Tag: sex trade
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Reviewing Amnesty International’s Position on Prostitution: A Survivor-Centred Perspective
Before the formation of Women Speak Tasmania, members were already active in campaigning against the decriminalisation of prostitution and advocating for the rights and safety of survivors. Isla MacGregor played a leading role in Tasmania, working alongside Simone Watson and the Nordic Model Australia Coalition (NorMAC) to promote the Nordic Model. Together, they lobbied policymakers,…
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Where Does Women’s Legal Service Tasmania Stand on Prostitution?
Women Speak Tasmania recently noted that the Women’s Legal Service Tasmania website displays a modified Pride flag incorporating a red umbrella symbol. Many Tasmanians would understandably not recognise its meaning. The red umbrella is not a generic diversity symbol. Internationally, it is the political emblem of the sex-industry legalisation movement and has been used in…
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Before Women Speak Tasmania: The Nordic Model Campaign Years (2012–2017)
Although Women Speak Tasmania was formally established in 2018, several founding members — including Isla MacGregor — had been actively engaged for years in advocacy relating to prostitution law reform, sexual exploitation, and trafficking. Much of this work occurred through collaboration with the Nordic Model Australia Coalition (NorMAC) and international abolitionist networks. The period between…
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A New National Settlement on Prostitution: It’s Time for Principled Leadership and Restoration — and a National Apology
AAWAA has been part of a coalition of Australian feminist organisations that has submitted a formal letter to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women, advancing a substantive case for comprehensive national reform to prostitution law and requesting a National Apology for women and girls harmed and criminalised by past and present policies. A…
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Protect Women and Girls from Prostitution – Letter to PM Anthony Albanese and Minister Gallagher
Dear Prime Minister Albanese and Minister Gallagher, Re: Urgent need for a new national approach to prostitution law to protect women and girls, plus a call for a National Apology for all those exploited in prostitution We are a coalition of independent feminist organisations representing groups from across Australia and united in our persistent alarm…
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The Amnesty Dossier: The Truth About Its “Sex Work” Policy
Amnesty International has long been seen as a global leader in human rights. But when it comes to sexual exploitation, Amnesty has betrayed women and girls. Instead of standing with survivors, Amnesty has chosen to side with pimps, brothel owners, and buyers of sex — the very people who profit from exploitation. A Policy That…
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Outrage over Oxfam Investigations into Paedophiles, Sexual Misconduct …
Yesterday’s news about NGO Oxfam’s 2011 internal investigation into allegations against some staff over sexual abuse, harassment and illegal use of prostitutes revealed a totally abhorrent culture within some elements of the world-renowned aid organisation. Several staff members who worked with Oxfam in Chad and Haiti between 2006 and 2010 have been dismissed or have…
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Funding Cuts to Scarlet Alliance: Michael Keenan Gets it Right …
I can only congratulate Justice Minister Michael Keenan for not allocating funding to the Scarlet Alliance in the 2017/18 round of funding to NGOs for combating sex trafficking and slavery in Australia. In February, March and April this year I was a co-signatory of a group of concerned womens’ human rights campaigners who wrote to…
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Amnesty International’s Capitulation to Women’s Increasing Poverty and Subordination to Men
“We need to eroticise equality. Prostitution is about buying a body, not mutual pleasure and free choice”, says Gloria Steinem … “The end of prostitution might be a distant ideal, but it is still far better than Amnesty’s grubby collusion with misogyny.” – Julie Bindel Simone Watson, a Survivor of prostitution recalls her experiences at…
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It’s Bad News from New Zealand’s Survivors …
Survivors from the sex trade in New Zealand are speaking out about the tragic failure of decriminalisation aimed at preventing harms to prostituted women and girls from sex buyers and pimps but here in Tasmania Young Labor and many in the Union movement don’t want to hear their voices. The Scarlet Alliance ramped up their…