Melissa Ditmore

consultant on research and rights-based programming

Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

Ontario Set to Decriminalize Sex Worker Activities

RH Reality Check

On September 28th, 2010, in an unprecedented judicial move, an Ontario court struck down three provisions that criminalize activities related to prostitution. Prostitution itself is not illegal in Canada but ancillary activities like advertising and management are criminalized. Ontario Supreme Court Judge Susan Himel cited evidence that these laws contribute to a climate in which sex workers are unsafe because they are forced to operate in secrecy.

Sex workers deserve rights too

Global Health Magazine

Since 2003, U.S. government funding to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic has been subject to an anti-prostitution clause forbidding the “promotion of prostitution” by grant recipients. There are few published articles about the effects of PEPFAR’s anti-prostitution policy requirement because discussing activities that are not clearly approved under the funding restrictions can jeopardize a program.

Review of “The Fever” by Sonia Shah

Feminist Review website

Vampire mania has taken hold and Sonia Shah’s The Fever goes back in time before Twilight and even Dracula to the first vampires: mosquitoes and their parasites. Shah tells a good story, and this story has everything from drama and risk to villains and exotic locations. The villain is malaria, the exotic locations cross the globe over the past millennia, and the drama and risk are life-and-death situations.

Report: Police abuse of Cambodian Sex Workers Made Worse by US Policies

RH Reality Check

A recent report by Human Rights Watch describes the abuse of sex workers by Cambodian police, who declared open season on sex workers in the wake of a new anti-trafficking law that criminalizes sex work. The new law was a response to the perennial threat of US economic sanctions against nations that are not seen to be ‘doing enough’ to combat trafficking in persons.

The sweep of modern-day slavery

guardian.co.uk

As the global economy shrinks, human trafficking is on the rise – and it extends far beyond prostitution.

Trafficking Report: Less Sensationalism, More Reality

RH Reality Check

The State Department’s new Trafficking in Persons report suggests that the Obama administration will opt for evidence-based responses to trafficking over putting restrictions on women “for their own good.”

Sex and Taxes

guardian.co.uk

Nevada’s innovative $5-a-time sex tax would have given something back to the state’s prostitutes.