Arps F S E Freddie, Golichenko Mikhail
Legal researcher with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network based in Toronto, Canada.
Health Hum Rights. 2014 Dec 11;16(2):E24-34.
The existing legal framework in Russia makes sex work and related activities punishable offenses, leaving sex workers stigmatized, vulnerable to violence, and disproportionally affected by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In 2013, the Ministry of Justice, supported by the courts, refused registration and official recognition to the first all-Russia association of sex workers, referring to the fact that sex work is under administrative and criminal punitive bans and therefore the right of association for sex workers is unjustified. In light of international human rights standards, in particular the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, we examine in this paper whether the overall punitive legal ban on sex work in Russia is discriminatory. The government's positive obligations concerning discrimination against sex workers whose activities are consensual and between adults, and whose working conditions leave them among society's most vulnerable, should outweigh their punitive laws and policies around sex work. The scope of legal criminalization is narrow: it should apply only in exceptional cases where it is clearly justified.
俄罗斯现行的法律框架将性工作及相关活动定为应受惩罚的罪行，这使得性工作者受到污名化，易遭受暴力侵害，且在很大程度上受到艾滋病毒和其他性传播感染的影响。2013年，在法院的支持下，俄罗斯司法部拒绝了首个全俄性工作者协会的注册申请和官方认可，理由是性工作受到行政和刑事惩罚禁令的约束，因此性工作者的结社权是不合理的。根据国际人权标准，特别是欧洲人权法院的判例法，我们在本文中探讨俄罗斯对性工作全面实施惩罚性法律禁令是否具有歧视性。政府在对待那些活动是双方自愿且发生在成年人之间、工作条件使他们成为社会中最弱势群体之一的性工作者时，其在反歧视方面的积极义务应超过围绕性工作的惩罚性法律和政策。法律定罪的范围应很窄：仅应适用于有明确正当理由的特殊情况。
