Guest editors’ introduction

Abstract

In November 2018, the Irish Sex Work Research Network (ISWRN) held a workshop and launched the inaugural ‘Laura Lee Sex Workers’ Rights Annual Lecture’ series in conjunction with the United Kingdom Sex Work Research Hub (UKSWRH) at Trinity College Dublin. Ms Lee, a Trinity College law graduate and sex worker activist, worked courageously and tirelessly for sex workers’ rights. On that day, her friends, supporters and colleagues gathered to honour her memory and work and re-committed to continuing the work of social justice for sex workers. Addressing those present, Luca Stevenson, co-ordinator of the International Committee on Sex Workers’ Rights in Europe, reflected on how governments across European UnionMember States failed to respond appropriately to the realities of sex workers’ lives. Stevenson observed that current law and policy initiatives to tackle the ‘problem’ of prostitution ‘lack a bit of nuance about our vulnerability’. Such vulnerability stems from the social injustices of marginalisation and precarity that sex workers experience daily. By bringing these papers together in this collection, our aim is to advance a stronger social justice agenda around sex workers rights. Advancing social justice for sex workers draws on a definition of social justice established by feminist scholars, Dr Sharron FitzGerald and Dr Kathryn McGarry,