Resources

This article documents the experiences and working conditions of women who travel periodically from their countries to Istanbul to undertake sex work, and discusses the policy debates failure to address the poor living conditions of migrant sex workers by addressing abusive and restrictive immigration policies, and by decriminalising undocumented sex work.

Innocence and Purity Vs. Deviance and Immorality: The Spaces of Prostitution in Nepal and Canada

This paper adopts a critical feminist analysis in examining the way in which social and physical spaces operate to maintain race, class, and gender hierarchies in relation to prostitution. Critiquing the dominant anti-trafficking discourse that essentialises all 'third world" women as victims, the author problematises the construction of Badi women in Western Nepal as 'traditional prostitutes' and Aboriginal women in Canada as 'easy squaws'. This analysis demonstrates how in reproducing false divisions between 'virgins' and 'whores', and between the 'first' and 'third' worlds, material, symbolic, and discursive processes work to normalise unequal relations of power.

You can download this 193 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

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.

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.

The global flow of money, goods, culture and ideas has been accompanied by a global flow of people. Yet, with increasing migration levels, also various exploitative and abusive forms of migration have become more prevalent. Attention for the topic of trafficking in migrants has found so far most resonance within human rights organizations, numerous non-governmental and international organizations, bodies and lobby networks, as well as in sensationalist media.

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.  

This report provides an overview of important issues that sex workers face in the region as well as to the political, economic, and social factors that influence policies and attitudes toward sex workers. It focuses primarily on existing laws and policies and their consequences from the perspective of HIV prevention and treatment. The report also offers recommendations designed to uphold sex workers’ human rights and remove barriers that reduce their ability or willingness to obtain access to consistent and equitable health care and other social services.

You can download this 18 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

This document contains the full committee report on the Trafficking in Persons Offences Bill.

You can download this 58 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

This paper summarises and reports on research involving documenting womens labour migration and occurances of trafficking, focusing on women in Bangladesh, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Kuwait.

You can download this 20 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

Letter to Mr Owen Walsh.

You can download this 3 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

The subject of The Politics of Prostitution is not really prostitution politics. Instead, the research collected here seeks to answer the questions ‘Do women’s policy agencies matter?’ and ‘Is there such a thing as state feminism?’ The Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS) has been studying these questions since 1995 in ‘Western political democracies’; prostitution is only one of five issues which members have used to measure the impact of women’s movements for equality. By the term ‘women’s movements’, the researchers mean a range of organisations and groups, both grassroots and formal, which may or may not self-identify as feminist. By ‘women’s policy agencies’, they refer to government institutions which exist to advance women’s status in society. These definitions are key to appreciating the book.

This resource looks at Raymond's 'ten reasons' and discusses why each reason is poorly thought out, or missing crucial information.

You can download this seven page PDF resource above.

This resource is in English.

The Global Network of Sex Work Projects raises the voices of sex workers of all genders on issues that affect us. What these voices say about HIV is: SEX WORK IS WORK: Only rights can stop the wrongs. Unfavourable laws, stigma, violence, and discrimination cause sex workers’ vulnerability to ill health, social exclusion and human rights violations. Sex workers face these to varying degrees in all cultures from Switzerland to Swaziland, Canada to Cambodia. In this pamphlet, we define an understanding of HIV and sex work and outline our global agenda for change. We hope you will join and support us.

This is the English version of the Note for Record of the November 2009 UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work

This document details the events of the group meeting, including:

This list of discussion points was prepared for use during a meeting with Michel Sidibe, and include communication of general principles of collaboration as well as recommendations for the creation of an UNAIDS working group on HIV & sex work be created, that HIV prevention & care among sex workers be re-categorized away from the violence against women priority area, and that changes in how sex work is addressed be considered.

This letter was sent to Michel Sidibe to request a meeting to address concerns about the Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, as well as to build collaboration and address the need for a working group specifically for HIV and Sex Work.