Resources

AIDS 2022, the 24th International AIDS Conference, is taking place in 2022 both in-person and virtually. With this year’s conference being held in Montreal, NSWP member organisation Stella, l’amie de Maimie have produced a special issue of ConStellation—Stella’s annual magazine by and for sex workers and our friends now it’s in 27th year—as a way to orient sex workers and allies to all sex work content at the AIDS conference.

Zimbabwe Sex Workers Alliance (ZIMSWA) submitted this shadow report to the CEDAW committee in 2020 during the 75th CEDAW Session.

Contents include:

Sisonke South Africa submitted this shadow report in 2020 to the CEDAW committee as a complement to the fifth periodic report submitted by the South African government in October 2019.

Contents include:

NSWP member organisation the English Collective of Prostitutes and Dr Laura Connelly from the University of Salford have published new research that looks at EU Migrant Sex Work in the UK Post-Referendum.  

The research, conducted in 2019, shows that violence, xenophobia and threats of deportation against migrant sex workers from the European Union have risen since the EU Referendum.

Key findings from the research include:

Este documento é uma versão traduzida autorizada e não-oficial do documento Community Guide: Shrinking Spaces and Silencing Voices produzido pela Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP). A tradução é de responsabilidade da Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento no âmbito do projeto POWER - Promote Sex Workers’ Rights, a qual assume a responsabilidade pelo conteúdo aqui produzido. 

Você pode baixar este Guia da comunidade acima.

O Guia Inteligente para profissionais do sexo: Políticas internacionais de afirmação dos direitos relacionados ao trabalho sexual é uma versão para a língua portuguesa do documento Smart Guide: Rights-Affirming International Policies Relating to Sex Work produzido pela NSWP.

Fuckförbundet launched a new report - "20 Years Of Failing Sex Workers" - as part of their 2019 conference "Sex Work, Human Rights And Health: Assessing 20 Years Of Swedish Model". It brings together available evidence from sex workers on the impact of the law. Contents include:

On 23rd of September, 2019 the United Nations General Assembly held a High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The theme of this meeting was “Universal Health Coverage: Moving Together to Build a Healthier World” and ostensibly aimed to accelerate progress towards UHC.

The African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA), with support from the Key Populations Representation Evidence and Advocacy for Change in Health Programme (KP REACH), has published a study on violence against sex workers in Africa. Among the issues cited by sex workers as exacerbating violence against them are criminalisation and stigma, which impact access to health services and other amenities.

As part of its programme 'Rights not Rescue: Sex Work, Migration, Exploitation and Trafficking', ICRSE has published 'Trafficking 101: a community resource for sex workers' rights activists'.

Human Rights Watch and the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) have released a new report recommending the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa, in order to protect the safety and wellbeing of women, and respond to the HIV pandemic.

This shadow report was submitted by Congolese sex worker-led organisations UMANDE and ACODHU-TS during the 73^rd CEDAW Session, which took place June-July 2019.

Sex workers in Mozambique experience high levels and multiple forms of violence. Despite constant dialogue with the Government, the police act as protectors of sex workers, but they can also be perpetrators of violence. The relationship between sex workers and health unit professionals can also be problematic. This shadow report, submitted by sex worker-led Mozambican organisation Tiyane Vavasate Association during the 73^rd CEDAW Session, which took place June-July 2019, highlights these issues.

Sisonke-Botswana and Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV and AIDS (BONELA) submitted this shadow report during the 72^nd CEDAW Session, which took place February-March 2019. The report elaborates on the situation of cisgender and transgender women who are sex workers in Botswana. The report focuses the criminalisation of sex work; violence, abuse, and failure to act on reports of violence by police; stigma and discrimination faced by sex workers in accessing health services, and lack of free antiretrovirals for migrants.

In February 2016, following pressure from fundamental feminist and abolitionist organisations, the Serbian government criminalised the purchase of sexual services through amendments to the Public Law and Order Act. Sex workers were ignored during discussion that preceded the adoption of the law. Selling sex remains criminalised. Criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services in Serbia has increased sex workers’ vulnerability to violence and marginalisation and reduced their access to services. Police continue to perpetrate violence against, extort money from, and ignore reports of violence against sex workers. Fundamental feminist and abolitionist discourse has increased the exclusion of sex workers from the women’s and LGBT organisations in the country.

STOPAIDS has published a new position paper supporting the decriminalisation of sex work, designed to support STOPAIDS members to advocate for decriminalisation within their own advocacy and programmes, and support the global sex worker rights movement.

To mark International Sex Workers' Day on 2nd June, SWAN published a new briefing paper on Sex Work Legal Frameworks in Central-Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CEECA).

RAIDED was developed to forefront the experiences of women in sex work who have been raided, rescued and rehabilitated under the provision of anti-trafficking initiatives in India. It examines women’s narratives along with quantitative data about the strategies of raid, rescue and rehabilitation deployed to combat trafficking of women into sex work. The study unravels the impact of laws and policies on the lives of sex workers.

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.