Regular readers of BTS will be familiar with the stark divide amongst women’s rights organisations on the issue of sex work and trafficking.
Feminist organisations like the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GAATW) argue that sex workers’ agency should be respected, and that human trafficking laws should not be misused to abolish sex work or censor sex workers.
Their political opponents argue that sex work is inherently exploitative and should never be treated as legitimate work. These actors, who often identify as ‘radical feminists’, have long-utilised anti-trafficking legislation to push for restrictions on sex work. Fighting “sex trafficking” is also a popular crusade for conservative Christian groups, who view sex work as depraved moral behaviour. Since the 1990s, they too have used the legal framework of trafficking to argue for the abolition of sex work. At times, these two groups have joined forces in an “unlikely alliance” to pursue these ends.
