Video

Webinar: Time to get off the fence on sex workers' rights

Why does the anti-trafficking sector hesitate to support sex workers' rights, and what could change that?

By Cameron Thibos

Published: September 10, 2021, 7:52 pm

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It’s time for anti-trafficking activists to stop being silent on sex workers’ rights.

As part of our larger feature on 'fence-sitting' on sex work, we organised a live discussion between two migrant sex worker activists and the heads of two anti-trafficking organisations who recently chose to get off the fence and support decriminalisation and sex workers' rights. In a wide-ranging conversation they ask why the trafficking sector is letting sex workers down and how things could be done differently.

The Panelists:

Joanna Ewart-James: Executive Director, Freedom United
Jean Bruggeman: Executive Director, Freedom Network USA
Amina du Jean
Charlotte Lee: Spokesperson, English Collective of Prostitutes
Emily Kenway: Impact Editor, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery (Chair)

Learn more about 'fence-sitting' on sex workers' rights

Introduction: It's time to get off the fence on sex workers’ rights
Joel Quirk, Emily Kenway & Cameron Thibos

The importance of unpopularity: taking a position on law and policy on sex work
Klara Skrivankova

Criminalising sex workers’ clients makes trafficking worse
Andrew Wallis

The anti-trafficking movement has left sex workers behind
Lydia Caradonna

Why Freedom United supports the decriminalisation of sex work
Joanna Ewart-James

Lost in translation: do anti-trafficking organisations reflect their employees' views on commercial sex?
Emily Kenway and Joel Quirk

There is no neutral position on whether sex work is work
Inga Thiemann

Fence-sitting and its discontents: the fear of taking a stand on sex work in the US
Sienna Baskin

Choosing between access and sex workers’ rights in Portugal
Mara Clemente

The common cause of drug reform and sex workers’ rights
Anastacia Ryan

Institutionalised victimhood: the ‘progressive’ alternative for sex work in the Philippines
Sharmila Parmanand

Freedom Network USA now supports sex workers’ rights
Jean Bruggeman

Cameron Thibos

Cameron Thibos is the managing editor of Beyond Trafficking and Slavery. He is a former research associate at the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and holds a D.Phil from the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford.

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Tags: Video Sex worker rights BTS on Sex Work Sex work decriminalization