PROGRAMS & ACTIVITIES

ADPWL Priorities

ADPWL is the first organization in the Lao PDR (Lao) to address sex worker issues and mobilize sex workers to assert our power to protect our rights. Though the movement for sex workers’ rights in Lao 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 Lao 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 are in need of STI treatment, but do not have access to clinical services. Sex working people are disproportionately impacted by STIs and HIV but are denied comprehensive and accessible services in violation of our sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). Sex workers in Lao urgently need access to rights-affirming clinical SRH services.

ADPWL believes community-based responses are necessary to address community-identified needs. As a sex worker-led organization, ADPWL is better able to reach targeted community members and provide access to high-quality, evidence- and rights-based services and support. With staff belonging to sex working communities, ADPWL encourages community members to feel more comfortable sharing and relating their knowledge, issues and challenges.

ADPWL works toward the well-being of sex workers in the following ways:

⇰ Empowering sex working communities across Lao to take collective action for our rights through mobilization and capacity building

⇰ Influencing change in existing social and societal norms, policies and practices towards the fulfillment of sex workers’ rights

⇰ Increasing community ownership of quality SRH services

⇰ Developing an empowered self- image and self-esteem of sex working people and communities

⇰ Building formal and informal alliances with individuals, groups and organizations for sex workers’ rights

ADPWL programming addresses the following issues:

Empower sex workers to take leadership in demand of our rights, and to take collective action against human rights violations targeting sex working communities
End violence and stop stigma and discrimination against sex working people
Promote, protect and respect the human rights of sex workers
Build awareness of rights to health through peer-led outreach
Conduct advocacy with governments, community groups, and other stakeholders to promote structural changes and improve the quality of life for sex working people

Over this next 5-year strategic period, ADPWL aims to build in the following ways:

Strengthen our movement with capacity building, base-building, and leadership development for emerging activists
Scale direct services provided to community through ADPWL Drop-In-Centers, SRHR Programming, and VASW Programming
Advocate and campaign for the full decriminalization of sex work and other legal reform to ensure rights- respecting legislation

Commitment to community-driven research to mobilize advocacy for sex worker rights

Institutional and social violence silences the needs of sex working people and excludes community priorities from national health, justice, or social protection frameworks. To establish an accurate understanding of the conditions, characteristics, experience, and needs of sex working communities in Lao, ADPWL is committed to undertaking critical community-driven research to develop an evidence-base reflecting the situation of sex workers’ rights in Lao.

When community conducts the research, sex workers’ barriers to disclosure are lowered, allowing for the production of data on a high diversity of community identities and experiences. 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 working communities.