SWAI’s mission is to work with current, former, indoor, outdoor, and online sex workers of all genders, to develop and strengthen their human rights and safety in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
SWAI is dedicated to the decriminalisation and de-stigmatisation of sex work, community development, and informed awareness of sex work in society. We want to eradicate whorephobia.
Our mission is to bring about the changes that sex workers want and to be wholly led by their voices and experiences. This mission is guided by our peer engagement, outreach, education, advocacy and partnerships with sex workers. Our goal is to see change in policy and legislation that improves the health, safety and wellbeing of all sex workers on the island of Ireland.
Values
SWAI believes in inclusion, equality, human rights, confidentiality, bodily autonomy, freedom of movement and migration for sex workers, and for the decriminalisation of their work. We are anti-capitalist, anti-ableist, trans-inclusive and anti-white supremacy.
SWAI acknowledges, and rejects, the whorearchy that exists within sex work. Whether a sex worker through choice, circumstances, or coercion, any sex worker’s voice is as valuable and necessary as another’s. We want to work with, not against each other.
We recognise and combat the systemic issues that sex workers experience.
We are not informed or influenced by religious ethos. We are guided by peer engagement, and our work is evidence-based and trauma-informed.
Who we are
Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) is a sex worker-led and community-focused non-governmental organisation in Ireland. We respect the self-identification and autonomy of sex workers. SWAI recognises ‘sex workers’ as anyone engaged in transactional sexual services indoors, outdoors, and online – including but not limited to street workers, brothel workers, strippers, sugar babies, porn producers, escorts, those working in massage parlours, online content creators, and pro-dommes. We acknowledge the intersectionality of gender, socio-economic background, ethnicity, migratory status, sexuality, and how these may influence one’s work experiences.
What we do
SWAI advocates for the human rights of all current and former sex workers on the island of Ireland (north and south), be they LGBTQIA+, hetero, cis, trans, people of colour, Traveller, disabled, able-bodied, male, female, non-binary, undocumented, migrant, drug-using, neurodiverse, or of any faith. SWAI does not require sex workers to disclose their personal circumstances or history in order to access our services.
The work of SWAI is informed by and reflects sex workers’ diversity of needs. We want to emphasise that this is a dynamic process: individual and community needs will change over time, language will change, and we are still – and always – learning from our community.
Our aim is to make sex workers’ lives as safe and comfortable as possible, and to create a safe space in which autonomous decision-making is prioritised. SWAI therefore has a strict practice of not outing sex workers.
We speak and work with sex workers to fight against stigma and shame, and demand the full decriminalisation of sex work and active improvement of sex workers’ lives and working conditions.
We do this through community development, informing changes in policy and legislation, providing direct support to sex workers through outreach projects, signposting, creative projects and opportunities, organising online and in-person meetups for sex workers, spreading awareness through events, networking, providing academic and creative resources, and the creation of an allies network.
We need sex workers’ voices to be heard – in the media, in drafting policies and legislation, in research, and on the streets. There should be nothing about us without us.
Exiting the industry
SWAI will never actively encourage anyone to exit the industry. We believe that anyone seeking to exit the industry should be able to do so on their own terms. In other words, any help in exiting sex work should be unconditional and provide appropriate structures and strategies including but not limited to financial aid, professional development, training or reschooling courses, etc. We do not believe in the hierarchical dynamics of ‘saving’ sex workers prevalent in organisations seeking to ‘end prostitution’ through criminalisation, conversion, or ‘rescuing’. In exiting the industry, sex workers’ voices and needs should be prioritised. We do not believe in exploitation – neither through trafficking nor within the rescue industry.