Decriminalizing prostitution: the legal Canadian network HIV-AIDS
Recommendation of Canadian HIV/AIDS legal network
On December 13th 2005, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network published its report: Sex, Employment and Rights : Reforming Canada’s Criminal Laws on Prostitution. The Network is a non-profit organization dealing exclusively with the legal, ethical, and political issues related to HIV/AIDS. It has been operating in Canada since 1992.
The report recommends decriminalizing prostitution in Canada on the grounds that the criminal law not only infringes on the legal rights of sex trade workers, but also puts their health and safety at risk. To achieve this, the report offers a number of recommendations to amend the Criminal Code of Canada. This includes asking Parliament to amend article 213, which makes communicating in a public place for the purposes of prostitution illegal.
In addition to the this report, the Network has published a series of 10 papers addressing a variety of prostitution-related issues including: regulating sex work outside of the Criminal Law, international human rights law and sex trade workers, sex work and women’s rights, marginalization, precarious safety: the impact of criminal law on sex workers. These aim to educate the public about issues relating to the sex trade.
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