The ABCs of Human Trafficking

GAATW International Members’ Congress
Bangkok, Thailand
September 19, 2014

Dear friends and colleagues of the GAATW International Members’ Congress,

It is a pleasure and honor to be with you all at this important event in which we commemorate 20 years of GAATW’s vital work against human trafficking. Given the fact that we live and work in Mexico and are sex workers and activists, we are all too familiar with the complicated and painful issues that surround human trafficking and sexual exploitation on a local, national and international level.

BrigadaCallejera has spent over 25 years organizing and defending our rights as sex workers and activists. In Mexico, the criminalization of and violence against sex workers is not only on the rise, but is also used as a ploy by our corrupt government to make it look as though they were truly combating human trafficking when in reality the problem is not being fully attended to and the real human traffickers are often protected by the government officials themselves.

We have made noteworthy advances in our work over the years and recently celebrated an important victory in our struggle. In May, 2014, thanks to the legal, social and political struggles we have fought for many years, sex workers in Mexico City were given the legal status of self-employed workers and thus granted all of the legal benefits and protection that come along with it. Looking towards the future, we plan to organize sex workers’ unions and cooperatives as a way to better organize and defend ourselves.

Link to the Mexican Federal Judiciary ruling 212/2013:
http://sncedj.ijf.cjf.gob.mx/Doctos/NuevoJuicioAmparo_Act/Docs/Tema1/112...

In addition to our daily work in health, safety, education and organization of sex workers throughout the country, we have been working for several years on creating and gathering written material based on the experiences and organizational strategies of sex workers in Mexico so as to share this information with other groups and individuals by means of manuals, workbooks and other kinds of publications. This has been groundbreaking work because the majority of material that is written for and about us is often done so without our participation. Our voices have been ignored, belittled and looked down upon for too long, and we believe it is time for the voiceless to have a voice, for our experiences and opinions to be heard, and for sex workers to come together and organize ourselves in a way that honors, respects and dignifies our history and our present.

The following document is an excerpt from the English translation of our book, The ABCs of Human Trafficking, which we have brought to share with you all. The entire book will be available in English in the coming months, and we look forward to sharing it with you all. It is our hope that this material will not only be of informational and practical use to other sex workers and activists from around the world, but that it will also inspire them to share their experiences and initiate an international dialogue amongst sex workers. Our voices are filled with dignity, strength and wisdom, and the time has come for us to speak for ourselves and for the world to hear us. We are an essential part of the fight against human trafficking and it is time that we be given our due recognition as such.

Link to an excerpt from "The ABCs of Human Trafficking":
http://es.calameo.com/read/0001373945ae8414e702e

Thank you to the organizers and participants of this congress. We look forward to hearing your responses to our work and to connecting with you all in order to strengthen our common work and goals for the future.

Warmregards, Brigada Callejera de Apoyo a la Mujer “Elisa Martínez”, A.C.