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  BULGARIA - HESED

  Posted: March 14th, 2011, 4:00pm PDT by Aliya

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  HESED initiated a number of activities to mark December 17th, starting with a meeting with local institutions and organisations to introduce them to the day and to sensitized them to ways of speaking about sex workers in order to reduce stigma against sex work and vulnerable groups. This is the second meeting on this issue organized by HESED, the first was on 17th December 2009 and it has now become a “tradition”.

  There were representatives from several local institutions: the Center for Dermatological and Venereal Diseases, Regional Inspection for the Protection and Control of Public Health, the Program for the Prevention and Control of HIV and AIDS within the Ministry of Health, the Caritas Foundation and the Concordia Bulgaria Foundation. No journalists attended the meeting.

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  CZECH REPUBLIC- Bliss Without Risk

  Posted: March 14th, 2011, 4:00pm PDT by Aliya

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  Thirty members of Bliss Without Risk, including sex workers marked December 17th with a march through the streets of Prague up to the city centre. There, in a park, the lit candles in memory of sex workers who had lost their lives to violence as well as those who survived violence.

  NGOs and media were alerted to the actions and a number of journalists were present to cover the event. Below is a link to one such article:
  http://zpravy.idnes.cz/svicky-a-minuta-ticha-pripomnely-ubodane-a-uskrce...
  

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  ALBANIA- AKSION PLUS

  Posted: March 14th, 2011, 4:00pm PDT by Aliya

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  On the occasion of the 17th of December Aksion Plus (A+) was invited to participate in a National Human Rights Debate. Two A+ staff and one transgender sex worker spoke about the issues that sex workers currently face, services that are offered and advocacy efforts to advance sex workers’ rights. In his power point, Genci Mucollari, the director of A+ presented, also discussed, the existing mechanisms that can be used enforce respect for the rights of the LGBT community in Albania. The following people also delivered speeches: the State Commissioner for Protection against Discrimination, representatives from LGBT community and Pink Embassy and journalists.

  The session was attended by nearly 30 other human rights activists. It was a very constructive event in terms of the open discussion and joint recommendations for future action that were proposed. The interaction between stakeholders and concerned parties proved very fruitful.

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  MACEDONIA- STAR

  Posted: March 14th, 2011, 4:00pm PDT by Aliya

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  by Borce

  In light of the International Day to end the violence against sex workers, the red umbrella was symbolically opened for the fourth time in the capital city of Macedonia. Sex workers and their supporters actively participated in the event organized by the Association for Support of Marginalized Workers STAR-STAR.

  We chose the slogan “To be a sex worker is my right – to be a brute is a crime !” for the campaign. We printed two cards with the slogan, each with a different photograph aimed to deliver sex workers’ message to society.

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  MACEDONIA- HOPS

  Posted: March 14th, 2011, 4:00pm PDT by Aliya

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  by Marija

  This year HOPS marked the International day to End Violence against Sex Workers in several regions in Macedonia – Skopje, the capital, but also Gostivar, Strumica and Ohrid where mixed teams of sex workers and other professionals work together on service provision for HOPS. Most of the activities were community-oriented, in order to get sex workers familiar with the importance of this day in regions that marked it for the first time, to provoke discussion about violence and the situation in their local environments, but also to engage sex workers in joint creative and fun activities that they can enjoy.

  In Strumica, sex workers led the events. They began by making small wooden red umbrellas which they used to decorate the drop in center, to embellish cocktail drinks and to distribute to friends and allies. At the same time, they organized group discussions inspired by the community newsletter “From Us To Us” (produced by STAR-STAR) and the Sex Workers’ Manifesto (produced by ICRSE) and prepared lots of food including a beautiful and tasty cake that said “Protect Yourself, It’s Your Right”.

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  HUNGARY- THE ASSOCIATION OF HUNGARIAN SEX WORKERS

  Posted: March 14th, 2011, 4:00pm PDT by Aliya

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  The Association of Hungarian Sex Workers carried out a postcard campaign with SWAN support on December 17th. We prepared the attached postcard with the picture taken at the red umbrella march which also celebrated our association’s 10th birthdays. We sent the postcards to our key partners, newspaper and magazine editors, members of parliament, decision makers, NGOs, as well as to international networks. This was the first occasion when we used the power of choosing and delivering our own message; usually we are represented in the media in the form of quotes, reports or interviews. We think that this is a proactive method to catch the public’s attention, so we decided to put a greater emphasis on new media initiatives (promoting sex worker blogs, advocacy videos, etc.) in the future. We got positive feedback so far: several journalists contacted us who we were not in contact before.

  The text on the postcard reads:

  "December 17 is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Discrimination against sex workers has to be taken seriously as a societal and political problem. Let us stop putting sex workers into illegal situations. Criminalization contributes to their vulnerability!”

  Two employees of the Association visited street and indoor sex workers and handed out Christmas packages (with chocolate, tangerines, condoms and our Newsletter) and raised awareness about the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
  

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  SERBIA- JAZAS

  Posted: March 14th, 2011, 3:00pm PDT by Aliya

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  For this year’s December 17th action, JAZAS organized presentations and a viewing of the film ‘Invisibles” by 17-year old Nikola Polic at the REX cultural center. The film was made during 2010 at the drop-in center and hotspots, and features several sex workers and outreach workers. It presents personal stories of sex workers: how they think of themselves, how others view them and what they have suffered through whilst working.

  Stasa Plecas talked about the significance of this day, how it is commemorated all over the world, and overall, how sex workers are exposed to various kinds of violence.

  Dr. Dragan Ilic presented data on violence against sex workers in Serbia, gathered during a 2010 research study.

  Jelena Vidic presented data on stigma and discrimination from the project “Empowerment to Recognize and React”.

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  Global Fund Meeting in Sofia: Activists Demand More Funding for the CEE/CA

  Posted: March 8th, 2011, 8:14am PST by Aliya

  From December 13th to 15th, Sofia, Bulgaria was host to the 22nd meeting of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). Each year, the Global Fund holds a meeting away from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to offer delegates the opportunity to visit programs financed by the Global Fund. This was the first meeting held in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region.

  One of the topics in the meeting was a discussion about reconsidering the eligibility of criteria for financing by the GFATM. Such a change would result in new funding opportunities for a number of countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. While the board deliberated on this issue, more than 600 activists from Serbia and Bulgaria chose the occasion to protest and to hand an open letter to the Executive Director in favor of such changes and to highlight the importance of increasing funding to the region in the world that currently has the most rapidly expanding HIV epidemic.

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  Hungary: Celebrating a decade of work for sex workers' rights

  Posted: March 8th, 2011, 8:02am PST by Aliya

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  The Association of Hungarian Sex Workers (SZEXE) celebrated its 10 year anniversary on the September 20th, 2010. The celebration included a short media sensitization and information session using SWAN materials and then speeches Ms. Ágnes Földi, chairwoman of the organization and Mr. Tamás Árva, the legal aid provider of the Association.

  Ms. Földi thanked the partners and experts who have worked closely with the Association over the past 10 years for their assistance and expertise and talked about the history of the sex worker movement. According to Ms. Földi: "It has been an incredible achievement for our organization to get all levels of government to realize that sex workers need support. We hope that their willingness to help our cause will continue over the next 10 years and will lead to an improved legal framework for sex work.

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  SWAN invited to train with the National Press Foundation

  Posted: March 8th, 2011, 7:40am PST by Aliya

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  By Aliya Rakhmetova
  July 16, Vienna, Austria - The International AIDS Conference (IAC) was preceded by a number of events to provide space for journalists, communities representatives, networks and researchers to make their participation in the IAC as meaningful as possible. In the framework of the IAC, SWAN was invited to hold a training with the National Press Foundation (http://www.nationalpress.org), whose primary mission is to increase journalists’ knowledge of complex issues in order to improve public knowledge.
  

  A 90-minutes-long seminar on sex work issues was a part of a four-day journalist training which was organized by a USA-based non-profit journalist education organization National Press Foundation in collaboration with the International AIDS Foundation. This training involved 49 journalists from 40 countries. The aim of this training was to provide background information on issues around HIV/AIDS, human rights and their relevance to the rights of different groups of population.

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  Lithuania: Coalition strengthens relationship with journalists

  Posted: March 8th, 2011, 7:23am PST by Aliya

  June, 2010 – Though it was Saturday, journalists met with SWAN representatives in Lithuania to talk about sex work. In hope to establish a closer and more productive relationship and to open a dialogue on the representation of sex workers in media, Coalition I Can Live invited journalists from various printed media for a discussion.

  Gathered in one of the cozy cafes of the Old Town, the meeting organizers, Coalition I Can Live and DEMETRA, a drop-in center for sex workers, talked with journalists about types of sex work, regional and international sex workers’ rights movements, legal framework around sex work in Lithuania and main problems sex workers face in this country. In discussion of the possible stories for the news, the organizers used a list of articles that had been published over past years to show how actually narrow the covered topic had been.

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  SWAN conference session on Sex workers in Europe and Central Asia: Mobility, migration and human rights

  Posted: March 7th, 2011, 8:15am PST by Aliya

  By Marija Tosheva, HOPS, Macedonia

  On July 20, 2010, the second day of Vienna conference, SWAN organized an oral session on Sex work, mobility, migration and human rights in Europe and Central Asia. 6 experienced activists from the region, members of SWAN and TAMPEP networks, had a chance in front of an excellent audience to challenge and start a discussion on vulnerabilities and structural barriers faced by mobile and migrant sex workers to better health and human rights.
  

  Presentations provided an overview of the trends of mobility and migration in Western, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia when sex workers move either internally or across the boarders. Presenters and participants looked into human rights and other factors that affect sex workers’ health, access to HIV prevention and care, as well as human rights: such as law and policy; linguistic and cultural barriers; and repression and discrimination in the “receiving” country or region.

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  Macedonia: HOPS wins HIV and human rights award

  Posted: March 7th, 2011, 8:03am PST by Aliya

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  By Marija Tosheva, HOPS, Macedonia

  Healthy Options Project Skopje (HOPS, Macedonia) became the recipient of the 2010 International Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, presented by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch. The award, which recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that protect the rights and dignity of people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, was presented in Vienna on July 20, 2010, at the XVIII International AIDS Conference.
  

  “Sex workers routinely face human rights abuses, including the discriminatory denial of health services, arbitrary detention by police, harassment, and sexual and physical violence,” said Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (www.aidslaw.ca). “This award recognizes the tremendous contribution of HOPS to seeking justice for sex workers and improving their access to health, social, and legal services.”

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  SWAN represents CEE/CA in Vienna

  Posted: March 7th, 2011, 7:21am PST by Aliya

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  July 18-23, Vienna, Austria – This year sex workers and allies from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia had a chance to talk about barriers and issues that sex workers face in their countries, to show what groups and organizations have achieved in addressing the pandemics and violations in their region. The Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN) was represented by 11 activists from Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia and Montenegro, a team of young and energetic volunteers from Odyseus, Slovakia and a performance group from Bliss without Risk, Czech Republic.

  In order to make SWAN activities more visible and to attract international attention to sex work related issues in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, SWAN secretariat applied for a marketplace booth at the Global Village at IAC and some of SWAN member-organizations brought handouts and brochures to be distributed at the booth. Also the products - hand-made or designed by sex workers and their allies - were sold in order to raise money for SWAN members’ programs.

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