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.