By Elena Tsukerman,

Head of the charity organization "All-Ukrainian League Legalife"

While the officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ukrainian politicians state that they are not ready to start a dialogue with sex workers, apparently because they are “above” this, a British MP Lord Norman Fowler not only talked to me, a representative of the sex worker community, but has also agreed that sex work is work!

ForUm, December 16, 2011:

The most common form of violence against women in Ukraine is psychological violence. The journasilst of ForUm was invited to a press-conference dedicated to issues of human rights and tolarant treatment of women who provide sexual services.

Irina Demchenko, the director of the analitical center "Socioconsulting" announced the findings of the research done by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine. The survey involved 300 sex workers and 42 managers. (read the article in Russian below)

By Aliya Rakhmetova
Beginning of November 2011, Ukrainian Verhovnaya Rada (a supreme body similar to Parliament) reviewed a bill on changing the legislation around ‘prostitution’. In the background note, Mogilev, the Minister of Interior, writes that the reason for the reform is the fact that existing legislation is not working (news article link http://cripo.com.ua/index.php?sect_id=10&aid=125635 ).

Aliya Rakhmetova, SWAN Coordinator: I met Vantala (her nickname) at the International AIDS Conference. She came there with the drug users' community from Ukraine and was mostly participating in discussions around harm reduction and drug use in the region. She is a human rights activists, who supports rights of drug users and sex workers. So I thought it might make sense to look into the reality in which sex workers who use drugs live in Ukraine. The interview was held in Russian and I took short notes, so I hope I didn't miss anything.

AR: Tell me about yourself.
V: When there was nothing to sell or steal from home to support my drug habit, I had to think about other ways to find money. By the looks men gave me it was obvious that I was attractive. So I started to provide sexual services… It wasn't difficult. I knew about sex from movies. After getting paid I would go to the other end of the city to my dealer to buy drugs. The next evening everything started again.
Surprisingly, in 3 years of my sex work experience I never was harassed by the police. Maybe my expensive outfit looked more like a young girl going to a party?

Beginning of November 2011, Ukrainian Verhovnaya Rada (a supreme body similar to Parliament) reviewed a bill on changing the legislation around ‘prostitution’. In the background note, Mogilev, the Minister of Interior, writes that the reason for the reform is the fact that existing legislation is not working (news article link http://cripo.com.ua/index.php?sect_id=10&aid=125635 ).

By Marija Tosheva, HOPS, Macedonia

On July 20, 2010, the second day of Vienna conference, SWAN organized an oral session on Sex work, mobility, migration and human rights in Europe and Central Asia. 6 experienced activists from the region, members of SWAN and TAMPEP networks, had a chance in front of an excellent audience to challenge and start a discussion on vulnerabilities and structural barriers faced by mobile and migrant sex workers to better health and human rights.

July 18-23, Vienna, Austria – This year sex workers and allies from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia had a chance to talk about barriers and issues that sex workers face in their countries, to show what groups and organizations have achieved in addressing the pandemics and violations in their region. The Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN) was represented by 11 activists from Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia and Montenegro, a team of young and energetic volunteers from Odyseus, Slovakia and a performance group from Bliss without Risk, Czech Republic.

... "In 2010, the State, for the first time, legally recognized the existence of sex workers in Ukraine and cemented this fact in the domestic legislation. In particular, the Order № 3123/275/770 “On approval of standards for the provision of social services to representatives of risk groups”, which establishes the definition of “persons in sex business”, was signed by three ministers and the profile is registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. On November 1, this binding for all authorities of the legal act entered into force."...

Read whole Press-release in English here.

Dear Friends! From my own experience in providing social assistance and the many testimonies, we, the members of the Ukrainian League LEGALIFE can say a lot about the systematic and massive violations of the rights of sex workers' by the police in Ukraine.

March, 2010, Budapest – The beginning of March proved to be busy and full of events for some of SWAN members. SWAN representatives from Tais Plus (Kyrgyzstan), Legalife (Ukraine), Humanitarian Action (Russia) and the SWAN secretariat were invited to Budapest by the Open Society Institute to take part in an intensive 5-day hands-on training in creating advocacy films.