The (mis)use of evidence in contested rights: commentary on the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls’ report on “prostitution and violence”

Abstract

Readers of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matter are no strangers to interrogating evidence in all its forms, assessing which claims it can support, and about challenges and uncertainties in international norms in the fields of sexual and reproductive rights and health. Questions of evidence, positionality and the role of testimony are particularly live in the context of sex work and human rights. As an exploration about good and bad practices in research and evidence, in this Commentary we highlight the errors, mistakes and wrongly shaped conclusions arising in the recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls about prostitution law, sex worker health and rights, and the status of international human rights law on sex work and trafficking. We do this not only to reinforce more accurate information about the status of human rights law, public health evidence and the needs of people of all genders in the sex sector, but also as an opportunity to remind us of the principles around evidence, transparency, and self-determination. We are conscious of the current vulnerability of global rights and health systems. Our Commentary seeks to contextualise our criticisms to this current moment of rights and health systems' fragility and multi-pronged attacks on the emancipatory potential of rights for persons in the sex sector as workers especially as they intersect with racist stereotypes. Practices of deploying evidence matter for rights advocacy: its legitimacy as well as its efficacy depend on good practices.

Keywords

• (mis)use of evidence
• sex work, prostitution law and trafficking
• international human rights, contested rights
• good practices for health rights advocates