promoting health and human rights |
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promoting health and human rights |
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NSWP 2006 Year End ReportOver the past year, a number of activities were conducted and reports followed. These are some of the activities the Network of Sex Work Projects participated in during 2006, along with links to some of the reports. Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)International organization connecting, informing and mobilizing people and organizations committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women's human rights. Our goal is to cause policy, institutional and individual change that will improve the lives of women and girls everywhere. We do this by facilitating ongoing debates on fundamental and provocative issues as well as by building the individual and organizational capacities of those working for women's empowerment and social justice. Khartini Slamah and Melissa Ditmore attended AWID's Money and Movements conference in Mexico in November 2006. Melissa attended workshops on financial reporting. A meeting of sex workers and supporters was held before the conference, and this was attended by Meena Seshu, Zi Teng and others. Tini and Melissa also met donors who have supported NSWP, Africa NSWP and APNSW.
Stop Funding Brothel RaidsAnti-trafficking efforts are growing with increased funding and the method most notably increasing is to raid brothels. This is counter to the wisdom of experience: it is well documented that the people caught up in raids typically lose all their savings and possessions, and most return to sex work quickly but less their hard-won savings and possessions. NGO collaboration with law enforcement has led to the detention and deportation of sex workers caught up in raids. Deportation is often followed by prison terms, especially when women (and it is only women) are deported to countries run by dictatorships. It is unfortunate that these methods are more popular than the more effective and less costly methods pioneered by the DMSC, in which sex workers are recognized as the people most likely to be able to identify trafficking into red light areas, and for this awareness to be capitalized upon to combat workplace abuses including trafficking in their own workplaces.
XVI International Conference on HIV/AIDSThe XVI International AIDS Conference was held on August 13-18 in Toronto. NSWP and Stella and APNSW arranged and coordinated events and panels and press conferences on topics including US funding, research ethics and practice, the Star Whores show, raids, and labor rights for sex workers, all with strong media attention.
United Nations Population Fund Consultation on Sex WorkUnited Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) held a consultation in Rio de Janeiro, July 16-19 on the topic of sex work. UNFPA works to ensure universal access to reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health to all couples and individuals. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programs to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS and every girl and woman is treated wth dignity and respect. Specific goals of UNFPA include:
This UNFPA meeting in Rio de Janeiro created a convenient opportunity for several NSWP members to meet. This small group NSWP members from all over the world met to discuss the structure of the NSWP. Proposals were made and feedback from each region will determine the future structure of the NSWP. This report includes descriptions of proposals and two draft mission statements. Please read them and write to the rapporteur from your region with your suggestions. Do not limit your suggestions to the structures here! You may have a better idea for the future of NSWP.
United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDSAt the 2005 World Summit, UN-member states agreed to:
Now The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) and the Millennium Development Goal on HIV/AIDS sets a mandate to halt and reverse the spread of the epidemic by 2015. The Universal Access Campaign builds on a prior global target to provide three million people living with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries with life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment (ART). The goal is to make universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, and treatment acessible for all who need them recognized as a human right. Martine Ago of Bleti spoke to UNGASS and there were protests about US funding restrictions. NSWP worked on various issues with a coalition of a groups at UNGASS.
United Nations Commission on the Status of WomenThis UN body met in New York in March, and the Sex Workers Project and the coordinator worked with local allies to distribute a statement about "demand" and other anti-trafficking jargon and efforts. These statements were written by Jo Doezema and others around the world in January and February 2006.
Meeting: The Changing Landscape of PreventionA meeting was held with Anna Forbes of the Global Campaign for Microbicides to discuss the ways sex workers will be affected by new HIV-prevention technologies, including microbicides. While microbicides may be effective for a woman who has vaginal sex a few times each week — and only for a woman who has vaginal sex — they may be ineffective or even dangerous in sex work, in which many people have many partners every day, and in which many infections are a risk. Condoms remain the preferred method of protection from a variety of sexually transmitted infections and remain the best choice for sex workers.
Research for Sex WorkResearch for Sex Work was published in tandem with Women's Network for Unity, the 5000-member union of sex workers of all genders in Cambodia. This yearŐs theme was money, and articles addressed trade agreements and access to treatment, donor-imposed funding restrictions, the lack of inquiry into economic motivation and development with regard to sex work, articles from Jamaica and China, and condom stockouts in Africa. It was distributed at the AIDS Conference in Toronto, by post and electronically. The theme of the next issue (2007) will be the sex workers' rights movement.
Film: Taking the PledgeA film about US-imposed funding restrictions is in production to be used for education and advocacy. This film is nearly ready for distribution. Education about the effects of (Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) PEPFAR's restrictions has had some effect: a US legislator has introduced a bill that would repeal these restrictions.
Other ActivitiesNSWP often signs onto or co-sponsors letters, conferences, campaigns and other efforts led by others but which are in line with the NSWP mission to promote the rights of sex workers. Sigma Huda, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, issued a press release November 24 for the International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women, in which her statements undermine sex workers' rights because she equates prostitution with violence against women. NSWP and APNSW signed on to a letter drafted with anti-trafficking lawyers in response to this. An excerpt:
World Health Organisation 100% Condom Use Policy100% Condom Use Policy (100% CUP) is being scaled up in Asia by World Health Organisation (WHO). No 100% CUP initiative has been without violations of sex workers' human rights. Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) has rightly taken the lead on this issue. NSWP supports this, and we are committed to fulfilling any requests for assistance whether it be for letters of support, or more elaborate collaboration including raising funds.
Research ethicsIt is clear that mid-size pharmaceutical companies like Gilead and developers of new technology for which profit is not the exclusive motivation (as with developers of microbicides), are sensitive to genuine need for ethical research involving the community from the beginning of trial design. This is the direct effect of the closures of trials of tenofovir in Cambodia and Cameroon. However, large companies, such as those developing vaccines, and some international agencies, appear to be less committed to these principles in practice. We thank Dan Allman for participating in UNAIDS meetings about this issue. NSWP Funding in 2006These grants have been accepted and administered by partner organizations. Most grants have been administered by Womyn's Agenda for Change. Another has been administered by the Sex Workers Project, another by Davida. One aim of the organizational consultation is to register NSWP itself, which will simplify bookkeeping. The acting coordinator also advanced funds for expenses related to activities for which grants were not received prior to activities (for example, printing Research for Sex Work: CDN$ 3,788; lodging expenses for XVI AIDS Conference in Toronto: $995). As in previous years, 2006 funding for NSWP.ORG website and listserves was arranged with and administered to the webmaster directly. NSWP is seeking alternative funding for NSWP.ORG in 2007.
NSWP.ORG: Internet PresenceAccording to Google.com, NSWP.ORG offers more than 1,260 interesting things to read! In 2006 NSWP served a total of 900,167 pages during 432,081 visits. While the number of pages served decreased from total pages for 2005 1,216,724 pages, Visits to NSWP increased by almost 100,000. Total visits during 2005: 338,231. In 2005 the total pages served was exceptionally high (over 600,000 pages during October and November) most due most likey to media attention such as the publishing of a particular URL. In 2004 NSWP served a total of 600,608 pages during 312,883 visits. It is important to note that most of the documents that NSWP.ORG serves are in Portable Document Format (PDF). The total number of pages serves does not include the number of PDF files downloaded from NSWP. As an example, I have chosen two of NSWP.ORG's most popular documents to give you an idea of how many times these PDF files were downloaded from NSWP.ORG during 2006.
NSWP.ORG serves documents to readers from all over the world. Traffic analysis gives sense of where requests for our content come from. Below is a table which shows how many files were served to the top 25 countries in December 2006.
Traffic statistics are updated monthly and traffic reports posted on the NSWP.ORG website.
NSWP email listservesNSWP provides one main secure email listserve (nswp-list@nswp.org) has a current total of 133 subscribers. In 2006 nswp-list subscribers posted 1,103 messages. ----------------- 2006: nswp-list Total Messages ----------------- Dec: 60 Nov: 76 Oct: 150 Sep: 116 Aug: 168 Jul: 135 Jun: 72 May: 99 Apr: 51 Mar: 52 Feb: 51 Jan. 73 ----------------- TOTAL: 1,103 ----------------- NSWP also offers four other smaller email groupserve lists. These include:
NSWP.ORG 2006 budget
NSWP.ORG transitionEarly in the upcoming year, Andrew Sorfleet will be vacating his role as the NSWP.ORG webmaster and listmaster. A founding member of the NSWP, Andrew Sorfeet created the NSWP's first visual identity and presence on the World Wide Web in 1996 to coincide with the NSWP's attendance at the XI International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Vancouver. He designed the NSWP's workdwark and logos which have since been used on NSWP's communications, publications and banners all over the world. For the last decade Sorfleet has guided and nurtured NSWP.ORG to become an extremely popular and influential Internet content provider on the subject of sex workers' health and human rights. During this time Andrew has volunteered countless hours of work, as well as endless advise and expertise. Sorfleet is resigning from his Internet duties at NSWP in order to make more time for some new and exciting projects he has planned. The NSWP would like to sincerely thank Andrew for all his hard work, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. The NSWP will be seeking a new webmaster and listmaster to maintain as well as host NSWP.ORG website and email listserves. Andrew has generously offered to assist the new webmaster with this transition of NSWP.ORG. Suggestions or help finding our new webmaster are greatly appreciated. |
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Created: January 4, 2007 Last modified: January 6, 2007 |
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Network of Sex Work Projects Email: secretariat@nswp.org |