Street Art-Like Campaign Demands Sex Worker Rights In Argentina

An activist group in Argentina has come up with an innovative campaign to try to change people's perceptions about sex trade workers. The Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina (aka AMMAR) has put together a campaign called 'Corner.' The ads, developed by Ogilvy and Mather Buenos Aires, are pasted onto walls at the corners of buildings. On one side is a sex trade worker and then as a you walk around the corner, the scene changes, showing the woman's child with a caption that reads, "86% of sex workers are mothers that are looking for laws to protect them from exploitation." AMMAR was founded in 1994, and the group, along with the Network of Sex Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean, aims to empower sex trade workers and promote human and labour rights. According to a report entitled Incorporating Sex Workers into the Argentine Labor Movement, AMMAR asserted itself as a trade union, becoming part of the union umbrella confederation Central de Trabajadores Argentinos (CTA).  Their initial demand was simply not to have sex trade workers rearrested and detained within 24 hours of being released from a police station. The group's central demand is for the sex trade to be recognized as legitimate employment. (cbc)