Anti-sex work group, Equality Now, recently launched an attack on the UN over recommendations to decriminalise sex work in two reports on HIV and Sex Work. Following relentless campaigning by Equality Now to undo the work that the UN has done in the area of HIV and key populations, UN Women released a statement supporting sex workers in asserting that sex work is work, not trafficking. NSWP have written an open letter to the Executive Dean at the New School and the new Dean of the Milano School to express our concern at the Equality Now research project.
Equality Now, in their attempt to conflate sex work with trafficking has commissioned research to be carried out by students from the Milano School, part of the New School for Public Engagement in New York, USA. The research project is entitled: ‘Sex Trafficking Prevention Approaches and Policy Implications’. A screen grab of the research brief can be viewed here.
One strand of the research brief asks students to investigate the funding sources of sex worker rights’ groups. The tone and thrust of this seem to imply that Equality Now is searching for something unseemly. There seems to be a suggestion that Equality Now, is looking to “intervene” within the sex worker rights movement funding: utilising knowledge of funding sources gained through the Milano School to cut off the funding of sex worker rights groups.
If you would like to be a signatory of this letter please email communications@nswp.org and your name and/or organisation will be added to the list.
You can view the open letter here.