Resources

Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work is a peer-reviewed publication for sex workers, activists, health workers, researchers, NGO staff and policy makers. It is available in English and Chinese. All issues of Research for Sex Work can be found here.

NSWP welcomes the launch today of the ‘Prevention and Treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections for sex workers in low- and middle-income countries: Recommendations for a public health approach’. The guidance was developed jointly with WHO,UNFPA, UNAIDS and NSWP who conducted the qualitative survey of sex worker values and preferences relating to the interventions being considered.

The report is designed for use by national public health officials and managers of HIV/AIDS and STI programmes, NGOs and health workers, but will also be of interest to international funding agencies, health policy-makers and advocates. It  combines good practice recommendations derived from ethics and human rights principles, with technical evidence-based recommendations supported by scientific evidence AND the lived experiences of sex workers across the globe.

NSWP particularly welcomes the recommendations that governments should work towards the decriminalisation of sex work and elimination of the unjust application of non-criminal laws and regulations against sex workers which exacerbate sex workers vulnerability to HIV and STIs. In addition we welcome the recommendation that HIV prevention and treatment programmes need to include interventions to enhance community empowerment among sex workers that is sex worker-led and we particularly welcome the recommendation set out in the document that redefines the ethical use of periodic presumptive treatment (PPT) for sex workers.  It emphasises that PPT should only be used as an emergency short term measure under the strictest of conditions and while comprehensive sexual health services are being developed and that PPT must only be offered if its uptake is voluntary, not imposed as part of a coercive or mandatory public health regime.

While NSWP welcomes and supports the recommendations contained in the recent World Bank Report, we very much regret that as a member of the Technical Advisory Group we have not able to endorse this report as it stands. We continue to advocate that further work and analysis is required before the real cost benefits of sex worker-led programming are fully realised.

This is the first issue of NSWP's new Quarterly newsletter ‘Sex Work Digest’. 

This first issue focuses primarily on coverage of the Sex Worker Freedom Festival held in Kolkata.

This resource is in English.  You can download this 9 page PDF above.

The Sex Worker Freedom Festival (SWFF) was an alternative International AIDS Conference 2012 event for sex workers and allies held in Kolkata in India from 21 to 26 July 2012.  SWFF was an official International AIDS Conference 2012 Hub. Supported by Open Society Foundation – Sexual Health and Rights Program, American Jewish World Service (AJWS), UNAIDS, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNFPA, HIVOS, AIDS Fonds and AIDS 2012 conference secretariat.  

Solidarity Is Not a Crime

Note: This report has been updated, following agreement with UNAIDS in January 2012 to revisions in the document.  

This resource was officially launched in December 2011 as a separate report from the Advisory Group at the UNAIDS Secretariat in Geneva, during the 29th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board and has now been integrated into the UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work as annexes and published by UNAIDS. 

The programme of the groundbreaking Sex Worker Freedom Festival, organised by the Global Network in response to the exclusion of sex workers from the 2012 International AIDS Conference in washing D.C.

The need to reduce ‘demand’ for trafficked persons is widely mentioned in the anti-trafficking sector but few have looked at ‘demand’ critically or substantively. Some ‘demand’-based approaches have been heavily critiqued, such as the idea that eliminating sex workers’ clients (or the ‘demand’ for commercial sex) through incarceration or stigmatisation will reduce trafficking.

St. James Infirmary provides compassionate and non-judgmental healthcare and social
services for current and former sex workers of all genders and sexual orientations while helping to prevent occupational illnesses and injuries through a comprehensive continuum of services.

You can download this 3 page .doc resource above. This resource is in English.

Useful information for attendees of the Sex Worker Freedom Festival: the alternative International AIDS Conference 2012 event, Kolkata, India.  21 to 26 July 2012.

PROS Network (Providers and Resources Offering Services to sex workers) participated in two studies in New York around the impact of policies that use of condoms as ‘evidence of prostitution’. This report written by the PROS Network and Leigh Tomppert of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center, which was funded by Open Society Foundation and the Elton John Foundation, compares the findings of the two studies.

The Law and Sexworker Health (LASH) team at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales were funded by the NSW Ministry of Health to better inform policy considerations, and the National Health and Medical Research Council to investigate if the various approaches across Australian jurisdictions were associated with different health and welfare outcomes for sex workers.

Academic study of discourse and campaigns in the run-up to the 2012 European Football Championship finals as the basis for advising decision-makers. (Executive Summary)

Academic study of discourse and campaigns in the run-up to the 2012 European Football Championship finals as the basis for advising decision-makers.

In relation to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, public statements were made which project an alarming increase in this human trafficking. These claims are inconsistent with the evidence in this research document, that trafficking and mega-events are not linked.