Criminalisation harms sex workers. The court found that the harms related to sex work were caused by criminalisation β not by sex work in and of itself.
Sex work is not inherently harmful. Criminalisation is. In Canada, the act of brothel-keeping, living off the earnings, soliciting and purchasing sex is criminalised. Their sex work laws like many Commonwealth jurisdictions were exported from late Victorian England and implemented at the turn of the last century.
Similar laws exist in Western Australia and South Australia. The clients, brothel owners, accountants, cleaners, advertisers and landlords are particularly criminalised in Sweden.
These are the same criminalisations that the Canadian Court found to be inherently damaging to sex workers. Criminalising the activities associated with sex work, or sex work itself, is neither contemporary nor modern, nor is it based on any reliable evidence.
The Swedish laws simply reproduce the same criminalisation, social exclusion and discrimination that sex workers face in criminalised sectors of the industry everywhere, including in some states and territories in Australia. Decriminalisation and human rights will protect sex workers health Decriminalisation and human rights strategies have resulted in improved health for sex workers in Australia.
