SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

Jagriti Mahila Maha Sangh (Federation of Female Sex Workers in Nepal) and Blue
Diamond Society (BDS) are community-based organizations that advocate for
improved legal protections for the human rights of sex workers in Nepal.
Myanmar’s national network of female sex workers (SWiM) is implementing a project
that funds paralegals’ to give legal advice and health information to sex workers and
engages in advocacy on justice issues.
The China Sex Worker Organizations Network Forum has documented the impact
of the 2010 police crackdown on sex work and HIV responses in China to provide
evidence for advocacy.
The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) in Taiwan has advocated for
non-discriminatory laws that protect health and safety of sex workers in Taiwan.
In Hong Kong, Zi Teng and the JJJ Association have formed cooperative arrangements
with police to address abuses of sex workers’ rights.
In Indonesia, the Indonesian sex workers organization (OPSI) is able to influence
government policies and programmes by participating in national committees
convened by the National AIDS Commission.
The Poro Sapot Project in Papua New Guinea involves sex workers in communitybased
efforts to educate the police about HIV, and Friends Frangipani (the national
sex workers organization) advocates for law reform and improved policing practices.
In Thailand, SWING implements a police cadet internship programme and cadet
training curriculum to expose police cadets to peer-based HIV prevention activities.
The Empower Foundation in Thailand advocates for labour protection measures to be
extended to sex workers and decriminalization of sex work. In 2006, the Foundation
opened a bar in Chiang Mai that provides sex workers with working conditions that
comply with standards under the Labour Protection Act.
2.2 Conclusions
Legal empowerment of sex worker communities underpins effective HIV
responses
HIV interventions with sex workers have tended to primarily focus on condom promotion
and testing for HIV and STIs, and too often have failed to address the power relationships
that create HIV vulnerability. Legal empowerment can be understood as the process of
systemic change through which vulnerable communities are protected and enabled to
use the law to advance their human rights and their interests as citizens and economic
actors. 47
Sex worker organizations in India and Thailand have demonstrated the effectiveness of
adopting an empowerment approach, based on community mobilization, peer-based
health promotion, self-regulation, active engagement on law enforcement issues and
participation in dialogue about law and policy reform. Similarly, sex worker organizations
in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong SAR, and Indonesia are actively engaged in advocating
47 See: Legal empowerment of the poor and eradication of poverty, Report of the Secretary-General to UN
General Assembly 64 th Session, 13 July 2009, A/64/133.
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