legislation and policy

Legislation around sex work can be extremely complex and different legal models exist in different countries, and sometimes even within countries. While understanding the written laws and regulations is important, it does not provide a complete picture of the impact of sex work laws on the lives of sex workers. To understand this, it is essential to understand how the laws are interpreted, enforced, and implemented on the ground.

NSWP have written an open letter to the Prime Minister, the Government of Spain, and the leaders of all political parties in the Congress of Deputies regarding the legislative proposals to amend the Spanish Penal Code and introduce new provisions regarding sex work. The proposed reforms include amending the Penal Code to extend the punishment of third parties to include non-coercive relationships and decouple it from exploitation and consent, violating sex workers’ right to housing and the security of sex workers, many of whom live and work in the same place.

This animation looks at sex work through a labour framework, and advocates for the recognition of sex work as work. Where sex work is criminalised, sex workers’ workplaces are often excluded from national labour laws. 

The Sex Work as Work animation is a new tool for sex workers' advocacy worldwide. It was designed and created by Smo Sienkiewicz.

This infographic summarises the Briefing Paper on Sex Workers’ Lack of Access to Justice.

Sex workers around the world face a wide range of barriers to accessing justice, both as victims of crime and when charged with crimes. Since sex work is widely criminalised, most sex workers are denied access to the benefits and rights afforded to other workers under labour laws and face the risk of criminalisation, detention, deportation and legal sanction.

This animation describes the different legislative frameworks used to criminalise and oppress sex work and sex workers, including oppressive regulatory frameworks.

The Sex Work and the Law animation is a new tool for sex workers' advocacy worldwide. It was designed and created by Smo Sienkiewicz.

This animation looks at the harms caused to sex workers in countries where the Nordic Model has been introduced and  is intended as a tool to strengthen and support NSWP members and sex workers’ rights advocates’ ability to actively challenge proposals to introduce the Nordic approach in their countries.

The Challenging the introduction of the Nordic Model animation is a new tool for sex workers' advocacy worldwide. It was designed and created by Smo Sienkiewicz.