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

3rd ноября 2023 | Region: Europe

Last week a phishing scam from someone pretending to be a major advertising site contacted non-national sex workers who are currently advertising. Later in the week, these texts escalated into extreme threats of violence, including threats of murder. 

Separately a man with an Irish accent has been calling sex workers, harassing them with threats of violence.  All of this is part of an ongoing, sustained campaign of harassment with serious time and resources being put into it. 

18th октября 2023 | Region: Europe

This article was written by Marin Scarlett, Campaign and Communications Officer at the European Sex Workers' Rights Alliance (ESWA).

Sex worker rights activists’ success against the ‘Prostitution Report’ was the culmination of months of campaigning – that must continue in the next fight against the Anti-Trafficking Directive.

11th сентября 2023 | Region: Europe

NSWP has submitted this letter to Members of the European Parliament as they prepare to discuss the report, “Regulation of prostitution in the EU: its cross-border implications and impact on gender equality and women’s rights, 2022/2139(INI)”. 

The report, from the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality will be put to a vote in plenary on 14th September.

The European Coalition on Sex Workers’ Rights and Inclusion have also published an Open Letter.

5th сентября 2023 | Region: Europe

NSWP welcomes the European Court of Human Rights decision to hear an appeal by sex workers against a French anti-sex work law. The ruling came on Thursday 31st August, more than three years after receiving an application from 261 sex workers challenging the 2016 ‘Prostitution Act’. NSWP join the European Sex Workers' Rights Alliance (ESWA) in applauding the 261 sex workers who stood up to pursue their fundamental rights.

19th мая 2023 | Region: Europe

In early May, Portugal's Constitutional Court declared the criminalisation of some third parties involved in sex work to be unconstitutional. Under current law in Portugal any form of organised sex work is prohibited, including brothel-keeping. Profiting from, promoting, encouraging or facilitating 'prostitution' are also criminal offences, and this also affects sex workers’ ability to work together and work safely[1].

25th марта 2022 | Region: Europe

Sex workers in Belgium are celebrating a historic vote in parliament that will result in an amendment to the country’s Penal Code and the laws on sex work. NSWP member organisation Utsopi wrote about the news on their website, declaring “The decriminalisation of sex work in Belgium was approved by the Federal Parliament on March 18 at 1:35 a.m.” The Federal Parliament voted in favour of this rights-affirming legal reform with 70 for, 41 abstentions and just 4 against. When the new laws are enacted, it will make Belgium the first country in Europe to decriminalise sex work.

8th июня 2021 | Region: Europe

To coincide with the start of the UN High-Level Meeting on HIV & AIDS, NSWP has joined STOPAIDS and over 140 cross-party MPs and leaders in the HIV response in writing to the UK Government.

2nd июня 2021 | Region: Europe

The Supreme Court of Spain has issued a ruling recognising the right of sex workers to form unions. The ruling comes after an appeal from NSWP member organisation Organización de Trabajadoras Sexuales OTRAS. The judges agree with OTRAS when they consider that its members "enjoy the fundamental right to freedom of association and have the right to organise".

10th мая 2021 | Region: Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America and the Caribbean

Red Umbrella Fund are looking for two sex workers or strong allies from somewhere in North America and Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Red Umbrella Fund is the first-ever global grantmaking collaborative guided by and for sex workers. Red Umbrella Fund is guided by an International Steering Committee (ISC) made up of sex workers and donors. The ISC decides the grantmaking criteria, approves the annual budget and makes other strategic decisions.

10th мая 2021 | Region: Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America and the Caribbean

Red Umbrella Fund are looking for two sex workers or strong allies from somewhere in North America and Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Red Umbrella Fund is the first-ever global grantmaking collaborative guided by and for sex workers. Red Umbrella Fund is guided by an International Steering Committee (ISC) made up of sex workers and donors. The ISC decides the grantmaking criteria, approves the annual budget and makes other strategic decisions.

10th мая 2021 | Region: Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America and the Caribbean

Red Umbrella Fund are looking for two sex workers or strong allies from somewhere in North America and Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Red Umbrella Fund is the first-ever global grantmaking collaborative guided by and for sex workers. Red Umbrella Fund is guided by an International Steering Committee (ISC) made up of sex workers and donors. The ISC decides the grantmaking criteria, approves the annual budget and makes other strategic decisions.

12th апреля 2021 | Region: Europe

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.

7th апреля 2021 | Region: Europe

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.

18th марта 2021 | Region: Europe

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.

4th февраля 2021 | Region: Europe

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.