Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Globalising solidarity by rapidly implementing the objectives of the United Nations Millennium Declaration “is a crucial moral obligation of the international community,” involving in particular the commitment made by the most advanced nations to fight poverty, but which might falter as the latter now cope with their own economic crisis.
Mgr Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See at the United Nations, appealed to the international community’s sense of responsibility yesterday during his address to the 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations whose text was released by the Vatican.
Monsignor Migliore noted that since the millennium goals were set eight years ago, thanks to “international, national and local commitment, many nations are now more economically independent. Some developing countries have become middle income countries and middle income countries are on the brink of turning into highly developed economies.”
Yet “these days we are witnessing a debate on an economic rescue [package] aimed at resolving a crisis that risks disrupting the economy of the most developed countries and leaving thousands and thousands of families without work.”
“This rescue [operation] of enormous proportions, which amounts to many times the whole of international aid, cannot but raise a pressing question. How are we able to find funds to save a broken financial system yet remain unable to find the resources necessary to invest in the development of all regions of the world, beginning with the most destitute?”
On the one hand, a “precise relationship” exists, in fact, among the Millennium Development goals and human rights since “they have in common the objective to preserve and protect human dignity.”
On the other, achieving these goals “is closely interrelated with respect for human rights. [. . .] Above all, we need to foment a new culture of human relations marked by a fraternal vision of the world, a culture based upon the moral imperative of recognizing the unity of humankind and the practical imperative of giving a contribution to peace”.
From this perspective the Vatican diplomat urged the international community to focus on the goals to achieve without getting distracted by new objectives like those “on sexual and reproductive health” which could introduce “practices and policies detrimental to human dignity and sustainable development”.
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