Thousands of advocates, policymakers, researchers, community leaders and delegates from around the world attended Women Deliver 2026, held from 27-30 April in Naarm (Melbourne). As one of the largest global gender equality conferences and the first Women Deliver to be hosted in the Oceanic Pacific region, it provided an important opportunity to elevate sex worker-led perspectives within international discussions on health, rights and social justice.
Women Deliver positions itself as a global convening for gender equality, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a strong emphasis on inclusive spaces, collective action and shifting power towards communities most affected by injustice. This made Women Deliver 2026 an important site for ensuring that sex workers were not discussed as a constituency, but were recognised as leaders, analysts, advocates and movement builders in our own right.
Scarlet Alliance was successful in lobbying for a grant from the Australian Centre for Disease Control that allowed us to host a Sex Worker Networking Zone at the conference. Representatives from Scarlet Alliance, SWOP NT, and Respect QLD were joined by sex worker delegates from sex worker organisations from around the world, mostly from the Asia Pacific.
The Sex Worker Networking Zone served as a dedicated community and advocacy hub throughout Women Deliver 2026. Designed as both an event venue and gathering space, it provided a welcoming environment where conference delegates could attend sex worker-led panels, connect with peers and advocates, and engage directly with Scarlet Alliance team members.
Over the four days of the conference, the sex worker collective joined forces with partners including AIVL, Sisters Inside, Women Beyond Walls, and Uganda’s Alliance of Women Advocating for Change for 13 panels and sessions which discussed issues including: decriminalisation; gender based violence; collective autonomy and community power; sex worker funding; digital rights; prison as a feminist issue; and reproductive justice.
Some of the panel highlights
Sex Work at the End of the Empire
Criminalisation, Anti-Rights Agendas and the Impact on Sex Workers’ Lives
Anti-migrant politics, racist immigration raids, deportations, detention of asylum seekers, and weaponisation of border controls
Sex Workers Countering Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Protecting Health in Asia and the Pacific (in partnership with Sex Worker Donor Collaborative and APNSW).
Women and the War on Drugs: Abolishing the Death Penalty and Centring Resistance to Gendered Drug Policy (in partnership with the Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League – AIVL)
New advocacy resources
Scarlet Alliance produced a suite of printed and digital resources specifically for Women Deliver 2026 to introduce conference delegates to sex worker rights and advocacy priorities. This messaging was delivered through our flagship resource, Whoretonomy: policy, power, and sex worker resistance. The 130 page glossy magazine is a collection of policy, peer interviews, and opinion articles from unceded Australia and internationally which aims to offer a contemporary snapshot of sex worker rights in this country, and acknowledge the history of the global movement. Alongside Whoretonomy were seven new pamphlet-style policy briefings providing accessible, policy-focused introductions to key advocacy areas. Printed copies were distributed throughout the conference and will be available at Scarlet Alliance’s member organisations.
You can find digital downloads of the resources here:
- Whoretonomy: policy, power, and sex worker resistance
- Sex workers want decriminalisation now
- Sex workers are partners in ending gender based violence
- Sex workers want peer education now
- Sex workers want rights now
- Sex workers want sexual and reproductive health without barriers
- Asian migrant workers want justice now
- Peer led. Proven. Powerful.
“The best thing about the space was how much genuine peer connection and education happened… The value of those chats, to be able to share experiences, compare notes and connect with each other in structured and unstructured ways was unparalleled and I’d like us to do more of it when we can…”
– Conference delegate