Sex worker rights movement

The sex worker rights movement advocates the rights, safety, and working conditions of people who sell sexual services. It challenges stigma and policies that expose sex workers to violence, exploitation, or legal exclusion.

COYOTE: Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics was a U.S. sex worker rights group founded by Margo St. James in 1973. Its founding helped establish organized sex worker rights activism in the United States.
Decriminalization of sex work: The removal of criminal penalties for consensual adult sex work and related activities. It is a central policy demand for reducing harms caused by criminal law.
Nordic model approach to prostitution: A legal approach that criminalizes the purchase of sexual services while generally exempting sellers from prosecution. It seeks to reduce prostitution by targeting buyers, a strategy many sex worker groups oppose.
Sex worker unionization: The collective organization of sex workers to negotiate conditions, protections, and recognition. Union organizing translates labor-rights demands into collective workplace power.
Global Network of Sex Work Projects: An international network supporting sex worker-led organizations and advocating for their health and human rights. It connects local advocacy to global institutions and shared campaigns.
International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights: An international network formed by sex workers and allies to advance their rights. It brought sex worker organizing into international forums and debates.
Labor rights: Legal and social protections governing workers’ pay, safety, organizing, and conditions of employment. The movement frames sex work as work deserving protections and collective bargaining.
Abolitionism (prostitution policy): A policy approach seeking to end prostitution, often by treating it as a form of gendered exploitation. It conflicts with rights-based arguments that consensual adult sex work should be recognized as work.
Harm reduction: Practical measures that reduce health and safety risks without requiring abstinence or punitive enforcement. Community-led harm reduction can provide services that criminalized workers may otherwise avoid.
UNAIDS guidance on sex work: International guidance from UNAIDS addressing HIV prevention and human rights in relation to sex work. Advocacy has helped bring decriminalization and community leadership into global health discussions.

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