Beyond Decriminalization: Sex-work, Human Rights and a New ...

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PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY“RTA”). The RTA regulates the relationship between landlords and tenants; in a housing cooperative,members collectively act as landlord.A housing cooperative could provide a way for sex workers to share housing and maintenancecosts while continuing to work independently.A. Pure run by sex trade workers. Period. Licensing. When we talked about the co-opsbefore and it was brought up that if we had a house, and we all used it, paid into it,to keep it running, we would all be the bosses of the house, and pay into it, so that thelaundry was done, the maintenance was done. Security was present, blah, blah, blah.But there wasn’t so-called . . . There wasn’t a hierarchy, right? It was pure run by thesex trade workers.Q. Like do you mean a co-op?A. Yeah, co-op.- female street-level sex workersThese comments highlight the importance of work autonomy to most sex workers, and the need toexplore ways that different business structures facilitate autonomy.Company law recommendations1. Sex workers believe that a range of business structures will be necessary to accommodate thediverse ways in which they would like to conduct business.2. Sex workers want access to various business structures, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships,corporations, and cooperatives, all of which provide potentially suitable business structures forprostitution.3. Ensure that sex workers are free to choose the way in which they structure their business activity;do not place any legislative restrictions on the way that prostitution businesses are structured.4. Autonomy, choice, privacy and safety are paramount concerns for sex workers when selecting abusiness structure.180
BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law ReformPART 7: HUMAN RIGHTS LAWHuman rights and discrimination: Many sex workers feel stigmatized anddiscriminated against because of their work. They described taking a verycautious approach in deciding when to reveal their line of work. Theymaintain a high level of secrecy within their personal lives, in society overall,and specifically in the context of accessing services such as medical care,loans or legal protections. Sex workers reported that the effect of this senseof stigmatization is that they often refrain from taking advantage of legal,health and other forms of protection and treatment because of their desireto conceal their work.The type of stigmatization that sex workers described was often rooted in commonly held perceptionsof sex and prostitution. Many of the workers we interviewed did not believe that the repeal of thecriminal laws surrounding prostitution would, by itself, be sufficient to eliminate stigmatization anddiscrimination entirely. Nevertheless, decriminalization was identified as an important first step.A. It’s not difficult at all, but you have to start with the legalization. You can’t just – youcan’t just create a system. You can’t just create another system which is going to stigmatizeprostitutes.- female off-street out-call sex workerA. Yeah, I think [decriminalization is] one step towards removing the stigma of prostitutionas a valid career choice, as a form of work. That is not going to remove thestigma for a long time. There is many, many things that will be needed. For example,what’s a good example? Being a stripper, okay? Let’s look at being a stripper. It’s,it’s legal. It still has a certain connotation to it. It’s kind of a slutty thing to do. Youmust be a bit of a slut to do that. And that’s something that they would always thinkof a sex worker as well. You couldn’t possibly be moral or ethical. And, y’know, youmust be a slut, if you do that. You must have very low moral and ethical opinionson everything, if you sell yourself out like that. And this stigma, this stigma is a lotharder to remove then the illegality about it. It’s one variable that’s involved, I guess.I don’t know. That’s a tough question.- female off-street in-call sex workerIt is clear from the opinions expressed by sex workers in the course of this project that they experiencea high degree of discrimination and stigmatization in their everyday lives. Human rights legislationmay provide an important tool for addressing some of their specific concerns about discriminationand stigmatization.181
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