Scotland for Decrim Meet Zarah Sultana at Your Party Conference Dundee – Photo taken by Nix Renton – February 2026.
A grassroots organisation dedicated to achieving the full decriminalisation of sex work in Scotland by rejecting the Nordic Model.
The Campaign
Scotland For Decrim is a grassroots, sex–worker-led organisation dedicated to achieving the full decriminalisation of sex work in Scotland. They campaigned hard against the Nordic Model introduced to the Scottish Parliament in 2025. The campaign began as a small collective of current and former sex workers, academics, third sector workers, and trade union representatives; which grew into a group of 70+ people sharing a vision of a safer, decriminalised future. Scotland For Decrim implemented a mix of strategies including legacy media engagement via major news channels and broadsheets; protests; and online digital strategies developed by Strategist Diana Rotten and Chair Amelia Lavery. As well as this, they had an intensive run of political events and meetings, spearheaded by the Policy and Research Officer Laura Baillie, to engage MSPs in conversations with sex workers about the dangers of the Nordic Model to ensure sex worker voices were heard.
Scotland for Decrim HIV Briefing Research Team.
We are honoured to be nominated for such a prestigious award. As a small grassroots organisation in Scotland with very little resources or funding, we have worked incredibly hard to ensure sex worker’s voices are heard in policy changes that affect them. This is true recognition of our relentless fight against hostile and dangerous legislation such as the Nordic Model. The entire sex working community shares the benefits of such an acknowledgement and to us this is a true testament to Scotland’s fighting power against harmful legislation that seeks to undermine community safety and public health.”
Diana Rotten
Digital Strategist, Scotland for Decrim
The Change
The last time Nordic Model legislation was being discussed in the parliament, sex workers were both figuratively and literally locked out of the building. This time, Scotland for Decrim’s campaign against the Nordic Model generated hundreds of responses to a public consultation by the Criminal Justice Committee, was viewed 920,000 times on social media, and successfully engaged over 160,000 people in the fight to educate the public on the realities of this dangerous legislation. Scotland For Decrim also effectively mobilised 3,000 people to contact their MSPs directly to reject the legislation that would place sex workers lives in imminent danger. They also facilitated essential meetings between current and former sex workers with the Criminal Justice Committee to ensure the concerns of the community were actually heard in the scrutinisation of the Bill. In doing this, the Member’s Bill was rejected at Stage 1 in the Scottish Parliament on the 3rd of February 2026.
The Future
Despite Scotland For Decrim’s efforts, the Scottish Government has now set up an Independent Commission to criminalise the purchase of sex. Rather than focus on anti-poverty measures which would decrease the number of people selling sex, they are “choosing to put ideology over the safety of women and other marginalised people,” says Scotland For Decrim. “We will be fighting to ensure that sex workers are able to be heard, and to stop this dangerous legislation once again. We will need all of our allies to support us in this difficult time.”
Who else was involved?
Scotland for Decrim, Decrim Now, National Ugly Mugs, Lynsey Walton, Niki Adams, English Collective of Prostitutes, Ruth Horsfall, PCS Scotland, Andy Ramsay, Industrial Workers of the World, Sex Workers’ Union, Maggie Chapman MSP, Amelia Lavery, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, National AIDS Trust, ASLEF, Scottish Drugs Forum, BFAWU, NUS Scotland, Street Workers Collective Ireland, Sex Workers’ Alliance Ireland, Ugly Mugs Ireland, Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), Red Umbrella Eireann, Safety First Wales, and Sex Workers’ Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM).
