According to SWAN Coordinator, Aliya Rakhmetova in Budapest : “Police repression and abuse compromises sex workers’ access to law protection and justice and creates a climate of impunity for violence against them. This in turn, fuels violence against sex workers by others. The only way to end such human rights violations is for governments to uphold sex workers’ human rights.”
According to SWAN Coordinator, Aliya Rakhmetova in Budapest : “Police repression and abuse compromises sex workers’ access to law protection and justice and creates a climate of impunity for violence against them. This in turn, fuels violence against sex workers by others. The only way to end such human rights violations is for governments to uphold sex workers’ human rights.”
In 2008, SWAN published “Arrest the Violence” a community-based research project on human rights abuses against sex workers by state-actors in 11 countries in the CEE/CA based on interviews with 238 sex workers. The report found that across the region 41.7% of sex workers had faced physical violence by police in the past year; 36.5% had faced sexual violence by police in the past year.
Originally started by the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle Washington, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers has empowered workers from cities around the world to come together and organize against discrimination and remember victims of violence.
(end)
NOTES FOR THE EDITOR:
For more information please contact:
Aliya Rakhmetova, SWAN Coordinator,
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union,
Tel. +36 70 211 7377; Email: Aliya.rakhmetova@swannet.org,
Web: www.swannet.org
Link to “Arrest the Violence: Human Rights Abuses Against Sex Workers in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia”
https://swannet.org/files/swannet/File/Documents/Arrest_the_Violence_SWAN_Report_Nov2009_eng.pdf
Short history of International Day against Violence against Sex Workers (audio file):
http://emedia.art.sunysb.edu/swirl/Dec17PSA.mp3
SWAN is a project of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, HCLU, www.tasz.hu
SWAN Members:
Aksion Plus, Albania, www.aksionplus.net
HESED, Bulgaria, www.hesed.bg
Bliss Without Risk, Czech Republic, http://www.rozkosbezrizika.cz/cz/aktuality/
MPEE, Hungary, www.prostitualtak.hu
Kovcheg, Kazakhstan, fsz@mail.ru
Tais Plus, Kyrgyzstan, www.taisplus.com
Dia+Logos, Latvia, www.diacentrs.lv
I Can Live, Lithuania, www.galiugyventi.lt
HOPS, Macedonia, www.hops.org.mk
STAR-STAR, Macedonia
Juventas, Montenegro, www.juventas.co.me
TADA, Poland, www.tada.pl
ARAS-Romanian Association Against AIDS, Romania, www.arasnet.ro
Association for Assistance, Russia
Siberian Initiative, Russia, http://www.sibin.ru
JAZAS, Serbia, www.jazas.net
Odyseus, Slovakia, www.ozodyseus.sk
All Ukrainian Association on Harm Reduction, Ukraine, www.uhra.org.ua
Ukrainian Charitable Organization “LegaLife”, Ukraine, www.legalife.com.ua