Humanitarian Action, SWAN member from Sankt Petersburg organized red umbrella march and a targeted media campaign.

Says Irina Maslova from Humanitarian Action: “This year we decided to take action right at the ‘hot spots’ – a number of sex workers and their friends and supporters marched along the roads where they usually work with red umbrellas. Media sensitization seminars that we organized in November in Sankts Petersburg, Irkutsk and Chelyabinsk were an introduction into the campaign.”

Two participants of the Sankt Petersburg media sensitization seminar produced on December 11 a 65-minute live program on one of the Sankt Petersburg’s TV stations, solely devoted to sex work issues. Irina Maslova participated in the show and opened red umbrella in the studio. Read more about this broadcast in a separate news.

Among other media that reported in depth about sex work and human rights in Russia were the NewsRu, Newstin, Moskva.com, and even some Ukrainian media.

In the evening of December 16 an article appeared in the respectful Moskovskiy Komsomolec.  It was an interview with Irina Maslova about human rights, access to public health services, stigma and discrimination.

Asked to explain what exactly are the rights of sex workers, Irina answered: “Basic human rights, which do not differ at all from the rights promised in our Constitution and the UN conventions. SWAN sends three messages to the society. The first is: Sex work is work. My body is my business. The second: Sex workers have right to access medical assistance and prophylactic programs. And the third: No one can be freely raped or murdered.”

On the other side of Russia, in Siberia, Siberian Initiative, another SWAN member, organized on December 15 in Barnaul a whole-day human rights training for sex workers.

Invited were also representatives of NGOs who presented their work and were informed about the problems sex workers face.

Says Alexey Starostenko from Siberian Initiative, “We decided to have balanced group, with both experienced sex workers and those who are new in trade.

Representatives of civil society were able to develop good understanding of the violence and human rights violation sex workers are facing, which we believe will help them develop adequate programs such as legal aid, psychological support and similar.”

For more information:
Irina Maslova, Humanitarian Action, club.silver.rose@gmail.com
Alexey Starostenko, Siberian Initiative, alestaro@mail.ru