Anti-prostitution pledge
Encyclopedia
The U.S. federal government
requires non-governmental organization
s (NGOs) that receive federal anti-HIV/AIDS or anti-trafficking
funds to adopt an organization-wide policy opposing prostitution
and sex-trafficking. This requirement, known as the anti-prostitution pledge, has been in place since 2003. Initially it was only applied to foreign-based NGOs, but in 2005 the administration began to apply it to U.S.-based organizations as well, resulting in ongoing court challenges on First Amendment
grounds. The policy has also been criticized as counterproductive.
George W. Bush
announced the five-year $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
in January 2003; Congress
passed it in May 2003 under the name "United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis
, and Malaria
Act (Global AIDS Act)". The act identifies prostitution and sex trafficking as contributing to the spread of HIV and explicitly advances a new U.S. policy goal: the eradication of prostitution.
The act further states:
In December 2003 Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act which provided for funding of anti-trafficking activities, subject to the following restrictions.
The anti-prostitution pledge language in both acts was authored by Representative Chris Smith, Republican
from New Jersey
.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 amended the AIDS Authorization to exempt the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organization
, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
and any United Nations
agency from having to sign the anti-prostitution pledge.
While the language of the legislation does not distinguish between foreign and US-based organizations, the pledge was initially only enforced for the former, as the US Department of Justice had expressed First Amendment concerns. In September 2004 a letter by Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin reversed this opinion, and the U.S. Agency for International Development issued a directive in June 2005 that expanded the pledge requirement to all NGOs.
A document issued by the CDC
in May 2005 sought to extend the pledge requirement to the large group of organizations that receive funding through the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (to which the U.S. contributes). This was quickly overturned by US Director of Foreign Assistance Randall L. Tobias
.
, President George W. Bush wrote: "The United States opposes prostitution and any related activities, including pimping, pandering, and/or maintaining
brothels as contributing to the phenomenon
of trafficking in persons. These activities are inherently harmful and dehumanizing. The United States Government’s position is that these activities should not be regulated as a legitimate form of work for any human being."
In February 2005, a group of non-profit organizations including CARE, the International Rescue Committee
, Save the Children
and the International Center for Research on Women
protested the anti-prostitution pledge policy in a letter to US Director of Foreign Assistance Randall L. Tobias
. This was followed by a May 2005 protest letter to President Bush, signed by hundreds of organizations worldwide, stating that the pledge "makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to establish the trust necessary to provide services to these hard-to-reach groups" and it will "exacerbate stigma and discrimination against already marginalized groups."
This was countered in August 2005 by a letter to the President supporting the policy, signed by over 100 groups, including the Christian Medical Association
, Concerned Women for America
, Family Research Council
, Focus on the Family
, National Association of Evangelicals
, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Sex Industry Survivors, The Medical Institute, The Salvation Army
, World Hope International and World Relief
. Supporters of the pledge requirement argue that prostitution is inherently harmful and needs to be abolished, reject harm reduction
approaches, and hold that legalized prostitution increases demand for sex trafficking.
In May 2005, the Brazil
ian government turned down $40 million in anti-HIV/AIDS funding from the U.S. government because of the anti-prostitution pledge. Brazil's AIDS commissioner Pedro Chequer was quoted as saying "Sex workers are part of implementing our AIDS policy and deciding how to promote it. They are our partners. How could we ask prostitutes to take a position against themselves?"
The anti-prostitution pledge has been criticized as counterproductive, because projects that work with and support prostitutes are often seen as instrumental in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Brazilian anti-AIDS program, which employs prostitutes to hand out information and free condoms, is considered by the United Nations to be the most successful in the developing world. The Sonagachi Project
is a prostitutes' cooperative in Calcutta, India
, that supports sex workers rights and works to stop the spread of HIV; it has received strong positive evaluations from both UNAIDS and the World Bank
, and has been cited by UNAIDS as a "best-practice" model of working with prostitutes.
Ronald Weitzer
has described the anti-prostitution pledge as a symptom of what he calls the "moral crusade
" against sex trafficking, resulting in a broad attack against all forms of commercial sex acts.
The language of the policy juxtaposes the words "prostitution" and "sex trafficking"; it has been pointed out that it is important to cleanly distinguish between these two concepts
and that all relevant organizations already strongly oppose sex trafficking.
Randall L. Tobias
, the U.S. administration's foreign aid chief who was responsible for implementation of the anti-prostitution pledge, resigned in April 2007 over allegations that he had used an escort service. Some sex worker organizations and commentators called the situation "ironic" and Tobias "hypocritical".
In the first case (DKT v. USAID), the non-profit DKT International
prevailed in District Court
but lost on appeal, at the US Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit
. The February 2007 appeals court ruling was based on the assumption that the government would allow speech regarding prostitution as long as it is done through an affiliate that doesn't receive federal funding.
The second case (AOSI v. USAID) involves the plaintiffs Alliance for Open Society International
, its affiliate the Open Society Institute
, and Pathfinder International
. In May 2006, a District Court in New York issued a preliminary injunction
, preventing the government from requiring these organizations to sign the anti-prostitution pledge. The government appealed this injunction to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During the oral arguments in the case, the government stated that it would allow legally and physically separate affiliates to engage in the prohibited speech. The government issued guidelines to this effect in July 2007. In November 2007, the Appeals Court rebuffed the government and let the preliminary injunction stand, returning the case to the District Court. Global Health Council
and InterAction
joined the case, and the District Court extended the injunction to all US-based members of these organizations in August 2008. The Appeals Court, in a 2-1 decision in July 2011, affirmed the injunction and held that the anti-prostitution policy requirement "likely violates the First Amendment."
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
requires non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
s (NGOs) that receive federal anti-HIV/AIDS or anti-trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
funds to adopt an organization-wide policy opposing prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and sex-trafficking. This requirement, known as the anti-prostitution pledge, has been in place since 2003. Initially it was only applied to foreign-based NGOs, but in 2005 the administration began to apply it to U.S.-based organizations as well, resulting in ongoing court challenges on First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
grounds. The policy has also been criticized as counterproductive.
Legislation and implementation
U.S. PresidentPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
announced the five-year $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief
The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief was a commitment of $15 billion over five years from United States President George W. Bush to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic...
in January 2003; Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
passed it in May 2003 under the name "United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and Malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
Act (Global AIDS Act)". The act identifies prostitution and sex trafficking as contributing to the spread of HIV and explicitly advances a new U.S. policy goal: the eradication of prostitution.
The act further states:
- "No funds [...] may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking."
- "No funds [...] may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking."
- nothing in the anti-prostitution clause "shall be construed to preclude" services to prostitutes, including testing, care and prevention services, including condoms.
In December 2003 Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act which provided for funding of anti-trafficking activities, subject to the following restrictions.
- "No funds [...] may be used to promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution."
- "No funds [...] may be used to implement any program [...] through any organization that has not stated in either a grant application, a grant agreement, or both, that it does not promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution.
The anti-prostitution pledge language in both acts was authored by Representative Chris Smith, Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
from New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 amended the AIDS Authorization to exempt the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative is a global not-for-profit, public-private partnership working to accelerate the development of vaccines to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. IAVI researches and develops vaccine candidates, conducts policy analyses, serves as an advocate for the field and...
and any United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
agency from having to sign the anti-prostitution pledge.
While the language of the legislation does not distinguish between foreign and US-based organizations, the pledge was initially only enforced for the former, as the US Department of Justice had expressed First Amendment concerns. In September 2004 a letter by Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin reversed this opinion, and the U.S. Agency for International Development issued a directive in June 2005 that expanded the pledge requirement to all NGOs.
A document issued by the CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
in May 2005 sought to extend the pledge requirement to the large group of organizations that receive funding through the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (to which the U.S. contributes). This was quickly overturned by US Director of Foreign Assistance Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias is a former chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company who became the first United States Director of Foreign Assistance, and served concurrently as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development , with the rank of Ambassador...
.
Rationale and reactions
In a February 2002 National Security Presidential DirectivePresidential directive
Presidential Directives, better known as Presidential Decision Directives or PDD are a form of an executive order issued by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the National Security Council...
, President George W. Bush wrote: "The United States opposes prostitution and any related activities, including pimping, pandering, and/or maintaining
brothels as contributing to the phenomenon
of trafficking in persons. These activities are inherently harmful and dehumanizing. The United States Government’s position is that these activities should not be regulated as a legitimate form of work for any human being."
In February 2005, a group of non-profit organizations including CARE, the International Rescue Committee
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee is a leading nonsectarian, nongovernmental international relief and development organization based in the United States, with operations in over 40 countries...
, Save the Children
Save the Children
Save the Children is an internationally active non-governmental organization that enforces children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries...
and the International Center for Research on Women
International Center for Research on Women
-Focus areas:ICRW research identifies women's contributions to their communities and the barriers – like HIV, violence, and lack of education – that prevent them from being economically stable and able to fully participate in society...
protested the anti-prostitution pledge policy in a letter to US Director of Foreign Assistance Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias is a former chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company who became the first United States Director of Foreign Assistance, and served concurrently as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development , with the rank of Ambassador...
. This was followed by a May 2005 protest letter to President Bush, signed by hundreds of organizations worldwide, stating that the pledge "makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to establish the trust necessary to provide services to these hard-to-reach groups" and it will "exacerbate stigma and discrimination against already marginalized groups."
This was countered in August 2005 by a letter to the President supporting the policy, signed by over 100 groups, including the Christian Medical Association
Christian Medical and Dental Associations
The Christian Medical and Dental Associations is made up of the Christian Medical Association and the Christian Dental Association. As of 2011, CMDA had approximately 16,000 members. It is the United States affiliate of the International Christian Medical and Dental Association.The membership...
, Concerned Women for America
Concerned Women for America
Concerned Women for America is a conservative Christian public policy group active in the United States best known for its stance against abortion...
, Family Research Council
Family Research Council
The Family Research Council is a conservative or right-wing Christian group and lobbying organization formed in the United States in 1981 by James Dobson. It was fully incorporated in 1983...
, Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
, National Association of Evangelicals
National Association of Evangelicals
The National Association of Evangelicals is a fellowship of member denominations, churches, organizations, and individuals. Its goal is to honor God by connecting and representing evangelicals in the United States. Today it works in four main areas: Church & Faith Partners, Government Relations,...
, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Sex Industry Survivors, The Medical Institute, The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
, World Hope International and World Relief
World Relief
World Relief is an international relief and development agency. Founded in 1944 as the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, World Relief offers assistance to victims of poverty, disease, hunger, war, disasters and persecution. Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, the...
. Supporters of the pledge requirement argue that prostitution is inherently harmful and needs to be abolished, reject harm reduction
Harm reduction
Harm reduction refers to a range of public health policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with recreational drug use and other high risk activities...
approaches, and hold that legalized prostitution increases demand for sex trafficking.
In May 2005, the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian government turned down $40 million in anti-HIV/AIDS funding from the U.S. government because of the anti-prostitution pledge. Brazil's AIDS commissioner Pedro Chequer was quoted as saying "Sex workers are part of implementing our AIDS policy and deciding how to promote it. They are our partners. How could we ask prostitutes to take a position against themselves?"
The anti-prostitution pledge has been criticized as counterproductive, because projects that work with and support prostitutes are often seen as instrumental in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Brazilian anti-AIDS program, which employs prostitutes to hand out information and free condoms, is considered by the United Nations to be the most successful in the developing world. The Sonagachi Project
Sonagachi
Sonagachi is the largest red-light district in kolkata,, India and one of the largest in Asia. It is an area with several hundred multi-story brothels and some 10,000 sex workers...
is a prostitutes' cooperative in Calcutta, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, that supports sex workers rights and works to stop the spread of HIV; it has received strong positive evaluations from both UNAIDS and the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, and has been cited by UNAIDS as a "best-practice" model of working with prostitutes.
Ronald Weitzer
Ronald Weitzer
Ronald Weitzer is a sociologist specializing in criminology and a professor at George Washington University, known for his publications on police-minority relations and on the sex industry.-Prostitution and sex trafficking:...
has described the anti-prostitution pledge as a symptom of what he calls the "moral crusade
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
" against sex trafficking, resulting in a broad attack against all forms of commercial sex acts.
The language of the policy juxtaposes the words "prostitution" and "sex trafficking"; it has been pointed out that it is important to cleanly distinguish between these two concepts
and that all relevant organizations already strongly oppose sex trafficking.
Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias is a former chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company who became the first United States Director of Foreign Assistance, and served concurrently as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development , with the rank of Ambassador...
, the U.S. administration's foreign aid chief who was responsible for implementation of the anti-prostitution pledge, resigned in April 2007 over allegations that he had used an escort service. Some sex worker organizations and commentators called the situation "ironic" and Tobias "hypocritical".
Lawsuits
In response to the 2005 decision to apply the policy also to U.S. based organizations, two lawsuits were filed, alleging that the policy compels or prohibits speech in violation of the First Amendment, and also prohibits actions that are exclusively privately funded.In the first case (DKT v. USAID), the non-profit DKT International
DKT International
DKT International is a charitable non-profit organization that promotes family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention through social marketing. The Washington, D.C.-based DKT was founded in 1989 by Phil Harvey and operates in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Much of its revenue comes from its sales of...
prevailed in District Court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
but lost on appeal, at the US Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
. The February 2007 appeals court ruling was based on the assumption that the government would allow speech regarding prostitution as long as it is done through an affiliate that doesn't receive federal funding.
The second case (AOSI v. USAID) involves the plaintiffs Alliance for Open Society International
Alliance for Open Society International
Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. is a non-profit organization to promote open society by shaping government policy and supporting education, the media, public health, and human rights, especially in Central Asia. AOSI also advocates social, legal, and economic reform to support...
, its affiliate the Open Society Institute
Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...
, and Pathfinder International
Pathfinder International
Pathfinder International is based in Watertown, Massachusetts and is a global non-profit organization , that focuses on reproductive health, family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, women and girls empowerment, and more. Under the leadership of Daniel E...
. In May 2006, a District Court in New York issued a preliminary injunction
Preliminary injunction
A preliminary injunction, in equity, is an injunction entered by a court prior to a final determination of the merits of a legal case, in order to restrain a party from going forward with a course of conduct or compelling a party to continue with a course of conduct until the case has been decided...
, preventing the government from requiring these organizations to sign the anti-prostitution pledge. The government appealed this injunction to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During the oral arguments in the case, the government stated that it would allow legally and physically separate affiliates to engage in the prohibited speech. The government issued guidelines to this effect in July 2007. In November 2007, the Appeals Court rebuffed the government and let the preliminary injunction stand, returning the case to the District Court. Global Health Council
Global Health Council
The Global Health Council is a United States-based non-profit networking organizing linking "several hundred health non-governmental organizations around the world to share knowledge and resources, build partnerships and together become stronger advocates for health"...
and InterAction
Interaction
Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect...
joined the case, and the District Court extended the injunction to all US-based members of these organizations in August 2008. The Appeals Court, in a 2-1 decision in July 2011, affirmed the injunction and held that the anti-prostitution policy requirement "likely violates the First Amendment."
See also
- Mexico City PolicyMexico City PolicyThe Mexico City Policy, also known by critics as the Mexico City Gag Rule and the Global Gag Rule, was an intermittent United States government policy that required all non-governmental organizations that receive federal funding to refrain from performing or promoting abortion services, as a...
, forbidding U.S. funding of organizations performing abortionAbortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
services
External links
- Implications of U.S. Policy Restrictions for Programs Aimed at Commercial Sex Workers and Victims of Trafficking Worldwide, Center for Health and Gender Equity
- AOSI v. USAID resources, Brennan Center for JusticeBrennan Center for JusticeThe Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on issues involving democracy and justice...
- "Friends of the court" document in support of plaintiffs in AOSI v. USAID
- Taking the Pledge, video of sex worker and anti-HIV activists describing the effects of the funding restrictions. Network of Sex Work Projects