{"id":233976,"date":"2022-08-12T11:47:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T09:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/sex-workers-accuse-gender-commission-of-backtracking-on-its-decriminalisation-support\/"},"modified":"2022-08-12T11:47:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T09:47:49","slug":"sex-workers-are-angry-with-the-gender-commission-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/sex-workers-are-angry-with-the-gender-commission-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex workers are angry with the Gender Commission. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About 60 sex workers and supporters march through Cape Town\u2019s city centre to the Commission on Gender Equality\u2019s provincial offices. Photos: Tariro Washinyira<\/p>\n

Activists at Sex Workers Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), Sisonke and the Asijiki Coalition are accusing members of the Commission on Gender Equality of using their positions to impose their personal moral views on issues like abortion and decriminalising sex work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission on Gender Equality has always been very supportive of decriminalisation [of sex work] after a lot of research and consultation. Now they have developed a committee that excludes sex workers who would be affected by their decision,\u201d said SWEAT director Emily Craven.<\/p>\n

Craven was among about 60 sex workers and supporters on Thursday who marched through Cape Town\u2019s city centre to the Commission\u2019s provincial offices.<\/p>\n

This follows a meeting on 15 June between the Commission and representatives of SWEAT, Sisonke, Sonke Gender Justice and the Asijiki Coalition. According to Asijiki, the Commision informed them that a committee would be \u201cconsidering further issues that had come to light\u201d which affect the Commission\u2019s position regarding the decriminalisation of sex work among other issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can only conclude that the information that has come to the attention of the Commission which would prompt it to reconsider its position must be of overwhelming significance. We have asked the Commission to provide us with this new information which has resulted in the establishment of the committee as well as the Terms of Reference of the committee,\u201d the organisation said.<\/p>\n

The organisations then jointly wrote to the Commission<\/a> on 6 July, asking for clarity on these issues. They are yet to get a response. Then last week, they were notified of \u201ca flurry of urgently scheduled Commission virtual consultations\u201d after the Commission had promised to do in-person consultations with sex workers.<\/p>\n

Sex worker and Asijiki\u2019s national coordinator, Constance Mathe, said, \u201cWe did the presentation and sent a letter and they never came back to us. It shows the Commission does not care about sex workers who are dying and being raped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixolile Ngcobo, the Commission\u2019s provincial manager, promised to give the group\u2019s memo to chairperson Tamara Mathebulu and CEO Jamela Robertson. The organisations have given them a week to respond.<\/p>\n

GroundUp sent questions to the Commission. Their response will be included once it has been received.<\/p>\n

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SWEAT director Emily Craven says the Commission on Gender Equality, which had been supportive of decriminalising sex work, is now reviewing its stance on this and other issues. Activists say sex workers have been excluded in this process.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 60 sex workers and supporters march through Cape Town\u2019s city centre to the Commission on Gender Equality\u2019s provincial offices. Photos: Tariro Washinyira Activists at Sex Workers Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), Sisonke and the Asijiki Coalition are accusing members of the Commission on Gender Equality of using their positions to impose their personal moral views on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-233976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sex-workers-are-angry-with-the-gender-commission-heres-why.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}