As part of this year’s campaign marking December 17th – the International Day to Stop Violence Against Sex Workers, we, sex workers united in STAR – the first sex workers collective in the Balkans, alongside with our partners HOPS – Healthy options project Skopje, TransFormA and the Coalition Margins, supporters and activists, celebrated an important anniversary the 15-year Red Umbrella March jubilee by the slogan 15-YEAR COLLECTIVE VOICE AGAINST VIOLENCE ON US.
The march traditionally started at the Mother Theresa Memorial House and ended at the Philip II Square. Before the march began, a representative of our community made a statement to the media:
„And this year, brave, strong and loud, we sent an important message to the institutions and general public with which:
We demand better and safe working conditions;
We demand recognition of sex workers’ labour rights;
We demand sex work decriminalization.
If 15 years ago, sex workers were represented by third parties, today within the frames of the traditional Red Umbrella March, the public was given the chance to see us by means of our self-organized activities, advocating for our own rights and speaking for ourselves.
If 15 years ago, the terms ‘prostitution’ and ‘prostitute’ were commonly used for the purposes of daily sensationalist hype in the black chronicles in the media; now having advocated for a terminology that best describes us, on each 17th December the media report on ‘sex work’ and sex workers’ and our voice in the fight to secure better working conditions and labor rights, as a central news item in all national evening news bulletins.
If 15 years ago, there were political attempts to ‘suppress prostitution’; now we have been given a declarative political commitment for sex work decriminalization, supported by 8 political parties, including the biggest and most powerful political blocks.
Despite the 15-year struggle to protect our fundamental human rights, our community still lives in fear of attacks, threats and systemic violence. In 2021 and 2022 alone, we have documented 34 cases of violation of our rights, of which 20 refer to gender-based violence or domestic violence and 3 cases of verbal violence. Although with the Prevention and Protection of Violence Against Women Law, in which female sex workers are explicitly recognized as a vulnerable category for the first time, the system and institutions still remain deaf and blind to the violence against sex workers, which must be stopped!
As the one of the most vulnerable communities, we still live on the margins within our society that normalizes violence and institutions tolerate hate speech, stigma and discrimination. Therefore, we are rarely encouraged to claim our rights in a systemic way and we provide support ourselves through our organizations. At the height of the pandemic from 2020 onwards, our organization helped 62 sex workers to exercise the right to social protection, and in 2022 45 sex workers turned to seek social counseling and support.
With sex work decriminalization and recognition of sex work as work, our rights, equality and dignity will be protected and we will finally be able to live without fear of violence, stigma and social exclusion.”
Julian Curico, a representative of Red Umbrella Sweden, a Swedish organisation advocating for the rights, safety, justice and self determination of sex workers, also addressed the media with his speech.
“Today I am here to march together with STAR and other sex workers and supporters and to fight together fight for sex work decriminalization. There are still countries in Europe where sex work is not allowed and in fact we as a global movement aim to decriminalize sex work throughout the world. I am very glad to be here today with STAR, I am proud to be a sex worker and a big ‘hurray’ for human rights, I hope we will be able to achieve this”.
The press and Red Umbrella March were covered by the media with the presence of national and local televisions that supported the event through their media coverage and video recordings in the central news and on the Internet portals. Please find some of the media links below:
https://telma.com.mk/2022/12/17/seksualnite-rabotnichki-vo-potraga-po-svoite-prava/
In addition, you can see the photos of the jubilee Red Umbrella March by Vanco Dzambaski, at the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fosim/albums/72177720295342864
The December 17th – the International Day to Stop Violence Against Sex Workers campaign is supported by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia.