NEW YORK, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Over 40 grassroots organizations and coalitions led and represented by sex trade survivors from around the world – including Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, and the United States – signed an open letter urging billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott to carefully examine the groups she funds that promote the legalization of prostitution and the decriminalization the sex trade.
The letter expresses grave concern for the endorsement of prostitution championed by these organizations, such as the Dutch foundation Mama Cash, noting that legalizing or decriminalizing the system of prostitution, including sex buyers and brothels, entrenches the commodification of women and girls into law and culture, and condemns the most marginalized to endemic sexual violence, exploitation and inequality inherent to the sex trade.
The signatories of the letter are leaders of the growing global movement of sex trade survivors who call on their governments to enact laws that recognize prostitution as a form of violence, and gender-based and racial discrimination. They advocate for an end to the arrests and police harassment of prostituted persons, call for trauma-informed comprehensive services, including exit strategies, to help them rebuild their lives, while holding their perpetrators – including sex buyers – accountable for the unspeakable harm they cause.
The majority of the letter’s signatories are Black, Brown, Asian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous, Native, from “Scheduled Castes,” and Roma women, populations that are overrepresented in the multi-billion-dollar commercial sex industry. Most were sex trafficked as children, a legal status that does not disappear when one reaches adulthood. All were vulnerable to sexual exploitation due to sex, race, gender, economic precarity, or displacement, due to wars, conflicts, and climate disasters.
In acknowledgement of their lived experiences and commitment to preventing these human rights violations from befalling future generations of marginalized women and children, these survivor leaders call on Scott to join them in rejecting the narrative that sanitizes prostitution as a mere “job” or justifies it as “survival sex.”
This moment begs for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of misogyny and abuse of power, especially given cases like that of Jeffrey Epstein, which plainly illustrate the consequences of a society that normalizes prostitution and sexual violence.
While the letter’s signatories applaud Scott’s unprecedented investment in protecting and advancing the human rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ individuals, they are asking Scott to stand with them against the system of prostitution as a critical extension of this investment.
Building a world of equality and opportunity for all is impossible to achieve as long as our governments, philanthropic institutions, and societies legitimize and celebrate the buying and selling of women for prostitution.
For more information, contact media@catwinternational.org
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sex-trade-survivors-write-open-letter-to-mackenzie-scott-concerning-her-funding-of-groups-that-endorse-the-prostitution-of-women-and-girls-302789023.html
SOURCE The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)
