WASHINGTON, USA – The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, today appointed Gloria Angélica Careaga Pérez to the position of OAS Commissioner for the Rights of Sex Workers, a newly created position.
The Commissioner’s main responsibility will be to collect and report information on the situation of access to rights of sex workers in the region, as well as to submit recommendations to the secretary-general to address these findings.
The secretary-general highlighted the importance of designing regulations and public policies that guarantee the human and labor rights of sex workers. He also stressed that the appointment “brings us much closer to the possibility of achieving different conditions from those faced today by sex workers in the hemisphere. Whether it be access to justice, protection, or ensuring working conditions that are in accordance with the law and the rights they should have as workers.”
For her part, Commissioner Careaga emphasized that “sex work is a job that can be recognized as being as worthy as any other and this must be our task.”
Gloria Careaga is a social psychologist, LGBT activist and Mexican feminist. She has worked as a professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) for 45 years, where she has led several initiatives dedicated to the study of gender and sexual diversity.
Gloria Careaga was co-secretary general of the International Gay and Lesbian Association ILGA for six years. In addition, she is director and co-founder of the Arcoíris Foundation and is part of the Advisory Board of El Clóset de Sor Juana. Her voice is recognized throughout the Americas as an active defender of human rights.
