GENEVA, Switzerland – Several organizations and advocates for the rights of sex workers provided input at the United Nations Office in Geneva earlier this week, addressing a recent controversial report by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls to the Human Rights Council, which made broad statements about sex work and adult content, and also supported various forms of criminalization.
The official phone call for input resulted in an interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem on her report, which was widely criticized for parroting SWERF’s talking points.
The report conflated human trafficking with prostitution and pornography, and prostitution with pornography itself, and referred to the phrase “sex work,” coined in 1979 by Carol Leigh, as a euphemism.
Sabra Boyd, from Sex Workers and Survivors United, was given the opportunity to give her opinion on the report. Other speakers who spoke out against the report included Amnesty International, the EU representative, the Sisonke National Sex Workers Movement, Kenya Sex Workers Alliance, European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance, Sexual Rights Initiative and the World Health Organization.
Delegates from the Netherlands said that “it is essential to see sex workers as more than just victims,” before asking for more details on how sex workers were involved in the report’s production.
Kholi Buthelezi of the Sisonke National Sex Workers Right Movement commented on a panel: “Saying that we are ‘commodities of men’ is hurtful. It confuses human trafficking with sex work and uses the code of feminist women and girls. We need the feminist movement to come on board. Our lives are still in danger.”
“Hearing from members of the global sex worker community made clear what we all have in common: the need for dignity and rights,” said Jessica Stoya, who attended the meeting with Sinnamon Love. “We can only hope that UN officials have taken these perspectives into account.”
Ed. Note: Sex worker and advocates Jessica Stoya and Sinnamon Love attended the meeting and contributed to this report.