Women judges and prosecutors from around the world will gather November 9-10, 2017, at Casino Pio IV in the Vatican to address ways to reduce human trafficking and organized. The event is sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS).
This meeting has been called under the conviction that modern slavery, in the forms of forced labor, prostitution and organ trafficking, is a crime against humanity and must be recognized as such, according to PAS organizers. Both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have defined human trafficking as a serious crime against humanity, because its victims suffer the worst form of exclusion, referred to as ‘the globalization of indifference’.
Program for Summit
According to the program for the summit, to fully grasp such rejection, of despair, and ultimately exclusion from a minimum human dignity, it is necessary to understand that this form of violence against humanity consists not only in physical abuse (torture, repeated sexual abuse, forced organ harvesting, forced labor, including child labor) but also involves violence to the survivor’s soul. The latter creates wounds that are deeper and more complex than those already caused by the physical violence.
The judges and prosecutors participating in this important summit are gathered to share their experiences, propose new models and assess existing ones. PAS organizers said they trust that the feminine sensibility, rich with kindness and gentleness as well as of profundity and fairness, will play a decisive role in judging justice in each case and in proposing the best practice
“It is not without meaning that Justice is always represented as a woman; the lady of justice is a moral allegorical representation that the judicial system requires. Certainly, from this allegory follows the universal recognition of the ethical and human value of women. It is commonly acknowledged that women are more capable than men of directing their attention to the concrete person in their circumstances and that their vocation for justice in society – giving each what is theirs – is a further manifestation of this disposition. The dignity of the woman judge is intimately related to the good and severity emanating from the love that she is able to commit to such interpersonal relationship.”
