Dear friends and colleagues,
 
Please sign on to these letters denouncing police raids against sex workers in Macedonia. The sex workers were forcibly tested and 7 who were found to be Hep. C + are facing criminal charges as a result. I have included below, the press release of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) detailing their plans
to charge sex workers.
 
***For those of you who are health experts or health professionals, it would be important to have your open denunciation of the *health rationale* being used to commit these abuses.
 
Attached is the final version of the letter of support to sex workers in Macedonia written by HIV-prevention group HOPS.
 
Please, put your logo on top, sign, don't forget to put the place and date, and send it out as soon as possible to these addresses and then please forward to other supportive colleagues.
 
 
OPEN LETTER TO MACEDONIAN GOVERNMENT REGARDING THE DETENTION, INVOLUNTARY TESTING AND CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST SEX WORKERS IN MACEDONIA IN NOVEMBER 2008
 
Budapest, December 5, 2008
 
Dear Mrs. Gordana Jankuloska, Minister of Interior,
Dear Mrs. Aneta Stancevska, Vice Minister of Interior and Chief of Sector for Internal Control,
Dear Mr. Idzet Memeti, Ombudsman,
Dear Mr. Bujar Osmani, Minister of Health.
 
We, supporters and representatives of international community of sex workers and organizations and individuals advocating for human rights, are strongly condemning the current acts of police raids and involuntary STI testing of sex workers in Skopje, Macedonia in November 2008.
 
In those police raids MoI seriously infringed human rights of Macedonian citizens in several ways:

·       By allowing to and calling on the media to film and photograph the detained sex workers and later by publicly announcing that 7 of them are charged with crime, the MoI twice violated the right for presumption of innocence. It also disclosed the identities of the defendants, even though no court verdict had been produced.
·       Macedonian Constitution, the highest legal act of the Republic, provides for presumption of innocence: “A person indicted for an offence shall be considered innocent until his/her guilt is established by a legally valid court verdict.”[1]
·       Further to that, the Constitution provides that “Citizens of the Republic of Macedonia are equal in their freedoms and rights, regardless of sex, race, colour of skin, national and social origin, political and religious beliefs, property and social status.[2]" In the police raids only sex workers were forcefully tested, while no testing or charges for committing intentional infection were initiated against the detained clients.
·       Any country seeking membership of the European Union must conform to the conditions set out by Article 49 and the principles laid down in Article 6(1) of the Treaty on European Union. Relevant criteria were established by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 and strengthened by the Madrid European Council in 1995.

To join the EU, a new Member State must meet three criteria, and the first among them is political: stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;

This unlawful action by the Macedonian police seriously damaged Macedonian standing in its bid to join the family of European nations.

·       By allowing media to publish photos and video of arrested sex workers and by publicizing the names of the streets where they work, the Ministry of Internal Affairs exposed to possible acts of violence not only sex workers working on those streets, but any woman who in the future happens to be there. We demand measures to be taken to prevent possible violence on the enumerated streets and regions.

·       Involuntary STI testing is considered by human rights experts as non-human, and degrading and by medical professionals as unethical and counterproductive in terms of infection control.  World Health Organization and UNAIDS in their Guidance on HIV testing and counseling in health facilities, issued in 2007, recommend that:

1.    All HIV testing must be voluntary, confidential, and undertaken with the patient's consent.
2.    Patients have the right to decline the test. They should not be tested for HIV against their will, without their knowledge, without adequate information or without receiving their test results.
3.    Pre-test information and post-test counselling remain integral components of the HIV testing process.
4.    Patients should receive support to avoid potential negative consequences of knowing and disclosing their HIV status, such as discrimination or violence.
·       By charging hepatitis C-positive sex workers with intentional infecting of the citizens and by disclosing the identity of the defendants, the authorities are undermining the efforts of prevention programs among mainstream society and will discourage and scare Macedonian citizens from performing voluntary testing.
·       We call media houses, journalist associations, and media reporters to boycott similar calls that in the future might come from the police to film defendants prior to court verdicts.  Media are in such cases used as instruments in unlawful degradation and stigmatization of the innocent-until-proved-different defendants. Informed participation in and reporting from such actions not only is unethical, it is collaboration in an unlawful act.
·       We call Macedonian citizens to stand up for human rights of sex workers; Sex workers are people and should be treated in human ways. We all should defend human rights of each and every citizen because if anyone’s right is infringed, our own rights are endangered. Yesterday Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses and people with mental disabilities, today sex workers, homosexuals and Roma, tomorrow each of us could be a victim of unlawful detention, violence, degradation, involuntary STI testing and name calling in the media, unless we create a society in which the laws are applied equally to all and all are equal in front of the law.
 
We understand the concern for health and well-being of the Macedonian nation, but the well-being of one group has never been justified by the repression against others, especially against marginalized and stigmatized social groups like sex workers, MSM, and representatives of LGBT community.

Any action of the national law enforcement agencies targeting these vulnerable groups must be consulted and coordinated with the Ministry of Health and agencies of social affairs.

We demand from the Ministry of Interior to investigate the causes, procedures and consequences of the arrests and forced testing as well as to remember that the very essence of law enforcement agencies is to ensure the rule of law and democracy and “guaranteeing of human rights, citizens' freedoms”[3] in the state for all its citizens.
Considering all International Treaties and agreements signed by the Republic of Macedonia in connection with protection of human rights, we demand that no such repressive actions take place in future and that the violations will be redressed concerning the arrested persons. We are sure that Macedonia has great potential in further developing civil and democratic state.


[1] Section II, Article 13 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia
[2] Section II, article 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia http://www.b-info.com/places/Macedonia/republic/Constitution.txt
[3] See the Preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia http://www.b-info.com/places/Macedonia/republic/Constitution.txt