CO «Legalife-Ukraine» took part in the First Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Judges’ Forum on HIV, Human Rights and the Law

On October 3 and 4, 2019 in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, the first Forum of Judges was held, which discussed the protection of human rights in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the context of the ongoing HIV / AIDS epidemic. The forum was organized by the UNDP regional office. Nataliia Isaieva, director of CO “Legalife-Ukraine”, took an active part in public debates and made a resonant report on the situation with violations of the rights of sex workers.

The Forum was attended by more than 50 representatives of the judiciary from Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Moldova. Also attended were delegations from India and African countries. Most of the speakers talked about how the imperfection of modern Legislation harms the life and health of vulnerable groups of people.

Representatives of HIV+ communities, transgender people, drug addicts, migrants and LGBT people also had the opportunity to speak at the Forum. The sex worker delegation was made up of activists from the SWAN Foundation.

SWAN reports and presentations on multiple violations of sex worker rights and the need to decriminalize sex work have resonated most with judges.

Nataliia Isaieva, CO “Legalife-Ukraine”, SWAN: “It was very important for me to make it clear to the judges what is the difference between legalizing and decriminalizing sex work, because, as it turned out, misunderstanding in this area is a universal problem. In my presentation, I paid much attention to comparing legislation in the field of regulation of sex work in countries such as Hungary, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Separately, I focused on the Ukrainian specifics and the fact that the possible abolition of administrative responsibility is not able to reduce the problems with the protection of sex workers in our country. ”

Marina Avramenko, SWAN: “At first we were given 10 minutes to speak. But later they were allowed to make reports for 30 minutes. And it was very good. Because we were able to give many specific examples of violations of the rights of sex workers in the countries of our region. We have shown the need to decriminalize sex work in order for sex workers to have equal access to justice and human rights, given the vulnerability of sex workers to HIV.

Our performances went well. There were questions, the discussion continued after the session. Stasa Plecas also made comments, answering the questions of those present. Later, some judges came up to us and said that they did not even imagine that sex workers could have any problems with the exercise of their rights, with access to justice, and protection from violence. We opened their eyes to this.

Let’s hope that the work of the SWAN team in this forum will lead to a softening of justice in relation to sex workers, to promoting ideas of decriminalization of sex work, to the fact that everyone will have equal access to justice”.

SWAN (Sex Workers ’rights Advocacy Network) is a regional network of self-organized sex workers and their supporters in Eastern Europe and Central Asia that advocates for the rights of women, men and transgender sex workers. The organization was founded in 2006. In January 2012, it was officially registered under the name SWAN Foundation.