Latest news in the fight to stop Human Trafficking.
Click on the following links:
- Home
- About Us
- Donate
- Resources
- Learn
- Multimedia
- Digital downloads
- Australian
- International
- Prayer
- Links
- News
- Events
- Take action
- Contact us
Click on the following links to learn more.
Each excerpt of the message from the Catholic sisters gathered in Rome in October, 2007 is addressed to persons concerned with human trafficking and is here also followed by a prayer for these persons.
We wish to say to you who have been trafficked – we stand with you, you are not alone. We will fight with you to release you from your bondage. In solidarity with you, we will confront the traffickers. We challenge unjust systems and those who exploit others. Do not give up hope.
Let us pray for the victims: that they will find comfort, peace, security and dignity restored to their lives.
We women religious from across the world, say to you traffickers, “Stop the exploitation! Look at the children, women and men you are destroying with your physical and psychological abuse. By violating their fundamental human rights, you damage, deny and destroy their identities, names and status. We condemn these actions as well as the subtle ways you use to exploit them”
Let us pray for the traffickers: that they will be freed from their lust for money and power, and come to see what they are doing to others whose lives are just as precious as their own.
We call on you who exploit women, children and men for commercial sex or forced labour to stop buying human beings, for without your demand, the evil of human trafficking would not exist. We call on you to realise that all women, children and men have equal rights and dignity and that in your demand you cause irreparable harm and lose your own dignity.
Let us pray for demanders and exploiters: that they will be freed from the shackles of their unbridled sexual drives, and realise that their lust deprives others of their right to dignity and freedom of choice.
We acknowledge that many governments have laws against trafficking: we call for an increased enforcement of these laws. We further call on governments of the world to address the issues of economic inequality, poverty and corruption that lead to the destruction of so many lives. The physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological torture of millions of people hidden in back streets, ghettoes, hotels, and parlours all over the world, is criminal activity. We urge governments to create and implement policies and strong legislation to criminalise the exploiters. Good governance demands that traffickers do not benefit from the vulnerability of others.
Let us pray for world leaders: that they will faithfully and quickly address the issues that lead to and allow for human trafficking.
We appreciate all the religious leaders who have supported the fight against trafficking in persons. We call on all religious leaders to end religious practises and customs that discriminate against women and girls, and hence contribute to the attitude of gender inequality underlying the growth of human trafficking in our world today. We urge all religious leaders to denounce injustice and violence against women, children and men who are exploited or used in the sale of organs. We encourage you to relentlessly use your pastoral responsibility to defend and promote the human dignity of persons exploited by these forms of slavery.
Let us pray for religious leaders: that they may have the courage to denounce injustice and violence against women and children and that they may always be willing to defend the rights of the voiceless.
We urge all people of good will to open your hearts to the victims and to act to change the root causes of human trafficking – poverty, gender inequality, discrimination, greed and corruption. Each small action of restoring dignity to another person furthers the dignity of each one of us. Our hope rests in that vision of humanity that honours the principle that no woman, child or man is a commodity for sale. Relying on the love of God, we ask you to join us in our prayers and our actions to eradicate this social and moral evil.
Let us pray for all the people of good will: that they have strength, courage and wisdom to act each time human dignity is threatened.
(Adaptation of the Declaration, issued in Rome, October 22nd 2007. www.zenith.org)
Response:
God hears the cry of the poor
Blessed be our God.
I will bless God’s name at all times
God’s praise is ever in my mouth. R.
Let my soul glory in our God,
For he hears the cry of the poor. R.
Every spirit crushed God will save,
God will be ransom for their lives. R.
God will be safe shelter for their fears,
For he hears the cry of the poor. R.
Almighty and loving God, you who created all people in your image,
Lead us to become individuals of deep compassion as we read and reflect on the stories of affliction suffered by trafficked men, women and children.
You gave your only Son, Jesus, who died and rose again so that sins will be forgiven.
We place before you today the pain and anguish of the trafficked who are deprived of land, language, culture, family and the hope of justice.
We live in faith that you will hear our prayer for them so that they will escape from the pain and hopelessness of their situations. Touch their spirits with hope and heal their suffering bodies.
We are sorry on behalf of our human brothers and sisters who inflict such pain. We ask forgiveness and conversion for them.
Help each of us to grow in compassion and in gratitude for our own freedom and the riches we enjoy.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Pray with and for all those who are touched by the horrors of human trafficking. Enter their world in your imagination and hold their tears and their pain in your heart.
Feel free to use these prayers/reflection or any part of them in order to create what is suitable for your prayer group.
O God, our words cannot express what our minds can barely comprehend and our hearts feel, when we hear of men and women, boys and and girls deceived and transported to unknown places for purposes of sexual exploitation and enslavement and all kinds of abuse because of human greed and the desire for profit at this time in our world.
Our hearts are saddened and our spirits angry that their dignity and rights are being transgressed through threats, deception and force.
We cry out against the degrading practice of trafficking:
We pray that the buying and selling of people will to end.
We pray for all who are trafficked
Let them experience a love that is tender and good.
We pray for all who exploit others
That their evil deeds will be exposed and
That their hearts will be changed.
We pray for ourselves,
We who live in safety and peace with more than we need
And for all who work against trafficking in humans:
Give us the wisdom and courage
to stand in solidarity with all who suffer lack of human dignity.
Help all who work against human trafficking to find ways
to ensure for all the freedom that is your gift to all of us.
We make our prayer through Christ Our Lord. Amen
Get resources to back up your plan and mission to spread the word about the reality of human trafficking…
We call to mind the fact that individuals are bought and sold to satisfy the wants and greed of others – economic greed, seeking power over others, sexual satisfaction:
We pray that all men and women involved in trafficking will come to see that, in satisfying the wants of others, they inflict untold cruelty on the innocent.
Taize (Sing or say)
O Lord hear my prayer
O Lord hear my prayer
When I call, answer me …(Repeat)
We call to mind the suffering of trafficked children, deprived of the love and care within a family, living in fear, deprived of physical needs and education, unlikely to survive into adulthood:
(Pause)
We pray for all children trafficked far from their homeland into lives of suffering and want … that they will be found and rescued.
Taize (Sing or say)
O Lord hear my prayer
O Lord hear my prayer
When I call, answer me …(Repeat)
We hold in our hearts all those religious and lay women who are involved in the movement Against Human Trafficking throughout the world:
(Pause)
We ask that doors will open for them so that they can more successfully work to bring about changes in law which support the repatriation of trafficked individuals.
Taize (Sing or say)
O Lord hear my prayer
O Lord hear my prayer
When I call, answer me …(Repeat)
We pray for all officials working in government agencies – in embassies and consulates, in customs, at border crossings, in police forces and in the judicial system:
(Pause)
That they will be above corruption and have the skills to recognise the signs of fear and coercion in trafficked individuals passing through their areas of surveillance.
Taize (Sing or say)
O Lord hear my prayer
O Lord hear my prayer
When I call, answer me …(Repeat)
We pray for those religious and lay people who put themselves at risk by becoming actively involved in anti-trafficking movements:
(Pause)
That they will have the spiritual, human and financial support they need and that they will be safe.
Taize (Sing or say)
O Lord hear my prayer
O Lord hear my prayer
When I call, answer me …(Repeat)
Any other intention or prayer may be added.
LET US PRAY TOGETHER
Almighty and loving God, you who created all people in your image,
Lead us to become individuals of deep compassion as we read and reflect on the stories of affliction suffered by trafficked men, women and children.
You gave your only Son, Jesus, who died and rose again so that sins will be forgiven.
We place before you today the pain and anguish of the trafficked who are deprived of land, language, culture, family and the hope of justice.
We live in faith that you will hear our prayer for them so that they will escape from the pain and hopelessness of their situations. Touch their spirits with hope and heal their suffering bodies.
We are sorry on behalf of our human brothers and sisters who inflict such pain. We ask forgiveness and conversion for them.
Help each of us to grow in compassion and in gratitude for our own freedom and the riches we enjoy.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Giving you access to only the most trustworthy of Australian sources to assist in developing your understanding of human trafficking and slave labour and to enable your networking with others working against these practices.
Australian Links:
International links:
‘Not for Sale Sunday’
Whenever your Church wants to Make a Difference
(Suggested opening hymn – Optional
Song of Ruth – Father we come in prayer)
Creator God, we believe that the human person is the clearest reflection of your presence in our world. All of our work in pursuit of both justice and peace is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person, as an expression of your creative work and the meaning of Christ’s redemptive ministry. Be with us as we reflect on the plight of all those women, men and children whose dignity is violated through trafficking for sexual exploitation.
(Adapted from The Challenge of Peace, No 15 US Bishops, 1983)
Psalm 116 (from Psalm-Prayers for every mood, Kevin Lyon)
I love the Lord because he hears my prayers. He bends down and listens.
So I will pray as long as I breathe!
Death stared me in the face. I was afraid and sad. Then I cried, ‘Lord save me!’
How kind he is! How good he is! This God of ours is so merciful!
I was facing death and then he saved me. Now I can rest.
For the Lord has done this miracle for me. He has saved me from death.
He has dried my eyes from tears.
My feet from stumbling, that I may walk before you, Lord, in the land of the living.
What return can I make, for all the good Lord has done for me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
I will bring him the sacrifice I promised. I will do this in front of all the people.
His loved ones are very special to him. He does not lightly let them die.
O Lord, you have freed me from my chains, I will serve you forever.
I will worship you always. I will give you a sacrifice of thanks.
Glory be to the Father…
Reading Luke 8:43-48
As Jesus went along, the people were crowding him from every side. Among them was a woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for twelve years; she had spent all she had on doctors, but no one had been able to cure her. She came up in the crowd behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once. Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, the people are all round you and crowding in on you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I knew it when power went out of me.” The woman saw that she had been found out, so she came trembling and threw herself at Jesus’ feet. There in front of everybody, she told him why she had touched him and how she had been healed at once. Jesus said to her, “My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Blessed are you who work for justice… who welcome the outcast, befriend the migrant and cast off the yoke of slavery from trafficked sisters and brothers.
May the kingdom come
Blessed are you who work for justice… who risk you own security to help others in need, care for the innocent and act to uphold human rights and dignity.
May the kingdom come
Blessed are you who work for justice… who seek to bring hope and healing, compassion and liberation to the oppressed, and walk in solidarity with them.
May the kingdom come
Blessed are you who work for justice… who open doors for acting justly, loving tenderly, and walking humbly with God.
May the kingdom come
I believe in the equality of all, rich and poor.
I believe in liberty.
I believe in humanity through which we can create unity.
I believe in the love within each of us, and in the home, happy and healthy.
I believe in the forgiveness of our sins.
I believe that with divine help we will have the strength to establish equality in society.
I believe in unity, the only way to achieve peace.
I believe that together we can obtain justice
(Young people of Ayacucho, Peru)
O God, our words cannot express what our minds can barely comprehend and our hearts feel when we hear of women and girls deceived and transported to unknown places for purposes of sexual exploitation and abuse because of human greed and profit.
Our hearts are saddened and our spirits angry that their dignity and rights are being transgressed through threats, deception and force.
We cry out against the degrading practice of trafficking and pray for it to end.
Strengthen the fragile-spirited and broken-hearted.
Make real your promises to fill these our sisters and brothers with a love that is tender and good and send the exploiters away empty-handed. Give us the wisdom and courage to stand in solidarity with them that together we will find ways to the freedom that is your gift to all of us. Amen.
(School Sisters of Notre Dame, Canadian Province)
May God’s Arms Surround You
May the roots of faith grow strong within you.
May your vision of peace be like a clear sky.
May you be touched by the lightning flash of bright hope.
May you drink deeply at the well of joy.
May the love of God
Be your blanket and your pillow,
Your bed and your room,
And may God’s arms surround you
Now and forever more.
Amen
© Christina Rees 2006
(Taken from Not for Sale Sunday Website)
Trading Lives
"In a new country there will be
no slavery & hence no slaves."
Captain Arthur Phillip said this in 1787 before leaving England to become the 1st Governor of the new colony of Australia. Phillip landed at Sydney Cove in 1788 after an 8 month sea voyage.
ACRATH acknowledges and respects the Indigenous Peoples of Australia both past and present.
As caretakers of the land and custodians of the stories their culture has survived for thousands of years and is now recognised as the oldest living culture in the world.
