In most cantons, you have to search for counseling centers. In Geneva, you encounter one before you’re even registered: The first official step toward legal sex work doesn’t lead to a counter, but to the fifth floor at Rue des Pâquis 11 – to the association Aspasie. Only after that comes the police.
This is more than an administrative quirk. It means that practically every person who starts work in Geneva has contact with a specialist service at least once – and thus has a phone number that matters later. This article maps out Geneva’s support network 2026: who does what, when they’re open, what costs, what’s free – and where the gaps are.
Entry goes through a specialist service, not an authority
The cantonal sequence is documented on the official canton page on prostitution: first an information session at Aspasie, then registration with the Brigade de lutte contre la traite d’êtres humains et la prostitution illicite (BTPI) of the Geneva police at Boulevard Carl-Vogt 17–19. Registration with the BTPI is free of charge, but only by appointment.
The mandatory session is not a concession, but law. It goes back to a revision of the Geneva Loi sur la prostitution (LProst) that the Grand Council passed in May 2017; it has been in effect since October 2018. According to Aspasie, sessions take place Monday through Friday at 11 a.m., are free, require no advance registration, and are led by a team that covers seven languages – French, English, Romanian, Spanish, Hungarian, German, and Portuguese. Materials in Dutch, Russian, Greek, and Bulgarian are available upon request.
Content-wise, the focus is on health, rights and obligations, safety and violence prevention, as well as useful addresses. What the session doesn’t do: It neither clarifies whether a specific address can actually be used, nor does it address social insurance and tax questions. Where in the canton you can work depends on zoning and usage rights – for that, the separate article on permits, registration requirements, and responsibilities in Geneva is worth reading.
A note on sources: In a 2019 statement, Aspasie described the sequence in reverse order (police first, then session). What’s binding is the current representation by the canton – and in case of doubt, a call to Aspasie (022 732 68 28) or the BTPI.
How many people are affected
Verified numbers only go back into the past. In the first full year of mandatory sessions, 2019, Aspasie recorded 229 sessions with 1,131 participants. The 2022 annual report lists 921 participants. No publicly accessible figures are available for 2025 and 2026 – anyone who needs them must wait for Aspasie’s current activity report or ask directly.
An order of magnitude that affects the daily work of the BTPI: According to a report from Tribune de Genève, there were recently 58 erotic salons registered with the Brigade – in 2018 there were 128. Some closed for economic reasons, a smaller number by decision of the responsible department. Fewer salons don’t mean less sex work; they mainly mean that more of it takes place in apartments and via internet ads, i.e., where there’s no colleague in the next room.
Aspasie: the drop-in center without appointments
Aspasie was founded in Geneva in 1982 by sex workers and allies and has since supported them on social, legal, administrative, and health matters. According to the association, the open office hours without advance registration ran at Rue des Pâquis 11 on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2 to 5 p.m.; the 2026 event calendar continues to show afternoon appointments in this time window, but not on each of these days. Since such times shift, the rule is: call first.
Also practically useful is the association’s online handbook (guide.aspasie.ch), which contains sections on rights and obligations, health, testing, and a block titled „Adresses utiles“ – the address list there begins with the police emergency number 117, which says quite a bit about priorities.
Aspasie is also a political actor. In August 2026, the association published a statement against calls for the criminalization of clients and argued with reports from countries that have gone that route: living and working conditions would worsen, access to protection by authorities would become more difficult. For the safety question, this is relevant because any shift toward prohibition reduces the willingness to report abuses at all.
Boulevards: counseling that comes during work hours
If you work at night, you can’t reach a service that closes at 5 p.m. For that, there’s Boulevards in Geneva – established in 1996 in the context of HIV/AIDS by Groupe sida Genève and Aspasie and now an independent association with low-threshold nighttime services.
According to the association’s activity reports, Boulevards operates with two vehicles: a large bus at Boulevard Helvétique, open on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and a small bus that stands on Wednesday evenings at Place des Alpes in the Pâquis district. Since 2020, in collaboration with Groupe santé Genève, free and confidential HIV and STI testing has been offered there; the Aspasie calendar continued to list testing activities at the bus at Place des Alpes for 2026. One must be honest about the scale: The reports sometimes document only individual testing activities per year and very small participant numbers. The bus is primarily a contact point, distribution of materials, and door opener – not a substitute for an office visit.
That this offering is no accident of volunteers is shown by the funding: A service contract from the canton for 2025 to 2028 provides CHF 948,150 for Boulevards and CHF 6,650,000 for Groupe santé Genève. Just under a million francs over four years for several evenings of night presence per week – that’s the real dimension of outreach work in a canton with Geneva wage levels.
Compared to other French-speaking cantons, Geneva is in solid shape. In Neuchâtel, the specialist service comes by once a month, and in the Jura, there’s no specialized service at all – there the new emergency number exists, but the specialist service doesn’t.
Three numbers for emergencies – and what 142 really is
Since May 1, 2026, there’s an additional number in the French-speaking region: 142, a free helpline for victims of violence, relatives, and witnesses, available 24/7. Six cantons are involved: Geneva, Vaud, Fribourg, Neuchâtel, Valais, and Jura.
It’s important to understand how the line technically works, as that determines who you talk to:
- Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.: Calls go to the cantonal victim assistance services – in Geneva, that’s the Centre LAVI.
- Outside these hours: An intercantonal line takes over, operated by Solidarité femmes Fribourg. The mandate for setup and operation was given to this organization by the French-speaking cantons via CLASS – which is why the night service for six cantons comes from Fribourg.
- 142 is not a replacement for emergency services. In immediate danger, stick to 117 (police) and 144 (ambulance).
The Centre LAVI Geneva communicated the launch of the number itself. For sex workers, 142 means above all one thing: a number that reaches someone who is not police at three in the morning – and where you can decide whether a report follows or not.
Centre LAVI: entitlement rather than goodwill
The Centre de consultation LAVI at Boulevard Saint-Georges 72 (022 320 01 02) is the cantonal victim assistance service. It offers psychological, legal, material, and social support for victims of crimes and their relatives, free of charge and confidentially. According to its own website, the phone center is available daily from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2 to 5 p.m.; consultations take place exclusively by appointment; other directories list different times, so again: call first.
Three points that often get overlooked in practice:
- The catalog of offenses is broad. Assault, attack, robbery, rape, sexual coercion, sexual harassment, threats, deprivation of liberty, and human trafficking fall under it.
- Help is graduated. After emergency assistance, longer-term financial support can be requested.
- There’s a network, not a single counter. Parliamentary documents from the canton describe cooperation between Centre LAVI, BTPI, and the associations Aspasie and Boulevards; affected persons are cross-referred.
For safety planning, the second point is crucial: victim assistance is a legal entitlement under victim assistance law and doesn’t depend on whether you’re registered with the BTPI or whether a criminal report is pending.
Healthcare even without health insurance
A large part of sex work in Geneva is performed by people who are only temporarily in the canton. For that, there’s a separate care network:
- CAMSCO (HUG), Rue Hugo-de-Senger 4, 022 372 53 11: The mobile outpatient community clinic of Geneva University Hospitals is aimed at people without health insurance or in precarious situations. According to HUG, there are a limited number of semi-urgent consultations without appointment – mornings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, Wednesday afternoons. Appointments also available online via the HUG website. Information from various sources on times differs.
- Point d’Eau, Rue de Vermont 21: Free offering for people in precarious situations, regardless of residency status. According to a Geneva social guide, showers and laundry in the morning (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.), afternoons with specific themes: Monday women, Wednesday podology, Thursday medical office hours. A flyer from the City of Geneva from November 2025 mentions closure on the third Thursday of the month.
- Checkpoint Genève (022 906 40 30): Testing for HIV, chlamydia, hepatitis, and syphilis; the facility explicitly names sex workers of all genders as a target group. Billing through health insurance is possible, rates can be adapted to your situation; with limited means, tests are sometimes free. On the address, directories contradict each other (Rue de Lausanne in the Pâquis district or Rue du Grand-Pré) – clarify by phone first.
- Santé sexuelle et planning familial (HUG): The hospital service publishes an overview of where HIV and STI testing is available in Geneva and in nearby France.
After an assault: who documents
For the time after an experience of violence, Geneva has a service that doesn’t exist in other cantons:
UIMPV – the interdisciplinary unit for medicine and violence prevention of HUG, Boulevard de la Cluse 75, 2nd floor, phone 022 372 96 41, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to noon and 2 to 5 p.m., contact also by email. Consultations take about an hour, are by appointment and on a voluntary basis, are open from age 16, and are aimed at affected persons, witnesses, and people who themselves use violence – for current as well as past violence. Practical value: medical documentation that holds up later in proceedings, even if you decided against a report on the night of the incident.
There are also two specialized associations:
- Viol-Secours, 022 345 20 20: psychosocial office hours by phone, email, or in person by appointment, according to the website on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Services for women, trans*, non-binary, and intersex persons from age 16.
- SOS Femmes, Rue de la Madeleine 10, 022 311 22 22 – listed in Aspasie’s address list.
Human trafficking: where the numbers stand and where the process ends
The Centre social protestant (CSP) Genève operates a service to support victims of human trafficking — free of charge and with ongoing support. The CSP is one of the Geneva bodies that identify victims.
The platform, which brings together five NGOs including CSP Genève, reports 192 newly identified potential victims across Switzerland in 2025 and a total of 532 supported persons, along with 87 ongoing criminal proceedings. 70 percent of newly identified persons are women, coming from 79 countries; 55 percent of cases involve sexual exploitation, 42 percent labor exploitation. The flip side of the same statistics: According to RTS, since the introduction of the criminal offense 20 years ago, there have been only around ten final judgments in Switzerland. Figures broken down by canton for Geneva are not available in these sources.
This leads to an uncomfortable but useful insight: People who are exploited have a more realistic chance of gaining something through the counseling route (accommodation, housing, victim assistance) than through hopes of a conviction.
What Geneva Does Not Provide
Three gaps to be aware of before planning:
- No current public overall figure. How many persons are registered with the BTPI in 2025 or 2026 is not published. An undated press release mentions around 1,300 new registrations per year based on police figures; this cannot be verified.
- No guaranteed opening hours online. For Aspasie, LAVI, CAMSCO, Point d’Eau, and Viol-Secours, the directories contradict each other. Every time mentioned in this article is a research result, not a promise — confirm by phone.
- No automatic security through registration. Aspasie has publicly criticized that reports of assaults in the neighborhood are processed too slowly. Registration with the BTPI makes the work legal; it does not replace your own security routine.
Quick Checklist for Geneva
- Information session at Aspasie, Rue des Pâquis 11, 5th floor, Mon–Fri 11 a.m., free, no registration required — call briefly beforehand (022 732 68 28).
- Appointment at the BTPI, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 17–19, registration free of charge.
- Save these numbers: 117 Police, 144 Ambulance, 142 Victim Assistance 24/7, 022 320 01 02 Centre LAVI, 022 372 96 41 UIMPV, 022 345 20 20 Viol-Secours.
- Visit the Boulevards bus at least once (Boulevard Helvétique Tue/Thu evenings, Place des Alpes Wed evening) — a face and number are worth more than a website in an emergency.
- Clarify health access without insurance in advance: CAMSCO, Point d’Eau, Checkpoint.
How much this situation differs from other cantons is shown by the cantonal comparison of legal status. Binding information on reporting obligations, inspections, and sanctions in Geneva comes solely from the responsible body — the BTPI of the Cantonal Police or the department responsible for LProst; for victim assistance claims, the Centre LAVI.