An Update on India’s Criminal Law Amendment
Anti-trafficking advocates often push for definitions of sexual exploitation to include sex work. In a victory for sex work advocates, the amended section 370 of the Indian Penal Code recognizes the difference between sexual exploitation and sex work. Sex workers and women’s rights activists across India have welcomed the Government’s move to drop the word “prostitution” as exploitation from the amended Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code. The new formulation targets sexual...
Read MoreThe Unintended Consequences of Nick Kristof’s Anti-Sex Trafficking Crusade, Aziza Ahmed
Aziza Ahmed, The Guardian (March 26, 2012). This article originally appeared on The Guardian’s website. Click here to read the original article. First, anti-sex trafficking activism has an extremely negative impact on HIV programs. Sex workers are highly vulnerable to contracting HIV. A key victory for anti-sex trafficking organizations was the insertion of the anti-prostitution loyalty oath (APLO) into the US Leadership Act for HIV/Aids, TB, and malaria. This provision requires that...
Read MoreCriminalising Consensual Sexual Behaviour in the Context of HIV: Consequences, Evidence and Leadership by Aziza Ahmed
Co-authored by Margo Kaplan, Alison Symington, and Eszter Kismodi This paper provides an overview of the use of the criminal law to regulate sexual behaviour in three areas of critical importance: (1) HIV exposure in otherwise consensual sex, (2) sex work and (3) sexual activity largely affecting sexual minorities. It analyses criminal law pertaining to these three distinct areas together, allowing for a more comprehensive and cohesive understanding of criminalisation and its effects. The paper...
Read MoreThe Value of Critique and Distributive Analysis to Addressing the Needs of Sex Workers in the Context of HIV: A Response to Libby Adler’s “Gay Rights and Lefts” by Aziza Ahmed
In Libby Adler’s article “Gay Rights and Lefts: Rights Critique and Distributive Analysis for Real Law Reform” Adler highlights the need to bring critical tools to bear on legal reform strategies. The Value of Critique
Read More“We have the right not to be ‘rescued’…”*: When Anti-Trafficking Programmes Undermine the Health and Well-Being of Sex Workers by Aziza Ahmed
This paper highlights the impact of raid, rescue, and rehabilitation schemes on HIV programmes. It uses a case study of Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP), a sex workers collective in Sangli, India, to explore the impact of anti-trafficking efforts on HIV prevention programmes. The paper begins with an overview of the anti-trafficking movement emerging out of the United States. This U.S. based antitrafficking movement works in partnership with domestic Indian antitrafficking organisations to...
Read More
