Decriminalizing Sex Work in Thailand

The Bangkok Post’s September 2020 article “Sex workers petition to decriminalise prostitution” revealed that sex workers in Thailand are banding together to combat the country’s punitive laws regarding sex work. The Empower Foundation launched a petition, aiming for 10,000 signatures, to prompt the Thai government to change the laws regarding sex work. Around the world, sex workers have been stepping into the public sphere more frequently to demand labor rights like any other laborer. Prostitution as a career is trying to shed its taboo and have nations and its people acknowledge its existence and role in the economy without relegating it to a secret, underground operation. Keeping sex work a secret leaves sex workers without the protections that every other laborer is afforded. The taboo of selling sexual favors, though it is said to be the “world’s oldest profession”, persists around the world and has strong advocates. Thailand is no exception.

Laws in Thailand regarding prostitution are extremely punitive. Those arrested for prostitution can be fined 40,000 baht ($1,280) and jailed for up to two years. Those arrested for purchasing favors from underage workers can be jailed for up to six years. According to the article, “more than 24,000 people were arrested, prosecuted and fined for sex work-related offences last year”. However, these laws say nothing about those who purchase favors from of-age workers. Therefore, the punishment seems to rest heavily on the shoulders of the sex workers themselves. This is not lost on the sex workers who are demanding their rights. They recognize their importance in the grand scheme of Thai economics and demand to be protected.

I found this issue important and interesting not only because of the expression of bodily autonomy and its applications to sex work, but also because of the marked presence of sex work in Thailand. According to the article, some estimates put the number of sex workers operating in Thailand at up to a quarter of a million. Surang Janyam, director of the Service Workers in Group, a support system for Thai sex workers, asserts that sex workers provide a large portion of income for Thailand and, therefore, require and deserve the protections of any other laborer who benefits Thailand. Advocacy groups admonish the existing prostitution laws as harmful, especially to the fabric of Thai society. Mai Junta from the Empower Foundation argues that 80% of the sex workers who fall victim to these punitive laws are mothers and primary providers for their families. Their importance in society should be enough to reevaluate the laws, regardless of societal feelings toward prostitution. Driving the sex work industry into the darkness only hurts the sex workers, as it remains an industry that draws many clients, despite the political and religious bases of the country. It is impossible and unwise to ignore it. Ignorance and punitive laws, so far, have only damaged lives of sex workers and their families.

The Thai government says that they have taken the claims of these organizations and sex workers into consideration. The petition started by the Empower Foundation has garnered 1,000 signatures—only a tenth of their goal. These demands really reach into the intersections of the assertion of female bodily autonomy and economic independence. They also consider the role of the woman in Thai society, especially as a laborer, a family provider, and a sexual being. Advocates seem to believe that prostitution’s economic dimension should offer it legitimacy. In their view, sex workers should be offered protections that allow them to provide for their families materially since their work provides income for Thailand. However, the article does not touch on Thailand’s moral economy and the thoughts of the government regarding the “morality” of sex work. Nothing is mentioned of human rights outside of the context of labor. The conflict seemed to revolve around the arrests and fines that sex workers are subject to and not the sexual abuse that they might face in an unregulated, underground industry. Especially since a lot of Western discourse around sex work has been geared toward bringing sex work out of the darkness so that sex workers can defend themselves against abusers without bringing harm to themselves, I’m surprised to see that this is not a bigger factor here. I am quite interested in seeing how this will develop within the contexts of women’s rights, economic rights, and the ongoing pandemic, which makes sex work especially unsafe.