New Religious Effort To End Human Trafficking

Representatives of the Catholic, Anglican and Muslim worlds gathered for the first time ever in the Vatican press office on March 17 for the launch of Global Freedom Network, an unprecedented interreligious effort to eradicate human trafficking by the end of the decade. The religious bodies will be assisted by the Walk Free Foundation. The new network will press governments to endorse the establishment of the Global Fund to End Slavery and will ask multinational businesses to eradicate slavery from their industrial supply chains. By mobilizing the world’s major faith communities, Global Freedom hopes to bring an end by 2020 to what Pope Francis has called a crime against humanity. Some 30 million men, women and children are currently caught in the clutches of human traffickers, a figure that many believe underreports the true depth of the problem.

This article appears in April 7 2014.