Sex Worker Rights Music Video by
http://www.sexworerfest.com/Trouble
swfest@bayswan.org

The San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival premieres this sex worker anthem, Courtney Trouble's "The Burnout," a music video by Scarlot Harlot and Courtney Trouble in English, Chinese and Thai.
The makers wish to thank and acknowledge the sex worker activists around the world for their work and inspiration.

Also visit Sex Workers Present
from APNSW, to view many sex worker videos
including “Taking The Pledge”
from the Network of Sex Work Projects.

http://apnswdollhouse.wordpress.com, Cambodia
March 2010 – Recent pronouncements by the Prime Minister in Cambodia that sex work is an affront to traditional Cambodian culture and to the dignity of Cambodian women have led to more raids on bars and arrests of sex workers.

A film about sex work in the Caribbean
Plri.org
January 2010 – A film from the Caribbean Treatment Action Group and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition about the problems faced by sex workers in the Caribbean. There is a focus on migrant workers, HIV, abuse from the state, stigma and discrimination from the community and efforts to overcome them.
Part 1
Part 2

December 17 is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers and our featured video comes to you from Macedonia, where local NGO Healthy Options Projects Skopje (HOPS) partnered with WITNESS this year on a campaign to end violence, marginalization, and criminalization of sex workers.

In Macedonia, as throughout the world, sex workers are pushed to the margins of society by a combination of prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Yet, the fact that a person sells sexual services cannot be used as justification for the denial of their fundamental rights, to which all human beings are entitled.

Through its association with USAID, MTV EXIT has placed itself in the middle of a battle waged by sex workers and garment workers for the right to work and the right to fare wages. Unfortunately, MTV EXIT through its concerts presented a message that potentially made the situation worse for Cambodian sex workers. By conflating prostitution with trafficking, prostitution is reduced to sex slavery and is painted as a degrading and abusive profession. Within this pattern of thought, prostitutes are not considered women with agency who have freely chosen their profession, but instead are considered victims in need of ‘saving’. Critics have pointed out that the MTV EXIT campaign will be seen by audiences as reinforcing the Cambodian government’s anti-trafficking law and agenda. Read full article Cambodia: MTV no EXIT campaign indirectly supports abusive anti-trafficking law.

May 23, Australia -- In a lead up to its major Fundraising campaign, the Salvation Army of New South Wales Australia, launched an offensive add on May 22nd 2009. It read: "To get Rick out of prostitution, we had to resort to smuggling. This is the door that saved his life. When Rick left a message on a computer screen inside our Oasis van we had to act fast. Disguised as a client, we picked him up, took him to the airport and flew him interstate to one of our rehab centres, miles away from the heroin and hustling…”

In this issue of SWAN News we present a video interview with a Swedish sex worker and activist Pye Jacobsson about the legislation around prostitution and its impact on sex workers’ lives in Sweden.

In a shocking incident of moral policing, hoodlums allegedly belonging to Sri Ram Sena, struck in Mangalore on Saturday. Around 40 people reportedly barged into a pub on Balmatha road, and viciously attacked girls who were at the pub. At least two women have been hospitalized.

“Its success came from the fact that the campaign was innovative, almost bizarre, and appealing to the youth too. The cause got wide coverage, embarrassing conservatives justifying restrictions on women or religious-infighting among different groups in this diverse country,” says one of articles on Digiactivism. View video here and read a case study of this campaign read below in Sex Workers' Advocacy School.

Cambodian Sex Worker groups and the APNSW (Asian Pacific Network of Sex Workers) are figthing against for two very abusive systems. The first problem is there are many violations against their 100% Condom Use program. The second problem is relatively new: Cambodia has just recently introduced a new anti-trafficking law which makes all sex work illegal, and where sex workers can be sent for mandatory rehabilitation.
The following film shows the human rights abuses in both approaches.
Watch more videos made by sex workers at SEXWORKERSPRESENT. This ongoing video advocacy project became possible with the support of Open Society Institute and in association with WITNESS Video Advocacy Institute.