Publications & Tools

As the world has been shaken by COVID-19, those most marginalized, stigmatized, and criminalized have been pushed further into poverty, to the grave detriment of their health and human rights. Sex workers have not only been seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by governments’ emergency responses that, in many contexts, have been punitive, overbroad, and/or discriminatory. Amnesty International urges governments to take targeted action to address the disparate impact of COVID-19 on sex workers and to protect their health and other human rights, including through tackling the key issues of concern that sex workers have raised since the outbreak of COVID-19, such as their
exclusion from social and economic support schemes, increased criminalization and lack of protection from violence, and diminished access to health services.

Amnesty International’s Policy on State Obligations to Respect, Protect and Fulfil the Human Rights of Sex Workers. “This policy has been developed in recognition of the high rates of human rights abuses experienced globally by individuals who engage in sex work; a term that Amnesty International uses only in regard to consensual exchanges between adults. It identifies the most prominent barriers to the realization of sex workers? human rights and underlines states’ obligations to address them.”

“This written submission is made on behalf of the Sex Worker Inclusive Feminist Alliance (SWIFA), a coalition of organizations including
Amnesty International, to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee), in response to its call for comments on the draft general recommendation on trafficking of women and girls in the context of global migration. Please also see Amnesty International?s accompanying submission IOR 40/2274/2020.

Amnesty International published its policy on protecting sex workers in 2015 and in 2016 published this research summary. “The policy calls on governments to take several critical steps to protect the human rights of sex workers, including: decriminalize consensual sex work, ensure that sex workers are protected from harm, exploitation and coercion; include sex workers in the development of laws that affect their lives and safety; and end discrimination and provide access to education and employment options for all.”

This report documents the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 pandemic measures on marginalized and criminalized communities. State responses to Covid-19 have magnified the inequalities faced by groups and communities that were already targeted or otherwise impacted by unjust and discriminatory criminal laws, including LGBTI people, sex workers, people who use drugs, people in need of abortion, homeless people and people living in poverty. Putting human rights at the heart of
government efforts to address public health emergency responses is not an optional consideration, it is an obligation.

“According to research published […] by the Network of Latin American and Caribbean Sex Workers (Red de Trabajadoras Sexuales de Latinoam?rica y el Caribe, RedTraSex) more than 1,200 sex workers in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean reported having experienced some form of human rights abuse since 2016. Among the abuses most frequently reported are discrimination, harassment, intimidation, threats, physical assault, rape and extortion.”