Resources

The Sex Workers' Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN) has published their report Using CEDAW to Advocate for Sex Workers' Rights in Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This booklet is aimed at sex workers, sex worker groups, organisations working with sex workers, women’s groups, drug users’ groups, LGBT groups, human rights organisations and other allies who want to know more about advancing recognition for sex workers’ rights through the United Nations human rights bodies, and in particular, through the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Canadian sex worker-led organisation, Maggie’s Toronto, developed this website disclaimer for non-sex workers seeking to engage, titled, 'A note to researchers, students, reporters, and artists who are not sex workers.' This resource advises people outside of the sex worker community who are interested in doing research on sex work on how to engage with sex workers.

This publication shares information, skills, and tactics for engaging with the media for those who want to achieve better and more effective media representation of sex workers. The guide is geared toward people who are interested in engaging with media because they want to make an impact  – both in the ways sex workers are represented and in the institutional structures that negatively impact sex workers lives.

Harm Reduction International has released a report examining the multiple and varied contexts within which drug use and sex work overlap.

The report provides a snapshot of available evidence on the factors that contribute to vulnerability among people who sell sex and use drugs. It draws on experience from harm reduction and sex work communities to explore implications for practice. Existing programmes that reach people who sell sex and use drugs  around the world are highlighted and practical suggestions on how programmes can better serve this overlapping population are offered.

This NSWP Annual Report for 2012 will be useful for sex work organisations looking for models on which to base their own annual reports. It will also be useful to sex workers globally, and particularly sex workers who are part of NSWP's member organisations, who wish to stay informed as to NSWP's activities last year.

This resource is the NSWP's strategic plan 2013 - 2015, and as such will be useful to sex worker organisations looking for a model on which to base their own organisational strategic document. The stragetic plan will also update member organisations and sex workers about NSWP's planned focus for the next eighteen months.

This resource is a briefing on why the organisation - the American Jewish World Service - fund sex worker rights organisations, but it is also a very effective introduction to the concept of sex worker rights, and the sex worker rights movement. It disccuses who sex workers are, and what is sex work, the rights of sex workers in places where sex work is illegal, and introduces a rights-based approach.

The bulletin of the DMSC, discussing common financial scams, police violence, and the work to tackle HIV, human rights violations by the police, and the stigma that prevents sex workers from accessing services.

The bulletin of the DMSC, discussing common financial scams, police violence, and the work done to tackle HIV, human rights violations by the police, and the stigma that prevents sex workers from accessing services. It also discusses the success that self-regulating sex worker boards have had in tackling trafficking, in contrast to the more well-resourced non-sex worker-led programmes.

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".

This is the 3rd edition of the STRASS newsletter, packed with details of their recent and forthcoming activism events in France as well as a round up of other European news realting to sex work.

You can download this 2 page PDF document above.  This resource is in English.

The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee is a collective of 65000 female, male and transgender sex workers in West Bengal, India. Their most recent Bulletin (No 22.) includes recent news and coverage of their AGM.

You can download this 4 page pdf Bulletin above (in English).

 PRESS RELEASE

Dated: April 30, 1998

Today at 12 midnight, around six hundred sex workers observed May Day resolving to continue their fight till the establishment of their rightful position ( right of a worker) in the society and constitute a self regulatory board to prevent exploitative practices rampant in different red light areas at College Square in Calcutta.Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee being the National Secretariat of the National Network of Sexworkers had organised the celebration.

PRESS RELEASE

Monday, November 23, 1998

A two-day follow-up meet of the First National Conference of Sexworkers organised by Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) began in Calcutta yesterday at the University Institute Hall. This National level meet of sexworkers and non-government organisations (NGOs) working among them was participated by 32 delegates from Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Tamilnadu, Mumbai, Delhi etc.It is held in line with the resolution adopted by the National Network of sexworkers during the second phase of the First National Conference of Sexworkers held on March, 1998.