RELIGIOUS LEADERS PLEDGE TO WORK TOGETHER TO END SLAVERY BY 2020

Pope Francis and leaders of other churches and religions signed a declaration pledging to work together to help end modern slavery in the world by 2020. He urged governments, businesses and all people of good will to join forces against this “crime against humanity.” Tens of millions of people are “in chains” because of human trafficking and forced labour, and it is leading to their “dehumanisation and humiliation,” the Pope said at the ceremony on 2 December, the U.N. Day for the Abolition of Slavery.  Every human person is born with the same dignity and freedom, and any form of discrimination that does not respect this truth “is a crime and very often an abhorrent crime,” the Pope said.

Inspired by their religious beliefs and a desire “to take practical action,” the Pope and 11 leaders representing the Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox, Anglican, Buddhist and Hindu faiths made a united commitment to help eradicate slavery worldwide. The leaders signed the joint declaration at the headquarters of Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican Gardens. The signatories included: Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury; Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee; Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi, an influential Shiite scholar; and representatives signing on behalf of Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar University – a leading Sunni Muslim institution in Cairo – and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

The declaration recognised that any action that fails to respect every person’s freedom and dignity “is a crime against humanity.” “We pledge ourselves here today to do all in our power, within our faith communities and beyond, to work together for the freedom of all those who are enslaved and trafficked so that their future may be restored,” it said. “Today we have the opportunity, awareness, wisdom, innovation and technology to achieve this human and moral imperative,” said the joint declaration, which was read aloud in English by a man from Ghana and in Spanish a woman from Mexico, both of whom had been victims of human trafficking and forced labor.

The initiative was organized by the faith-based Global Freedom Network, which was launched in March after a joint agreement by  the Vatican, Al-Azhar University and the Anglican Communion. According to the 2014 Global Slavery Index, almost 36 million people are currently caught in some form of modern slavery; the International Labour Organisation estimates that organised crime networks reap about 150 billion dollars a year from trafficking in persons, about 80% of that from prostitution. http://ncronline.org/news/global/pope-religious-leaders-pledge-work-together-end-slavery-2020

Watch a short clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnns_ct5c7c

Sign the declaration: http://www.globalfreedomnetwork.org/declaration/

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