The Advisory Group offers a greater understanding of the situation of sex workers – an understanding that is necessary to address the abuses they face and to ensure they have universal access to HIV services. Every effort has been made to highlight good practices that enhance human rights protections for sex workers, as well as practices that create barriers to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. The hope of the Advisory Group is that the information presented here will help shape programmes and policies on HIV and sex work that are truly human rights-based….Good Practices Some countries and sub-national jurisdictions have decriminalised sex work, removing all penal code violations related to sex work, sometimes also establishing health regulations or other non-penal code regulatory frameworks for sex work. These include Germany, the Netherlands, Senegal, New Zealand, parts of Australia, and some counties in the US state of Nevada.
States should move away from criminalising sex work or activities associated with it. Decriminalisation of sex work should include removing criminal penalties for purchase and sale of sex, management of sex workers and brothels, and other activities related to sex work. To the degree that states retain non-criminal administrative law or regulations concerning sex work, these should be applied in ways that do not violate sex workers’ rights or dignity and that ensure their enjoyment of due process of law.
20111215_Report-UNAIDS-Advisory-group-HIV-Sex-Work_en.pdf
Author:
UNAIDS and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects
