Status of Women committee  As I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, I feel that the issue of the commodification of women's bodies is probably one of the most important issues for women's groups everywhere in the world. I also believe that it is related to a debate that was never successfully r

Status of Women committee  Which means that it's a non-choice.

Status of Women committee  You have to choose between dying an having something to eat. This is the case in some parts of Africa in particular. I was recently reading that in South Africa, women prostitute themselves for a meal. You can call that a job if you like, but the reality is that if they are to e

Status of Women committee  I would make two distinctions. On the one hand, the right to engage in prostitution does not exist in any international human rights convention or charter. I think that what groups like Stella are demanding, and it is legitimate for them to do so, is the right to dignity and reco

Status of Women committee  In fact, what is involved is banning the institution of prostitution. It goes without saying that this means not making a distinction between trafficking for the purpose of prostitution and prostitution itself. The term "abolitionist" is used in that sense. We do not believe tha

Status of Women committee  There are different definitions of sex trafficking. The definition given in the Palermo Protocol, more specifically with respect to taking a person from one location to another or from one country to another by using stratagems such as coercion or deceit, which victimizes people.

Status of Women committee  I think it was somebody from the Native Women's Association of Canada who spoke about factors that make women vulnerable. It is obvious that in many countries around the world, neo-liberal globalization has caused impoverishment, particularly among women. This of course is one of

Status of Women committee  Yes. These examples give you an idea of the complexity of the problem. They also show that you cannot dissociate trafficking from prostitution. The CLES is particularly emphatic about the fact that one cannot—and this concerns the Canadian government above all—pass an act that o

Status of Women committee  I am going to concentrate on two points, the work of the research group on sexual trafficking in Quebec and the proposals made by the CLES concerning human trafficking and prostitution in Canada. I want to point out at the outset that it was in part an initiative of the World Ma