Q&A
Distinguishing between consensual sex work and trafficking in ENDGBV's work
1:25:07
ยท
130 sec
Council Member Farah N. Louis asks how ENDGBV ensures its work includes a distinction between consensual sex work and trafficking. Commissioner Saloni Sethi explains their approach to supporting survivors regardless of how they identify and the methods used to identify trafficking situations.
- ENDGBV's primary goal is to support survivors of gender-based violence, regardless of how they identify
- The focus is on addressing the experience of victimization and creating a path to healing
- Age is a clear legal distinction, with anyone under 18 involved in sex work being considered trafficked
- For adults, the process involves helping survivors identify their experiences through careful questioning
- Key indicators of trafficking include lack of control over documents, earnings, and personal agency
- Trafficking is often identified in the context of other forms of violence, such as intimate partner violence
Farah N. Louis
1:25:07
Thank you for that response.
1:25:09
Can you share the way in which, NGBV ensures its work includes the distinction between consent consent sorry, consensual sex work and trafficking?
1:25:22
Because and I think chair Stevens mentioned it before.
1:25:26
Because we want a clear distinction of that for the record.
1:25:30
Yeah.
Saloni Sethi
1:25:31
So I think, you know, again, when we think of our work, right, I say this all the time, our work is to support survivors of gender violence no matter what they call themselves.
1:25:39
So honestly, in some ways, it's it's, you know, for the work that we do, it doesn't matter how you identify.
1:25:44
What matters is the violence that you experience, and how we can kind of wrap around you to figure out a service plan to address that experience of victimization to get you to a place and a path to healing.
1:25:53
That that's that's the number one goal.
1:25:56
I think, you know, there's obviously clear lines when it comes to age around the issue of, like, sex work versus trafficking.
1:26:02
So I think that that law is one guiding bright line.
1:26:04
And so when we're I think if, you know, if we were to see somebody that was under 18 who's being trafficked, we'd immediately contact our partners that work with young people, and there would always be trafficking.
UNKNOWN
1:26:15
And then I think the
Saloni Sethi
1:26:16
the, you know, the the other piece, which is more of of an art, is really kind of getting that survivor to identify that experience for themselves.
1:26:25
Right?
1:26:26
So I think it's really, like, how does
Farah N. Louis
1:26:27
that person helps with them identifying that.
Saloni Sethi
1:26:30
Yeah.
1:26:30
As as you're having a conversation with somebody, right, how did you end up here?
1:26:33
What are the choices you made?
1:26:34
Is somebody you know, I think questions like, is somebody holding your documents?
1:26:37
Is somebody taking the money you're earning?
1:26:38
Like, those are really relevant questions.
1:26:40
Right?
1:26:40
In terms of when we're thinking about trafficking, it's like there is often a trafficker that that is there.
1:26:45
And so that's another way that we really work with somebody to make sure that, you know, again, as I said, a lot of a lot of times we see this in the context of, like, intimate partner violence, for instance, or in the context of other forms, you know, somebody comes for services around sexual violence and the trafficking sort of becomes identified through a conversation with them.
1:27:01
But I think it's questions like that in terms of, like, what do you have control over?
1:27:05
What do you have say over?
1:27:06
Where is your agency in this that that really gets to that delineation?
Farah N. Louis
1:27:10
Thank you.
1:27:11
That's all for me, chair Stevens.
Althea Stevens
1:27:14
Thank you.
1:27:15
I'm gonna pass it over to council member Joseph.