This open access book provides a comprehensive overview of the health inequities and human rights issues faced by sex workers globally across diverse contexts, and outlines evidence-based strategies and best practices. Sex workers face severe health and social inequities, largely as the result of structural factors including punitive and criminalized legal environments, stigma, and social and economic exclusion and marginalization. Although previous work has largely emphasized an elevated burden and gaps in HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services in sex work, less attention has been paid to the broader health and human rights concerns faced by sex workers. This contributed volume addresses this gap. The chapters feature a variety of perspectives including academic, community, implementing partners, and government to synthesize research evidence as well as lessons learned from local-level experiences across different regions, and are organized under three parts: Burden of health and human rights inequities faced by sex workers globally, including infectious diseases (e.g., HIV, STIs), violence, sexual and reproductive health, and drug use Structural determinants of health and human rights, including legislation, law enforcement, community engagement, intersectoral collaboration, stigma, barriers to health access, im/migration issues, and occupational safety and health Evidence-based services and best practices at various levels ranging from individual and community to policy-level interventions to identify best practices and avenues for future research and interventions Sex Work, Health, and Human Rights is an essential resource for researchers, policy-makers, governments, implementing partners, international organizations and community-based organizations involved in research, policies, or programs related to sex work, public health, social justice, gender-based violence, women's health and harm reduction.

This open access book provides a comprehensive overview of the health inequities and human rights issues faced by sex workers globally across diverse contexts, and outlines evidence-based strategies and best practices. Sex workers face severe health and social inequities, largely as the result of structural factors including punitive and criminalized legal environments, stigma, and social and economic exclusion and marginalization. Although previous work has largely emphasized an elevated burden and gaps in HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services in sex work, less attention has been paid to the broader health and human rights concerns faced by sex workers. This contributed volume addresses this gap. The chapters feature a variety of perspectives including academic, community, implementing partners, and government to synthesize research evidence as well as lessons learned from local-level experiences across different regions, and are organized under three parts: Burden of health and human rights inequities faced by sex workers globally, including infectious diseases (e.g., HIV, STIs), violence, sexual and reproductive health, and drug use Structural determinants of health and human rights, including legislation, law enforcement, community engagement, intersectoral collaboration, stigma, barriers to health access, im/migration issues, and occupational safety and health Evidence-based services and best practices at various levels ranging from individual and community to policy-level interventions to identify best practices and avenues for future research and interventions Sex Work, Health, and Human Rights is an essential resource for researchers, policy-makers, governments, implementing partners, international organizations and community-based organizations involved in research, policies, or programs related to sex work, public health, social justice, gender-based violence, women's health and harm reduction.

This volume presents an integrated epidemiologic, social, and economic analysis of the global epidemics of HIV among sex workers in low- and middle-income countries. The book provides a comprehensive review and synthesis of the available public health and social science data to characterize the nature, scope, and complexities of these epidemics. A community empowerment-based approach to HIV prevention, treatment, and care is outlined and demonstrated to be cost-effective across multiple settings, with a significant projected impact on HIV incidence among sex workers and transmission dynamics overall. The Global HIV Epidemics among Sex Workers seeks to assist governments, public health implementing agencies, donors, and sex worker communities to better understand and respond to the epidemics among a population facing heightened social and structural vulnerabilities to HIV. The book combines a systematic review of the global epidemiology of HIV among sex workers and in-depth case studies of the epidemiology, policy and programmatic responses and surrounding social contexts for HIV prevention, care and treatment in eight countries. The authors employ mathematical modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis to assess the potential country-level impact of a community empowerment-based approach to HIV prevention, treatment, and care among sex workers when taken to scale in four countries representing diverse sociopolitical contexts and HIV epidemics: Brazil, Kenya, Thailand, and Ukraine. In each setting, greater investment in prevention, treatment, and care for sex workers is shown to significantly reduce HIV. Together these findings underline the urgency of further global investment in comprehensive, human rights-based responses to HIV among sex workers.