Category: News Archive

Managing our own affairs!

January 20th, 2021 · · Fundraiser, News Archive Comments Off on Managing our own affairs!

The Best Practices Policy Project is now a tax exempt organization and has been operating independently of our former fiscal sponsor since December 17, 2020.

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Running our own show has been hard won and we are sharing everything we are learning with our networks so others can do the same if they choose. Donations to the Best Practices Policy Project are tax deductible. Checks can be made out to and mailed to Best Practices Practices Policy Project, Inc at 8 Egbert Hill Rd, Morristown, NJ 07960. Donations can be made online via cc, debit and paypal. If you shop at Amazon (and not saying that you should but *if*) then send us some coins from them when you shop by clicking the button below.

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Want to know how to support other organizations working for rights, providing services and organizing at the grassroots? The sector of organizations and activists working for rights very much needs donations no matter how small. Many organizations do outstanding work while receiving almost no support from mainstream funding agencies and your support will make a difference. The Desiree Alliance is currently seeking support. The Outlaw Project is setting up a housing project for transgender women in Arizona. The Black Sex Worker Collective is combining art and activism. New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance is providing support to the sex workers of New Jersey. The St. James Infirmary provides compassionate and non-judgmental support to sex workers in San Francisco. Donations help keep food on the table for program participants, pays for outreach supplies (like hygiene kits, new socks, hats, gloves, scarves, etc), or help pay for reproductive and medical services for uninsured sex workers in need.

More information about the Best Practices Policy Project… The Best Practices Policy Project (BPPP) is dedicated to supporting organizations and advocates working with sex workers, people in the sex trade and related communities in the United States. We organize, produce materials for policy environments, address research and provide organizations and advocates with technical assistance. We are committed to anti-racism and anti-oppression. Everything that we do is guided by principles that protect the rights of people who engage in sex work in all its forms. BPPP is a member of the US Human Rights Network, the Network of Sex Work Projects and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development.

Impact of cancellations due to COVID-19

March 10th, 2020 · · News Archive, Press Release No comments

In 2020, our organizations in various coalitions have been planning to host the following events and engage in the following human rights processes:

  • a sex worker led parallel session and a fundraiser at the Commission on the Status of Women,
  • the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States including writing a collective report, advocating for key issues with permanent missions, hosting a working group on sex work at the USHRN, planning to attend pre-sessions at the UN in Geneva and the UPR itself that should be held in May 2020,
  • a sex worker rights networking session at the Allied Media Conference in June 2020,
  • AIDS2020 in San Francisco and HIV2020 in Mexico City (both planned for July 2020).
Continue reading »

PRESS RELEASE: Sex Worker Rights Groups tell the United Nations how the U.S. violates human rights

October 4th, 2019 · · Campaigns, News Archive No comments - Tags:

PRESS RELEASE

Contacts: 

Janet Duran (212) 882-1161/N’Jaila Rhee newjerseyrua@gmail.com

P. Saunders, bestpracticespolicyproject@gmail.com

Cris Sardina, director@desireealliance.org

Akynos, blackSWCollective@protonmail.com

Monica Jones, theoutlawprojectinc@gmail.com

Sex Worker Rights Groups tell the United Nations how the U.S. violates human rights


Newark, NJ – October 3rd, 2019  – Today, the Black Sex Worker Collective, the Outlaw Project, Desiree Alliance, BPPP and New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance submitted a shadow report to the United Nations.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a United Nations session to hold member countries responsible for their human rights records. The United States is being reviewed in 2020 for the first time in five years. Today we submitted a 10 page shadow report to the United Nations about the human rights abuses sex workers face and in the coming months sex workers will travel to Geneva, Switzerland to speak to member countries about the criminalization of our communities.

“We are calling on the United States to immediately end the atrocities of current border policies in the United States that impact all immigrants, including sex workers,” says Janet Duran of New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance. “Our report documents the death of migrant sex workers at the hands of state agents, the incarceration of migrant sex workers in rights violating detention centers, and the deportation of vulnerable people back into harm’s way. The deaths of people like Yang Song and Roxsana Hernandez must not happen again.”

The U.S. is obligated to uphold everyone’s human rights, including the rights to housing, education and healthcare; the right to be free from arbitrary arrest, due process violations, and invasions of privacy; the right to be free from torture and inhumane treatment; the rights of migrants; as well as rights related to the U.S. obligation to eliminate racial discrimination. The U.S. violates these rights on a routine basis when it comes to sex workers and people in the sex trade. The UPR provides a space for the world to hear about how the U.S. has violated human rights over the past four years. 

“The U.S. government has engaged in a sustained campaign to roll back the rights of transgender people and we are calling out these abuses at the UN so that the world will learn what is happening,” says Monica Jones, founder of the Arizona based Outlaw Project, “We believe that member states of the UN will agree that it is time to put an end to anti-sex work policing practices targeting transgender people.”

To download a full copy of the report pls visit: http://www.bestpracticespolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SWCoalition_UPR36_USA_2019.pdf

To download a short one page summary of the report pls visit:

Key Facts About Human Rights Violations & Sex Work ~ For the 2020 UPR of the U.S.A.

To learn more about the UPR process visit:  tinyurl.com/UPR2020info

#FreeGigi update: write letters of support

March 3rd, 2017 · · News Archive No comments - Tags:

Gigi testified on March 1 and she was calm and clear even though the case is a very difficult one. After the presentation of all the evidence the Judge decided to take first degree charges off the table. After more than 6 hours of deliberation the jury returned yesterday March 2 with a verdict of guilty of second degree murder. In Maryland sentencing is carried out by the presiding Judge. Sentencing in this case will occur on May 9. Anyone who has had experience working with Gigi (or being the recipient of Gigi’s amazing support) can write a letter for the judge to read before she sentences Gigi. The letter should be to Judge Daneeka V. Cotton. The letter should be brief and state that you know Gigi Marie Thomas, state how long you have known her and the capacity in which you know her (ie that you worked with her at Y or Z place, that you received services from her, etc). Then in your own words you should speak to your experience of what Gigi has offered you/the community/society and what she can continue to contribute. Anything that you think will help Judge Daneeka V. Cotton make her decision as to the sentence for Gigi. Letters should be mailed to Gigi’s attorney who is: David M. Simpson, 6404 Ivy Ln, Ste 408, Greenbelt, MD 20770. Please send letters as soon as possible so that they may be submitted in a jacket to Judge Daneeka V. Cotton. We learned that sending in letters too late is not ideal as judges prefer to read them well in advance of the sentencing.

Please read more about Gigi Thomas here and please contribute to her fundraiser…. “As a society we have become used to hearing the news of another transgender woman being killed. In this case Gigi did not die. She lived. She is one of our leaders surviving.” Ceyenne Doroshow.