For our human, civil and labour rights. For our inclusion and decriminalisation. For freedom to choose, respect for those choices and the absolute right to say no. For the full protection of the law. For everyone in the sex industry. Our aim. The current organisation of the sex industry presents many problems for workers and the communities within which the industry operates.
Improving the legal framework and self-organisation of sex workers is to the benefit of all parties. Recognising both the rights and responsibilities of sex workers is the only sensible way forward. Sex worker-led organisations like the IUSW see first-hand the harm done to everyone in the sex industry โ whether there by choice, circumstance or coercion โ through criminalisation, discrimination and stigma. We campaign[i] for. We seek to remove the barriers to leaving the sex industry imposed by criminal law.
Women selling sex onstreet may be arrested for loitering or soliciting[iii]; indoors, any way of working with or for another person creates a risk of prosecution[iv].
Clients are entirely criminalised onstreet and extensively indoors[v]. This means that almost anyone who encounters victims of trafficking in the sex industry has reason to fear arrest if they contact the authorities to report concerns. This complex and confusing mess of legislation endangers everyone in the sex industry. Only complete decriminalisation offers the wholesale reform necessary to create a legal framework that offers us the same human rights accorded to others. Pro-criminalisation campaigners do not speak for current sex workers.
CWJ does not include sex worker led organisations in events at which they publicise policies which harm us and deny our right to consent to sex. Globally, hundreds of sex worker organisations[ix], comprising tens of thousands of individuals, campaign for decriminalisation and for the way we earn a living to be recognised as work[x]. This would give us equal protection before the law so we can turn to the police when we fear violence or abuse. We hope that CWJ and other supporters of their campaign will listen to those most affected by policy on this issue โ current sex workers โ and believe us when we talk about the diverse reality of our lives, including our experience of sexual violence.
