Resources

A growing number of countries are considering or implementing sex work law reform focusing on ‘ending demand’, which criminalises the purchase of sexual services. This Policy Brief outlines the impact of ‘end demand’ legislation on the human rights of female sex workers, through research and testimony from NSWP members in countries where paying for sex is criminalised. This document explores how these laws not only fail to promote gender equality for women who sell sex, but actively prevent the realisation of their human rights.

This resource is a Community Guide to the Briefing Paper: Migrant Sex Workers. It provides an overview of the full Briefing Paper, and provides key recommendations for policy makers and health service providers. 

You can download this 5-page Community Guide above. This resource is available in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. 

This Briefing Paper explores the human rights barriers encountered by migrant sex workers as a result of their type of labour. It highlights their lack of access to services, as well as the increased precariousness and exclusion they face due to legal restrictions on cross-border movement and work in the sex industry. This paper also places migrant sex work in the context of international labour migration, using consultation responses from NSWP member organisations.

Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) has published a new report: Sex Workers Organising for Change: Self-representation, community mobilisation, and working conditions.

January 2018

This Smart Guide builds on NSWP’s existing toolkit on the 'Nordic model’, and looks at the harms caused to sex workers in countries where the Nordic Model has been introduced. It draws on the experiences of NSWP members, using submissions, in-depth interviews and case studies gathered through a consultation process.

This resource is a Community Guide to the Policy Brief on the Impact of Criminalisation on Sex Workers’ Vulnerability to HIV and Violence. This guide summarises how criminalisation increases sex workers’ vulnerability to violence and HIV, and makes a series of recommendations towards the full decriminalisation of sex work as an integral step to improving the lives of sex workers. The full Policy Brief is available here. 

This policy brief examines the impact of laws that criminalise sex work, informed by NSWP members’ submissions to an e-consultation. It examines the impact of criminalisation at three distinct phases: the surveillance and policing of sex workers prior to arrest; arrest and formal involvement of the criminal justice system; and release and return to the community. The paper covers various areas of law and law enforcement practices that disproportionately impact sex workers, including immigration laws, policing of public spaces, anti-LGBTQ laws, HIV criminalisation and religious codes.

This resource is a Community Guide to the NSWP Briefing Paper on the Meaningful Involvement of Sex Workers in the Development of Health Services Aimed At Them. This Community Guide provides a summary of NSWP’s full Briefing Paper, and provides key recommendations for governments, policy makers and health service programmers. 

This Briefing Paper discusses the extent to which sex workers are currently meaningfully involved in the development of healthcare services that are aimed at them. The paper looks at this on a global scale and in five regions: Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America and the Caribbean. Case studies were developed based on in-depth research conducted in ten countries: Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, and the U.S.A.

This Smart Guide is a quick reference for sex workers and people who use drugs to help understand the transition from Global Fund financing. ‘Transition’ is the process that happens when Global Fund financing for programmes (for HIV, TB and/or Malaria) comes to an end and the country takes full responsibility for funding and implementing programmes without any external Global Fund support.

This resource is a Community Guide to the Sex Work and Gender Equality policy brief. It highlights the linkages between sex workers’ rights and gender equality. It argues the women’s movement must meaningfully include sex workers as partners. It advocates for a feminism that recognises sex workers’ rights as human rights and highlights shared areas of work under an international human rights framework.

This policy brief highlights the linkages between sex workers’ rights and gender equality. It argues the women’s movement must meaningfully include sex workers as partners. It advocates for a feminism that recognises sex workers’ rights as human rights and highlights shared areas of work under an international human rights framework. Ultimately, there can be no gender equality if sex workers’ human rights are not fully recognised and protected. A community guide is also available.

This resource is a Community Guide to the Sex Work as Work policy brief. It summarises international frameworks that address work and the right to work, and particularly, sex work as work. It shows the benefits of viewing sex work as work through a labour approach. It also summarises the consultation with NSWP members about what decent work would look like in the context of sex work.

This global policy brief looks at sex work through a labour framework, and advocates for the recognition of sex work as work. Where sex work is criminalised, sex workers’ workplaces are often excluded from national labour laws. This creates an environment where sex workers have no option but to accept exploitative working conditions. As a result, the struggle for the recognition of sex work as work is closely tied to the struggle for decriminalisation. This policy brief outlines the benefits of looking at sex work through a labour approach. A community guide is also available. You can also view and download an infographic summarising this paper.

August 2017

The NSWP Global Fund Quarterly Update includes information about the most recent topics being discussed and addressed within the Global Fund. In 2017, there will be a total of 4 updates.

Contents include:

• Full Review of the CCM
• Blended Financing

This resource is useful for any sex worker or sex worker-led organisation interested in learning more about the Global Fund. These updates provide insight into issues being discussed at the Global Fund, and how these decisions will impact sex workers.

The NSWP Global Fund Quarterly Update includes information about the most recent topics being discussed and addressed within the Global Fund. This update is part of the Robert Carr Civil Society Netowrks Fund grant to provide Global Fund workshops in collaboration with NSWP members. In 2016, there will be a total of 4 updates.

This NSWP briefing note provides information about the United States’ reinstatement and expansion of the Global Gag Rule, a policy that bans awarding certain forms of US global health funds to Non-US organisations that perform, actively give information about, or promote the legalisation of abortion.

The Smart Sex Workers’ Guide to the Global Fund Strategy 2017-2022: “Investing to End Epidemics” is a resource for sex workers to better understand the purpose and the goals of the Global Fund. This Guide describes the key points of the Global Fund Strategy, looks at what they mean for sex workers, and explores the opportunities for sex work organisations to use the strategy to strengthen sex workers’ capacity to engage in Global Fund processes and influence sex worker programmes funded through the Global Fund.

This case study is a follow-up to The Global Fund Workshops case study published in 2015. The Global Fund workshops were a series of five-day workshops which took place in 2015. In 2016, the Regional Community Experts, supported by National Community Experts, provided a series of workshops in 18 countries and helped implement country-level follow up activities through virtual technical support. NSWP’s Senior Programme Officer supported the Regional Community Experts. This case study describes the goals, strategies and impact of the national-level workshops and country-level follow-up activities.