Cheryl Overs

Cheryl Overs is a researcher and human rights activist from Melbourne, Australia. She has promoted [sex workers]] rights since the late 1970s by founding and leading the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria, the Scarlet Alliance Australia and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects.

Overs was born in 1957 and educated at University High School and LaTrobe University. She joined the Prostitutes Action Group in 1981 where she worked with others to develop the small group into the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria (PCV) which received government funding to conduct outreach, education and advocacy for sex workers. The PCV advocated for law reform and pioneered innovative programmes for sex workers including peer education, needle and syringe exchange, and the Ugly Mugs List, a tool for preventing violence against sex workers which became models that were replicated internationally. As leader of the PCV Overs represented the sex industry on the Ministry of Planning Working Group on Prostitution that advised the Victorian government leading up to decriminalization of indoor sex work. In 1988 the PCV hosted the Prostitution and the Aids Debate Conference in Melbourne which led to the formation of the national federation of sex workers groups Scarlet Alliance.

Overs moved to Europe in 1989 to advocate on sex work issues as an advisor to the Global Program on AIDS at the World Health Organisation, contributing to International AIDS conferences and publications such as Harvard AIDS Institute’s ‘AIDS in the World’ and helping establish the International Council of AIDS Service Organisations (ICASO). At the Opportunities for Solidarity Conference of HIV/AIDS NGOs in Paris in 1992 Overs and Paulo Henrique Longo founded the International Network of Sex Worker Projects (NSWP). As NSWP director Overs set up the systems that support sex worker organisations, led global advocacy on sex work and created an information clearing house and international discussion groups. She organised delegations of sex worker advocates to speak out at conferences and other key events such as the Beijing Women’s Conference, World Social Forums and International AIDS Conferences. The NSWP remains responsible for representing organisations that work with sex workers and leading global advocacy on sex workers human rights.

After 2000 Overs worked on programming and policy on health, human rights and sex work for various UN and civil society agencies. This took her to more than twenty countries including Ecuador, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mozambique, India, UK, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia and Brazil.^[1]

Since 2010 Cheryl has been a Research Fellow at the Michael Kirby Centre for Public Health and Human Rights at Monash University in Australia and the Institute of Development Studies in the UK. In this time she has worked on projects including establishing a legal service for sex workers and victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation in Cambodia; supporting activists in Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda; developing a legal toolkit for human rights defenders working on sexuality; establishing an electronic data base of academic publications on sex work and human trafficking(PLRI); and conducting a study on the impact of law on sex workers in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Fiji. She was a member of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. Overs delivered a plenary speech at the 2012 International Aids Conference and presented on sex workers rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). In 2015 Overs led a team that developed a global map of sex work law. ^[2]

Several of Overs' publications are key resources on sex work; these include Making Sex Work Safe: a guide for program managers, field workers and policy makers(1996)which was co-authored by Paulo Longo and (2010)co-authored by Andrew Hunter; Sex Workers; Part of the Solution and Sex Work and the New Era of HIV Prevention and Care (2009) and The Tide Can Not be Turned Without Us (2012).^[3]

Overs is one of several Australian human rights activists portrayed by Ai WeiWei at the National Gallery of Victoria.

References

1. Kerrigan, Deanna; Paulo Telles; Helena Torres; Cheryl Overs; Christopher Castle (14 January 2007). "Community development and HIV/STI-related vulnerability among female sex workers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil". Health Education Research. 23 23 (1): 137–145. doi:10.1093/her/cym011. PMID 17363361. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
2. Loff, Bebe; Overs, Cheryl (13 March 2010). "Ethical Standards in Cambodia: is silent witnessing sufficient?". The Lancet. 9718 375 (9718): 892. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60384-4. PMID 20226982.
3. Wetzstein, Cheryl (08/02/2012). "AIDS used as reason to legalize prostitutes". The Washington Times. Retrieved 23 May 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help)