The recent legal challenge in Ontario against the laws on prostitution drew both local and international attention to the current state of sex worker rights in Canada. The judge, Justice Susan Himel, ruled that three restrictive laws pertaining to the criminalisation of prostitution were unconstitutional and noted that they “individually and together, force prostitutes to choose between their liberty interest and their right to security of the person as protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” The very next day, the Federal Government announced its intention to appeal the case.
Are domestic policy options constrained/facilitated by international law and politics?
The debate over prostitution is heady and passionate. The scope of the debate varies from those who argue that prostitution is a human rights violation/ a violation of women’s bodies, to those who argue that it should be decriminalised to protect sex workers and reconstructed as a human right under existing labour laws.
