The European Alliance for Sex Workers’ Rights has called on candidates in this Sunday’s European Parliament elections to support self-determination for sex workers and the recognition of sex work as work.
In a manifesto published this Sunday, World Sex Workers Day, the European Alliance (ESWA) calls on future European parliamentarians to show solidarity with sex workers who face various forms of violence.
ESWA urges them to listen to sex workers before formulating new policies, rather than promoting “legal frameworks that have been shown to undermine sex workers’ rights.”
The alliance criticizes those who argue that the problems can be solved by stronger policing, more trials and more arrests. Instead, they call for “investment in community action” to combat violence against women and transgender people.
They demand that future European parliamentarians “recognize sex workers as experts in their lives and needs,” and in this sense, feminism should support women’s self-determination in relation to their work and their bodies: “Sex workers in sex work should not be an exception.”
Just as anyone who wants to engage in sex work and “trade their body” must be respected, says the manifesto, which can be signed on the European Alliance website.
“The assumption that having sex involves giving or losing parts of yourself is deeply anti-feminist. People are not degraded by sex. We reject any analysis that argues that sex workers contribute to the “commercialization of women, sex, or intimacy.” We will not blame sex workers for harming other women, we will blame patriarchy and other oppressive systems,” says ESWA.
Other requirements include ensuring that workers are able to seek consent.
The European Alliance also calls for special attention to be given to victims of human trafficking, calling for policies and measures to help those in need.
“We therefore condemn the convergence of migration, sex work and human trafficking. As a result of this merger, migrant sex workers are particularly targeted for harassment, raids, detentions and deportations, and are pushed into underground working environments where they are most vulnerable to violence and exploitation,” they highlight.
They also ask candidates to submit proposals that promote policies that eliminate all forms of violence: “Sex work is not a form of sexual violence, but sex workers are particularly vulnerable to sexual and intimate partner violence due to criminalization and, often, intersectionality.” oppressions such as sexism, “slutphobia,” homophobia, transphobia, racism and classism.”
“Work every day to end misogyny in all areas of life,” they ask candidates, who also ask to “respect the rights of migrants.”
However, they say there are many migrant women with limited access to work and social security who end up selling sex because there are no alternatives to guarantee their livelihood.
Supporting LGBT rights to combat those rejected by family, school and the traditional job market who end up in sex work, as well as guaranteeing the full decriminalization of sex work, is another demand written into the manifesto.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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