Resources

Amnesty International's 'Body Politics: Criminalization of Sexuality and Reproduction' series is the culmination of six years of research, analysis and engagement with key partners. See below for an overview of the resources, which you can download through the link above. 

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 is the 20th issue of NSWP's quarterly newsletter ‘Sex Work Digest’, covering the period from August 2017 - January 2018. 

This ‘Smart Sex Workers’ Guide’ provides an overview of the advocacy tools and interventions used by sex worker-led organisations globally to combat violence against sex workers. It builds on the guidance provided in ‘Addressing Violence Against Sex Workers’, chapter 2 of the Sex Worker Implementation Tool (SWIT). This resource may be useful with designing programmes, tools and other approaches to addressing violence.

PION, Norway, with support from NSWP, submitted this shadow report to the 68th CEDAW Session, which took place October-November 2017. The report is based on in-depth interviews, conducted over a two-month period, with sex workers and social service providers. It documents how local administrative laws and the criminalisation of clients and third parties increase stigma and discrimination, impede access to justice and health services, and result in arbitrary deportations and evictions.

The Kenya Sex Worker Alliance (KESWA) and Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme, with support from NSWP and CREA, submitted this shadow report to the 68th CEDAW Session, which took place October-November 2017. Titled “Aren’t We Also Women,” the report incorporates quotes from sex workers and is based on desk research and extensive interviews with KESWA member organisations.

Project X, Singapore, with support from NSWP, submitted this shadow report to the 68th CEDAW Session, which took place October-November 2017. The report focuses on the various human rights abuses and discrimination. In particular, it focuses on the ambiguous legal framework governing sex work in Singapore and the impact it has on women’s lives.

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 pamphlet by the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective offers information to sex workers who have experienced sexual assault, as well as advice for how others can be supportive. The guide includes ideas for emotional and physical self-care, people to contact for support, and considerations if the assault occurred in a brothel environment.

17 December 2017 marks the 14th annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

For fourteen years, sex workers around the world have used this day to highlight the need for action to end violence against sex workers. The issues faced by sex workers often vary from region to region, due to different laws, social and cultural contexts, but one common issue faced by all sex workers is their vulnerability to and experience of violence.

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.