BANGKOK — Thailand and New Zealand
sound like the best places for prostitutes in Asia and the South
Pacific, because they don’t face the repressive laws that exist in the
rest of the region, according to a new U.N. report that calls for the decriminalization of the voluntary sex trade.The worst countries to be caught possessing a condom while appearing to work as a prostitute include China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

In those countries, an unused condom can be used as evidence that a person is an illegal sex worker.

Renting bodies for money in Asia also involves niche demographics.

On the Indian subcontinent, for example, so-called “flying” sex workers are people, such as students, who work part time.

Organizations
focusing on prostitution, HIV/AIDS and related legal problems discussed
these and other issues at a recent meeting in Bangkok, where they
discussed the U.N. study “Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific.”“Nearly
all countries of Asia and the Pacific criminalize some aspects of sex
work, … [but] criminalization increases vulnerability to HIV,” said Cherie Hart, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Development Program (UNDP),
describing the dangers of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV), which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).The
report called for the decriminalization of prostitution because it
found “no evidence from countries of Asia and the Pacific” that
outlawing the sex trade has prevented HIV epidemics among sex workers
and their clients.The report also called for euphemisms.

“The
terms ‘prostitution’ and ‘prostitute’ have negative connotations and
are considered by advocates of sex workers to be stigmatizing,” said the
210-page report, authored by Australian human rights lawyer John Godwin.“The term ‘sex work’ is preferred,” said the report, issued by the UNDP, the U.N. Population Fund, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and several nongovernmental organizations across Asia.

New Zealand and Australia’s
New South Wales province are models of how decriminalization of
prostitution boosted condom use and slowed the spread of HIV, resulting
in “extremely low or nonexistent” transmission of sexual diseases among
prostitutes, said the report.“I would like to be a sex worker in New Zealand,” said Mandeep Dhaliwal, director of the UNDP’s
HIV, Health and Development Practice, when asked which countries in
Asia were the best places for them to earn a living as a prostitute.Thailand
is also a relatively safe place to be a prostitute. Although
prostitution is illegal, authorities usually ignore the sex trade,
enabling many upmarket Thai and foreign sex workers to enjoy higher
wages, cleaner environments and less hassle compared with elsewhere in
Asia, said Chantawipa Apisuk, who directs Empower, a Thai foundation led by prostitutes.“In Thailand, although it’s illegal, it’s still open, and a lot of people, my friends, are working,” she added.


Read more: U.N. report calls for decriminalizing prostitution - Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/24/un-report-calls-decriminalizing-prostitution/#ixzz2AFYDkV6S

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