This Thursday the International Day for the Rights of Sex Workers was celebrated around the world. Here in Uruguay, a group of women gathered in front of the Legislative Palace, with a series of specific demands addressed to all legislators.
The claims are various and, in some cases, have been going on for decades. For the most part, they are based on a modification of a regulation, which, for the most part, is more than a century old.
“We ask that after 103 years, legislators take away the power over our bodies from pimps,” he told The Observer Karina Nunez, from the Organization of Sex Workers of Uruguay (Others). Also about their economic autonomy, their freedom and their right to rest.
The leader argued that the current regulations protect the abusive practices that, on women, are exercised by those who run whiskey shops, massage parlors or specialized web pages. “There is nothing that says to the owner of a whiskey that he cannot demand that I have to serve four clients to pay him for being late”, said.
Núñez pointed out that since there is no regulation in this sense, it does not establish the rights that workers should enjoy. “Thus, those who regulate the activity are the traffickers, the pimps and the cheats, all with the complicity of the State, which becomes our biggest pimp,” said.
The first regulation that existed in Uruguay on the activity dates back to 1859. And, although the sex work law current was approved in 2002, much of the regulation comes from 1919.
At the end of last year, the group had appeared in Parliament to raise its platform, until now with little echo. According to the figures provided there, There are 7,000 “qualified” premises throughout the country where, in one way or another, prostitution is practiced. The colective Others claim that a single pimp manages between 90 and 150 women per week, “walking” them throughout the national territory through the 240 stores he owns.
Another request happens because the Ministry of the Interior stop controlling the personal data of workers and their mobility in public spaces.
The group demands that the Ministry of Public Health comprehensively assess the health of people who engage in sex work and not only, as until now, from the epidemiological point of view. Another of the claims revolves around the Ministry of Labor adapting the declining retirement contribution regime, in accordance with the income of each person according to the age group.
Leather and Footwear
“I am the fourth generation of sex workers”, Núñez told lawmakers. His mother, his grandmother and his great-grandmother were too.
His mother, according to what he said, is 73 years old and continues to offer sexual services. When she turned 70 she was able to start the retirement paperwork. But when they went to the Social Security Bank (BPS) to present witnesses, “they almost got jailed” one of them. He was the owner of the whiskey where he worked, and the authorities wanted to charge him with pimping.
Despite being a legal activity, sex work still does not exist as a basic item for social security. Núñez says that until 2013, when she began to contribute through the social monotax, they were located in the sector Leather and Footwear.
The comment surprised the legislators, who consulted him for the reason. “Surely, because the dick has leather,” the leader ironized. Later they came under category 57, sole proprietorships, but without being defined as an activity. Therefore, before the law, they lack support for a series of diseases associated with their profession.
five controls
Sex work appears to be controlled by five different entities. The first control is that of the State Health Services Administration (ASSE), through 61 polyclinics throughout the country. The last survey, corresponding to 2018, It indicated that 722 new notebooks were delivered there per month.
The second channel of control is the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Registry of Sex Work. As of May of that year, there were 13,300 sex workers, of which 3,000 were from Montevideo. there was also 922 men and just over 2,000 trans workers. Of the total registered, 4,800, 36%, were of foreign origin.
The list of people who engage in this activity is also in the possession of the departmental administrations, through the authorizations granted by the respective Hygiene directorates. Finally, the fifth control comes from the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation. Núñez explained the reason: “Because in each trafficking procedure they carry out, they take us all”.
