2 Addressing Violence against Sex Workers
The availability of drugs and alcohol in sex work establishments increases the likelihood of people becoming violent towards sex workers working there. Sex workers who consume alcohol or drugs may not be able to assess situations that are not safe for them.
Violence or fear of violence may prevent sex workers from accessing harm reduction, HIV prevention, treatment and care, health and other social services as well as services aimed at preventing and responding to violence( e. g. legal, health). Discrimination against sex workers in shelters for those who experience violence may further compromise their safety.
2.1.2 Values and principles for addressing violence against sex workers
Core values
• Promote the full protection of sex workers’ human rights. This includes the rights to: nondiscrimination; security of person and privacy; recognition and equality before the law; due process of law and the highest attainable standard of health; employment, and just and favourable conditions of employment; peaceful assembly and association; freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, and from cruel and inhumane treatment; and protection from violence.
• Reject interventions based on the notion of rescue and rehabilitation. Even when ostensibly focused on minors( who are not sex workers), such raids deprive sex workers of their agency( the choice, control and power to act for themselves) and increase the likelihood that they will experience violence.
• Promote gender equality by encouraging programme planners and implementers to challenge unequal gender roles, social norms and distribution and control of resources and power. Intervention strategies should aim for more equitable power relationships between sex workers and others in the wider community.
• Respect the right of sex workers to make informed choices about their lives, which may involve not reporting or seeking redress for violence, not seeking violence-related services, or continuing in an abusive relationship.
Programming principles
• Gather information about local patterns of violence against sex workers, and the relationship of violence to HIV, as the basis for designing programmes( see Chapter 3, Section 3.2.2, part A).
• Use participatory methods. Sex workers should be in decision-making positions where they can engage in processes to identify their problems and priorities, analyse causes and develop solutions. Such methods strengthen programme relevance, build enduring life and relationship skills and help ensure the long-term success of programmes.
• Use an integrated approach in designing interventions. Holistic programmes that include provision of health services, work with the legal and justice sectors and are community-based 4 can have a greater impact on violence against sex workers and the risk of HIV. Such programmes require establishing partnerships with a wide range of groups and institutions.
• Build capacity of programme staff to understand and address the links between violence against sex workers and HIV. Programme staff should be able to respond sensitively to sex workers who experience violence, without further stigmatizing or blaming them.( See also Chapter 6, Section 6.2.6, sub-section on hiring and training staff.)
4 In most contexts in this tool,“ community” refers to populations of sex workers rather than the broader geographic, social or cultural groupings of which they may be a part. Thus,“ outreach to the community” means outreach to sex workers,“ community-led interventions” are interventions led by sex workers, and“ community members” are sex workers.
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