In regards to our protest, we did receive the reply respectively from the police and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, but they did not give us any satisfactory reply. Neither did they explain for their actions, nor apologized for the troubles and harassment they brought us. What made us most discontented was that while the departments quickly responded to our protest, they were slow to investigate into complaints, particularly the complaints against police abuse. For instance, the police have not yet responded to the complaint against police abuse filed by Li Yuen-yee’s family, even though the complaint was filed 12 months ago. Again, this only shows how inefficient and unjust the police and government departments are, that it is necessary to have an independent mechanism to monitor different government departments.

Zi Teng statement responding to the reply of government departments in regards to the First Sex Workers’ Film Festival

It has been a year for Li Yuen-yee committing suicide after the false allegation of the Police. Yet, the Complaint Against Police Office (CAPO) put off the investigation and has not yet completed the investigation. We hereby express our care to Li’s family. We also urge the police to quickly and justly investigate into the case, penalizing the police officers involved in the misconduct to restore the deceased to her reputation, stopping the misuse of power by police officers as well.

Zi Teng statement to the late publication of police investigation into Li Yuen-yee’s case

Zi Teng staff and one female sex worker joined the Ecumenical Pre-Conference and the held in Toronto in August. At the Ecumenical Pre-Conference, we came to understand the Church’s or faith-based organizations’ new perspective towards HIV/AIDS and sex workers. Church leaders from different parts of the world, including the African countries and the Euro-American societies, pledged publicly to work more on HIV/AIDS and sex worker projects. Instead of ignoring or turning a blind eye, they are now more supportive and positive, more willing to deal with the two issues. Several religious leaders, who are HIV positive, were also invited to give talks to the conference participants, sharing with other religious leaders and delegates their experiences of living with HIV/AIDS. This showed us there would be more religious groups willing to listen and care for sex workers.

At the XVI International AIDS Conference, institutions and groups at different levels, such as the international fund agencies, NGO at regional and country levels, are more willing and positive to see the vulnerability of MSM (men having sex with men) and sex workers to the HIV/AIDS endemic. The tycoon’s wife, Mrs. Melinda Gates, even openly stated at the conference opening that sex work should be accepted as a kind of work, that more funds should be granted to projects catering for sex workers. This definitely encourages us to work harder and more, tailoring better supports and services for both female and male sex workers.

Sex workers are often mysterious to the public, as they seldom show up in the public for the fear of discrimination and humiliation from the public. Yet, the public is so ‘interested’ to ‘look closer’ to sex workers, that ‘encourages’ local press to use voyeuristic tricks on sex workers. Sex workers’ identities are revealed, making them more vulnerable to public discrimination and humiliation. These tricks undoubtedly trample on the dignity of sex workers.

While no one in the society pays much attention on sex workers’ loss of dignity, there is great resonance in the city about journalists using voyeuristic tricks on celebrities and famous singers. The difference in public reactions clearly shows us that discrimination on sex workers still exists in Hong Kong, that most people do not think it matters if sex workers are denied of dignity and basic rights. It is thus necessary and important for us to work more on public education to eliminate discrimination against sex workers.

Sex workers are often discriminated and overlooked in society. It is even a worse situation for sex workers who come from Mainland China. Since they are not allowed to legally work in Hong Kong, they often provide service of any kind, even accepting unsafe sex, so as to please their customers and secure their income. This lack of bargaining power increases their vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and HIV. They do concern their health, but the fact that Hong Kong Police arrest and charge with condoms as evidence further discourages sex workers to use condoms.

Since the Hong Kong Government cut the free test of sexually transmitted disease for transit travelers in 2003, mainland sex workers were exposed to greater risk of STD and HIV transmission. They often leave their health problems behind till they leave Hong Kong, as it is too expensive for them to receive medical checkups or treatment in Hong Kong. We thus set up the mobile clinic for mainland sex workers to receive appropriate medical service and supports.

On the other hand, as mainland sex workers are illegal workers in the territory, their lack of understandings in rights and Hong Kong laws creates spaces for law enforcers to abuse and harass them. Hundreds of mainland sex workers have shared with us how the law enforcers physically and verbally abuse them.

In order to raise more public concern on the plights of mainland sex workers, we have been using different means, such as joint statement, rally, to convey our messages. In September, we collected 12 stories from mainland sex workers, sharing with Hong Kong public how they earn their living in Hong Kong. We also convened a press conference expressing our concerns on mainland sex workers’ increasing vulnerability to STD and HIV.

Press release about the situation of mainland sex workers in Hong Kong

According to our estimates, there are currently 200,000 local women working in the sex industry in Hong Kong. This doubles the figure in 2000, particularly those working in private apartments (known locally as the one-apartment-sex workers). While social prejudice puts sex workers as money-grubbers making quick money the easy way, our contact with the one-apartment sex workers uncovers just the opposite. They have to work long hours in unsafe working conditions for falling wages, and are exposed to various forms of harassment and rights violations. One of the common harassment is from the law enforcers. Instead of protection and fair treatment under the Hong Kong legal system, sex workers very often ‘receive’ exploitation and abuse.

The laws in Hong Kong put sex workers as criminals, who indeed do nothing illegal or disastrous to the society. The inconsistent laws on one hand put sex work as legal, and yet prohibiting ‘vice establishments’, ‘soliciting for immoral purposes’ and ‘living on the earnings of prostitution of others’, adversely affecting sex workers to earn their living. This inconsistency also creates more opportunities for law enforcers and lawbreakers to take advantages of sex workers. Sex Workers easily fall prey to robbery, physical and sexual abuses, and police harassment.

We always believe that sex work is work, and sex workers are entitled to basic legal, labor, and human rights. They should never be put as criminals unless they are really found breaking the laws. The current system of laws in Hong Kong is definitely not a favorable one to sex workers. The disadvantaged position of sex workers can only be bettered as long as the current laws are revised. Hence, we organized ‘The Ins and Outs of Sex Work and the Law’ Conference, where we invited overseas activists and researchers to explain the sex work laws in their countries. By learning the different law models and experiences in other countries, we hope to bring new insights to local public and lawmakers, so that they can formulate better sex work policy and laws, decriminalizing sex work.

We invited speakers from England, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Germany to share with us the sex work policy and law in their countries. Researchers, whom we appointed to do two comparative law researches, also came to report their preliminary findings. Most of all, we invited representatives from local political parties to explain their viewpoints and thoughts on sex work.

The conference was a great success to arouse public and media attention. Conference attendants, who were mostly from academia, exchanged their ideas on the issue with our speakers. It was particularly encouraging for the 3 representatives from local political parties seriously listening to our speakers and exchanging views with others. Miss Margaret Ng, the legislator, even appealed to other politicians that supporting sex workers is not something degrading or immoral, but an act to safeguard human rights and dignity. Yet, the greatest achievement was the attitudinal changes we observed on different parties.

In fact, Miss Ng did believe that sex workers were immoral in the past, despite that she strongly opposed the abuse of police power against sex workers. Nonetheless, after the conference, her attitude towards sex workers changed. She not only recognized Zi Teng’s works, asking the public to stop verbally attacking politicians who support sex workers. She also wrote a newspaper article (Apple Daily, 24 October 2006) claiming that current laws suppressed sex workers’ space and sex workers should enjoy fair legal treatments.

We translated Miss Margaret Ng’s newspaper article as follows:

At the same time, some conservative groups also changed their attitudes towards sex workers. The Society for Truth and Light, which is particularly anti-sex work, said “work should be done to protect them (sex workers). More works should also be conducted to see why some women become prostitutes so they can be helped” (South China Morning Post, 23 October 2006). Instead of putting all blames on sex workers, the Society for Truth and Light started to recognize the plights of sex workers, agreeing that more work should be done on sex workers.

Furthermore, while scholars were exchanging ideas with others at the conference, many of them supported sex workers. This also showed us how the conference changed the professionals’ attitudes towards sex work. Individual attitude is indeed very difficult to change. Yet, the above changes clearly tell us that it is worthy to continue our work. We will try very best to further fight for the decriminalization of sex work in Hong Kong.

In order to let you understand more about decriminalization of sex work, we are going to have a series of discussion on it in coming issues. Starting from this issue, we will first tell you the positive outcomes of decriminalization of sex work with the experience in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Since 1995 the NSW sex industry has been able to operate without the fear of police corruption or arrest. The regulation of the sex industry was taken out of the criminal jurisdiction and became a planning issue at a local council level. Positive outcomes from this include:

	Demarcation between the police as protector and enforcer This is incredibly important as sex workers are only now beginning to feel that they can seek police assistance without fear of prosecution or arrest and actually come forward and report incidences of rape, assault, theft and other crimes against them, like any other person.
	Equality
	Sex workers can work on a ‘level playing field’ having their occupation recognized as an occupational choice without becoming criminalized. A criminal record for ‘prostitution’ can negatively impact a person for the rest of their lives: denying them access into other countries, impeding their ability to pursue other occupational choices in the future, deeming them ‘unfit parents’, denying them the right to gain a loan, rent or purchase a house and can result in accumulated debt from fines related to prostitution charges. In addition to this, the ‘level playing field’ means that the sex worker and their client have the same status in terms of rights, and justice.
	Increased empowerment of sex workers
	Decriminalization allows sex workers to choose which section of the sex industry they wish to work. This can include escort, working privately with another worker, in a small or large establishment (‘brothel’) or in an escort agency. It allows flexibility of employment according to the individual worker and also caters for the varying needs and requirements of their client base.
	Decrease in the amount of tax payers’ money being used on law enforcement of the sex industry.
	There is currently no accurate research on the total amount spent on law enforcement of the illegal - or legal - sectors of the sex industry on either an Australian or global level. However it must be noted that it would be significant and we believe that public money would be better utilized by allowing police to minimize crime in the community rather than investigating and arresting people in the sex industry. This has definitely been a positive outcome in NSW.
	Decreased corruption from police
	The days when sex workers and owners of brothels had to ‘pay off’ the police are long gone in NSW. Police are now only involved in the sex industry in the same way they are with other businesses, such as when there is a robbery or an assault. The industry does not need to operate ‘underground’ where they can be ‘stood over’ by someone who will threaten their health and safety unless they are given favors and / or money.
	Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S)
	WorkCover NSW is the Government Department who promote workplace health and safety, and provides a workers compensation system for the employers and workers of NSW. In 1998 they funded a project based at the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) to develop a resource for the sex industry, and provide training workshops to sex workers and owners of sex industry workplaces. This project created Getting on Top of Health and Safety in the NSW Sex Industry resources which included a detailed booklet and a video. It also revised the WorkCover NSW and NSW Department of Health 1997 joint publication Health and Safety Guidelines for Brothels in NSW and measured the effectiveness of this document. This document is still referenced to outline clear and concise guidelines for establishments to adhere to when setting up and operating their business. These resources clearly outline both the rights and responsibilities of everyone involved in the sex industry in regard to OH&S including free provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – condoms, lube, gloves, dams, as well as secure beds and massage tables, clean linen etc. It is a clear example of government recognising the importance of supporting the OH&S needs of the sex industry as a recognised occupation and the benefits of doing so.
	Opportunities for sex workers to pay appropriate tax
	While many people in the sex industry have always paid tax from their income derived from the sex industry, decriminalization allows them to be open about their occupation and enables them to claim expenses incurred from operating their business on an equal level to any other occupation. Having to ‘hide’ behind another occupation denied them this right to claim for correct expenses which could previously ‘out’ them as a sex worker in an illegal environment (such as PPE, specialty costumes, wigs and advertising costs).
	Sex services for people with a disability: Touching Base Inc.  www.touchingbase.org
	Touching Base Inc. is a not-for-profit association that has been active since October 2000. It developed out of the need to assist people with disabilities and sex workers to connect with each other, focusing on access, discrimination, human rights and legal issues and the attitudinal barriers that these two marginalized communities can face. People with a disability have an intrinsic right to sexual expression. This right enables people to develop relationships, have sex, explore and express their sexuality and achieve intimacy without personal or systemic barriers. Decriminalization of the sex industry has allowed people with a disability to be able to choose seeing a sex worker as one of many options to address and explore these issues.
	Terminology and cultural changes
	In 2005 the NSW Planning Department reviewed and altered its terminology describing the industry. Instead of ‘prostitute’ they now refer to ‘sex worker’ and instead of ‘brothel’ they use ‘sex services premises’. This is an important step forward, with the NSW government acknowledging and recognizing the sex industry’s preferred language and terms. The previous terms are derogatory words that often induce fear and moral assumptions. This is particularly problematic for an industry that is so repeatedly misrepresented by the media, resulting in stereotypes and the correlation between derogatory terminology and organized crime, disease, corruption and disgust. The term ‘sex work’ is recognition of the occupation, without the attachment of derogatory ideology and the term ‘sex services premises’ allows for the recognition and inclusion of other forms of sex work establishments, such as massage parlors and Bondage and Discipline (B&D) houses, within future policy.

We apologize for any omissions!!