Religions united against slavery

All religions united to eradicate modern slavery by 2020. An ambitious, historical challenge, which saw Pope Francis welcome to the Vatican, in the Casina Pio IV, home of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Anglican, Orthodox, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim leaders to sign a joint declaration against a phenomenon with frightening proportions: almost 36 million people in the world (according to the 2014 global Index on Slavery of the Walk Free Foundation) victims of sexual exploitation, forced labor, child labor, sale of organs, trafficking in human beings. “A crime against humanity”. The initiative is supported by the organization Global Freedom Network on the occasion of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which was celebrated on 2 December. Signatories include Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the rabbis Abraham Skorka and David Rosen, Islamic authorities. There was even the Indian leader Amma whose ashram in Kerala is famous throughout the world, he fills stadiums just by embracing people and talking to them about peace and love. Pope Francis, who is not new to these issues given his firsthand witness in Buenos Aires of the many victims of slave labor and forced prostitution, has defined these forms of “modern slavery” an “abhorrent crime” and a “crime against humanity”. People exploited in every nation. It’s the first time that the leaders of major world religions have gathered for a common effort against slavery. This commitment will need to inspire the practical and spiritual action of all confessions, at all levels. Nobody is excluded, although at the top of the unfortunate list figures India with an estimated number of over 14.2 million victims of slavery, followed by China with 3.2 million and by Pakistan with 2 million. Behind this approximate default figure, since it falls into black economy run by globalised organized crime and Mafia, there are the faces of children and poor people – most of whom are Christian – working in brick factories in Pakistan, forced into slavery owing to situations of indebtedness with their employers to pay the exorbitant costs of marriage or funerals. There are sad stories of Cambodian, Thai, Filipino, Brazilian girls, sold by poor families for a pittance to unscrupulous traffickers to make them prostitute in squalid brothels and the unspeakable tragedies of Eritrean, Sudanese, Ethiopians, Somalis refugees, kidnapped by gangs of marauders in Sinai or along the journeys of hope to Europe, for ransom to family members, tortured and killed for organ trafficking. There are the “maquilas” in Argentina, Mexico and many other Latin American countries, the factories for the packaging of designer clothes intended for wealthy Westerners while labourers are forced to live and work in inhumane conditions. There are the girls of the East and the Nigerians that are seen on the roads of Europe, forced into prostitution by deception and enslaved. Linked activities and roaring trade. The task of governments is huge because it has to do with criminal activities that “invoice” billions upon billions of dollars. This commitment adds on to the other Millennium Development Goals proclaimed but still not achieved: to eradicate world hunger, illiteracy, poverty, lack of access to water, health services. The list of utopias to be realized is, as always, very long. The fact remains that, with this historic gesture, religions demonstrate that they can walk together and show the way also to governments. For world opinion this act has a high symbolic, moral and educational value. Not only will they step up their efforts in the daily work of solidarity – the Catholic world and the Sisters that help young women break free from prostitution are just one example – they will also take responsibility for a challenge that seems impossible, despite a very close deadline: 2020. Five years is a very short time. There is plenty work to be done. “Caminando se abre fire,” they say in Latin America. The example has been offered.