Resources

This document provides ten reasons why decriminalising sex work is the best policy for promoting health and human rights of sex workers, their families, and communities. Removing criminal prosecution of sex work goes hand-in-hand with recognizing sex work as work and protecting the rights of sex workers through workplace health and safety standards. Decriminalising sex work means sex workers are more likely to live without stigma, social exclusion, and fear of violence.

The Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and STOP AIDS NOW! developed this Community Guide in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) 2013 ARV guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV. It aims to assist community leaders and civil society organisations to:

This technical brief is one in a series addressing four young key populations. It is intended for policy-makers, donors, service-planners, service-providers and community-led organizations. This brief aims to catalyse and inform discussions about how best to provide services, programmes and support for young MSM.

This technical brief is one in a series addressing four young key populations. It is intended for policy-makers, donors, service-planners, service-providers and community-led organisations. This brief aims to catalyse and inform discussions about how best to provide services, programmes and support for young people who inject drugs.

This technical brief is one in a series addressing four young key populations. It is intended for policy-makers, donors, service-planners, service-providers and community-led organisations. This brief aims to catalyse and inform discussions about how best to provide services, programmes and support for young people who sell sex.

This technical brief is one in a series addressing four young key populations. It is intended for policy-makers, donors, service-planners, service-providers and community-led organizations. This brief aims to catalyse and inform discussions about how best to provide services, programmes and support for young transgender people.

In this resource, the World Health Organisation (WHO) brings together all existing guidelines on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for five key populations (both adults and adolescents) in the HIV response: men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, people in prisons and other closed settings, sex workers and transgender people. It includes a number of new recommendations and updates existing guidance and recommendations as appropriate. The 8-page policy brief summarises the Consolidated Guidelines.

These guidelines aim to:

As new medical technologies are increasingly being promoted in the prevention and treatment of HIV, and heralded as interventions to be used within communities of key populations including sex workers, NSWP urges the international HIV community and donors to take the concerns of sex workers presented in this report seriously and continue meaningful engagement with key populations in this shift towards the use of biomedical interventions. For years sex workers around the world have been developing and sustaining sex worker-led HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes.

The Global Fund is rolling out a new approach to funding programs. The goal is to ensure efforts to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria have the greatest possible impact. This updated approach is known as the “new funding model.” You can get more background information about the new funding model here.

The present Report has been issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences as a result of her official visit to India from 22 April to 1 May 2013. Violence against women in India is systematic and occurs in the public and private spheres. It is underpinned by the persistence of patriarchal social norms and inter- and intragender hierarchies.

World Report 2014 is Human Rights Watch’s 24th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarises key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events through November 2013.

The report touches on sex work and reiterates Human Rights Watch's support for the decriminalisation of sex work.

The Global Alliance Against the Trafficking in Women's anthology 'Collateral Damage' reviews the experience of eight specific countries (Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Brazil, India, Nigeria, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The report attempts to assess what the impact  of anti-trafficking measures have been for a variety of people living and working there, or migrating into or out of these

In this resource, UN Women respond to the anti-decriminalisation campaign by Equality Now. UN Women reaffirm that sex work is work, and that sex workers need the rights that come with full decriminalisation. They highlight and condemn attempts to conflate sex work with sexual exploitation and trafficking. They note that conflating these very different concepts leads to human rights abuses towards both sex workers and trafficked people.

The Sex Worker Implementation Tool (SWIT) offers practical guidance on effective HIV and STI programming for sex workers.

This resource is an OSF briefing paper on the recent findings of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. It aims to highlight the Commission's findings in language that will make the information useful for activists and those advocating for sex workers' rights. 

The report to the UN by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights in Namibia discusses the challenges faced by sex workers, writing "the criminalization of sex work in Namibia lies at the foundation of a climate of stigma, discrimination and violence surrounding sex work".

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 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.

You can download this 35 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

You can download this 23 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.