Despite decades of reactive responses, sex trafficking and sexual exploitation continue to grow. An abolitionist approach would aim to reduce the demand and end the harms.
In his book Whatever Happened to Justice?, Richard J. Maybury introduced two basic principles for a just society: “Do all you have agreed to do,” and “Do not encroach on other persons or their property.” These simple sixteen words briefly capture what he refers to as “higher laws” – laws that come from nature and reason, also known as common law. Meanwhile, “man-made” laws (as Maybury refers to them) are essentially political laws (social constructs) created by governments. These ‘artificial’ laws are more commonly called case or civil law.
While there are many different legal systems worldwide (for example, civil, common and customary), they all have laws against violating, harming (emotionally and/or physically), and killing other human beings without their informed consent. Today, these crimes are often framed within a human rights context. In most cases, these laws originate from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 and the 70-plus human rights treaties that it inspired. The most recent treaty is the 1966 International Covenants on Human Rights. Among other themes, this treaty emphasized the ‘right to life’ and ‘protection from torture.’ Article 8 specifically prohibits any form of slavery, forced labour, or servitude. In addition, Article 3 of the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (more commonly called the Palermo Protocol) provides a more thorough and practical definition of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. It also identifies four key pillars to combating trafficking in persons (TIP).
Since the early 1900s, there has been no shortage of effort and resources to combat TIP and sexual exploitation. Yet, the available evidence clearly shows that the relative impact or effectiveness of these ‘made-made’ laws has been less than impressive.1 In fact, if the efforts and resources were part of a business model, the business would have gone bankrupt.2 Yet the conventional efforts continue, and any minor gains are seen as justification for using a model that, although well-intentioned, does not work. The number of enslaved persons continues to rise worldwide, as does the number of mostly girls and women who are sexually exploited. Despite the ‘goodwill’ of many sectors of society, including many governments, and legal measures, the global responses remain insufficient and perhaps misguided by history.
Modern-day Abolitionism: ‘Old wine in a new bottle’
The history of abolitionism – an approach to eliminate the conditions enabling sexual exploitation – is rich and storied. The British politician and philanthropist William Wilberforce is the most famous among a group of friends called the “Clapham Sect” who spearheaded the abolitionist movement. The Sect’s mission was to abolish the slave trade and reform the morals around the widespread acceptance of the exploitation of mostly Blacks from Africa to fulfill various needs – be it labour or sexual exploitation.3 The Clapham Sect relied on evidence to champion their mission, which society did not widely embrace.
Finally, after many failed attempts to abolish the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, the Sect persuaded the government to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. In 1833, the government abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. As Lyon and Donnell note, the Sect’s efforts helped to reframe slavery as a moral issue (in terms of right and wrong, fairness, and justice) in mainstream culture.
The impact of this moral and cultural shift laid the legal groundwork for reframing the anti-slavery movement as a human rights issue. It also shifted the notion that sex traffickers and exploiters are merely ‘bad actors’ to viewing the crime as a product of economic inequalities, gender discrimination, and racism that commodify ‘vulnerable’ individuals and sectors of society.
Grounding Abolitionism in Natural Law Principles
There is an abundance of reasons that have been well documented by scholars and in an assortment of official and unofficial reports. However, one of the fundamental principles of natural law that has received only token attention is Maybury’s second law: “Do not encroach on other persons or their property.” This core idea of not encroaching on others, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status, reflects a basic ethic of humanity and civility, one that dates back to ancient normative traditions, such as those in Ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley, and Mesopotamia. However, modern-day slavery is both a crime and a human rights violation. As Pope Francis noted at the December 2025 Rome Conference4 on human trafficking, TIP and sexual exploitation are an “open wound on humanity” because of the indignity they inflict on their victims. In ancient times, in some regions, slaveholders treated enslaved people relatively well and even gave them some protection. However, on balance, the roots of exploitation for personal gain run deep and continue to affect millions of people today. Yet, ancient philosophers like Lucius Seneca5 in Rome and Alcidamas of Elaea6 in Greece, who were brave enough to question the morality of slavery, laid the foundation for what, several centuries later, would become the cornerstone of the Clapham Sect abolitionist movement.
Key Elements of Modern Abolitionism to Combat Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation
To date, the dominant response protocols to addressing sexual exploitation and sex trafficking have mostly been reactive rather than proactive. For example, a large number of resources go toward prosecuting traffickers and taking apart their enterprises, supporting victims/survivors of exploitation and trafficking, forming partnerships to combat trafficking, and creating awareness/education programs to inform possible victims that their social, cultural, political, or even personal situation may contribute to their risk of being recruited and exploited. However, little effort has gone toward ending the demand for commercial sex by targeting the buyer – the root cause of the blight on humanity. Aligning with the second natural law, the proactive response is abolitionism.
The following is a list of recommendations that the legal community can consider, and which embrace a proactive and abolitionist viewpoint.
- Shifts from morally informed laws to laws that aim to disrupt the networks, such as social media platforms that contribute to the grooming and recruitment environments that are key elements to sexual exploitation.
- Create laws that target encrypted messaging apps (such as Discord, Snapchat, WhatsApp) that allow traffickers to move their conversations off public platforms into encrypted spaces where their communication can be anonymous, private and usually untraceable.
- As demonstrated in a recent Canadian-based project, the law needs to focus on making sure that legal online platforms, such as dating sites, online classifieds, escort review boards, and advertising platforms, have the legal safeguards to prevent such platforms from being abused because of the vague legal distinction between online dating and sex trafficking.
- As has been well-documented, offenders can use the Dark Web to ‘secretly’ trade child sexual material (by hiding their identity and location), coordinate trafficking networks, and share recruiting and grooming strategies. Like in the UK, the United States, and other countries, Canadian law needs to target criminal activities (such as child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking) that are related to the Dark Web.7
- Strengthening legal accountability of sex buyers (such as in section 286.1 of the Criminal Code) and ensuring consistency across the provinces and territories.
- Increase penalties for repeat offenders and work towards a legal process that ensures greater swiftness and certainty of conviction.
- Although several provinces have specialized government teams (for example, Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia, and Manitoba)8 to combat sexual exploitation and sex trafficking cases, the national response system needs to be coordinated, uniform, and financially supported to make sure it can be effective.
- Finally, although gradual progress is being made (such as the recent introduction of the Safe Social Media Act (Bill-34)), address AI-driven tools such as chatbots and social media platforms to limit the risks our youth face on social media and other online technologies (such as gaming platforms and live video platforms).
Sexual exploitation and sex trafficking are no longer hidden from public view. The call for concrete actions to end this gross human rights violation is undeniable. This article calls for proactive measures to reduce demand and advance the abolitionist goal of ending these harms.
References
Johari, A., & Pokhariyal, A. (04 Jun 2026). Tracking Harm in the Shadows: Legal and Forensic Responses to The Dark Web Sexual Crimes in India, Journal of Applied Security Research, DOI: 10.1080/19361610.2026.2680890
Public Safety Canada. (2022). National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking: Annual Report 2021–2022. Government of Canada.
Endnotes
- Zhang, S. X. (2009). Beyond the “Natasha” story: A review and critique of sex trafficking research. Global Crime, 10(3), 178–195. Weitzer, R. (2007). The social construction of sex trafficking: Ideology and institutionalization of a moral crusade. Politics & Society, 35(3), 447–475.
- It is perhaps interesting to note that (to the best of our knowledge) very few programs or initiatives have been subjected to an SROI (Social Return on Investment), which can be used to objectively measure the relative impact and effectiveness of a program or initiative.
- See W. Lyon and S. Donnell (forthcoming). In M. van der Watt, J. Winterdyk, & K. Pentecost (eds). The ‘New’ Abolitionism & Sexual Exploitation in the Age of AI. Rock Mill’s Press.
- See www.romeconference.com
- Although a slaveholder himself, in his Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, particularly in Letter 47, titled “On Master and Slave”, Seneca criticized the inhuman treatment of slaves and argued that they should be treated with equal compassion and moral equality – referring to them as “comrades,” or “humble friends.”
- Perhaps the most profound of the ancient ‘anti-slave’ advocates, Alcidamas, is quoted as having declared: “God has left all men free; nature has made no one a slave.” Hence, as reflected in Maybury’s second law – slavery/sexual exploitation cannot be justified, nor can it be said to be natural.
- See https://content.c3p.ca/pdfs/C3P_SurveyReport_OnlineSexualViolence_en.pdf
- Arguably, Ontario has the most developed model, while the Atlantic provinces and territories have the least developed models (see Public Safety Canada, 2022).
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DISCLAIMER The information in this article was correct at time of publishing. The law may have changed since then. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of LawNow or the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.
About John Winterdyk
