I have visited prostitutes, and I don't apologize for it. It was 1971, in a place called Vung Tau.

[unionworks]

94. They probably felt no better

...about it than the young men who had to be there. After the war, the Vietnamese government opened "rehabilitation" camps for prostitutes...


" IBTimes Home > World
December 6, 2011 11:37 AM GMT
Vietnam: Prostitutes and Drug Addicts Abused in Rehab 'Work Camps'
By Anissa Haddadi

The United Nation's has called on the Vietnamese government to close down rehabilitation centres for drug users and sex workers, calling them "counter-productive."

Following criticisms from rights groups and claims of abuse and at the end of a ten-day visit in Vietnam, Anand Grover, a special rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Council said Monday that the centres violate rights by forcing treatment upon the patients.

"The detainees are denied the right to be free from non-consensual treatment as well as the right to informed consent in all medically related decisions," Gover said Monday in a statement.

His criticism followed a report by Human Rights Watch calling for Vietnam to shut down drug rehabilitation centres after abuse on inmates were reported.

Grover said the compulsory detention in the centres violates the detainees' situation as they "have no right to know about their case against them and challenge it at a hearing before the decision is made."

He called the centres "ineffective and counterproductive," and said he "wholeheartedly" supports their closure.

"It's essential to ensure that the considerable resources now invested in these centres are used instead to expand alternative treatments for injecting drug users, "he added.

Grover, who also co-founded and directs the HIV/AIDS unit for India's Lawyers Collective, a nongovernmental organization that promotes human rights in India warned that Vietnam's rehabilitation centres contribute to the stigmatization and discrimination of drug users and sex workers.

In September, Human Rights Watch issued a 126-page report urging Vietnam to shut down drug rehabilitation centres after inmates said they were subjected to abuse and forced labour."

Spare us from the tender mercies of "moral" fanatics...