Local Sex Workers/Advocacy

Discussion at the Legislative Council on the police treatment of those being kept in custody and the Independent Police Complaints Council Bill

Zi Teng has been fighting against the police abuse of power. One of the factors leading to the problem of police abuse is the loopholes in the administrative system itself. Hence, we develop much contact with the Legislative Councilors, ask them to pressure the police to improve current system and stop the police abuse. We attended the Legco meetings on December 4 and December 6 respectively, where we discussed with the police and the Legislative Councilors the police treatment of those being kept in custody and the Independent Police Complaints Council Bill. Through this issue, we would also like to share with you our standpoints regarding to the above issues.

Zi Teng statement regarding to how the police treat the people being kept in custody

Zi Teng is a sex workers concern organization. We have been paying much concern on the abuse of police power. We submitted our demands respectively to the Redress System and the Security Panel of the Legislative Council, but there was not any reply from the authority. We are particularly concerned about how the police treat the people being kept in custody. The Security Bureau and the police are indifferent to the abuse of police power. For example, the police still allow the undercover agents to receive hand job service during operation, as well as allowing the police to frame and falsely accuse sex workers. Recently, they sent officers to sex workers’ place and forced sex workers to provide information, sign on the statement. They even took photos of sex workers. Their actions definitely violate sex workers’ human rights. Sex workers’ rights are further violated when they are in police custody. During January to November in 2007, 92 women suspected of selling sex were strip-searched (with 22 of them were strip-searched for more than 3 times), 5 women were physical assaulted, 38 were forbidden to make any phone call, 42 were forced to sign on a fake statement (including a blank sheet), 19 were falsely charged with 12 of them were framed by the police with condoms. According to the police, strip-search is carried out only under reasonable situation (like the avoidance of escape, hurting oneself or others by the suspect). However, we see the other side of the picture from the cases collected by Zi Teng. The police not only fail to record and explain properly the reasons for strip-search, there are police officers making use of strip-search to insult and control the arrested. Among these cases, 22 sex workers were strip-searched for more than 3 times within 24 hours, 3 were even searched for 4 times within 12 hours. The police often ask the involved parties to file a complaint to the Complain Against Police Office (CAPO), but most are afraid of police revenge and withdraw their complaints. Whenever there is a legitimate complainant, the CAPO tries its very best to stop her/him from filing the complaint. It also prolongs the release of the investigation result. Since the current complain system is not effective enough, the police officers are able to abuse their power, particularly abuse their power against the arrested people. Recently, the Lee Tung Street event and other social minority groups did tell us further about the violation of rights of the arrested by the police. This can hardly be explained by the reason of coincidence. We urge the police to stop immediately violating sex workers and other arrested people’s rights, review and revise the current custody procedures, and set up an independent system to investigate into the police complaints. We have the following demands: The police stop violating and other social minorities’ rights immediately Review and revise the current custody procedures such as forcing one to sign a statement The police review on the part of searching a person, including the part of strip-search, and repeated search. The officer should properly record and explain for the strip-search. She/he should also obtains the permission from her/his superior. Review on the part of searching a person, say, searching a person with machines rather than strip-search. The CAPO has to stop threatening sex workers to file a complaint. An independent complaint system should be set up to investigate into police abuse. November 25, 2007

Zi Teng statement regarding to the Independent Police Complaints Council Bill

Urge to give investigation power to the Independent Police Complaints Council Currently, the Complaint Against Police Office (CAPO) is a subsidiary of the Hong Kong Police Force. It is of no use and unreliable for the CAPO to investigate into the police complaints as the investigation is carried out by the police. We can clearly see from different police complaints that the CAPO is very problematic and fails to investigate into the police complaints justly. For example, they will secretly contact the police officer, who are complained, they will mislead, threaten or convince the complainant to withdraw the complaint, they will lessen the complaint severity, and prolong the investigation. The CAPO not only fails to justly investigate into the police misconduct and power abuse, they often mislead and set up barriers to make the complainants give up the complaints. The police complaint can seldom be established eventually. Although the IPCC is mainly responsible for the monitoring and reviewing of the CAPO investigation, it cannot really monitor the CAPO investigation because of its lacking power to investigate into particular complaints and the mistake in police administration. Moreover, since the investigation is carried out by the police, the cases of police abuse and police misbehavior cannot be monitored properly. Even though the citizens’ rights are violated, they can only file meaningless complaint without any fair investigation and treatment. The complaint against police system is just a token system. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights recommended many times to the Hong Kong Government to set up an independent complaint system for the investigation of police complaints. Yet, the government still rejects the recommendations. As long as the Independent Police Complaints Council Bill is going to be revised, more investigation power should be given to the Council. The police complaints can then be fairly investigated, and Hong Kong citizens’ human rights be properly protected. Here are our recommendations to the Independent Police Complaints Council Bill: Empowers the IPCC to take up and investigate into the police complaints. IPCC has the power to meet the witness and to go through the complaint information. Anything mentioned during the witness meeting will not be used for conviction. IPCC not only has the power to investigate into the complaints about individual police officers, it also has the power to investigate and review any current police code of conduct, policy, procedures, and administration to avoid any mistake, improperness, insufficiency or power abuse. Even there is not a proper complainant, IPCC still has the power to carry out an investigation and provide recommendations to anything concerned by the public. Increase the investigation transparency, and to report the investigation progress, content and result to the complainant. IPCC has the power to transfer the case to the Independent Complaint Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Department of Justice, if it discovers any police misbehavior during the investigation. The selection and appointment of the IPCC chairperson and committees should be open and representative. NGO representatives, particularly the groups who are often harassed like sex workers, lesbians and gays, racial minorities, should be included in the selection and appointment. In long run, the authority should set up an independent unit, which is separated from the Hong Kong Police Force, to deal with the police misconduct, power abuse, and the mistake in current police administration. November 30, 2007

In fact, through repeated cooperation and negotiation, we gradually have developed more partnership with Legislative Councilors and the police management, allow us more to push for the changes in law and policy implementation. For instance, Legislative Councilors now often help us to pressure different government departments to clarify their policy related to sex workers and the sex industry, the police management in some police districts now come to us for more information or better ways to address to the emergency call from sex workers, say, allowing Zi Teng to call for police instead of sex workers. We believe that as long as we have more channels to work with and express our views to the authorities, we can gradually improve the working situation and treatment of sex workers in Hong Kong.

Police accusation and threats to flat owners eradicate sex workers
In June, July, October and November, 2007, the police repeatedly went to sex workers’ workplaces for a police survey and forced sex workers to provide the information. Some police even entered their workplaces and took photos of the flat. The police claimed that they were only aiming at the criminals and triad groups who live on the earnings of sex workers. However, the police are actually using the obtained information to eradicate sex workers. Recently, the police have begun to post a notice in some buildings to warn the tenants, flat occupants and flat owners of the police accusation.

To voice out the discontent towards the police raids, several one-apartment women were willing to tell their stories to the media. One of them even wrote a letter to urge the police to stop the actions.

In fact, one-woman-apartment is not against the law in Hong Kong. Most sex workers are also working on their own with no one forcing them to the industry. Many of them are single parent, new immigrants or women whose husbands are unemployed. They just want to earn their own living, depend the least on the social welfare system, with flat owners, estate agents and the advertising websites are merely their business partners. Yet, the police threats to flat owners and sex workers only stop sex workers from doing the business, discourage them from earning a living, bring hurt to the sex workers. Instead of using the resources to suppress the self-supporting women, the police should stop the above actions, well use the resources to solve the cases where there are true victims, say, robbery, sexual crimes, domestic violence and so on. At the same time, the police and the government should repeal the criminal law related to sex workers, particularly the one of ‘Letting premises for use as a vice establishment’. This will enable sex workers to earn their living.

Month of Public Education, Advocacy and Fighting for Rights

In December, we organized and joined different public activities and events. For example, to eliminate the public discrimination against condoms, we carried out the ‘One Person One Condom’ campaign and distributed free condom cards to the public; to let the public understand more the violations of human rights on different social groups, we joined the International Human Rights Carnival and asked the public to vote for the most intolerable violation of sex workers’ rights; to urge the Police to stop abusing sex workers, we organized the march to the Police Headquarters with the support of other groups like migrant worker organization and religious group on the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Besides, to further increase sex workers’ civil-mindedness, we have been trying to participate in more different activities organized by different parties on different issues. Recently, we joined the march organized by the pro-democracy party with JJJ Association to fight for full democracy in 2012. We believe that unless everyone in the society, including sex workers, has the right to vote, sex workers can hardly find out their true representative to voice out their wants and fight for their rights.

Zi Teng statement for World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day One Person One Condom Campaign December 1 is the World AIDS Day. Every year, different activities are organized around the world to arouse more concern on AIDS. Condom is an effective tool to protect oneself from STDs and HIV/AIDS, but the society sees it as the symbol of unfaithfulness, evilness and immorality. Every year, the government spends much money and many resources on HIV-prevention. Yet, the police often charge sex workers with condoms, turning condoms into a kind of weapon pointing to sex workers, as well as discouraging sex workers from using condoms. In general, not only the government wastes the resources, also increases sex workers’ vulnerability to STDs and AIDS. During 2006, 12 sex workers were framed by the police with condoms. Some women from Mainland China were also arrested for carrying condoms. Though they do not break the law, they are wrongly jailed as the judge always believe in the police. Last year, we collected 24 cases from local and Mainland women, who were framed by the police. Sex is still a taboo in our society. Many people thus say ‘no’ to condoms, with some of them are afraid of condoms. No one dares to buy and carry condoms in an open way. If a woman is carrying a condom, people see her as a whore. If a man is carrying a condom, people see him as an irresponsible person, who will have sex with different person. Condom is just a tool to protect you and your partners. We should not let the police misuse it to frame sex workers. We should further stop seeing it as something evil or unethical. Try now to see condoms as something very ordinary, which is commonly found in daily life. We had the ‘One Person One Condom’ Campaign, in which we started distributing free condom cards to the public on November 30. There are other local groups supporting this campaign, including the Hong Kong Sex Culture Society, Hong Kong Women’s Coalition, Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association, Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, Hong Kong Association for the Survivors or Women Abuse (Kwan Fook), and the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women. We sincerely hope that everyone including men and women, the elderly and the young ones, can change their attitudes towards condoms, stop seeing condoms or people carrying condoms as evil spirits. We have the following appeals: The police should stop using condoms for crime conviction. Eliminate the discrimination against sex workers, particularly the abuse of police power against sex workers. Promote safe sex and sex education, enhance the public’s consciousness in safe sex. Join our ‘One Person One Condom’ Campaign, don’t be afraid of carrying condoms.

Setup of the Police Monitor Group
Zi Teng has been striving to fight against the abuse of police power. There was not much concern from the public on this issue in the past, but we now have more allies. Recently, we had a joint press conference with different social groups such as the Civil Human Rights Front (protect basic human rights), Unison (provide support for racial minorities, and H15 Concern group (concern for urban redevelopment). We told the public at the press conference about the police abuse over the past year, and the setup of the Police Power Monitor Group. We sincerely hope that there will be fewer cases of police abuse in the future.

Hong Kong People’s Forum and the success of changing the Duty Lawyer Scheme
We also joined the Hong Kong People's Forum 2007 organized by the Hong Kong People's Alliance on Globalization (HKPA), where we shared with other participants the development and struggles of Hong Kong sex workers' rights movement. Particularly we exchanged knowledge and experiences with other social groups, such as the Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese (HKJP), Hong Kong Women Workers' Association (HKWWA), how we could better our strategies in fighting for social justice and human rights.

As long as we work more with other local groups and organizations, not only can we exchange more information and views with others in the community, we can also create louder voice with others for more social, legal and policy changes in Hong Kong, effectively help us to push for substantial changes in laws and policies. For instance, we recently had successfully changed the duty lawyer scheme, which is one kind of free legal service provided by the Government for all defendants with criminal charges.

Under this scheme, even the poorest is able to enjoy the advice and assistance from lawyers. However, sex workers who are charged with ‘Prohibition of signs advertising prostitution’, which is one criminal crime, are excluded from the duty lawyer scheme and seldom enjoy fair legal treatment. In fact, this not only deprives sex workers’ rights to have fair treatment, this is also a kind of double standard. We thus raised this issue and our recommendations to the Duty Lawyer Service. Eventually, we got a reply from the Duty Lawyer Service telling us that sex workers charged with ‘Prohibition of signs advertising prostitution’ can start obtaining legal advice and help from the duty lawyers.

Gradual development of the JJJ Association

In order to assist JJJ Association, the first self-support group formed by sex workers in Hong Kong, to develop, Zi Teng has been providing them different trainings and support since its setup. For instance, we provided trainings in communication and negotiation for the members of JJJ Association, we let JJJ Association organize some training classes and activities for sex workers, they provide different information and advices for other sex workers by sharing their life experiences and knowledge through Zi Teng’s bi-monthly sex workers newsletters, we encourage them to take part in our advocacy and public education work. After various trainings and participation in our work, JJJ association has now grown up to some extent. They now have 58 members, who mainly work at one-woman-apartment, saunas and massage parlors. They are more enthusiastic to provide more different support and information for the counterparts. They also have succeeded to apply for the support from the AIDS Trust Fund (Hong Kong) to carry out a one-year peer education project. Furthermore, they had the first annual meeting with the members on February 24, let the members understand better the structure and future plan of JJJ Association. Many visitors expressed their wishes and blessings to JJJ Association, hope that it can grow gradually.

To us, the more JJJ Association works with us in different work, the faster they learn how to organize and implement their own work plan. We believe that the JJJ Association will one day develop into an independent sex worker group, fighting for sex workers’ rights with Zi Teng.

Migrant Sex Workers in Hong Kong

Setup of the Migrant Support Network (MSN)
We are glad to tell you that we have set up a group named ‘Migrant Support Network’, aiming to provide more support and information, such as the sex work law and policy in China, the working situation in China, for the parties who are interested to provide support for Mainland Chinese sex workers (migrant Chinese sex workers). We sent out a small-scale survey earlier to partners and friends in different parts of the world, try to understand more their interests and problems in providing support for migrant Chinese sex workers. So far, we have collected back the questionnaires from a number of groups and organizations based in different countries. The responses to our survey clearly tell us that larger number of migrant Chinese sex workers have fled to more different countries than before, that the groups in different destination countries do find it necessary to understand how to support this new migrant population. In order to further link up different migrant concern groups, and to facilitate the exchange of information or problem-solving skills for better development of support for migrant sex workers, we set up the Migrant Support Network.

The Migrant Support Network will distribute newsletter every six months to the groups, which have responded to our survey. They will also set up an online database, where you can find different information related to migrant Chinese sex workers. If there is any group or individual feel interested to be part of the support network, please do not hesitate to inform the Migrant Support Network.

In fact, it took us much effort and time to set up and register the Migrant Support Network. The Societies Office at the Police Licensing Office rejected our application for several times. They demanded us to submit the personal address of the board members of the new group, which is not necessary and required according to the Licensing system. After repeated negotiations and dispute, we eventually won over the Societies Office, registered for the new group without leaking any personal information of the board members of the new group. However, the unreasonable demand for personal information from the Societies Office suggests to us that the police do want to have thorough understanding and tighter control of each new-registered group, that they want to understand more the background of each group’s office bearer. This implies that it is really necessary to have a monitoring body to check on the inflation of police power.

CARAM Forum – “State of Health of Migrants 2007 – Mandatory Testing”
Zi Teng staff joined a health forum organized by St. Joho Cathedral HIV Education Center and CARAM Asia (Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility Asia), discussing with others how mandatory health check can influence migrant workers including sex workers. We do agree with the migrant workers that a mandatory health check provided by the government can lessen much their financial burden. However, what is important is that the people implementing this policy may turn a good policy into bad policy. For example, the medical staff doing the mandatory test may have negative attitudes towards migrant workers. If the migrant workers are found infected, they may further face double discrimination from the medical staff. Similar situation, in which people implementing the policy may turn a good policy into bad policy, is found in China. For instance, the ‘4 Free 1 Care’ policy in China aims to provide more support and service for the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), and to eliminate discrimination against PLWHA. However, the implementation is problematic and impractical in the sense that it requires the service seeker to provide her/his identity. Even though the service seeker is exempted from paying for the medical fees, local hospitals and clinics are often reluctant to bear the medical costs and say ‘no ’ to the service seekers. On the other hand, even though the service seekers are excluded and discriminated by the hospitals and clinics, they can go to no one to file a complaint or to seek for assistance.

Unless there is both a good policy and good policy implementation, the situation of migrant workers and migrant sex workers will not be improved. At the same time, it is also necessary to set up some independent organizations or departments to monitor the implementation of the law and policy. Good law should not exist only in written document, but exist explicitly in reality.

China project

Study on Violence Faced by Sex Workers in China
In order to study violence faced by sex workers at work; to arouse public concern for the situation of sex workers; and to suggest ways to improve the conditions of sex workers, especially ways to improve the enforcement of current laws and measures in such a way as to reduce harm to sex workers, Zi Teng carried out a research with Wuhan University last year in three cities, Beijing, Jiaozhou and Wuhan. Sex workers who work on their own or in small workplaces were interviewed. The study was conducted by using a questionnaire and by in depth interviews. A total of 800 sex workers were interviewed. In this study, it is found that most of the sex workers come from poor villages or poor remote areas. Many of them have become sex workers to raise their children or to provide financial support to their families. Because their work is illegal, they cannot work openly. They are also subjected to all sorts of violence at work. When they are abused or threatened, they dare not report to the police because police is one of the main threats in their work life.

In fact, the experience of the respondents and that of their friends repeatedly show that police, who are law enforcers, often subject sex workers to violence and violate their human rights. This is not simply a question of the character and the quality of individuals in the police force. Instead, it is due to discrimination against sex workers. Sex workers are physically assaulted and verbally abused by police not because they violate the law. Rather it is because they are looked down upon by the larger society, so even police think that it is alright to violate the code conduct of police and do whatever they like to sex workers.

To improve the situation and the life of sex workers in China, the quality of police has to be enhanced and their prejudice and discrimination against sex workers should be reduced. They should also be able to distinguish between the illegal activities of sex workers and the violence they are faced with. We appeal for the improvement of the judicial system. We also appeal for the supervision and monitoring of police conduct to prevent individuals from using torture as a means to extort confession or violate laws themselves when they should be enforcing laws.

Macau project

Stories of migrant sex workers in Macau
Compared with Hong Kong, people in Macau have less concern on the community. They are less interested in social issues and community service. In fact, this remains a major problem to our work in Macau, as we can hardly push more people to provide support for sex workers. That is why we strive to support the setup of the Chitang Women’s Association and give talks to the social workers. We believe that this helps to change people’s attitudes towards social issues.

In order to further let the Macau public to understand sex workers, and to push for more local groups in Macau to provide support for sex workers, Chitang Women’s Association is now planning to work on a book, which contains the stories of migrant sex workers working in Macau. Just like the book ‘Two-way Secrets: Life stories of twelve sex workers from Mainland China’ we published in 2006, we believe that this book will enable the Macau public understand further the voices and experiences of migrant Chinese sex workers. There will be more concern and support in future for migrant Chinese sex workers in Macau.

Trafficking

Gender equality

Release of the first sex education magazine for adults
To let the Hong Kong public understand that sex is not something evil, and to create more space for sex and gender discussions, especially on gender equality and good communication between partners, Zi Teng, which always focuses on sex workers' rights, has been organizing different sex education workshops since 2007. Furthermore, we recruited a group of volunteers for 'Sex!!! Fun' - the first sex education magazine for adults in Hong Kong. The first issue was published and freely distributed to the public at different collection spots such as cafe, bookstores and sex shops. Out of our expectation, the first issue is very popular. We even received more than 60 calls in a day enquiring for the magazine.

However, this does tell us how the public, especially the adults, need the gender and sex information. Though people in Hong Kong enjoy much freedom, they do not have much freedom to talk about things like sex and gender. People will easily be stigmatized as immoral or bad if they explicitly and openly discuss sex. Publications and materials with nude pictures or description of sexual intimacy will immediately be categorized as something obscene and indecent. When we introduced the magazine to the press, most of them were only concerned about the extent of nudity and obscenity. They questioned if we ever thought of the ‘negative’ impact brought by the magazine on the teenagers, who may visit cafe and bookstores easily. Some local groups suggested that we should not distribute a magazine with sex-related contents in public place. The committees at Obscene Articles Tribunal, which classifies and determines whether a matter or an article is obscene and indecent, also called and advised us to submit the magazine to them for classification and determination. In fact, we only put information like communication and sex tips (to improve communication and sexual life between partners), global sex culture, and health recipes, in the magazine. They are sex-related information but not something obscene and evil. They exist in daily lives and are something we need to understand. It is not necessary for the society to be so defensive against sex-related information. It is never too late to judge if you have really read the information.

World Association of Chinese Sexologists Forum 世界華人性學家協會成立大會暨性學高峰論壇 (心理與性)
To learn more about sex education, sex and gender, we joined the World Association of Chinese Sexologists Forum held in Shenzhen. Speakers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were invited to share with other participants their views on sex education, sex and gender.

We also witnessed how varied is the view on sex and gender in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. For example, while the speakers from China and Hong Kong are still expressing how they can do sex education and improve people’s gender consciousness, the speakers from Taiwan are sharing with others how they have set up different sex education programs or relevant projects, setting up examples for the Chinese and Hong Kong counterparts. This appears to us that there is still a lot for China and Hong Kong to improve the sex education programs. Works should particularly be done in China, where there are still many people, including government officials, believing that man is more important and valuable than woman, resulting in the prevalence of girl baby being abandoned in China.

Public Education

Sexpress Forum 色放論壇-淫審制度與表達空間
We attended the Sexpress Forum, where we shared with other speakers on the problems of current Obscene Articles Tribunal. Currently, the tribunal holds too much power over the classification and determination of obscenity and indecency. Superficially, the problem of the tribunal appears to be sexually conservative and defensive. However, it is indeed restricting one’s freedom of expression and association. It can make use of its power and ban against the circulation of any information or materials with a label of ‘obscene article’ or ‘indecent matter’. This undoubtedly limits the spread and flow of information.

Besides, as long as the Obscene Articles Tribunal say ‘no’ to everything containing sex, particularly nude pictures, how can we develop a better sex education program for the public, especially the underage, in Hong Kong? Can you really understand things like how to have safe sex without showing the picture of sexual organs? Sexual desire is something we innately acquire, but we still need to learn to acquire some other things related to it, say, how to perform in a safe way, how to win your partner’s consent and so on. It is necessary to create a certain space for sex-related information and materials. Particularly important is the learning of sex and gender of the underage. As some speakers mentioned at the forum, when there is not enough ‘health’ sex-related information provided for teenagers, they would be influenced greatly by the media and the information they obtain from Internet, where there is much distorted and exaggerated information.

In order to create more space for discussions on sex and gender, to protect our children and our freedom of expression, should the government seriously consider reforming the Obscene Articles Tribunal, train up its committees’ awareness in different kinds of sex-related information?

List of Donors (January – February/2008)

We apologize for any omissions!!