Resources

Society for Women Awareness Nepal (SWAN) submitted this shadow report during the 71st CEDAW Session, which took place October-November 2018. The report elaborates on the situation of cisgender and transgender women who are sex workers in Nepal. It focuses on the social justice and health issues that sex workers in Nepal face.  

With support from NSWP, STAR-STAR collaborated with Healthy Options Project Skopje, The Coalition MARGINS, Stronger Together Association for Support of People Living with HIV, and the Eurasian Coalition on Male Health to develop this shadow report for the 71st CEDAW Session, which took place October-November 2018. The report elaborates on the situation of cisgender and transgender women who are sex workers in Macedonia.

On International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers 2018, the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) published a position paper on the sex work and approaches to delivering rights and health-based policies for sex workers.

This is the 23rd issue of NSWP's quarterly newsletter ‘Sex Work Digest’, covering the period from September-December 2018.

This systematic review and meta-analysis, led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), has found that sex workers who have experienced 'regressive policing' (including arrest, extortion and violence from police), are three times more likely to experience sexual or physical violence. The study examines the impacts of criminalisation on sex workers’ safety, health, and access to services, using data from 33 countries. Sex workers' health and safety was found to be at risk not only in countries where sex work was criminalised, but also in Canada, which has introduced the “Nordic model”, where purchasing sex is specifically criminalised.

An alliance of key population-led networks, networks of people living with HIV, treatment activists, and supporters has formed to organise an international community-led HIV conference in 2020, following the decision to host the 2020 International AIDS Conference in the USA.

Between 23rd and 27th July 2018, more than 120 sex workers from more than 25 countries attended the 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS2018) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The bi-annual International AIDS Conferences are the largest global gathering of HIV academics, implementers, policy makers, people living with HIV and those most affected by HIV, including sex workers.

NSWP has published a new series of tools for sex worker-led organisations, to monitor the rollout of the Sex Worker Implementation Tool (SWIT) and meaningful involvement of sex workers in their countries. The tools are designed to highlight gaps and provide information to support sex worker-led organisations advocacy for the implementation of comprehensive rights-based services in their country.

In recent years a growing number of international organisations have released policies, guidance and recommendations that promote the rights of sex workers and advocate for the full decriminalisation of sex work. It can be difficult for sex workers and sex workers’ rights activists to maintain an awareness of the many policies and recommendations that now exist.

Este recurso é uma tradução comunitária da The Smart Sex Worker’s Guide to SWIT. Você pode acessar este recurso acima ou no site da EANNASO.

The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, with support from NSWP, submitted this shadow report to the 70th CEDAW Session, which took place June-July 2017. The report elaborates on the situation of women who are sex workers in New Zealand. It documents the way their situation has been advanced under the New Zealand Model of decriminalisation. The report also highlights disparities that still exist between non-migrant sex workers and migrant sex workers.

Asociación en Pro Apoyo a Servidores (APROASE A.C.) and Tamaulipas VIHda Trans, A.C, with support from NSWP, submitted this shadow report to the 70th CEDAW Session, which took place June-July 2017. The Shadow Report draws from consultation with cisgender and transgender sex workers in Mexico, and highlights the diverse forms of discrimination they face.

NSWP denounces the harassment, arrests and detention of sex workers as part of the recently launched ‘Ujana’ programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Este recurso é uma tradução comunitária da NSWP Consensus Statement on Sex Work, Human Rights, and the Law.

Yale Global Health Justice Partnership (GHJP) has released two complementary analyses on prostitution “diversion” programs (PDPs) in the USA: Diversion from Justice: 'A Rights-Based Analysis of Local ‘Prostitution Diversion Programs’ and their Impacts on People in the Sex Sector in the United States'; and 'Un-Meetable Promises: Rhetoric and Reality in New York City’s Human Trafficking Intervention Courts'. One is national in scope and the other focused specifically on New York City programming.

Empower Foundation has released a new resource library on their website, comprising books, reports, letters and films on a variety of topics linked to sex workers' rights in Thailand. You can access the full set of resources here (most available in English and Thai). 

This is the 22nd issue of NSWP's quarterly newsletter ‘Sex Work Digest’, covering the period from May - August 2018.

Features in this issue include: 

This Smart Guide aims to provide NSWP members with increased understanding of CEDAW and its potential for use in advocacy work. The Guide is the result of collaboration between NSWP and the International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP). 

This resource was developed through the LINKAGES project by representatives of global and regional key population networks, community-based organisations led by and serving key populations, United Nations agencies, international non-governmental organisations, donors, and defenders of human rights who support and implement HIV programmes. 

This document is a practical tool for organisations to self-assess whether they meaningfully involve sex workers, and for sex worker-led organisations to assess whether they are meaningfully involved.