International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers 2021: Do More Than Say Their Names
22 November 2021

#IDEVASW
#IDEVASW21
Do more than say their names

17th December 2021 marks the 18th International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW).

Every year around the world, sex workers and their allies gather to remember those from our community who we have lost to violence, injustice and stigma. We gather to mourn, to grieve, and to renew our commitment to changing the conditions sex workers face, so that no more names need to be remembered each year, and no more lives are needlessly cut short.

We would like to thank all of the sex workers and allies who have contributed to this year’s video, and particularly to Nadia Whittome MP, for her contribution and continuing solidarity with sex workers and those from other marginalised communities.

In the UK, 186 known 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 a moment to read our memorial card, and to remember them. Please also share this amongst your friends, families and colleagues.

We will also, as always, be tweeting the names of each person throughout the day on the 17th December.

This year at NUM, we changed our mandate from ending violence against sex workers to ending all forms of violence against sex workers. Working to end interpersonal violence is still core within the work NUM does, but this cannot be done without ending systemic violence. 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 also work to eliminate the conditions that lead to survival sex work. Anti-poverty, anti-violence and anti-discrimination activities must be done on concert and must include the multiple marginalisations and intersections of identity which prevent people from being fully-recognised members of our society – misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, racism, austerity and poverty. All of these must be eradicated if we are to achieve justice and end violence.

Last year, and in previous years, we invited you to join us and say their names. This year, we ask you to do more. 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.
• 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