UCC Student Council Passes Motion in Support of Sex Worker Rights
Via The Times, 2016
By Paula Dennan, Deputy News Editor
University College Cork Students’ Union (UCCSU) supports sex workers’ rights and the abolition of Ireland’s Nordic model approach to sex work. Under the Nordic model, people who purchase sex are criminalised, while individual sex workers are not. This is the approach taken by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. Supporters of the Nordic model, including the National Women’s Council, state this reduces demand for sex work and allows sex workers to seek protection from authorities without fear of being criminalised. Opponents of the Nordic model, including Amnesty International and Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI), state that fully decriminalising sex work is necessary for a human rights-based approach to sex work.
The motion passed by UCC’s Student Council on Tuesday, February 25th, mandates that the UCCSU Executive shall take an official anti-Nordic model stance on consensual sex work and lobby for abolishing the Nordic model with politicians and government officials when given the opportunity. The motion also mandates that the UCCSU Welfare and Communications and Engagement Officers engage with sex worker-run organisations, such as SWAI, and invite them to participate in campaigns, including SHAG Week and workers' rights campaigns. The motion brings UCCSU in line with the Union of Students in Ireland-Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (USI-AMLÉ) policy, which also takes an anti-Nordic model stance.
UCCSU Welfare Officer Lucrecia Luna Smee, who proposed the motion, said in email correspondence with the Express, ‘I believe it is absolutely imperative that UCCSU takes a stance on consensual sex work. It's not often spoken about and tends to be an extremely taboo subject, especially in Ireland, and seen as a 'dirty' or shameful profession, but the fact of the matter is so many people rely on sex work for their livelihood. It puts their food on the table, pays their rent, etc., and there are students among those people. It is our duty as a Union to support every single student, and not having an official stance on sex work prevented us from doing that, so I took it upon myself to amend that. It was essential that we were specifically anti-Nordic to ensure that in our future lobbying, we can truly acknowledge the harm this model does and ensure that any students who may be sex workers know that they have our support and we will do the work to improve the rights they have as workers in this country.”
Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 removed the sanctions for individual sex workers. It also increased the penalties for brothel-keeping and living on the earnings of prostitution. In cases where two or more sex workers work together from the same premises, they can be and have been prosecuted for brothel-keeping. Prosecutions such as that seen in 2019 when two migrant women, one of whom was pregnant, were jailed for nine months for brothel-keeping have been opposed by supporters of the Nordic model, including Ruhama, as not being what the legislation was designed for. SWAI stated that prosecutions like this show that the Nordic model does not decriminalise sex work.
Figures released by the Justice Minister in October 2024 indicate that 31 people were prosecuted for paying for sex in 2023. Eighteen of those people were ordered to pay into the court poor box. One individual had their charges related to brothel-keeping struck out by the court. At least three people had their charges related to paying for sexual activity struck out.
Speaking on what UCCSU’s mandate to lobby for abolishing the Nordic model would look like in practice, Smee said, ‘This motion having passed ensures that we have ground to stand on and Union policy to refer to in order to lobby for the abolishment of the Nordic model - it will come in many forms, letters, emails, agenda points in meetings, conversations at events, or potentially even protests and broader campaigns in the future but the most important thing is that no matter what form it takes we will now be able to properly stand up for sex workers rights in an official capacity.”
UCCSU’s motion relates to consensual sex work, which is in keeping with Amnesty International’s approach and that of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, who, while calling for a human rights-based approach to sex work last year, said that “Consensual adult sex work should not be conflated with violence against women or trafficking in human beings. Instead, sex workers should be protected from violence, human trafficking and exploitation.” Research published by the University of Limerick (UL) in 2022 calls for the full decriminalisation of sex work, which ‘should be accompanied by further clarifications of the fundamental differences between sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, and sex work.’
UL’s “I Must Be Some Person: Accounts from Street Sex Workers in Ireland” report examined street sex workers’ knowledge and experiences of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. The report found that the 2017 legislation made the lives of street sex workers harder. The report also found that sex workers who face rape, violence, or other crimes felt discouraged about reporting these incidents to Gardaí. There are multiple reasons for this, including ‘a history of trauma inflicted by aggressive Garda tactics from the past among sex workers; the belief and experience of some officers sexually exploiting street sex workers and abusing their power; previous cases of sex workers reporting incidents of physical assault or rape, which were dismissed or mishandled, not leading to receiving help or justice, and a wide-spread stigma around sex work in the Irish society, and hence, sex workers being afraid of publicity.’ Among its conclusions, the report calls for an end to the policy of sex workers by An Garda Síochána asserting that ‘One way to protect the well-being of sex workers in Ireland is to reduce unnecessary contacts between sex workers and Gardai, and minimise policing of these communities.”’
In January 2024, The Journal reported that sex workers were targeted in a text scam, which led to them receiving threats of violence. In October 2024, an anonymous group called Escort Watch Ireland sent dossiers to local media, politicians, and the Gardaí in counties including Cavan, Galway, Kerry, Leitrim, and with details of locations where sex workers were working. In response, Gardaí reiterated that the sale of sexual services is not a crime in Ireland and that they are the sole authority responsible for investigating offences under legislation such as brothel-keeping, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 mandated a review of the operation of the legislation after three years. The review was initially delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic but commenced in 2021. However, the report has not yet been published. The Journal confirmed in November 2024 that the review had been completed but wouldn’t be published until early 2025.
Discussing whether this motion addresses an issue that directly affects students, Smee stated, ‘Solidarity is important. A fight for one is a fight for all. Until we have equity, there is no equality, so it is our duty as people to stand up for issues that may not directly affect us but have a detrimental effect on others. However, there are students who are sex workers. There may not be figures on the matter, but simply because there are no statistics doesn't make something untrue. There are students up and down the country, students all over the world who are funding their studies through sex work or are having to engage in survival sex work just to get by, or perhaps have been victims of trafficking and that makes this a student issue.
For sure, it doesn't sound like an issue that would immediately be connected, and some might see ‘UCCSU Supports the Abolishment of the Nordic Model’ and think, ‘Well, what kind of business do they have there?’ but the way I see it we have a platform that it is imperative we use. The population of students directly affected by this issue may be small, but that does not make it any less important than other issues students are facing.”
She concluded, ‘Unions exist to support their entire membership, not just the majority, and this is another way to make sure we're doing that. Every single student, in every walk of life.’