VATICAN — PONTIFICIA ACADEMIA SCIENTIARUM — Ethics in Action 7, 12–13 March 2018 — “Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking, and Access to Justice for the Poor and Vulnerable”

This is a meet­ing of our Ethics in Action ini­tia­tive, pred­i­cat­ed on the notion that the grave and urgent chal­lenges fac­ing the world are moral chal­lenges requir­ing moral solu­tions. Our goal is to devel­op a moral con­sen­sus among reli­gious lead­ers from the dif­fer­ent faith tra­di­tions, aca­d­e­mics, busi­ness and labour lead­ers, devel­op­ment prac­ti­tion­ers, politi­cians, and civ­il soci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives, who take part in our meet­ings, and to deploy that con­sen­sus as the basis for con­crete eth­i­cal action.

This sev­enth Ethics in Action work­shop is focused both on estab­lish­ing an esti­mate of the num­ber of peo­ple trapped in mod­ern slav­ery, in terms of human traf­fick­ing, pros­ti­tu­tion, forced labour and organ traf­fick­ing, and on assess­ing the best prac­tices to erad­i­cate this “crime against human­i­ty” (Pope Bene­dict XVI and Pope Fran­cis). Need­less to say, these vic­tims expe­ri­ence the gravest injus­tices not only because they are exclud­ed from human rights, but also because the vio­lence they suf­fer against the integri­ty of their human body and soul, anni­hi­lates their self-con­fi­dence, per­son­al­i­ty and trust in oth­ers and soci­ety – they can­not form any friend­ships, let alone a family.