Events

Organizer:  The Gender Research Centre and the Centre for Rights and Justice
at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

14:00 – 16:00, Monday, 13 May 2013

Venue: CUHK Graduate Law Centre, 2/F Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Road, Central, Hong Kong (map)

About the seminar: Against a background of rapid economic and social change, massive rural to urban migrations and a sharp increase in inequalities, millions of Chinese women have turned to sex work as a way to earn a living in recent decades.
Yet, very little has been written about sex workers in China from a rights perspective. Women who engage in sex work face frequent and serious abuses by state agents, clients, and employers, but are almost always unwilling to turn to the police or to the justice system for redress.
This seminar will bring experts and academics from the fields of gender studies, women’s rights, and law together with representatives from non-governmental organizations to discuss the findings of a new report by Human Rights Watch, “Swept Away: Abuses against Sex Workers in China,” which documents a number of issues faced by women who engage in sex work in mainland China, including police and client violence, lack of legal remedies, discriminatory practices, coercive HIV testing and infringement to privacy and health rights, as well as obstacles to the operations of sex workers organizations.
This seminar will place the situation in Mainland China in comparative perspective, examine the relationship between sex work and women’s rights, and discuss possible reforms to policy and legal frameworks governing sex work in the P.R.C.

Speakers :
Joy Chia, Honorary Visiting Scholar, Centre for Rights and Justice, Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Prof. Susanne Choi, Director, Gender Research Centre, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. Sophie Richardson, China Director, Human Rights Watch
Dr. Flora Sapio, Research Assistant Professor, Centre for Rights and Justice, Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Betty Shao, Program Officer, Zi Teng
Kendy Yim, Executive Director, Action for Reach Out

Venue
CUHK Graduate Law Centre, 2/F, Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Rd, Central, Hong Kong.