The re-emergence of ‘trafficking’: sex work between slavery and freedom (original) (raw)
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Women Rights, Wage Labour and Sexual Exploitation: A Labour Law Analysis of 'Sex Work'
Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change , 2018
This article first deconstructs the argument of the 'pro-sex-work' lobby that the prostitution of women should be defended as workers' rights. It then proposes that the feminist abolitionist movement should fully integrate the issue of labour rights for women at the centre of its political discourse. The pro-sex-work industry promotes the sexual exploitation of vulnerable women and girls as workers' rights. This is appealing to governments and policymakers as it requires minimal state-backed investment in the basic needs of the most marginalized girls and women. It is also appealing because it does not require labour rights for women to be at the centre of the state's political discourse or action against their exploiters. The objective of this article is to deconstruct the 'Sex Work Discourse', defend the necessity of the abolition of the prostitution system and explain how this can be done by ensuring viable, sustainable and dignified livelihood options for women.
Labour and Industry, 2020
The notion of unacceptable work has formed, in part, as a counterweight to the push for decent or better forms of work. That is, naming and understanding the functioning of unacceptable work helps 'promote respect for rights at work by eliminating egregious labour practices.' (Fudge & McCann, 2015: v). There are important insights around unacceptable work to be gained from feminist debates on the sex industry. Engaging with these debates through the prism of unacceptable work can illuminate the way in which systems of prostitution can function simultaneously as forms of labour and as forms of exploitation and violence against women. If prostitution / sex work meets many of the criteria available for understanding unacceptable forms of work, then the question of abolition can be raised from a labour rights perspective. Following this logic, it is also possible to view the Equality / Nordic Model of asymmetric decriminalisation of the sex industry (where prostituted persons are decriminalised, but brothel owning and the purchase of sexual access are criminalised-see: Waltman, 2011) as a form of innovative policy to address unacceptable work, and promote decent work.
Editorial: Gains and Challenges in the Global Movement for Sex Workers' Rights
Anti-Trafficking Review, 2019
Over the past two decades, there has been a growing body of excellent academic and community-based literature on sex workers’ lives, work, and organising efforts, and on the harmful effects of anti-trafficking discourses, laws, and policies on diverse sex worker communities. Importantly, a significant portion of this work has been produced by sex workers and sex worker organisations. When we decided to devote this Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review to the theme of sex work, we acknowledged this reality. However, we also thought that, given that the discourses, laws, and policies that directly impact sex workers globally are continually changing, the production of new evidence-based research and critical perspectives is constantly needed.
The Moral Obligation for Sex Worker Rights
2016
The female body is the site of endless controversy, with sex work as one of the most hotly debated issues. Historically viewed as an ethical and moral issue, arguments to criminalize sex work were dominant until the mid-to-late twentieth century when sex workers began to argue for decriminalization of adult "consensual" commercial sex. As one of the most marginalized populations in the world, sex workers are subjected to a multitude of violations against their bodies and their human rights. They routinely face physical and sexual violence, arrest and incarceration, extortion and harassment (frequently by police and other members of law enforcement), as well as forced HIV testing and medical intervention, and denial of health care, housing, and legal protection. In recent years, the purported relationship between sex work and the sexual aspect of human trafficking has been very divisive in policy and social issues as the line between "consensual" sex work and forced sex work became blurred. Of late, the United Nations, Amnesty International, and other prominent organizations have taken the bold step of endorsing the decriminalization of sex work as a human rights issue. This paper will explore the moral and ethical arguments for decriminalization; and the inherent harm criminalization imposes on not only adult consensual commercial sex work, but forced and trafficked sex work for adults and minors, as well. THE MORAL OBLIGATION FOR SEX WORKER RIGHTS 3 As one of the most marginalized populations in the world, sex workers are subjected to a multitude of violations against their bodies and their human rights. They routinely face physical and sexual violence, arrest and incarceration, extortion and harassment (frequently by police and other members of law enforcement), as well as forced HIV testing and medical intervention, and denial of health care, housing, and legal protection (Murphy, 2015; UNAIDS Technical Update (UNAIDS TU), 2002; UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS JUNPHIV/AIDS), 2012). In recent years, the purported relationship between sex work and the sexual aspect of human trafficking has been very divisive in policy and social issues as the line between "consensual" sex work and forced sex work became blurred. Tandon and colleagues distinguish the two views on sex work as: (1) a cause or consequence of trafficking, exploitation, and violence; (2) consensual sex between adults for monetary gain (Tandon, Armas-Cardona, & Grover, 2014, para. 1). Neither side argues the abhorrence of forced sex work, but a large part of the debate surrounds the issue of agency (personal choice) in adult "consensual" commercial sex worker, as well as the denial of human rights of all sex workers. Many were surprised when Amnesty International recently joined the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS, Human Rights Watch, and other well-known organizations 1 in calling for the decriminalization of sex work (as opposed to the alternative positions of criminalization and legalization 2). This was not a precipitous decision, but one reached after two years of evidence gathering, first-hand research, and consulting "a wide array of individuals and groups, including but not limited to: sex workers, survivor and abolitionist groups, HIV agencies,
Sex work labour rights – feminist activism in the twenty-first century
In recent years, demand for the implementation of the Nordic Model of prostitution has dramatically increased. Feminists have worked alongside right-wing fundamentalists in pushing for this legislation across the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe. Recently, the Northern Irish Assembly voted through a clause which criminalizes the purchase of sex, despite having commissioned a report which showed that 98% of sex workers working in Northern Ireland did not want the law changed. In Westminster, Conservative and Labour MPs are working together to bring a similar proposal before the Commons. Why do feminists fight for measures which have been proven to harm sex workers? Why is sex work singled out as being exploitative? This paper interrogates the reasons behind the worryingly-growing feminist movement fighting for the criminalization of sex work.
Sex Workers Rights Are Human Rights: Or not? The Art of Stealing Back Human Rights
Sex Work, Labour and Relations. New Directions and Relations. Teela Sanders, Kathryn McGarry & Paul Ryan (eds.), Springer Nature, 2022, 2022
Since the 1970s sex workers across the world have used the human rights framework to claim legitimacy and advocate for civil and labour rights with the slogan ‘sex workers rights are human rights’. However, fed by the dominant anti-trafficking discourse, sex workers’ human rights are under attack by an increasingly influential abolitionist coalition of radical feminists, Christian evangelicals and ‘left wing’ liberals. Using the case of Germany, France, and Spain I examine how the neo-abolitionist anti-sex work campaign hijacked human rights as a vehicle to exclude and silence sex workers and justify their repression. Through the gateway of human dignity and female victimhood human rights are used to create a hierarchy of ‘human-ness’ to contain deviant sexuality and re-establish the white middle-class monogamous model of ‘good’ sexuality, while at the same time dehumanising sex workers and relieving states of their accountability for the protection of sex workers’ human rights. After discussing the contested relationship between sex workers rights and human rights, leaning on the principles of dignity and self-determination, the chapter examines the resistance of sex workers and, in particular, the way courts dealt with the competing abolitionist and sex workers’ rights claims in the countries concerned.
A Question of Consent? Sexual Slavery and Sex Work in the UK
In recent years, UK policy on prostitution has been greatly influenced by feminist abolitionist thought in which female prostitution is imagined as sexual slavery, and the overwhelming majority of female prostitutes are said to be routinely subject to the most appalling violence by clients, 'traffickers' and pimps. This is a discourse in which the complex and overlapping continuums of unfreedom and exploitation that can accompany prostitution are reduced to one crude image of brute force and bodily confinement being used to dominate helpless, passive victims. Drawing on data from research on the market for migrant sex workers in London, this paper challenges claims that feminist abolitionists advance about 'sex trafficking' and draws attention to some of the problems that arise when the many and complex rights issues associated with prostitution are reduced to questions of consent, and the metaphor of slavery is indiscriminately used to describe those whose rights are violated.
The Rights and Wrongs of Prostitution
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 2002
This essay critically explores contemporary Euro-American feminist debate on prostitution. It argues that to develop analyses which are relevant to the experience of more than just a small minority of ‘First World’ women, those who are concerned with prostitution as a form of work need to look beyond liberal discourse on property and contractual consent for ways of conceptualizing the rights and wrongs of ‘sex work’.