September 2009 30 th Issue Message from the Editor : We are excited to share with you two news. One is that the man who killed three one-woman brothel women last March is sentenced to life imprisonment. The other is that the man who cut up and flushed the body of a Enjo-Kosai girl is also sentenced to life imprisonment. During the hearing of the first murder case, the judge even told the defendant, By your wicked crime, you ve deprived (the victims) of their lives and destroyed their families. Seeing how the police quickly arrested the two murderers, and how the court sentenced them, we believe that sex workers do gain more respect and protection than in the past. We also believe that, to some extent, this reminds the public that sex workers are no longer helpless. Once you harm and hurt a sex worker, you will be arrested and put into jail. However, this is never enough as we still see how sex workers are isolated in the community. Some police officers and judges still prejudice against sex workers, think that they are bad and immoral. This may attribute to the lack of understanding and communication between sex workers and the authorities. We look forward to working with the authorities and providing training for their frontline officers, change their stereotypical misconceptions over sex workers. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 1
Local Sex Workers/Advocacy About Enjo-Kosai in Hong Kong Recently, there has been much discussion over Enjo-Kosai. Various parties ranging from the government, the police to the school, social workers and parents are very anxious to the issue. They often criticize those involving in the activity, with most of them teenage girls, as unethical, materialistic, and money-obsessed. Some of them even have much disdain for the girls. Enjo-Kosai means compensated dating where older men give money or luxury gifts to younger girls for their companionship, dating, underwear, or the most common situation in Hong Kong, sexual favors. There are no statistics that show which group of people participate in Enjo-Kosai most frequently, but from observation on the Internet, the participants range from 16 or younger to 28, from school girl to OL (office lady). There are two main types of Enjo-Kosai, with agent and without agent. The teenagers who work without an agent usually find their targets from the Internet. If they find someone who is suitable, they will ask them for a date. A majority of them advertise themselves as available for compensated dating on the Internet. If the Enjo-Kosai teen works with an agent, the agent will do such processes for them and obtain some introduction fee from the teen. Both of them may violate the criminal law in Hong Kong. If people who are under 16 years old participate in Enjo-Kosai in Hong Kong, both teenagers and the clients may be in big trouble. First, a client who has an unlawful sexual intercourse with girl under 16 should be guilty. If the girl is under 13, the client may be imprisoned for life. Although Enjo-Kosai teenagers are not breaking the law him/herself, they may fall under the protection of children and juveniles ordinance, meaning the teenager will have to be under the constant supervision of a social worker. This includes their home life, school, social network, time arrangements etc, until they are18 years old. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 2
In fact, there is no specific law directly against Enjo-Kosai in Hong Kong. However, from the cases, people who participate in compensated dating may be indicted and convicted of Soliciting for immoral purpose and have a criminal record. The judge will decide the punishment for each individual situation. Until now, no one has been sent to prison temporarily, instead they have been punished by penalty, probation order, or social service order. Zi Teng contacted tens of the Enjo-Kosai girls in the past few months. We were also invited to a number of sex education workshops and seminars to share our thoughts on the issue. What we understand from the stories of the Enjo-Kosai girls is that, though some of them do aim at earning money, this does not necessarily mean that they are money-obsessed. Some of them do take part in compensated dating for a reason more than money, say, feeling bored or lonely, want to meet people from different walks of life, to satisfy sexual desires. Whatever we want to criticize these teenage girls, we should at least first listen to these girls. When we reprimand the girls for maltreating or ill-respecting their bodies in return for money, we should question how these teenager girls learn to pursue money and materials like most adults in the society do. If we really want to help the compensated dating girls, we should not stress on the use of law and penalty. The latter will only scare and drive the girls away. Rather, listening to them as well as providing them with appropriate resources and information will be more efficient and effective. In order to let the public understand compensated dating more, we compiled and put on the website the information pertinent to the issue. Moreover, we will conduct further research on the issue, aiming to arouse more different discussions over Enjo-Kosai. Confiscation of condoms as evidence prosecuting sex workers We had a meeting with the Advisory Council of AIDS with JJJ Association and two local sex workers concern organizations in July, where we expressed our concern about the confiscation of condoms by the Police as evidence to prosecute sex workers. Two years ago, we also raised the same issue to the Police and the Legislative Council. Unfortunately, there was not much sympathy on the issue. With the increased number of local groups concerning the issue, we sincerely hope that the Advisory Council of AIDS would pay more attention on the issue, give further pressure on the police management to stop prosecuting sex workers merely on the grounds of condoms and lubricants. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 3
Migrant Sex Workers in Hong Kong Medical assistance provided Since announcing its intention to curb the trafficking of women and children in April, the Mainland Chinese government increased much its efforts to raid against the sex industry and establishment. Sex workers were seriously affected and many of them thus left China to other countries and areas. Probably influenced by the Mainland counterparts, the police in Hong Kong also conducted extensive crackdowns on migrant sex workers in the past few months. One sex worker Summer (pseudo-name), who is from Anhui, was sadly hurt seriously in one police operation. On that day, she was not working but only taking a rest with four other sex workers in one apartment. However, the police arrived suddenly and tried to search the apartment. As she was not well aware of her legal rights and the police operations, she thought the police was coming to arrest her. She was terrified and tried to escape through the window. Unluckily, she slipped and fell from the third floor. She was later sent to the hospital and found her broken her ankle and spine. She was hospitalized for weeks. Since Summer is not a Hong Kong resident, she is supposed to pay several ten thousands for the treatment and the medication. She could not afford the fees and thought of giving up the medication. Eventually, her sisters (village friends) called us for help. Thanks to the help of the medical social worker, we negotiated with the doctors and nurses, succeeded to lower some of the medical fees. We not only paid for her medical fees and some living allowances, we also bought Summer the air ticket, escorted her to the airport, strived to send her back to Anhui safely. Even she went back to her hometown, she still maintained the contact with us. Lately, we received her message, telling us she had become now better. Yet, since there is a general lack of caring and nursing service in China, Summer is not referred to any physiotherapists or medical social worker. She can only stay at her friend s place and practice walking by herself. From Summer s case, we not only see the miseries of a migrant sex worker, we also see how necessary it is to push for the setup of various caring and nursing service in China. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 4
China project Crackdown on the trafficking of women and children According to the news from Xinhua Agency, the underage girls into sexual exploitation; Jiangsu police also conducted operation against one foot reflexology parlour, where its owner raped and forced three high school girls to provide sexual service. official news agency of China, the Chinese police arrested more than eight hundred traffickers and rescued more than three thousands trafficked women and children during April and August. Three traffickers from one criminal organization were sentenced to death, while twenty three of their accomplice were put in jail for years and even for life. At the same time, the provincial and local government also competed with each other the number of sex establishments they raided, the number of sex workers and clients they arrested, as well as the number of people they rescued. For instance, Beijing, Hebei province and Jiangsu province respectively told the newspapers in July what they had done on the trafficking activities and sex industry; while the Beijing police said they raided against seven criminal organizations with thirty eight sex workers and clients detained, Hebei police devastated one crime group that forced As described above, the intention of the Chinese government to curb the trafficking activities has seriously affected sex workers in China. Many sex workers are eradicated and arrested. Even they can escape from the crackdown operations, they have to hide themselves or frequently change from one working place to another. It not only becomes more difficult for the Mainland service providers to maintain contact with sex workers, it is also difficult for sex workers to call for assistance in case of emergency. Though the Mainland government aims to combat crimes, it is indeed creating more space for criminal activities, place sex workers on a vulnerable position. Macau project Internship with the University of Macau As long as the Chitang Women Association is more well-known in the society, we are more able to develop joint projects with different parties. Apart from the Women s General Association of Macau, we developed the first internship program with the University of macau in this summer. Three students from the Department of Government and Public Administration and the Department of Communication started working with our Macau staff since July. They not only helped doing outreach service, they also helped us collect various kinds of information pertinent to sex workers in Macau, like, the medical service, the legal and judical procedures, materials for learning good Cantonese and English. Thanks to the interns, we had less workload, enhanced much our work efficiency. We alo hope that the three of them can learn more about sex workers during the internship. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 5
Trafficking GAATW Asia Regional Consultation (ARC) Though Zi Teng is not the member of GAATW (Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women), we are glad to be invited to its Asia Regional Consultation, which is one of their internal meetings. We are specifically invited to participate in the interactive panel on the impact of anti-trafficking legislation on sex workers rights. We also introduced our experiences of addressing to the issues of migration and trafficking among sex workers, aiming to make the attendants aware that sex workers rights and anti-trafficking work are not incompatible with each other; that sex workers rights activists are and can be good allies in our fight against trafficking. During the meeting, we understand more about the anti-trafficking efforts in different countries. For instance, while the government in areas like Hong Kong and China strives to combat trafficking by raiding against the sex industry, the authorities in countries like India, the Philippines, Nepal, opts to limit the movement and migration rights of its people, especially women, to avoid their risk of being trafficked. In fact, there is no absolute solution to address to the issue of trafficking. Different efforts lead to different outcomes and impact. Rather, we believe that it is more important for the authorities to monitor its anti-trafficking measures, in which they can quickly adjust or make changes when necessary. For instance, if the anti-trafficking measures in one area violate the basic rights of sex workers, migrants or the trafficked people, the government should then have the courage to change the policies. We are glad that quite a number of participants at this meeting do agree to set up their own monitoring and evaluating mechanism over the effectiveness of the anti-trafficking measures. They also criticize the credibility of the US Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), refusing the US Government to measure their anti-trafficking efforts with the US standard. We look forward to receiving and sharing with you the monitoring work in different countries. Swiss meeting for Trafficking in Human Beings Zi Teng was also invited to the Swiss Meeting for Trafficking in Human Beings in Zurich. While most participants were from Europe, Zi Teng was the only representative from Asia. During the meeting, we shared with other trafficking situation among anti-trafficking in areas like participants the migration and sex workers, also our work on the Mekong Region and China. From this meeting, we found that quite a number of groups or individuals from Europe did not understand much the vulnerability of sex workers to trafficking. They often associated trafficking with illegal immigrants, foreign workers or refugees, but could not fully understand how sex workers were exposed to trafficking. Sex worker was seldom put on their agenda. The meeting thus became a good platform for us to introduce the situation of sex workers to our European counterparts. We are also glad to expand our network with more European human rights groups. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 6
Gender equality Discussion on sex work law and policy In addition to the publication of Sex Work and Justice Law and Policy, we organized a special seminar in August for the public to understand and discuss more over current sex work law and policy., them even suggested the setup of tolerance zone or red-light district could enable sex workers to work in a legitimate environment with less government intervention. with Dr Chiu Man Chung and the representative of the JJJ Association as the guest speakers. Apart from the university students and the press, around fifteen members from the men s groups also attended. They raised different issues during the seminar, for example, some of them expressed their opinions on the undercover operations of the police; some criticized that the buying and selling of sex should not always be measured by the ethical standards. Yet, the issue that attracted the most clients was about the management and regulation of the sex industry. Most of them were eager to find out which policy model would be the best and appropriate for sex work in Hong Kong. Some of We always think that sex work is work and should not be criminalized. Whether it is the decriminalization of sex work or the setup of tolerance zone, the discussion and finalization of sex work law and policy should involve sex workers and other parties in the industry. However, what we clearly see is that the men s group seems really care for the well being of sex workers. They are interested to find a way to let sex workers work more safely, fairly and legitimately. This also shows us how the men s group changes the attitudes of clients, teach them how to respect and care for sex workers. We look forward to seeing more positive changes on the men s group members. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 7
Public education Trainings for the Democratic Party In July, we worked with the JJJ Association to organize one training for the district councilors, local officers and assistances from the Democratic Party. We described to the participants the present situation of sex workers, especially on how sex workers are exposed to social discrimination misconceptions and police abuse. During the training, we found that quite a number of the participants did misunderstand sex workers. For instance, some of them believed that sex workers were associated with the triads; they also thought that no sex workers would work willingly in the sex industry. At the same time, some local officers shared with us the concerns of the residents, how they were afraid of being mistaken as sex workers or clients. In fact, the training above did provide us a golden opportunity to change the attitudes of the local community, particularly the local officers and district councilors. To us, it is necessary to let the local officers and district councilors understand better sex workers. They can then help to educate the local residents, facilitate better communication between sex workers and residents. Very often, the residents complaint is one decisive factor in driving sex workers away from the community. As long as the residents understand and accept sex workers more, they will not pressure their local officers much to drive away sex workers, sex workers can then work in better environment. Conversely, if the residents feel bad to sex workers, and file complaints to the district officers, the latter may then work with the police and other government departments to eradicate sex workers. Conference on Beyond Limits Women in the 21 st Century We joined the conference on Beyond Limits Women in the 21 st Century and the exhibition on Good Practices on Empowerment of women organized by the Women s Commission in August. During the event, we shared with other attendants how Zi Teng empowers sex workers with the rights-based approach. We also shared how we help sex workers reintegrate into the community, that is, to develop better communication and relationship between sex workers and the local residents. During the presentation, one woman expressed that she could only understand and accept women working in the sex industry for the sake of family but not for other reasons. She also said that she was very happy with her marriage. Certainly, many sex workers worked in the industry for their family. It is also true that many women see marriage as one of their long-term goals. However, this does not mean that every woman is pursuing the same goal as hers. Neither do sex workers enter the industry merely for one reason. Some sex workers may think that they want to gain more power and autonomy by working in the industry, whereas some just simply enter the industry for no special reason. Some sex workers do fantasy a perfect marriage, but it is also not unusual for many of them trying to get rid of the marriage by working as a sex worker. What we want to emphasize is that, sex workers, like many other women, are of many different kinds and lead different lives. It is meaningless to judge them on the same basis or with one particular set of standard. Rather, we need to remain open and liberal to people s different lifestyle and value system. We can then develop a multi-cultural society. Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 8
Forthcoming activities October 13 November 10 December 1 December 10 December 17 December 30 History of falling in Love with Sex workers Sex workers movement in Hong Kong and its milestones World AIDS Day Human Rights Day International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers Christmas party List of Donors ( 07/2009 09/2009) July 無名氏 6,700 Joe 2,000 譚若梅 500 黃慧貞 1,000 August 無名氏 16574.3 Cheung Ki Chi 900 September 無名氏 4,700 We apologize for any omissions!! Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 9
Name: Occupation: Telephone: (H) Application for Membership Age: Gender: (O): e-mail: Address: I am willing to join the following activities: Publication Data Collection Research Others I would like to donate monthly: $100 $200 $300 $500 $1,000 or once My donation is paid by: Cheque: (cheque number) Cash deposited into: Hang Seng Bank A/C 232-8-085580 (Account Name: Zi Teng) Mail: Hong Kong Post Office Headquarters P.O. Box 7450 Fax: 852-2390 4628 Tel: 852-2332 7182 Zi Teng Hong Kong Post Office Headquarters P.O. Box 7450 Tel : 852-2332 7182 E-mail : Zi Teng@hkstar.com Website : http://www.zi teng.org.hk Blog : http://zi Teng_hk.mysinablog.com/ Air Mail Printed Matter Zi Teng Newsletter September 2009 30 th Issue P. 10