Macklean from Uganda of the UNAIDS Global Working Group on Sex Work & HIV from Naomi Akers on Vimeo.

In October 2009, the St. James Infirmary Executive Director was appointed to a Global Working Group on Sex Work and HIV Policy to UNAIDS. With its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is an innovative joint venture, bringing together the efforts and resources of ten UN system organizations in the global AIDS response.
Cosponsors include UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), UNICEF (UN National Children’s Fund), WFP (UN World Food Program), UNDP (UN Development Programme), UNFPA (UN Population Fund), UNODC (UN Office on Drugs and Crime), ILO (International Labor Organization), UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), WHO (World Health Organization) and the World Bank.
In 2007, UNAIDS released a “Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work” that demonstrated a clear departure from human rights-based, evidence-informed approaches to an emphasis on eliminating sex work altogether as an HIV prevention strategy. Shortly afterwards, the Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), held a meeting with UNAIDS to comment on the 2007 version, noting that it departed from principles of human rights-based and evidence-based programming and policy.  In the meeting NSWP demanded that UNAIDS make changes to the Guidance Note that included meaningful participation and input from the global sex worker community. A new version of the Guidance Note has been drafted, with key global recommendations, including, but not limited to the decriminalization of sex workers, injection drug users and men who have sex with men to further the critical agenda of universal access to HIV prevention and treatment.   However several problems still existed with the updated Guidance Note.
In 2009, UNAIDS and NSWP established The Global Working Group on Sex Work and HIV Policy, a coalition convened by NSWP, to make changes to the Guidance Note with specific policy recommendations that addressed HIV interventions and access to HIV treatment for sex workers rather than trying to eliminate the world’s oldest profession.  As a member of the North American Network of Sex Work Project (NA-NSWP), the Executive Director of the St. James Infirmary was elected as the North American representative to the Global Working Group on Sex Work and HIV Prevention .
In November 2009 and June 2010, the ED was flown to Geneva, Switzerland as part of her work with the Global Working Group on Sex Work and HIV Policy to UNAIDS. The Global Working Group identified several issues in the UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work that needed to be addressed:
1.    Addressing criminalization of sex work and repressive law enforcement practices as barriers to universal access.
2.    Reduction of demand for sex work vs. the reduction of demand for unsafe paid sex.
3.    The conflation of human trafficking and sex work and consideration of the harmful effects on sex workers and universal access to HIV services of some anti-trafficking measures
4.    Economic empowerment of sex workers and a critical examination of mandatory programmes aimed at exiting sex work as opposed to programs that provided optional alternatives and/or professional support within the industry with respect to universal access to HIV.
As a result of these four issues in the Guidance Note that needed to be addressed, UNAIDS agreed to postpone publication and distribution of the Guidance Note until the Global Working Group could draft complimentary papers to the Guidance Note that would clarify the position of UNAIDS in regards to the rights of sex workers and the harms of criminalization, end demand policies, anti-trafficking polices and exiting programs to the mission of universal access to HIV prevention for sex workers.
In addition to working on drafting four annex papers to accompany the Guidance Note, the ED will work with the Global Working Group and UNAIDS to:  identify and secure the financial resources required to support sex workers rights regional and global networks; ensure meaningful participation of sex worker organisations in regional and national consultations and trainings; identify five or six countries and the process for following the roll-out of programmes on HIV and sex work, including the possibility of country visits for documenting and sharing good practices. While the efforts of the Global Working Group are primarily aimed at efforts for the global south and developing nations, the Guidance Note is an important policy guide for national and local efforts as well.

Jana from Peru on UNAIDS Global Working Group on Sex Work & HIV from Naomi Akers on Vimeo.

About the Sex Workers Project

Using human rights and harm reduction approaches, the Sex Workers Project (SWP) protects and promotes the rights of individuals who engage in sex work, regardless of whether they do so by choice, circumstance, or coercion. In addition to providing direct legal and social services to over a hundred individual clients a year in immigration, criminal legal, civil, and police misconduct matters, we offer “know your rights” trainings for sex workers and people who have been trafficked, and conduct training and outreach to service providers and community organizations who may come into contact with trafficked persons or sex workers.

Our direct service and human rights documentation work enables us to provide unique and critical information, analysis, and practical recommendations for policy advocacy at the local, state, federal and international level aimed at securing systemic change grounded in the experiences and concerns of our constituencies.

“Criminalization, legalization or decriminalization  of sex work: what female sex workers say in San Francisco, USA”
By Alexandra Lutnick and Deborah Cohan
Published in Reproductive Health Matters

Sex work is a criminal offence in San Francisco, USA, and sex work advocates have so far unsuccessfully campaigned for decriminalizing it. Some groups argue that the decriminalization movement does not represent the voices of marginalized sex workers. Using qualitative and quantitative data from the Sex Worker Environmental Assessment Team Study, we investigated the perspectives and experiences of a range of female sex workers regarding the legal status of sex work and the impact of criminal law on their work experiences. Forty women were enrolled in the qualitative phase in 2004 and 247 women in the quantitative phase in 2006-07. Overall, the women in this study seemed to prefer a hybrid of legalization and decriminalization. The majority voiced a preference for removing statutes that criminalize sex work in order to facilitate a social and political environment where they had legal rights and could seek help when they were victims of violence. Advocacy groups need to explore the compromises sex workers are willing to make to ensure safe working conditions and the same legal protections afforded to other workers, and with those who are most marginalized to better understand their immediate needs and how these can be met through decriminalization.

Come show your support, learn about HIV research and the HIV vaccine trials and have some fun!

This helps us with our strategic planning process.

Thank you for taking your time to complete this survey.

It takes less than 8 minutes…really!!!

Click Here to take survey

It takes less than 8 minutes…really!!!

Click Here to take survey

In the next episode, Sadie Lune interviews Bacchus, a client of sex workers — about how he became a client, what his feelings towards sex workers are all about, the things he looks for in a sex worker to hire and how he prepares for a date, and what’s changed about his political and personal views on sex work since becoming a client himself.

You can download this episode directly here, and subscribe to RenegadeCast in iTunes to get each new episode as we post it.

Sex workers are victims of rape, robbery, and exploitation. Our research shows that arresting sex workers makes them more likely to experience violence and test positive for HIV & STIs. When sex work is criminalized, many are afraid to report crimes committed against them. When they do report violence, they seldom receive justice. Prop K will not cut funding to fight forced prostitution—but it will prohibit funding for racial profiling tactics and change the priority from arresting prostitutes to stopping violent criminals who exploit and assault them.

In accordance with our mission, we have been offering compassionate, non-judgmental care to thousands of sex workers who voluntarily come to our clinic. SF should be offering services like healthcare, shelter, food and job training to those who want and need it the most and we support organizations providing these needed, voluntary services to the most marginalized sex workers in the City. We encourage you to make an informed decision this November at the ballot.  For more information, visit the YesOnPropK Campaign.