Resources

Research for Sex Work 5: Health, HIV and Sex Work - the Influence of Migration and Mobility is a peer-reviewed publication for sex workers, activists, health workers, researchers, NGO staff and policy makers. It is available in English. All issues of Research for Sex Work can be found here.

Research for Sex Work 3: Empowerment is a peer-reviewed publication for sex workers, activists, health workers, researchers, NGO staff and policy makers. It is available in English. All issues of Research for Sex Work can be found here.

ALL ISSUES OF RESEARCH FOR SEX WORK CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Table of Contents:

Appropriate health services for sex workers - I. Wolffers (Vrije Universiteit) 1

“There aren’t even any written materials in the clinic to read” - R. Montgomery
(AIDS infoshare) 3

Starting to work with sex workers in Cambodia: The need for context - C. Khus 5

HIV/AIDS interventions for street-based sex workers in Dhaka City - M. Bloem 7

Migrant sex workers in Europe - L. Brussa (TAMPEP) 8

Research for Sex Work 6: Sex Work and Human Rights is a peer-reviewed publication for sex workers, activists, health workers, researchers, NGO staff and policy makers. It is available in English. All issues of Research for Sex Work can be found here.

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.

This paper critically examines the current strategies employed by both governmental and non-governmental agencies (NGO's) to address the issue, focusing on their impact on the women affected. The guidiing principle is that anti-trafficking instruments should not only be in line with the protection of human rights, but should also care not to create or exacerbate existing situations that cuase or contribute to trafficking by instituting policies and practices that further undermine the rights of the concerned groups, in particular women.

As mulheres profissionais do sexo (mps), usualmente denominadas como prostitutas, têm ocupado um lugar marginal e de destaque ao longo da história da humanidade (Roberts, 1998). Na história da prostituição, o que se vê é um ininterrupto esforço, bem sucedido, de controle e ao mesmo tempo exploração da prostituição, ora por parte do Estado, ora por parte da Igreja, ou ambos (Roberts, 1998). Ao colocá-las à margem e, sempre que possível, segregar as mps através de confinamento em casas, a intenção expressa pelos que assim agiam, era de colaborar para a proteção da família. Até recentemente, a maior parte dos programas de intervenção em saúde tratou as profissionais do sexo como potenciais vetores de doenças, especialmente da Aids, com ameaça à saúde dos homens e à segurança da família (MUSA, 2000). Este enfoque foi se deslocando e, atualmente, pelo menos em alguns programas, ele se volta para os riscos à que estão expostas essas mulheres, entre outros, os ocasionados por aqueles clientes que recusam o uso da camisinha, muitas vezes por meio de atitudes violentas.

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

This article focuses on the existing legal approaches to prostitution, the moral and ideological presumptions underlying the different legislative models and their impact on the working and living conditions of women and men working in the sex industry. It will also touch on the current debate on sex work, including the views of sexworkers themselves. Basically, four different legal regimes can be discerned - prohibitionist, abolitionist, regulamentarist, and labour approaches.

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 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

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.

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.  

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.