In 1999, Sweden passed legislation that criminalized the purchase of sexual services, which in essence decriminalized prostituted persons and placed penalties only on the buyers, traffickers and pimps. The principle behind the law was that prostitution was to be regarded as violence against the (primarily) women and children and as harmful both to the persons involved as well as to achieving gender equality in the society as a whole.

In addition to criminalizing the purchase of sex, the law also provided funding to implement empowerment and services programs to assist women and children who wanted to get out of the life and funding for a media campaign to educate and build support for the law and its purposes.

This poster was part of a 2002 nationwide advocacy series coordinated by the Swedish Government that was part of the education initiative.