"Resisting in the Crosshairs" Webinar Recap
The Sex Work Donor Collaborative (SWDC) in collaboration with the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) and the Global Philanthrophy Project (GPP) recently organised a webinar to examine how anti-rights ideologies impact sex workers’ right. The webinar entitled “Resisting in the Crosshairs: Anti-Rights Agendas and Sex Workers” held on 25th October 2022 was attended by nearly 100 people from within philanthropy and the sex worker movement.
The moderator of the webinar, Mauro Cabral (from GPP) opened the webinar by detailing the intersections of sex work and trans rights, and these movements’ shared challenge of resisting well-funded opposition while they operate on scarce, project-based funding. This was followed by a brief introduction of NSWP by Ruth Morgan Thomas, who invited NSWP members from each of five global regions to share their lived experiences of these issues.
Phelister Abdalla of the Kenyan Sex Workers Alliance spoke about the impact of right wing influence on the rights of sex workers in Kenya and across Africa. She emphasized the need for allies, including donors, to support sex workers and act when democratic institutions are failing - “All rights are connected – economic, political, social, cultural, right to health, right to work, freedom from violence, and environmental rights. So if one of them is taken away then the whole universe of rights shrinks as well.”
Thierry Schaffauser from Syndicat du Travail Sexuel (STRASS) discussed the impact of anti-rights groups on sex workers in Europe, particularly migrant sex workers. He highlighted three key areas of attack: the rescue industry, the anti-rights coalition, and state feminism. The rescue industry, which is managed largely by religious groups, casts sex workers as victims and hopeless. He noted, “when we are seen as victims only, then of course all the funding goes to the saviors and not to the people who need saving because we are seen as people who don’t know and can’t do things by themselves... this is really not true, we are resourceful... and it prevents self-organization.” The anti-rights coalition feeds into this idea of helplessness by criminalising sex workers’ identities and ideologies, further marginalising sex worker communities and movements. Finally, anti-rights organisations rebrand their agenda as feminist in order to be seen as saviors that are protecting people - isolating sex workers ideologically within would-be allied movements. Instead, it is a form of femonationalism – idea that in the name of protecting women and minorities, we can “‘save women from themselves even if without their consent.”
Ceyenne Doroshow from GLITS discussed the need to meaningfully include those being targeted by anti-rights groups in order to create effective strategies to resist them: “Imagine if all agencies had real tools to create change for the community. How do you create those tools? You listen to the community, you listen to sex workers the - the demographic that is being attacked by politics.”
Jules Kim from the Scarlet Alliance discussed the challenges faced by sex workers in Australia, comparing licensing systems to decriminalisation in Victoria. She noted that organisations that identified as feminist were the loudest and most public opponents to attempts to reform laws around sex work within Victoria. Under licensing, a mechanism was created which allowed police corruption and racist inequalities in accessing services. The failed licensing experiment provided unequivocal evidence to the government that decriminalisation was necessary to improve access to services and basic human rights for sex workers. However, the government did not come to this conclusion on its own, it was a result of prolonged and sustained advocacy by sex workers and this highlights the importance of funding for sex worker-led organisations to engage in advocacy and research.
Karina Bravo from PLAPERTS discussed the importance of intersectionality in the fight for sex worker rights, and the need for sex workers to be at the forefront of their own movement. She noted how the pandemic coupled with the current political environment has created a harsher climate for many. She reflected on how cis and trans women who engage in sex work experience experience whorephobia, transphobia, xenophobia and this discrimination and stigma leaves a strong negative emotional and health impact in them. Karina reflected briefly on the conflict that lies between self-determination and the way women’s rights are conceptualized in formal, constitutional frameworks. “This gap deepens inequity, inequality, violence, femicides, organized crime and leaves us more defenseless and vulnerable. [The government] also develops security and protection plans that seek to "rescue" us for our own good and to change our lives, because we are, according to them, women who cannot or do not know how to make good decisions in our lives.” While concluding, she rallied a call to unite, build and work together for real and meaningful change wherein “our voices are heard and we can share what happens on a day-to-day basis in our contexts and our lives”.
In addition to these leaders from with the sex worker movement, Kerry Cullinan, a consultant with the UNDP spoke about the anti-rights agenda in East and Southern Africa, highlighting the well-funded and organized opposition to sex work and LGBTQI rights. She noted, “Our findings regarding the anti-rights group is they are all part of the same group, quite frankly, whether they are against sex workers, whether they are against LGBTQ people, whether they are against the ‘gender ideologies’.” Ms. Culliman offered detailed analysis of the key players as well as specific strategies to resist them including: legal protection (e.g. a court case in Malawi extending protections to sex workers); exposing links between right wing ideologies (e.g. those that oppose African immigration also hold misogynist and overall repressive views); and taking the struggle to UN forums (e.g. get consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)).
Finally, The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Dr. Tlaleng' Makofeng, spoke on the right to health across the world and identified herself as a sex worker rights defender. Dr. Makofeng emphasized the need for decriminalization of sex work and discussed the challenges posed by anti-rights movements targeting sex workers. She also discussed the importance of structured funding and the need to resist the aggression of these opposition movements. Dr. Makofeng recently advocated to the HRC for a non-binary approach to violence and the need for contextual nuance in addressing the issue of sex work.
Overall, the webinar highlighted the importance of supporting sex worker-led movements in their resistance to the erosion of fundamental human rights. The speakers emphasized the need for philanthropy to support these movements in order to counter the well-funded and organized anti-rights agendas that are targeting sex workers and other marginalized communities. Beyond funding, there is a particular need for continued support and solidarity from allies in the fight for sex worker rights.
For sex worker-led organisations, allies, and funders wanting more information about funding and other strategies to support sex workers and resist the influence of anti-rights groups, please contact us.