Sex Work and Human Rights in Africa

This Article serves as the first law review essay to engage the feminist debates regarding sex work and human rights in the African context. This Article surveys "antiprostitution" and "pro-sex-worker" feminist arguments and activities in the sub-Saharan Africa; explores the debate surrounding the legal frameworks of legalization, decriminalization, prohibition, and abolition of prostitution in a number of African countries including Senegal, where prostitution is legal and regulated, and South Africa where prostitution remains illegal despite civil society advocacy for decriminalization; and calls for the empowerment of African sex workers by arguing for a human rights-based transformation in African governments' legal and policy posture towards sex work. Part I of this Article explores both the feminist arguments against prostitution and in favor of sex workers' rights. Part II traces the development of the distinction between forced and unforced prostitution in international law and argues that the international human rights system creates a foundation for the realization of sex workers' rights in Africa.

Part III explores the debates regarding the criminalization of prostitution in a number of African countries and includes case studies from Senegal and South Africa.