Resources

  • 38 results found

This resource has been developed both for researchers and community-based organisations in rights-constrained environments. It is intended to help both researchers and community organisations to:

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Theme: Health

This paper places the development of sex workers’ movements over the past two decades within the historical context of feminist discourses on violence against women. The paper discusses the importance of the discourse on violence against women in framing contemporary abolitionist campaigns that seek to criminalize sex work. It goes on to discuss the contemporary context, including the status of alliances and dialogue between women’s, LGBTQ, and sex workers’ movements, focusing on India.

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This resource builds on INCITE's substantial background in issues faced by women of colour, criminalised or street-based communities, and queer and trans youth, particularly around police and state violence. It focuses on how "police violence against sex workers is not perceived by mainstream organisations as either police brutality, or violence against women, when it is clearly a manifestation of both".

You can download this 4 page PDF resource above. this resource is in English.

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Emi Koyama draws out links in rhetoric and tactics between the war on terror and the war on trafficking. She addresses three key myths of the anti-trafficking movement. Koyama demonstrates the extent to which the ceaseless propogation of these myths constitutes a "wilfull ignorance of reality" best understood as a "tacit conspiracy between the promoters of misinformation and its recipients". She locates this "tacit conspiracy" in a preference for the simple fears of scary "bad people" over the more complex, structural fears of "poverty, racism, sexism, neoliberalistic global capitalism, and its assault on the public safety net, homophobia, transphobia, and unjust immigration laws".

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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.

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Source: AsiaCatalyst.org
 
The 2010 "Strike Hard Campaign" (police crackdowns) put in place a zero tolerance policy on sex work, gambling and drugs all across China. While many brothels and popular clubs were closed ultimately sex workers continued work out in more remote areas. This geographic shift cut people off from essential health services, HIV/AIDS education, and even funeral services for women who die while cut off from their families.

Here in its first major report The China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum trained its members to document the effects of the crackdown.
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You can download this 12 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

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This is a summary of the New Prevention Technologies and their Implications for Sex Workers briefing paper. It provides an overview of the new HIV prevention tools on the horizon, including microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), vaccines, and ‘treatment for prevention’. It details the possible positive and negative impacts of these as identified by sex worker organisations. Finally, it explores how sex workers’ advocacy can influence the development and introduction of these tools in ways that maximise usefulness and minimise risk to sex workers.  

Theme: Health

This NSWP briefing paper provides an overview of the new HIV prevention tools on the horizon, including microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), vaccines, and ‘treatment for prevention’. It details the possible positive and negative impacts of these as identified by sex worker organisations. Finally, it explores how sex workers’ advocacy can influence the development and introduction of these tools in ways that maximise usefulness and minimise risk to sex workers. A summary  is also available.

Theme: Health

This is a summary of the Sex Work is Not Trafficking briefing paper. It explains how sex work is conflated with trafficking; the legal framework; how demand for sex work is conflated with trafficking; the dangers of conflating trafficking with sex work, its impacts on sex workers’ lives and work; the impact on sex worker programming; and offers some recommendations for policy makers, donors and for civil society. 

This briefing paper explains how sex work is conflated with trafficking; the legal framework; how demand for sex work is conflated with trafficking; the dangers of conflating trafficking with sex work, its impacts on sex workers’ lives and work; the impact on sex worker programming; and offers some recommendations for policy makers, donors and for civil society. A summary is also available.

This is a summary of the Criminalisation of Clients briefing paper. The criminalisation of sex workers’ clients is often claimed to be part of a new legal framework to eradicate sex work and trafficking by ‘ending demand’. In 1999, Sweden criminalised sex workers’ clients and maintained the criminalisation of third parties such as brothel-owners, managers, security and support staff. The individual selling of sex remained legal. This model is frequently referred to as the ‘Swedish’, ‘Nordic’ or ‘End Demand’ model. There is great pressure in many countries to advance such legal and policy measures. The damaging consequences of this model on sex workers’ health, rights and living conditions are rarely discussed.  

This briefing paper discusses the trend towards criminalisation of sex workers’ clients, a policy that is part of a new legal framework to eradicate sex work and trafficking by ‘ending demand’. In 1999, Sweden criminalised sex workers’ clients and maintained the criminalisation of third parties such as brothel-owners, managers, security and support staff. The individual selling of sex remained legal. This model is frequently referred to as the ‘Swedish’, ‘Nordic’ or ‘End Demand’ model. There is great pressure in many countries to advance such legal and policy measures. The damaging consequences of this model on sex workers’ health, rights and living conditions are rarely discussed. A  summary is also available.

This is a summary of the PEPFAR and Sex Work briefing paper. PEPFAR has made anti-retroviral treatment (ART) available for many people, including sex workers.  However, PEPFAR funding contracts with organisations specify that a certain amount of this money be spent on abstinence programming.  Contracts include a clause that the organisation accepting funding is opposed to prostitution.  This has been called the 'anti-prostitution pledge' or 'anti-prostitution loyalty oath'.

Theme: Health

This briefing paper discusses PEPFAR and its anti-prostitution pledge. PEPFAR has made anti-retroviral treatment (ART) available for many people, including sex workers.  However, PEPFAR funding contracts with organisations specify that a certain amount of this money be spent on abstinence programming.  Contracts include a clause that the organisation accepting funding is opposed to prostitution.  This has been called the 'anti-prostitution pledge' or 'anti-prostitution loyalty oath'. A 3 page summary of this briefing paper is also available.

Theme: Health

In this guide, GAATW review the literature from past sporting events, and find that they do not cause increases in trafficking for prostitution. The guide takes a closer look at why this unsubstantiated idea still captures the imagination of politicians and some media, and offers stakeholders a more constructive approach to address trafficking beyond short-term events. This guide will help stakeholders quickly correct misinformation about trafficking, develop evidence-based anti-trafficking responses, and learn what worked and what did not in past host cities. 

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This is the English version of the Note for Record of the September 2011 UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work

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This document is Bernhard Schwartländer's initial email response to the Advisory Group's concerns raised in their letter.  (See previous resource 'AG letter to Bernhard Schwartländer re Investment Framework').   

The Advisory Group had written to the authors of an article published in the Lancet (Volume 377, June 2011), entitled 'Towards an improved investment approach for an effective response to HIV/AIDS' to raise some concerns. 

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

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Theme: Health

The Advisory Group wrote to the main authors of an article published in the Lancet (Volume 377, June 2011), entitled 'Towards an improved investment approach for an effective response to HIV/AIDS' to raise some concerns, including:

  • The proposed flat-lining and under-resourcing of funding for HIV programming in the context of sex work
  • The apparent inclusion in HIV programming of both sex workers and their clients
  • The assumptions within the report appearing to come from UNGASS reporting data, regarding the reach of current HIV programming to sex workers
  •  The low level of funding for condom promotion seems insufficient to meet the needs of key populations 

You can read the full Advisory Group letter to the authors of this article by downloading the 2 page pdf document above.  This resource is in English.

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Theme: Health