In February 2026, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) published a report concerning the Netherlands using the terminology of “sex work” to describe the system of prostitution. Sex trade survivors from around the world sent an open letter urging the Committee to remove all references to “sex work” — and in this short film, commissioned by SPACE International, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International and Frontline Women’s Fund, they make a direct appeal to the Committee from the women who have survived the brutal system of prostitution, and know it to be anything but “work.”

Read SPACE’s full statement, the transcript, and how to take action