ABSTRACT
At Anti-Slavery International, we believe that exclusion from society contributes to the worldwide association of the sex industry with slavery-like practices. The major characteristics of slavery are violence with impunity, sometimes to death, loss of freedom of movement and transfer to another owner/master for money or goods without informed consent. It is closely associated with a lack of full citizenship rights. The designation of prostitution as a special human rights issue emphasizes the distinction between sex work and other forms of female, dangerous and low-status labor, such as domestic or food service work, or work in factories and on the land. The lack of international and local protection renders sex workers vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace and to violence at the hands of management, customers, law enforcement officials and the public. But in the case of the sex industry, the ending of slavery-like practices is held back by the distinction between sex workers or prostitutes, and other workers.
