Sex Work, Health, and Human Rights, 1st ed. 2021 Global Inequities, Challenges, and Opportunities for Action

This open access book provides a comprehensive overview of the health inequities and human rights issues faced by sex workers globally across diverse contexts, and outlines evidence-based strategies and best practices.

Sex workers face severe health and social inequities, largely as the result of structural factors including punitive and criminalized legal environments, stigma, and social and economic exclusion and marginalization. Although previous work has largely emphasized an elevated burden and gaps in HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services in sex work, less attention has been paid to the broader health and human rights concerns faced by sex workers. This contributed volume addresses this gap. 

Shira Goldenberg, PhD (she/her), is the Director of Research Education at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE) and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia (BC), Canada. She is also adjunct faculty in the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Dr. Goldenberg has conducted research on sexual health, violence, and human rights for im/migrants, sex workers, and young women since 2006. Her work has informed global policy initiatives and guidelines related to sex workers’, women’s and im/migrants’ health, including through informing international guidelines with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the International Association for Providers of AIDS Care. 

Dr. Goldenberg’s work has demonstrated the serious health and social inequities faced by im/migrants and sex workers in Canada and internationally, with a particular focus on sexual health and HIV, labour rights, and access to health services. She is Principal Investigator (PI) of An Evaluation of Sex Workers’ Health Access (AESHA), an ongoing longitudinal, community-based cohort study focused on sexual health, human rights, and access to care among women sex workers in Vancouver, BC. Dr. Goldenberg also leads the Evaluating Inequities in Refugee and Immigrant Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Access (IRIS) Study with colleagues in BC. Her research employs qualitative, epidemiological, and community-based research approaches. Dr. Goldenberg is passionate about the role of community engagement and partnerships for ensuring ethical and effective approaches to research, programmes, and policy to advance the health and well-being of marginalized communities.

Ruth Morgan Thomas, BA (she/her) has been involved in sex work for 40 years: 8 years as a full-time sex worker, 2.5 years as an academic researcher looking at HIV-related risks in the sex indust