human rights

In the Booth with Ruth – Tara Burns, Survivor of Labor Trafficking in the Sex Industry, Sex Worker and Sex Workers’ Rights Activist

October 29, 2014 // 10 Comments

We need anti-discrimination laws (as recommended by the Obama administration in 2010) to protect us from discrimination in accessing housing, employment, child custody, public services, financial instruments, health care, and education. This is not an abstract concept. If you don’t want people to be prostitutes, or even if you just want people to be able to leave the sex industry, making it impossible for sex workers and sex trafficking victims to get other jobs or rent a home is the opposite of effective...

Take Off The Cape: Why Using The Word “Rescue” Is Harmful To Anti-Trafficking Efforts

October 20, 2014 // 4 Comments

Guest post by Becky Owens Bullard When I came to the human trafficking field from working on domestic and sexual violence, I was shocked by a lot of things. It was

22 Sept Canadian Sex Workers & Sex Worker Activists in London

September 11, 2014 // 2 Comments

In December 2013, Canada’s Supreme Court struck down the prostitution laws because they are ‘dangerous’ for sex workers and infringe their constitutional rights. Given a year by the Supreme Court to address the issue, the government bypassed the ruling, proposing further criminalisation...

‘No Human Involved’: Filmmaker PJ Starr Discusses Her Documentary Telling Marcia Powell’s Story

September 4, 2014 // 10 Comments

I want people to understand that what happened to Marcia can happen again. The film is not about an isolated, shocking incident (even though the case is horrific), rather it explores an example that exposes the system...

‘Criminalising the Purchase of Sex: Lessons from Sweden’ – Dr Jay Levy Discusses His New Book

September 3, 2014 // 8 Comments

In terms of the focus on Sweden’s sex purchase law, I was particularly struck by the extent to which the law is internationally influential, but in a context where the law hadn’t been involvedly evaluated by the Swedish government and where much work produced on the topic seemed hugely biased, and...