Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content
McMaster logo 



	

		

			

				

					
Why decriminalizing sex work will help to end trafficking: Canada in a global context
					
 Nov 4, 2021 
 11:00AM to 12:00PM

									

				

					Event Categories   Lecture / Panel,   November 04 (Thursday),   UN SDG 03 - Good Health and Well-being,   UN SDG 08 - Decent Work and Economic Growth,   UN SDG 16 - Peace and Justice Strong Institutions, and   UN SDG 17 - Partnerships to achieve the Goal
				

			


	

	

		

			

				

					

						

														

															

						

						

	

		
Map Unavailable



	Date/Time

	Date(s) - 04/11/2021
11:00 am - 12:00 pm





	Categories
		

	





The criminal laws that prohibit the purchase and/or sale of sexual services do not protect sex workers, but, instead, fuel stigma, discrimination, harassment and targeted violence against sex workers. These criminal laws also create barriers for sex workers to access health, social and legal services.


Sex workers and human rights organizations in Canada and globally are calling for full decriminalization of sex work to recognize the rights and agency of sex workers, to end stigma, violence and exploitation, and improve their quality of life. On this panel US, Canadian and international scholars, experts, and activists will discuss why decriminalizing sex work will help to end trafficking in Canada. To register for this event: bit.ly/3GuEIEi


Panelists:






Sharmila Parmanand is a researcher with the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women and a Gender and Human Rights Teaching Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has a PhD in gender studies (Gates scholar) from the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research, which was undertaken in collaboration with the Philippine Sex Workers Collective, examined the effects of anti-trafficking interventions on the lives of sex workers in the Philippines.





Jamison Liang, Senior Campaigns Advisor, Freedom United, the largest modern anti-slavery community in the world. Jamison is the Senior Campaigns Advisor at Freedom United. He previously worked for the United Nations on human trafficking, forced labour, and migrant workers’ rights and has an extensive background in campaigning and social policy research in Southeast Asia. He is a former US National Science Foundation Fellow and holds an MA in Anthropology and International Development from George Washington University and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis.





Elene Lam is an activist, community organizer, educator, and human rights defender. She has involved in the sex workers, migrants, labour, gender, and racial justice movement for over 20 years. She is the founder of Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network) and has used diverse and innovative approaches to advocate social justice for migrant sex worker. She holds a Master of Laws and Master of Social Work. She is a PhD candidate at McMaster University (School of Social Work) studying the harm of the anti-trafficking movement.





Elena Shih is Manning Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, where she directs a human trafficking research cluster through the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Shih’s forthcoming book project, “Manufacturing Freedom: Trafficking Rescue, Rehabilitation, and the Slave Free Good” (University of California Press), is a global ethnography of the transnational social movement to combat human trafficking in China, Thailand, and the United States. Shih serves on the editorial boards for The Anti-Trafficking Review, a peer-reviewed journal of the Global Alliance to Combat Traffic in Women, and open Democracy’s Beyond Trafficking and Slavery op-ed platform. In 2018 Shih was appointed to the Rhode Island State Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights. Recent op-eds about her research and organizing as a core collective member of Red Canary Song appear in the New York Times and Providence Journal.





 


Introduced and moderated by Judy Fudge, FRSC, LIUNA Enrico Henry Mancinelli Professor of Global Labour Issues, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University. Judy has worked with unions, workers centres, women’s organizations, and the International Labour Organizations on a range of issues related to improving workers rights and working conditions. Currently, she is investigating the impact of anti-trafficking laws and policies on the well being of migrant workers and workers who toil at the bottom of supply chains.














To register for this event: bit.ly/3GuEIEi