Sex workers’ struggles for rights & respect

Sex work has been and continues to be a hotly debated political issue, and too often sex workers themselves are excluded from the debate. The consequence is that many policies aimed at ‘protecting’ or ‘saving’ sex workers from exploitation are adding to their precarity and vulnerability.

Despite their social stigmatization and legal criminalization, sex workers around the world have organised in diverse and innovative ways. During this panel discussion, representatives of sex worker organisations will share their experiences, strategies and obstacles experienced in their struggles for rights and respect.

The goal of this discussion is to get sex workers’ perspectives on their own realities; to gain an understanding of the challenges that dominant legal and policy frameworks pose for sex workers’ rights; and to get insight into the multiple and creative ways in which sex workers challenge the stigma, violence and labor exploitation that often characterizes their work and lives.

Speakers

• Cobie Kames, sex worker organization Liberty, The Hague
• Thierry Schaffauser, French union of sex workers STRASS
• Representative of the Dutch sex workers organisation PROUD

Moderation

Karin Astrid Siegmann, ISS