This story was originally posted on the ASWA website
The second Sex Workers Academy Africa (SWAA) this year kicks off today with 18 participants from Seychelles, Malawi and Kenya attending.
Swedish sex worker organisation Fuckförbundet has held the first sex worker-organised international conference in the country following the introduction of client criminalisation in 1999. Between 28th and 30th September, more than 80 sex workers joined the conference – Sex Work, Human Rights and Health: Assessing 20 Years of Swedish Model – in Stockholm.
Sex workers in Scotland and across the UK have formed groups in two unions – GMB and United Voices of the World – to advocate for improved working conditions and decriminalisation of sex work. Sex workers in Scotland launched a new adult entertainment branch of GMB in February, and United Voices of the World began working with strippers and other sex workers in 2018.
The 17th Sex Worker Academy Africa (SWAA) has begun in Nairobi with 16 participants from three countries taking part.
Criminalisation of sex work is an expression of stigma against sex workers and is opposed by sex workers and sex workers’ rights organisations around the world. In South Africa, the Sisonke Sex Workers’ Movement and Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) have continued to advocate for the full decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa, by raising public awareness of the human rights violations suffered by sex workers under the current outdated legal framework.