Supporting sex workers and the organizations that support them has been at the heart of our services for many years. In collaboration with BAWS, we are creating a referral network of lawyers for sex workers and are looking for allied lawyers for other legal work to support sex workers. This list of recommendations will be a way to connect sex workers with the rights of the movement and advocates who are friendly to sex workers and informed about the specific legal challenges sex workers face. If you`re looking for free or inexpensive legal advice, you`ll likely talk to lawyers at the beginning or end of their careers. California Pro Bono can connect you with law students and retired state lawyers. They also provide links to national resources. Criminal behaviour orders, Verfügungen zur “Verhinderung von asozialem Verhalten”, Ordinances for the protection of public space. are used against sex workers on the street, allegedly to prevent certain behaviour or to prohibit access to an area. Hearsay evidence, where police say what anonymous people have told them, is often used. For several years, GHJP has worked closely with the Urban Justice Center`s Sex Workers Project (SWP) to understand how criminalization affects people`s lives in the sex sector and to explore possible strategies to change harmful laws and policies in the United States. The purpose and scope of the project has evolved alongside our research and collaboration with key actors, including sex workers, AIDS advocacy and service organizations, people of color and criminal justice organizations, LGBT and transgender lawyers, and public health and legal researchers and advocates.
Working with the SWP has been in close synergy with GHJP`s global work on sex workers` health and rights: while each country has historically seen specific developments in its prostitution laws and other criminal laws regulating sexuality, the transnational flow of ideologies, agencies, and funding (particularly for HIV/AIDS) closely links U.S. sex work law and policies. and now “human trafficking”, among others, in the world Background. Our goal is to support the decriminalization of all forms of sex work and reduce harm and discrimination against sex workers. In response to student findings and analysis (through secondary research, visits, observations, and in-person interviews with key stakeholders), the project moved into its second phase in 2015, first nationally and then in Atlanta, Georgia, with a focus on “prostitution diversion programs” (PDPs) – emerging local responses to the frustrations of sex trafficking surveillance in the street. Conversations with health, HIV/AIDS, LGBT, anti-racism, incarceration, and civil rights activists who had followed community debates about prostitution and related arrests with simultaneous failures of legal and social systems eventually led us to a new clinic project in 2016 to conduct a national mapping and investigation of different histories. Models and possible effects of these new “inescapable” responses to street crime, supposedly inspired by harm reduction and drug treatment courts, claiming an evidence base for policy. Please call our helpline at (646) 602-5617 if you have legal questions about sex work; need for free non-judgmental advice; think you know a sex worker who has problems; or someone who has been a victim of human trafficking; You want to plan a workshop for your community; wishes to join our political efforts. Leave a message and let us know when it`s safe to call you back. If you would like to be included on this reference list and/or join a team of sex workers` rights advocates to provide further legal assistance, please fill out the form below. For more information, please contact us below. Although this was written for British sex workers (and paid with UK lottery funds!), most of this advice applies to the US.
Although Britain is focused on its resources, the advice is excellent wherever you live. Send them an email directly to request a copy: Contact at swarmcollective dot org. A directory of direct service providers and legal, medical and psychiatric professionals who are able to provide impartial, client-centred and harm reduction services to people in the sex industry. Free legal assistance, including answering legal questions online and connecting with a local lawyer at low cost/pro bono. SWOP is a national organization dedicated to supporting sex workers through a community support line, technical assistance, funding, and advocacy. They provide information on how sex workers from various industries can stay safe here. We provide direct legal and social services to hundreds of people a year. The SWP recognises that quality legal services are essential to guarantee the human rights of sex workers, people profiled as sex workers and survivors of human trafficking. Excellent online legal resource for sex workers: a list of criminal justice resources for sex workers (CA and national) and the Know Your Rights Handbook for sex workers.
The sex workers project provides direct legal services and legal education workshops for sex workers, as well as training for service providers and community organizations. It`s not illegal to be a stripper, but a change in licensing laws in 2010 increased oversight and regulation by management. The Desiree Alliance is a national coalition of current and former sex workers who work with support networks to engage constructively on behalf of the human, health, labor and civil rights of sex workers. The Desiree Alliance organizes an annual conference for sex workers and on sex workers` rights. The information in this legal review applies to sex workers of all genders. If you are trans, your gender should be recognized by the police and other authorities, regardless of what is written on your documents. You do not have the right to ask if you have a gender recognition certificate. Violation of some of these orders is a criminal offence.
In some cases, you can get legal help to challenge them. Recognizance and support orders are issued instead of a fine for loitering and recruiting, but if you rape, you can be arrested, detained for 72 hours, brought to trial and fined. We engage in rigorous, evidence-based and research-based policy advocacy to defend the human rights of sex workers and sex traffickers. Most people think of human trafficking as forcibly bringing someone into the country and forcing them to work. In fact, anyone who helps a sex worker come to or travel to the UK, especially if they are an immigrant, can be convicted of human trafficking. Sex workers have helped victims of human trafficking escape, but laws make this difficult. Information Center website for free nonprofit legal aid services in the United States Soliciting sex on the street (crawling on the sidewalk) is illegal. It is illegal to “pay for sex with a prostitute who is subjected to violence and coercion.” Men can be convicted even if they did not know that the person had been coerced. The ECP is a network of sex workers, mostly women, who work both on the streets and indoors, campaigning for decriminalization and safety.
We struggle to be treated like criminals. We`ve helped sex workers win charges of recruitment, brothel keeping and control – the latter two more often against women who work together for safety reasons. Most sex workers are mothers who do their best for their children. We fight against austerity cuts and for housing and other survival resources so that each of us can leave prostitution whenever and whenever we want. Our mission is to advocate for sex workers, people profiled as sex workers, and victims of human trafficking through harm reduction approaches and human rights. This newsletter is designed to ensure that sex workers, no matter where we work, know the law, how to protect themselves from arrest, how to defend themselves if they are charged, and where we can get help. By exposing how harsh and unfair the laws are and how they undermine our security, we hope to gain support for the decriminalization of prostitution. We engage in human rights documentation to gather the experiences of sex workers and victims of human trafficking. Free legal advice website for simple questions. Sex worker friendly. Easy to use form to submit your question anonymously, and licensed lawyers will answer you.
This is a website for lawyers to generate business, so you can hire a lawyer here too. At the beginning of the project in 2014, the project focused on the intersection of laws criminalizing prostitution and laws criminalizing HIV exposure or transmission, and the fact that the overlap – or specific combination – of these laws creates a double threat of prosecution for sex workers in the United States without providing meaningful guidance. Educational or social services in accordance with these laws. In particular, our investigations revealed consistent but unpredictable and local biases in police, police and judicial practices, including: de facto detention until HIV testing can be conducted, coercive trials and involuntary public disclosures of HIV status, sometimes coupled with ad hoc judicial solutions to avoid these problems without addressing the law itself. Many sex workers do not report rape or other violence for fear of being arrested themselves. We can help you fight for the protection to which you are entitled. With Women Against Rape, we helped two sex workers bring a personal lawsuit against a serial rapist – we won and he was jailed for 11 years. An Oakland-based organization that provides direct legal services, legal advocacy, community building, and effective policy advocacy to sex workers in every corner of the industry.