The European convention on action against trafficking in human beings, in its limited way, shifts the focus from criminalisation to the protection of women.
"While leaders have talked about moving from criminalisation to public health in drug policy, punitive, abstinence-only approaches have still predominated, even in the health sphere," said Daniel Wolfe, director of the Open Society Foundation's International Harm Reduction Program.
The paper then concludes by calling for a shift from criminalisation to health promotion for PWID.
At a time when the current European trend is to move away from the criminalisation of speech offences, this law is a backward step and is clearly designed to silence dissent," said the writers' organisation, calling on the Ukrainian government to "amend these new laws to ensure that the fundamental right to freedom of expression is fully respected".
Countries like Senegal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand have moved away from total criminalisation of sex work (see Figure 1).
Much of the vulnerability of sex workers to HIV in southern Africa stems directly from the criminalisation of their work and the patriarchal context in which they operate.
Some HIV/AIDS control activities financed by the Global Fund and other donors in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan aimed to address the problems stemming from the criminalisation of drugs use both at national and local levels.
"It is our opinion that the level of apathy from Celtic PLC towards the criminalisation of their supporters is unforgivable.
15 17 37 38 Evidence from Canada and globally has consistently shown that criminalisation of sex work prevents sex workers from accessing police protection, whereby police become adversaries as opposed to safety mechanisms.
"The west has pursued an industrialisation path that allows for the privatisation of wealth from the commons, along with the criminalisation of commons rights of the public, as well as the externalisation of all true costs.
