Public-Private Partnerships to End Modern Day Slavery

Pope Benedict at the weekend once again drew attention to the scourge of modern forms of slavery afflicting our world today. His remarks come ahead of an international conference in Rome Wednesday focusing on how the public, private and faith sectors of society can work more effectively together to combat human trafficking.

Some 12.3 million people are caught up in trafficking every year but their number jumps to 27 million if one counts those entrapped by debt bondage or other forms of slavery – an endemic phenomenon in many parts of the world where anti-slavery legislation and enforcement are lacking.

Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and Miami’s St. Thomas University School of Law’s LL.M./ J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights, the full day conference will be held at the Vatican’s Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome.

Expert speakers to address the theme of the conference “Building Bridges of Freedom: Public-Private Partnerships to End Modern Day Slavery” include Diplomats, Politicians, Representatives of Inter-governmental Agencies, Religious Authorities, Scholars, Governmental Officials and NGO Representatives.

The conference is dedicated to “exploring the strengths and weaknesses of cooperation over the past decade, to indicate best practices, to develop and promote strategies and ways of implementation to erase the scourge of human trafficking through national and international coalitions, and private - public partnerships.”

At a press briefing ahead of Wednesday’s conference, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Miguel Diaz told Vatican Radio:
“We are going to bring together faith communities, we’re going to bring together corporations and we’re going to bring together different aspects of civil society. And we are going to bring leaders in each of these areas that come from the corporate world, that are leaders in terms of legislation, that are leaders in terms of the faith community. We are going to bring them together to strategize (about) how to end this modern day slavery.”

The battle to combat human trafficking has traditionally been grounded in the “three P’s” strategy: prevention, protection of victims, and prosecution of perpetrators. But Wednesday’s conference will focus largely on adding a fourth “P” – partnerships.

“We have made a lot of progress in each of these areas, certainly over the past few years” says Ambassador Diaz, “But what we’re trying to do with this conference is we hope to get to a next level… In order to bring this important work forward, we need greater cooperation among the different aspects and different entities in terms of civil society, religious institutions and the corporate world.”

The keynote speaker at Wednesday’s conference, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Luis CdeBaca, says “In the last ten years, we have made tremendous strides establishing the laws and institutions that will help to combat modern slavery. Now as we enter the second decade of the modern anti-slavery movement, it will be critical to build effective partnerships at all levels to move forward with this fight. This conference is an important opportunity to bring together stakeholders from government, the private sector, and the faith-based community so that we can start fostering the relationships that will be so critical to the future of this struggle.”

Listen to the interview with the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Miguel Diaz: