Holy See, 2012

As I congratulate the President on behalf of the Holy

See on his election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, I have the honour

of conveying warm greetings from His Holiness Pope

Benedict XVI, who wishes for him and all members the

blessings of all-powerful God.

At a time when the world is witnessing a disturbing

increase in bloody regional conflicts, the Holy See

is particularly pleased to note the central theme

that has been chosen for the work of this session,

namely “Bringing about adjustment or settlement of

international disputes or situations by peaceful means”.

Since the establishment of the United Nations, a

tight web of structured legal relationships has evolved,

covering virtually every aspect of the relations between

States and of life in the societies within States. In

that regard, the Charter of the United Nations, the

major human rights treaties and the treaties governing

humanitarian law, along with the Vienna Conventions

on the law of treaties and diplomatic law and the key

conventions on disarmament, may be viewed as a nearly

universal legal corpus that promotes social relations

based on the law and that furthers durable peace.

That is a historically unprecedented development

and a genuine achievement of the United Nations; it

stands as a credit to the United Nations and certainly

as one of its most successful achievements with respect

to the aims enshrined in the Preamble and first Article

of the Charter.

Over the course of the 67 years since the

establishment of the United Nations, the world

has undergone profound transformation. Growing

technical and economic interdependence, along

with the exponential development of new forms of

communication, has led to the advent of what has

commonly been known, ever since the middle of the

twentieth century, as the global village: a diverse and

continuously evolving village that has experienced

astonishing development but that has also seen terrible

injustice. In that regard, the labour of legal construction

undertaken by the United Nations is a worthy response that promotes the development of that global village, a

response that deserves the continued and wholehearted

support of Governments and social organizations.

Human history has always presented paradoxical

or conf lictive situations that have given rise to

frustration and feelings of injustice. Today, in a

context of generalized interdependence, the disparity

between wealth and poverty is more pronounced and

unacceptable than ever. The disorderly expansion of

technical and economic progress has intensified the gap

between those who have the education and the means to

advance and those who lack both. The multiple legal

and economic ties that unite nations are not sufficiently

just and equitable, and they have become a conveyor

belt for the serious economic and financial crisis, which

has spread as quickly as a forest fire, affecting the

most vulnerable first. For some of the world’s people,

resorting to crime and terrorism or waging war in the

name of ideological, ethnic or cultural beliefs seems to

be the easiest, if not the only available way to escape

poverty and become the heroes of the global village.

Such acts of violence are abetted by the perverse use

of communications technology and by the excessively

easy access to the tools of war.

If, in the 1990s, the state of legal and political

progress allowed us to believe that the danger of nuclear

war had receded, today the likelihood of regional

conflicts with unpredictable outcomes has once again

created a threatening atmosphere that should impel us

to intensify our efforts to establish a truly constructive

dialogue within the international community.

During the period of the Cold War, the United

Nations was a meeting place and a point of discussion

and balance between the opposing Powers. The

Organization managed to support the decolonization

and independence of a large number of new States and

to mitigate, and even at times resolve, regional, bilateral

and civil conflicts in a context that was nonetheless

marked by severe ideological confrontation. At the

same time, United Nations agencies made an important

intellectual, political and judicial contribution to the

universal recognition of human rights and strengthened

cooperation for development and regional economic

integration. Those advances constituted fundamental

progress towards strengthening the rule of law, which

itself provides a favourable framework and is the best

guarantor of human rights and peaceful international

cooperation. Allow me here to welcome the Declaration

of the High-level Meeting of the General

Assembly on the Rule of Law at the National and

International Levels (resolution 67/1), which was

adopted at the beginning of this session. The 67

years since the establishment of the United Nations

also include a distinguished history of humanitarian

interventions, peacekeeping operations and, more

recently, peacebuilding operations. Also of special

importance for the fate of humanity as a whole have been

the adoption of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons and the activities of the International

Atomic Energy Agency aimed at promoting universal

accession to the Treaty, controlling the implementation

of the Treaty and facilitating international cooperation

on the peaceful use of the atom.

Over the past 20 years, the United Nations, together

with regional organizations, has made an essential

contribution to resolving a number of urgent situations,

particularly in Africa, by collaborating with the

African Union and other institutions of that continent.

Nonetheless, the current reality presents us with a

United Nations system without the strength of unity and

persuasion that could legitimately be expected of it; a

system in which, unfortunately, power relationships are

played out to the benefit of specific strategic interests.

Yet the possibilities that emerged at the end of the

Cold War seemed to portend a possible strengthening

of the institutional and political presence of the

United Nations in the service of world’s most critical

challenges, such as climate change and the preservation

of the environment. How is it possible that, despite

universal adhesion to the Charter of the United Nations

and the essential treaties, we are still unable to establish

a just and true form of global governance?

The Holy See would like to offer a moral answer

to that question by calling attention to the importance

of the values that, of necessity, underlie all human

societies. Indeed, before engaging in political or

technical considerations, it is important to ask whether

the crises currently convulsing the planet are linked to

a crisis of trust in the collective values enshrined in

the very Charter of the United Nations. Moreover, the

question arises whether the crises afflicting the planet

are linked to a serious anthropological crisis, which

is to say the lack of a shared understanding of what it

means to be human.

Today we are witnessing a weakening in the

practical reach of the purposes and principles set out in the Preamble and Chapter I of the Charter.

I note in particular saving succeeding generations

from the scourge of war, practicing tolerance with

a spirit of good-neighbourliness, uniting strength

for the maintenance of peace and security, recourse

to peaceful means to settle disputes, in conformity

with the principles of justice and international law,

and cooperation to solve international problems of an

economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character

and to promote and encourage respect for human rights

and for fundamental freedoms.

The loss of trust in the value of dialogue and the

temptation to favour a priori one party in national

or regional conflicts endanger respect for the legal

mechanisms of the United Nations. However, the

pre-eminence of the values affirmed by the Charter

should lead to the adoption of all means possible to

guarantee the protection of the most vulnerable, uphold

the rule of law and human rights, and safeguard ancient

cultural and religious balances.

Mr. Gaspar Martins (Angola), Vice-President, took

the Chair.

The urgency of the situation is all the more obvious

given the events taking place in the Middle East,

especially in Syria. There can be no solution outside

the rules of international law and humanitarian law

and implementation of mechanisms established by the

Charter of the United Nations. All parties concerned

must not only do everything possible to facilitate the

mission of the Joint Special Representative of the

United Nations and the League of Arab States for Syria,

but also to guarantee humanitarian aid to populations

in distress. The international community must unite its

efforts to ensure that all parties concerned substitute

negotiation for recourse to arms and demand effective

respect for religious freedom, human rights and all

fundamental freedoms.

As Pope Benedict XVI recently reiterated during

his trip to Lebanon, we should import ideas of peace

and creativity, we should find ways of accepting each

person in his otherness, we should therefore make

visible before the world the respect that religions have

for one another, respect for man as a creature of God,

and love of neighbour as fundamental to all religions. In

that way, using all possible means, including material

assistance, we must help to bring an end to war and

violence so that all can help rebuild the peace. On his

return from Lebanon, the Holy Father called on Arab countries, as brothers, to propose workable solutions

that respect the dignity, the rights and the religion of

every individual. Those who wish to build peace must

cease to see in the other an evil to be eliminated. It is

not easy to see in the other a person to be respected and

loved, and yet that is necessary if one desires to build

peace, if one desires fraternity.

Moreover, only an international community

strongly rooted in values that genuinely uphold human

dignity can provide viable solutions to the new types

of conflict perpetrated by transnational groups,

which spread a pseudo-religious hegemonic ideology

contemptuous of individual rights and civil peace. We

think of the instability and the recent terrorist attacks

in some countries of Africa and Asia, or the collusion

between drug trafficking and terrorism in other regions

of the world.

Beyond even situations of conflict, today all

States, rich and poor, see their stability threatened by

the economic crisis to which no true and sustainable

solution has been found to date. Just a few years

ago international discussions were essentially about

potential ways to share the resources of the rich

countries, where well-being appeared to be firmly

established, or about the legitimate recognition of

the rights of developing countries. The debate was

about finding the right balance between free trade

and financial assistance; the transfer of know-how,

technologies and direct aid to the poorest populations;

the clash of ideas about the foreign debt of the poorest

countries; the role of the World Trade Organization and

its connections to the United Nations; the reform of

multilateral financial institutions; and comprehensive

access to essential drugs.

That unavoidable debate must be continued, even

if today it is overshadowed and made more complex by

the issues related to financial stability, whose impact is

global. In fact, we can all see that the financial stability

of the most developed societies has been seriously

endangered, especially because of shortsighted

economic policies often based only on maximizing

short-term profits.

The threat of collapse of financial systems in

economies that were until now the most prosperous

has serious consequences for social cohesion. It has led

to the resurgence of old fantasies such as exacerbated

nationalism, populism and xenophobia. Add to that the

tragedy of millions of people weighed down by hunger, the lack of basic health care and abject poverty, as well

as of vast populations living in inhuman conditions,

displaced populations and refugees, among whom are

thousands of children.

Given the difficulty of finding common solutions

that respect the principles of self-determination,

independence, and the equality of States and the right

of peoples, the anthropological crisis of which I spoke

has emerged, that is, a lack of conviction in the supreme

dignity of every individual, even when they have just

been conceived or are in a vegetative or terminal state.

It is an illusion to want to create true harmony

among peoples, to guarantee peaceful coexistence

and real cooperation between States if we confine

ourselves to a vision of mankind that — without in

theory denying the importance of the dignity and

fundamental rights of the individual — consigns the

profound dimension of the person and his uniqueness

to the rank of secondary factors, and insists on vague

collective concepts that reduce the individual to the

simple category of consumer or agent of production in

the market. A human being is not a mere number in

the masses of the global population. And the masses of

the global population cannot be viewed coldly or with

suspicion as a danger threatening the environmental and

social balances. We are talking about men and women,

each with dignity and rights. Ideological visions that

do not take that into account lead irreparably to social

disintegration and conflict.

In that sense, we must reject attempts to view the

Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015

development agenda, as well as the interpretation of

human rights treaties, on the basis of a limited and

relativist vision of humankind that, cleverly using

ambiguous expressions, threatens the right to life and

presents a deconstruction of the family model based on

the union of a man and a woman and oriented towards

procreation and the education of children. In the end,

those attempts risk the irremediable weakening of the

credibility and legitimacy of the Organization as a

universal tool for sustainable cooperation and peace.

It is of the first importance to provide an effective

solution to the open debate on the reform and

improvement of the functioning of United Nations

organs in order to revitalize its ability to anticipate

conflicts and resolve them peacefully. However, that

will be possible only with a constantly renewed effort

to return to the founding vision of the Organization. Sustainable peace will not be possible without each and

every one of us engaging in a constructive dialogue

directed toward achieving dignified and decent living

conditions for all human beings.

That can be done only through a shared belief with

regard to fundamental values that guarantee respect

for human life. In that regard, respect for religious

freedom is essential, within national public life as well

as internationally. Reason tells us that each person has

transcendental dignity, which brings with it freedom

to determine one’s own ultimate destiny and which

national and international authorities, as well as social

mechanisms, must fully respect. That is why actions

by Governments and international organizations must

necessarily strive to promote comprehensive human

development, creating legal, economic and social

conditions that genuinely reflect the importance of

human dignity and its transcendental dimension, both

at the personal level and collectively.

Religion should not be thought of other than as

a factor of peace and progress, a living force for the

well-being of all. Indeed, it leads human beings to

overcome every egotistical interest and to devote their

energies to the service of others, including for peace

among peoples. That is why all forms of fanaticism

and exclusivism and all acts of violence towards

one’s neighbour are an exploitation of and a deviation

from religion. Moreover, history has shown that a

biased concept of secularism, or tolerance that would

limit religious matters to the private sphere, can only

undermine the bases for peaceful coexistence, at both

the national and international levels.

The Holy See has been involved in international

cooperation activities since they were first given

institutional structure. We established our Permanent

Mission to the United Nations in New York in 1964. The

reason for its presence as a subject of international law in

this intergovernmental institution is first of all its desire

to offer to the international community a transcendent

view of life and social relations, recalling in particular

the dignity of the individual and his fundamental

rights, in the first place the right to religious freedom.

The international community has always welcomed

this contribution, which allows common initiatives

to put back into a profound perspective, in which the

underlying unity of the human family and the call to

the generosity of individuals and peoples must always

be reaffirmed. It is in that spirit that the Holy See wishes to offer

its contribution to the present session of the General

Assembly, aligning itself with the wish you expressed in

your inaugural address, Mr. President, that all Member

States, which share the responsibility to implement the

principles and objectives of the Organization, would

renew their commitment to resolve disputes by peaceful

dialogue and not by resorting to confrontation. Only

in that way will the aspirations and hopes of all be

achieved. Only in that way can the United Nations play

its indispensable role in peace and development.