Rescuing Sex Work from Anti-Trafficking: Theorising Anti-Trafficking Politics from the Philippines.

Convener: Dr Jacob Ricks

Speaker: Dr Sharmila Parmanand (LSE)

Widely hailed as a global pioneer in anti-trafficking, the Philippines offers a revealing lens on the unintended consequences of “protective” governance. This talk unsettles assumptions about anti-trafficking as a straightforward human rights victory and explains how carceral and donor-driven interventions have intensified the precarity of sex workers and undermined their agency. Drawing on findings from a collaborative ethnography with sex workers in the Philippines, it foregrounds vernacular forms of resistance by sex workers and raises complex questions about feminist engagements with the state on questions of labour, gender, rights, and sexual violence.