An open letter from Decrim Now calling on UK MPs to oppose further criminalisation of sex work has received over 150 signatures. NSWP have joined organisations such as Amnesty International, Liberty, Freedom United, Stonewall and Sisters Uncut in adding their support to the sex worker-led call, as have unions including GMB and United Voices of the World, and celebrities including FKA Twigs.
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 April 2021 by NSWP
NSWP member organisation TAMPEP has called for sex workers to receive equal treatment with other professions. The statement comes as areas of Europe enter new periods of lockdown and sex workers continue to face extreme hardship as well as stigma and discrimination.
You can read an excerpt of the TAMPEP statement below or visit the TAMPEP website to read the full statement.
7th April 2021 by NSWP
The International Committee for the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE), one of NSWP’s Regional Networks, have released a joint statement with 8 other European organisations calling for the decriminalisation of sex work in Malta.
18th March 2021 by NSWP
NSWP member oranisation PION have reported on the use of pandemic regulations by Norwegian police to unfairly arrest, detain, heavily fine and deport foreign sex workers. Read the article below or on PION's website.
4th February 2021 by NSWP
NSWP member organisation Trans United Europe – founded to unite the networks of European operating Trans BPOC NGOs and individual BPOC trans activists living and working in Europe – have reported on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Trans BPOC people in Europe through NSWP’s COVID-19 Impact Survey.
24th September 2020 by NSWP
New Generation Humanitarian NGO, an NSWP member organisation based in Armenia, have been providing temporary shelter, food packages, and legal support for sex workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
13th August 2020 by NSWP
The Russian Forum of Sex Workers, an NSWP member organisation, have shared a video of a police officer addressing a sex worker at a police station in Russia.
5th August 2020 by NSWP
30th July is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Sex Workers Alliance Ireland circulated this press release illustrating that Ireland is not utilising its best weapon against sex trafficking: sex workers themselves. You can read the full release on SWAI's website.
30th July 2020 by NSWP
A new law criminalising clients has come into effect in Israel. The law, which was approved a year and a half ago by the Knesset, punishes those caught seeking the services of sex workers, as well as those apprehended in a location chiefly used for sex work.
14th July 2020 by NSWP
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.
6th July 2020 by NSWP