South Korea's Sex Trade Law: Conflicting Movements & Contested Rhetoric

• In Event: 097 - Section on Human Rights Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Human Rights and Gendered Violence

Abstract

Debates over sex trade reform historically emphasized human rights, health and economic harms stemming from human trafficking, but increasingly highlight the same harms rising from stigmatization of sex workers. Womens’ rights social movements aim to reduce harm to women in the sex trade by advocating for legal reform and social services. Scholars analyze the mobilization of political will to reform through legislation, but little attention has been paid to the contested meaning of sexual work betwen social movements and the judges that interpret law and decide sentences. This essay draws on South Korean social movement and high court judge rhetoric to demonstrate these contested meanings and discuss their impact on sex workers in Korea. While sex workers organize to demand sexual autonomy, human and labor rights; anti-trafficking social movement leaders obscure this worker’s rights rhetoric and assert that all women in the sex trade are victims. Judges draw ons victim rhetoric in order to assert and contrast the ‘immorality’ of sex workers, fining and imprisoning women while ignoring the health and economic harms of stigmatization. This presents significant challenges to international law, and limits the impact of social movements on law and society. Compared with other countries, Korea localized international laws intended to protect victims of sex trafficking by instead cracking down on sex workers, stripping women of sexual agency, and emphasizing immorality when punishing them. The localization of global human rights policy and rhetoric warrants additional attention to highlight contested meanings, and the limited reach of international agendas.

Author

• Chelle Jones, University of Michigan