Regional updates: 亚洲和太平洋地区

Our members are listed on the left or you can click the red umbrellas on the map.

Regional Board Members

Sherry Sherqueshaa (Project X), Singapore

Yukiko Kaname (SWASH), Japan

Regional Network

The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) is a sex worker-led network whose members include national sex worker-led networks, sex worker-led organisations and community-based sex work projects representing female, male and transgender sex workers. APNSW was founded in 1994 at the International AIDS Conference in Japan and is based in Bangkok, Thailand.

News articles from Asia and the Pacific region are listed below.

Regional updates

22nd 十一月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

The Philippine Sex Workers Collective is speaking out against human rights violations against sex workers and drug users. In a statement on their website published on 27 October, the collective explains how oppression against drug users is similar to oppression against sex workers and it is important to stand in solidarity with anyone whose rights are violated.

25th 十月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

On the 18 of October, COSWAS, sex workers and allies held a protest outside the Taipei City Government. Protesters asked for the decriminalisation of sex work, for an end to illegal entrapment practices targeting sex workers, and for the government to stop ignoring sex workers. They are asking for safe and legal places to work.

12th 十月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) facilitated a 3-day training in Kathmandu, Nepal from the 21-23 of September. Twenty-three male, female, and transgender sex workers from attended the workshop across the nation. Sex worker participants represented JMMS, Nepal’s National Federation of Female Sex Workers; and Blue Diamond Society, Nepal’s national GLBTIQ representative network.

29th 九月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

Khwaja sara (also known as Hijra, third gender or transgender) sex workers in Pakistan experience stigma, discrimination and criminalisation, as well as lack of rights and access to healthcare. 

Gulmakai, a khwaja sara sex worker, says hostility towards khwaja saras is "embedded at every level, from every day affairs to the government". Sex work is an occupation in which khwaja saras are able to make a living, unlike many other industries which continue to heavily discriminate and exclude member of her community.

15th 九月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) in collaboration with the HIV/AIDS Research and Welfare Centre (HARC) organised a 3-day training from the 4-6 September 2016 the on Sex Workers Implementation Tool (SWIT). A total of 25 sex workers from various cities across Bangladesh participated in the training.

21st 八月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

‘This is Us” a museum in Thailand dedicated to documenting the lives and history of sex work is set to open to the public later this month. The museum is run by sex worker-led organisation Empower Foundation. Although the museum has existed for years, previously it was only open for private visits booked in advance.

18th 八月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

A new report by Asia Catalyst has brought attention to the impact of laws and policing on sex workers in China. Released on the 25th of July, The Condom Quandary: A Survey of the Impact of Law Enforcement Practices on Effective HIV Prevention among Male, Female, and Transgender Sex Workers in China highlights the severe and widespread impact of using condoms as evidence of sex work on sex workers. Drawing on the experiences of the 517 sex workers involved in the research, the report urges that sex work be decriminalised and that sex workers be properly consulted and recognised as key stakeholders in laws and policies concerning sex workers.

22nd 七月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

Sex workers in Victoria, Australia are speaking out for the second time to highlight the ways they are blocked from or denied justice. On the 26th March 2015 serial rapist and murderer, Adrian Bayley was convicted of the rape of a sex worker that he had committed in 2000. However, on the 13th of July 2016 the Victorian Court of Appeal overturned it. The decision was labeled “disgusting” by Crime Victims Support Association President Noel McNamara who echoed statements made by sex workers, explaining how a message is being sent that crimes against sex workers will not be taken seriously.

12th 七月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

On the 7th of June, armed police and “NVaders” a rescue organisation from New Zealand targeted “Nataree” – a brothel that employs 400 sex workers in Bangkok. The joint forces conducted a raid and apprehended 121 sex workers who were working at the time. Media were invited to film the raid.

29th 六月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

Sex workers’ organisations have raised concerns about a new anti-trafficking law in India, called the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill. Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi introduced the bill in India on the 31st of May.

18th 五月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

Dancers in Mumbai are apprehensive about new laws that passed on the 13th of April 2016. The new laws have stringent conditions that limit dancers’ ability to earn a decent wage. The new laws do not address many of the concerns that Bar Dancers have raised.

17th 五月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

The Australian State Government of New South Wales has continued its support for decriminalisation. Sex workers were concerned the inquiry into brothel regulation that begun in 2015 could have resulted in the introduction of a licensing framework and/or a specialised police squad for the sex industry. These measures would end decriminalisation, despite its documented success since it was introduced in 1995.

12th 五月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

HIV/AIDS Research and Welfare Centre (HARC) organised a three-day workshop for sex workers in Bangladesh from the 17th to 19th of April, 2016. A total of thirty-nine sex workers took part in the workshop in Rajshahi, a city in northwest Bangladesh close to the border with India. APNSW Regional Coordinator Kay Thi Win, and Consultant Habib Rahman facilitated the workshop.

29th 四月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

Empower Thailand and the Thai Embassy in Sweden have both issued statements in response to the Swedish magazine OTTAR.  On the 3rd of March 2016, OTTAR published an interview with Kasja Ekis Ekman, which referred to Thai sex workers as “cheap pussy.”

14th 四月 2016 | Region: Asia and the Pacific

A session called “Reclaiming Rights: Sex Workers Speak” was held on the first day of the 12th International Conference on AIDS in the Asia Pacific (ICAAP)  in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The conference ran from the 12 -14 of March.