For the first time in history, leaders of the world’s largest faiths have come together.
Their goal is to end slavery.
Committed to the dignity and freedom that is the birthright of all humankind, Catholic, Anglican, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Orthodox leaders will sign a Joint Religious Declaration at the Vatican on World Day for the Abolition of Slavery 2 December 2014.
Visayan Forum, through our President and Executive Director, Cecilia Oebanda is one of the few who have been invited and are currently witnessing this historical event in Rome. You will be able to watch the event live streamed from Rome from 10.30 to 12.30 CET (Rome time), 6.30pm in the Philippines here.
How you can help:
By helping promote the day on 2nd December — Use #EndSlavery and link to http://globalfreedomnetwork.
org (James Kofi Annan from Challenging Heights and Cecilia from Visayan Form are both attending). Get involved yourself — by taking a photo of yourself holding a #EndSlavery sign and your signature (just write the hashtag on a piece of A3 paper and add your signature) and post it on twitter or Facebook with a link to the website. Selfies are great but group photos are much more fun so if you find a spare 5 minutes please ask colleagues, friends or familly to take a photo together and post the photo to social media. Example attached.
A few things make this event extraordinary. The first is the participation of both Shia and Sunni figures. Such a close cooperation between the two major Islamic religions to fight slavery and work for world peace has little precedent. Another is the practical and complex agreement between the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury to work together to tackle a global problem. Arguably nothing like this has happened since the Reformation.Walk Free’s team is working on this in Rome and around the world to make this a truly historic day, and will be happy to answer any questions you have on the event.Please share this post.