The Asian Conference of Religions for Peace (ACRP) organized an International Conference of Women Empowerment Against Modern Day Slavery at the University of Santo Tomas in Sampaloc, Manila, from 20-22 July 2017, in preparation for the United Nations World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. At the meeting, representatives of various religious communities, faith-based organizations, and human rights advocate groups talked about the complexities and the dehumanizing adverse effects of modern day slavery. For the first time, the role of women in multi-faith traditions was stressed as key to reviving family values and, as a consequence, to preventing the trafficking of women and children.
According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index (GSI), there are nearly 45 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, and an ever-increasing number of these are women and children.