ANTI-TRAFFICKING: CAMBODIA THE REALITY

In association with OSI Health Media Program and WITNESS Video Advocacy Institute

OPEN DAY OF ACTION TO STOP SEX WORKER RAIDS AND CALL FOR REPEAL OF THE TRAFFICKING LAW THAT THE CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT PASSED UNDER PRESSURE FROM THE UNITED STATES

• Read background information on the event here.
• Review of Cambodia Law - here.
• Speech on HR abuses - here.
• Handouts on HR abuses - here.

Sign the Letter of Support HERE !

A guide for programs with sex workers
By International HIV/AIDS Alliance, www.aidsalliance.org
This guide gives a detailed understanding of violence in relation to sex work and challenges some common assumptions. The guide provides example programs to illustrate ways in which HIV and AIDS projects can help reduce the incidence of violence against sex workers and provide support to those who experience violence. More

By Empower Foundation, www.empowerfoundation.org/
While most of us never challenge or even consider the role of linguistics in our daily lives, Empower, a group offering support for sex workers, has created the Bad Girls Dictionary, in which typical meanings of words are reworked in a new light. Written in the first person, the text works to present old ideas in a new prejudice-free light. More

Cambodia has recently passed an anti-trafficking law which equates all sex work with trafficking and has led to massive closures of brothels and widespread human rights abuses against sex workers. Sex workers have been forcibly detained in rehabilitation centers where they have been raped and robbed by police and guards. More

With so many serial rapists and murderers in the news, women are demanding to know why our safety continues to be so undervalued. At our recent Public Trial – the Rape of Justice, who’s guilty? 30 rape survivors – among them a sex worker - gave harrowing testimonies about how their case was closed or evidence lost, leaving their attacker unprosecuted, free to attack someone else. More

On 17 to 19 April 2008 the 39th Seminar on Prostitution was held in the city of Hamburg, Germany. The topic of the seminar was Similarities and differences in the context of Migration and Sex Work. Participants adopted St. Pauli Protocol on sex work and migration. More

This guide discusses the challenges involved in ensuring that violence is addressed in HIV programmes, gives a detailed understanding of violence in relation to sex work and challenges some common assumptions. The guide also provides examples from real programmes that illustrate ways in which HIV and AIDS projects can help reduce the incidence of violence against sex workers and provide support to those who experience violence. More

Deadline: May 30, 2008
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for the first round of Grand Challenges Explorations, a US$100 million initiative to encourage bold and unconventional global health solutions. More

Please sign a statement representing sex workers’ position in harm reduction movement and rights, Prepared for the International Harm Reduction Association’s 19th International Conference Harm Reduction 2008, to be held in Barcelona, Spain, May 11 to 15, 2008 More