October 31st, 2025 · bppp · Art, CampaignsComments Off on Being Heard at the United Nations
Apparently the United States of America has pulled out of the Universal Periodic Review of our country’s human rights record. We will not be silenced.
We are hosting an in person event inside the United Nations in Geneva to share about our survey, our reports and to launch BEING HEARD, a magazine filled with art, commentary, poetry and resistance by sex workers and trans people.
The magazine will be distributed in a limited print run during the side event. Download the PDF here.
Where – Room VIII, United Nations Geneva
When – Noon in Geneva until 1.30 pm, 6 November 2025
This event will not be live streamed but we will create a recording and upload it later.
We are a collective and organization that takes action and provide support. For many reasons we don’t toot our horn about what we do, but from time to time we do share and this is one of those times. Since 2022 (and perhaps earlier than that) a community member has developed and run workshops for writing development. Here is more about what they do. “These workshops are designed to be insightful, creative, and provide community-based education. What that really means is we learn from each other. Everyone who shows up has knowledge and experiences that matter…” read the full page about the writing workshops here – http://www.bestpracticespolicy.org/writingworkshops/
We spent 18 months preparing, speaking to folks and gathering information to submit not one but TWO reports to the United Nations for the review of the United States human rights record later on this year. Now we begin our plans for speaking to world representatives to get the word out about our organizing, rights and the violations our communities experience. We have also been working with 11 artists to create materials representing the issues in diverse ways. An artist’s work is featured below (this work is copyright to the artist and we share it with their permission).
Here is how to access the reports. A coalition of community organizations submitted a report documenting all the rights issues. Download a PDF and read the full report. Other groups submitted a report, focusing on trans rights and the impact of US policies globally, in partnership with the Sexual Rights Initiative. Download a PDF and read that report.
Featured art work by Huck Reyes – A Labor of Layers
As shown in the UN report, sex-working and transness are often intertwined and sometimes inseparable–whether we like it or not. As an artist who belongs both to the trans and sex-working communities, I am acutely aware of the reasons so many trans folks have found their way to sex work, while also understanding why state actors profile trans people as sex workers even if they’re not. There are many layers to these realities and I show this through four multiple-exposure photo pieces. I use color effect 35mm film and double (or triple) expose the film, layering different images on top of one another to express the inseparable nature of being trans and a sex worker–whether that inseparable-ness is imposed upon us externally or exists voluntarily.
June 25th, 2024 · bppp · Art, CampaignsComments Off on Sex Workers’ Human Rights Matter
This past week Erika Smith and N’Jaila Rhee traveled to Geneva to attend the 56th Session of the Human Rights Council. They were there to be part of organizing to affirm the rights of sex workers and trans people, in the wake of some pushback in the United Nations system against the progress made by our communities. This is the first time that BPPP has been able to use our UN Consultative Status to enter the United Nations in Geneva. Erika took photos and videos to tell the story of the journey.
Monday June 17, 2024
After a smooth flight out of Newark airport, Erika and N’Jaila arrive in Geneva.
Tuesday June 18, 2024
Erika documented the first meeting of the trip, a meeting with representatives of the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI). SRI supported BPPP and Desiree Alliance at a crucial phase way back when, encouraging us to get involved in the first Universal Periodic Review of the United States in 2010. This led to Recommendation 86, the first and only (to date) recommendation to the United States on sex work. Read a guide this current UN session HRC 56 produced by SRI and the importance of affirming sex workers’ rights at the UN at this time.
Wednesday June 19, 2024
Meeting with sex worker and allies delegation. Erika and N’Jaila were invited as part of the delegation to a full day session organized by the Network of Sex Work Projects to plan for engagement with the UN Session.
Thursday June 20, 2024
30 community members came out to make art, including poster making for a planned public action, at an art zone and bar in Geneva. N’Jaila and Erika came up with this slogan, Sex Workers’ Human Rights Matter, starting out with Erika’s idea of “sex worker rights matter” combining with N’Jaila’s thought about about human rights. This art work was created by N’Jaila and documented by Erika.
Friday June 21, 2024
On Thursday and Friday Erika and N’Jaila were able to enter the United Nations but given the current questioning of sex worker rights and trans rights, the experience was mixed. Mixed with “rage, anger, disgust” Erika noted when reflecting on the photos she had taken on this day. People walked out of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women’s speech. Why? “The Special Rapporteur pushed for approaches that criminalize the lives of sex workers.” “It was hot inside the UN,” Erika continued. “We are in this important place, standing up for ourselves. Yet regardless of what we say, some delegates have already have their mind made up. And those that are in support of us, their statements are muted.”
Erika and N’Jaila joined a protest was across the street from the UN. At the broken chair.
African activists started chanting. The microphone was passed to the Latinas. Crowd participation. Delegates began leaving out of the United Nations at the end of the day, heading for the train station opposite the protest. Many left with a police escort, but they had nothing to fear. We held up signs with our rights messages.
Monday June 24, 2024
Erika and N’Jaila left Geneva on Sunday. The following day numerous speeches were made in defense of sex worker rights during the HRC session. Video response in defense of sex workers can be viewed at this link: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1o/k1onom08en
Erika had one word to describe how the sex worker delegation operated. “Inclusion.” Erika and N’jaila were also honored to spend time with Sinnamon Love of BIPOC-AIC, building community among Black sex workers and being together.
