Stigma & Discrimination

Community Guide: The Right to Housing and the Unmet Needs of Sex Workers

This resource is a Community Guide to the Briefing Paper: The Right to Housing and the Unmet Needs of Sex Workers. It provides an overview of the full Briefing Paper and shares key recommendations.

You can download this resource above. This resource is available in Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. 

Briefing Paper: The Right to Housing and the Unmet Needs of Sex Workers

The right to housing is fundamental to international human rights and is essential for ensuring an adequate standard of living. It is protected under international human rights law and includes safeguards against discriminatory eviction and the provision of legal remedies for those facing forced eviction. However, sex workers often experience violations of their right to housing due to criminalisation, stigma, and discrimination. Their access to housing is restricted by barriers such as lack of identification or documentation, bank accounts, or proof of income.

“Let’s talk about sex work” – a terminology statement and guide

Many people are influenced by judgemental and sensationalist narratives and language in the media around sex work, and by the words of those who would deny sex workers a voice. The language used is rarely neutral or unbiased, most often it is discriminatory, stigmatising, disempowering, and offensive.

Words are important because they shape the way people see and make sense of the world and the people around them. By changing the words we choose to use when talking about sex work, we can begin to alter the way wider society views sex workers and sex work. 

Global Monitoring of CEDAW Concluding Observations Relating to Sex Work

NSWP has developed a global monitoring system to track and analyse the concluding observations relevant to sex work that are published by the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) three times a year for those countries that have ratified the CEDAW Convention. The purpose of the monitoring is to track which types of recommendations that CEDAW makes for different countries to improve the status of women and what this shows about CEDAW’s awareness and inclusion of sex workers’ rights. 

Animation: Funding the Sex Worker Rights Movement

Sex worker-led organisations are the core of the sex worker rights movement and must be adequately resourced and capacitated to address their communities’ priorities. Yet globally, sex worker-led organisations remain chronically under-funded, and are often excluded from critical discussions with key stakeholders, including donors.

Sex Worker-Led Networks Statement of Support for UN Working Group position paper on sex work

Global and regional networks of sex worker-led organisations, express support for the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls’ position paper, “Eliminating discrimination against sex workers and securing their human rights

You can download this resource above. This resource is available in English only. 

Community Guide: The Impacts of Anti-Rights Movements on Sex Workers

Anti-rights movements pose numerous threats to sex workers, with their diverse ideologies, aims, and emerging alliances. These threats must be better understood to promote sex workers’ rights.

This resource is a Community Guide to the Briefing Paper: The Impacts of Anti-Rights Movements on Sex Workers. It provides an overview of the full Briefing Paper, and provides key recommendations for respecting and protecting sex workers’ human rights.

Briefing Paper: The Impacts of Anti-Rights Movements on Sex Workers

In recent years, movements organised against the rights of marginalised and criminalised groups have grown in influence and impact around the globe. Anti-migrants’ rights groups have lobbied for more restrictive border policies, in violation of the right to move and migrate. Anti-sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and anti-LGBT groups have pushed back access to sexual and reproductive services and gender-affirming care for women, trans, and gender-diverse people, in violation of the right to health.