The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

Nov. 1, 2024, 9:38 a.m.
Countries: South Africa
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Despite the bill [decriminalizing prostitution] being presented as a way to advance the rights of the women involved, the proposed law is based on a serious lack of knowledge and understanding of the realities of prostitution. It is no wonder: no sex trade survivor-led organisations calling for the abolition of the sex trade were consulted during its drafting" (para 4). "Feminist activists are revolting against decriminalisation. More than 200 human rights organisations have signed an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, explaining normalising prostitution would be a disaster for South Africa as it will mark a return to old-style regulatory policies from the colonial era" (para 9). "'It is impossible...more
Sept. 22, 2023, 8:51 a.m.
Countries: Angola
Variables: IRP-LAW-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"All forms of prostitution, including child prostitution, are illegal. Police did not actively enforce laws against prostitution, and local NGOs expressed concern regarding the commercial sexual exploitation of children, which remained a problem" (20).
July 25, 2023, 10:44 a.m.
Countries: Cambodia
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"[W]omen in prostitution are criminalized for the act of soliciting in public, whereas those who exploit women in prostitution are rarely prosecuted" (9).
Feb. 5, 2023, 8 p.m.
Countries: New Zealand
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The cultural attitude that prostitution should be empowering to the women means that women are blamed for being disempowered as if they’re some kind of failure at their job or they are seen as mentally ill if they acknowledge that it’s not empowering." (para 34).
Feb. 2, 2023, 1:11 p.m.
Countries: Austria
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The Committee notes with concern that:... (f) the structural violence and exclusion faced by foreign women in prostitution, in particular those in an irregular situation, and the lack of measures taken by the State party to provide exit programmes and alternative income -generating opportunities to women who wish to leave prostitution" (6-7).
Jan. 18, 2023, 11:12 p.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1, AFE-PRACTICE-1

"[A]pproximately 850,000 girls had so far dropped out of school, placing them at risk of child marriage and sexual economic exploitation" (para 9).
Jan. 12, 2023, 9:51 p.m.
Countries: Nepal
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Since Thapa had come back from a brothel, she was hounded out by the community in her native village in Sindhupalchowk, about 75 km away from Kathmandu."(para 4) (NF - CODER COMMENT - Even when she was able to escape the brothel, her community would not accept her return).
Jan. 6, 2022, 12:09 p.m.
Countries: Somalia
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Societal attitudes towards prostitution are seen very negatively although it takes place" (1).
March 31, 2021, 9:27 p.m.
Countries: Turkmenistan
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"School administrators in Turkmenistan’s Mary Province have ordered female students age 14 and above to undergo mandatory gynecological tests, a move explained as part of state measures to ensure good behavior among youth" (para 1). "Despite the students being minors, school directors told the parents that their children will see gynecologists regardless of whether or not their families consent to such [gynecological] tests" (para 3). "Parents said the tests were explained as being part of a policy designed to ensure good behavior among young people and to prevent teenage pregnancies" (para 6). "'Explaining the necessity for such tests, the officials told the parents that some young girls have gone astray...more
Dec. 17, 2020, 7:34 p.m.
Countries: Italy
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

“He made a frantic public appeal for clients to get tested, assuring them that their wives wouldn’t find out. But contact tracing proved difficult as the mayor, Ignazio Abbate, began receiving anonymous phone calls from men “asking for a friend” what the sex worker looked like” (para. 2). “Modica has so far not experienced a new outbreak, but as the sex worker recovered in a hospital in Perugia last month, news of her situation and occupation spread throughout the country, highlighting the ways in which the pandemic has affected some of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in Italy, and the dangers of keeping sex work in the shadows” (para....more
March 8, 2019, 6:09 a.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-2, DSFMF-PRACTICE-3

"According to a 2016 Human Rights Watch report, almost half of all women incarcerated in Afghanistan – and 95% of girls in juvenile detention – are there for “moral crimes” such as sex before marriage" (para. 13).
Feb. 1, 2019, 4:30 p.m.
Countries: Paraguay
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Sexual exploitation of children, principally in prostitution, was a serious problem. According to the SNNA, many children were exploited in prostitution or forced into domestic service" (page 24). "Panambi filed a criminal complaint against police officers for harassing and demanding bribes from transgender individuals working as prostitutes" (page 28).
Dec. 21, 2018, 4:39 p.m.
Countries: Tunisia
Variables: CLCW-LAW-2, IRP-PRACTICE-1, IRP-LAW-1, IIP-PRACTICE-1, IIP-LAW-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The observatory claimed that women were prevented from traveling if suspected of prostitution, often based on appearance alone" (page 17).
Dec. 14, 2018, 9:45 p.m.
Countries: Malawi
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"I see girls being abused, being sent to be prostitutes, taken out of school as parents have no money, or orphaned girls who have to provide for siblings, she says. She teaches girls to see their bodies as more than just objects for other people's pleasure. "They forgot that their body was so precious," Waya says" (para 28-29).
Nov. 7, 2018, 2:15 p.m.
Countries: Tajikistan
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Virginity tests for women before marriages are common in Tajikistan, where casual sex is deemed socially unacceptable" (para. 10).
Oct. 4, 2018, 9:54 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Bachara is a tribal matriarchal community in the western part of Madhya Pradesh... Here, girls are forced into prostitution by their own fathers and brothers. The responsibility of making both ends meet is in the hands of the eldest daughter of the family. Most of such families have a dedicated room in their houses to continue this dreaded profession" (para 11-12). "Known as 'village of sex workers,' Wadia village in in Tharad taluka in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat, close to Rajasthan border, is famous for flesh trade on an enormous scale, since over last 80 years. Here, men search for customers for the women of their families and also...more
Aug. 28, 2018, 10:03 a.m.
Countries: Mali
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-4

"Women face stigmatization by family and community members when reporting certain crimes, in particular conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices, including forced and early marriage, sexual slavery, rape and torture" (page 4).
Jan. 17, 2018, 4:15 p.m.
Countries: Sweden
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Feminists, including women with experience of prostitution, analyzed women’s position in society and how men, through the exercise of power through violence against women ensured that the subordinate position of women was maintained, including by men using some women and children, mostly girls, for prostitution purposes . . . . Prostitution is a gender-specific crime; the majority of victims are women and girls, although a number of young men and boys also fall victim" (page 1). "If men did not consider that they had the right to buy and sexually exploit women and children, prostitution and trafficking in human beings for sexual purposes would not occur . . . The...more
May 12, 2017, 12:37 p.m.
Countries: South Korea
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Today, many of the women who once worked in the system still live in the camptowns, so strong is the stigma attached to them. One of the sex workers, who would identify herself to a reporter only as ‘Jeon,’ moved to a camptown in 1956 as an 18-year-old war orphan. Within a few years, she became pregnant, but she gave up her son for adoption in the United States, where she hoped he would have a better life. In 2008, now a U.S. soldier, he returned to find her. Jeon was surviving on public assistance and selling things from the trash. She refused his help and said he should forget...more
March 9, 2017, 1:16 p.m.
Countries: Haiti
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The women who participated in the study reported that they had not engaged in such exchanges before the earthquake, and they did not identify themselves as “occasional commercial sex workers.”41 Instead, survival sex appears to be a new coping mechanism that is driven by the breakdown of family and community structures, the loss of associated protection and safety nets, and poor economic opportunity" (10-11).
Feb. 1, 2017, 5:29 p.m.
Countries: Malawi
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"In some remote southern regions of Malawi, it's traditional for girls to be made to have sex with a paid sex worker known as a 'hyena' once they reach puberty. The act is not seen by village elders as rape, but as a form of ritual 'cleansing'" (para 1). "Aniva is by all accounts the pre-eminent 'hyena' in this village. It's a traditional title given to a man hired by communities in several remote parts of southern Malawi to provide what's called sexual 'cleansing'" (para 3). "He tells me he's one of 10 hyenas in this community, and that every village in Nsanje district has them. They are paid from...more
Aug. 23, 2016, 8:48 a.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Pursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat...‘Sex offender’ means: 1. A person who is or has been convicted at any time . . . of a ‘sexual offense’. . . [and] ‘[s]exual offense’ means an offense that is . . . [a]n act that consists of . . . [s]olicitation of a minor for prostitution in violation of section 712-1209.1..."(59)
Aug. 6, 2016, 7:08 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

“'The great grandmother was a prostitute, the grandmother is a prostitute, the mother is a prostitute, but they have better surroundings because it’s a Bahamian family. They’re very sort of regal. She (little girl) eats well, she’s dressed well. She’s not obviously poor, but she’s heading for prostitution.' At minute 25:17, the photographer and director of the film discusses one of her student's futures as a girl born into a family of prostitutes in Calcutta, India," (MPH- Coder Comment). "'One of the girls was already married off at age 11, another one was forced into prostitution at age 14. These were my students. They have absolutely no opportunity without education....more
April 4, 2016, 7:21 a.m.
Countries: Israel
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The Authority conducted a survey designed to examine the public’s positions regarding trafficking in women and prostitution. According to the survey, 50% of the public is of the opinion that legislation criminalizing the purchase of sexual services is required. 66% of the population believes that the panderer is the sole offender in the prostitution cycle. 68% of the public believes that prostitution derives from the hardships of life, whereas 18% believes that it derives from a personal choice. 41% of the population perceives prostitution as a profession, while only 57% is aware of the fact that most women in prostitution enter the cycle of prostitution as children" (52).more
March 16, 2016, 12:48 p.m.
Countries: Yemen
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"A woman has been stoned to death in south-east Yemen after being accused of adultery and prostitution by an Al-Qaeda Sharia court" (para 1)
March 3, 2016, 11:33 p.m.
Countries: Japan
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The Committee notes that some steps were taken by the State party to address the situation of “comfort women” but regrets the State party’s failure to find a lasting solution for the situation of “comfort women” victimized during the Second World War and expresses concern at the deletion of references to this issue in school textbooks" (8) This shows the societal attitudes towards historical prostitution (KAM-CODER COMMENT)
Jan. 23, 2016, 2:11 p.m.
Countries: Canada
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

The RCMP indicated in its May 2014 National Operational Overview Report that, “while solve rates remain similar between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal female homicides, certain homicides appear to be solved less frequently than homicides overall. For example, homicides involving women who were reported to be employed as prostitutes were solved at a significantly lower rate than homicides overall: for Aboriginal victims in the sex trade, the solve rate was 60 percent” (page 15)," (16). "They indicated that police bias, reflected in the use of demeaning or derogatory language towards Aboriginal women and in stereotypical portrayals of Aboriginal women as prostitutes, transient or runaways and having high-risk life styles, is still rampant,"...more
Jan. 3, 2016, 7:09 p.m.
Countries: Vietnam
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"Men with HIV appear to be more socially accepted than women: the former are regarded as victims of 'social evils', the latter perpetrators. One study found that respondents rate sex work by women as a greater 'evil' than drug use by men," (17). "Ironically, trafficked boys face less discrimination from the community than girls as trafficking is still widely perceived as being for sex for which boys are mistakenly not seen as vulnerable to in Vietnam," (20).
Dec. 31, 2015, 8:34 p.m.
Countries: South Korea
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The case follows the decision in February to decriminalize adultery, a landmark ruling that analysts said reflected changing social attitudes toward sex. 'I want what I do to be recognized as a job, a legitimate way of making a living,' Ms. Kim said recently. 'This is better than stealing for a living, isn’t it?' South Korea has always outlawed prostitution, stipulating fines or a prison sentence of up to a year for prostitutes and their customers and harsher penalties for pimps and brothel owners. Still, it tended to look the other way as red-light districts prospered. That changed after 14 young prostitutes, trapped in their rooms, died during a fire...more
Nov. 14, 2015, 5:06 p.m.
Countries: Greece
Variables: DSFMF-PRACTICE-1

"The Committee is also concerned about the stigmatization of prostitutes suffering from HIV/AIDS by public blaming campaigns pointing out individuals" (6)