News Archive: mars 2014

The NSWP has responded to Amnesty International’s (AI) draft policy on sex work. AI is currently undertaking a global consultation on sex work with its members. The draft policy proposes the decriminalisation of consensual adult sex work.

Representatives from the Best Policy Practices Project (BPPP) presented a briefing drafted by NSWP to staff from the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders in Geneva this morning.

Recently, Monica Jones, a human rights defender with SWOP, was profiled and wrongfully arrested by Phoenix police because she is a transgender woman of colour.

In response to the open letter to AWID published by the National Organisation for Women’s Shelters and Young Women’s Shelters, the Swedish Association of Women’s Shelters and Young Women’s Empowerment Canters and the Swedish Women’s Lobby, AWID restates their support for sex worker rights organisations and their allies in calling

A Coalition of more than 50 civil society organisations (Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law) advocating for non-discrimination in Uganda filed a petition at the Constitutional Court in Uganda on 11 March 2014.

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation Bill proposed by Lord Morrow currently being considered in Northern Ireland could, if passed into law, usefully place support for victims of human trafficking on a statutory basis and amalgamate some existing legislation into one single Act. The Bill includes a clause that recommends the criminalisation of the purchase of sex to reduce demand for trafficking.

NSWP joins The Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) and the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) in expressing concern that exorbitant prices for life-saving hepatitis C treatment will continue to result in unnecessary deaths, including among key populations and people living with HIV.

La Strada International statement for International Women’s Day 2014, “Equality for women is progress for all”

On 8 March 2014, International Women’s Day, La Strada international, the European network against trafficking in human beings, calls for full empowerment and integration of women in all levels of economic, social and cultural activities.

The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) have released a statement strongly condemning the recent EU Parliament vote on the flawed report prepared by MEP Mary Honeyball.

The New Zealand Human Rights Review Tribunal made a landmark ruling in January 2014 on the violation of a woman’s human rights in a Wellington brothel known as The Kensington Inn. The woman filed a complaint against both the manager of the brothel and the brothel’s owner, M &T Enterprises, after the manager allegedly harassed her.

The Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee (DMSC), a sex workers' collective has set up a Right to Information (RTI) centre on Monday at a red-light area in Kolkata marking International Sex Workers Day. The RTI centre will be providing information to sex workers. The sex workers' collective also held a rally in the city. More than 1,500 sex workers participated in the rally seeking recognition by the government and demanding they be brought under a government pension scheme.