The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) this year had as a review theme: 'women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work’ and hosted our co-sponsored side event.
With the title ‘Strengthening Labour Rights through cross- movement collaborations: trade unions, sex workers organisations and feminist groups’, this side event shared - among others - effective approaches to protect and strengthen the human rights of sex workers.
This was
the fourth consecutive year that CMI Consortium, NSWP and the Dutch Ministry of
Foreign affairs successfully co-organised side events within CSW. So, what are
the main takes from such a powerful session?
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| Sex Workers Speak Out Wall by NSWP, presented at the session |
1. A wealth of experience
The session was moderated by Geetanjali (Geeta) Misra, Executive Director at CREA (one of the Count Me In! members). The panel highlighted the importance of intersectional approaches and cross-movement collaboration among feminist, sex workers’ rights and labour rights groups. As Geeta pointed out during the opening of the event:
‘We want to highlight the importance of this collaboration of participants and cosponsors as it is quite unique to have two governments where sex work is not criminalized [New Zealand and the Netherlands] co-sponsoring this session and to have representatives of the sex workers' movement and labour unions at the same table, chaired by a representative of a feminist consortium’.
Together, panelists and moderator made efforts to highlight the importance of intersectional approaches and cross-movement collaboration among feminist, sex workers’ rights and labour rights groups. There was a very rich line-up of panelists where sex workers, representatives of trade unions and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a National AIDS organisation all shared powerful messages. Below some glimpses are shared.
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| Conxa Borrell |
‘With our union, we will fight in a legal manner so that we have our rights which are professional rights, and we want that our working spaces are not criminalized. We want to be able to have contracts for people who work for third parties so that the employers are able to sign legal contracts with us so that we have a life that is in accordance with rights that belong to us.’Igor Bosc, Chief Technical Advisor in the Work in Freedom Programme at the International Labour Organisation (ILO):
‘Sex workers are important for us and we try to keep abreast of the struggles that have happened in the different countries where we're working.’
Karen Burbach, Head of the Taskforce Women’s
Rights & Gender Equality at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands:
‘World economic responses, such as social protection and stimulus packages, must be comprehensive and at least gender responsive. And these responsives must also meet the needs of workers with informal and nonstandard forms of employment like sex workers.’
Kholi Buthelezi
Kholi Buthelezi, Director and
founding member of SISONKE, the national sex workers' movement in South Africa:
‘It's important to build partnerships and make sure that we are visible. And to tap into the national, regional and global spaces as the criminalization of sex work impacts negatively in our lives and prevents us from advocating for our rights as sex workers. Because we believe that only the decriminalization of sex work in the country, and globally, will enable sex workers to exercise their rights and also to recognize sex worker as work.’
Mariama Diallo, Secretary General of the Democratic Union of Senegalese Workers (UDTS) in Senegal:
‘We are (also) focusing on capacity building of sex workers in lobby and human rights advocacy techniques. We are developing lobby or advocacy arguments for the fulfillment of sex workers' rights and for the eradication of the violence they suffer as sex workers.’
Matthew Parks, Parliamentary Coordinator at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in South Africa:
‘We are a progressive trade union federation. We believe strongly in the empowerment of women and that would include sex workers. We believe sex workers are workers, like any other workers. They are entitled to the same rights and the same protections as any other worker would be entitled to.’
Dr. Thembisile Xulu
Dr. Thembisile Xulu, Chief Executive
Officer at the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) in South Africa:
‘Decriminalization would maximize sex workers' legal protection and their ability to exercise their rights to justice and healthcare.’
As a
closing remark, Geeta concluded how significant it was "to be in the formal halls of the UN, even for some of us
just virtually. It's a real breakthrough
for a sex workers right session to be supported by two governments in this space." She added that it's been an amazing experience to have this collaboration between a feminist partnership, labour unions and many sex workers' rights organisations come together to co-create this panel.
2. Accessibility
CMI!’s vision is a gender equal and just world, where all women, girls
and non-binary, gender non-confirming, trans and intersex people enjoy their
rights fully and live to their full potential. For greater accessibility, the
event was interpreted in numerous language - Arabic, French, English, Spanish and Russian - allowing a
more global audience to join the session. Sign interpretation was included as well as closed captions.
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| Karen Burbach from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Geeta Misra and the sign interpreter |
3. High
attendance:
Last but not least, is how well attended this event was: 321
people joined the session! This number speaks firstly of the hard work of all
the bodies involved in the event. And it also speaks to the increasing interest to see sex
workers’ rights in the context of a larger frame, as an intersectional and
feminist issue.
* blog post written by Vera Rodriguez, Red Umbrella Fund
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Additional resources:
- Did you
miss the event and would you like to watch it? You can access it here.
- Counting Sex Workers In campaign materials by CMI!
- Sex Workers Speak Out Wall by NSWP
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