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.
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.
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
Yesterday, Members of the UK Parliament debated and passed the Modern Slavery Bill. The bill was at its third reading, following a period where it had been proposed and debated by a small committee. It will now proceed to the House of Lords for consideration before receiving Royal Assent and becoming legislation.
6th November 2014 by NSWP
The video depicts some of the work done by STAR-STAR, including peer outreach and healthcare provision.
28th October 2014 by NSWP
A coalition of sex workers from various German groups (including two NSWP member projects: Hydra e.V. and Bufas) organised a large and well-attended conference in Berlin last month.
28th October 2014 by NSWP
Photo: Matthias Lehmann | Matt Lemon Photography
27th October 2014 by NSWP
A group of sex workers in Germany have released a statement decrying the German Minister for Family Affairs putting forth proposals for the mandatory registration of all sex workers in Germany.
12th September 2014 by NSWP