This year, we dedicate the campaign for commemorating March 3rd – the International Sex Workers’ Rights Day to sex workers’ digital rights and security.
Within the frames of this year’s campaign, titled Digital Rights are Fundamental Human Rights, which is to last from March 1st to March 8th 2024, we join the effort to respect and protect sex workers’ fundamental human rights, including the right to privacy, the right to freedom of speech and association, the right to access to the Internet and online services, protection from digital gender-based violence, personal data protection, protection against hate speech and misinformation and access to a legal remedy in case of violation of digital rights.
Sex work today also takes place in the digital sphere. On the one hand, offering sex services online has advantages and opportunities to sex workers, yet on the other hand, they face numerous risks and problems. The stigma regarding sex workers and their marginalized position in society is also reflected in the digital sphere, which manifests itself in various ways.
“It’s her own fault for sharing the photos”, “Look how naked she is”, “What kind of a mother are you?”, “Go do something useful”, “You are a disgrace to this society”, – this is how sex workers are perceived in the online space. Victims of hate speech, harassment and discriminatory speech, sex workers are increasingly exposed to traumatic experiences that threaten their health and safety, further discouraging them from demanding their rights and needs.
Online gender-based violence and hate speech make the online space unsafe for sex workers. They experience stress, fear and survive traumatic experiences, especially when the environment, parents, children and other relatives or employers find out that they are sex workers, due to sexual abuse by disclosing compromising visual materials. Because of this abuse, they can also be victimized, that is, their other rights may be violated, such as losing employment, the materials being used against them in child custody proceedings or the attempt to exercise other social rights, etc.
In North Macedonia, there is no efficient and effective protection of digital gender-based violence victims. When photos and other materials are shared in the context of sex work there is an additional barrier, which is the fear of criminalization of the victims should they seek help from the institutions for help. The Criminal Code and the Law on Prevention and Protection from Violence against Women and Domestic Violence regulate this area accordingly. It is the insufficient implementation of the legal framework which is the key problem. In addition, the fact that sex work is not decriminalized means a violation of the right to privacy in itself. Not recognizing sex work as work is the result of moralizing and interfering with privacy, bodily autonomy, self-determination and independent decision-making related to sexuality.
In order to emphasize the needs of sex workers in the digital sphere, we prepared an Analysis of Current Legal Frame in North Macedonia Regarding Sex Workers’ Digital Rights and Security. The analysis aims to show how the stigma towards sex work and the lack of a legal framework for decriminalization negatively affect the exercise of digital rights and the digital security of sex workers in North Macedonia.
You can follow the Digital Rights are Fundamental Human Rights campaign on STAR-STAR’s Facebook page, on the following link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1679827225887073
The analysis was conducted within the frames of the project “Sex Workers’ Resilience in the Digital Age” with the aim of strengthening the sex workers’ organizational and capacities to tackle digital threats to human rights, with the support of the Hivos Foundation, via the Digital Defenders Partnership (DDP) grant mechanism.
The campaign to commemorate March 3rd – the International Sex Workers’ Rights Day is implemented with the support of the Red Umbrella Fund.