RESEARCH TO INCREASE SECURITY AND SAFETY OF SEX WORKERS THE FIRST TO WIN

ROBERT CARR RESEARCH AWARD

For immediate release
July 13, 2014

Media contact: Mary Ann Torres, Executive Director, ICASO
Tel: +1 416 4196338
Email: maryannt@icaso.org

Toronto, Geneva, New York, Baltimore

An exceptional, collaborative research project that brought together sex worker communities, sex
work rights advocates, the United Nations, researchers and governments from four Asia Pacific
countries was selected as the first recipient of the Robert Carr Research Award. The award was
established in honor of the late Dr. Robert Carr, who tirelessly and courageously advocated for
human rights as central to the response to the HIV epidemic.

Sex Work and Violence: Understanding Factors for Safety and Protection stood out as an entry
because of the participation of sex workers throughout the research process; a population that is
often neglected by research or difficult to reach, said Chris Beyrer, upcoming President of the
International AIDS Society (IAS) and Director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights
(CPHHR) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The project was overseen by a regional steering committee that included the Centre for Advocacy
on Stigma and Marginalisation (CASAM, SANGRAM), the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers, the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and Partners for Prevention,
which is a joint UN initiative working on gender-based violence. At country level, national working
groups that included government, sex work community groups, and UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNDP,
oversaw the national studies. Within each country, a National Working Group acted as a forum to
bring together government, commissions, law enforcement and sex work leaders. Led by a local sex
work organization and the UN country teams, the research was done in a participatory way that
included sharing the initial analysis with the communities researched to ensure that their
experiences were authentically reflected in the interpretations of the data.

The project truly honors Roberts vision of bringing researchers, activists and individuals directly
affected by the HIV epidemic together to advance our knowledge of the impact of human rights-
based policies and practices, said Joe Amon, of Human Rights Watch. Robert was passionate
about the need for cross-disciplinary research to inform policy and advocacy efforts in the field of
HIV and projects such as this one that looks at discrimination, social rejection, violence and
imprisonment, reflect his life's work and vision.

Meena Seshu, ICASO Board member and Director of SANGRAM, one of the project partners, noted
that the high and diverse number of stakeholders involved in the process also set the project apart.
It embodies the spirit of collaborative work of different actors working together towards one goal:
to increase the security and safety of sex workers, and to create an enabling environment that will
allow them to access their rights as citizens to safe working conditions.

Robert was a social justice and HIV activist and advocate for vulnerable communities, but he was
also our friend and colleague at ICASO. It means much to see his unflagging commitment to human
rights realized through this important research project. It is everything he worked towards:
advocacy efforts based on research collaborations between a diverse group of stakeholders, and
translating findings into tangible policy development, said Mary Ann Torres, ICASOs Executive
Director. Robert was the Director of Advocacy at ICASO at the time of his sudden death in 2011.

The selection committee, representing CPHHR, HRW, IAS and ICASO, as well as two experts
involved in community-academia research collaborations, based their decision on the innovation of
the research project and the high and diverse number of stakeholders involved in the process. The
committee believes that the research project has the potential to achieve a great impact by
influencing policies and practices in the field and guide evidence-based programs and/or influence
policies in the field of HIV to guide a human rights-based response. It paves the way as a model for
similar research projects, said Torres.

The award is a joint initiative by the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO),
the International AIDS Society (IAS), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Johns Hopkins Center for
Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR). The winning research project, Sex Work and Violence:
Understanding Factors for Safety and Protection, will be announced at the 20
th
International AIDS
Conference in Melbourne, Australia during the Robert Carr Memorial Lecture on July 21, 2014 at
18:30.

For more information, please visit www.icaso.org/robert-carr-award

ICASOs mission is to mobilize and support diverse communities for an effective response to
end the AIDS pandemic (www.icaso.org)

The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world's leading independent association of HIV
professionals, with over 16,000 members from more than 196 countries working at all levels of
the global response to AIDS (www.iasociety.org)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a global human rights advocacy organization, with dedicated
programs on HIV/TB that include a focus on human rights issues related to populations
disproportionately affected by HIV, gender inequality, sex work, refugees and migrant
workers, prisoners, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.
(http://www.hrw.org/topic/health/hivtb)


The Center for Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health seeks to advance fundamental human rights through research,
teaching and advocacy (http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/center-for-
public-health-and-human-rights/)