COATNET vision

The vision of COATNET is a world in which:

•          Human trafficking and related forms of slavery are publicly and politically acknowledged and denounced as an unacceptable crime and a violation of human dignity and human rights and are effectively combated and ultimately eradicated.

•          Injustice, poverty and inequality that enable human trafficking are successfully addressed.

•          Attitudes and practices that foster discrimination, vulnerability and exploitation of human beings, specifically women and children are consistently exposed and challenged.

•          Trafficked persons are not regarded as criminals but as victims of a crime who have an inalienable right to legal protection, dignified and humane treatment and adequate assistance in their process of rehabilitation. Those who assist trafficked persons are not criminalised and stigmatised.

COATNET mission statement

COATNET aims to add value to the individual action of its affiliates and to mobilise the potential and the resources of churches and their organisations.

COATNET affiliates achieve this mission by having access to timely and adequate information resources; having spaces for sharing experience, practices and joint reflection; engaging in joint learning and capacity building; developing joint projects and campaigns; actively influencing relevant stakeholders about necessary changes in policies and legislation.

COATNET Commitment on Combating Trafficking in human beings is inspired by Caritas Internationalis Commitment on Combating trafficking in human beings and based on the directions given by the Church, amongst others in the following texts:

• "The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offence against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights. It is an affront to fundamental values that are shared by all cultures and peoples, values rooted in the very nature of the human person" (Pope John Paul II, Vatican City, 15 May 2002)
•  “In regard to children, great care should be taken not to place them in workshops and factories until their bodies and minds are sufficiently developed. For, just as very rough weather destroys the buds of spring, so does too early an experience of life’s hard toil blight the young promise of a child’s faculties, and render any true education impossible” (Leo XII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 129.)
• “Trafficking in persons – in which men, women and children from all over the globe are transported to other countries for the purposes of forced prostitution or labour – inherently rejects the dignity of the human person and exploits conditions of global poverty” (“Strangers no longer: Together on the journey of hope” – A joint US/Mexico bishops pastoral letter, November 2002)

The full text of Caritas Internationalis Commitment on Trafficking can be downloaded here.