By starting the campaign on December 1, SWAN pointed to the connection between AIDS/HIV infection and violence against sex workers: research shows sex workers are more vulnerable to HIV then the rest of population. In many countries prostitution is illegal. Sex workers have no access to education about HIV infection and effective prevention. They have no access to HIV testing, free condoms, medical treatment or counseling. HIV infection is often a result of violence: sex workers are beaten, raped, or forced to sex without condoms. Working illegally and under stigma, they are discouraged to contact police or health agencies.

Signatures on the petition were collected in Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, and internationally online here. Over 3,500 signatures had been collected by December 20, when this issue of SWAN News was closed.

On December 10, Human Rights Day, SWAN members started distribution of The Declaration of the Rights of Sex Workers on the streets and squares in their capitals, making a connection between AIDS/HIV, human rights and violence.

In mid-December, a several months-long community-based research project on human rights abuses facing sex workers in Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia was being brought to an end by the SWAN members.

“A total of 238 sex workers were interviewed in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine” – says Aliya Rakhmetova from SWAN in a press release announcing the final results of the survey to be published on March 3, 2007.

Since October SWAN members have been encouraging a community effort by sex workers to develop electronic postcards on the topic of human rights, freedom, sex work and violence. Dozens of cards had been prepared prior to the campaign, and were sent on December 17 to friends, allies, NGOs, government representatives, health officials.

On December 17 some groups handed the signatures on the petition to the officials. The others took to the streets with red umbrellas. Many organized press conferences, issued press releases and gave media interviews.

They all shared the same core messages: Sex workers’ rights are human rights; sex workers want rights, not violence; violence against sex workers is a result of neglect of their human rights; there is no solution to HIV/AIDS without involvement of sex workers.

The feeling of the fulfillment and pride that exists in the SWAN network after the December 17 action is maybe the best expressed in the words by Lubica Tornoczyova from Odyseus, SWAN member from Slovakia: “I feel that we as a network did a great job and I am proud that Odyseus took part in this movement.”