“Exploitation within the sex industry, including human trafficking, is of great concern to sex workers and to allied groups such as the Legal Network working to uphold sex workers’ human rights. However, anti-trafficking policies must be based on evidence and human rights — not ideological positions on sex work or moral panic.”
The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network welcomes this opportunity to provide comments on recommendations that Canada has received during its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which took place on May 11, 2018. In this brief, the Legal Network provides comments on priority recommendations that Canada should consider accepting of the 299 recommendations received during the UPR. … Read more
Last month, representatives from holistic practitioner, sex worker and human rights organizations gathered in Committee Room 1 at Toronto City Hall to make deputations to the Municipal and Licensing Standards Committee about the bylaws governing holistic practitioners and body-rub providers. The meeting was prompted by a study of licensing for holistic centres and body-rub parlours, … Read more
It is now well recognized, not just by sex workers but by a wide range of human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, and the Center for Health and Gender Equity, United Nations bodies such as the UN Development Programme, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, … Read more
The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s strategic plan, Respect, Protect, Fulfill: A Human Rights Response to HIV sets out the goals for the organization over the next five years.
In 2016, we undertook a planning process to set our strategic directions for the next five years (2017–2022), including seeking the input of our members, key partners and supporters. This is a summary of the Legal Network’s 2017–2022 strategic plan.
October 19, 2017, Canada – As part of the hunt for people who “exploit” or purchase services from sex workers, police forces across Canada held their yearly raids between October 11–15 on sex work establishments that they call Operation Northern Spotlight. These operations include intrusive and intimidating visits to sex workers to their homes and … Read more
The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network makes this submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group in advance of the third review of Canada, to take place in April/May 2018. In this submission, the Legal Network describes four key areas requiring action from the government of Canada to fulfill the … Read more
“The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (“Legal Network”) welcomes this opportunity to provide submissions to the Department of Justice on how the Canadian criminal law should be transformed. “In this submission, the Legal Network sets out its concerns about Canada’s criminal justice system, focusing on (i) the overly broad criminalization of HIV non-disclosure; (ii) the criminalization … Read more
We urge the Standing Committee on Social Policy to uphold the human rights of sex workers by rejecting Bill 96, the Anti-Human Trafficking Act 2017, as it does not help end trafficking but endangers the safety and security of vulnerable people, particularly migrant sex workers.