In April 2020, NSWP launched a global survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on sex workers. The survey received, thus far, a total of 156 responses from 55 different countries out of which 43 responses were from 17 countries – Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom – in the Europe region.
Regional updates: Europe
Our members are listed on the left or you can click the red umbrellas on the map.
Regional Board Members
Nataliia Isaieva (Legalife-Ukraine), Ukraine.
Dinah de Riquet-Bons (STRASS), France.
Regional Networks
The International Committee for the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) is a European network of sex workers and allies across Europe and Central Asia. It was formed in 2004 to organise the 2005 European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration and is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (SWAN) is a network of sex workers' groups and civil society. SWAN started in 2006 as a project within Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU/TASZ) and became an independent organisation in 2012 and is based in Budapest, Hungary.
News articles from Europe region are listed below.
Estamos compartiendo cinco artículos centrándonos en el impacto de la actual crisis sanitaria en las cinco regiones de la NSWP, basadas en las respuestas de nuestra Encuesta del Impacto de COVID-19. Estas atribuciones nos dan una visión sobre lo que los gobiernos están haciendo y no haciendo para apoyar a las personas que ejercen el trabajo sexual y a las organizaciones de trabajo sexual y cómo la comunidad de trabajo sexual está respondiendo ante la crisis.
6th Mayo 2020 by NSWP
Today Human Rights Watch reported on the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe's (ICRSWE) statement calling for emergency support to sex workers amid the COVID-19 crisis.
4th Mayo 2020 by NSWP
19th Diciembre 2019 by NSWP
Sex workers in Amsterdam are calling on the Amsterdam Museum to close a new exhibition, ‘No.1 Tourist Attraction’, criticising its content and use of stigmatising language. The exhibition, created by Nordic Model activist Jimini Hignett, is planned to run until March 2020, despite protests from sex workers and allies.
11th Noviembre 2019 by NSWP
Sex workers attended a roundtable meeting and exhibition in the European Parliament this week, co-organised by Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld.
17th Octubre 2019 by NSWP
Swedish sex worker organisation Fuckförbundet has held the first sex worker-organised international conference in the country following the introduction of client criminalisation in 1999. Between 28th and 30th September, more than 80 sex workers joined the conference – Sex Work, Human Rights and Health: Assessing 20 Years of Swedish Model – in Stockholm.
1st Octubre 2019 by NSWP
An Irish campaign group is calling for changes to police policy following the results of a new study, which shows that more than 150 sex workers have been prosecuted under brothel keeping laws over the last ten years. The same study showed that almost all of those convicted under brothel keeping laws are migrant women, and that in 90% of the cases, those involved were ‘named and shamed’ in the media.
12th Agosto 2019 by NSWP
Sex workers in Belgium have launched a new campaign calling for the decriminalisation of sex work, and social and legal protection for sex workers. UTSOPI is calling on the Belgian government to create statutes to protect sex workers as self-employed workers, and repeal laws on soliciting advertising and third parties.
23rd Mayo 2019 by NSWP
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), a union representing nurses in the UK, has voted by "an overwhelming majority" to support lobbying for the decriminalisation of sex work at its annual conference this year.
21st Mayo 2019 by NSWP