Dear Friends, Supporters & Allies, 

We have been busily preparing for our annual Digital Rights Gathering in Barcelona and are excited to welcome all of this year’s attendees next week!

This month, we also saw and want to celebrate our French community members who succeeded in amending some of the most egregious elements of the recently proposed legislation to criminalise online sex work in France (read more in the Justice and Policy section below).

Infuriatingly, we continue to witness the ongoing violent crackdown on our community members and broader LGBTQI+ organisations in Türkiye. We demand the immediate release of all those imprisoned. See below for information on how to support those organising locally.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support.

In solidarity,
ESWA Team

Read the recently published Manifesto: Breaking up with Big Tech

Our executive director, Kali Sudhra in collaboration with SHRH and digital rights activists from across the globe co-authored this manifesto following the cancellation of RightsCon, a global Summit on Human Rights in the Digital Age, set to take place in Lusaka, Zambia in May 2026. On the origins of the manifesto, the authors write the following:

"Giant digital platforms rarely announce their sexual politics to the world. They speak about their safety steps in response to bad publicity (to stop the dissemination of non-consensual intimate imagery or child sexual abuse material), but they rarely speak in an affirmative sense about the kind of world they are trying to build. What do they stand for? Whose rights and freedoms do they believe in?

We offer this Manifesto as a seed, a provocation, and an invitation to work together for a more equitable and just world. It is a tool for friction, focus, and organising. We invite you to bring this text into your community spaces, staff meetings, and coalitions. We encourage local chapters and global networks alike to map these provocations against their own political landscapes. Use these concepts to reframe funding proposals, challenge platform policies, and redesign digital rights campaigns from the ground up, grounding global tech resistance in local realities."

Download the full Manifesto here!

Access to Health

By Lisa Philippo (she/her), Deputy Director

ESWA Deputy Director Lisa Philippo joined the Global Convening on Beyond Criminalization: Connecting Justice, Public Health, and Drug Policy organised by the Just Futures Collaborative. The Convening brought together drug policy advocates, transformative justice experts and feminist movement builders in Salzburg, Austria, for a week of brainstorming and coalition-building. We worked on transformative and innovative approaches to support alternative justice systems that give back to the community and step away from carceral systems.

Campaigning By Wszebor Sienkiewicz (he/him), ESWA Director of  Communication and Campaigns See Us, Hear Us, Work with Us! How can we make healthcare more inclusive and welcoming for sex workers and other marginalised communities? It starts with educating healthcare professionals. ESWA has partnered with Transgender Europe and Central Asia, Charité Berlin, and the European Network of People Who Use Drugs to develop a series of interviews with community members and healthcare professionals, highlighting common challenges, community needs, and practical tips for person-centred care. Watch the videos here! Our Community Members in Türkiye Need Our Support! As many of you know, there has been a terrible government operation in Türkiye, targeting human rights defenders, queer people and sex workers. ESWA members and allies have been held in prison for over a month in terrible conditions, including the chair of our partner network SWAN. Everyone urgently needs access to basic necessities and legal aid. We are  sharing a trusted crowdfunder organised by NSWP to cover those costs.  Please share this link and donate if you can! Every amount counts! Donate here!

Would you like to write for the ESWA blog? Email [email protected] with a brief description of your idea!

Human rights organisations all over the world are shutting down due to lack of funding.

If you believe sex workers' rights are important, please consider showing your support with a donation, so that ESWA can continue working towards a fairer, safer, and kinder world for all in 2026 and beyond. 

Community Spotlight

In this section we share news and initiatives from our members that stood out to us this month. Would you like to be featured in the next Community Spotlight? Message [email protected].

Sex Worker Activists in Lithuania continue to resist a proposed amendment to raise client fines 

Sex worker activists in Lithuania continue to challenge the proposed amendment to Article 487 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Lithuania, which would significantly increase fines (from its present 90 euros to 1,000 euros) for the paid use of sexual services. Association Soma Teisės was present in hearings in the parliament last week and this past Wednesday to participate in discussions about the proposed amendment as well as a new law related to human trafficking. 

Activists explain that unfortunately, “both the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Law and Enforcement disagree on our proposal to drop all administrative fines (both for workers and clients) because they believe this would show the values of the state and would normalise prostitution.” The Human Rights Committee instead emphasised that because sex workers often come from marginalised communities, sex work could be considered a form of sexual exploitation and therefore, in place of removing fines for clients and workers,  they propose the government should raise fines for clients while remove fines for workers (since they are "sexually exploited”). This harmful line of thinking is one we as sex workers are all too familiar with: that sex workers are all victims and sex work is inherently a form of exploitation to be abolished. 

If the proposed amendment passes the voting stage next month in the Law committee, it will progress to a full vote in Parliament. The current proposal as it stands aims for the law to come into effect (if passed) on January 1st.  Sex worker communities and organisations are planning a campaign to respond if the amendment progresses. Stay tuned on ways to support fellow workers in Lithuania!

SWASA RESISTS ACTIONS FROM ANTI-RIGHTS ACTORS ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S POLICY

Anti-rights actors have written to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) asking them to “stop recognising sex work as work”. The CEDAW is a U.N. convention whose recommendations could influence countries’ policies on sex work policies worldwide.

We stand with and support our friends from SWASA( Sex Worker Allies South Asia) who are petitioning for CEDAW (the women’s rights committee) to resist the pressure from anti-rights actors and stick to recommendations given by sex workers ourselves (which they have supported till now). SWASA recently launched the “WE DARE!” campaign in response. They write the following of the campaign. 

“The “How Dare You?” campaign raises issues that deserve to be heard, and the experiences of survivors of trafficking must be addressed. But the experiences of women who engage in sex work by their own choice must also be acknowledged.

While women may be decriminalised as individuals, criminalising their work cannot ensure substantive safety, dignity or the full realisation of their rights.”

Opportunities

If you have news you would like us to share in the next newsletter, send them to [email protected]

Last Call for member organisations to apply for small grants to organise a community event, gathering or activity.

As part of the European PrEP Consortium, ESWA is contributing to a large European survey to better understand barriers to accessing PrEP and sexual health services among sex workers. To make sure that the survey reaches as many sex workers as possible, we are providing small grants of €400 to ESWA members to organise a community event and share information about the study. 

How to apply: Read the call for proposals and fill in this form to explain your proposed activity and how you will use the budget. You can use google translate to translate the questions in your language, and answer the form in any language you want. 

Please make sure to plan your event before 15 december 2026 

Deadline to apply: 1 November 2026

Apply here!

Recommendations

Hand picked books, videos, articles and podcasts, recommended by ESWA staff and members. Tell us your recommendations to be featured in the next newsletter!

Supporting Sex-Workers: Community-Developed Guidelines for creating safe and affirming therapy and care spaces by Alessandra Lanti.

“Essential reading for therapists, health professionals, and anyone who wants to fight sex work stigma, these guidelines offer a practical way to break away from the condescending assumptions of the past and provide safe, affirming support for sex workers." More info here

TV series:  "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (UK, 2025).

 “It follows the hectic life of a teenage queer boy/trans girl in early 2000s England. It's a roller coaster of emotions as Byron navigates his family, school, drugs, parties, chosen family, (paid) sex, and self-acceptance.” 

Thank you to the members who sent in this month’s recommendations!  If you have a recommendation to share with our community for next month, please send to [email protected]