Justice & Policy | Campaigning | Research | Access to Health | Community Spotlight | Community News & Opportunities

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Dear community, friends, and allies,

After a summer rest, welcome back to your favourite newsletter!

We’re excited to introduce a new feature: the Community Spotlight. In each edition, we’ll shine a light on your initiatives, events, and political developments from across our network: we want to celebrate the amazing work you’re doing. We are also adding a Campaigning section to keep you up to date on this part of our work. 

Are you organising something? Reached an important milestone? Have a key event coming up? Let us know at [email protected], we’d love to feature your work and amplify it here.

In solidarity,
The ESWA Team

Justice & Policy

EU Gender Equality 2026-2030

ESWA is making sure that sex workers’ rights are at the forefront of future EU policies! We’ve submitted our feedback to the 2026-2030 EU Gender Equality Strategy (GES), and to the EU Civil Society (CSO) Strategy emphasizing the importance of anti-racism, intersectionality, healthcare access, digital rights, labor protections for sex workers, and dismantling stigma as non-negotiable parts of creating gender equality in the EU! The EU CSO Strategy feedback highlights systemic barriers such as institutional bias, exclusion from funding and digital censorship, undermining sex workers’ political participation and visibility. The strategy calls for recognition of sex workers and human rights defenders.

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Red Lights on Red Carpet: Community Video for Sex Workers' Pride

Mainstream media profits from our stories while silencing our voices, shaping harmful stereotypes that fuel discrimination and violence. This Sex Workers’ Pride, ESWA invites sex workers to counter Hollywood myths with truth. We’re creating a community video project to amplify what you wish the world knew about sex work. As we continue celebrating 50 years of International Sex Workers’ Day, our goal is to gather 50 voices from across Europe.

📩 Interested to participate? Record a short (1 min) video answering:
'What do you wish the world knew about sex work?'

There is a €30 voucher as remuneration. Deadline: 15 October.

You can stay anonymous, be creative, and share your perspective however you like. The videos will be published on ESWA channels and used for advocacy.

La Strada International's 30th Anniversary!

Research

New Research: Gold Standard Guidelines for Safe and Ethical Sex Work Research in Europe

Academic and policy research on sex work has too often misrepresented sex workers’ realities, reinforced stigma, and sometimes caused harm. Sex workers have long called for approaches based on the principle 'nothing about us, without us.' This report was developed to address these problems and to set out clear standards that put sex workers’ rights, safety and voices at the centre of research.

You can also watch a recording of the launch event, with key findings presented by the researchers, followed by a discussion. Click on the image below to watch the webinar.

ESWA at the European Crimology Society Conference

Access to Health

ESWA @ Summer School on Migration & Refugee SRHR

From Margins to Mainstream: Community-Led Strategies for Inclusive Health and Policy for Sex Workers in France

On 14 October from 13:30–18:00, Fédération Parapluie Rouge and ESWA co-host the event From Margins to Mainstream: Community-Led Strategies for Inclusive Health and Policy for Sex Workers in France. The event will take place in the Paris office of Amnesty International. Sign up here!

We are also attending the European AIDS Conference in Paris from 15-18 October! As part of the HIV Prevention Alliance, we will publish our community statement where we demand stronger collaboration between the European AIDS Clinical Society and community organisations, make sure that the clinical guidelines for AIDS research and health implementation reflect the lived experiences of all communities. 

If you are attending the EACS, don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected] to meet up!

Community Spotlight

Migrant sex workers reveal the discrimination they face in new research by the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland

New ground-breaking research by our member Sex Workers Alliance Irelandreveals the precarity and marginalisation that migrant sex workers experience when trying to access housing.

The research was conducted in 2023 and 2024 and aims to understand personal experiences and perspectives of migrant sex workers, focusing on the intersection of housing and sex work. Understanding the housing experiences of migrant sex workers in Ireland is important as it is key to the betterment of their wellbeing, and it unveils broader societal issues.

Our member UTSOPI published a Checklist of abolitionist ideas. Use it to identify whether someone is adopting an abolitionist stance or not (it could be your grandma). Click on the photo to read the guide.

The Decrim Campaign in Germany urgently needs you

A message from our German members SMART Berlin, SWAG Berlin, and Hydra Cafe: An official 3 year review of current sex work legislation in Germany has been published and the parliament is on the cusp of debating new laws that will regulate sex work. We cannot let them use this as an opportunity to pass regressive legislation that seeks to criminalise and discriminate against us. Now is the time, to push for the full decriminalisation of sex work and real rights for sex workers in Germany.

Join the campaign for full decriminalisation and real rights for sex workers in Germany! The draft law written by sex workers can be found below.

Our member SMART Berlin is also organising an online workshop on how to deal with experiences of violence for sex workers. More info here.

16 October, 5-7pm, online | English/German 

Sex Worker Stories and Public Policy Conference

Open Letter to the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Community Updates & Opportunities

ESWA Welcomes a New Communications Intern

🧿 Mirage Allen, (known online as ‘Empress Mirage’ and ‘thepasteldomina’), is a talented writer, researcher, and sex worker. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy, and has been in the sex industry since 2014. Mirage was a dedicated activist for sex worker rights in Berlin from 2022-2023. You can read her written work as the creator of ‘the sex/work & magic digest’ on her Substack, and as a contributor to publications like the Tryst.link blog, PetitMort magazine, and the upcoming anthology I Hate My Job: Thots on Sex Work, Labor, and Capitalism (April 2026) by Working Girls Press.

Liquid Silver Call for Submissions

$200 for Sex Worker Speculative Fiction: Working Girls Press is seeking submissions from current or former sex workers for Liquid Silver, an anthology of speculative, sci-fi, and fantasy stories centering sex work. Stories (1,000-5,000 words) or short comics (1-5 pages, B&W) are welcome. All contributors will be paid $200 plus profit shares.

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2025

Pitch Submissions for Transactional Intercourse

A paid writing call for trans & intersex sex workers: submissions are open for Transactional Intercourse, an anthology of essays and personal narratives by trans and/or intersex sex workers. Pieces should be around 1,000 words. Pay for contributions: £250 / $340
📅 Deadline: October 15, 2025

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!

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), by Laura Poitras

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a powerful documentary following artist and activist Nan Goldin. The film intertwines her groundbreaking photography, her lived experience of survival, and her campaign against the Sackler family’s role in the opioid crisis. It is a story on how personal storytelling and collective action can challenge power, of how communities can fight back against injustice and corporate harm.