International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers 2022
16 December 2022
17th December 2022 marks the 19th year of International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. On this day, sex workers and allies gather across the world to mourn those we have lost, and resolve to continue fighting for an end to the social, legal and economic conditions which allow violence against sex workers to flourish.
In the UK, 188 named sex workers have been murdered since 1990. This number only includes those who are known to the wider public, as sex workers and as victims of the ultimate form of violence. These individuals were part of our families and communities. They were important to their loved ones and friends, and they are important to us.
Please take the time to watch our memorial video this year, with an introduction from Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East, and to remember those we have lost.
Please also take the time to read our memorial card, and to share this amongst your friends, families and communities so that their names are not forgotten. You can download this here.
As always, we will be sharing the names throughout the day on 17th December on our Twitter. On the day, we will be taking over the account of our allies at The Vagina Museum, to share information about why the day exists, and how you can support sex workers.
You can explore our map here
This year, more than ever before, it is vital that we do more than say their names. We cannot forget those we have lost, but we must also honour their memory by doing everything we can to ensure no more names are added to this list. The rising cost of living, alongside impacts of austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic, means that sex workers are more vulnerable than ever. In the UK, sex workers have been fighting against dangerous policies that increase the violence they experience. In Edinburgh, sex workers are fighting a nil-cap on SEVs. In Bristol, a nil-cap proposal was successfully defeated. In Newham, PSPOs threaten to displace sex workers into more dangerous areas and give even more power to law enforcement. Across the Great Britain, sex workers are having to fight against the imposition of client criminalisation and online advertising laws, and in Northern Ireland, sex workers living under these conditions are pushing back against them.
We cannot eradicate violence against sex workers just by ending interpersonal violence. We must eliminate structural violence and transform our societies. The conditions which exclude sex workers from society, which prevent them from achieving justice, which keep their voices suppressed, have to end. Without this, the stigma, discrimination and oppression which allows this violence to occur remain.
We ask all of you to take time to remember our colleagues and friends alongside us, and then resolve to continue fighting for equal rights for all members of society.
- Explore how stigma and criminalisation combine to reduce the power that sex workers have over their work and lives.
- Commit to listening to sex workers and sex worker-led organisations.
- Help end their victimisation by refusing to be silent.
- Stand up against poverty and austerity, as well as misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, racism and anti-migration.
- Work with sex workers to eliminate the social conditions and the harmful policies that limit their life chances.
Let’s work together to ensure no more sex workers die at the hands of predators or due to ill-informed policies and exclusionary politics.
To the sex workers who we’ve lost, we echo a phrase used in Black communities in the US and among queer and marginalised people for those who were killed due to socially unjust conditions: May they Rest in Power!
In solidarity,
National Ugly Mugs
If you are able to, please consider donating to National Ugly Mugs to help us continue our vital anti-violence and harm prevention work.
