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Link to UNCHR
(E/CN.4/2001/NGO/69)
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-seventh Session
Item 11(d) of the Provisional Agenda
CIVIL
AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
THE
QUESTION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY,
ADMINISTRATION
OF JUSTICE, IMPUNITY
Written
statement submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre
a
non-governmental organization with general consultative status
Harassment
of sex workers in Hong Kong SAR
1.
In Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s
Republic of China, sex work is not technically illegal and
existing laws claim to stop exploitation and control of sex
workers by third parties. However in practice the legal system
usually moves against sex workers. When laws are enforced, sex
workers typically find themselves pushed into poorer working
conditions and often harassed by the police.
2.
Between December 1999 and November 2000, Ziteng, a concern group
for sex workers in Hong Kong, received more than 160 complaints
of police harassment of sex workers. These complaints reveal a
variety of harassment. For those who work in so-called “one-girl
apartments”, police officers often enter their workplaces,
claiming that they are checking their licenses (sex workers in
one-girl apartments have no licenses). Sometimes police officers
have searched the apartments of sex workers without warrants
three times in a day. Police officers also stand in the lobbies
of buildings where sex workers operate and drive away their
customers. Moreover, police officers ask sex workers to move out
before a certain deadline. The police threaten to inform the
workers’ families about their work if they do not leave. In
one case, a sex worker told by the police to move out of her
apartment before a deadline requested more time, whereupon a
police officer beat and threatened her. She called for help, went
to a hospital to have her injuries examined and made a formal
complaint to the Complaints Against Police Office, which has long
been criticised for lacking credibility because it is not
independent. In this instance, the case was dropped due to a lack
of witnesses. What the police do legally or illegally is aimed at
stopping sex workers’ business. Sometimes police officers
also ask for sex services without pay.
3.
Another serious violation of sex workers’ rights is that
they are denied fair treatment before the law. The prejudice of
judges and legal personnel often leads to discrimination against
sex workers in court, no matter whether they are defendants or
complainants. In one case, a judge bluntly stated that he did not
believe the statement of a defendant who was a sex worker. In
another, a customer who assaulted a girl working in a Karaoke bar
was found not guilty as in his decision the judge stated that
girls working in such places cannot be sexually abused as they
are not persons faithful to their virginity.
4.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre calls upon the Commission to
encourage the HKSAR Government to stop harassment of sex workers
by the police and to establish an independent complaint mechanism
to investigate and prevent abuses of police power.
Posted on 2001-01-30
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