HUGO LEONARDO PIRACUN ROMERO

CHALLENGE II

According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) Prostitution is

the activity to have sexual relationship with others in exchange of an
economic benefit, this NGO mentions that this kind of agreements must
be a consensual way by among parts; this last definition is too important
to consider because this is the difference between trafficking people and
the prostitution like a work. In Colombia there are approximately 14.200
women working in the labor most antique in the history of the humanity,
and although Colombian legislation does not prohibit either offering or
consuming sexual services; works in this labor in our country is a danger
for some of these women like violence, sexually transmitted diseases
(STD), rapes, sexual over exploitation and possibly the death. This
controversial issue never has been important in Colombia because our
society is not worried about women who work in that labor, for that reason
the regulation of the prostitution like a formal job in Colombia is the first
step to control and improve the labor condition of the prostitutes.

Many of conservative sectors disagrees because to try regularize the

prostitution like a normal job produce ethical and moral dilemmas,
dilemmas like Permitting that one person can access to have a sex with a
woman is accept that the prostitution is morally permitted; according to
many psychologists this thinking could be dangerous to younger people
because when they take the plunge to begin dabbling in their sexuality,
seen a bad example in the society in which foments lust and depravity.
feminist radical sectors mention that to admit that one men "can buy a
women" to have sex is to decrease the image of the women in front of
the society like a product or object that can be selected and bought. The
last sector but the most radical is the Christian church, they are against
to legalize or regulate the labor of prostitution because its impure and
dirty and it is against of the law of God, they consider that the unique way
or purpose to have sexual relationships is for conceive and no for
business.

Sex work has existed for a long time, and it’s not going to disappear
suddenly, for that reason it is better to focus takes care about the health
and safety of sex workers (that includes to defend their rights) in order
to improve their working conditions and to make that industry something
legal. According to Sex Workers Outreach Project who is a Australian
organization that fight by rights of all women who work in this labor,
mentions that decriminalization improve health of all prostitutes because
the is state who control sanitary situation of all women, in addition the
government realize programs to avoid the proliferation of sexually
transmitted diseases (STD) with occupational health, futhermore it forces
to each women to pay a health insurance to warranty future problems,
this set of policies has had a great successful because the data shows
that the illnesses have decreases 80%, becoming the profession in safe
for the prostitute and for the customer.

Prostitution in Netherlands has been legalized since 2000 and it’s

considered as a regular job and women who work in prostitution in
Amsterdam have the same rights, protections and obligations as any
worker in the country, even they pay taxes on their earnings; the principal
reason why the prostitution was legalized was because they (want) o fight
human trafficking and to protect the sex workers with excellent results,
according to Dutch Government, the numbers show that opening
tippelzone (designated area for prostitution) reduces sexual abuse and
rape, these results are mainly driven by 30-40 percent reduction in the
first two years after opening a tipplezone, furthermore, the same
government gives a license to each women that want to exert this job,
with this control the Government makes sure that they have the permitted
age and have the sanitary conditions to carry out this work. There are
many consequences of not legalize like the formation of cartels and a
black market that uses people as things to sell them at high and high
prices, making criminal enterprises bigger each time; after the
prostitution’s legalization in 2000, there is no incidence of human
trafficking reported. Also, it made it easier for sex workers to report abuse
and get help from the police.

In Conclusion although religion and some feminist movements are against

prostitution, it’s time to put aside moralistic prejudices and think what the
best for sex workers and the public health is, the only opcion to dignify
and enhance the labor, health and conditions is regulate and control this
labor