Publications

In December 2005, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network released Sex, work, rights: reforming Canadian criminal laws on prostitution. The report examines the ways in which the prostitution-related provisions of the Criminal Code, and their enforcement, have criminalized many aspects of sex workers’ lives and have promoted their social marginalization. The Legal Network calls for the … Read more

This paper makes the case that while women in Canada may not suffer the extremes of subordination faced by many of their counterparts in other parts of the world, inequality and violations of women’s human rights still contribute to their vulnerability and to the challenges they face in seeking treatment for HIV/AIDS. As in other … Read more

FEATURES Injection drug use, HIV/AIDS and incarceration: evidence from the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study Legal Network report calls for decriminalization of prostitution in Canada CANADIAN DEVELOPMENTS Report calls for changes to the law to improve safety, security and well-being of sex workers Toronto: Report calls for more harm reduction measures for drug users Saskatchewan … Read more

In this issue: 2005 Annual General Meeting features awards and lively debate Legal Network discusses model legislation project in Vilnius Network staff share ideas and mentoring at Skills Symposium The Legal Network in the news Report focuses on greater involvement of people who use drugs Blueprint for Action on Women and HIV/AIDS: Towards 2006 Inside … Read more

This report examines — from an international perspective — why it is important to increase meaningful involvement of people who use illegal drugs in the response to HIV and hepatitis C (HCV), and how this can be done.

This booklet summarizes the main issues addressed in the Legal Network’s paper on greater involvement of people who use illegal drugs. In particular, it explains why people who use illegal drugs must be meaningfully involved in Canada’s response to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C (HCV), and injection drug use, and the benefits of greater involvement. The booklet … Read more

“Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection facility, is an essential harm reduction element of Vancouver’s “four-pillar” drug strategy. I am writing to you to seek your support for maintaining Insite as a harm reduction service and not allowing the Vancouver Police Department to turn it into a law enforcement tool…”

This report is the product of a two-year project on criminal law, prostitution and the health and safety of sex workers in Canada. We conducted a literature review; interviewed key informants (including through a collaboration with the Native Friendship Centre of Montréal); and held a two-day consultation in February 2004 attended by sex workers, former … Read more

This booklet explains how Canada’s criminal laws related to prostitution affect the health and the human rights of sex workers. It recommends changes to those laws to improve the lives of sex workers. We hope it will be useful to sex workers who are already fighting for their rights every day, and to others who … Read more