TAG: sex work

South Africa: Police Abuse of Sex Workers

The Women’s Legal Centre has published their report on Police Abuse of Sex Workers in South Africa. Their report shows that 414 sex workers reported various types of violence perpetrated by police between 2011 and 2015. Of those, 13 were sexually assaulted, 71 were physically assaulted, 152 were verbally assaulted, 192 were harassed, and 254 experienced some other form of abuse.

Rhetoric meets reality: ending HIV and AIDS

Ending AIDS by 2030 is redundant rhetoric. It is meaningless without investment in community participation. Code red for action.

Crosstalk: HIV and linking across areas of criminalisation

In a moment of global attacks on civil society, an intersectional approach linking issues across HIV, sexuality, adult consensual sex and bodily integrity is critical. Now, more than ever. Speaking Wall, World AIDS Conference, Durban 2016. Photo: Alice Welbourn. Every international AIDS conference seems to have a theme or two that picks up energy as […]

Attack on Trans and Prostitutes

The on-going political conservative trends that has brought us the Brazilian “soft coup”, BREXIT and the candidacy of Donald Trump has also resulted in an increase in reactionary politics across the political spectrum, even among “radicals” and “progressives”. In Brazil, this has been recently manifest in attacks against

Sexual transmission of AIDS on the rise in Iran

A senior Iranian health official warned Wednesday that sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS was on the rise, in part because of taboos about discussing sex. As part of its efforts against HIV/AIDS, the government has for the first time set up centres to provide assistance to prostitutes, including checks for sexually transmitted diseases, education on prevention and free contraceptives.

New CHANGE resource on U.S. Foreign Assistance and Female Sex Workers’ Health

CHANGE has released its brand new report “All Women, All Rights, Sex Workers Included: U.S. Foreign Assistance and the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Female Sex Workers.” The report was launched last week before the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. The report is the first of its kind as it reviews the […]

Kohl’s new issue: Beyond Victims and Savages – The Complexities of Violence, Resistance, and Pleasure

Going beyond the dichotomy of victims and savages entails a nuanced understanding of violence. Such an understanding perceives mainstream violence as indivisible from other paradigms of large-scale oppression – hegemony, socioeconomic injustice, institutionalization, neoliberalism, occupation… It also accounts for the normalized violence we live on a daily basis, in silent acts of coercion, harassment, bullying, and self-damage, and the ways in which they are informed by macro instances of violence, and vice versa.

Sexual politics in June 2016

The proposal launched in May by the LAC 5 countries for the creation of a Special Mandate on Human Rights and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (reported by SPW) has taken its course. On June 30th at the 32 Session of the UN Human Rights Council a resolution was adopted that establishes the mandate of […]

Research Study in Canada Shows Needs of Rural Sex Workers

On the 20th of May in Brantford, Ontario (Canada), a report was released by Dr. Stacey Hannem and the organisation REAL that assesses the needs of rural sex workers. The report is called “Let’s Talk About Sex Work: Report of the REAL working group for Brantford, Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk. Assessing the Needs of Sex […]

London’s Romanian Sex Workers Are Worried That Brexit Would Screw Them

Against the backdrop of the EU referendum campaign, London-based Romanian women sex workers are using EU law to challenge the police and fight for their rights.   Under Operation Nexus, the Met are monitoring Romanian sex workers, rounding them up and ordering them to leave the country because they claim that sex work doesn’t count as legitimate employment.

Brazil in crisis: Another update

In June, 2016, as the impeachment of Dilma Roussef followed its course, it became increasingly evident that one of the strongest motivations of the power maneuvering that led to the April parliamentary coup was the interest of many of those supporting this move to strangle the ongoing investigations on corruption.

Pride and Prejudice: Sex Workers Are Excluded from Budapest Pride

The Pride movement is about fighting social exclusion and discrimination – but what if the Pride organisers themselves exclude and discriminate against those who are in the greatest need of support – LGBTI sex workers? This is what happened in Budapest, where a workshop on sex work was banned from the festival. The mission of […]