The legendary club Madame Jojo’s recently announced that its doors were closing, prompting many to mourn the death of Soho. But the area has been subject to various “clean-up” campaigns throughout its…
It’s not what you think.
science photo via Shutterstock
Theresa May’s much vaunted Modern Slavery Bill is designed to stamp out what she describes as a “disgusting trade in human beings”, and a new report on trafficking from the National Crime Agency (NCA…
The use of sex worker testimony by playwright Peta Brady has outraged interviewee Jane Green.
Vixen Collective Archives
Peta Brady’s Ugly Mugs, which I saw in Sydney last week, opens with a gurney being wheeled onto the stage – on it, a sex worker who has died at the hands of a client and who, like the phoenix tattooed…
The Hon. Michael Kirby presenting a report on human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the UN earlier this year.
EPA/Salvatore Di Nolfi
Watch the Honourable Michael Kirby, visiting professorial fellow at UNSW Australia, talk about how the law impacts HIV below. Michael Kirby is a former justice of the High Court of Australia, serving from…
In most developed countries, including Australia, gay and bisexual men dominate numbers of new HIV infections.
Aleksandar Stojkovic/Flickr
The number of new HIV diagnoses in Australia remains the highest in 20 years, according to data released today by UNSW’s Kirby Institute. While rates have remained stable over the past two years, the number…
Despite evidence to the contrary of crime and community debasement in areas where there are brothels, there remains a strong overall sense of “NIMBYism”.
AAP/David Crosling
Nationally and internationally, states adopt many different approaches to regulate brothels, ranging from legalisation to prohibition. But underlying all of these approaches is an ongoing assumption that…
In the 20 years I have worked on issues around the night-time economy, I’ve seen sex workers treated in wildly varying ways: greeted with humane understanding and mild curiosity by residents’ groups, and…
Claims that most off-street prostitutes have been “trafficked” are overegged.
Corn colonel
Cases in which women or children have been forced into prostitution under the violent control of a third party are often described as the tip of a very large iceberg. One of the principal statistical claims…
‘Susan’, a trafficked sex worker - one of a minority, research has suggested.
Manchester Evening News/PA Wire
The moral panic on the supposed prevalence of trafficking in the global sex industry rests on a lie: that the majority of sex workers are trafficked. In fact, the opposite is true. However, on the basis…
Black economy: regulating sex work is easier said than done.
Ian Britton
Both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are taking steps towards new regulations for the sex work industry, principally aimed at better protecting victims of coercion and trafficking. However…
Taking it to the streets: the law makes it hard for sex workers to protect their health.
PA
Lucy Platt, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
In the ongoing debate on the law’s response to sex work, it has not been forgotten that sex workers have pressing health needs. However, the debate is still very much focused on sexually transmitted infections…
Flying in formation? The Nordic countries go their own way on sex work.
Hansjorn
The “Nordic model” of prostitution is often heralded for being particularly progressive and woman-friendly, built on a feminist definition of prostitution as a form of male violence against women. France…
What if sex workers were seen as allies in redressing gendered stereotypes?
Lies Thru a Lens
A recent report by the non-governmental organisation Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia recommends the adoption of the Nordic Model in Australia. Also known as the Swedish Model, this legislation…
There is still almost no serious discussion of the “Nordic Model” for prostitution in Australia.
adaptorplug
Imagine a scenario where prostitution is not restricted or sanctioned but buying sex is banned. Could such an approach work in Australia? It already has elsewhere, and the evidence suggests it’s worth…
The writing was on the wall for some in city licensing review.
Andy Bell
Scottish police were forced to issue a statement that they did “not advocate the banning of condoms” after a BBC report, which ran under the headline “Police ask for condom ban in Edinburgh saunas”, said…
A monument to a sex worker in Amsterdam. Is it time the media discourse around sex workers in society changed?
mo's
Melbourne sex worker Tracy Connelly was brutally murdered in her van last week. In a sad irony, Connelly was killed metres from where sex workers and their allies demonstrated their support for a global…
Some people need assistance and support to express their sexuality in satisfying ways.
Image from shutterstock.com
Sexual expression is a fundamental part of being human, with most of us able to choose our sexual partners and, to varying degrees, meet our intimacy needs and desires. While not all people with disabilities…
The regulation of sex work needs to be based on solid evidence and with the participation of sex workers.
AAP/Dean Lewins
The sexual revolution happened in the late 1960s, so it seems insane that so-called western liberal democracies still appear to have major hang-ups about sex. This is especially true when it comes to commercialised…
Support workers need better access to brothels such as this one in Melbourne, where an underaged sex worker was employed.
AAP/Julian Smith
France is the latest European country to aim for a “society without prostitution”. The proposal to make it a crime to purchase any sexual service (alongside Sweden, Norway and Iceland) has stimulated public…
FIFO sex workers shouldn’t be blamed for rising rates of HIV and STIs.
High heel image from www.shutterstock.com
Can the mining boom be blamed for the rising rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in some states? The Australian Medical Association thinks so, with its Queensland president Dr Richard Kidd…
Interim Director, UWA Public Policy Institute; Associate Professor & Programme Co-ordinator (Masters of Public Policy), The University of Western Australia