Spanish media has reported that the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) is drafting new legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex, known as the 'Nordic Model'.
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.
12th Diciembre 2018 by NSWP
The Spanish National Court has ruled against sex worker organisation OTRAS, who applied to be recognised as a trade union in August. On Wednesday, the National Court said recognition of sex workers in a union would ‘amount to the exploitation of prostitution’.
22nd Noviembre 2018 by NSWP
The Israeli Prostitution Task Force Committee’s promise to carry out ‘a large-scale offensive to root out lap dances from strip clubs’ is just one several concurrent attacks on sex workers’ rights currently being launched by the Israeli Knesset (Parliament).
20th Septiembre 2018 by NSWP
Sex worker groups have organised an international day of action on 21st September to honour the memory of Vanessa Campos, a sex worker who was killed in Paris in August.
20th Septiembre 2018 by NSWP
NSWP joins sex worker-led organisations in the UK to condemn attempts to introduce FOSTA-style laws criminalising online platforms used by sex workers.
3rd Julio 2018 by NSWP
Sex workers in Spain have protested the acquittal of three men accused of raping a sex worker. 24 hours after being arrested, the three men accused of rape had been released under the restraining order. The men denied the rape “because the woman is a prostitute”.
19th Junio 2018 by NSWP
11th Mayo 2018 by NSWP
A new security application, Artemis' Umbrella, has been developed for sex workers in Finland, and can be used anywhere in the world. The app alerts a trusted contact when sex workers are in trouble, and uses location services to track the smart phone.
27th Marzo 2018 by NSWP
Every year on 1st December the world marks World AIDS Day. Globally sex workers are disproportionately affected by HIV, with UNAIDS estimating prevalence among sex workers as twelve times greater than the general population. This year, SWAN (Sex Workers' Rights Advocacy Network) together with ICRSE (International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe) issued a joint statement for World AIDS Day, and SWAN members marked the day with various different events.
7th Diciembre 2017 by NSWP
In their concluding observations to Russia’s sixth periodic review produced on 6 October 2017, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) recommended that Russia decriminalise sex work. This recommendation was the result of advocacy by NSWP member Silver Rose, a sex worker organisation in St. Petersburg.
9th Noviembre 2017 by NSWP