For Images panel, following the screening of documentary "Grace Period" in Toronto. By Kate Zen (Migrant Sex Workers Project)

3. Police abuse of sex workers:
• Beatings, ill treatment, and torture in custody
• Arbitrary arrest and detention
• Two-year “reeducation camps” without trial
• Extortion, undercover bribery & blackmail
• Impunity for police; Public shaming for sex workers and their families
• Negligence to pursue justice when sex workers are victims of crime
• Condoms used as evidence of prostitution
• Forced testing without informed consent or privacy
• No referrals to social or health services

6. Garment Workers &
Sex Workers:
Low-Wage
Women
Workers
Unite

8. INDIA’S SEX WORKER
LABOUR ORGANIZING: 65,000
strong
1. Community-led sex worker organizing drastically lowered
HIV / AIDS rates in Sonagachi District and West Bengal.
2. Set standard prices for workers across the union and
mandated use of condoms. Inspection of clean, safe working
conditions, and fair wages for all workers.
3. Eliminated presence of child sex workers under 18 years of
age. Created sustainable help for the impoverished children.
4. Created Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Bank, the largest
and most successful cooperative bank in West Bengal,
democratically led by sex workers and former sex workers
saving together, investing in educational programming for
their children, plus career training and social networks for
retiring and retired sex workers.
5. Pushed back against rampant police violence.
Tactical Tech human rights research on
police violence against sex workers, with
data collected by community-led
organizations: DMSC (India) and
Women’s Network for Unity(Cambodia)

9. RESPECT: Sex Work Is

10. Police brutality against indigenous women and children in
British Columbia, many of whom were trading sex for
survival. (Human Rights Watch, 2013)
Reported police violence against
youth of colour in sex trades is
greater than violence from pimps or
johns, and it enables violence from
predators posing as customers.
Home Front