In December 2005, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network released Sex, work, rights: reforming Canadian criminal laws on prostitution. The report examines the ways in which the prostitution-related provisions of the Criminal Code, and their enforcement, have criminalized many aspects of sex workers’ lives and have promoted their social marginalization. The Legal Network calls for the decriminalization of prostitution in Canada, and for other legal and policy reforms that respect the human rights and promote the health of sex workers.
In this article, Glenn Betteridge, the principal author of the report, briefly sets out the case for law reform.