This session focused on the human rights violations against sex workers resulting from the criminalization of sex work.  Concrete examples were discussed from China, France, the United States, Macedonia, and Canada of the connections between criminalization and increased vulnerability of sex workers to violence, HIV and other STIs and other harmful outcomes. In addition, panelists shared successful strategies and recommendations for empowering sex workers to claim their legal rights and to access public health services.

Panelists from China, Canada, and the United States described the circumvention of public health initiatives to provide condoms to sex workers by police forces who use condom possession to arrest perceived sex workers. Violence by police officers against sex workers was widely reported, with little recourse for sex workers because of criminalization. Particular vulnerabilities were reported by transgender women who are profiled by police even when engaging in daily routines such as waiting for a bus. The result is that sex workers increasingly go underground, work in more dangerous conditions, accept partners they would not otherwise, and distrust outsiders, including healthcare workers.

In France, changes to the legal code in 2003 included protections for foreign women who were trafficked and penalties for procurement of a sex worker.  A review of the effects, however, demonstrated a sharp increase in legal charges for soliciting but not a sharp increase for those who procure sex workers.

In Macedonia, a large public raid was conducted against sex workers, followed by forced HIV testing and prosecutions of seven sex workers. Sex workers mobilized, together with lawyers, outreach and social workers and psychologists, and filed two civil lawsuits. More than 50% of those detained and tested joined the litigation, winning one lawsuit and getting the seven sex workers released.

Strategies for increasing human rights protections for sex workers include using the experience gathered from challenging police practices to support harm reduction for people who use drugs, offering services in locations that are safer for sex workers, coordinating approaches across sectors, ensuring that sex workers are the preferred partners for advocacy and that sex worker organizations receive sustainable support, and supporting sex workers to enact their rights and speak in their own voices on their own behalf.

The panelists called for the conference sponsors to sponsor another conference specifically on the criminalization of sex work.