Decriminalisation increases sex workers’ safety and well-being. New Zealand decriminalised sex work in 2003 with verifiable success. Over 90% of sex workers said they had additional employment, legal, health and safety rights. One important measure of this is that prior to decriminalisation 47% of brothel workers had refused to see a client in the previous 12 months, after decriminalisation 68% of brothel workers had done this. 70% said they were more likely to report incidents of violence to the police.
For more information see our briefing Why Decriminalisation? and report Decriminalisation of Prostitution: the Evidence.
Abolition of the prostitution laws would:End the criminalization of prostitute women – we are being punished for refusing poverty and/or financial dependence on individual men. Black and other low-income women who, because of racism and other discrimination have fewer financial alternatives, bear the brunt of criminalization.End legal, economic and civil discrimination against prostitute women and […]
With record numbers of women in London turning to sex work to provide an income the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) has launched a new campaign to decriminalise prostitution for “safety’s sake”.At an event at St Pauls “Tent City” a New Zealand MP Tim Barnett who sponsored the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act which decriminalised prostitution […]
Monday 19 December, 6pmKEY SPEAKER: TIM BARNETTNew Zealand MP who introduced decriminalisationHe is in London only for one day. Don’t miss him!Tent City University, Occupy London Stock Exchange, St Paul’s, EC4M 8ADTim Barnett sponsored the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act which decriminalised prostitution in New Zealand, making it the first country to do so. This is the model law based […]
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 […]
It is a tragedy that it has taken the murders of countless sex workers, including five young women in Ipswich and three women in Bradford in the last few years, for the police to suggest that the prostitution laws are not ‘fit for purpose’ and that New Zealand type decriminalisation should be considered. New Zealand successfully […]
POWER – The purpose of this film-tool produced by Istituo Micropunta is to fill the gap between sex work and society’s perception of it giving voice to Prostitute Collective and Sex Workers around the world. Featuring Niki Adams E.C.P (English Collective of Prostitutes) Catherine Healy NZPC (New Zeland Prostitutes Collective) Pia Covre and Carla Corso […]
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 […]
In 2003, New Zealand decriminalized prostitution stating that “while not endorsing or morally sanctioning prostitution or its use” it aimed “to create a framework that: (a) safeguards the human rights of sex workers and protects them from exploitation; (b) promotes the welfare and occupational health and safety of sex workers; (c) is conducive to public health; (d) prohibits the […]
13. Sex WorkThe criminalisation of those who work in the sex industry helps to divide the working class. It separates illegal workers from legal workers and drives people into clandestine situations where they face dangerous and exploitative conditions.Moral panic over trafficking has created a smokescreen behind which the state hasintensified its policing of all migrant […]
A opinion poll released today shows that three in five people would support a change in the law. It is currently legal for a person to work as a prostitute in the UK provided that they work from premises and that they work alone. It has been suggested on the grounds of safety and security […]