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Dear Friends, Supporters & Allies, 

In April, ESWA was present for the historic and inspiring new decriminalisation legislation introduced in the French Parliament! We also saw our incredible board members during the annual in-person board meeting in Athens, and met with allies and partners throughout Europe. Behind the scenes, we have been working for months on a very exciting development, and we are so proud to finally share it with you: our new Strategic Plan 2026-2030!

As always, thank you for your ongoing support.

In solidarity,
ESWA Team

By Elizabeth McGuinness (she/her), ESWA Policy Officer on Access to Justice

ESWA was present, alongside members, to support the launch of the New French Decriminalisation Legislation

This month, ESWA facilitated a panel showcasing the incredible work of Scotland for Decrim to stave off client criminalisation legislation, as well as that of colleagues from OTRAS, Spain, and SWAG, Germany, in their creation of new legislation for decriminalization of sex work in their respective countries.

The panel took place at the French Senate at an event demarcating the 10-year anniversary of the introduction of the client pensalisation model in France. Helmed by Medicines du Monde, sex worker led organisations, and researchers at Sciences Po, the event centered on the launch of a bill to decriminalise sex work, responsive to acknowledgment of infringement upon the human rights of sex workers brought about by client criminalisation legislation in the ECtHR's judgement on M.A. & Others v. France in 2024. The bill received support from the UN Special Rapportuer on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, as well as Amnesty International, PICUM, IPPF and others.

ESWA wishes our French colleagues every success in seeing the bill through further stages of the legislative process.

By Ana Ornelas (she/her), ESWA Policy Officer

All Eyes on Sexualized Deepfakes

Following yet another high-profile scandal, countries like Germany are moving to ban sexualized deepfakes altogether. The ESWA digital rights team has been in touch with policymakers, as we see as cause for concern the increasing discourse around this not taking into consideration the perspective of sex workers. We believe the laws should focus on consent and control, which is also the basis to protect adult content. We will keep you posted on future developments.

ESWA Releases Statement on Porn

There’s a lot of talk around pornography lately, and at ESWA we’re seeing it with concern. Legislation is concentrating efforts in regulating porn, which can be a good thing, but only if it takes into consideration the voices of those who work in the industry. For this reason, we’ve released a statement on Pornography and we would love for you to share it with your networks - you can read an excerpt below!

“We are closely following ongoing policy developments around pornography within the European Union and express deep concern over the lack of meaningful representation of sex workers and performers in these discussions. Once again, decisions that directly affect the lives, safety, and livelihoods of those working within the industry are being made without their voices at the table.

We recognise that policymakers are finally taking the porn industry seriously as a step in the right direction. However, the current discourse surrounding pornography is increasingly shaped by harmful narratives, misinformation, and reductive approaches that risk causing more harm than protection.

While these policy efforts are often framed as safeguarding the public, particularly minors, they are frequently based on flawed assumptions and misguided solutions that will not result in the protection of minors. In fact, they stand to do the opposite by deepening discrimination. 

We urge EU policymakers, activists, and the media to move away from stigma-driven narratives and towards inclusive, rights-based policymaking grounded in the lived realities of sex workers.”

Fighting digital violence – but doing it right: FSC Europe calls for comprehensive reform of sexual criminal law with the active participation of sex workers

At the end of March, ESWA co-signed a letter with the Free Speech Coalition of Europe (FSCE) calling for sexual criminal law reform in Germany. The recent case of Collien Fernandes and Christian Ulmen, in which Fernandes publicly accused her ex-husband Christian Ulmen of being responsible for years of digital sexual abuse utilising deepfakes, has brought the issue to the forefront of legal reform discussions in Germany.

The FSCE states in their letter that Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig,“announced plans to criminalise the creation and distribution of pornographic deepfakes and to introduce three new paragraphs into the German Criminal Code.” Yet, the FSCE emphasises that, “purely additive legislation…does not address the root problems but deepens them.” They suggest removing Paragraph 184 of the Criminal Code, stating, “the pornography criminal law” and “any reform that retains ´pornographic´ as a criminal category will hit sex workers first and hardest – people who are already systematically stigmatised.” 

The FSCE is instead proposing that “non-consensually shared sexual content must, by the same logic, apply to the mass piracy of pornographic material – content that is stolen from sex workers every day.” The letter strongly calls for,  “the binding inclusion of sex workers and their organisations in the legislative process and that digital sexual violence be prosecuted as a violation of sexual self-determination – not as a pornography offence.”

Health   By Lisa Philippo (she/her), Deputy Director

European Prep Consortium in Milan! The European Prep Alliance: University of Zurich, The Love Tank (London), Checkpoint Barcelona, Checkpoint Berlin, Checkpoint Zurich, Checkpoint Milan, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Public Health Service of Amsterdam, and ESWA.

Checkpoint Milan welcomed our Deputy Director, Lisa Philippo together with the European PrEP Consortium. They took great care of us, and presented the great work that Checkpoint Milan is doing to better reach sex workers with information, testing and access to PrEP and HIV treatment. The European PrEP Consortium is a varied group made up of researchers, health centers and community organisations throughout Europe. Together, we want to improve access to PrEP for people who move through Europe, specifically for groups that are left out of the health system. We want to make it easier to access PrEP anywhere you go, so you can stay safe without having to re-explain your needs or your sex work at every new doctor’s appointment.  We spent several days in the cozy space of Checkpoint to discuss our ongoing survey where we ask sex workers about the way they travel, and the barriers they experience to use sexual health services. We would still love to hear your answers! This helps us work towards a system for stigma-free sexual health services for sex workers in all of Europe. Respond to the survey in 8 languages here: Survey for sex workers who travel Don’t forget that we are also providing small grants to sex worker-led organisations that want to organise an event to share the survey! Check out the end of this newsletter for more information about that.

Our Deputy Director, Lisa Philippo gives a presentation on ethical standards for sex work research.

Join statement for a European HIV response We invite you to co-sign the joint statement for a European HIV response.  The statement is developed by the Coalition for a European HIV Response, a group of regional community, research and advocacy networks that came together to fight against the cuts on HIV funding at the global and national levels, zero HIV-specific grants in the new EU funding programmes. We worry that this will endanger the achievements made in the HIV response up until now, specifically as we see that community-led responses, an essential pillar of the HIV response are disappearing. The statement is a call to action for EU and national policy makers to act now and sustain the community-led pillar of the HIV response in times of crisis. We are asking you to support and strengthen the statement with your organisation’s signature! You can read the full statement and co-sign it via this link. Please sign before 3 May 2026. The statement then will be sent to all MEPs and will be presented at a European Parliamentary Event on 12 May organised by the European AIDS Clinical Society.

By Wszebor Sienkiewicz (he/him), ESWA Director of  Communication and Campaigns

50 years of the sex workers’ rights movement - documentary in progress!

As June 2nd is approaching, ESWA is working behind the scenes on a new documentary video capturing last year’s pan-European rally for sex workers’ rights. 

For those of you who missed it last year, you can catch a recap from ESWA´s perspective of the organised actions commemorating the occupation of Saint Nizier Church in Lyon, that inspired the International Sex Workers’ Day we observe every year on June 2nd. 

https://www.eswalliance.org/50years_recap

For those of you who were there - the materials you submitted are being put together into a community video celebrating 50 years of advancing sex workers’ rights. If you have any additional thoughts about this day to share, now is the time - reach out to Wszebor at [email protected]. We’d love to hear how community members feel about the event after a year has passed, and would love to, if possible, incorporate your reflections creatively into the video! 

“STRIPPER,”an Autobiographical Contemporary Dance Solo Work Premieres May 31st in Vilnius, Lithuania.                                                                                       

“STRIPPER” is an autobiographical contemporary dance solo work created by Ieva Navickaitė, exploring the body as a workplace, a political site, and a creative instrument. Ieva is a contemporary dance artist and a sex worker based in Lithuania. The project emerges from over a decade of Ieva Navickaitė’s experience in sex work within some of Europe’s most well-known erotic nightclubs, alongside her parallel career as a contemporary dance maker and performer. Instead of repeating narratives of victimhood or exploitation, the project proposes a transfeminist and queer perspective in which the body is understood as agentic, fluid, and intersectional - operating at the intersection of economy, politics, and imagination. 

The performance will premiere on May 31st at The Arts Printing House in Vilnius, Lithuania. Beyond the performance itself, Ieva is committed to developing STRIPPER as a platform for dialogue and plans to facilitate post-show discussions with local sex workers, activists, and organizations. She writes, “These encounters are very important to me, as spaces where sex workers speak for themselves are still too rare, and urgently needed.”

Buy Tickets Here

Read more about the event here