Category: Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

December 1st, 2021 · · Press Release No comments - Tags: ,

PRESS RELEASE

Sex workers lead the charge on HIV/AIDS in the US: today a victory in the United States on World AIDS Day

Date: December 1, 2021

Contacts: Cristine Sardina, Desiree Alliance director@desireealliance.org

Penelope Saunders, Best Practices Policy Project, +19178170324, bestpracticespolicyproject@gmail.com

Monica Jones, The Outlaw Project, theoutlawprojectinc@gmail.com

Akynos, The BSWC, info@thebswc.org

N’Jaila Rhee, NJRUA, newjerseyrua@gmail.com

Today we acknowledge World AIDS Day and stand with our communities of sex workers globally. Today the US government released the next iteration of the US National HIV/AIDS strategy (NHAS). For the first time sex workers are acknowledged with discussion of resources being attached to the proposed strategies relating to sex work.

There is no question about it. We cannot end HIV/AIDS without embracing the rights of sex workers to work, prevent harm and have full access to health care, including HIV/AIDS treatments if living with HIV. As reported in the Lancet, “decriminalisation of sex work would have the greatest effect on the course of HIV epidemics across all settings, averting 33–46% of HIV infections in the next decade.”

“For over a decade, sex workers have been demanding a place in the NHAS strategy. We had a victory today and a commitment from this administration to further our goal that sex workers are important in the eradication of HIV and AIDS,” stated Cris Sardina, the leader of the Desiree Alliance, “We helped build this table and now we must have a seat at this table.” 

Leaders from the community have responded positively to the strategy update. “The Outlaw Project is very pleased to see this inclusion,” stated Monica Jones, Executive Director of The Outlaw Project, “and we hope that the US government put policies in place to destigmatize sex work and end the criminalization of sex workers lives as well.”

“We are a coalition of sex worker led and trans led organizations with the greatest expertise on HIV/AIDS spanning 30 years,” comments Dr Penelope Saunders, Executive Director of the Best Practices Policy Project, “it is the right time to make rights based programming for sex workers and trans people top priority in the United States. We should do this for both public health reasons and for justice.”

Our letter to the Office of National AIDS Policy is included in full below for reference about our approach.

*********************** 

August 2021

An open letter to ONAP and allied organizations:

Sex workers have been advocating for inclusion in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) since the beginning of this policy process. However, the first strategy released in 2010 deliberately excluded our communities. Despite our second appeal in 2015 (there was an extremely vague “mention” of sex work in the 2015 NHAS), sex worker communities were once again decisively excluded, ignored, and dismissed with the upmost intention to do so by the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). After a multi-year, multi-organizational effort campaign requesting (then demanding) the recognition of sex workers as pivotal communities and voices in addressing HIV/AIDS http://www.bestpracticespolicy.org/2015/07/14/letter-to-onap-2015/, ONAP and allies cannot now make the statement that sex workers “should/must” be fully included in the strategy without acknowledgment that we have always been at the center of the fight to eradicate HIV and AIDS. It has been a decade-long request to ONAP without a response to sex workers who have been leading the fight since the implementation of the presidential council. The facts still remain that the 2020 exclusion translates to sex workers having to wait for at least another five-years before we truly gain our full rights in  national HIV/AIDS policies. The question is: will we be recognized in 2025?

Although many non-sex workers have come out in support of our efforts in HIV and AIDS advocacy and, many non-sex workers have written about us, we are speaking out as sex worker organizations who will no longer be driven into the shadows of exclusion or spoken for by allies over our own voices. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, sex worker history has been continually erased by the gatekeepers who have fought hard to stop the U.S. government’s intentional design to kill those who contracted the virus. We no longer give anyone the allowance to do this as we have always been visible on the frontlines. We appreciate the recent mouth-gaping and hand wringing by our allies realizing sex workers must be included in the NHAS, but you must also take responsibility for the calculated erasure of our entwined histories. ONAP must also bear responsibility in the exclusion as they have been fully aware of our decade-long appeals to place sex workers in strategies to end HIV and AIDS. Shame on you. 

Modeled after the Denver Principles, The National Sex Worker Anti-Criminalization Principles outline is a working template for the movement, advocating for sex workers by sex workers impacted by healthcare policies, labor issues, social stigma, and criminalization. The movement condemns any attempts at restricting sex worker autonomy and self-determination. We encourage all sex worker organizations, sex worker individuals, and our allies to use this document in every aspect of navigation and approachability to our movement.  https://frontpageconfidential.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/National-Sex-Worker-Anti-Criminalization-Principles-2018.pdf 

Therefore, we resubmit our 2015 letter to the ONAP, as our needs and demands have not changed – only the dates and  names of leadership. Nothing About Us Without Us. In regards to sex worker-related policy perspectives so long expressed by sex worker-led organizations, do not steal our words. Nothing About Us Without Us also means that you publicly acknowledge our leadership and provide us space and resources to continue to lead. 

Douglas M. Brooks, Director  Harold Phillips, Director

Office of National AIDS Policy

The White House

Washington, DC 20502

Re: Policy Recommendations

Dear Director Brooks – Director Phillips, 

We are writing to you to ensure that the perspectives of sex workers and sex worker-led organizations are included in discussion of HIV/AIDS policy nationally, specifically in terms of updating the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The Best Practices Policy Project is a national organization dedicated to supporting rights-based approaches to policy and harm reduction work with sex workers, people in the sex trade and related communities in the United States. We produce materials for policy environments, address research and academic concerns and provide organizations and advocates with technical assistance. Everything that we do is guided by principles that protect the rights of people who engage in commercial sex in all its forms. The Best Practices Policy Project works with a wide network of organizations across the United States. This letter was written in consultation with the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA) and Desiree Alliance. NJRUA is a sex worker led group that has a focus area of preventing HIV among sex workers in New Jersey, and Desiree Alliance is a national sex workers rights organization dedicated to the decriminalization of sex work and elimination of ineffective HIV policies by empowering those most impacted to have a voice in the decisions that directly impact them.

We are pleased that the National HIV/AIDS Policy will be soon updated this year and would like to provide our input into the process and be included in forthcoming processes. The current National HIV/AIDS policy makes no mention of sex workers at all, despite the fact that sex workers in many different locales across the country have organized together for years in order to address factors that can increase their risk of HIV/AIDS.

Background and barriers: Across the United States, the harsh policing of anyone assumed to be, or profiled as a sex worker, directly undermines the ability of sex workers to protect themselves from HIV and, in a broader sense, alienates these communities from the support they need to defend their health and rights. Sex workers, and people the police assume to be sex workers, are harassed, assaulted, sexually assaulted, extorted, and falsely arrested by police. The law enforcement practices of using condoms as evidence and/or destroying condoms, confiscating medication(s), and seizing safe sex materials directly contravenes efforts to halt the spread of HIV in the United States. People of color, transgender people, immigrants, homeless people and youth of color are disproportionately affected by these law enforcement activities. People living with HIV who are profiled as being in the sex trade are subject to additional harassment, harsher policing and intensified legal sanctions (including felony convictions) in many jurisdictions across the US.

Different forms of U.S. anti-trafficking legislation and policies affect sex workers in the United States and globally. Federal U.S. anti-trafficking policies undermine the health and rights of sex workers both domestically and internationally by requiring that many organizations seeking funding adopt a policy against sex work (“Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath”). This requirement is applied to many seeking funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Organizations within the U.S. have also been subject to the pledge under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. These restrictions mean that many organizations are confused about what kinds of services they can provide to sex workers and have, in some situations, lead to shuttering of excellent harm reduction services. New forms of state level legislation to end “domestic trafficking” focusing on “ending demand” for prostitution have been proposed and/or adopted in many U.S. States, intensifying policing of sex workers and their clients. Instead of improving working conditions for sex workers and people in sex trades, these laws lead to more arrests and imprisonment of sex workers, and erode their abilities to utilize tools and strategies they need to keep safe.

1 – In terms of how to reduce new HIV infections in this context, we recommend:

  • addressing the root causes that marginalize sex workers–such as criminalization, stigma, and police violence–from treatment and prevention services.
  • ending the criminalization of condoms for sex workers, trafficking victims and those profiled as such, and ensuring adequate access to condoms for all
  • providing funding for harm reduction and rights-based health care services for sex workers of all genders (including men and women, those who are transgender, and gender non-conforming people,) and all ages
  • Lifting all restrictions on federal funding for harm reduction programs, including the ban on syringe exchange programs, and expanding funding for evidence-based health approaches to drug use, including harm reduction and drug treatment.

2-  In terms of how can we increase access to care & improve health outcomes for people living with HIV, we recommend:

  • training healthcare professionals to end stigma and discrimination against those who are involved in the sex trade
  • providing funding for harm reduction and rights-based health care services for sex workers of all genders and all ages
  • encouraging states to remove laws and enhancements to standard sentencings that criminalize people living with HIV; expunging the records of those arrested and charged under such laws that mandate sex offender registration; and removing people charged under these laws from sex offender registries.  In addition, the U.S. Government should adopt a bill such as H.R.1843/S.1790 REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act, in order to bring the U.S. in line with international law standards to end criminalizing based on HIV status
  • Encourage dialogue between national borders and migrant sex workers to ensure HIV-related health care is provided to those detained in ICE facilities, with a view to ending their detention and ensuring post-release treatment

3 – In terms of how to reduce HIV-related disparities & Health inequities, we recommend:

  • providing support for community mobilization of sex workers to respond to violence and discrimination and urging states to work toward the decriminalization of commercial sex
  • eliminating policies that prevent and hinder individuals with commercial sex- and drug-related convictions from applying for and/or receiving student loans public housing or housing assistance, public assistance, or other government-funded social services.

4 – In terms of how to achieve a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic, we recommend:

  • including sex workers as a priority in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, clearly describing the barriers faced by sex workers and people in the sex trade, and listing these groups in prevention and treatment priorities
  • clearly stating in all policies the needs and priorities of the transgender community and ending the practice of misgendering transgender women as “men who have sex with men” (MSM)
  • improving communications between government agencies working on HIV and communities affected by HIV (recognizing sex workers and drug users in this dialogue), paying particular attention to meaningfully including voices of people impacted by these policies
  • modifying or eliminating existing federal policies that conflate sex work and human trafficking and prevent sex workers from accessing services such as healthcare, HIV prevention and support
  • repealing and removing “anti-prostitution pledge” requirements entirely for U.S. global AIDS funds and anti-trafficking funds.

Thank you for your leadership and consideration of these important matters. We look forward to working with ONAP to expand access to treatment, care and prevention for sex worker communities. We are committed to reducing the number of HIV infections across the United States through prevention and education initiatives. We urge you to adopt these policy resolutions to advance the objective of reducing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Sincerely,

Desiree Alliance

Best Practices Policy Project

New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance

The Outlaw Project

The Black Sex Workers Collective 

Note: The original 2015 letter to ONAP was authored by the Best Practices Policy Project, Desiree Alliance, and the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance. 

URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT and Open Letter: UN Special Rapporteur, (but no USHRN)

November 5th, 2021 · · News Archive, Press Release No comments - Tags:

Date: Fri, Nov 5, 2021

Dear All,

*Please share this media alert and brief background info widely*

Background (and Open Letter) The resumption of visits by the UN Special Rapporteurs is excellent news. The Biden-Harris administration is keeping their word in this regard. The quality of such visits is up to civil society, in large part (that’s us). It is unfortunate therefore, that the US Human Rights Network’s 3 person board shut down — then revised the description to ‘paused’– operations just two weeks ago. No emergency member meeting, no warning or transparency. Just canceled. Along with 3 staff members whose email access was frozen mid-Zoom meetings and ongoing work, as a means of notifying them. Clearly, we are not all equal in dignity and rights, to these decision-makers. I look at the long list of our USHRN founders, members, prior staff, FIHRE Fellows, and many years of esteemed Human Rights Movement Builder Awardees, and am truly astounded at the lack of integrity or human rights principles behind the actions of these 3 and any enablers. 


Curiously, this sudden, ‘urgent’ need to cease operations occurred on the eve of the historic “In the Spirit of Mandela” International Tribunal and shortly before such an important US visit by The UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues — visits for which the Network historically was a major partner, facilitating access by directly impacted grassroots voices to ensure balanced reporting. The trio’s surprise decision to close our expansive 18 year old Network which does not actually belong to them, also ignored and aborted extensive preparation in progress by coordinating center staff, members, partners and donors, for key upcoming human rights actions domestically (December’s annual Human Rights Report, US Domestic Summit, Int’l Human Rights Day) and internationally (ICERD, ICCPR, and CAT Treaty reviews of the US are upcoming).


Given this intentional disruption in the communications, networking, and organizing of hundreds/thousands of grassroots members, please assist in sharing this information with your lists and networks. It is vitally important. I pray the Special Rapporteur gets to hear from the people at the grassroots. Very sorry the US Human Rights Network cannot assist. 


In unity,
Dr. Vickie Casanova-Willis, PhD

Open Letter

November 3rd, 2021 · · News Archive, Press Release No comments - Tags:

We write as a collective of sex worker rights organizations who organize in coalition as human rights advocates in our own standing, as member organizations of the US Human Rights Network (USHRN) and as members of the Sex Worker Rights Working Group.

Members of our Coalition have worked in partnership with the USHRN since 2010 during the first United Nations Universal Periodic Review of the United States. We have joined with the network on actions and the network has joined us. 

Sex worker rights organizations defend criminalized communities of many kinds. Part of our work includes providing our communities with valuable information about issues of concern. We do this work when others hesitate because we have to. Our safety and integrity depends on speaking up.

In this spirit we report the following news: Eric Tars attended an organizing meeting of USHRN members on October 31, 2021. During this meeting Eric Tars said that he would call law enforcement on human rights advocates and organizers. Eric Tars stated that he spoke on behalf of the board of directors of the USHRN in regards to the need to call law enforcement.

The USHRN is a people centered movement that is led by people of color. Our sex worker rights working group is co-chaired by a Black trans woman and an immigrant woman, and includes highly active Black led and BIPOC groups. 

Under no circumstances can we tolerate the presence of Eric Tars or like-minded members in any space of our organizing, including at the USHRN, because he will use the strategy of calling law enforcement on people of color when he deems it to be necessary. This is an anathema to sex worker rights leaders and in violation of everything that the US Human Rights Network stands for. 

Eric Tars term on the US Human Rights Network Board of directors expired more than one year ago. Yet he has been allowed to stay because we have remained silent. Our silence ends today. We do not recognize Eric Tars as a board member and we demand that he be removed from organizing spaces for the safety of all members of the USHRN impacted by policing. We demand that any other person who has associated themselves with the USHRN Board of Directors and who has called for the use of law enforcement on human rights advocates also be removed, if they have not already been removed. We do not recognize them as board members.

We offer the gift of peace and healing to any member of the USHRN who has been affected by talk of calling law enforcement. We are with you as the healing begins. But in order to heal, we must be safe. 

The BSWC 

BPPP

Desiree Alliance

The Outlaw Project

NJRUA

PRESS RELEASE

April 28th, 2021 · · Press Release No comments

Contacts: N’Jaila Rhee and Jiselle Parker – newjerseyrua@gmail.com, Penelope Saunders – bestpracticespolicyproject@gmail.com, Cris Sardina – director@desireealliance.org, Akynos – blacksexworkercollective@gmail.com, Monica Jones – theoutlawprojectinc@gmail.com

Sex Worker Rights Groups have told the United Nations how the U.S. violates human rights: here is how the US Government responded

Newark, NJ – April 27th, 2021  – This week our coalition of sex worker rights organizations is releasing a response to the United States response to the Third Cycle 36th Session Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations. The UPR is held every five years to hold member countries responsible for their human rights records and provides one of the only ways that our communities can shine a light on rights violations going on inside the U.S. In March the United States formally responded to 347 recommendations about human rights made by the international community, accepting 280 (whole and in part) of them.

“The current U.S. administration has the opportunity to take progressive measures in identifying how people labor, how people survive, and their lived realities,” says Cris Sardina of Desiree Alliance, adding that,“there should be nothing about us without us and the United States needs to consult with sex worker rights leadership to make the changes needed to make the accepted recommendations meaningful.” 

“Black trans people in the United States are facing catastrophic levels of police brutality,” says Monica Jones, founder of the Arizona-based Outlaw Project. “We are pleased that member states of the UN have provided such clear recommendations regarding current policing practices targeting transgender people and that the U.S. accepted them. It is now time to make those recommendations matter by ending the violence experienced in our communities.”

“Ten years ago the U.S. accepted UPR Recommendation 86, requiring it to take action to address the vulnerability of sex workers and transgender people to violence and human rights abuses,” comments Penelope Saunders of the Best Practices Policy Project (BPPP). “We are gratified to see the U.S. accept new recommendations about police brutality targeting people of African descent, human rights abuses faced by transgender people, abuses of migrants, the impact of COVID-19, and gender based violence. However, these commitments will remain unfulfilled and Recommendation 86 will remain words on a page until the United States takes action.”

Previously in 2019, the Outlaw Project, Desiree Alliance, BPPP, the Black Sex Worker Collective, and New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance submitted a shadow report to the United Nations about rights violations and then spent a year meeting with policy makers despite the barriers of the pandemics of COVID19 and anti-Black police violence.
To download a full copy of the 2021 response report pls visit: http://www.bestpracticespolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Post-Report-Responses-to-the-Third-Cycle-36th-Session-of-the-Universal-Periodic-Review-.pdf