WASHINGTON, February 10, 2011 (C-FAM) – A program funded by the United States government is working to normalize the commercial sexual exploitation of young people, under the guise of providing health services to “young people who sell sex,” charge critics.
The program, the Interagency Youth Working Group, is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development through the Knowledge For Health Project, and focuses on developing “interventions to reduce health risks” faced by young people involved in “commercial sex work.”
Describing various threats to the well-being of young prostitutes, the program lists discrimination, and urges changes in societal norms and public policy rather than the behavior of the “sex workers.”
Critics say such strategies don’t get at the underlying problem, which is the commercial sexual exploitation of young people. They say that the focus on providing health services to “youth sex workers” merely reduces the harm they face in the dangerous world of prostitution.
Laura Lederer is one such critic of the harm-reduction approach, and is no stranger to the commercial sexual exploitation issue. Starting in the nongovernmental sector, Lederer, was instrumental in drafting and passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which mandated the creation of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
As Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Global Affairs in the Department of State, Lederer traveled to over 50 countries to see the problem first-hand, visiting red-light districts, shelters, and service providers for human trafficking victims. Currently, she is president of Global Centurion, an organization dedicated to combating the demand side of the commercial sexual exploitation problem.
She says that the harm-reduction and normalization approach does not properly address the multi-level problem of commercial sexual exploitation. Dr. Jeff Barrows, a medical expert on the issue, says that these approaches are like “putting a bandage on a child in a burning building and walking away.” Lederer says, “We must find a way to get children out of the burning building.”
Some say that some poverty-stricken young people are engaging in what some call “survival sex.” But Lederer responds that they, too, are victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Lederer sees the push for normalization of “youth sex work” as part of the broader debate about whether prostitution should be considered work. She says that a crucial part of the debate is the question of whether all things are for sale. She says that the fact that developed countries like the United States donate rather than sell human organs and blood is indicative of the fact that we “categorize things so that we can protect our humanity,” and that commoditizing the human body through “sex work” is a step away from respecting the dignity of every human person.
This article reprinted with permission from www.c-fam.org