JAZAS, SWAN member from Serbia, used the increased media interest in sex work, caused by the ban of a public debate in Belgrade, about which SWAN News reported in the issue 21, to raise the issues of violence and human rights abuse against sex workers.

Among the most active in covering the December 17 campaign was Radio, TV and Internet news provider B92, whose reporter participated at the media sensitization seminar on reporting sex work issues organized by JAZAS in November. 

On December 13, B92 broadcasted an interview with a woman from Belgrade who said she “has been living of sex work for the last 15 years”. She reported regular violence and said that since prostitution in Serbia is illegal, sex workers do not report violence to the police.

Natasa Djurkovic, a judge from Belgrade was then interviewed. She said that there have been cases of sex workers being raped, tortured, and even murdered: “We have had cases of women being killed in their apartments, others were disabled, some come to the police in blood and report being beaten up by “unknown males” said Djurkovic.

The reporter concluded that decriminalization could be a solution: “In some countries sex work is decriminalized, and this is exactly what several civil society organizations promote to be done in Serbia” concludes the report.
On December 17 JAZAS outreach worker Jelena Milic was a guest in the morning live program of the national channel B92 TV.

She talked about the significance of this day, about JAZAS programs and about the grave human rights situation sex workers face in Serbia. Two sex workers were filmed for this program: they talked about violence and human rights violations.

On January 9 the B92 TV again reviewd the issue of violence against sex workers. Interviewed was “Ema”, 24, whose face was not shown and voice was changed.

Besides the clients, Ema said she had biggest problems with the police: “Police would take us to the station, humiliate us verbally; and there are even cases of physical abuse.”

On the contrary, the abusive clients are never detained, she said.  The report also featured an outreach worker from JAZAS who explained services they offer.

December edition of the Economist magazine published an in-depth story about possible legalization of sex work in Serbia. The article lists pros and cons, introduces the experiences of Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, Czech Republic, reports about the debate Macedonia.

It explains the official US policy against legalization and says that it is “not secret that Brussels pushes the new Member States to regulate sex work.  But, in case of West Balkans the situation is different. Representatives of the Brussels judiciary and police often send messages that first the problems with people trafficking should be solved in West Balkans, and only then should legalization of sex work be discussed.

It also noted that some research shows absurd situation in which, when sex work is concerned, the police in South East Europe shares the most liberal opinions in the society. They support legalization, hoping this would help them curb trafficking in people and regulation and control of the (sex work) sextor.
Parallel to the media work, JAZAS organized two workshops in the sex workers’ drop-in center in November and December, in which sex workers discussed slogans for the red umbrella action, ideas for a poster and organization of the campaign.

They decided that this year the target group for the campaign should be sex workers themselves, because most of them don’t even knew about December 17.

Key rings and a campaign poster featuring red umbrellas and the slogan Rights, not violence were designed and produced at the workshops and distributed by the JAZAS outreach team and sex workers themselves. 
JAZAS December 17 campaign poster is available here.

For more information:

Stasa Plecas, ecjazas@gmail.com
More about JAZAS