USA: Sex workers say they need more protection from HIV ahead of AIDS Conference Opening session.

Record ID: 335349

  • Title: USA: Sex workers say they need more protection from HIV ahead of AIDS Conference Opening session.
  • Date: 22nd July 2012
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JULY 22, 2012) (REUTERS) SIGN ON ONE OF THE BUILDINGS HOSTING CONFERENCE PEOPLE INSIDE THE CONFERENCE BUILDING PEOPLE REGISTERING FOR CONFERENCE WOMAN SETTING UP DISPLAY OF CONDOMS MIRIAM EDWARDS WEARING SHIRT THAT SAYS "SEX WORK IS WORK" CONFERENCE ROOM WHERE SEX WORKERS SATELLITE SESSION IS TAKING PLACE MIRIAM EDWARDS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
  • Embargoed: 6th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVAALE39Y8613Y0BMLHFX25K6G2R
  • Story Text: Sex workers say their illegal or stigmatized status means they do not receive full access to health prevention and treatment for HIV, in one of the pre-conference events taking place at the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C.
    Ahead of the International AIDS conference's official opening session at 1900EST (2300 GMT) in Washington D.C on Sunday night (July 22), representatives from sex workers organizations around the world gathered for a "satellite" session to discuss the threat of HIV to sex workers and call for policies to improve HIV prevention and treatment.
    The satellite session was one of several pre-conference events happening in the Washington Convention Center in conjunction with the AIDS conference which will bring 21,000 delegates from 195 countries for the week-long event that culminates Friday (July 27).
    Attendees were already filing into the venue on Sunday morning to attend satellite sessions and visit the exhibit halls. Exhibitors from local and international groups were putting up their displays in the Global Village Exhibit space while exhibitors from individual countries, international organizations and private companies prepared to open their doors to visitors in another exhibit space.
    Miriam Edwards, Executive Director of the Guyana sex workers coalition, was one of the speakers to take the stage and discuss challenges in HIV prevention and treatment for sex workers. She addressed the situation in her native Guyana and the Caribbean. Edwards said that sex work needed to be legalized and sex workers needed to be treated as part of the general population in order to get adequate health services.

    "We are part of the general population. We need people to accept sex workers as the general population and stop segregating them as different. Sex workers are human beings and they must be accepted. If not, we will never get to zero on HIV," Edwards said.
    Pye Jacobson a founding member of Sex Workers and Allies in Sweden, said that while HIV rates among sex workers in the developed world were not as high, the human rights of sex workers are being ignored, compromising their health.

    "Sweden has a very low HIV prevalence and the same is true for sex workers. But by ignoring sex workers health, which we are doing in Sweden, by not doing an HIV prevention, is denying them a human right. And I think that's true for many countries and Europe is moving to more restrictive policies all over. This will clearly impact sex workers' lives and health," she said.
    Speakers from Africa, Europe, South America and Asia also took part in the session. Various concerns were raised in particular about the illegal status of sex workers that they say renders them vulnerable to abuse and prevents them from receiving full social and health resources, and they also spoke about barriers to health services as a result of persistent bias and discrimination.
    Speakers at the Opening Session include a welcome from co-chairs Elly Katabira of Uganda and Diane Havlir of the United States with later remarks from Annah Sango of Zimbabwe, Jim Yong Kim, the President of the World Bank Group, a video address from Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Michel Sidib� UNAIDS, Kgalema Motlanthe, the Deputy President of South Africa and Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
    The International AIDS Conference is the first to be held in the United States since 1990.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register