Rethinking Dignity and Exploitation in Human Trafficking and Sex Workers’ Rights Cases

William Paul Simmons ()
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William Paul Simmons: Gender & Women’s Studies, Human Rights Practice Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Societies, 2024, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: As forced migration increases dramatically due to such factors as climate change, rising conflict, and authoritarianism, more legal cases on human trafficking and sex work are sure to arise. To date, very few cases on these issues have been decided in international human rights tribunals, and they have been subject to extensive criticism, especially for their conflation of slavery, human trafficking, forced prostitution, and consensual sex work. This article analyzes recent jurisprudence from Europe and Africa to address this conceptual confusion and argue that tribunals must interrogate their use of the terms dignity and exploitation or risk further marginalizing already marginalized people.

Keywords: human trafficking; consensual sex work; dignity; exploitation; European Court of Human Rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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