Sex Workers' Rights Movement And The EU: Challenging The European Prostitution Policy Model

This chapter analyses relations and interactions among civil society organisations active at the European Union level in the prostitution policy area, which is characterised by opposite frames regarding prostitution as work, sex or violence. The study draws on the theoretical perspective of Strategic Action Fields, focuses on the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) and is based on websites, written documents and two interviews with representatives. The results show that the ICRSE has a challenger position in the field, lacking resources to pursue inside lobbying at EU level. Framing itself as a grass-root organization, it uses different media to contest the abolitionist positions propagated by the European Women’s Lobby.