ABOUT US

In 2018 sex workers from across Laos joined together in Vientiane at the National Conference on Community Empowerment and Human Rights, organized by the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW). Empowered by their experience with rights-based training, a key group of sex workers began exploring the possibility of establishing an organization to address community needs. The workers reached out to APNSW for technical support and established ADPWL in 2019.

ADPWL is committed to meeting the critical needs and advancing key priorities for sex workers in Laos. ADPWL works to strengthen capacity of sex workers to raise our voices in demand of our right to live free from violence, stigma and discrimination, and empowers sex worker ownership of initiatives impacting our communities. ADPWL’s organizational strength is built upon innovative programming and advocacy aligned to community-identified needs, knowledge gained from peer learning among sex work projects across Southeast Asia, and successful resource mobilization. With APNSW’s ongoing technical support, ADPWL is growing in its capacity as an organization and moving forward the sex workers’ movement in Laos

Priority issue and ADPWL response

ADPWL is the first organization in Laos to address sex worker community issues and mobilize sex workers to assert our power to protect our rights. Though the movement for sex workers’ rights in Laos is in its infancy, ADPWL aims to disrupt the multiple and intersecting systems of violence which violate sex workers’ rights daily. We recognize that the key challenges impacting sex workers’ human rights are rooted in structural and societal systems of anti-sex worker discrimination and violence, and sex workers who have multiple identities experience multiple layers of intersectional harm.

The culture of violence against sex workers in Laos is maintained by the criminalization and legal oppression of our communities which excludes sex workers from the protection and support of health, justice, and social services. Exacerbating our social exclusion, the criminalization of sex work produces significant negative impacts on community health and safety. Police violence targeting our communities is a pervasive and critical concern and is the direct result of the criminalization of our workforce. Criminalization also exacerbates vulnerability to poor health outcomes. ADPWL is hearing from our community that many sex workers ask for STI treatment, but do not have access to clinical services. Sex workers are disproportionately impacted by STIs and HIV but are denied comprehensive and accessible services in violation of our sexual and reproductive health rights. Sex workers urgently need access to a rights-affirming sexual and reproductive health clinic.

To protect against the institutional and social violence of criminalization and stigma, many sex workers choose not to disclose their work status and thus remain a hidden population whose needs and priorities are not captured or reflected in national health, justice, or social protection frameworks. To establish an accurate understanding of the characteristics, experience, and needs of sex working communities, ADPWL is committed to undertaking critical community-driven research to develop an evidence-base reflecting the situation of sex workers’ rights in Laos. ADPWL works to capture the community’s fundamental expertise, knowledge, and understanding of the context and conditions of sex workers’ rights to ensure sex workers are not invisibilized and to develop guidance and advocacy for evidence- and rights-based laws, policies, and practices impacting sex worker communities.