Thank you, President.
I am a sex worker. My name is Karina Bravo.
We appreciate the Rapporteur's report and her assessment of the lack of access to justice for migrant domestic workers. As representatives of sex worker communities around the world, we highlight the difficulties faced by migrant domestic workers and migrant sex workers.
Sex workers face obstacles in accessing justice, both as victims of crime and when accused. Criminalisation of sex work, stigma and discrimination, as well as police corruption and violence, also limit successful prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators, as well as access to compensation and support services for victims.
We call on Member States to include sex workers in ensuring that legal services are accessible with linguistic interpretation, and to train police, judges and justice operators in human rights and gender.
Member States must stop equating sex work with trafficking. When they do so, we are subjected to more violence, more discrimination and greater vulnerability and it harms us, not only sex workers, but also the victims of trafficking. This does not combat trafficking, but rather reduces our ability to organise and speak out against abuses.
Like domestic work, sex work is work. We deserve the same labour rights and the same access to justice.
Thank you.