Suchergebnisse

Human rights have always been a controversial issue in India when it comes to the rights of the sex workers. In India, the law relating to sex work is ambiguous, i.e. India neither criminalizes nor condemns it. Human rights advocates wellbeing with equal treatment of all persons. However the Indian government has failed to uphold the rights of women especially those of sex workers be it the civil or socio-economic rights, despite being a signatory to many legislations. The sex workers are stigmatized and are looked down upon by the society. They are often subjected to discrimination, abuse, rape and harassment which results in denial of their rights. The health, safety and equality of the sex workers under the law are some of the major concerns which should be looked into as a matter of their right. And further steps should be taken to decriminalize prostitution for the betterment and protection of the sex workers.

Trafficking in persons is a process by which one becomes harshly exploited or enslaved, above and beyond merely being subject to exploitative working conditions (Personal communication, interview, 16 March 2011). Frequently, the focus of trafficking is on how one is transported from one place to another; however, this report argues that the focus needs to be on to what extent one is being exploited and how. It is recognized by the Australian government that even though trafficking cases are relatively infrequent in Australia, it is a destination country of a trafficking process where the actual exploitation of migrant workers occurs. Australia has the responsibility support victims of trafficking who are exploited by its citizens and to combat trafficking in persons. In contrast to stereotypes surrounding trafficking in persons, the trafficking cases identified in Australia did not involve kidnapping or physical threats when transporting victims from sourcing countries to Australia. Most victims travelled to Australia by voluntarily entering into debt bondage contracts in the hope of greater economic opportunities to work in the Australian sex industry; however, some victims were deceived about the nature of work they would be engaging in. Debt bondage contracts are a highly effective means to attract the most vulnerable workers and exploit their labour. Under-reporting is the major challenge faced by law enforcement to successfully prevent the offences of trafficking operating in Australia. Frontline officers' awareness and response to trafficking is crucial in detecting trafficking offences; however without fostering an environment where victims can actively seek help under-reporting will continue to be problem, which will in turn significantly undermine anti-trafficking measures (David 2010). In the case, R v Tang, the High Court focused on to distinguish slavery from exploitative employment conditions and debt bondage. Although there are attempts to equate trafficking with slavery, trafficking offences including debt-bondage and forced labour are not necessarily slavery practices but these offences are significantly high levels of exploitation. While trafficking investigations have been disproportionately focusing on the sex industry, it is critical to answer whether it is due to the fact that trafficking incidents happen mostly in the sex industry or it is due to people believing that prostitution is inherently inseparable from violence and exploitation against women. In order to find the connection between trafficking and prostitution this report explores how sex work is politically oriented in Australia and what this means to the victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. There are different views on the prevention measures of trafficking between prostitution abolislunent and sex work advocacy groups; however, from the efficient stand point, most interviewees for this report supported that increasing peer education and outreach services in the sex industry, particularly for migrant sex workers, would help reduce their vulnerabilities and help prevent them from being trafficked.

This article focuses on mobility as a crucial aspect of prostitution and human trafficking. I distinguish between horizontal (geographical) and vertical (organizational) mobility to analyze the context in which women, their families, agents, and other actors decide to move from one place to another in the framework of sex-work activities. Data used in this article derive from the ongoing research on human trafficking and prostitution in western and eastern Europe. This research is carried out through participant observation among migrant prostitutes and through interviews and content analysis of media reports in several countries.

Making women's bodies accessible to men in the commercial context is related to specific ways of experiencing it. The purpose of the article is to discuss the category of a non-present, selectively present, and present body, which refers to ways in which female sex workers experience their bodies during commercial sex acts. There will also be conditions listed that correspond to the occurrence of each of these categories. The article is based on qualitative data (mainly unstructured interviews), which were analyzed in accordance with the procedures of grounded theory methodology.

Historically, academic literature on sex work has documented the changing debates, policies, and cultural discourse surrounding the sex industry, and their impact on the rights of sex workers worldwide. As sex work scholars look to the future of sex workers' rights, however, we are also in a critical moment of self-reflection on how sex work scholarship engages with sex worker communities, produces knowledge surrounding sex work, and represents the lived experiences of sex workers' rights, organizing, and activism. In this short Communication, proceedings from a recent sex work research symposium entitled, Sexual Economies, Politics, and Positionality in Sex Work Research are presented. Held at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, this symposium is a response to the need for sex work researchers, sex workers, and sex worker-led organizations to come together and critically examine the future of research on sex work and the politics of documenting sex workers' rights.

Horrible things are happening to vulnerable people, but we cannot help them by sending groups of vigilantes or law enforcement officers to hunt them.

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) was the first human retrovirus to be reported and is associated with neoplastic, neurological, autoimmune, and infectious complications. HTLV-1 is endemic in Peru, with the highest prevalence reported among commercial sex workers. Seroprevalence data collected from Peruvian female sex workers (FSWs) working in Callao over three study periods between 1993 and 2010 were used to examine the secular trend in HTLV-1 prevalence. Between 1993 and 2010, the prevalence of HTLV-1 decreased significantly from 14.5% to 3.1% (P 0.07). There were no cases of HTLV-1 detected among FSW born after 1979 (N = 224). Participant characteristics associated with HTLV-1 seropositivity were birth in the Andes Mountains region, age, increased time in sex work, younger age of starting sex work, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity. The secular trend in declining prevalence persisted after adjustment for age, time in sex work, place of birth, and HIV serostatus, with the odds of HTLV-1 infection decreasing approximately 16% per year (adjusted odds ratio = 0.84, 95% confidence interval = 0.78, 0.90). The increasing use of condoms by later birth cohorts noted in our analysis, as well as the increasing availability of free condoms provided by the Peruvian government—which started in the late 1980s before this study— may have been responsible for declining HTLV seroprevalence.

The present research was conducted on female sex workers (FSWs) to study the knowledge Attitude and Practices towards HIV/AIDS. Females are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS as compared to males in Pakistan. The FSWs are on high risk due to the high-risk practices in their profession. Female sex workers are the major drivers of HIV/AIDS into general population. This is the group, which is ignored due to the social taboo, and stigma attached to their profession that in turn gave boom to these females and now they have become dangerous segment of the society. Present study was conducted on Napier Road, Karachi which is the oldest brothel area of Pakistan established during the rule of British. The data was collected from 180 FSWs through questionnaires. The findings showed that these females didn't use preventive measures against HIV/AIDS. Stigma, fear, threat and cultural constraint were some of the factors which have made them more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. It was concluded that females in brothels were vulnerable to HIV/AIDS mainly due to their lifestyle, ignorance, use of drugs and little power to negotiate about the use of condoms, the safest form of prevention of STD's and HIV/AIDS. HIV prevalence is low in Pakistan even in this high risk group. It is suggested that the government should immediately launch security, educational and health services programs specifically for commercial sex workers in order to minimise the risks before it expounds and becomes epidemic.