Creator: Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT)
Description: Law reform for sex work has been in process for over a decade now. Many politicians say they can’t support decriminalisation of sex work because you – the public – don’t support change. This means that as many as 182,000 women and men who make a living selling sexual services in South Africa remain vulnerable to abuse and have no recourse if they experience violence. This video highlights the consequences of criminalizing sex work and what the decriminalization of sex work would do.
Creator: Justice and Women Charitable Trust
Description: South African rural women speak about the violation of their rights to confidentiality, counselling and consent when tested for HIV/AIDS by some South African clinics when women were pregnant. Further, some women describe how they were treated whilst in labour by hospital staff, with some women being sterilised without consent. Community stigmatisation of people living with HIV/AIDS made it difficult for women to speak to others or gain support to confront and challenge these violations.
Creator: Sonke Gender Justice
Description: Fatherhood is a gift to children, but it’s also a gift to dads. In Khayelitsha, Themba inspires his younger brother, Andrew, who is about to become a father. This short film follows the journey to fatherhood in South Africa, a country where more than half of all children grow up without a father at home. It also highlights the struggles faced by mothers whom are expected, by traditional cultural standards, to care for their home and children.
Creator: Sonke Gender Justice
Description: Vincent was raped by two gang members in an overcrowded cell in a Western Cape remand detention facility. This was his very first sexual experience. Vincent asked for help from nurses, wardens, priests, social workers, and even a magistrate who all rejected him and told him to expect this treatment in prison. He only received medical attention three years after he was raped when he was sentenced, and learned he was HIV-positive. Vincent calls on the Department of Correctional Services to stop this from happening to others, and encourages survivors to speak up. Vincent feels stronger than before, and says “I know I have a purpose in this life."
Creator: Sonke Gender Justice
Description:People all over the world are coming together to talk about sex work and how we could change the law to improve the lives of people involved in sex work. This is good news for sex workers and others in South Africa who have been advocating for years for our government to remove the outdated criminal laws we have on sex work and to develop new policies and laws to protect sex worker rights. In recent years, lawmakers in Europe and other parts of the world have been talking a lot about The Swedish Model, a policy model first introduced in Sweden in 1999. This allows sex workers to sell sex without facing prosecution from the police, but their clients would be arrested and prosecuted for buying. This model is sometimes referred to as The Swedish or Nordic Model, partial criminalization of sex work, and partial decriminalization of sex work. The names might be different but the result is the same. People who buy sex are arrested and those who sell sex are encouraged into exit or rehabilitation programs. While this model is a bit better than the full criminalization of sex work in that it recognizes that sex workers are not criminals who need to be punished.