Category: Campaigns

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

September 23rd, 2019 · · Campaigns, Policy Updates No comments - Tags:

Our organizations are members of the US Human Rights Network (USHRN) and so have been offered the opportunity to include some of our key concerns in the network’s report. BPPP, NJRUA, BSWC, Desiree Alliance and the Outlaw Project created the summary to send to the USHRN this last week.

Throughout the U.S., criminalization and stigmatization of sex workers, and those profiled as such, prevents them from exercising their human rights. Violations include: violence perpetrated by law enforcement and ICE; cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during incarceration; denial of due process and protection in the justice system; denial of rights to housing, healthcare, reproductive rights, education, income, employment and economic justice. People of color, transgender people, migrants, street based sex workers, homeless, youth, and people living with HIV/AIDS bear a high burden of these violations. U.S. policies undermine the health and rights of sex workers internationally by requiring that organizations seeking funding adopt a policy against sex work. Additionally. in 2018 the U.S. passed rights violating restrictions via the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). This legislation limits the sharing of vital safety information for sex workers online and causes economic harm and social marginalization. The current U.S. administration is violating the rights of immigrants. The intersection of this with anti-prostitution policies has resulted in the death of migrant sex workers at the hands of state agents, the incarceration of migrant sex workers in rights violating detention centers, and deportation. The U.S. government has engaged in a sustained campaign to roll back the rights of transgender people. Transgender people are assumed to be sex workers by the authorities, leading to incarceration and immigration detention, where they are harmed, highly vulnerable to sexual assaults, and killed.

Photo by PJ Starr, September 20, 2019

Previous UN Body Recommendations: In prior UPR process, the U.S. accepted Recommendation 
86, requiring it to “[u]ndertake awareness‐raising campaigns
 for combating stereotypes and violence against [LGBT people] 
and ensure access to public services, paying attention to the
 special vulnerability of sex workers to violence and human rights abuses.” The U.S has pursued policies that directly contradict this commitment, putting sex workers at heightened risk of human rights abuses. In 2014, the UN Human Rights Committee challenged the U.S. Justice Department’s claim that arresting people for sex work is a humane or effective way to fight trafficking, and called on the U.S. to align its anti-trafficking initiatives with human rights norms, which reject criminalizing sex workers.

Key Recommendations for inclusion via USHRN: The United States of America should:

  • End the criminalization of sex workers lives by full decriminalization (anti-criminalization) of sex work and eliminate policies, such as “zero tolerance” of prostitution, “prostitution free zones,” and loitering measures, that undermine protection of and respect for human rights of sex workers. Sex workers should also be able to expunge any criminal records relating to these laws.
  • Vigorously investigate and put an end to policing practices targeting transgender people.
  • Repeal SESTA/FOSTA and eliminate other federal policies that conflate sex work and human trafficking and prevent sex workers from accessing services such as healthcare, HIV services and support.
  • Address the atrocities of current immigration and migration border policies in the United States. Migrant and immigrant sex workers are especially affected by these laws as they are under no protections of federal guidelines. 
  • Remove “participation in prostitution” as grounds for removal from the country, from the category of “crimes of moral turpitude” and as grounds for denying visas/legal status to individuals seeking to visit, reside in, or become citizens of the United States.

SIGN A PETITION: REPEAL FOSTA/SESTA

September 19th, 2019 · · Campaigns No comments

We are raising awareness about a new petition developed by the Sex Workers Project and the Daily Kos. Please sign the petition if you are concerned about S.1693 Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and H.R. 1865 Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). This legislation limits the sharing of vital safety information for communities of sex workers and limits advertising options for sex workers. Studies have shown that the more pressure placed on sex workers to prevent them from accessing income, the more health and rights are imperiled. Specifically, FOSTA/SESTA limits Section 230 — which was originally established to protect online platforms from liability over users’ free speech (ie sex work) — forcing platforms to ban sex workers or use of their apps for sex work (or anything that could be perceived as sex work). Congress has put sex workers — many of whom are trans women of color — and other communities at risk, chilling our free speech and further infringing upon our human right to work.

Find out more about the petition

Please note: The message to Congress associated with this petition effort is clear and we are in full support. However, this is a collaborative effort and some statements in the educational materials are not the terms or approach that BPPP normally uses in regards to street based work (which we do not stigmatize as more “negative” than indoor work because we follow the leadership of street workers themselves on these issues and because we believe that all have a right to be in public space without stigma) and in the use of the term “client” (anyone who perpetrates abuse and rights violations is not a “potential client” but a rights violator). Street based sex workers have a long tradition of organizing for safety and community even in the face of unimaginable levels of policing and stigma. In this fight to repeal FOSTA/SESTA there is much we can learn from the decades of resistance from the street.

Report to the UN Human Rights Council Periodic Review UPR: We Want Our Voices Heard!

August 13th, 2019 · · Campaigns No comments - Tags:

The Black Sex Worker Collective (BSWC), the Outlaw Project, New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA), Best Practices Policy Project (BPPP), and Desiree Alliance, are calling on sex workers rights advocates and allies to join us letting the world know about the abuses sex workers face in the United States. We are collecting information from sex workers and organizations and are happy to meet in person, talk on the phone, text, receive information by email and reports via our online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UPR2020 (deadline to fill out the survey is September 12, 2019).

What is the UPR? The United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a 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. By September 2019 we will write a report on the human rights abuses sex workers face and sex workers will then travel to Geneva, Switzerland to speak to member countries about the criminalization of our communities.

The US 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 US obligation to eliminate racial discrimination.

It is well known that the US violates these rights on a routine basis when it comes to sex workers, or people profiled by the police, social workers and service providers as sex workers. The UPR provides a space for the world to hear about how the US has violated human rights over the past four years. Due to the current policy approaches in the US, we plan to include in our report information about the experiences of migrants, trans folks, people in street economies and document the economic impacts of US policies worldwide, but having said that we want to hear from every one and about every issue

Fill out the survey or email us to set up a time to speak:  bestpracticespolicyproject@gmail.com, blackSWCollective@protonmail.com, newjerseyrua@gmail.com, director@desireealliance.org, theoutlawprojectinc@gmail.com
We will be collecting information until September 12, 2019.

Why is the UPR important? In2010, BPPP and Desiree Alliance submitted the first shadow report to the U.N. Human Rights Council outlining human rights violations, e.g., police abuse and targeting, institutionalized discrimination, lack of legal protection, and violence ignored by the local governments.  As a result of the report and advocates speaking out in Geneva before the U.N. Human Rights Council, the US adopted Recommendation 86, which states that the US agrees to:  

Undertake awareness-raising campaigns for combating stereotypes and violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people, and ensure access to public services paying attention to the special vulnerability of sex workers to violence and human rights abuses.

This was the first time the U.S. agreed to address sex workers’ rights violations directly at the U.N. However, we have seen very little change since the adoption of the recommendation.  Sex workers continue to experience violence, stigma, discrimination, and targeting, especially at the hands of the police and the criminal justice systems. We want to hold the U.S. Government responsible for not fulfilling its obligations in accordance with Recommendation 86.  We want to further highlight issues that continue to go unreported. 

NJ: Strategy to Address Serial Abuser

June 29th, 2019 · · Campaigns No comments - Tags: ,

Please also see more information at www.njrua.org.

INITIAL PUBLIC Strategy Statement

NJRUA and BPPP will take the following steps to address the serial abuser usually referred to as “Joey” in New Jersey. At all times we center the safety and healing of victims of his abuse and will proceed carefully to ensure that we do no harm. We are organizations led and guided by people of color, trans people, and immigrants and center our work on addressing racism and privilege.

At our June 22, 2019 strategy meeting we created the following work in progress strategy. Some strategy is confidential and not included here. We will update this weekly to address new circumstances. If you wish to be in solidarity with us then please send us an email to newjerseyrua@gmail.com and bestpracticespolicyproject@gmail.com  with who you are and what kind of support you can offer and we will add you as a supporter of this strategy if helpful to the campaign. We are two small sex worker led organizations (one of us is without any funding) and we have no staff. Keep that in mind in terms of our ability to get back to you.

Action Items:

-provide referral and support to community members who have been victimized by this abuser

-creating a profile of the abuser: senior editor on the profile page will be Janet Duran of NJRUA who will do the final editing of the profile

-alert webpage (in progress)

-pinned tweet on Twitter with his info and a warning

-street and campus outreach distribution of updated flier from our archives

-an alert to nation with his profile, MO and other information (via BPPP to every group working with people who might be affected by this abuser)

-liaison and MOUs with lawyers: we are currently in contact with two attorneys and should they wish to work with us officially we will create agreements with them so that sex worker and victim rights are central (pls update us with any lawyers who may be of interest)

-press release and reach out to media

-liaison with SVU in NJ (NJRUA already has a relationship with SVU)

-ensure inclusion of this case in UPR National Report to the United Nations

-direct action that would bring justice and an end to the actions of this abuser

Current Supporters of this strategy are: NJRUA (leadership in NJ), BPPP (leadership based in NJ), The Outlaw Project (supporters), the Black Sex Worker Collective (supporters), Desiree Alliance (supporters).