Sex Work Harm Reduction

Abstract

Sex work is an extremely dangerous profession. The global focus on the sex work industry often results in individual sex workers becoming the unintended targets of elimination and control efforts. The use of harm-reduction principles can help to safeguard sex workers’ lives in the same way that drug users have benefited from drug-use harm reduction. Sex workers are exposed to serious harms: drug use, disease, violence, discrimination, debt, criminalization, and exploitation (child prostitution, trafficking for sex work, and exploitation of migrants). Successful and promising harm-reduction strategies are available: education, empowerment, prevention, care, occupational health and safety, decriminalization of sex workers, and human-rights-based approaches. Successful interventions include peer education, training in condom-negotiating skills, safety tips for street-based sex workers, male and female condoms, the prevention-care synergy, occupational health and safety guidelines for brothels, self-help organizations, and community-based child protection networks. Straightforward and achievable steps are available to improve the day-to-day lives of sex workers while they continue to work. Conceptualizing and debating sex-work harm reduction as a new paradigm can hasten this process. Civil society, especially sex work organizations, is deeply involved in improving the day-to-day lives of sex workers, and the scientific community can take an active role by using evidence-based research to pilot innovative initiatives, assess existing strategies, and develop a database of proven interventions. The participation of sex workers in this effort will ensure its success.

Michael Rekart, MD, DTM&H, Clinical Professor of Medicine and Director STI/HIV Prevention and Control, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control
University: University of British Columbia School of Medicine
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Title of Presentation: Sex Work Harm Reduction