Ingrid von Ahn

Founder and Executive Director, ILVA Foundation; Manager, The New Abolitionists Campaign

Ingrid von Ahn is a Swedish-American attorney, writer, and philanthropist focused on advancing gender equity and confronting systemic forms of exploitation and violence against women and girls.  In addition to serving as the Manager of The New Abolitionists Campaign, she is the Founder and Executive Director of the ILVA Foundation, which supports initiatives addressing domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking, and poverty through a gender-based lens across the United States and Europe.  Trained as a prosecutor, her work bridges law, advocacy, and philanthropy, with a focus on accountability and human dignity.

“Human beings were not meant to be bought or sold.  Prostitution is not work; it is the commodification of human vulnerability for profit.  I believe history will regard the movement to legalize and fully decriminalize the purchase of sex — including the advocacy of the human rights community that actively advanced these frameworks — as a collective betrayal of the principles those institutions were created to defend.