It was Tuesday 2nd June, ironically, International Sex Workers’ Day. But there were no sex workers there. For nearly three months, the streets of Patpong, Bangkok’s oldest red-light district, were silent and deserted. Two men sporting Covid-masks sit distanced at a streetside board game as a single hunched figure walks past briskly, clutching an umbrella. […]
Sex trafficking has long been separated from the broader crime of human trafficking. But some are beginning to question whether this separation is useful—or even whether it’s actively harmful. Sex workers’ rights advocates argue that the division makes it easier for people to conflate all sex work with trafficking, inspiring misled campaigns to eliminate sex […]
In 2019, CEDAW (Committee on The Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) called for contributions to its draft general recommendations on TWGCGM. The ECP’s written submission outlined the context of trafficking and sex work in the UK, including the impact of Brexit, the Government’s policy of austerity cuts and a hostile environment for migrants which forces […]
By Saemmool Lee Thanta Laovilwanyakul(middle) talks about her experience as a sex worker at the “Public Meeting with Empower.” Empower Foundation set a table that displayed T-shirts and books that represent their their idea at the public meeting On Monday evening, Thanta Laovilwanyakul, a sex worker from Thailand, sat in front of a stage at Omni […]
(The Guardian, unpublished).Dear Madam/Sir,Like our sisters in Haiti (‘Aid staff would pay more’: sex workers in Haiti speak out), sex workers who have survived disasters and face the calamity of criminalisation every day, must start with our need to support ourselves and our families. Women from Empower, a sex workers collective in Thailand, were in […]
International Women’s Strike, 8 March 2017Declaration from the Global Sex Worker MovementOn March 8, in the spirit of solidarity as part of the International Women’s Strike, sex workers will strike against poverty, criminalization and stigma, whether by refusing to go to work, charging double rates or by any other action possible.We work selling sex in […]
Letter from the sex worker collective, Empower in Thailand to the UK Home Secretary protesting about the harm done to sex workers by raids done in the name of anti-trafficking.Dear Amber Rudd MP, Home Secretary,Empower Foundation, Thailand.Empower is a Thai organization promoting rights and opportunities for sex workers in Thailand for over 30 years. Empower is predominately […]
by Ruth Messinger, American Jewish World Service A few years ago, I traveled to Thailand where I met a sex worker for the very first time. A 37-year-old mother of three, she very succinctly told me about her life: “These were my options: I could be apart from my children for 10 hours each day while […]