General meeting of the board of leaders of sex workers community of Ukraine 2021

On December 12, 2021, the General Meeting of Members of the Council of Leaders and Activists of Sex Workers’ Community of Ukraine was held in the office of CO “Legalife-Ukraine”. Community leaders gathered to discuss topics relevant to Ukrainian sex workers and to make appropriate decisions in several fields of activism.

Summary of the meeting

Work of sex workers community leaders in regional HIV Coordination Councils in Ukraine

Despite a general trend to increase meaningful participation of key groups in the development and implementation of HIV prevention and treatment programs, it has been found that sex workers do not always have sufficient capacity to do so. There are various factors that negatively affect their motivation and raise concerns about their obligations. The COVID-19 pandemic also had a negative impact on the decision-making process for the inclusion of SW leaders in the regional HIV Coordinating Councils and on establishing cooperation with government agencies. Thus, during 2021, members of the Council of Leaders of Sex Workers of Ukraine reported that due to quarantine restrictions in many regions, the work of Coordinating Councils was restricted: there was no formal notification of the acceptance of the leaders of the Councils, the appointments of the Heads of Councils, and/or the holding of meetings of the Councils. But the most unexpected thing was the lack of support and obstructions by local authorities in the process of admitting representatives of vulnerable groups to the Coordinating Council on HIV, as it happened in Kharkiv.

Ratification of the Istanbul Convention

Despite its relevance, the Istanbul Convention continues to generate lively debate and has not yet been ratified by Ukraine (which signed the Convention on November 11, 2011). The Convention is extremely important because it provides a modern civilizational framework for policies to prevent violence against women. But, there are as many myths around the Convention, as there are around gender. The current challenge is therefore to dispel myths and disseminate truthful information about the Convention, which should help to solve existing problems, reduce the level of radicalization of society and gather votes of deputies for its ratification.

Sex workers are one of the most vulnerable groups to violence. The criminalization of sex work complicates the process of seeking help and obtaining protection from the State for sex workers, who have suffered from violence. That is why the sex workers’ community and CO “Legalife-Ukraine” are supporting the ratification campaign for the Istanbul Convention.

Results of work of the Council of Leaders of SW and regional initiative groups of CO "Legalife-Ukraine" in 2021

During 2021, CO “Legalife-Ukraine” and the SW community achieved significant results in the main areas of activity:

- A network of lawyers has been established in 10 regions of Ukraine to monitor, record and respond to violations of the rights of SWs using the electronic monitoring and evaluation system DataCheck.

- The network of CO «Legalife-Ukraine» has been expanded from 10 to 13 regions. At the moment, Leaders in 13 regions are working to develop initiative groups and establish partnerships with other NGOs, building a network of referrals to receive services, etc.

- More than 350 sex workers from different regions of Ukraine were trained and took part in the development of IT and in advocacy activities of the community.

- Members of the Council of Leaders developed 2 proposals to the National Council on HIV and TB, 3 proposals to the regional Coordinating Councils on HIV, approved a plan of information campaign in support of advocacy strategy for decriminalization of SW, identified and included in the C19RM application major interventions that require funding and needed to support the SW community.

- Two proposals were accepted from the SW community at the National HIV/AIDS/TB Council to review, recalculate and to approve the revised methodology and ceiling rates for HIV services.

- Representatives of the SW community submitted proposals to the Regional Coordination Councils to ensure access to a limited number of doctors and to operate a mobile dispensary to provide services for sex workers who live in remote areas or working at night.

We wish to thank CO "100% LIFE" for community support and opportunity to develop!

The event was held within the framework of the project «Accelerating progress in reducing the burden of tuberculosis and HIV infection in Ukraine» with financial support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Programme component: 152M. Strengthen leadership in advocacy to develop the capacity of the sex workers community at the national and regional levels to ensure the sustainability of HIV services.