2005–2015: reflecting on ten years
of Sex workers’ rights in Europe
Monday 30 November 2015 · 15:00 – 17:00
European Parliament · Paul Henri Spaak (PHS) 1 C 47
A seminar by the International Committee on the
Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE)
Places will be limited. We advise you to PRE-REGISTER ONLINE by Tuesday the 24th November, even if you already have access to the European Parliament.
Dowloand full programme here.
Sex workers in Europe face high levels of violence, discrimination and human rights abuses. Policies and laws that directly affect sex workers are often developed without consulting them, making them ever more vulnerable socially and legally. Discrimination takes place in health and social care, housing, employment, education, administrative law, and criminal justice systems.
In response, sex workers, their organisations and their allies are uniting to end discrimination and criminalisation. Ten years ago, the Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe was launched in the European Parliament. Signed by 120 sex workers and 80 allies from 30 European countries, it identifies the human, labour and migrant rights that international law grants to all, including sex workers.
To mark the declaration’s 10th anniversary, the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) will launch a report reflecting on ten years of developments in Europe’s laws and policies as well as the thriving self-organisation of sex workers. ICRSE will present this report, and host a panel discussion with sex workers, MEPs, academic and civil society to consider the growing evidence against criminalisation of sex work and in favour of a rights-based approach to sex work.
14:45 Registration for external participants
15:15 Welcome and opening remarks
· Josef Weidenholzer MEP (S&D)
Member of the committees on Civil Liberties and Human Rights
15:20 Panel – Mobilising at the margins | 10 years of the sex workers’ rights movement in Europe
- · Panellist 1: Luca Stevenson, Coordinator ICRSE “Nothing about us without us” – 10 years of sex workers’ rights activism and advocacy in Europe
- Panellist 2: Boglarka Fedorko, Project Manager, Transgender Europe, Germany and Communications Officer, Association of Hungarian Sex Workers, Hungary “Understanding sex workers’ rights as Women and LGBT rights”
- · Panellist 3: Nicola Mai, Professor of Sociology and Migration Studies, Kingston University London UK “Migrant Sex Work, exploitation and trafficking: an evidence-based analysis.”
- · Panellist 4: Pye Jakobsson, Co-founder, Rose Alliance, Sweden and President Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) “15 years with the Swedish Model – intended and unintended effects.”
Moderated by Anastacia Ryan, Convenor, ICRSE.
16:35 Moderated Q&A
16:55 Closing remarks
17:00 End