998).

  9. 9.

    Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977 (London: Harvester Press, 1980), 98.

  10. 10.

    This is further elaborated on by Naila Kabeer in relation to women’s agency and empowerment in an economic context, see Naila Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurements of Women’s Empowerment”, Development and Change 300 (1999).

  11. 11.

    See, for example, Steven Lukes, Power: A Radical View (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), especially at 28.

  12. 12.

    Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements”, 462.

  13. 13.

    Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (London: Allen Lane, 1977), 194.

  14. 14.

    Foucault, The History of Sexuality.

  15. 15.

    Mark Haugaard, “Reflections on Seven Ways of Creating Power”, European Journal of Social Theory 6, no. 1 (2003): 95.

  16. 16.

    Haugaard refers to this process as a “discoursive consciousness of power”, which requires developing a critical awareness of the oppressive nature of the existing power structures in order to create a possibility of them being challenged and consequently changed, Ibid.

  17. 17.

    See for example Sonja Wölte, “Armed Conflict and Trafficking in Women”, Sector Project Against Trafficking in Women (Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, 2004).

  18. 18.

    See, for example, the report by the Minority Group Rights International (MRG) on sexual violence against women in north and east Sri Lanka which criticises the Sri Lankan Government for failing to address the ongoing sexual harassment and exploitation of women four years after the end of the conflict, proving that the situation has worsened since the end of the conflict in 2009; Minority Rights Group International, Living in Insecurity: Marginalization and sexual violence against women in north and south Sri Lanka (October 2013) http://www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=1296

  19. 19.

    See, for example, Pablo de Greiff, “Articulating the Links Between Transitional Justice and Development: Justice and Social Integration”, in Transitional Justice and Development: Making Connections, ed. Pablo de Greiff and Roger Duthie (New York: Social Science Research Council, 2009).

  20. 20.

    Roger Duthie, “Toward a Development-sensitive Approach to Transitional Justice”, International Journal of Transitional Justice 2 (2008).

  21. 21.

    Ibid.

  22. 22.

    International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), “Donor Strategies for Transitional Justice: Taking Stock and Moving Forward”, (conference report, October 15–16, 2007).

  23. 23.

    See, for example, Roger Duthie, “Introduction” in Transitional Justice and Development. Making Connections, ed. Pablo de Greiff and Roger Duthie (New York: Social Science Research Council, 2009); Tonya Putnam, “Human Rights and Sustainable Peace”, in Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements, ed. Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth Cousens (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002).

  24. 24.

    De Greiff, “Articulating the Links”.

  25. 25.

    Daniel Aguirre and Irene Pietropaoli, “Gender Equality, Development and Transitional Justice”, 357.

  26. 26.

    See the discussion within the UNDP, Human Development Reports, with the first report opening with the statement that “People are the real wealth of a nation”, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 9.

  27. 27.

    Ibid, 10.

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 3. Sen refers in his work to five fundamental freedoms: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security, see especially at 38–41.

  30. 30.

    For more on the link, as well as the distinction, between human development and human rights see the UNDP, Human Development Report (2000), 20. For an overview and a brief analysis of the approach adopted by the UNDP see De Greiff “Articulating the Links”.

  31. 31.

    See, for example, the Areas of Focus of the UNDP programme on Women’s Empowerment, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/womenempowerment/focus_areas/

  32. 32.

    See http://tpocambodia.org/index.php?id=134

  33. 33.

    Sophary Noy, NGOs Baseline Study Results on Gender-Sensitivity in Transitional Justice Processes in Cambodia (May 2012) http://gbvkr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Report-on_NGOs-Baseline-Study-Results_VSS_May-2012_Sophary-Noy.pdf

  34. 34.

    See film by Sopheak Sao, Women’s Hearing 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= urURTF- S2qY

  35. 35.

    On the effects of how matters of corruption could distract public attention from mass human rights atrocities see Priscilla Hayner and Lydiah Bosire, Should Truth Commissions Address Economic Crimes? Considering the Case of Kenya (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 26 March 2003).

  36. 36.

    United Nations Security Council Resolution 2106, S/RES/2106 (2013), 24 June 2013. The preceding Resolutions on “Women and peace and security”: S/RES/1325 (2000), S/RES/1820 (2008), S/RES/1888 (2009), S/RES/1889 (2009).

  37. 37.

    Jo Doezema, “Forced to Choose: Beyond the Voluntary v. Forced Prostitution Dichotomy”, in Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance and Redefinition, ed. Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezema (New York: Routledge, 1998), 37.

  38. 38.

    Marjan Wijers and Lin Lap-Chew, Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage, Domestic Labour and Prostitution (Utrecht: Foundation Against Trafficking, 1997).

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    Annuska Derks, “From White Slaves to Trafficking Survivors. Notes on the Trafficking Debate”, (Centre for Migration and Development Working Paper Series, Princeton University, May 2000), 3.

  41. 41.

    Jan Jordan, The Sex Industry in New Zealand: A Literature Review (Wellington: Ministry of Justice, 2005).

  42. 42.

    Karen Sharpe, Red Light, Blue Light: Prostitutes, Punters and the Police, (Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 1998).

  43. 43.

    Alison Murray, “Debt-Bondage and Trafficking: Don’t Believe the Hype”, in Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance and Redefinition, ed. Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezema (New York: Routledge, 1998).

  44. 44.

    Valerie Jenness, “From Sex as Sin to Sex as Work: COYOTE and the Reorganization of Prostitution as a Social Problem”, Social Problems 37, no. 3 (1990): 420.

  45. 45.

    Ibid, 421.

  46. 46.

    See, for example, Anette Brunovskis and Guri Tyldum, Crossing Borders: An Empirical Study of Transnational Prostitution and Trafficking in Human Beings, (Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies Report 426, commissioned by the Norwegian Ministries of Local Government and Regional Development, and Justice and the Police, 2004) http://www.fafo.no/pub/rapp/426/426.pdf; Lynn McDonald, Brooke Moore and Natalya Timoshkina, Migrant Sex Workers from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: The Canadian Case, (Centre for Applied Social Research, University of Toronto, 2000) http://worldpulse.com/files/upload/37/migrant-sex-workers-from-e-europe-in-canada-report.pdf

  47. 47.

    Ronald Skeldon, “Trafficking: A Perspective from Asia”, International Migration 38, no. 3 (2000); Donna M. Hughes, Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation: The Case of the Russian Federation, (Geneva: IOM, 2002) http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/russia.pdf; Judith Vocks and Jan Nijboer, “The Promised Land: A Study of Trafficking in Women from Central and Eastern Europe to the Netherlands”, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 8, no. 3 (2000).

  48. 48.

    Elaine Mossman, International Approaches to Decriminalising or Legalising Prostitution (Prepared for the New Zealand Ministry of Justice, Crime and Justice Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, October 2007).

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Ibid, see especially 4.2 Broad Conclusions at 36–37.

  51. 51.

    Vu Ngoc Binh, “Trafficking of Women and Children in Vietnam: Current Issues and Problems”, in Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry, ed. Karen D Beeks and Delila Amir (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2006), 34.

  52. 52.

    Ibid, 35.

  53. 53.

    Lin Lean Lim, The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1998).

  54. 54.

    Namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    Skeldon, “Trafficking: A Perspective from Asia”, 18.

  58. 58.

    Wathinee Boonchalaski and Philip Guest, “Prostitution in Thailand”, in The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in South-East Asia, ed. Lin Lean Lim (Geneva: International Labour Organization (ILO), 1998), quoted in Skeldon, “Trafficking: A perspective from Asia”, 18.

  59. 59.

    Meena Seshu, “Feminists Might Learn a Trick or Two from Sex Workers”, Contestations 5, http://www.contestations.net

  60. 60.

    Binh, “Trafficking of Women and Children in Vietnam”, 35–36.

  61. 61.

    Ibid, 36.

  62. 62.

    Ibid, 37.

  63. 63.

    As reported in Ibid, 38.

  64. 64.

    See, for example, the empirical study conducted by Min Liu in China, where the current law enforcement processes concentrate on detaining and prosecuting sex workers and letting other involved parties go free, leading to women engaging in the practice to be detained for longer period of times in educational detention centres to be then sent to labour camps, and with the public “shame parades” being outlawed only in 2010, see Min Liu, Migration, Prostitution, and Human Trafficking: The Voice of Chinese Women (London: Transaction Publishers, 2001).

  65. 65.

    Yuk Wah Chan, “Cultural and Gender Politics in China-Vietnam Border Tourism”, in Tourism in Southeast Asia. Challenges and New Directions, ed. Michael Hitchcock, Victor T. King and Mike Parnwell (NIAS, 2008), 207.

  66. 66.

    Ibid, 207.

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    Ibid.

  69. 69.

    Ibid, 211.

  70. 70.

    Larissa Sandy, “Free vs Forced: The Everyday Lived Experience of Cambodian Sex Workers and the Forced Free Dichotomy”, in Pacific Interest Group Seminar Series (Manchester: University of Manchester, 2009).

  71. 71.

    Heidi Hoefinger, “Professional Girlfriends”, Cultural Studies 25, no. 2 (2011): 246.

  72. 72.

    Ibid.

  73. 73.

    Ibid.

  74. 74.

    Kate Hawkins, Andrea Cornwall and Tessa Lewin, “Sexuality and Empowerment: An Intimate Connection (Pathways Policy Paper, Pathways of Women’s Empowerment RPC and collaborative initiatives with the DFID-funded IDS Sexuality and Development Programme, Brighton, October 2011) http://www.pathwaysofempowerment.org/Sexuality%20_and_Empowerment_Policy_paper.pdf

  75. 75.

    Ibid.

  76. 76.

    Ibid, 2.

  77. 77.

    Ibid, 3. See also Andrea Cornwall and Susie Jolly, “Sexuality and the Development Industry”, Development 52, no. 1 (2009): 5.

  78. 78.

    Ibid, 2.

  79. 79.

    Ibid, 4.

  80. 80.

    Ibid, 8.

  81. 81.

    See UN Women, Human Trafficking on the UNIFEM website: http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/women_war_peace/human_trafficking.html

  82. 82.

    A London-based international non-governmental organisation working towards eliminating slavery and related abuses, http://www.antislavery.org/english/

  83. 83.

    Reported in IRIN, “Analysis: How to tackle slavery in Asia”, http://www.irinnews.org/report/98822/analysis-how-to-tackle-slavery-in-asia

  84. 84.

    Caroline S. Ruiz-Austria, “Conflicts and Interests: Trafficking in Filipino Women and the Philippine Government Policies on Migration and Trafficking”, in Trafficking the Global Sex Industry, ed. Karen D. Beeks and Delila Amir (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2006), 99.

  85. 85.

    In 2010–2011 there was 6,068 reported on-the-job injuries in garment factories, of this 5,878 were women. OHS Status Report: Bronh Sopheana, C. CAWDU.

  86. 86.

    Not for Sale, Shop,<www.notforsalecampaign.org>

  87. 87.

    Elizabeth Bernstein, “Militarized Humanitarianism meets Carceral Feminism: the Politics of Sex, Rights and Freedom in Contemporary Antitrafficking Campaigns”, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 36, no. 1 (2010): 65.

    Ibid, 64.

  88. 88.

    Laura Agustín, Helping Women who Sell Sex: The Construction of Benevolent Identities (The Naked Anthropologist, 16 December 2010) www.lauraagustin.com

  89. 89.

    Bernstein, “Militarized Humanitarianism”, 65.

  90. 90.

    Paula Stromberg, “Group Struggles for Legal Distinction between Human Trafficking and Sex Work”, Dailyxtra, http://dailyxtra.com/canada/news/sex-work-in-cambodia.

  91. 91.

    Ibid.

  92. 92.

    As reported in IRIN, “Analysis: How to tackle slavery in Asia”.

  93. 93.

    Aung Zaw, “No Sex Please—We’re Burmese”, The Irrawady Magazine 9, no. 2 (Feb 2001) http://www2.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=2155

  94. 94.

    Ibid.

  95. 95.

    Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements”, 473.

  96. 96.

    Ibid, 439.

  97. 97.

    Sarah Bromberg, “Feminist Issues in Prostitution” (presentation, the International Conference on Prostitution, Cal State University, Northridge, 1997) http://www.feministissues.com

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We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the presented arguments.

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Szablewska, N., Bradley, C. (2015). The Nexus Between Sex-Work and Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Transitional Societies of Southeast Asia. In: Szablewska, N., Bachmann, SD. (eds) Current Issues in Transitional Justice. Springer Series in Transitional Justice, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09390-1_10

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