Personal submission to @ScotGovJustice Consultation now available on @UmbrellaLane website

Full response - https://t.co/WCB4Y3qNrN

A thread of main arguments to save anyone having to read through what became a second thesis 🙄 on these important issues 1/8

#NotEqualNotSafe

@scotgov sweeping definition of all prostitution as inherently violence renders invisible actual acts of abuse in the sex industry; continues an ineffective& dangerous reliance on criminal justice approaches that fosters unsafe working practices&deters victims to seek redress 2/8
The push to criminalise clients is a misplaced moralistic agenda put forward at the expense of a much needed social justice &public health approach in policy & services that centres the varied needs of people this consultation states intention to support 3/8
The focus within Equally Safe strategy on ‘reducing demand’ fails to address root causes& factors that exacerbate the vulnerabilities of women&girls 2violence, which extend beyond the narrow focus on eliminating prostitution as a means to achieve gender equality in #Scotland 4/8
A platform of social justice – rights, redistribution, respect, inclusion and recognition – extending from decriminalisation as a VITAL first step, has the potential to avoid the trap of a coercive welfarist approach as set out in current policy 5/8
Which only creates new forms of intervention in the lives of marginalised, stigmatised &criminalised women. Being able to openly challenge structural oppressions of #gender, #class & #race is essential in the de- marginalisation of women who sell sex 6/8
Only under full decriminalisation are these reforms possible.

@scotgovjustice has an opportunity to lead the way internationally on an agenda for change that co-creates laws & policies meaningfully with people with lived experience 7/8
I remain hopeful that this consultation acts as a catalyst for an opportunity to recognise &value the citizenship, voice, agency of sex workers, whilst creating policies to affect systems change for all women; two important tasks that need NOT be treated as mutually exclusive 8/8

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