Twenty public universities organise sex work debates

Academic members of 20 universities across Spain, with the involvement of the UAB, have come together to organise in the following months a series of feminist debates and workshops on the sex work sector. The programme was made public on 17 October in commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and Social Exclusion.

17/10/2019

"The action is based on the conviction that there is a right in all democratic societies to offer public debates and represent arguments from different angles, as well as include the voice of sex workers who demand their rights be respected".

In September 2019, the debates on sex work programmed to be held at the University of A Coruña were cancelled due to public pressures and political pressures. At that moment, the multiple reactions caused by the news focused on the idea of guaranteeing the university as a space of freedom of speech and debate needed to produce social knowledge and advancements.

Now, and as a response to those events, 20 public universities have come together and programmed different debates and reflections and have issued a joint statement:

"Although it is true that prostitution in our country is not criminally sanctioned, neither is it considered an occupational activity, and therefore sex workers are deprived of legal rights and tools which help to combat the stigma accompanying this activity.

In contrast, the traffic of persons with the aim of sexually exploiting them is clearly persecuted and punished given that, in accordance with international obligations ratified by Spain, the Spanish Criminal Code defines it as an offence. Taking into consideration the debates on this subject at the core of feminism and recent events in A Coruña, a group of academic members from 20 universities have worked together to coordinate the organisation of the University Sex Work Debates.

The action is based on the conviction that there is a right in all democratic societies to offer public debates and represent arguments from different angles, as well as include the voice of sex workers who demand their rights be respected. The debates are an opportunity to foster meetings, dialogues and exchanges between sex workers and the rest of society".

The activities will take place during the 2019/20 academic year, and will be held chronologically in the University of A Coruña, the University of Cadiz, the University of Salamanca, the University of Seville (Faculty of Law), the Carlos III University of Madrid, the University of Oviedo, the University of Barcelona, the University of the Basque Country, the University of Seville (Faculty of Anthropology), the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the??University of Grenada, the University of Lleida, the Pablo de Olavide University, the University of Almeria (Faculty of the Humanities), the University of Castilla-La Mancha, the University of Valencia (Faculty of Social Sciences), the University of Zaragoza (FCSyT), the Open University of Catalonia, the University of Jaén, the University of Córdoba and the Pompeu Fabra University".

The UAB will hold a conference on "Rights and Sex Work" on 26 November at the UAB Faculty of Law.

More information: Programme