Decriminalisation is different from legalisation. Decriminalisation (New Zealand) involves the removal of all prostitution-specific laws; sex workers and sex work businesses operate within the laws of the land as other businesses. Under legalisation (Germany, Netherlands, etc.) the sex industry is controlled by the government and sex work is legal only under certain state-specified conditions, creating a two-tier system where the most vulnerable sex workers remain illegal and outside of the protection of the law.
For more information please see our statement here
Lilith Brouwers – 2017Legal status of sex work:Although sex work is legal in the Netherlands, it is limited by a wide range of laws and regulations that prescribe who can do sex work and under which circumstances. Generally, there is a municipal licence – and sometimes registration – required for sex work to be legal. […]
Speaker: Ariane G., Berlin, Germany.Ariane G. has worked for nearly 20 years in brothels, flats and as an independent escort in Germany and throughout Europe. She will speak on working within a legalised system, the risks of proposed law reform in Germany, the impact on sex workers’ safety, health and working conditions, and sex workers’ […]
by Carolina TalaveraHaving read the article “Legal or not, prostitution remains a harmful institution” by Melissa Farley in DREGS magazine, I write to comment and correct. In her piece, Farley makes a number of claims such as that prostitution is uniquely dangerous and damaging, and supports these claims with statistics and other evidence. On closer scrutiny […]
Denis Hof, Nevada Bunny Ranch owner, proposes a temporary licence to run a brothel during the Olympics.Niki Adams, English Collective of Prostitutes, comments:“Sex workers don’t need or want licensed or legalised brothels so that bosses have more opportunities to exploit us. We want decriminalisation, like in New Zealand, so we can work together collectively and […]
THERE are few clues as to what happens inside Stiletto, billed euphemistically as “the world’s finest short-stay boutique hotel”. It looks like any upmarket retreat but is the latest, most stylish flagship for the legalised sex industry in Sydney, Australia.Inside this high-class brothel, which cost more than £7million to create, there are Dali-inspired red lips […]
Since it was founded in 1975, the English Collective of Prostitutes has been campaigning for the abolition of the prostitution laws which criminalize sex workers and our families, and for economic alternatives and higher benefits and wages — no woman, child or man should be forced by poverty or violence into sex with anyone. Summary: Decriminalisation is […]
The Criminalization of Survival: Poverty, Violence and ProstitutionStreet Sheet, (San Francisco) June 2005, p7You need look no further than the case of serial rapist Jack Bokin to know why the SF Board of Supervisors (BOS) resolution 1564, Mitigating Violence Against Prostitutes should be immediately implemented. Bokin had attacked and violently raped at least three women […]
British sex workers, facing the biggest shake-up of their profession for nearly 50 years, urged the government on Friday to decriminalise prostitution.Citing the example of New Zealand , which decriminalised the world’s oldest profession last year, they said the move would destigmatise sex work and make prostitutes safer by allowing them to work at home rather than […]
The calls for legalised brothels reflect increasing public concern with prostitute women’s safety and civil rights. It may also reflect the Government’s drive to cut the unemployment figures.Legalised brothels usually go hand-in-hand with police crackdowns against street workers – the most vulnerable women whose protection the police have rarely prioritised. As with other workers, women […]
In the past few years toleration zones have been put forward as a form of legalisation which can be introduced without changing the law. Although such a proposal may be a reflection of growing public concern for prostitute women’s legal and civil rights, toleration zones would do little to protect these rights.Where toleration zones exist, […]