3.1 Governments should prohibit law enforcement agencies from participating in coercive practices including mandatory HIV and STI testing, forced rehabilitation, or health promotion programmes implemented by police or based upon detention of sex workers. Governments should ensure that public order offences are not selectively enforced against sex workers or are used as a pretext for extortion or for harassing, assaulting, detaining or punishing sex workers. 3.2 Governments should ensure that sex workers, outreach workers, peer educators and managers of HIV services are not prosecuted on the basis of evidence of possession of materials used in promoting sexual health, such as safe sex literature, male and female condoms and lubricant.
Defining an agenda for action at country level
3. Improvements to law enforcement practices and education of the judiciary
3.3 Governments should ensure that law enforcement agencies with responsibility for enforcing laws against human trafficking target traffickers, rather than consenting adult sex workers. 3.4 Governments should ensure that police and public security personnel receive training on HIV, human rights and sex work, and should specifically address prevention of police abuses of sex workers, including sexual violence and extortion. 3.5 Governments should ensure that transparent and independent police complaint mechanisms are in place that can help prevent and remedy police abuses. Police departments should ensure disciplinary proceedings and prosecutions are brought against police involved in harassment, extortion or violence towards sex workers. Governments and national human rights institutions should ensure that all allegations of human rights violations perpetrated against sex workers are investigated thoroughly by independent bodies, and that those responsible are held accountable for their actions. 3.6 Condom promotion programmes for sex workers should not rely on police for enforcement and should not impose compulsory HIV or STI examinations. Condom promotion programmes should respect the rights of sex workers to non-discrimination, privacy and autonomy in medical decision-making. Sex worker participation in designing and evaluating these programmes is critical. 3.7 Justice Ministries and professional associations should include information on human rights-based responses to HIV and sex work in training of magistrates and judges. Judges should be supported in educating their peers about sex work, HIV and human rights. 3.8 Ministries of Police and Justice should work cooperatively with other Ministries involved in the HIV response (e.g., those with responsibility for health, welfare, education) to ensure that law enforcement approaches are supportive of HIV prevention, sexual health promotion and violence prevention strategies for sex workers. 4. Legal services 4.1 Governments should ensure provision of legal aid services for sex workers who require legal advice and representation, including in relation to police matters, violence protection, discrimination or other human rights violations, and access to identification documents. 37