The English Collective of Prostitutes has highlighted 10 of the common responses members receive from police when reporting harassment and violence. The group says decriminalisation of sex work could mitigate the stigma. ANEZKA TUREK “Who do you go to if police are part of the problem?” asks Laura Watson, spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes, an organisation […]
Sex workers say they see police ‘as a threat rather than a shield’Maya OppenheimWomen’s CorrespondentIreland’s decision to criminalise prostitution is “facilitating” harassment of sex workers and violent attacks against them, a scathing new report has found.Research carried out by Amnesty International warned legislation implemented in 2017 was driving sex workers to put their lives at risk in a desperate bid […]
Selma James PHOTO COURTESY OF CROSSROADS AV COLLECTIVE From anti-communist witch-hunts to independence movements to wages for housework and rights for sex workers, 91-year-old Selma James has been in the struggle for a lifetime. BY LEILA HAWKINS When I arrive at Crossroads Women’s Centre in North London to interview Selma James, she is in a meeting […]
The Home Office launched a VAWG Consultation to gather input into its 2020-2024 National Strategy. Prostitution wasn’t mentioned specifically, but some local authority VAWG strategies list prostitution as a form of violence against women on an equal par with rape, domestic abuse, stalking, harassment, etc. ECP collaborated with National Ugly Mugs and Umbrella Lane on a […]
What you need to know:Three sex worker’s organisations and a women’s lobby group — Women Against Rape — held demonstrations outside the Ministry of Defence headquarters in London on December 17.Donned in red scarves and masks and carrying banners, they asked for the arraignment of the military officer, who has since confessed to the murder.Sex workers […]
The sex workers groups assembled outside the Ministry of Defence office to call for justice for Wanjiru. In Summary • ECP said sex workers have been speaking about police violence for decades. • The group also protested racism and other discrimination which mean that women of colour, migrants, trans women are the vast majority […]
British sex workers have called for expedited probe into the killing of Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru by a British soldier. Wanjiru, a 21-year-old mother, was brutally murdered as she partied with British soldiers and her body dumped in a septic tank in Nanyuki, Kenya, in 2012. The sex workers staged protests in London on Friday, […]
Sex workers at the Justice for Agnes Wanjiru demonstration in London on December 17, 2021. PHOTO: SWARMDrawn from three sex worker organizations; Sex Workers Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM), ECP (English Collective of Prostitutes) and the AAWG (All African Women’s Group, the cocottes camped outside the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence headquarters on Friday in […]
Criminalisation, poverty and the hostile environment are roots of violence against sex workers. It’s time to end them all, say Niki Adams and Laura Connelly Since 2003, those of us involved in the movement for sex workers’ rights have commemorated 17 December as the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. It is a day of mourning, […]
Today (December 17, 2021) sex workers and allies gathered outside the Ministry of Defence in London to protest the murder of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan sex worker, who was killed by a British Army soldier in March 2012. Today is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW), a day in which we honour […]