Title: Online Launch of documentary ‘Kolonko’ showing harrasment and violence faced by sex workers
Year: 2018
On December 17th 2018, to coincide with International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, AdvocAid will be launching the documentary ‘Kolonko’ online.
The documentary features interviews with 18 sex workers, who discuss the sexual, physical, and verbal abuse they endure on a daily basis at the hands of their clients and the police. These women make a plea to the government, the police, and the public: to accept them as citizens who have rights over their bodies and to be free from violence. ‘Kolonko’ is a Krio-language term for a sex worker and its derogatory nature reflects the social and economic marginalisation sex workers face.
AdvocAid launched the documentary in Sierra Leone in 2017 with a press conference and a film screening. Now, AdvocAid is launching ‘Kolonko’ online so that the documentary can be viewed by a wider audience. Please click here to watch Kolonko today.
The women and girls – interviewed between 2015 and 2016 – depend on sex work for their livelihoods. One of the interviewees told AdvocAid: “I had no-one to take care of me. I had no source of money; that’s why I became a sex worker.” However, sex work often puts women and girls at great risk. One woman working in Lumley recalls being held at knife point by a client. She told AdvocAid: “They [clients] have sex with us and then beat us. When we argue, they take out a knife and say if you talk they will stab you.” Sadly, assaults of this kind were common in the experiences shared by the sex workers. Of the 18 women interviewed in the making of ‘Kolonko’, all reported suffering physical violence, sexual abuse, or theft from clients.
Despite suffering sexual and other forms of violence, sex workers are often unprotected by the law. Many do not report the crimes committed against them for fear of being arrested themselves. The women we interviewed told us that they are regularly arrested for ill-defined crimes such as ‘loitering’ or ‘frequenting’. The police routinely use these old-fashioned laws to arrest sex workers simply for being outside at night. Arresting sex workers for these minor offences deters them from reporting serious crimes to the police, such as violence, rape, and theft.
“The documentary shows how offences such as loitering and frequenting are often used to target and abuse vulnerable people, such as sex workers. These old-fashioned laws should be reviewed and decriminalised. Being outside at night should not be a crime.”
Rebecca Wood, Executive Director of AdvocAid.
The women we interviewed also said the police abuse their power to extort money, and even sex, from women. One woman told us:
“if you don’t have sex with them [the police], they will put you in a cell.” Another sex worker, interviewed in Freetown, informed us that “the police treat us like slaves. When they catch us, they beat us, drag us.”
In a recent meeting AdvocAid held with sex workers in Freetown, many reported that police abuse towards sex workers had reduced in the months following the local launch of the documentary in 2017, but that the previous levels of abuse had subsequently returned. AdvocAid has shared this feedback with senior police staff. AdvocAid encourages Inspector-General, Dr. Richard Moigbe, to ensure that officers are held accountable for any abuse of sex workers.
Instead of treating sex workers as criminals, the police should recognise that many are victims. Any female under the age of 18 involved in sex work is the victim of a crime and should receive protection and assistance, as required by law. Building a relationship of trust with sex workers would enable the police to gather the evidence needed to purse human traffickers and pimps responsible for forcing women into sex work.
Criminalising sex work has never stopped it from happening. If the country wants to end sex work, there are alternatives to criminalisation. The focus should be on providing women and girls with alternative livelihoods, including through support from government for greater employment opportunities, and educating the people who purchase sex.
To combat the discrimination faced by sex workers in Sierra Leone, AdvocAid and its partner organisations call on:
- Parliament to decriminalise, or declassify, loitering and frequenting;
- The Police to investigate and prosecute crimes committed against sex workers in Sierra Leone;
- Oversight bodies to engage sex workers so they feel confident to report police abuse. Oversight bodies include the Independent Police Complaints Board (IPCB), the SLP’s Complaint Discipline Internal Investigations Department (CDIID), the Human Rights Commission, and the Office of the Ombudsman;
- The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs to protect children who are engaged in sex work, or who are unsafely exposed to the dangers of sex work; and
- The Government to increase opportunities for employment and education, so that women who engage in the industry of sex work are empowered and have viable alternatives to sustain a livelihood.
-ENDS-
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Launch: AdvocAid will be launching the ‘Kolonko’ documentary on its website and Facebook page on Monday December 17th 2018. It will also be screened on TV.
Interview: AdvocAid’s Programme Manager Julie M. Sesay and some of the sex workers featured in the documentary are available for interview. If interested, please contact: Rebecca Wood, Executive Director, +232 (0) 7733 1897 or executive.director@advocaidsl.org
Support: AdvocAid is thankful for UN Women’s support for the online launch of the documentary. AdvocAid is thrilled to have collaborated with Amnesty International, AWOD, the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, the International Rescue Committee, MOVE-SL, and independent filmmaker, Hazel Chandler, in the making of the documentary.
Background: AdvocAid works with girls and women caught up in Sierra Leone’s often unjust legal system. We are the only organisation in West Africa providing holistic access to justice via free legal representation, education empowerment, detainee support and a moving forward programme, ensuring detainees leave as stronger women with brighter prospects.
Poverty and imprisonment frequently go hand-in-hand, both as the reason for women’s offences and because women can rarely afford legal services, fines or bail. Alongside this, poor education means too many women don’t know or understand their legal rights, resulting in admission to crimes they did not commit and no knowledge of their rights when arrested.
AdvocAid was founded in 2006 and celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2016. Today, we work in several towns across Sierra Leone to ensure these women and their children receive fair legal representation, are educated on their legal rights and offered rehabilitation support upon release. As well as providing these short-term interventions, we deliver advocacy and law reform projects focused on wider issues impacting women in the justice system, ensuring we are changing women’s future prospects in the long term.