Category: Policy Updates

UN Update: SWOP-Phoenix member testifies before UN Human Rights Committee

March 13th, 2014 · · Campaigns, Policy Updates No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , ,

As part of their work to raise the issue of abusive and discriminatory policing practices in the U.S., advocates BPPP and SWOP-PHX sought to speak before the UN Human Rights Committee during the Committee’s review of U.S. compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Here is video of SWOP-PHX member giving her testimony–the text is below.

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I’m Jaclyn Moskal Dairman with (SWOP)–the Sex Worker Outreach Project in Phoenix Arizona. I am here to speak about criminalization of sex workers, including under ostensible anti trafficking initiatives that primarily target people in poverty and disproportionately affect people of color. These are the people SWOP reaches out to. As a single mother, college student, and someone who grew up in poverty and homelessness I know what criminalization does to people in poverty. Criminalization is disastrous, particularly in states like Arizona, which has mandatory minimums and felony sentences for sex work. In 2009, a woman with a psychiatric disability sentenced to 27 months for prostitution, was killed by Arizona Department of Corrections when they left her in a cage in the desert with no water.

Recently, Monica Jones, a human rights defender with SWOP, was profiled and wrongfully arrested by Phoenix police because she is a transgender woman of color. She was arrested as part of an initiative called “Project ROSE,” and charged under a vague, overbroad anti-prostitution statute. While dubbed an “anti-trafficking initiative” Project ROSE actually targets people police believe are sex workers. To be clear: Project ROSE violates arrestee’s due process rights. Arrestees are denied council, even when they request a lawyer, and are made to cooperate in a police interview to potentially receive diversion, with no lawyer present. The interview is used to file charges against them if they don’t meet the diversion requirements, which most don’t, because they are too difficult for people in poverty to meet.

Monica Jones goes to trial this Friday. Since pleading not guilty, police have stopped her without cause, harassed and verbally abused her four times. If found guilty, as a trans woman, she will be housed in the men’s jail where she will face violence. Please call on the US to ensure that sex workers and people profiled as such are afforded their constitutional rights when arrested under ostensible “anti-trafficking” initiatives, and call on the government to monitor anti-trafficking funds to ensure they are not being used to violate civil rights. Thank you.

As Monica Jones prepares to go to trial, her story is being told not only at the UN but by media throughout the U.S.:

Trying to “Rescue” Sex Workers By Arresting Them is a Bad Idea

Fighting Back: Monica Jones Battles Phoenix’s Project ROSE

Sex Work Wars: Project ROSE, Monica Jones and the Fight for Human Rights

Huge victory for human rights–Canada high court strikes down prostitution laws

December 20th, 2013 · · Policy Updates, Uncategorized No comments - Tags: , , ,

This morning sex workers, people in the sex trade, and allies around the world were moved to cheers and tears by the decision of the Canadian Supreme Court in the Bedford case. In a unanimous ruling, the high court struck the entirety of Canada’s prostitution laws from the books, finding that the

“provisions, primarily concerned with preventing public nuisance as well as the exploitation of prostitutes, do not pass Charter muster: they infringe the s. 7 rights of prostitutes by depriving them of security of the person in a manner that is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

The sex workers who brought the case were visibly overjoyed and emotional on television after the decision was released.

The justices gave the Canadian government a year to react to the judgment–and already anti-sex worker rights groups have discussed introducing the so-called Nordic system of criminalizing clients. But human rights groups in Canada have already rejected that approach, and the Bedford plaintiffs and their lawyers strongly cautioned the government against such laws as well.

While it takes time for laws, and society, to change, meaning many folks involved in commercial sex will not immediately benefit from the Court’s ruling, the decision is nonetheless momentous. It has the potential to affect the fight for recognition of sex workers’ rights well beyond the borders of Canada. We send a salute to the tireless advocates and activists who fought this battle and won.

Striking Anti-Prostitution Pledge is an Important, but Only Partial, Victory

June 20th, 2013 · · Policy Updates No comments - Tags: , ,

Ending a ten year saga, the US Supreme Court today struck down a section of the Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act that restricts government HIV/AIDS funding from groups that do not take an explicit stance in opposition to prostitution. The so-called “anti-prostitution loyalty oath” was challenged by non-governmental organizations based in the United States soon after the passage of the Leadership Act in 2003 – and the Court’s finding that the oath violated those groups’ First Amendment rights is welcome. But it is not enough, because the decision does nothing for groups that are not based in the US, including those best-positioned to fight the epidemic because of their local and grassroots nature. The First Amendment does not extend to them, meaning they are still subject to the oath’s requirements. The Leadership Act – which created the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR – is up for re-authorization this year and the Obama administration should work with Congress to remove the oath once and for all.

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New York is finally considering saying “no” to using condoms as evidence

June 11th, 2013 · · Articles, Campaigns, Policy Updates No comments - Tags: , , ,

“I’m damned if I do, I’m damned if I don’t.  I don’t want to get any disease but I do want to make my money… Why do they take your condoms, do they want us to die, do they want us to get something?”
– New York-based Sex Worker (Public Health Crisis: The Impact of Using Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in New York City, April 2012 Report).

It may have taken over ten years, but a New York State Assembly bill to prohibit condoms as evidence in prostitution cases is finally catching the attention of District Attorneys and the New York State legislature.  Last week, New York State Assembly and Council Members, the Kings County (Brooklyn) and Nassau County District Attorney’s office, along with human rights groups and legal advocates – Red Umbrella Project, Human Rights Watch, the Sex Workers Project, Make the Road New York, Streetwise and Safe, and the New York Civil Liberties Union- gathered on the steps of New York City Hall for the “No Condoms As Evidence” press rally.  Organized by the No Condoms as Evidence Coalition, these groups gathered to urge the passage of NY State bill S1379/A2736, also known as the No Condoms as Evidence bill. This is an inclusive bill that would prevent prosecutors from introducing condoms as evidence in prostitution cases, including cases involving victims of trafficking. New York has a history of police confiscating condoms from people perceived to be engaged in sex work, particularly targeting transgender and gender non-conforming persons.

The Urban Justice Center and the PROS Network released a report in April 2012 on the impact of using condoms as evidence finding that over 50 percent of the NY-based respondents interviewed had condoms confiscated based on police profiling them as a sex worker.  Seventy-five percent of transgender women and gender non-conforming people interviewed reported that they did not carry condoms on them for fear of being arrested by the police.

Seeing District Attorneys and sex workers’ rights groups together addressing sex workers’ right to carry condoms without the fear of being arrested demonstrated important progress for sex workers and allies.  This, of course, does not mean that all D.A.s are fully committed to ending the use of condoms as evidence.  A recent New York Times article revealed that some of the City’s D.A.s stated that they would still continue to allow condoms as evidence of human trafficking, despite adopting a policy that would not allow condoms in prostitution cases.

The press rally also spotlighted the problem of police profiling of members of the LGBTQ community—especially transgender women—as sex workers.  Queens Councilmember, Jimmy Van Bramer spoke on the City Hall steps stating, “No assumptions should ever be made about anyone who carries condoms.”  Yhatzine LaFountain, a member of immigrant rights group, Make the Road New York stated, “I have experienced firsthand how the police profile transgender women like me, confiscate our condoms and arrest us for walking the street as ‘trans’… Condoms are supposed to protect us, not turn us into criminals.”

Supporters of the bill are working to have the bill passed by the NY State Assembly by the end of the June session.

 

Guest blogger Kat Thomas attended the June 6, 2013 rally and press conference on the steps of NYC Hall organized by the No Condoms as Evidence Coalition and provided the Best Practices Policy Project with the above post.