Sex Work is not Trafficking: Briefing Paper 03

Sex Work is Not Trafficking: Briefing Paper 03
The conflation of trafficking and migration with sex work, in law and practice, presents challenges to NSWP.

This NSWP briefing paper explains how sex work is conflated with trafficking; the legal framework; how demand for sex work is conflated with trafficking; the dangers of conflating trafficking with sex work, its impacts on sex workers’ lives and work; the impact on sex worker programming; and offers some recommendations for policy makers, donors and for civil society.

Year of publication: 
2011

The Criminalisation of Clients: Briefing Paper 02

The Criminalisation of Clients: Briefing Paper 02
The criminalisation of sex workers’ clients is often claimed to be part of a new legal framework to eradicate sex work and trafficking by ‘ending demand’. In 1999, Sweden criminalised sex workers’ clients and maintained the criminalisation of third parties such as brothel-owners, managers, security and support staff. The individual selling of sex remained legal. This model is frequently referred to as the ‘Swedish’, ‘Nordic’ or ‘End Demand’ model. There is great pressure in many countries to advance such legal and policy measures. The damaging consequences of this model on sex workers’ health, rights and living conditions are rarely discussed.  

This NSWP briefing paper looks at the impact of ‘end demand’ laws, including increased repression of sex workers; increased violence and discrimination; decreased access to health and social services; and decreased access to housing and shelter.

Year of publication: 
2011

PEPFAR and Sex Work: Briefing Paper 01

PEPFAR and Sex Work: Briefing Paper 01
PEPFAR has made anti-retroviral treatment (ART) available for many people, including sex workers. However, PEPFAR funding contracts with organisations specify that a certain amount of this money be spent on abstinence programming. Contracts include a clause that the organisation accepting funding is opposed to prostitution. This has been called the ‘anti-prostitution pledge’ or ‘anti-prostitution loyalty oath.’ This NSWP briefing paper explains how the pledge affects sex worker organisations and HIV programming with sex workers; the effects on programming and organising; effects on sex workers; and looks at what can be done.
Year of publication: 
2011

South-to-South Mentoring Toolkit for Key Populations

South-to-South Mentoring Toolkit for Key Populations
S2S mentoring implies that all organizations involved, mentor and mentee(s), are rooted in the global South and have direct experience operating in complex low- and middle-income countries. Mentoring can be provided more regularly and more efficiently by organizations in the same or neighboring countries and is often more readily accepted when the mentor’s messages, approaches, experiences, and lessons learned come out of a similar setting.
Year of publication: 
2016

LINKAGES HIV Cascade Framework for Key Populations

LINKAGES HIV Cascade Framework for KPs
The purpose of this document is to assist those responsible for the continuum of HIV services to construct, analyze, and use the HIV cascade framework to improve HIV services by KPs and retention in those services. Intended audiences include ministries of health and other government agencies, nongovernmental and civil society organizations, HIV program managers, and researchers.
Year of publication: 
2015

Sex Workers Who Use Drugs

Sex Workers Who Use Drugs
This joint briefing paper by NSWP and INPUD highlights the specific needs and rights of sex workers who use drugs, as a community that spans two key populations. This document provides an overview of some of the most endemic and substantive ways in which sex workers who use drugs face double criminalisation and associated police harassment, intersectional stigma, compounded marginalisation and social exclusion, heightened interference and harassment from healthcare and other service providers, infantilisation, pathologisation, and an associated undermining of agency, choice, and self-determination.
Year of publication: 
2015

Research for Sex Work, Issue 13: HIV and Sex Work, the View from 2012

Research for Sex Work, Issue 13: HIV and Sex Work, the View from 2012
This issue of research for sex work reflects a small shift. Here, HIV and sex work don’t mean an array of epidemiologically oriented studies, but the frame for critiques of and questions about policy, laws, and programmes. Articles not written by sex workers themselves base their conclusions on what sex workers say. Here, no one tells sex workers how to run their lives.
Year of publication: 
2012

‘SWIT’ – Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programs with Sex Workers

'SWIT' - Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programs with Sex Workers
This tool, commonly abbreviated as ‘SWIT,’ is the product of collaboration among sex workers, service providers, researchers, government officials, and NGOs from around the world. Its development was guided by WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS, NSWP, the World Bank, and development partners from the US, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The purpose of this tool is to describe approaches and principles to building programmes. Guidance is provided on how to implement the recommended health-care interventions for HIV prevention, treatment and care, how to manage programmes, and how to build the capacity of sex worker organizations. Throughout the document are case examples from programmes around the world, highlighting specific aspects related to sex worker programming that have worked well in their contexts. These case examples illustrate how an issue or challenge has been addressed, and to inspire ideas about approaches that could work in the reader’s own context. The summary (policy brief) is also available.
Year of publication: 
2013