Advocacy groups call on CARICOM to protect, empower sex workers
-in bid to improve regional HIV/AIDS response
A FIVE-DAY meeting of the Caribbean Sex Work Coalition (CSWC) and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) ended here Friday on a note of optimism, with the passing of the ‘Georgetown Declaration’ adopted by consensus of the 33 members of the HIV and Sex Work Technical Working Group.
Hosted in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the meeting, convened at the Grand Coastal Hotel, East Coast Demerara, brought together a delegation of 52 persons from ten Caribbean member states.
The delegation comprised representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Development Partners, Welfare Programme Managers, Human Rights Advocates who are members of the Technical Working Group on HIV and Sex Work in the Caribbean, as well as sex workers.
The 11-point Declaration demands the engagement of CARICOM, national governments, civil society and other key stakeholders in improving the efficacy of the Caribbean HIV-response, nationally and regionally, by implementing several evidence-informed and human-rights-based activities and strategies for the protection and empowerment of sex workers.

Listed in order of priority, it cites the following:

* The protection of all sex workers from arbitrary arrest, abuse, violence and extortion.
* Involving sex workers in all legal and social decision-making processes and supporting programmes that build their capacity and competencies to identify and demand their rights.
* Enhancing the competencies and voices of all sex workers to optimally engage in policy development, policy implementation and service provision.
* Creating safe and secure working environments for all sex workers.
* Facilitating access to legal support and advice for all sex workers who experience human rights violations.
* Instituting and enhancing developmental programmes that build the capacity of health care workers, the police, security officers and other providers of social welfare services, to dispense these services in a safe and enabling manner, free from judgment and discrimination.
* Enhancing programmes that provide all sex workers with full access to sexual and reproductive health services, including condoms and family planning methods.
* Enforcing existing regulations, protocols, policies, declarations and laws that protect the rights and welfare of all sex workers, hold governments to account and provide unhindered access to redress.
* Implementing or supporting programmes that provide access to economic empowerment, opportunities, including credit, social benefits, pension and savings schemes, educational and vocational skills training for all workers interested in them. Removing all punitive laws and policies that perpetuate and maintain stigma and discrimination against socially excluded people in the Caribbean and exacerbate their vulnerability to HIV.
* Adoption of the PANCAP Regional model policy on HIV-related Stigma and Discrimination.

Recognizing the interconnectedness of the Caribbean Region, its people, and the transmission of HIV, and that sex workers exist in all Caribbean countries and territories, and cognizant of the increasing vulnerability of sex workers to HIV transmission on account of abuse, extortion and arbitrary detainment by law enforcement officers, the caucus lobbied strongly for the implementation of systems which speak to such issues.
Speaking with the Sunday Chronicle, Caribbean HIV/AIDS Advisor and Focal Point for the UNFPA Sub-Regional Office for the English and Dutch-Speaking Caribbean, Marvin Günter noted that high on the meeting’s agenda were discussions on the need for access to sexual and reproductive health by sex workers without the stigma and discrimination usually meted out to them, even by the very healthcare providers and social workers.
Not the least of their worry was the constant worry about contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) from clients, and having to face a hostile environment when seeking medical help and social services.
“We want, first of all, for all sex workers to have access to sexual and reproductive health and basic human rights. We want to create an environment where we can address the rights and health concerns of everybody,” said Günter, who is based in Jamaica.
On the removal of punitive laws and policies that perpetuate and maintain stigma and discrimination, and the vulnerability of sex workers, he noted an ongoing pattern, whereby sex workers who are physically abused by clients or partners are even afraid to report such abuses to the security forces in countries where they know their profession to be illegal. As a result, he said, there is the ongoing fear among sex workers who endure violence at the hands of partners, coupled with the fear of the action likely to be taken against them by the law.

The Declaration called for the removal of such laws and policies, on the grounds that they perpetuate and maintain stigma and discrimination against socially excluded people in the Caribbean and exacerbate their vulnerability to HIV.
Günter is of the view that accomplishing what is contained in the Declaration will require the harnessing of the collective strengths, competencies and  capabilities of various publics – CARICOM, national governments and their divisions,  NGOs, media, Private Sector Leaders, Development partners, Faith Leaders, Welfare Programme Managers.
Reiterating the need for an all-out war to be waged against ‘stigma and discrimination’, which continues to adversely affect sex workers on all fronts, Günter stressed, “It means that how much we do as a region would be reflected by its impact on the debilitating enemy of stigma and discrimination across the region.”
As regional partners, he said, the stakeholders constantly seek to identify ways in which to support the sex workers’ organization.
“Going forward, we will charge each other with following up [decisions and proposals made] because we recognize that hereafter, it cannot be business as usual. If we are going to impact HIV, we have to address the critical issues that affect the population that has been subjected to abject social exclusion, marginalization that directly increase the vulnerability of persons in relation to HIV,” Günter concluded.
Sex workers have been classified as a very vulnerable community in the Caribbean, and ‘stigma and discrimination’ has been known to cause or maintain such vulnerability. As sex workers continue to advocate for their rights, the CSWC and the CVC are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts at bringing about a number of changes in laws and policy, in order to protect their rights as workers; access services, protection and greater social inclusion.
During their meeting, the delegation observed a minute of silence on the occasion of the recent passing of Dr. Robert Carr, Caribbean HIV champion and leader of the Human Rights Movement in the Region in early May.   He was just 48.