on HIV and Sex Work

UNAIDS Guidance Note
on HIV and Sex Work
The development of the UNAIDS Guidance
Note on HIV and Sex Work benefited from
the contributions of the UNAIDS Reference
Group on HIV and Human Rights and the
Global Working Group on HIV and Sex
Work Policy. The Guidance Note was also
informed by a series of consultations that
occurred between 2006 and 2008, including
the Global Technical Consultation on HIV
and Sex Work; a regional consultation
for Latin America and the Caribbean;
subregional consultations in southern Africa
and the Caribbean; national consultations
in China, Malawi, Peru, Thailand and
Zimbabwe; and subnational consultations
and discussions in Kenya, Nepal and the
Pacific Island Countries. The specific needs
of populations of humanitarian concern
were informed by consultations in southern
Eastern Europe. The UNAIDS Guidance
Note further benefited from the Informal
Briefing for the High Level Meeting on
AIDS, held in April 2008 focusing on HIV
and sex work.
This Guidance Note has been
developed to provide the UNAIDS
Cosponsors and Secretariat with a coordinated
human-rights-based approach
to promoting universal access2 to HIV
prevention, treatment, care and support
in the context of adult sex work. In
a world where the overwhelming
majority of HIV infections are sexually
transmitted, sex workers and their
clients are at heightened risk of HIV,
in large measure as a result of a larger
number of sex partners. Vulnerability to
HIV as a result of sex work extends to
women, men, and transgender people.
Although the links between sex work
and HIV vulnerability have been
recognized since the earliest days of
the epidemic, surveys indicate that sex
workers have inadequate access to HIV
prevention services3, and it is believed that their access is even more limited for appropriate
treatment, care and support. To date, the HIV response has devoted insufficient attention
and resources to efforts to address HIV and sex work, with less than 1% of global funding
for HIV prevention being spent on HIV and sex work4. The epidemiological data on
HIV infection rates among sex workers and their clients reflects the failure to adequately
respond to their human rights and public health needs. Recent studies continue to confirm
that in many countries sex workers experience higher rates of HIV infection than in most
other population groups