Pope and Welby joined by imams and rabbis for anti-slavery declaration

Religious leaders gather at the Vatican to commit to working together for the eradication of slavery by 2020

The Guardian, John Hooper in Vatican City, Tuesday 2 December 2014

Pope Francis and other religious leaders at the Vatican. Photograph: AP

It began with a 17-year-old Australian schoolgirl’s horrified discovery. And on Tuesday it brought together in the Vatican Jewish rabbis, turbaned Sunni imams and Shia ayatollahs, Pope Francis, the archbishop of Canterbury, a Hindu guru and the orange-robed Buddhist chief high priest of Malaysia, among others.

For a brief couple of hours, they found something on which they could agree: that slavery in its many contemporary forms is an unmitigated evil, “a disgrace to God, a dishonour to humankind,” as the Orthodox ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew called it.

The patriarch was speaking by video link. The others were present at the signing of a declaration in which they committed to working together for the eradication of what Francis has called a crime against humanity. They set a deadline of 2020.

That looks ambitious: according to the latest edition of the Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery Index, almost 36 million people are trapped in slavery of some kind. But the declaration is intended to give the issue a higher international profile, and is a tribute to the energy and determination of the Walk Free anti-slavery movement’s founder, the Australian mining tycoon Andrew Forrest.

His first contact with the issue came after his daughter, Grace, went on a school visit to Nepal. “I chose to work in a home for girls rescued from sex slavery,” she told the Guardian. “But when I went back, when I was 17, they had all gone.” They had been trafficked by the people who were meant to be looking after them.

“We started researching the supply chain,” her father said. “It led from Nepal to India to the Middle East.” His research led him to check his own group’s supply chains for other kinds of slavery. What he found was horrific, he said. One firm was using workers whose passports had been confiscated; the annual death rate among them was 20%. “Half were suicides,” he said.

“At the end of the chain was a British company. I rang the CEO who originally tried to deny it, and then said taking away people’s passports was legal.” Forrest gave him half an hour to agree to cut off relations with the company using slave labour, or else he would go to the media. When the British CEO complied, Forrest undertook not to divulge the name of his firm.

Seldom if ever has the Vatican seen such a varied gathering. The pope was flanked by a shaven-headed Vietnamese Zen nun, the Venerable Bhikkhuni Thich Nu Chan Khong, and an Indian holy woman wearing a nose stud, Her Holiness Mata Amritanandamayi, regarded by her followers as a saint and known to them as Amma, or “mother”.

She said finding traffickers was like trying to catch “a black cat in a dark room”, but practical steps could be taken. Children in poor countries were often ensnared using mobile telephones given to them by traffickers. She said she would like to see mobile operators mounting awareness campaigns.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, set out a number of other ways ahead, including consumer pressure for more information about supply chains.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."