September 1, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
An international aid charity is suing the U.S. government over an anti-prostitution policy that has prompted both protest and support from nonprofit groups.
DKT International, in Washington, has sued the U.S. Agency for International Development and Andrew Natsios, its chief administrator, for prohibiting agency grants to the charity because DKT refused to sign a pledge opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. Since September 2004, the Bush administration has required all recipients of funds from the agency to sign such an agreement.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Washington, involves DKT’s work in Asia. In July, Family Health International, a nonprofit group that oversees projects for the U.S. government, denied DKT a grant that would have been paid with money from the Agency for International Development after the charity refused to certify “that it has a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking,” according to court documents.
The $60,000 grant would have been used by DKT to market and distribute condom lubricants in Vietnam. Such lubricants help to prevent condoms from breaking, thereby helping to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS.
‘Into the Brothels’
The administration’s policy violates DKT’s constitutional right to free speech by requiring it to endorse a policy it does not agree with, said Julie M. Carpenter, the lawyer representing the nonprofit group. “The government doesn’t have the authority or the power to force people to speak,” she said.
Ms. Carpenter said DKT, which receives about 16 percent of its $50-million operating budget from the agency, is reluctant to sign the agreement because it would hurt their disease-prevention efforts among prostitutes. If the charity agrees to the pledge, it would be encouraging the “stigmatization of sex workers,” she said. To do this work, she said, “you have to be able to get into the brothels.”
Previously the U.S. government has said signing the pledge does not prevent charities from providing services to any people at risk of contracting AIDS and other diseases.
The U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Justice declined to comment on the case. However, a Justice Department spokesman said the government would file a response to the lawsuit soon. The Bush administration’s policy has divided nonprofit organizations. In May, a group of more than 200 charities, including the Center for Health and Gender Equity and the Global AIDS Alliance, signed a letter to the president protesting the anti-prostitution pledge.
In response, the Christian Medical Association, the Salvation Army, and other nonprofit groups, wrote Mr. Bush a letter supporting the policy.
