In 2023, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the UN Committee of independent experts in charge of overseeing the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) announced that it would prepare its first ever General Comment on drug policy to describe how drug laws and practices affect the enjoyment … Read more
In response to a call from the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls for input for their report on “prostitution and violence against women and girls,” the Legal Network made a submission outlining the impacts of criminal, immigration, and other laws targeting sex workers as a primary source of state violence and … Read more
In December 2023, three petitioners challenging Barbados’ anti-LGBT laws before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights made further submissions in relation to their initial 2018 petition, documenting several legal developments in LGBT rights since that time.
HIV self-testing is a powerful tool, particularly if delivered through an approach that meets people where they are. Making self-tests available can promote uptake by offering people privacy, independence, and control as they decide when and where to take an HIV test. By increasing access and empowering individuals, HIV self-testing is an innovative way to … Read more
We urge the government to reject Bill S-224 and adopt a human rights-based approach to human trafficking that centers labour rights, migrant rights, and sex workers’ rights and addresses the numerous structural barriers including poverty, precarious immigration status, and lack of access to affordable housing, health and social services that contribute to the risks of … Read more
Joint Submission to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 52/24 entitled “Contribution of the Human Rights Council with regard to the human rights implications of drug policy”
Sex workers in Canada face an alarming web of punitive laws and policies from all levels of government that attempt, among other things, to crush the measures and networks that keep them. These include laws criminalizing sex work, including those passed via the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act which prohibit working in public … Read more
Effectively addressing HIV, HCV, and STBBIs among Indigenous people requires the adoption of a human rights approach, focusing on evidence-based and culturally sensitive interventions that embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and doing. In addition to the legal and policy recommendations described below, it is imperative moving forward that access to emerging health care technologies and … Read more