“On December 17, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers3, sex workers are calling for justice outside the NSW courts. The outrage is a result of this case and the systemic inequity experienced by sex workers at the hands of police and the courts throughout Australia.” said Janelle Fawkes, CEO.

DATE: Thursday, 17th December 2009

TIME: 11AM

PLACE: Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Theatrette.

International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers includes events in Sydney, Northern Territory, South Australia, Melbourne,4 and around the world.

“There are systemic discrimination problems in Australia, said Janelle Fawkes, CEO, Scarlet Alliance. “There is no incentive for sex workers to report crime, particularly in states and territories where sex work is criminalised, as complaints to police are not being followed up or taken seriously. When sex workers do report crimes the cases are not treated fairly by the courts and rarely result in a guilty charge.”

Nina Funnell of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre said today: “There is still a pervasive cultural belief that- because of their profession- it is acceptable to afford sex workers less human rights than everyone else. This is absolutely disgraceful and to fix this problem we need fair treatment in the courts for all sex workers as well as massive attitudinal change"

“Whilst sex work is not inherently dangerous, policies and laws in place in Australia put sex workers in dangerous environments.5 This combined with the unacceptably high levels of stigma and discrimination against sex workers results in systemic social exclusion and a lack of access to justice.” said Janelle Fawkes, Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association.

For media comment call:

Janelle Fawkes CEO, Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association

Nina Funnell, NSW Rape Crisis Centre