Here are some of the echoes of the cancelled event in Belgrade, among them by Professor Viktorija Cucic of JAZAS, SWAN member from Belgrade and Vinaigrette, one of the sex workers who were to participate at the round table.
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Sex workers in Serbia are institutionally totally unprotected – claims an article published on the B92 news portal. They are beaten up by their clients and pimps alike.

Here are some of the echoes of the cancelled event in Belgrade, among them by Professor Viktorija Cucic of JAZAS, SWAN member from Belgrade and Vinaigrette, one of the sex workers who were to participate at the round table.
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Sex workers in Serbia are institutionally totally unprotected – claims an article published on the B92 news portal. They are beaten up by their clients and pimps alike.

“The recent case of a minor mother who was after giving birth with a Cesarean kicked back to the street only tells about the society in which we live” – says Viktorija Cucic, professor at the Belgrade University and Chair of the Board of JAZAS, SWAN member from Serbia.

“I am happy that there are students that tried to organize this round table, and who think that sex workers are human beings” says Cucic.

“I know many persons that sell sex services on the streets of Belgrade and who have no other alternative. I do not think this is the way to treat them, and such a treatment is not a voice of morality or whatever” says Cucic in the news interview.

Prostitution is an administrative offense in Serbia and persons engaged in sex work can be fined monetarily or imprisoned for up to 30 days.

“Street prostitution is just the tip of the iceberg and a subject of general rejection, while prostitution at middle and higher levels is untouchable,” Cucić told at a press conference.

The coordinator of a survey “Perception of Prostitution/Sexual Labor in Serbia,” released in November 2008 Miloš Mojsilović, said at a press conference that no institution in Serbia was dealing with this problem.

He said that it was impossible to identify a single person from state institutions that was competent to discuss prostitution, and that inter-institutional cooperation on the matter was very bad.

“The Health Ministry went furthest with its strategy for tackling HIV, while the media is the only source of information on the topic of sexual labor,” Mojsilović said.

Vinaigrette, one of the sex workers that were to participate at the cancelled event in Belgrade, tells more on her blog about the aftermath of the event: “Marianne Jonker, sex worker activist from the Netherlands, was the person I was supposed to present with at Belgrade University. She facilitated a workshop for sex workers during which we had a chance to discuss the negative article, and I got a list of responses and demands from some street-based sex workers here in Belgrade.

This is what those sex workers have to say:

1. This type of negative media attention absolutely contributes to the violence against them from other people, and clients.
2. They feel that if such an article printed such lies, then the newspaper should be prosecuted
3. It is unacceptable to use this term ‘kurva’ or whore. They are called sex workers (because sex work is labor just like anything else).
4. Sex Workers are people, and they should not be discriminated against
5. There was an organization for transgender folk which was going to attend to the presentation at Belgrade University, and they were really sad they could not go.

I shared these statements with every journalist I talked to since. I hope they get printed in the Serbian Media.”

More info: Stasa Plecas, ecjazas@gmail.com,

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