Two weeks ago in Entebbe, Uganda, the government decided to dismember a workshop for prostitutes from the East African region due to prostitution being illegal in the country. Despite the law, prostitutes work freely in the capital, Kampala.”We don’t take any delight at all in the idea that prostitutes are coming together to devise ways of spreading their vice,” said the Ugandan ethics minister Nsaba Buturo, to BBC News.

Leaders of the conference, which was put together by the Open Society Institute, the Open Society Initiative for East Africa and Ugandan-based women’s group Akina Mama wa Africa (AMwA), had hopes that it would teach the participants about their human rights.

“It’s time for dialogue and action on the violation of sex workers’ rights,” said Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe, executive director of AMwA in a press release. “Why are sex workers denied the rights that everyone else is enjoying? Too often people with the least power and awareness of human rights are most vulnerable to HIV and other abuses.”

Guilford students have already been exposed to the hardships sex workers can face, such as when the Sex Workers’ Art Show came to campus.

“Sex workers are dehumanized and cheated of their rights all over the world,” said junior Sara Eisenberg, one of the students who brought the art show to Guilford. “If they are not already aware of their legal and human rights, they need to learn in order to protect themselves.”

Within Uganda, there has been a lot of debate about the issue of prostitution and the enforcement of the law. State-run newspaper, New Vision, ran an editorial on March 24 that debated the idea.

“Decriminalization would probably protect prostitutes from violence, abuse and disease, and guarantee their safety,” said the New Vision. “Criminalization may exacerbate the problem as it creates ideal conditions for abuse of sex workers.”

Some Ugandans believe that Uganda’s laws have not set up the means to control prostitution. There is also a concern that outlawing prostitution will do more harm than good. They believe that if prostitution was outlawed, that it would mean an overflow of criminals, which would lead to more government spending on cracking down on the practice, and also the building more prisons. Because of the high amount of the prostitutes, they would be mostly focused on that, instead of other crimes.