All the seminars were organized by the methodology developed by SWAN (See Sex Worker’s Advocacy School in this and previous issue of SWAN News). Some seminars already brought tangible results – the 100TV in Russia broadcasted a live program on sex work, prepared by two Sankt Petersburg seminar alumni.
The newsletter, devoted to December 17, The International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers, opens with a whole page article “Everyone has right to choice”.
It describes the meaning and history of December 17, the red umbrella, with photos from the 2007 December 17 campaign in Macedonia.
In the column “Citizens’ and human rights” a critical report was published on the police raid and involuntary testing in Skopje in end November, about which SWAN News published in-depth report in the issue 21.
Freedom is a rather popular weekly debate show aired in evening prime time, live from the studio of the Ukrainian TV station Inter. Every broadcast is hosted by different public personality who decides on the theme of the show.
On December 20, 2008 the host was the city mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernoveckiy, in the posh Kiev circles often referred to as “Space Lena” (“Леня – космос”) because of his weird statements and inadequate body language. The main topic were corruption and human rights.
IN FOCUS:
DECEMBER 17 CAMPAIGN
December 17th, the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, calls attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe. This issue of the SWAN News is devoted to the campaign organized during the week of December 17, 2008 by the SWAN members.
В ФОКУСЕ:
СИГНАЛ ИЗ МАКЕДОНИИ: ПОЛИЦЕЙСКИЕ РЕЙДЫ, ЗАДЕРЖАНИЯ, ПРИНУДИТЕЛЬНОЕ ИППП ТЕСТИРОВАНИЕ
Более 30 секс работников, клиентов, посредников и один социальный работник из HOPS, члена сети SWAN из Македонии, задержаны в массовом рейде; принудительное ИППП тестирование имело место; гражданское общество считает, что были серьезно нарушены права человека
Yesterday we had one successful campaign. We started with street action with symbolical opening of red umbrellas at the open area where Sex Workers joined us. We are very happy because this year, there were much more people than last year. Most of the people were SW. One hour after that we had exhibition, with video projection and promotion of the song “Sex workers Army” which we accepted as the hymn of Sex Workers. STAR-MACEDONIA
Посмотреть полный видеорепортаж можно здесь
A review of press-conference by independent journalist