The International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights (ICPR) emerged out of the prostitutes' rights movement starting in the mid 1970s.[1] The ICPR adopted the World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights in 1985 in response to feminist arguments that all prostitution is forced prostitution. The Charter calls for the decriminalisation of "all aspects of adult prostitution resulting from individual decision". The Charter also states that prostitutes should be guaranteed "all human rights and civil liberties, including the freedom of speech, travel, immigration, work, marriage, and motherhood and the right to unemployment insurance, health insurance and housing."[2][3] The Charter established a human rights based approach which has subsequently been further elaborated by the prostitutes' rights movement.[4]
In the mid 1970s a highly politicised prostitutes' rights movement emerged in Europe. Starting with the strike by French prostitutes in 1975, which lead to the creation of the French Collective of Prostitutes and in turn inspired the formation of groups such as the English Collective of Prostitutes in England (1975), the New York Prostitutes Collective (1979) which later became USPROS, the Australian Prostitutes Collective (1981) which is now known as the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria (PCV), and the Italian Committee for Civil Rights of Prostitutes (1982). The Canadian Organisation for the Rights of Prostitutes (CORP), the Dutch Red Thread and HYDRA in Germany also assumed significant roles in the movement. The International Committee for Prostitutes Rights (ICPR) was formed in 1985.[5]