Resources

This is a brief guide for clients and potential clients of sex workers, focusing on etiquette, safer sex, and anti-violence guidelines.

This report summarises the findings of a human rights project conducted by the Sex Workers Project in 2007 and 2008 to explore the impacts and effectiveness of  anti-trafficking approaches in the United States. These approaches include anti-trafficking raids and vice raids targeting sex work conducted by local law enforcement agencies in different cities. It is among the first efforts since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to give voice to the perspectives of trafficked persons and sex workers who have experienced anti-trafficking raids. A total of 46 people were interviewed for the report.

This report examines the impact of law enforcement approaches to street-based sex work in New York City and proposes a series of policy and practice recommendations for reform based on the researchers’ analyses of the data collected. This report also seeks to promote reasoned, fact-based, and informed debate regarding street-based prostitution in New York City. Public discussion of this issue usually occurs in flashy headlines that are meant to titillate rather than to explore the consequences of policy decisions in depth. This is a special effort to give voice to the problems faced by street-based sex workers, using their own words, since this is a voice that is almost always left out of policy debates.

This paper addresses the persistence of violence against female commercial sex workers in the United States, drawing on the experiences of the Best Practices Policy Project in conducting outreach, research, and relationship building with diverse commercial sex worker stakeholders.

This report summarises the research compiled by the Young Women's Empowerment Project in Chicago (United States) about violence & resistance for girls involved in the sex trade. It also examines attitudes and practices for harm reduction, self care, advocacy, and empowerment.

Contents Include:

This report is submitted by the Best Practices Policy Project, Desiree Alliance, and the Sexual Rights Initiative. It focuses on civil and human rights violations of those engaged, or perceived to be engaged, in sexual trade and sex work in the U.S..

This report about the human rights of sex workers in the United States was submitted under the following process. Human Rights Council resolution 12/27 "The promotion and protection of human rights in the context of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)", requested the Secretary General to prepare "an analytical study based on comments from Governments, United Nations organs, programmes and specialised agencies, particularly the Joint United Nations Programmes on HIV/AIDS and its co-sponsor agencies, in cooperation with relevant bodies of the United Nations system, including the Office of the High Commissioner and international and non-governmental organisation, on the steps taken to promote and implement programmes to address HIV/AIDS-related human rights".

This booklet has been produced for the “Sex work: Everything you always wanted to know but never dared to ask!” training project. It answers questions that people who are unfamiliar with sex work might have about sex workers, rights, and realities.

This edition of the Canadian magazine "Constellation" goes into detail on how to stay safe while doing sex work - legally, physically, emotionally, sexually, and financially. It is filled with information & articles including how to work with clients as a masseuse, how to respond to police involvement, and how to plan & save money.

Content is in English and French.

“The Challenge of Change,” the December 2006 report of the House of Commons Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws, was aptly named — the Subcommittee failed to meet the challenge of recommending legislative changes that are urgently needed to protect and fulfil the health, safety and human rights of adult sex workers in Canada.This paper critiques the Subcommittee’s report in detail. It also summarises the Legal Network’s analysis of the criminal law’s impact on sex workers and calls on federal politicians to show real leadership by standing up for the human rights of sex workers in Canada.

Este trabalho é um relato da experiência vivenciada, juntamente às mulheres trabalhadoras do sexo de duas casas noturnas de São Carlos, durante a realização de uma atividade de extensão. Nessa atividade de extensão procurei discutir questões ligadas aos direitos humanos, aos direitos da mulher e questões de gênero. No primeiro item desse relatório Repensando o papel feminino, apresento o referencial teórico que utilizei para estudar a temática dos direitos humanos e das relações de gênero e para dar sustentação ao planejamento das atividades realizadas durante os encontros.

You can downlaod this 3 page resource above. This resource is in Portuguese.

Letter to the U. S. Department of State. This letter, signed by nine researchers from around the globe and addressed to Ambassador John Miller, provides a response to the facts listed in the Department of State's Fact Sheet on Prostitution and Trafficking, released in 2004. In this letter, the signatories discuss the problems with the fact sheet and it's conclusions,

In this article, the author makes the case that the state's proposals for addressing trafficking enable the state to posit itself as responsible for protecting "Canadians" while carefully avoiding any responsibility for the well-being of women who are trafficked; demonize smugglers as the cause of trafficking; and override the concerns and interests of women who are trafficked by making deportation the only "solution" to their presence in Canada.

This document describes the ethical and scientific requirements for their grantees and other studies requesting acknowledgement and funding that require the use of studies involving human beings. The document goes into detail in the following areas: Context of an ethics framework; Ethics Review; Free and informed consent; Privacy and confidentiality, Conflict of interest; Inclusion in research; Research involving Aboriginal peoples, Clinical Trials; Human Genetic Research; Research involving human gametes, embryos, or foetuses; and Human tissue research.

This article details the passage and possible use of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), passed in the fall of 2000 in the United States of America. Unlike previous legislation, which tended to focus exclusively on the sex industry, the Act’s definition of trafficking has a wider scope, and also includes workers in sweatshops and other types of Employment. You can download this 42 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English

First Nations need to protect all information concerning themselves, their traditional knowledge and culture, including information resulting from research. The principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP) enable self-determination over all research concerning First Nations. It offers a way for First Nations to make decisions regarding what research will be done, for what purpose information or data will be used, where the information will be physically stored and who will have access.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 has been presented as an important tool in combatting the exploitation and abuse of undocumented workers, especially those forced into prostitution. Through a close reading of the legislation and the debates surrounding its passage, this article argues that the law makes strategic use of anxieties over sexuality, gender, and immigration to further curtail migration.

This article explores the implications of an amendment to H.R. 1298, the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDs, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act, seeks to deny U.S. funding to organizations that do not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution.

This memorandum analyses the constitutionality of the federal government’s requirement that international relief organisations adopt policies explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking if they wish to participate in federally-funded programmes designed to combat the worldwide spread of HIV/AIDS. We conclude that the First Amendment bars Congress from requiring relief organisations based in the United States to adopt a specific policy position opposing prostitution as a condition of participating in federally-funded programmes delivering HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and related social services.