What are the Catholic Social Teaching for Human Trafficking?
What is Catholic Social Teaching?
“Catholic Social Teachings sum up the teachings of the Church on social justice issues. It promotes a vision of a just society that is grounded in the Bible and in the wisdom gathered from experience by the Christian community as it has responded to social justice issues through history”.
Dignity of the Human Person
Human dignity is the central concern of Catholic thinking about Human Rights. Each person is created in the image and likeness of God and therefore has God given dignity. Each member of the human family is equal in dignity and has equal rights because we are all children of one God. These victims are treated as worthless slaves for the pleasure or domestic reasons.
Rights and Responsibilities
Human dignity and a healthy community can only be achieved and protected if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency, food, shelter, clothing, employment, health care and education. Victims of human trafficking are forced to live and work in communities with no access to the basic human rights. They work in fear of being beaten and abused only doing what they are told.
Economic Justice
All workers have a right to productive, to decent and fair wages and to safe working conditions. No one should be allowed to accumulate excessive wealth when others lack the basic necessities of life. The victims of human trafficking are forced to work without wages and in dangerous conditions such as street brothels without any concern for their safety or diseases, infections, AIDS or HIV that they come into contact with.
“Catholic Social Teachings sum up the teachings of the Church on social justice issues. It promotes a vision of a just society that is grounded in the Bible and in the wisdom gathered from experience by the Christian community as it has responded to social justice issues through history”.
Dignity of the Human Person
Human dignity is the central concern of Catholic thinking about Human Rights. Each person is created in the image and likeness of God and therefore has God given dignity. Each member of the human family is equal in dignity and has equal rights because we are all children of one God. These victims are treated as worthless slaves for the pleasure or domestic reasons.
Rights and Responsibilities
Human dignity and a healthy community can only be achieved and protected if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency, food, shelter, clothing, employment, health care and education. Victims of human trafficking are forced to live and work in communities with no access to the basic human rights. They work in fear of being beaten and abused only doing what they are told.
Economic Justice
All workers have a right to productive, to decent and fair wages and to safe working conditions. No one should be allowed to accumulate excessive wealth when others lack the basic necessities of life. The victims of human trafficking are forced to work without wages and in dangerous conditions such as street brothels without any concern for their safety or diseases, infections, AIDS or HIV that they come into contact with.
How these Teachings affect Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a serious violation of Human Rights and a crime in which traffickers profit from the exploitation of individuals, luring these victims away from their families to a place where they are controlled and made to work as slaves. The Catholic Social Teachings relevant to my social justice
issue of Human Trafficking are the Dignity
of the Human Person, Rights and Responsibilities and Economic Justice. All
of these social teachings have a common theme, this is Human Rights. Every person
has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human
decency, food, shelter, clothing, employment, health care and education. “Each
member of the human family is equal in dignity and has equal rights because we
are all children of one god.” All workers should have a right to productive
work, to decent and fair wages and safe working conditions. However in Africa
these things don’t exist, in many poor countries such as South Africa and
Western African countries there is very little food, shelter, clothing, health
care and education available to many people. Many men, women and children are
sold or mislead into slavery and prostitution and their human rights are taken
away from them. These people are forced physically, mentally and emotionally to
work until they are no longer useful to their traffickers against their will
and in violation to their rights as human beings.