Sex Work

A criminal ban on buying sex does not violate the rights of sex workers, the European Convention on Human Rights has ruled. The Strasbourg court yesterday handed down its judgment in a case brought by 261 men and women of various nationalities who said they habitually and lawfully sell sex in France

An organisation representing sex workers in Ireland has called on the government to reverse a decision to complete a review of the 2017 sex buyer ban law in-house. Solicitor Maura Butler SC was initially appointed in July 2020 to lead an independent review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offen

A legal challenge brought by more than 250 sex workers against France's ban on the purchase of sex is to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights. The ECtHR today decided by a majority that the applications brought by 261 men and women who say they are "habitually engaged in prostitution, in a

Sex workers are facing greater violence and abuse as a result of Ireland's ban on the purchase of sex, Amnesty International has said in a new report. The Irish government is currently reviewing Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, which criminalised the purchase of sex and signifi

Sex workers in Spain have the right to form their own union, the country's Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The OTRAS union was established in August 2018 but closed its doors three months later following an order of the National Court.

Hundreds of previous convictions for selling sex are set to be expunged under a new government initiative. Justice Minister Helen McEntee yesterday announced that those convicted of offences abolished under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 would benefit from new legislation expunging thei

A district judge in Northern Ireland who openly questioned why buying sex is a criminal offence but selling sex is not will now receive "specific guidance" on the issue. The comments made by Judge Ted Magill during a criminal trial were "inappropriate", the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, agr

Gardaí should continue to crack down on sex buyers and organised criminal gangs in order to reduce abuse and exploitation in the Irish sex trade, a new report has recommended. The study by the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP) at UCD, commissioned by the Department of Justice, bac

Legislation banning the purchase of sex in Ireland could be putting sex workers at greater harm of human rights violations and abuses, Amnesty International has said. The human rights organisation has published its submission to the Department of Justice’s ongoing review of Part 4 of the Crimi

A coalition of 80 academics has called on the government to repeal a law criminalising the purchase of sex in Ireland as soon as possible in order to protect sex workers from violence. In a joint submission to the Department of Justice's ongoing review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences)

Solicitor Maura Butler has been appointed to lead a review of the law criminalising the purchase of sex three years after it came into effect. Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, which came into force in March 2017, creates two new criminal offences of paying for sexual activity w

The PSNI has appointed three new sex work liaison officers under a scheme launched in 2015, bringing the total to five. A specialised operational lead officer has also been appointed as the sixth member of the team.

Only three people have been convicted of buying sex under legislation commenced nearly three years ago, according to a new report on the law. Family lawyer Dr Geoffrey Shannon has produced an interim report on the implementation of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 for a working group of s

Three women who won a landmark case against having to disclose past convictions for prostitution-related offences are returning to court today in a bid to overturn the criminalisation of soliciting. The women, who say they were groomed into prostitution as teenagers, succeeded last March in per

An official review which found that Northern Ireland's ban on the purchase of sex has had "minimal to no effect" should be taken seriously by policy-makers south of the border, a lawyer has said. Northern Ireland's Department of Justice last week published the findings of Queen’s University Be