Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
New York (Agenzia Fides) - Having been welcomed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and the President of the General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim, along with representatives from the 192 nations that form part of the United Nations Organization, the Holy Father Benedict XVI gave his address on Friday, April 18, to the UN General Assembly in New York. “The founding principles of the Organization - the desire for peace, the quest for justice, respect for the dignity of the person, humanitarian cooperation and assistance - express the just aspirations of the human spirit, and constitute the ideals which should underpin international relations,” the Pope said at the beginning of his speech, “is something that the Catholic Church and the Holy See follow attentively and with interest.”
Benedict XVI observed that in our day, we experience “the obvious paradox of a multilateral consensus that continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a few, whereas the world’s problems call for interventions in the form of collective action by the international community.” He later pointed out that, “questions of security, development goals, reduction of local and global inequalities, protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate, require all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet.” In particular, the Holy Father mentioned, “those countries in Africa and other parts of the world which remain on the margins of authentic integral development, and are therefore at risk of experiencing only the negative effects of globalization.”
“In the context of international relations, it is necessary to recognize the higher role played by rules and structures that are intrinsically ordered to promote the common good, and therefore to safeguard human freedom. These regulations do not limit freedom. On the contrary, they promote it when they prohibit behavior and actions which work against the common good, curb its effective exercise and hence compromise the dignity of every human person. In the name of freedom, there has to be a correlation between rights and duties, by which every person is called to assume responsibility for his or her choices, made as a consequence of entering into relations with others.” Benedict XVI mentioned, in particular, some of the results of scientific research and technological advances, that, “notwithstanding the enormous benefits... represent a clear violation of the order of creation, to the point where not only is the sacred character of life contradicted, but the human person and the family are robbed of their natural identity.”
Continuing his speech, the Holy Father reflected on the recognition of the unity of the human family and the principle of the responsibility to protect. “Every State has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made. If States are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations Charter and in other international instruments... it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage. What is needed is a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation.”
The founding of the United Nations coincided “with the profound upheavals that humanity experienced when reference to the meaning of transcendence and natural reason was abandoned, and in consequence, freedom and human dignity were grossly violated.” In reference to “human dignity, which is the foundation and goal of the responsibility to protect,” Benedict XVI recalled that this year is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “This document was the outcome of a convergence of different religious and cultural traditions, all of them motivated by the common desire to place the human person at the heart of institutions, laws and the workings of society, and to consider the human person essential for the world of culture, religion and science... the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights all serve as guarantees safeguarding human dignity.” The rights that are recognized and expounded in the Declaration, “are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from this context would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks. This great variety of viewpoints must not be allowed to obscure the fact that not only rights are universal, but so too is the human person, the subject of those rights.”
The Holy Father also encouraged his audience to promote human rights, as it “remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security,” and mentioned the fact that “efforts need to be redoubled in the face of pressure to reinterpret the foundations of the Declaration and to compromise its inner unity so as to facilitate a move away from the protection of human dignity towards the satisfaction of simple interests, often particular interests.”
“When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their foundation and their goal... it is easy to forget that they are the fruit of a commonly held sense of justice built primarily upon solidarity among the members of society, and hence valid at all times and for all peoples... human rights, then, must be respected as an expression of justice, and not merely because they are enforceable through the will of the legislators.”
The Pope then encouraged those present to use discernment, “an indispensable and a fruitful virtue,” in the context of new situations that arise, and with the attempt that is made to link them to new rights. “recognition of the transcendent value of every man and woman favors conversion of heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war, and to promote justice and peace. This also provides the proper context for the inter-religious dialogue that the United Nations is called to support, just as it supports dialogue in other areas of human activity...On the other hand, the United Nations can count on the results of dialogue between religions, and can draw fruit from the willingness of believers to place their experiences at the service of the common good. Their task is to propose a vision of faith not in terms of intolerance, discrimination and conflict, but in terms of complete respect for truth, coexistence, rights, and reconciliation.”
At the close of his speech, the Pope emphasized the fact that, “human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian... It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves - their faith - in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature.”
Benedict XVI then expressed his hope that “the Organization will increasingly serve as a sign of unity between States and an instrument of service to the entire human family,” and in this setting, “the Church is committed to contributing her experience “of humanity”, developed over the centuries among peoples of every race and culture, and placing it at the disposal of all members of the international community.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 21/4/2008; righe 103, parole 1306)
