Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Berkley Journal of Criminal Law
Volume
29
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
The past decade has witnessed unprecedented growth in the legal recognition of sex workers’ rights. Recent legislation and court judgments strengthening sex workers’ rights protections have occurred in the Australian jurisdictions of the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Victoria, as well as in Belgium, India, and Malawi. These legal advancements conform with the goals of the global sex workers’ rights movement. They include newly decriminalized legal frameworks governing sex work, groundbreaking labor and anti-discrimination protections for sex workers, the striking down of vagrancy laws that indirectly target sex workers, and judicial directives on state protection of sex workers’ rights. Despite the significance of these global legal wins for a severely stigmatized class of workers, there is nothing in the academic literature examining and comparing these recent legal reforms. This article seeks to address this omission by developing a practical guide for successful legal reform upholding sex workers’ rights for advocates, policymakers, and academics based on a comparative analysis of recent legal advancements. Our comprehensive roadmap for sex workers’ rights reform analyzes the substantive strengths and limitations of recent legal wins; argues for the centrality of sex workers’ rights advocacy to legal advancements; presents framings of the sex work issue that are more likely to convince legislators, judges, and the public to embrace reform; and examines strategies for managing political threats to positive reform. Ultimately, by highlighting pathways to successful reform based on under-examined and geographically diverse case studies, we hope to develop a useful tool for future efforts at legal reform for a determined movement advocating for the rights of sex workers worldwide.
Recommended Citation
Chi Adanna Mgbako,
A Roadmap For Sex Workers’ Rights Reform: Lessons Learned From Recent Legal Advancements, 29 Berkley J. Crim. L. 103
(2024)
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/1383
