The HIV and Sex Work Collection - Joint Programme Monitoring ...

An epidemic of bad laws and human rightsabuses is stifling the global AIDS responseGlobal Commission on HIV and the Law — Risks, Rights andHealth, July 2012services and commodities. Among the Commissionrecommendations were the following:• repeal laws that prohibit consenting adults to buyor sell sex, as well as laws that otherwise prohibitcommercial sex, such as laws against ‘immoral’earnings, ‘living off the earnings’ of prostitution andbrothel-keeping;• complementary legal measures must be taken toensure safe working conditions to sex workers;• take all measures to stop police harassment andviolence against sex workers;• prohibit mandatory HIV and STI testing. 71Sex worker organizations including EMPOWER(page 129), Ashodaya Samithi, SWING (page 57),Durjoy (page 94), DMSC, together with the Asia-PacificNetwork of Sex Workers have been at the forefrontof advocacy efforts to ensure legal recognition ofsex work as work, with equal labour rights and occupationalhealth safeguards. The International LabourOrganizations’ Recommendation Concerning HIV andAIDS and the World of Work, which recognizes sexwork as work, provides an important advocacy tool forlobbying governments and employers. 72EMPOWER (page 129) has advanced labour rightsfor sex workers by ensuring their access to the ThaiNational Social Security Scheme. Their communityledresearch documents the negative effects of antitraffickingraids by police on sex workers and findingssuggest that sex workers in Thailand who have notbeen trafficked are routinely arrested and imprisonedin such raids. 73 The findings are being used toadvocate for a review of anti-trafficking laws and lawenforcement practices to ensure that they are not usedto target consenting adult sex workers. 74In Nepal, the Blue Diamond Society’s work(page 106) is a powerful example of combining community-ledHIV programming among men who havesex with men and transgender people, with high levelpolitical and grass roots advocacy to create an enablinglegal, policy and social environment for sexual andgender variant minorities. Using a blend of advocacy,leadership building, legal education and test case litigationhas contributed to increased social, legal andpolitical recognition of rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people in Nepal, includingsecuring a range of civic entitlements fortransgender people.SWING’s partnership with the police in Pattaya,Thailand (page 63), provides valuable insights intoways of overcoming police violence by simultaneouslyworking on two courses of action. The first is buildingup sex workers’ knowledge of their rights and skills tonegotiate with police. Secondly, SWING has been cultivatingdefenders of sex workers’ rights within thepolice service. This approach has had a positive impacton curbing abusive law enforcement practices andsupporting HIV efforts.Economic empowermentThe UNAIDS Guidance note on HIV and Sex Workrecommends a range of approaches to economicempowerment. This includes expanding choicesfor control over financial resources, generationof additional or alternative income, and access toeducation and vocational skills training.Efforts to improve the economic security ofsex workers and their families are reflected in a rangeof case studies. The most striking example is USHACooperative (page 85)— steered by Durbar MahilaSamanwaya Committee (DMSC), whose work has led toa sustainable economic empowerment intervention,with minimal start-up costs. Realizing that financialinsecurity is one of the reasons why sex workerscompromise on health and safety, DMSC identifiedthe need to address sex workers’ lack of access tofinancial institutions, leading to the eventual creationof the USHA Cooperative. The Cooperative providessecure savings and loans to over 16 000 members andinnovative income generation programmes throughsocial marketing strategies. The battle to registerUSHA as a cooperative of and for sex workers hadPage 26