STAR – the First Sex Workers Collective in the Balkans in coalition with HOPS – Healthy Options Project Skopje and Coalition MARGINS is organising its 14th Red Umbrella March on 17th december (Friday) to mark the International Day to Stop Violence against Sex Workers. The march will take a place in the centre of Skopje at 12:00PM.
Within this year’s campaign we will once again emphasize the urgency need for decriminalization of sex work, as the best policy for promoting health and human rights of sex workers, their families, and communities in the Republic of North Macedonia.
Sex workers and their families are existentially dependent on sex work as their primary source of income. With the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, sex workers as a marginalized community found themselves in a particularly difficult situation, affected economically, socially and health-wise. In conditions when sex work is not regulated and recognized as a profession, sex workers are not able to use the economic measures of the state, which in turn affects their general well-being.
Therefore, we want to emphasize the need for immediate adoption of an appropriate model for regulation of sex work in the Republic of North Macedonia, and to ask the competent institutions: JUST WHEN DECRIMINALIZATION?
We demand decriminalization of sex work, as the best model for the regulation of sex work, which will meet the needs of sex workers, will provide protection of their human and labor rights, will provide them with safe working conditions, will protect them from violence and abuse, will improve access to justice and health services and will positively affect the well-being and dignity of sex workers.
By involving sex workers in the process of adopting new model for regulation of sex work, it will remove the community from the margins and contribute to the recognition of their profession.
We, sex workers want a life free of stigma and violence.
We, sex workers are looking for safe working conditions.
We, sex workers will not stop marching until sex work is decriminalized in North Macedonia.
The Red Umbrella March will be held in accordance with all measures and recommendations for protection and prevention from COVID 19 in North Macedonia.
Inaugurated by Dr. Annie Sprinkle and started by the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA, the first annual day was in 2003 and was held as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle, Washington. The killer said: “I wanted to kill as much as I could. I knew that no one would immediately report them missing, and even maybe they will never be reported. I collected prostitutes because I thought I could kill as much as I want without getting caught.” Gary Leon Ridgway was sentenced to life imprisonment and was fined $ 10,000 for each victim on December 18th, 2003.
The implementation of the campaign to celebrate DECEMBER 17 – THE INTERNATIONAL DAY TO STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST SEX WORKERS is funded by Foundation Open Society – Macedonia.