Human trafficking ‘must be declared a crime against humanity’

A Vatican-sponsored workshop on modern-day slavery has compiled 50 proposals for combating human trafficking, including that it be declared a crime against humanity that is punishable by international courts, writes Robert Mickens. “The idea is that it should be something along the lines of European courts that go beyond borders,” said Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, organiser of last weekend’s two-day session.

The Argentinian-born bishop, grand chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Science and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, told journalists on Monday that Pope Francis “will do something important” with the working group’s suggestions. His two academies and the Vatican-based International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations sponsored the weekend workshop. Some 80 people with expertise in the ecclesial, medical and juridical fields took part in the gathering, which Bishop Sánchez said was only the first of three such sessions. There will be another next year and an even larger meeting in 2015.

Consolata Sr Eugenia Bonetti, an Italian nun who works against trafficking and one of the participants at the session, told Catholic News Service that she and other women religious had asked the Pope in September to declare a Church-wide world day of fasting and prayer against human trafficking. “The Pope was very interested and asked what date we would like the day to be,” she said. The women suggested 8 February, the Feast of St Josephine Bakhita, a freed Sudanese slave who became a nun in Italy in the late 1800s.

Bishop Sánchez said Pope Francis had  asked him to have the pontifical academies hold workshops on the new forms of slavery, including human and organ trafficking. Some government estimates say up to 21 million people are victims of forced labour and sexual exploitation. Young people and women are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking.