Hands Off II Sex work NSWP
Hands Off II Sex work NSWP
Project
The Global Network of Sex Work Project (NSWP) will support sex worker-led partners to engage in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) mechanism and ensure that sex workers’ voices are heard in the official response to government submissions.
NSWP will provide technical support to Sisonke South Africa to prepare and submit a South Africa shadow report to the 77th CEDAW session in Geneva. The network will also provide technical support to Sisonke Botswana and Tiyane Vavasate, Mozambique to set up a concluding observations tracking system to monitor governments’ actions in response to their country’s concluding observations related to sex work from the 72th and 73th sessions.
Project details
Objectives
Hands Off II partners work to reduce violence against sex workers at community, national and regional level. The outcome NSWP will mainly work on is a more supportive and enabling environment for sex work.
Community groups
The programme’s primary target group is female, male and transgender sex workers, meaning those who receive money or goods in exchange for sexual services, either regularly or occasionally. NSWP will target CEDAW committee members and policymakers.
Background
While The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is one of the world’s main human rights treaties, the rights of women sex workers are not specifically addressed in CEDAW.
To prevent harmful perspectives on and interpretations of the treaty and to make sure that their rights are protected, it is essential for sex workers to engage with the Convention and shape the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations on sex work.