sex workers

trafficking

This article appears in Reproductive Health Matters, 2004 May;12(23):58-67. Sex workers in Kerala, India, live in a coercive environment and face violence from the police and criminals, lack of shelter, lack of childcare support and have many physical and mental health problems. This paper documents the environment in which women have been selling sex in Kerala since 1995, and their efforts to claim their rights. It is based on sex workers’ own reports and experiences, a situation analysis and a needs assessment study by the Foundation for Integrated Research in Mental Health.

methodology

A news story, from PlusNews, that explores why South African women have volunteered in their thousands to participate in clinical trials for microbicides. It also explains why they might drop out of the study before its completion. Report by Garmaise D., Avdeeva Y. and Torres M.A. at the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO). An article by Shaver FM. in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2005; 20; 296. An article by Loff B., Longo P. and Overs C. in The Lancet, Volume 361, Issue 9373, Pages 1982 – 1983, 7 June 2003. An annotated bibliography produced by Project Parivartan. The purpose of

raid and rescue

Video on YouTube that explains how raids and rescues in brothel areas in Malaysia have impacted on outreach work with sex workers. This monograph is published by Sampada Gramin Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM) and written by Sandhya Rao and Cath Sluggett. It draws its title, and all the chapter headings, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The authors argue that the farcical fantasy of Alice’s adventures in the mythical Wonderland seems an apt reference to the unfamiliarity of the terrain that they have had to navigate when attempting to assess the ways in which the human rights framework has succeeded

transgender

Article in BMJ Open 2011;1, that describes the prevalence and predictors of condom use and sexual risk in the male clients of transgender (Hijra) sex workers in Karachi, Pakistan. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Karachi, Pakistan.

STIS; presumptive treatment

Sex workers have high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), many of them easily curable with antibiotics. STIs as co-factors and frequent unprotected exposure put sex workers at high risk of acquiring HIV and transmitting STIs and HIV to clients and other partners. Eliminating STIs reduces the efficiency of HIV transmission in the highest-risk commercial sex contacts–those where condoms are not used. This paper reviews two STI treatment strategies that have proven effective with female sex workers and their clients.

Global Commission on HIV and the Law

Sex workers from throughout Asia and the Pacific present their arguments for recognition of sex work to the Global Commission on HIV and the Law In Bangkok in March 2011. This is a ‘must watch’ video and a perfect teaching or training aid.

Pathfinder

A news story for Poz Magazine by Scott L. This story explores HIV prevention efforts with sex workers in India. It highlights the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their partners and suggests that the policy of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) should be amended to allow investment in interventions of this type.

discussion paper

In their work and lives, sex workers experience disproportionate levels of violence including police abuse, sexual assault, rape, harassment, extortion, and abuse from clients, agents (pimps), sex establishment owners, intimate partners, local residents, and public authorities. Violence against sex workers is a violation of their human rights, and increases sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV. Violence against sex workers must be understood beyond the individual incidents and in a wider context of gender and stigma. (extract from paper)

Mysore

A news story by Team Mangalorean Bangalore featured on mangalorean.com on the 18 February 2010. The story outlines how sex workers have utilised a World Bank grant to start their own restaurant in Mysore. The purpose of the restaurant is to challenge stigma and discrimination against sex workers it has also provided income generation opportunities for older sex workers. Profits from the Ashodaya restaurant fund a hospice for those terminally ill with AIDS. And, when unclaimed bodies are found in the city, it is this group that pays for the last rites – work that few others would be willing

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

On International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers the PLRI are circulating a media release to launch their new website and stress the need for evidence based policy making to tackle violence and abuse. Welcome to the website of the Paulo Longo Research Initiative. We are launching the site on December 17, the Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers in support of sex worker organisations in dozens of countries who are demanding action to stop violence.

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