Days after a transvestite was killed by a drunken man in Lima’s impoverished La Victoria district, more than one hundred prostitutes and transvestites took to the streets of Peru’s capital last week to demand a end to violence and discrimination.
“We are asking to be recognized as sex workers, and to be covered by labor law,” Angela Villón, President of the Miluska, Vida y Dignidad Association, said Tuesday.
Approximately 1,800 prostitutes currently work in Lima, and none have access to government benefits including pension payments, health care benefits or social security.
The government must recognize our work and establish “tolerance zones” where we can safely and freely set up business, said Villón in comments to Radio Radio Programas, or RPP. “Until it does, mafias and pimps, drugs and the exploitation of minors will continue to occur.”
“All we want is recognition, we want to be citizens,” said Villón.
Last week, Callao’s Regional Government passed Decree Nº 010, recognizing the human rights of sex workers that reside or work in the district. “All sex workers,” reads the decree, “have the right to be free of discrimination, stigmatization, exclusion, and shall have the right to work.”
