Whore movement

French whore activist, 2005

The whore movement is a social movement of prostitutes that campaigns for the rights of sex workers . They are supported in this by contemporary sex positive feminism .

Germany

The Cologne chroniclers recorded an uprising by former whores in the monastery of St. Maria Magdalena in Eigelstein as early as 1492 , presumably because of forced labor.

In the present, the self-help project Whores Resist Together (HWG) existed in Frankfurt from 1984 to 1999, when public funds were slightly reduced. In October 1985, Hydra and HWG organized the first National Whore Congress, which was later renamed the Prostitution Conference. Other whore projects are Kassandra in Nuremberg, Kober in Dortmund, Madonna in Bochum, Sperrgebiet in Hamburg, Nitribitt in Bremen, Tamara in Frankfurt and Amnesty for Women . Prostitutes are represented in the union by ver.di department 13 (“special services”) .

As the importance of the internet grew, it also became easier for sex workers to network. The website sexworker.at is the largest platform for exchanging sex workers in German-speaking countries.

In October 2013, a professional association for erotic and sexual services (BesD) of sex workers was founded in Germany. On October 29, 2013, the association published the appeal for prostitution for the strengthening of rights and for the improvement of the living and working conditions of people in sex work. According to its own information, the BesD has a three-digit number of members. It is therefore doubted that the BesD could represent the interests of all sex workers. It is also criticized that the BesD board members are themselves employers of other sex workers, and that the "brothel operators' association" UEGD supported the establishment of the BesD.

The whore movement is currently clarifying the consequences of the ProstSchG that came into force on July 1, 2017, which it assessed as incapacitating and stigmatizing .

United States

The prostitute organization Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), founded by Margo St. James, postulated in 1973 in the United States:

"A woman has a right to sell sexual services just as much as she has the right to sell her brains to a law firm or sell creative work to a museum ..."

Other American organizations include Sex Workers' Action Coalition (SWAC), North American Task Force on Prostitution (NTFP) in New York, Prostitutes of New York (PONY) in New York, and Hooking Is Real Employment (HIRE) in Atlanta .

Carol Leigh , chairman of the network Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network (BAYSWAN) in San Francisco , in 1978 coined the term sex worker , German sex workers / in . She founded the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Video Festival.

In 2003 Annie Sprinkle , activist of the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA , proclaimed the International Day Against Violence against Sex Workers .

Other countries

In France there is the Syndicat du travail sexuel (STRASS), here the origin of the organized whore movement can be found in Europe. On June 2, 1975, 150 women occupied the Saint-Nizier church in Lyon in order to draw public attention to the repression by state institutions. In England the English Collective of Prostitutes , in Ireland the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI), in Australia the Scarlet Alliance .

International alliances

Since the 1970s, feminist activists have addressed the issue of human rights in the context of voluntary and involuntary prostitution . There was a transnational discussion about whether prostitution per se should be seen as a violation of human rights or whether one should stand up for the human rights of prostitutes. Also since the 1970s, prostitutes have increasingly taken the floor and made political demands about their legal and social status. During the first World Whore Congress in Amsterdam in 1985, the International Committee of Prostitutes' Rights (ICPR) was founded. In 1986, on the occasion of the Second Whores Congress in the European Parliament in Brussels, the ICPR presented the declaration on prostitution and human rights. This defends itself against the idea of prostitution as the degradation of women and a social danger. It is called for prostitution to be seen as legitimate work and prostitutes as legitimate citizens . In thirteen points, the declaration lists human rights violations that prostitutes suffer due to legal systems that are hostile to prostitutes. The declaration also formulates human rights-based claims of prostitutes as people against states, such as the right to life, security and family. Soon after the Second World Whores Congress, the ICPR also adopted the World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights .

The International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) sees itself as a worldwide association. The European Network for HIV / STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers was established in Europe .

literature

Gillian Abel, Lisa Fitzgerald, Catherine Healy, Aline Taylor: Taking the Crime Out of Sex Work. 2010, ISBN 9781847423344
Almuth Waldenberger: ... like others too! History and debates of the whore movement in Germany and Austria from the 1970s to 2011. Vienna, 2012 [1]
Sonja Dolinsek: Convention to Prevent Human Trafficking (1949) and Declaration on Prostitution and Human Rights (1986) , in: Sources for the History of Human Rights, published by the Working Group on Human Rights in the 20th Century, September 2016, accessed on January 11, 2017.