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Paulo Longo Research Initiative

PLRI is a collaboration of researchers, policy analysts and sex workers that aims to develop and consolidate ethical, interdisciplinary scholarship on sex work to improve the human rights, health and well being of women, men and transgenders who sell sex.

More about PLRI

Greek prosecution of HIV positive sex workers: bad human rights and bad public health.

Greece has been in the news for HIV posiitve sex workers and posting the  women's photographs on the internet. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/greece-prostitutes-hiv-arrests_n_1473864.html.
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Don’t talk to us about sewing machines: Talk to us about worker’s rights

Sex workers ran a number of exciting and challenging sessions during the AWID Forum in Istanbul. In their interactions with delegates they have been stressing the importance of listening to sex workers and acknowledging sex work as work. There has also been a plea for the silent majority of feminists who support sex workers rights to raise their voices to condemn interventions like anti-trafficking raid and rescues which are often carried out in the name of feminism.

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What is a representative sex worker?

The claim that the sex workers’ rights movement is a purely white, western phenomenon is one of abolitionism’s biggest falsehoods. In fact, Global South sex workers could teach their Northern counterparts a thing or two when it comes to organising for sex workers’ rights. Here is a videoclip of sex workers in Sonagachi, Calcutta, marching against criminalisation of their industry.

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Recognize sex work as legitimate work

sex worker rights demonstration

An article by Reynaga, E. in the HIV/AIDS Policy Law Review, 2008 Dec;13(2-3):97-8. It is accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation of Elena Reynaga's plenary address at the International AIDS Conference.

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UNAIDS calls on Greece to protect sex workers and their clients through comprehensive and voluntary HIV programmes

 

GENEVA, 10 May 2012—The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) expresses its concern over recent actions by Greek authorities involving the arrest, detention, mandatory HIV testing, publication of photographs and personal details, and pressing of criminal charges against at least 12 sex workers. There is no evidence that punitive approaches to regulating sex work are effective in reducing HIV transmission among sex workers and their clients.

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Hit and Run

A new report by the Empower Foundation, a sex workers’ rights group in Thailand, offers a more nuanced picture of the country’s sex work industry – a well-developed, perhaps world-famous, and now increasingly legitimate sector for many. Hit & Run: Sex Workers' Research on Anti-trafficking in Thailand is the result of a year-long survey implemented by sex workers among sex workers, to uncover the state of the industry.

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Condom Use among Female Commercial Sex Workers in Nevada's Legal Brothels

Nevada is the only US state in which commercial sex is legal. Since 1971, counties of fewer than 400000 people
have been able to elect to legalize brothels. At present, there are 32 legal brothels employing about 300 licensed prostitutes. Licensed brothel sex workers undergo weekly state-mandated medical examinations for gonorrhea, herpes, and venereal warts and monthly blood tests for syphilis. In March 1986, the Nevada Board of Health began requiring a negative initial human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody test and negative monthly tests thereafter as a condition of employment. If a brothel worker or applicant is found to be seropositive, her employment is immediately terminated or denied.

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AWID in Istanbul: Linking sex worker rights with feminism and development

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development  Forum will take place in Istanbul in April. It will be an opportunity for women working in international development to come together to  strategize, network, celebrate, and learn from each other. A mix of activists, academics and people from programmes for women will hear presentations and engage in dialogues around this year’s theme which is the impact of economic power on women.

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Preventing HIV in sex work in Sex Work Settings in Sub Saharan Africa

Sex work is an important feature of the transmission dynamics of HIV within early, advanced and regressing epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV prevalence among sex workers and their clients is commonly 20 fold higher than the general population.

Together, these factors may contribute to a differential in HIV transmission potential of more than 1000 times compared with lower-risk populations. Yet, in much of Africa, there is little evidence that transmission of HIV and other STIs in sex work settings has been controlled.

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Violence against sex workers is prevalent in Cambodia with customers and the police often the perpetrators

Passed to protect women, the 2008 law on human trafficking and sexual exploitation has been used by authorities to justify the harassment and abuse of sex workers.

But, Cambodian sex workers say it’s now time to demand their rights.Hundreds are gathered in the capital of Phnom Penh.They are clapping loudly as the host welcomes the first day of 16 days of activism against gender violence.They are wearing white shirts with the slogan: "United we can end violence against women and bring the peace."

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