Sex Worker Rights Are Human Rights

This is a good representation of what Human Rights should look like. I believe this is what we should all be fighting for and insisting on.
XOXOX- Pussy Willow

By Juhu Thukral, On The Issues Magazine
Posted on August 28, 2008, Printed on August 30, 2008

Link-View this story online

The idea of sex workers fighting for their human rights is a foreign concept to most people, even those who identify politically as progressives or feminists. Sex workers have lived on the margins of society through most of human history, and despite the prevalence of this work all over the world, sex workers are often treated as less than human, both in cultural attitudes and public policy. In fact, it cannot be said enough: sex workers are people — friends, neighbors, family members, wage earners, and parents — and they deserve the same human rights as everyone else.

What Human Rights?

Feminists and advocates of all stripes have argued that they want to work for the human rights of sex workers, often without an analysis of what human rights for sex workers might look like.

While many people would agree that access to human rights includes the right to be free from harm, to have access to health care and housing, and to seek safe employment that pays a living wage, there is fierce debate as to what any of this actually means. Some feminists argue that sex work is inherently harmful and that the very act of trading sex for money is a violation of a person’s sanctity or dignity, and is, in and of itself, an act of violence. For these feminists, the story ends there, even when sex workers all over the world speak out, not to ask to be pulled out of sex work, but to demand that their rights be protected as they work.

Others, like the Sex Workers Project, believe that a human rights framework includes active participation of sex workers from different backgrounds and experiences; efforts to combat violence, whether it is at the hands of customers or of the police; advocate for public health programs that promote the autonomy of sex workers, and work to empower sex workers so that they can make the best choices for themselves and their families, assessing their life circumstances as best as they can. These elements are key to any effort to respect the human rights and health needs of sex workers; to properly assist those who want to leave sex work for other work, and to protect the rights and safety of those who continue in sex work.

Another key issue that gets less attention is the fight over the role of the criminal justice system. Some feminists view prosecution and punishment through the criminal justice system as the cornerstone for helping victims of violence. Others view rule of law as one of many important keys toward guaranteeing human rights, but argue that an excessive focus on the criminal justice system is detrimental to many marginalized groups, including sex workers, who have been victimized by the police. There are fundamental clashes between the needs of a criminal justice prosecution, and the needs of a human being who would most benefit from a rights-based approach.

Feminists Line Up Differently on Law Revision

These debates, often centered on agency and autonomy, might seem theoretical and unimportant in the realm of people’s daily lives. However, the debate often plays itself out in concrete policy terms, especially around the issue of human trafficking.

While human trafficking involves the experience of force, fraud, or coercion in any type of labor, such as domestic work, agricultural labor or sex work, it has been salaciously painted as being synonymous with prostitution. The idea that prostitution equals trafficking has been burned into the public mind by lurid headlines that scream of victims rescued from their captors, often without follow-up news items that might explain that the reality is more complicated, and that any number of prostitutes decided to go into that work because it was a way to make enough money to live on and also support their families, who are often in other countries.

Feminists who wish to abolish prostitution entirely have found strong allies in the Christian right and in the Bush administration. The efforts to incorrectly equate prostitution and trafficking as the same have culminated in recent efforts around the federal anti-trafficking law that Congress has been considering for reauthorization in 2008 (final vote still pending in early July).

The House version of the legislation includes a dangerous and unnecessary change to the Mann Act, a federal law that prohibits interstate travel for the purpose of prostitution. This change has nothing to do with human trafficking, and thus far, the Senate has bravely withstood pressure from some feminists and have not included this expansion in their version of the bill, SB 3061.

The federal anti-trafficking law, enacted in 2000, already defines anyone under 18 who is involved in commercial sex acts, and anyone in prostitution who experiences force, fraud or coercion as a victim of human trafficking. Changing the definition of trafficking so that law enforcement does not need to look at a person’s age or experience of coercion (the heart of the trafficking crime) will put the focus squarely on prostitution, rather than on labor and prostitution situations in which people are living under a climate of fear and experiencing genuine human rights abuses.

Are We Listening?

As law enforcement look for more victims, they will inevitably arrest more sex workers, and will lessen their focus on people who are trafficked into sectors other than prostitution. This will lead to untold harms to people who have been trafficked into other labor sectors and who cannot receive the help and attention they deserve; and to those who work in prostitution for reasons as diverse and complicated as any that go into deciding how to make money and build a life. At the Sex Workers Project, we find that most of our clients go into sex work because they can make more money and work more flexible hours than in other industries. In our 2005 study, 67 percent of the sex workers we interviewed did not make a living wage in other jobs such as waitressing, administrative work, or retail. For many, sex work was not their only form of work — 46 percent supplemented their income from mainstream jobs with sex work.

The people we see every day at the Sex Workers Project are just like everyone else — they want to know that if they are a victim of a crime, that they will receive the same attention as anyone else. What they do not want is to be classified as a victim of human trafficking as they go about the complicated business of living their lives and supporting their families as best as they can.

All feminists need to agree that when we hear the voices of sex workers advocating for their human rights, we need to really listen, rather than impose our own views of what life decisions we might deem acceptable.

Juhu Thukral, Esq., is the director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City. She has been an advocate for the rights of immigrant women in the areas of health, work, and sexuality for fifteen years.

© 2008 On The Issues Magazine All rights reserved.
Link-View this story online

 

Consensual Sex Work Practices Reproductive Health

Not all prostitutes want to be rescued. Consensual and successful sex workers do exist. I was the spokesperson for Sex Worker Outreach Project-Chicago (SWOP) at a Chicago presentation in June, sponsored by the Open University of the Left and the Chicago Socialist Party recently discussing the issues of Sex workers, criminalization and Human Rights.

Martha Rosenberg, journalist for CountePunch, staff cartoonist for The Evanston RoundTable and general political writer summed up the discussion panel best in the article; LINK; Spare us the Paternalism Says Organizing Chicago Sex Workers.

It is always tricky when entering into debates about human trafficking, especially with rescue organizations and conservative women movements that are for the most part anti-prostitution. When the Washington Post article, “Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence” LINK; Washington Post Article was published September of ‘07, the women’s movements with radical ideas even outside of feminism were up in arms, and without data to back up their claims.

When looking at the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA or HR 3887), one must investigate its success, its hidden agendas as well as the driving force of the movement. If you look at Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decision to outsource Ketchum as a coalition effort to find trafficked victims, the coalition included former heads of the Funds for a Conversative Majority and the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. TVPRA is driven by The Concerned Women for America, a conservative think tank group which is commonly known for their anti-prostitution agenda. View Concerned Women for America Page

The right-wing-backed human trafficking movement, part of the “anti-prostitution industrial complex,” deliberately blurs the line between sex work and sex slavery to further its moralistic agenda and line its pockets. On their own website, CWA’s mission statement claims; “to protect and promote Biblical values among all citizens – first through prayer, then education, and finally by influencing our society – thereby reversing the decline in moral values in our nation.” This organization is Pro-Live, Anti-Homosexual Marriage, Anti Migration (Keep the borders secure!) and basically a famous fundamentalist feminist organization thats lines its own pockets with manipulating the (Bush) administration.

While the government has spent over 500 million dollars in searching for Trafficking victims since 2000, they have brought a total of 148 federal cases nationwide. A far cry from the overestimated 50,000 alleged victims. Last year alone, HHS paid $3.4 million dollars in new street outreach awards to 22 groups nationwide.

The problem is trafficking has received far more attention than crimes such as domestic violence of which there are hundreds of thousands of documented victims every year. These conservative organizations aren’t rescuing domestically abused women at all. Money given to rescue groups for them find trafficking victims, which they cannot. Or for groups like Kechum to train people to train people to train people to counsel potential victims. If you want trafficking victims to come forward, the only way is to give Amnesty for all trafficked victims. The far more common trafficking situation is women trafficked into household, farm and sweatshop work which, not sexual trafficking. Trafficking laws are being manipulated within our very own legal system to arrest sex workers and build convictions. They do not seem to be helping women who are victimized in any capacity. Unionization and/or decriminalization seem to be the answer…

 

Sex Workers, Criminalization and Human Rights Discussion Panel

A sweet girlfriend of mine and I recently represented swop-chicago.org in a panel discussion 21 year old think tank type group called Open University of the Left. www.openuniversityoftheleft.org . Kari Lyderson*, a Midwest bureau staff writer at The Washington Post joined the panel. Miss Lydersen recently wrote the following article on the potential effects of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA, also HR 3887) for sex workers as well as sex trafficked victims. Article – Satisfied Sex worker or Domestic Trafficking Victim?

I thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss issues that affect the lives and livelihood of sex workers – in particular the current controversy surrounding trafficking victim legislation – and the moralistic and dangerous crusade against prostitution. Here is the recently observed Washington Post article on TVPRA; Article – Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence.

As the pressure to criminalize sex work increases, acts of violence against sex workers are on the rise. Without the protection or recourse from violent acts committed against us, society tolerates violence against sex workers because of the stigma and myths that surround prostitution. Sex workers and their allies seek to stop the violence and correct these falsehoods, change the context for current legislation, and to legitimize sex work.

We at SWOP-Chicago, Sex Workers Outreach Project Chicago, a grassroots organization, seek to improve the lives of current and former sex workers in the Chicago area. SWOP-Chicago produces the CAN-TV program Red Light District Chicago.

We discussed decriminalization and countries which have various levels of success including the Netherlands, Austrailia, the UK and various states and counties in the US. We discussed Unionizing sex workers as an alternate or next steps from decriminalization as well as the moralistic myths of sex work. We talked about the right to reproductive health for both prostitutes and the customers who see them. We talked about the classism and elitism of various regulation systems the corruption by law enforcement effects the success of programs designed around harm reduction. We also exposed anti prostitution groups and their conservative agendas and how many conservative womens anti-prostitution groups are serving their own agenda with using TVPRA as a front to discriminate against prostitutes, specifically girls who work on the streets.

I will be discussing these issues in detail through this medium over the next few days. Thanks for listening to my babble

XOXOX
- Jasmine

* Kari Lydersen is a Midwest bureau staff writer at The Washington Post and writes for publications including The Chicago Reader, In These Times and the Progressive. She is the author of “Out of the Sea and Into the Fire: Latin American-US Immigration in the Global Age” (Common Courage, 2005) and co-author of the forthcoming book “Shoot an Iraqi: Life, Art and Resistance Under the Gun” (City Lights, Sept. 2008). She is a youth journalism instructor with We the People Media.

 

Prostitute’s murderer is sentenced to less than 2 years – Ontario Canada

Someone sent me this link…unbelievable

Man Kills Prostitute, Gets Less Than 2 Years. What the FUCK?
May 16, 2008 · 45 Comments

by Isabel

The day after admitting he killed a woman and dumped her body on a rural road, a St. Catharines, Ont., man was released from jail.

Judge Stephen Glithero sentenced Wayne Ryczak, 55, to one day in jail on Thursday for the death of 29-year-old Stephine Beck.

The one-day sentence is in addition to time Ryczak already served since his March 5, 2007, arrest — time the judge said was equivalent to 30 months.

“Devastated, we’re devastated,” Beck’s mother, Alice Dort, said from her home in Nova Scotia shortly after a police detective broke the news by phone. “This is just so unbelievable.” “There’s no justice. None whatsoever. I’m just so disgusted.”

The Crown asked for seven to 10 years in jail.

Ryczak’s lawyer requested two years less a day to be served in the community.

After deliberating for 20 minutes, Glithero said a 30-month sentence in the penitentiary would be appropriate and Ryczak had already served it. Ryczak was also given three years’ probation.

 

How Does One Go about Legitimizing Sex Work?

I think when one speaks of legalizing consensual sex work, it generally falls on deaf ears. Same with the term “de-criminalization” which screams government regulations. No thanks!

I believe the primary objection to present to society is to identify needed harm reduction as it relates to human rights and labor related human trafficking. It must also address the difference between sex trafficking V.S. consensual sex work. We must expose how the current laws confuse both issues, frequently turning trafficking victims into criminals. Most people are quite empathetic to trafficking victims. Its unfortunate however, the confusion and manipulation of trafficking laws and how they are sometimes used by law enforcement to entrap consensual sex workers. I believe the movement to decriminalize consensual work start at defining the difference between trafficking laws and consensual sex work.

Sex trafficking and human trafficking is nothing less than the raw exploitation of human
beings, compelling human beings to provide labor or to engage in commercial sex against their will, by means of force, fraud or coercion.

Shortly after the Spitzer scandal, many law enforcement stings and such were in the media including a sting in Philadelphia. The Chief of police was interviewed about the success of the sting and why they set it up to entrap escorts at nearby hotels. The short answer was something like; “These prostitutes come over state lines to provide sexual services which in many cases, fund their drug habits.” Oh yea, all whores are where abused as children and are now drug users is an easy assumption for society to follow. Nobody questioned the police officers answer? But what about the human rights of these consensual sex workers?

Another recent story; “Good News: Feds Bust Human-Trafficking Ring;
Federal authorities, with the help of local law enforcement agencies, made multiple arrests Wednesday in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio in connection with an international prostitution and human-trafficking ring. Police raided 19 massage parlors.” Dare I ask, when the fuck did a girl consensually working in a massage parlor giving “happy endings” become part of a human-trafficking ring? Were any of the girls unwillingly working at these brothels?

DePaul University’s College of Law and the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority recently conducted a study of the relationships between 100 young prostitutes and their pimps. To summarize their analysis, A common scenario for sex trafficked victims is the boyfriend/pimp threatens her with rape or forced prostitution. Or worse, forces her to serve multiple “tricks” each day in a multitude of locations, while keeping most of the money for himself. This is a gray area as to whether or not this is a trafficking case with the current trafficking laws.

Many women’s groups support The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA, also HR 3887), which redefines trafficking to include many domestic prostitutes. Legislation currently focuses on force, fraud or coercion. Aggravated trafficking could expand the definition and if a similar bill is passed in the Senate and becomes law, it will mean that consensual sex workers could be treated as crime victims deserving of resources and institutional support, rather than as criminals. And their pimps and traffickers would face increased criminal penalties.

Expanding the trafficking definition would bring more attention to the extent of commercial sexual exploitation in the U.S. and contradict the perception that the Department of Justice moving forward in a positive direction in its fight against sex trafficking.

The current laws are inadequate to prosecute victims of sex abuse and exploitation, however various sex workers rights groups are concerned the revised bill would increase criminalization of consensual sex work. The biggest concern of course is federal law identifying every act of prostitution or persuading someone into prostitution now constitutes this crime that can be prosecuted as sex trafficking.” The concern is of course using trafficking laws to charge non victimized sex workers.

The initiative should be to protect women, lower and/or eliminate HIV/STD cases and provide education, housing and safety to all. Society needs to train and be trained in these areas so everyone can improve their lives. The court system has not proven to be a positive variable in positive change. Law enforcement isn’t necessarily the key to end domestic trafficking.

In Solidarity,

Jasmine

 

Who is SWOP-Chicago?

We are the Chicago Chapter of the nation-wide Sex Worker’s Outreach Project-USA.

Sex Workers Outreach Project Chicago [SWOP-Chicago] is a grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of current and former sex workers in the Chicago area, on and off of the job.

SWOP, at its most basic, is an anti-violence campaign. As a multi-state network of sex workers and advocates, we address locally and nationally the violence that sex workers experience because of their criminal status. Operating in one of the most prominently violent societies today, sex workers in America experience this phenomenon pointedly in the context of their criminal status. Yet, sex workers are seldom afforded protection or recourse from violent acts committed against them because of the precarious, often graft-ridden relationship between sex work and law enforcement. Society tolerates violence against sex workers because of the stigma and myths that surround prostitution. Only until these falsehoods are corrected and sex workers are legitimized will we be able to effectively prevent and minimize the structural and occupational challenges of sex work. We are here for the Whore Revolution!

Check out our national network at www.swop-usa.org

 

Harm Reduction Training

Please distribute widely…
Harm Reduction Training Collaborative on; *Women, Drug Use and Trauma:*
*Successfully Addressing Women’s Issues in Recovery*
Date: *Friday, 06/06/08*
Time: *10am – 1pm*
Trainer: Maureen Rule, CMHC, Program Coordinator,
Tierra del Sol: Women’s Residential Recovery Program
Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, Albuquerque , NM
Location: MATEC
1640 W. Roosevelt Rd , Chicago , IL

Workshop participants will:
Explore new ways of addressing women’s stability in housing and program
involvement, including:
– Discussion of and appreciation for how focusing on drug use as a prerequisite for addressing other issues (such as housing or mental health, for e.g.) may actually discourage positive changes around drug use–and other behaviors that may have become problematic.
– Explore language around drug use and new ways of looking at “relapse”.
– Address the role of 12-step programs as one of many choices for addressing women’s addiction and other health issues within the context of women’s experiences of trauma.
– Understand at least two harm reduction-based interventions that encourage development of self-care and constructive communication of needs/goals/ decision- making.
– Resources for further exploration.

Ms. Rule comments, “We are not dealing with problem people, but rather people with problems. The brain changes that occur with trauma and with constant bombardment of use are very real. Harm reduction…reduces the burden on providers …The basis is care, respect…Women need to be given a voice, and taught how to do that in a constructive way, to learn how to be validated,
how to get others to be open to hearing them, so that they can feel that they matter.”

K. S. CADC
Youth Services Director
Chicago Recovery Alliance
Chicago IL

www.anypositivechange.org

 

Please Do Not Hate Us – Variations of Gender Identity Exist

It is quite unfortunate the ignorance of society has so much power in ruining the lives of “two spirited” individuals. As open as this country tries to appear, the case of “black” or “white” genders (male or female) with no variation is not only closed minded, but suggests the conservative republicans are still in control.

We (Transgender people) wish to be treated with respect and dignity just like anyone else. If one does not understand the quest of a Transgender individual, perhaps one should consider not judging us. Give yourself an opportunity to meet us and chat with us…we are (not always) a quite intelligent breed. Our lives can appear quite enduring to the general population.

We will take a bullet for our friends, we will sacrifice love and life to continue following our paths to “be true to” ourselves and we will survive. I am extremely happy to add, we are not going anywhere, anytime soon. Our numbers and support and tolerance just keep getting stronger and stronger. Now if we could only get together as a collective voice and be just a tad less self absorbed, perhaps we will accomplish a thing or two.

Please do not hate us for the genes and chromosomes our parents handed down to us. We haven’t asked to have such an intense and uncommon variation to our genders. We do not desire to lose our friends and loved ones, especially family. We are who we are and most of us would care not to live in our percieved shell…We cry at the sorrow of losing our families and loved ones.

For those of you that do not have the interest in giving us a chance, I do not hate you nor do I want to change you. I forgive you for your ignorance in our lives. I pray (tho not a religious individual) that your children will be our savior. That if you have a child with gender variation, that your child will be accepted into society, regardless of whether or not you accept and support your child.

Please don’t hate us…We love life and it is too short to waste on anger. Anger and stress kill

 

The Death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey…

This original post from boundnotgagged.com

http://deepthroated.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/sex-workers-tribute-video/  

Hey lovers,
Deborah Jeane Palfrey.  I can’t stop thinking about her. Her death cut me deeper than I ever could have imagined.
Her death has been heavy on the hearts of many a sex worker, indicative as it is of this juggernaut of a system that could grind us into nothing if we get caught up.  For me, I think her death translates into real fear.  A fear that is about fighting the good fight, and still going down.  If we manage to survive and thrive in a crazy industry; if we live ethically as sex workers and use all our faculties to operate our businesses and maintain what we believe is right, we still might end up dead.  Ms. Palfrey was a resourceful woman.  A woman connected, perhaps dangerously, to big players in the government.  And she got royally fucked. Someone, somewhere said, we’re going to bring her down.  We’re going to make an example of this one.  And they didn’t stop until she was swinging from a rope. “Upon news of her death there was no shortage of those who suggested Jeane Palfrey had been killed by cloaked enemies in the government. They miss the point. Jeane Palfrey of course had been killed by her government. She’d been unfairly ground down and hounded to death by shameless prosecutors and disinterested robed judges in our judicial branch.”
(Bill Keisling, Yardbirds.com )
I regret deeply now that I, we, did not do something more concrete to support her in her struggle.  It is a bare and unpleasant truth that the moment a sex worker comes under legal fire, s/he becomes untouchable.  Abandoned by clients, friends, etc…how did Palfrey end up in her mother’s home?  Why wasn’t she staying with me?  Where were her friends?  Where was her support network?
This blog was begun as a response to her original arrest.  She has, inadvertently, been an enormous catalyst in the sex workers rights movement.  And now she’s dead.
What the fuck.
There will be no procession, fanfare, or jazz funeral for the DC Madame.  Ain’t no crying in the streets for her, except by us, invisibly.  But I want to hold her up in this moment.
All the friends in Barcelona right now, doing the good work at the International harm reduction assoc. conference are making me remember that we are making progress.  Lateral steps toward a more just system.  And I want to thank Deborah Jeane Palfrey for her part in that.  As a contentious figure, a frustrating spin doctor, or a hero.   Whichever.

 

Sex Work vs. Trafficking: Understanding the Difference

By Melissa Ditmore, RH Reality Check

Posted on May 10, 2008, Printed on May 18, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/84987/

Originally posted at RH Reality Check.

Even those who mean well sometimes confuse the human rights abuse of trafficking in persons with the human occupation of prostitution, or sex work. It’s understandable because of the history of the two fields, but it creates rather than solves problems. Let me try to sort it out here.

The tendency to treat trafficking and prostitution as if they were the same thing has a long and problematic history. Legislation and social discussion have often blurred or denied any difference, but that has always made things worse rather than better for those involved.

The trafficking of women and children into sexual slavery is undeniably a gross abuse of human rights. Like all trafficking, it involves coercion or trickery or both. Sex trafficking is an odious forms of trafficking, but it is far from the only one. Men, women and children are also — and more commonly — trafficked routinely for purposes of household and farm labor as well as sweatshop manufacturing. Their lives may be less media-genic than those of sex trafficking victims, but they are no less brutal, dangerous and degraded.

A narrow focus on the single aspect of sex trafficking is often fueled by sensationalist and sometimes salacious accounts of sexual abuse. It leads us to ignore these other forms of trafficking, and so denies help and protection to all the men, women and children forced into and trapped in abusive working situations in other industries.

By the same token, treating sex work as if it is the same as sex trafficking both ignores the realities of sex work and endangers those engaged in it. Sex workers include men and women and transgender persons who offer sexual services in exchange for money. The services may include prostitution (sexual intercourse) and other services such as phone sex. Sex workers engage in this for many reasons, but the key distinction here is that they do it voluntarily. They are not coerced or tricked into staying in the business but have chosen this from among the options available to them.

A key goal of sex worker activists is to improve sex-working conditions, but self-organization is impossible when sex work is regarded as merely another form of slavery. Then authorities and laws trying to stop true slavery — trafficking — get misapplied to sex workers, clients and others involved in the sex industry. Law enforcement raids in the U.S. and abroad, for example, have led to little success identifying trafficked persons but instead have driven sex work underground. This exposes sex workers to an increased risk of violence and denies them any protection of laws against assault or access to medical, legal and educational services. It denies them their human rights.

A national anti-trafficking law enacted in 2000 recognizes “severe forms of trafficking” as a modern form of slavery that involves a broad spectrum of workers and industries. In this interpretation, trafficking is clearly distinguished from voluntary sex work and thus avoids the absurdity of equating the fear and suffering of a trafficked person with the typical working conditions of voluntary sex workers. These conditions are often far from ideal, but nevertheless they are far removed from debt bondage or enslavement.

It is regrettable that despite the obvious reality of this perspective, the popular imagination of sex work tends to return to images of young girls forced into sexual slavery. Perhaps people would rather read such stories than hear about more prosaic struggles for workers’ rights — to organize, to be free from harassment, to get decent health care. But their preferences should not be allowed to dictate policy about either human trafficking or sex work.

Traditional standards of morality have been a major influence on legislation aimed at trafficking, and on the ways that trafficking legislation changes the legal treatment of prostitution. But the ‘moral’ position opposing sex work is actually a specific political and ideological position, and its net effect is typically to limit women’s autonomy.

Sex law is often a front for ideology that constrains rather than liberates women. What most appalls me about the recent conflation of trafficking and sex work in law and policy is that some feminists support the confusion. These women would normally never dream of telling other women how to behave, because they have fought against imposed constraints in their own lives. Yet they seem to think it is acceptable to tell sex workers what is best for them, and they are prepared to use dubious political alliances to advance their moral agenda.

Women’s studies professor Donna Hughes even told the National Review that George W. Bush is the president who has done the most for women on the strength of his policies aimed against sex work. The fact that these policies do nothing to halt human trafficking and in fact may be counter-productive seems to be irrelevant. So does the worse fact that President Bush has presided over a deliberate reduction in access to reproductive health care for women in the United States and around the world.

Women are not the only victims when trafficking is conflated with sex work. The confusion squanders opportunities to address real victimization and to assist people in real situations of abuse. Resources, time and energy that might actually help trafficking victims are wasted in sensational “rescues” that are also ineffective and often counterproductive.

There is a clear need to formulate public policy that is less emotionally driven and better able to recognize the real causes, nature and effects of trafficking in persons. People concerned about the health and rights of migrants should choose to talk in terms of migration and mobility and workers’ rights — including sex workers’ rights — rather than confusing matters by using the term “trafficking” with all its attendant baggage. That should help clear the debating field for useful and separate discussions of both.

Melissa Ditmore, Ph.D., was the inaugural Chair of the Advisory Board of the Sex Workers Project and is a research consultant on issues of sex work, mobility and migration, HIV and sexual health. She edited the Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work (Greenwood Press, 2006) and edits Research for Sex Work, the journal of the Network of Sex Work Projects.

© 2008 RH Reality Check All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/84987/