This is the first issue of NSWP's new quarterly newsletter ‘Sex Work Digest’. 

This first issue focuses primarily on coverage of the Sex Worker Freedom Festival held in Kolkata.

Launch of APNSW+ and NSWP+

Tuesday 24^th July 2012

Sex Worker Freedom Festival

Kolkata, India

We are a group of HIV+ Sex Workers and people committed to treatment access for sex workers living with HIV. We have decided that we need a special platform to fight for the rights of HIV+ sex workers and to bring the sex worker’s issues and the energy and glamour of the Sex workers movement to the treatment activist movement!

Our new platforms ‘Asia and Pacific Network of Positive Sex Workers’ (APNSW+) and ‘Global Network of Positive Sex Workers’ (NSWP+) make these demands:

• HIV+ Sex workers demand the right to look fabulous- to do this we need better and affordable HIV drugs now
• WE DEMAND AS POSITIVE PEOPLE THE RIGHT TO WORK AS SEX WORKERS!!!
• We demand the right to work in all sectors, including in the sex industry
• We demand that the drug companies from the West stop trying to kill us through their attacks on developing countries right to manufacture, export and import generic ARVs
• As HIV+ sex workers we face MULTIPLE stigma and discrimination despite 25 years of treatment activism there is an extra layer of stigma if we have HIV and do sex work. As positive sex workers, we demand that this stigma is fought and our specific needs are met
• We demand not to be last in line for treatment or refused treatment because we are sex workers
• Treatment needs to be matched to the patient not the patient matched to the treatment
• Post Exposure Prophylaxis is not available to most people around the world – we need access and availability of PEP, especially for sex workers

AS HIV+ SEX WORKERS, WE DEMAND THE RIGHT TO LOOK FABULOUS!!!

The International Labour Organization hosted an important seminar at IAC 2012 in Washington DC, which included participation from sex workers at the Kolkata SWFF Hub.

The session was entitled A Labour Rights Approach to HIV and Sex Work: Working with Sex Workers to Protect Human Rights, Prevent and Eliminate Violence and Sexual Harassment and Promote Equal Access to Protection Schemes.

ILO made clear the UN believes sex work is regarded as work under the definition provided in Recommendation 200 and that sex workers should be afforded the same rights and protections as other workers.

Read more on AFAO's website.

Watch Cheryl Overs' speech: 'The Tide Cannot Be Turned Without Us:  HIV Epidemics Amongst Key Affected Populations' given during the Plenary: 'Dynamics of the Epidemic in Context' at the IAC in Washington DC (from 20 minutes into the video above.)

You can also download the full transcript of the Plenary, or the MP3 audio file from the Global Health / KFF website.