International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers 2023

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers 2023
15 December 2023

17th December 2023 marks the 20th year of International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. The day began in 2003, when SWOP-USA and Annie Sprinkle gathered members of their community together to mourn the victims of a mass murderer targeting sex workers in Seattle, Washington. In an open letter, Sprinkle wrote, “I felt a need to memorialize my whore sisters that had died so horribly and needlessly. I cared, and I knew other people cared too.” She also invited other sex workers around the world to host their own acts of memorial, individually and within their communities.

We Honour

This year in the UK we will honour 199 sex workers who have been murdered since 1990. This number only includes those who are known to the wider public. We also include the names of 9 sex workers from the Republic of Ireland, in recognition of the violent impacts of client criminalisation policies, with permission from SWAI. Violence against sex workers transcends borders.

We also acknowledge those who have been lost to us due to illness, suicide, overdose and other forms of harm brought about by criminalisation, stigma, discrimination and neglect. These individuals were part of our families and communities. They are important to their loved ones and friends, and they are important to us.

They are why we fight, and why we join the international community of sex workers and allies to create a safer future.

Please 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 X/Twitter account.

In 2022, we launched our memorial map. You can access this tool by donation, and it allows you to see sex workers who have been lost around the UK. You can click into a geographical area, read the names of those who have been lost there, see some information about them, and find links to news articles about them. We aim to use donations to expand this resource and please be in touch if there are errors or omissions. Please also access this resource with caution if this may be upsetting to you. 

We Remember

We remember our lost sex worker colleagues, comrades and friends today. We remember those from all areas of the sex industry, those who died as a result of structural violence, and we fight for those who lived under it.

We remember marginalised sex workers. We remember racialised sex workers; queer sex workers; trans sex workers; migrant and refugee sex workers; disabled sex workers; sex workers who were parents; homeless sex workers; sex workers who used drugs; sex workers from indigenous communities; sex workers living in poverty; sex workers who were activists; those who were sex working to survive; sex workers from within our borders, and those from outside of them.

We mourn and honour them all.

Once again this year, we ask you to do more than say their names. We ask you to join us as we remember our colleagues, and stand with us as sex workers around the world fight to end unjust violence, discrimination and policies which harm their lives and livelihoods.

It has been 20 years since IDEVASW began, and sex workers around the world still largely live under legal regimes of criminalisation and violence. How much longer must we remember our dead, keep adding names to our lists and memorials? How much longer must we fight to survive? How much longer must we tolerate stigma, discrimination, injustice and violence? How much longer must we scream to even have the chance for our voices to be heard?

We Demand

In recent weeks, members of the UK government have called for the introduction of lethal policies which will result in the loss of even more lives. Edinburgh Council continues to waste public money on attempting to close sex workers’ workplaces, rather than providing them with support. Across Great Britain, sex workers are having to fight against the imposition of client criminalisation and online advertising laws, and on the island of Ireland, sex workers living under these conditions are pushing back against them.

People in positions of leadership have the power to improve the lives and conditions sex workers face. They have the power to reduce poverty, austerity and hardship. They have the power to change the conditions for marginalised groups, from migrants and disabled people, to queer, trans racialised people, and beyond. They have the power to uplift and centre those whose voices are so often pushed to the side. We call on you to use your power to reduce harm, to uplift those whose voices are so often ignored, and send the message that sex workers are valued members of our communities. 

We call for an end to the criminalisation of sex work and sex workers, which forces them to work in the margins without any form of protection. We reject calls to implement client criminalisation policies (also known as the Nordic or Swedish model), which push sex workers underground and continue to expose them to greater poverty, violence, marginalisation and criminalisation. We do not call for legalisation, which creates a two-tier system and harms the most vulnerable workers who cannot meet often-invasive regulations. Only the full decriminalisation of sex work will suffice.

At the same time, we call for an end to the social conditions which contribute to all forms of violence. We must eliminate racism, queerphobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, anti-migration sentiments, poverty and austerity if we are to achieve justice and freedom for all members of our society. 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. We owe sex workers a better outcome than violence and death. 

We Ask

Remember our colleagues and our friends alongside us, and then honour their memories by continuing to fight for equal rights for all members of society.

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.