| Formation | 1987 |
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| Purpose | Advocate for the rights, safety, health, and well-being of all sex workers. Provide information and services for people who are doing sex work or thinking about doing sex work. |
| Website | www |
The Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers' Collective (NZPC), formerly the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective, is a New Zealand-based organisation that supports sex workers' rights and educates sex workers about minimising the risks of the job.
The New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective was founded in 1987 by Catherine Healy and others. Funding was received from a contract in 1988 for HIV/AIDS prevention from the Department of Health. [1] Offices were established in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin, and a phone support service operated for Christchurch. These were all mostly run by approximately 40 volunteers, as the Collective had only 1.5 staff members. [1] [2] Advocacy was a big part of the work of the Collective, and they promoted legislative reform of the Crimes Bill which contained a legal double standard, which censured the prostitute, while condoning the client. The first submission they made to this bill was in 1989. [1] They continued to play an active role in the New Zealand Labour Party-led Helen Clark administration passing the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, which decriminalised most forms of adult prostitution in New Zealand. The Prostitution Law Review Committee published in their final report in 2008 that there was no increase in prostitution, and that sex workers were safer. [1]
During the early 1990s, the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective faced a lot of opposition because of the stigma of sex work and attention around the legislative reform. An example written about by Jan Jordan is: "Even the supposedly simple task of having their phone number listed in the telephone directory had been a battle, with Telecom objecting to having the word 'prostitutes' printed in their phone book." [1]
By 2018, the Collective employed more people, as well as using volunteers. Part of the success of NZPC is that is staffed by sex workers; there are only two staff members who are not sex workers – a lawyer, and an accountant. There is a board of trustees, and they are all current or former sex workers. [3] In 2018, NZPC founder Catherine Healy received a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the rights of sex workers, which is a turn-around in the acknowledgement and acceptance of sex work and the part that NZPC played in that. [4]
NZPC receives funding from the Ministry of Health for sexual and reproductive health services. [5] There are branches in Auckland, Tauranga, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and a helpline for other regions. [6] A current advocacy focus is the discrimination faced by migrant sex workers in New Zealand because under the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003, migrant sex work is illegal. [3] Ongoing outreach programs are run to support sex workers to be safe. [6] In 2020, during New Zealand's strict level 4 lockdown, as a response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the collective's Auckland manager Annah Pickering said: "Covid-19 hit sex workers particularly hard because of the nature of the job, and also because a big bulk of their clientele comes from overseas — many who book months in advance." [7]
Prostitution in New Zealand, brothel-keeping, living off the proceeds of someone else's prostitution, and street solicitation are legal in New Zealand and have been since the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 came into effect. Coercion of sex workers is illegal. The 2003 decriminalisation of brothels, escort agencies and soliciting, and the substitution of a minimal regulatory model, created worldwide interest; New Zealand prostitution laws are now some of the most liberal in the world.
In Great Britain, the act of engaging in sex as part of an exchange of various sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are illegal. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) is a campaigning group which supports the decriminalisation of prostitution, sex workers' right to recognition and safety, and the provision of financial alternatives to prostitution so that no one is forced into prostitution by poverty. The group works against the social stigma that is associated with prostitution, and the poverty that is sometimes its cause. It provides information, help, and support to individual prostitute women and others who are concerned with sex workers' rights, civil, legal, and economic rights. The organisation was founded in 1975, and its first spokeswoman was Selma James.
The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, or simply Durbar, is a collective of 65,000 sex workers in West Bengal. Established on 15 February 1992, in Sonagachi, the largest red-light district in Kolkata, West Bengal, India with estimated 11,000 sex workers, Durbar has been working on women's rights and sex workers' rights advocacy, anti-human trafficking and HIV/AIDS prevention. The Durbar states that its aims are the challenging and altering of the barriers that form the everyday reality of sex workers' lives as they relate to their poverty or their ostracism. Durbar runs 51 free clinics for sex workers across West Bengal, with support from organisations such as the Ford Foundation and the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), who also help Durbar in its initiatives like networking, rights protection and creating alternative livelihood for sex workers.
Prostitution or sex work in Australia is governed by state and territory laws, which vary considerably. Federal legislation also affects some aspects of sex work throughout Australia, and of Australian citizensabroad.
Prostitution in Turkey is legal and regulated. The secularization of Turkish society allowed prostitution to achieve legal status during the early 20th century. Known as "general houses" (genelevler) in the country, brothels must receive permits from the government to operate. In turn, the regulatory agencies issue identity cards to sex workers that give them rights to some free medical care and other social services. However, many local governments now have a policy of not issuing new registrations, and in some cities, such as Ankara and Bursa, brothels have been demolished by court order.
Prostitution in South Africa is illegal for both buying and selling sex, as well as related activities such as brothel keeping and pimping. However, it remains widespread. Law enforcement is poor.
The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 is an Act of Parliament that decriminalised prostitution in New Zealand. The act also gave new rights to sex workers. It has attracted international attention, although its reception has been mixed. The Act repealed the Massage Parlours Act 1978 and the associated regulations.
Prostitution in Zimbabwe and related acts, including solicitation, procuring, and keeping a brothel, are illegal but thriving. Zimbabwe's dire economic situation has forced many women into sex work.
There is a relatively low prevalence of HIV/AIDS in New Zealand, with an estimated 2,900 people out a population of 4.51 million living with HIV/AIDS as of 2014. The rate of newly diagnosed HIV infections was stable at around 100 annually through the late 1980s and the 1990s but rose sharply from 2000 to 2005. It has since stabilised at roughly 200 new cases annually. Male-to-male sexual contact has been the largest contributor to new HIV cases in New Zealand since record began in 1985. Heterosexual contact is the second largest contributor to new cases, but unlike male-to-male contact, they are mostly acquired outside New Zealand. In 2018 the New Zealand Government reported a “major reduction” in the number of people diagnosed with HIV.
Prostitution in Scotland has been similar to that in England under the State of Union, but since devolution, the new Scottish Parliament has pursued its own policies.
Melissa Farley is an American clinical psychologist, researcher and radical feminist anti-pornography and anti-prostitution activist. Farley is best known for her studies of the effects of prostitution, trafficking and sexual violence. She is the founder and director of the San Francisco-based organization, Prostitution Research and Education.
Dame Catherine Alice Healy is a New Zealand sex workers' rights activist, field researcher and former prostitute working for decriminalisation of prostitution and generally for the improvement of the sex work profession. She is the national coordinator and a founding member of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC).
Migrant sex work is sex work done by migrant workers. It is significant because of its role as a dominant demographic of sex work internationally. It has common features across various contexts, such as migration from rural to urban areas and from developing to industrialized nations, and the economic factors that help to determine migrant status. Migrant sex workers have also been the subject of discussions concerning the legality of sex work, its connection to sex trafficking, and the views of national governments and non-governmental organizations about the regulation of sex work and the provision of services for victims of sex trafficking.
Cheryl Overs founder and former first director of the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria, the Scarlet Alliance in Australia and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects. Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1957 and educated at University High School and La Trobe University. Overs set up organisations, oversaw events and authored texts that established the place of sex workers rights within the global response to HIV/AIDS.
The decriminalization of sex work is the removal of criminal penalties for sex work. Sex work, the consensual provision of sexual services for money or goods, is criminalized in most countries. Decriminalization is distinct from legalization.
Prostitution in Oceania varies greatly across the region. In American Samoa, for instance, prostitution is illegal, whereas in New Zealand most aspects of the trade are decriminalised.
Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) is an organisation that advocates for the health and human rights of sex workers. It is a private not-for-profit limited company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and founded in November 1990. NSWP is a membership organisation, with members from five regions. NSWP publishes resources, including briefing papers, policy briefs, community guides, global and regional reports, smart guides, statements, the Research for Sex Work Journal, and case studies. It supports the decriminalisation of sex work.
Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights is a 2018 book by sex workers Juno Mac and Molly Smith. They analyse the effects of varying sex work policies, arguing for full decriminalisation. The book covers topics including survival sex, migrant sex work, feminist views on sex work, and drug use among sex workers. The authors believe that common criticisms of sex work are more general issues with capitalism. The book received positive critical reception.
Gillian Abel is a New Zealand public health researcher and as of 2021 head of the Department of Population Health at the University of Otago in Christchurch.
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