Regional updates: Europe

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The Europe region is made up of three different regional networks.

  • The International Committee for the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) is an European network of sex workers and allies and was formed in 2004 to organise the 2005 European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration in Brussels, Belgium.
  • Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN) is a network of sex workers' groups and civil society organisations engaged in advocating the Human Rights of the sex workers formed in 2006 in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
  • TAMPEP (European Network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers) is an international networking and intervention project operating in 25 countries, including 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Board members

Mariann Bodzsar is a member of SZEXE in Hungary and is the Central,Eastern European & Central Asian representative nominated by Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN).

Pye Jacobsson (Rose Alliance), Sweden.
 

Sex work and the London 2012 Olympics – How was it for you?

Georgina Perry, service manager at Open Doors, a sex worker outreach service in East London has written an extensive article reproduced on The Trafficking Research Project's blog outlining her experience of the Olympics. 

Georgina writes powerfully about the damage done by the draconian anti-trafficking measures taken by the authorities, how this led to mass raids, the closure of many brothels and the destruction of relationships between services and sex workers which took years to build up. 

In summarising Georgina says:

'I’d say that we are currently picking up the pieces, and that it is going to take us a long time to restore sex worker faith in institutional support. Where once the relationship between sex worker services and clients was good, it is now broken. We are now viewed with suspicion as ‘do-gooders or enforcers’. Where once sex workers may have felt it possible to report crimes against them to the police, there is now a dangerous and distrustful environment in London with crimes going unreported for fear of unwanted repercussions.'

'The brothel closures that were deemed so important to the success of anti-trafficking measures in London have little impact when most women trafficked for sexual exploitation are sold through closed community networks and never end up in the brothels where the majority of sex work is conducted. This information is readily available, and has been for some years, and yet, like all evidence surrounding this episode, was resolutely ignored because it did not fit the inherent anti-prostitution agenda.'

Read Georgina's full article here.

18th September 2012 by NSWP
French intellectuals pour scorn on Government's goal of 'eradicating prostitution'

Writing in 'Le Nouvel Observateur', a group of artists, academics and writers in France have suggested that the French Government's plan to eradicate prostitution is bound to fail. 

Responding to French Minister for Women, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem's recent outbursts the group say that talk of "abolishing" prostitution was based on "two debatable assumptions: that charging for sex is an affront to women's dignity and that all prostitutes are all victims of their bastard clients."

Furthermore they argues that 'criminalising clients will only force prostitution even more underground, making the women involved more vulnerable to exploitation.'

Read more here.

23rd August 2012 by NSWP
French Sex Workers demonstrate against criminalisation of clients

French sex workers and allies, including Act Up and STRASS have demonstrated in both Lyon and Paris this weekend against French minister for women's rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem's plans for the 'elimination of prostitution' and call for measures to be introduced to criminalise clients.

8th July 2012 by NSWP
Violence against Sex Workers Report - Oslo, Norway

Pro Sentret, the sex workers rights organisation based in Oslo, Norway have published a report outlining the deteriorating conditions and increasing violence against sex workers in the Norwegian capital. 

8th July 2012 by NSWP
INDOORS Project video: Equal Rights

The INDOORS project produced this video 'Equal Rights' to advocate for sex workers’ rights.

The video is available for free download in 17 languages here.

This video was made with and for sex workers in order to make people aware that sex work is work and that sex workers should be entitled to the same rights as other workers.

29th June 2012 by NSWP
Stop the Arrests Campaign Launch: London this Monday

INVITATION: Stop the Arrests Campaign Launch this Monday

WHEN: 6.30PM, MONDAY 18th June

WHERE: Centre for Possible Studies, 

21 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8HR (nearest tube: Marble Arch)

Campaign group, Stop the Arrests(1), will hold a public launch in central London this Monday to outline its call for a moratorium on sex worker arrests during the London 2012 Olympic Games. The panel includes Laura Agustín, trafficking expert and author of Sex at the Margins, Georgina Perry, manager of Open Doors, a sex worker health project operating in Hackney and a video link up with Brooke Magnanti, aka Belle de Jour and author of The Sex Myth. Stop the Arrests is concerned that the policing of sex work and sex establishments in the lead-up to the Olympics threatens to compromise the safety and autonomy of sex workers.

13th June 2012 by NSWP
Amnesty International joins condemnation of 'misguided' HIV testing

Amnesty International issued a statement on 17th May condemning a campaign by Greek authorities to identify sex workers with HIV following a law making testing compulsory for sex workers.

Amnesty joins the organisations condemning the actions by the Greek authorities, including UNAIDS as well as NSWP & GNP+, as reported on this website.  You can still sign the petition to the Greek Prime Minister here.

31st May 2012 by NSWP
The Swedish Law to Criminalize Clients: A failed experiment in social engineering

As reported back in April Ann Jordan's Issue Paper from Rightswork.org examines the impact of the Swedish Penal Code from 1999. She concludes:

'Not surprisingly, the experiment has failed. In the thirteen years since the law was enacted, the Swedish government has been unable to prove that the law has reduced the number of sex buyers or sellers or stopped trafficking. All it has to show for its efforts are a (contested) public support for the law and more danger for street-based sex workers. Despite this failure, the government has chosen to ignore the evidence and proclaim the law to be a success; it also continues to advocate that other countries should adopt a similar law.'

This resource has now also been translated into French (available here) and Spanish (available here).

With thanks to David Boudon for volunteering to provide this translation into French.

31st May 2012 by NSWP
Press Statement on Greece from NSWP & GNP+

15th May 2012 by NSWP
Olympic crack-down putting sex workers at risk

Raids on flats in London and increased activity by the Metropolitan Police in targeting street-based sex workers have forced women to work underground, begin working outdoors and to move away from areas they know well.  All of which has put them at greater risk of violence and driven them further away from the support services they use and trust, reports the Independent today.

12th May 2012 by NSWP