Monday morning of the 24th of June. In one of the largest conference rooms at the UN in Geneva, one of the civil society delegates started her statement – “I am a sex worker and a mother. I offer my sexual services on the street. I am very proud and grateful for my work. The greatest violence we sex workers suffer is based on stigma, discrimination, and police persecution. We need sex work to be recognised as what it is: a job.” Nine speakers – one after another – stressed the importance of recognising sex workers’ rights during the interactive session with the UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem on her latest report. 

Sex workers are marginalised in every society. At the intersection of multiple identities, for example, when a sex worker is also a migrant or trans woman, their rights are even more ignored and violated. Sex workers-led organisations, international human rights organisations, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights organisations have stressed time and again that decriminalisation of sex work is the only way to end violence. During the 56th UN Human Rights Council meeting the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls (SR VAW) launched her report that ignored these voices and made recommendations that have more harmful consequences for sex workers. 

Count Me In! had already been collaborating with sex workers and other feminist organisations to strategise around this report and ensure a strong presence and active engagement of sex workers themselves during the UN Human Rights Council so that their voices that were ignored in the report could be heard at the session.   

Being present there, Nadia Van Der Linde from WO=MEN captured her firsthand account of the advocacy and activism of sex workers’ rights activists at the UN HRC56. Read it in her own words. 

The first sex workers delegation ever

I just found out that this is the very first time that an international sex workers delegation is jointly attending the HRC in Geneva! There were supposed to be over 20 activists here but due to visa obstacles several sex workers from Africa, the MENA region and Asia are missing. Still, it is significant to have sex worker representatives from 6 different continents here together. 

There is high importance to sex workers engaging in this HRC. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, will be presenting her latest report on ‘prostitution and violence against women and girls’. She was outspoken against sex workers’ rights before starting this research, and she clearly has maintained this frame, completely discarding ample available evidence to the contrary, in her report. Thankfully many of the inputs – full of academic evidence, arguments, policy reviews and lived experience – have been gathered by the Count Me In! (CMI!) consortium here. 

During a preparatory meeting organised by NSWP and SRI and attended by several of CMI!’s members and other allied organisations, sex workers shared their responses to the report of the Special Rapporteur, highlighting a very different reality from the portrayal by the Special Rapporteur and speaking from the heart. A shared sentiment: “This report is a violence against us”. 

“This Special Rapporteur is totally ignoring our lives, our work. There is importance in the term ‘sex worker’. It explicitly makes the connection with human and labour rights. It is an umbrella term which includes diverse sectors and is gender and sexuality inclusive. Do not erase our consent by talking about ‘prostituted women’,” shares one of the participants. 

Dear Special Rapporteur, did you listen to the lived experience of sex workers in all diversity?

I started my day with sitting in on ‘informals’ (negotiations between governments) about a draft resolution on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls. At the CSW in New York such sessions are nowadays closed to civil society, one of those possibly accidental closing space examples that is hard to get overturned. It turned out to be a good preparation for the afternoon’s session, as governments shared opposing views on whether to use the term prostitution or sex work or sex or gender. 

The presentation of the report on prostitution and violence against women and girls by the Special Rapporteur takes place in the afternoon in the main room with the colourful ceiling. The small NGO-observation area is packed with sex workers’ rights defenders and allies. It hurts to see the reality and rights of people who do sex work so blatantly denied in this essential human rights space. Seeing extremely conservative States talk about the integrity of women and claiming all sorts of actions and policies in place to protect women from violence. 

It hurts, but it also harms. Criminalisation and stigma result in discrimination and more violence against and killing of sex workers. Poorer health outcomes. Denial of basic financial services like a bank account. Lack of access to legal services. Abuse by authorities like the police, including theft and rape. Children being denied an education. Loss of custody of your own children. Homelessness. 

But we also quietly clap (you are not allowed to make a peep in the NGO section) for a number of States who highlight that it’s important to use the term ‘sex work’ instead of ‘prostituted women’. That they feel many voices were not included in the report. That sex work and trafficking should not be conflated. That the legal model recommended by the Special Rapporteur leads– see ample evidence from Sweden, Ireland, France – to poor health and rights outcomes for women in the sex industry. The most notable highlights, some of which are shared on Monday when the session is continued, come from the ‘usual suspects’ the Netherlands, Belgium and New Zealand, but also Chile, Panama, Mexico, South Africa, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg impress. WHO even asks governments to consider their submission next to the report, as it does not seem to have been included in the analysis presented by the Rapporteur. Many of the submissions – although strangely not all of them – have just been published by the Rapporteur here. 

We end the day and the first week of the 56th Human Rights Council with a powerful protest in front of the UN, where sex workers and allies gather under red umbrellas and carry “Bodily autonomy for all” and “Full decriminalisation of sex work NOW!” banners. When Reem Alsalem, the Special Rapporteur herself, is visually confronted by the protest while waiting for a green light to cross the street the chanting strengthens: “We are ready, we are ready, we are ready for decrim”. 

Sex workers can speak for themselves: “Not rescue, but rights”

The oral statements by governments in response to the new report by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls are continued, ending with ten NGO statements. Sex workers from Africa, Latin America and Europe take the microphone and call for the decriminalisation of sex work, the recognition of sex work as work and the acknowledgement of sex workers as people with agency. 

“My work is as dignified as any other work. But we do endure undignified conditions because of the lack of recognition of our work. Although it is true that not everyone wants to be a sex worker, it is also true that not everyone wants to be a secretary or do housekeeping. Our decisions are as valid as those who decide not to do sex work. I will continue to demand my rights as a sex worker because I also deserve labour rights,” says Carolina, a sex worker and mother from Colombia.

The Dutch LGBT organisation COC is the last to make a statement, highlighting that LGBT and sex worker movements represent overlapping communities and have shared struggles for their right to self-determination and bodily autonomy.

In the afternoon, CMI! is one of the (many!) co-sponsors of a side event organised by NSWP and SRI on the decriminalisation of sex work as a human rights imperative. I am relieved to see the room filling up quickly, including numerous state delegates easily recognised with their printed country signs. The panellists provide clarity about different legal and policy frameworks and their implications for sex workers. They bust some myths (no, decriminalisation does not undermine anti-trafficking efforts, quite the contrary) and share insights from strategies used to strengthen their rights. In South Africa, a bill to decriminalise sex work is still pending in parliament. In Kenya, a public interest litigation process has been prepared following a large number of murders of sex workers. New Zealand and the Netherlands take the floor during the Q&A, commending the panellists for their courage to speak out. 

Despite this particular Special Rapporteur’s publication of a very harmful report, it was a good day. Sex workers and allies – across movements and sectors – came together and spoke out against the harms and injustice and for human rights for all, including people who do sex work. 

Part of the text was taken from Nadia van der Linde’s original blog, published on WO=MEN’s website. Click here to read the extensive version.
See also: Sex Work Delegation at the Human Rights Council – SWAN