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.

Luca Stevenson (ESWA), The Netherlands.

Regional Networks

European Sex Workers Rights Alliance - ESWA (formerly 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.

Regional updates

24th سبتمبر 2020 | Region: Europe

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.

13th أغسطس 2020 | Region: Europe

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.

5th أغسطس 2020 | Region: Europe
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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. 

30th يوليو 2020 | Region: Europe

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.

14th يوليو 2020 | Region: Europe

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.

6th يوليو 2020 | Region: Europe

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.

11th مايو 2020 | Region: Europe

Nous partageons 5 articles se concentrant sur l’impact de l’actuelle crise sanitaire sur 5 régions du NSWP, basés sur les réponses à notre enquête d’impact COVID-19. Ces instantanés fournissent un aperçu de ce que font les gouvernements – et ce qu’ils ne font pas – pour soutenir les travailleurSES du sexe et les organisations de travailleurSEs du sexe et comment la communauté des travailleurSEs du sexe répond à cette crise.

6th مايو 2020 | Region: Europe

Мы публикуем 5 статей о влиянии текущего кризиса по охране здоровья на страны во всех пяти регионов НСВП с опорой на ответы, полученные в ходе нашего опроса о влиянии COIVD-19. Эти краткие зарисовки позволяют получить представление о том, что делают или не делают правительства для помощи секс-работниками и самоорганизациям секс-работников, и о том, как сообщество секс-работников реагирует на кризис.

6th مايو 2020 | Region: Europe

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 مايو 2020 | Region: Europe

我们正在分享5篇关注当下健康危机的文章,它们基于NSWP组织所处的5个不同地区对COVID-19影响调查的回答。这些简单的回复为我们了一个渠道来了解当地政府正在采取哪些措施来支持性工作者组织以及性工作者,还有哪些不足。

世界卫生组织在三月份宣布欧洲成为全球新型冠状病毒爆发的“疫情中心”。截至目前,北马其顿共和国一共报告其境内有超过1200例确诊病例。 在这次危机中,北马其顿的性工作者的痛苦是几乎“无形”的;不同于其他国家,性工作者在疫情期间的遭遇已经被新闻媒体报道,北马其顿的个各种报道完全没有涉及这个群体。这种情况使这个国家的性工作者被置于“贫困与孤立无援”的境地;一些人失去了他们租住的房子,另一些正在变性过程中的性工作者“无法继续获得荷尔蒙治疗”。北马其顿弱势工人支持协会(The Association for Support of Marginalized Workers,STAR-STAR) 在我们的COVID-19影响调查中报告了他们在疫情中的经历。

4th مايو 2020 | Region: Europe

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.

22nd أبريل 2020 | Region: Europe

We are sharing five articles focussing on the impact of the current health crisis on the five NSWP regions, based on responses to our COVID-19 Impact Survey. These snapshots provide an insight into what governments are doing – and not doing – to support sex workers and sex worker organisations and how the sex worker community are responding to the crisis.

25th فبراير 2020 | Region: Europe

The murders of sex workers in France are met by government indifference.

We are told that "prostitution" is violence, and that there were murders of sex workers before the criminalization of clients. But no. Not so many, not so often, not to this level. In 18 years of selling sex, I have never attended so many ceremonies and commemorations of deceased colleagues. In 15 years of whore activism and unionism, I’ve never seen so many STRASS members assaulted and raped, including one of our spokespersons and our General Secretary.