COVID-19 restrictions created life-threatening challenges to female sex workers as they weren’t able to access their medication, support or their clients.
The UN warns sex workers face increased discrimination under COVID-19. In Australia, they have been an ‘afterthought’ in the country’s pandemic response.
The red umbrella is a symbol used by sex worker activists to draw attention to the work conditions and human rights of people in the sexual service industry.
(Shutterstock)
From a young age, Neaera was trained for the life of a hetaira, or courtesan. Her tragic story comes to us only through court documents, but she deserves to be remembered.
A law enforcement guide to human trafficking sits on a table at a drop-in center for victims of sex trafficking in Washington.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Jeffrey Epstein may be the current face of sex trafficking, but buying and selling youth for sex is a common practice in the US.
Sex worker rights – fought for at this red umbrella protest in Vancouver – are under threat by ‘hospitality’ programs which ask civilians working in hotels to ‘report’ on their guests.
Caroline Doerksen
While there’s still a great deal that is unknown about sex trafficking, research studies and nonprofits have been able to gather telling data on this industry’s victims and perpetrators.
Trafficking is a very real threat for kids in Nigeria.
Paschal Okwara/Shutterstock/Editorial use only
Sugar daddy capitalism is deformalising relationships and erasing the lines between commercial and non-commercial worlds.
Burmese fishermen raise their hands as they are asked who among them wants to go home. Human trafficking sometimes occurs in the seafood industry.
AP Photo/Dita Alangkara
Estimates of modern slavery vary widely, whether they try to pin down numbers in the U.S., across the globe or just in certain industries.
Protesters in front the Supreme Court of Canada in 2013 when the court was hearing arguments on the constitutionality of Canada’s prostitution laws.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canada’s prostitution laws are based on the idea that prostitution is dangerous. Legalizing prostitution doesn’t eliminate the risks of violence and psychological harm.
Private corporations have now become the arbiters of community standards, making decisions about what content is permissible to circulate.
Interim Director, UWA Public Policy Institute; Associate Professor & Programme Co-ordinator (Masters of Public Policy), The University of Western Australia