The slave trade was abolished two centuries ago, but slavery is not yet history. One of its modern manifestations is trafficking in person.
Article 3 of the international Palermo Protocol (Annex II of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime) defines “Trafficking in person” as: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
The Protocol continues explaining that “Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or others forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
In December 2014, the phenomenon of Human Trafficking has been declared as a “crime against humanity” by the joint ecumenical declaration against modern slavery in which we read also “In the eyes of God each human being is a free person, whether girl, boy, woman or man, and is destined to exist for the good of all in equality and fraternity”.
In order to affirm and defend the equal dignity of every person, APG23  works for the eradication of this “crime against humanity”.
Taking into account its experience in the field whith women trafficked for sexual exploitation and reduced to slaves without any dignity as commodities for the market, APG23 advocates and networks to fight against the use of every person at all levels.