Many of the images circulating last week from the December 17th rallies commemorating the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers included photos of mask-wearing Chinese sex workers in Paris’ Belleville district.
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.
Earlier this month, Hull City Council won a landmark ruling to create Britain's first "prostitution-free zone." The new orders mean that any sex workers or kerb crawlers caught around the Hessle Road area can be arrested and forced to appear in court.
22nd December 2014 by NSWP
Joint Press release by STRASS, French Union of Sex Workers, Acceptess-T, Act Up Paris, Aids, Cabiria, Collective March 8 for All, Women's Collective of Strasbourg-Saint Denis, Transgender Support Strasbourg
On December 16th, around midnight, Thierry Schaffauser, founding member of STRASS, was distributing leaflets and condoms when he was arrested on the Barbès Boulevard, Paris in the 18th district.
He was accused of having spoken to a sex worker.
17th December 2014 by NSWP
The Communities Living with HIV, Tuberculosis and affected by Malaria Delegation (Community Delegation) of the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have published a global report detailing results from a study conducted in 11 countries. The Communities Delegation is a group of forty individuals living with HIV, TB and affected by malaria from every region in the world. They work closely on policy and advocacy at Committee and Board levels and the delegation is committed to being accountable to the constituencies that it represents.
17th December 2014 by NSWP
Today, 17th of December 2014, sex workers, their advocates, allies, friends and families, are gathering around the world to denounce all acts of violence against sex workers.
17th December 2014 by NSWP
The National Executive Council (NUS NEC), the interim policy-making body of the United Kingdom’s National Union of Students, last week passed a motion to officially support the decriminalisation of sex work.
10th December 2014 by NSWP
Video: Ruins - Chronincal of an HIV Witch Hunt
A Greek woman, named only as Katerina, took her own life over the weekend. She had been publicly outed as living with HIV in a health ministry initiative in May 2012.
3rd December 2014 by NSWP
Just one month after the Northern Ireland Assembly passed a bill criminalising the purchase of sex, the Republic of Ireland’s government has introduced a bill that will make it a criminal offence to pay for sex.
The bill comes a year after the Oireachtas Justice Committee’s ‘Report on the Review of the Legislation on Prostitution in Ireland’ made the recommendation that the purchase of sexual services should be made illegal.
2nd December 2014 by NSWP
Last week, 26-year-old Tarek Shaban Bin Ziaed was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of a sex worker. The body of Yuan’é Hu, who had arrived in France from China in December 2011, was found in August 2012 in the Paris apartment she shared with other sex workers.
She had been strangled by the strap of her handbag.
21st November 2014 by NSWP
On Wednesday NSWP was invited by the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW) to take part in their monthly ICW Members Advocacy Working Group. Anastacia, NSWP Policy Officer and Daisy Nakato, WONETHA Director, were invited to lead the discussion on sex workers’ rights in the context of HIV.
14th November 2014 by NSWP