Vatican City: Religious leaders from a half-dozen faiths have signed on to a new Vatican initiative to end modern-day slavery by 2020, declaring that human trafficking, forced labour and prostitution are crimes against humanity.
Pope Francis and the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, were joined Tuesday by Mohammad Ahmad Al Tayyab, Grand Imam of Al Azhar (represented by Dr Abbas Abdalla Abbas Sulaiiman, Undersecretary of State of Al Azhar Al Sharif), Shaikh Omar Abboud, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Al Modarresi, other Muslim leaders, the Hindu guru Mata Amritanandamayi, known as Amma, as well as Buddhist and Jewish representatives for a signing ceremony of a joint declaration against modern slavery.
The declaration commits the signatories to do everything in their power and within their faith communities to work to free the estimated 35 million people enslaved across the world by 2020.
Francis has made eliminating human trafficking and modern-day slavery one of the key priorities of his pontificate, instructing the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to focus on it in their academic conferences and studies.
Earlier this year, the Vatican announced the Global Freedom Network, a multifaith initiative to eradicate slavery by encouraging governments, businesses, educational and faith institutions to rid their supply chains of slave labour.
The head of the pontifical academy, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, said Francis’ concern stems from his ministry to the residents of the slums of Buenos Aires when he was archbishop.
“Here he came into contact with the drug situation, the situation of the excluded — and naturally the most dramatic form of exclusion is slavery, which is forced labour and prostitution,” Sanchez Sorondo said in an interview ahead of the ceremony.
This is the first time in history that the leaders of the Christian Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox, as well as Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim faiths have come together to jointly declare one common endeavour against slavery.
“In the eyes of God, each human being is a free person, whether girl, boy, woman or man, and is destined to exist for the good of all in equality and fraternity. Modern slavery ... 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. Today we have the opportunity, awareness, wisdom, innovation and technology to achieve this human and moral imperative,” read the declaration signed by the representatives.
