CPC convention - resolution regarding "sexual exploitation"

I agree with you Cat. Trafficking laws, and most major proponents of such legislation and related campaigns, including NGOs aiming to eliminate trafficking, end up reinforcing stigma, silencing and violence against migrant workers, and not just limited to sex workers.... Rarely are such efforts aimed at deconstructing or bringing redress to poverty, or unevenly enforced border control measures.

We should be suspicious that, to date, very few countries, for example allow for sexual labourers who have been picked up , detained and questioned in such sweeps to actually apply for a visa to stay in that given country. Countries such as Italy are one of the few exceptions. As it stands, international protocols governing trafficking allow for only two options when a worker has been identified as trafficked (a determination often made against the will of these global citizens); you are either a victim or a criminal. And, once you have provided your information, you are then of little value to authorities (and researchers) and are swiftly deported. This provides no meaningful way for those who are being harmed, or who seek protections, including under the law, to meaningfully report their concerns to authorities or even access supportive services.

It should be added that these problems are made possible through a whole variety of laws, including, by the way, under what has been often termed the 'stripper visa' policy aimed largely at women seeking to tour as exotic dancers in Canada", and are no longer able to as they are being denied working visas which were previously being granted....of course, driving the truly problematic situations further underground, and making illegals out of workers trying to make a living. Such a law, while purportedly aimed at helping to eliminate the trafficking of women and girls, and deceitful fronts for prostitution, actually does nothing helpful in terms of any of this...more sensationalism, more patronizing policies that do nothing to accord voice, dignity, labour and human rights to those affected.

I also agree with mistert, in that, we will have to see how the current legal challenges pan out to know what the implications are. For example, if the 'prostitution' laws currently under scrutiny are struck down by the highest Court (i.e. the Supreme Court of Canada, which is binding) and, in the process, sex workers consequentially have a foothold to access human and labour rights and Constitutional recognition, then there will be some clout to wield at the policy level in terms of redefining trafficking policy, including definitions of what constitutes trafficking, who would be considered to be a trafficked person, and what options would then be available to those caught up in this net.

There is also a continuum in relation to sex work and trafficking that exists that muddies the waters, in that;

1) some people are genuinely forced against their will, or tricked into migrating to a country under false pretenses;

2) some are indentured workers who know they will be doing sex work and are under obligation to repay a specific fee for being able to secure their entry into a given country, often with their passports being held or some other power play to guarantee they will comply ( ...problematic, yes, and ultimately a practice supported by oppressive legislation such as that discussed above). In such cases, the progressive sex work literature and many labour activists attest to the fact that many of these workers (not just women I might add) would still choose this situation over remaining in their countries of origin as they are seeking mobility and increased economic opportunities, and to be reunited with family members/loved ones). Due to personal resourcefulness , the assistance of organizations and sometimes even clients, workers are often able to manage transitioning into a less controlled working situation...And, with a more empowering and redefined trafficking policy scope, this has the potential to improve the odds for folks significantly;

3) some of these people are straight up travelling sex workers, quite informed and largely mobile (however undercover and trickily navigated) who have entered countries to work and make money, and still face the threat of being picked up in these sweeps and being made subject to such laws, regardless of the fact that what they are doing...how they see what they are doing....as sex work...as real work that has meaningful purchase in their lives; and,

4) there are those whose personal circumstances have the potential to cut across more than one, or even all of these categories and realms of experience; who may, in fact, have experienced circumstances of profound coercion, or perhaps, indenturement, but who move into other circumstances, including in making a more empowered choice to participate in some form of sex work.

(On the last point) This is not uncommon at all...just like it is not uncommon for sex workers who may have always been in the country, and who may have worked in a more marginalized venue, to then have their circumstances change and engage the opportunity to work in another venue. In the course of my community activism, I've been privy to many stories such as this...And, in the case of grassroots activism by labourers who would outright identify as being trafficked at some point (e.g. see the film "Tales of the night fairies"), there is a strong contingent of those who go on to assert, regardless of potential continued marginalization, that 'yes, "I am now a sex worker" who makes choices every day to continue to participate in the industry'. The understanding that "money talks and bullshit walks" carries great currency in the lives of those who engage in erotic labour and who continue to be patronized and harmed by such oppressive measures and attitudes.

Of course, in such hopefulness for some structural policy changes or a favorable court ruling, it's important not to get romantic about the system...the current political party system, the courts or legislature... international governance practices, as they have been powerful forces in securing the oppression and economic disadvantage of so many historically oppressed communities...not to mention gross platforms for politicians to self-ingratiate themselves in the media...while, of course, having no meaningful vested interest or concern for the health and human rights of those they speak for, including sex working citizens....wherever a given worker sits on the continuum.

As I heard former Executive Director of Maggie's in Toronto recently state at a sex work conference: 'so long as we have difficulty making a connection between the worker who has parted from their own family to come to this country to take care of the children of some affluent couple; the agricultural worker who has lost their ability to farm back home and is now stuck in a compound picking the potatoes we eat every day; and the lived reality of a sex worker, we will collectively remain the self-fulfilling subjects of our own ignorance' (Keisha Scott, indirect, condensed quote).

We cannot afford to do this.