Human Rights Violations Committed Under Anti-Sex Work Laws, Practices, and Policies: Report to the U.N. Human Rights Council Periodic Review
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 in reporting the human rights abuses experienced by sex workers, people in the sex trades, and people profiled as sex workers or impacted by anti-sex work policing and policies. The U.S. will soon be reviewed by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council on its human rights record in a process referred to as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). We are submitting a report to the UN and the UN needs to hear from you.
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.
Members of our team would like to speak to you or people you recommend for input into the report to the UN. If there are specific stories you wish to share with us, we will incorporate these into the report. First-hand accounts of violations people have experienced are what the UN needs to hear most. Also know that these accounts will be anonymous in the report and that we will share a draft of the report with you so you can check that no identifying details are included. We are happy to meet in person, talk on the phone, text, receive information by email and reports via our online survey
Para completar la encuesta en español: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EPU2020
Contact Information: bestpracticespolicyproject@gmail.com, blackSWCollective@protonmail.com, newjerseyrua@gmail.com, director@desireealliance.org, theoutlawprojectinc@gmail.com
Deadline for Submission: We will be collecting information until September 12, 2019.
Background
In 2010, 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.
To write this report, we need to hear from those who have directly experienced human rights violations. We hope to collect testimony and data from sex workers and related communities that we can include in our report. Through this process, we create awareness before the international community, media outlets, other government officials, U.N. Human Rights Council members, and other stakeholders on the pressing issues facing the community. This is an important tool for pressuring the government to make changes.
If you are interested in participating, please let us know! We are happy to help people and groups understand what the UPR is and how the process works. We will assist with drafting testimony and organizing data. We will draft the report and send it to you or your organization’s representative before submitting to ensure that we correctly documented your experiences.
For More Information – www.tinyurl.com/UPR2020info