HIV

In the past decade, debates regarding the sex industry, especially street-level sex work, have become exacerbated by the hosting of global sporting events. Such issues as displacement, safety concerns and financial cuts to social services have contributed to the problematisation of the overlap between mega event spaces and commercial sex spaces.

The study was carried out to assess the factors associated with HIV seropositivity among female sex workers (FSWs) in Dimapur, Nagaland, a high HIV prevalence state of India. A total of 426 FSWs were recruited into the study using respondent driven sampling (RDS).

Data on demographic characteristics, sexual and injecting risk behaviours were collected from them and were tested for HIV, Syphilis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. 

Widespread criminalization of sex work has had the effect of undermining the sexual health of sex workers, for instance by preventing them from accessing health care services for fear of criminal prosecution if found to be a sex worker. Moreover, laws permitting mandatory HIV or STI testing of sex workers and mandating disclosure of private health information to employers sanction direct interference in the private lives of sex workers.

Extract from report
 

This article, in Exchange on HIV/AIDS, Sexuality and Gender, focuses on the relationship between HIV and sex workers’ rights. It outlines the elements of a rights-based approach to sex work and includes information on how the criminalisation of sex work and stigma and discrimination increase vulnerability. It suggests that the key elements of a rights based approach are that it:

This short update from IPPF contains an article by Melissa Ditmore, the former coordinator of the International Network of Sex Work Projects. She outlines some key principles of HIV programming with sex workers. These include that interventions should be:

Article in BMC Public Health 2011, 11:357.

Female sex workers are a population sub-group most affected by the HIV epidemic in India and elsewhere. Despite research and programmatic attention to FSWs, little is known regarding sex workers' reproductive health and HIV risk in relation to their experiences of violence. This paper in BMC Public Health therefore aims to understand the linkages between violence and the reproductive health and HIV risks among a group of mobile FSWs in India.

Methods

Female sex workers (FSW) are highly marginalised and HIV-positive FSW are under a double stigma. No study has assessed the likelihood of secondary transmission via HIV-positive FSW in China.

One group that participated actively in the march and which is represented in conference sessions as well as at the conference’s Global Village is sex workers. During Sunday night’s opening session a group gathered under the red umbrellas that symbolize the sex workers’ movement shouted “sex workers’ rights are human rights” and demanded “decriminalize sex work, now.” Over the past few days commercial sex workers have spoken about their experiences advocating for greater attention to human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS within Global Village meetings. 

This case study from 2005 by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network explores sex work related laws and argues for reform of provisions related to sex work in the Criminal Code which undermine sex workers’ ability to realise their human rights.