Sex Workers

Sex workers make a huge economic and social contribution to the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries. In line with the common definitions of “work” in the GMS – sex work is work. Sex workers have an employer, an income, a workplace, work hours, a work uniform, work tools and work duties. None of the GMS labor laws specifically exclude sex workers. This means there is already a space in existing labor regulation framework to include sex workers, providing the same protections and benefits afforded to other workers.

Since 2009, the UN, led by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, has urged countries to repeal laws that criminalize sex work. The ILO Recommendation 200 on HIV and Work issued in 2010 does not exclude sex workers, recognizing sex workers as workers with equal rights to the same benefits and protections as all other workers.

Sex worker organizations such as TOP, Burma Phoenix, China, Women’s Network for Unity, Cambodia, and EMPOWER Foundation, Thailand along with their sisters in Lao PDR and Vietnam work towards this goal.