Membership and governance
Sex Worker Networks Consortium
Bridging the Gaps
Legislation and Policy (28)
(-) Migration & Trafficking (12)
North America and the Caribbean (1)
(-) Migration & Trafficking
The Swedish Law to Criminalise Clients: A failed experiment in social engineering
In 1999, the Swedish government embarked on an experiment in social engineering1 to end men's practice of purchasing commercial sexual services. The government enacted a new law criminalizing the purchase (but not the sale) of sex (Swedish Penal Code). It hoped that the fear of arrest and increased public stigma would convince men to change their sexual behaviour. The government also hoped that the law would force the estimated 1,850 to 3,000 women who sold sex in Sweden at that time to find another line of work.
Theme: Legislation and Policy, Migration & Trafficking
Survey and Size Estimation of Sex Workers in Fiji: HIV Prevention Project
This research is the first large scale quantitative research on sex workers in Fiji. It has enabled an understanding of the nature and extent of sex work in Fiji, rates of HIV and STI infection among sex workers and their knowledge and behaviour around safer sex practices. This research will compliment valuable insights gained from previous qualitative research. The findings from this research will assist in the appropriate targeting and provision of education, resources and health care services to a group previously defined by UNAIDS as a most-at-risk population.
Theme: Health, Migration & Trafficking
Purchasing Sexual Services in Sweden and the Netherlands: Legal Regulation and Experiences.
This Report aims to summarize the arguments for and against the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services. It first describes the experiences of Swedish and Dutch legal regulation relating to the purchase of sexual services. In Sweden, there is a wish to abolish sex work by way of criminalising the client. In the Netherlands, sex work is allowed within certain limits (only involuntary sex work comes under criminal rules).
Policy Change in Prostitution in the Netherlands: from Legalisation to Strict Control
This article looks at how legalisation came to the netherlands; what it was intended to do, and what the impact has been on sex workers. In order to answer these lines of enquiry, the article examines what discourses frame the major actors in this debate, starting with a historical overview of Dutch sex work policies throughout the 20th century. Having established the socio-political backdrop of the Netherlands' approach to legalised sex work, the resource discusses how legalisation (or regulationism) "did not solve a number of serious problems in the sex industry".
Download this resource: Policy Change in Prostitution in the Netherlands
Theme: Labour, Legislation and Policy, Migration & Trafficking
Human Trafficking and Sex Work
This concise guide to the difference between sex work and trafficking - and what a response to trafficking grounded in sex worker rights looks like - discusses the key differences between sex work and trafficking; the differences that make the habitual conflation of the two not only inaccurate but also a hinderance to tackling actual exploitation, and a threat to the human rights of sex workers.
Theme: Human Rights, Labour, Legislation and Policy, Migration & Trafficking
UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work and Annexes 2012
Note: This report has been updated, following agreement with UNAIDS in January 2012 to revisions in the document.
This resource was officially launched in December 2011 as a separate report from the Advisory Group at the UNAIDS Secretariat in Geneva, during the 29th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board and has now been integrated into the UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work as annexes and published by UNAIDS.
Download this resource: UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work and Annexes, NSWP - 2012
Hit & Run: Sex Worker's Research on Anti trafficking in Thailand
The 'Hit & Run' report is the result of 12 months of research by Empower's RATSW project, investigates human rights violations against sex workers carried out in the name of 'rescues' under the anti-trafficking laws.
Addressing the Demand Side of Trafficking
Source: rightswork.org
This paper, written by Phil Marshall, briefly raises some issues around the demand side of trafficking, initially focusing on demand relating to exploitative labour practices and then discussing issues around demand contributing to exploitation for sexual purposes. It is very much an opinion piece, intended to promote discussion.
Theme: Legislation and Policy, Migration & Trafficking, Labour
An Exploration of the Meaning of a Human-Rights-Based Approach to Trafficking
This paper tries to give an impetus to further explore the meaning of a human rights based approach in the field of trafficking.
Report on the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings
This report is the result of a year's work of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings. The main assignment of the Experts Group is to contribute to the translation of the Brussels Declaration into practice, in particular by submitting a report to the European Commission with concrete proposals on the implementation of the recommendations of the Brussels Declaration.
Criminal Code Amendment (Trafficking in Persons Offences) Bill 2004
You can download this 18 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.
Explanatory Memorandum: Criminal Code Amendment (Trafficking in Persons Offences) Bill 2004
Download this resource: Explanatory Memorandum, NSWP - 2004
Theme: Migration & Trafficking