Marginalised and stigmatised- Sex Work should not cost my life (GCSJ Seminar series)

After researching and working with sex workers in Cape Town and the UK there seems to be a desperate need for the safeguarding of sex workers.

The approach of policing towards sex workers in Cape Town is one thing on paper and another when police and sex workers encounter each other on the streets and in the bushes. The criminalisation of sex work links to human rights violations perpetrated by law enforcement against sex workers such as assault and harassment, arbitrary arrest, violations of procedures and standing orders, inhumane conditions of detention, unlawful profiling, exploitation and bribery, and denial of access to justice. In South Africa, a woman is killed every four hours. In the past two years, 101 female and transwomxn sex workers died in South Africa. Many before the age of 40 and 45% of the deaths were murdered. These are the murders we know about. How many do we not know about?

The call for decriminalisation of sex work is loud and urgent. Criminalisation of sex work means that the working conditions for sex workers are appalling and linked to labour exploitation, stigma and discrimination, arbitrary arrest, and violence. Ending the criminalisation of sex work could provide the platform for safer working conditions and better health outcomes for sex workers and the provision of adequate funded mental and physical health and social care sex work specific programmes.

Register via Eventbrite