RESEARCH FOR SEX WORK 12 December 2010
ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ по секс-работе
ISSUE
Addressing violence against sex workers Editorial by Nel van Beelen & Aliya Rakhmetova Over and over again, conversations with sex workers worldwide reveal that the lack of personal safety is one of their main worries. Common examples of violence that sex workers face are verbal abuse or beatings from neighbours or passers-by, forceful arrest and harassment by police officers, robbery, gang rape, ‘date rape’ and even (attempted) murder. Other forms of violence are extortion by the police or criminals, blackmailing to get free or unprotected sex, and forced drug and alcohol use in brothels or other venues. Finally, sex workers can also suffer violence from the hands of fellow workers who compete for a good spot on the streets or the favours of a client, or from the hands of their intimate partners. Violence not only makes sex workers’ working life more difficult, but also threatens their health and wellbeing. For instance, rape almost always takes place without the protection of a condom, raising fears about becoming
pregnant or infected with an STI. Also their psychological health may be affected by extreme incidents of violence, especially when there is no support system available for sharing experiences or seeking legal action. As this issue of Research for Sex Work shows, violence against sex workers – female, male and trans – does not take place in a vacuum. The sheer lack of protection of street sex workers, but also of those working in isolated places such as hotel rooms and apartments, is commonly the result of anti-prostitution laws and police policies. The criminalisation of sex work contributes to an environment in which violence against sex workers is tolerated. It also leads to reluctance to report incidents of crime to the police – and to police officers ignoring the rights of those who do come forward. Many sex workers’ collectives and support organisations have worked tirelessly to address violence at the workplace. In this issue, some of these describe their strategies and activities. Others raise awareness on neglected issues and target groups, including
domestic violence, trans sex workers and indigenous sex workers. What their contributions have in common is that they show that violence cannot be treated as an individual and isolated problem – it is pervasive, omnipresent and it needs to be taken seriously by all of us: sex workers, human rights advocates, health workers, researchers, police officers, (local) government officials, et cetera. Sex worker organising around this theme is crucial, as the authors of one article about Hong Kong wrote: ‘Our primary strategy to fight these injustices has been to make sex workers safety and police abuse a common concern among sex workers.’ This bilingual (English/Russian) edition of Research for Sex Work has been produced by the Global Network of Sex Work Projects in collaboration with SWAN, a network of sex workers’ rights organisations in Central/Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We hope this edition offers valuable insights and ideas to those involved in the fight against violence, not only in this region but all over the world.