Claiming Victimhood Within the Sex Industry—How the Trafficking Agenda Interacts with Sex Worker Rights

In 1910 the United Nations adopted the International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic, which laid out language that sought to reflect an internationally recognized line in the sand between sex work and trafficking for sexual exploitation. The line was necessary in order to address the abduction and coercion of women into the sex industry without rendering the industry itself as criminal, thus securing commitment from states that had legal and regulated sex sectors. The role of the trafficking agenda in defining the line between sex work and sexual exploitation—and consequently the roles of victimhood and empowerment within this space—has endured in the century since. In particular, the trafficking agenda has been adopted by those who take an abolitionist approach to sex work, in service of a narrative that depicts sex work as inherently abusive and non-consensual. This narrative underpins widespread assumptions that all sex workers are victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Focusing on sex work in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia, this paper explores how these assumptions—and the trafficking agenda’s influence on claims to victimhood—have shaped policy and practice as they affect sex workers. In particular, these assumptions often result in sex workers who experience violence,