By: Violeta Krasnic, Posted: Dec 17 08

Issues: Sexual rights

Tags: discrimination, sexual violence, sexworkers rights, violence

Actually, there is much more we all need to learn about and from sex workers in order to eradicate stigma and prejudice that fuel marginalization and discrimination against them. Sex workers' lives and livelihoods comprise of much more, but for many, violence and abuse continue to shape their reality.

In Central and Eastern Europe, sex workers experience violence from pimps, traffickers, and paying partners, mass-media harassment, lack of access to health services, lack of awareness of human rights and legal issues, and hostile public attitude. In Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, sex workers say they experience routine violence from police, including rape, physical assault, and having their genitals sprayed with pepper-spray. In Cambodia, the 100% Condom Use Policy - created to "protect" sex workers and curb HIV/AIDS - is reportedly being used by local police as an instrument to harass, persecute, and criminalize sex workers (watch video).

The basic premise for the protection of the rights of sex workers is straightforward: as stated in the Declaration of the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, “selling sexual services is not ground for sex workers to be denied the fundamental rights to which all human beings are entitled under international law.” When it comes to prevention, earlier this year, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called for an end to discrimination against sex workers noting that prevention is only available to sex workers in countries with laws that protect them.

At the same time, WITNESS core partner HOPS – Healthy Options Projects Skopje (video introduction) joins the calls for the re-examination of laws relating to the criminalization of sex workers when such criminalization undermines both health and human rights. Last month, HOPS reported about a large-scale police raid, detention, and compulsory testing of alleged sex workers in Macedonia.  The Minister of Interior stated the testing had been done to find out if the “arrested prostitutes” were purposefully spreading infectious diseases. Seven of the detained women have tested positive for hepatitis C virus and are now facing criminal charges for allegedly “transmitting an infectious disease”. To date, police and prosecutors have not disclosed evidence that would support the allegation of any transmission, as is required by Macedonian law.

HOPS is concerned that Ministers of the Government of Macedonia have reportedly defended police conduct that violates a range of human rights — and in the course of doing so, have misguidedly invoked public health arguments and deliberately contributed to a climate of intolerance that will only heighten the risk of further violations, including violence, against sex workers. Please join HOPS in denouncing these actions by endorsing this letter. 

Today is the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers. Established six years ago, this is the day of remembrance and action in memory of more than ninety women, the majority of them sex workers, who were strangled throughout the 1980s and 1990s in Seattle, US. Here is one thing you can do: go over Our Lives Matter: Sex Workers Unite for Health and Rights, the publication describing how sex workers in eight countries have challenged unfair incarceration, violence, extortion, eviction, and humiliation; fought for equal access to health care services; and called for sex work to be officially recognized as work.

Violeta Krasnic, WITNESS