YouSaid · the spoken record

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher

lines on the record: 115
first: 2015-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Taken together, the compacts will affirm our shared responsibility, in the pursuit of the common good, to care for those most in need of solidarity and for those whose dignity and fundamental human rights are most at risk. The strain that many States face in responding to mixed flows, especially when they are unpredictable and overwhelming, was given thorough consideration. What became apparent was not only the need for increased international solidarity and burden- and responsibility-sharing, but also the prior commitment of States to “work together to create conditions that allow communities and individuals to live in safety and dignity in their own countries” (A/CONF.231/3, annex, para. 13).”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“For the first time ever, the international community has engaged in an open and transparent debate on the phenomenon of those movements and on what is needed to manage migration in a more safe, orderly and regular manner. The result is the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, which will be adopted this coming December at an international conference to be held in Marrakech, Morocco. The coming global compacts, one for migration and the other on refugees, will provide a continuum of protection for all those forced to flee from their place of residence, including those displaced by sudden- onset and slow-onset natural disasters, climate change and environmental degradation, ensuring that no one is left behind.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Article 22 of the Universal Declaration affirms that everyone has the right to social security and to the realization of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable to his or her dignity and the free development of his or her personality. Frequently though, because of war and conflict, poverty, natural disasters and other similar causes, that right cannot be realized in one’s place of birth or residence. Such situations prompt millions to leave their place of residence in order to fulfil their basic human needs elsewhere and to search elsewhere for well-being and happiness for themselves and their loved ones. This year, a long and comprehensive process has been completed aimed at addressing the challenges of international migration.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“It is worth recalling here Pope Francis’s words during a general audience with the elderly on 4 March 2015. He said that “a society without proximity, where gratuity and affection without compensation — between strangers as well — is disappearing, is a perverse society”. The same dehumanization occurs when people are reduced to the crimes they may have committed, the country to which they may belong or to their productive capacity. The Holy See reaffirms that the quality of a civilization depends also on how it treats the weakest, the indigent, the elderly, persons with disability, and on the place that it gives them in community life.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That approach seeks to create a hierarchy of human rights, by relativizing human dignity, assigning more value and greater rights to the strong and healthy, while discarding the weak. That ideology, unfortunately present in various parts of the United Nations human rights system, leads to some grave inequalities and injustices, often ignoring children in the womb and treating the lives of the elderly and persons with disabilities as expendable or indeed as a burden to society. While freedom is crucial to the ability of every person to express his or her unique identity, the reduction of a person’s dignity to his or her capacity for self-expression and affirmation is always a grave error and a sign that society is losing its ability to recognize the value and importance of every human life, no matter how vulnerable.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration affords the international community an occasion to recognize the damage that ideological interpretations or novel rights claims do, in principle and practice, to the human rights and fundamental freedoms actually enshrined in the Universal Declaration and translated into international law and conventions. The Holy See is especially concerned about the increasingly narrow interpretation of the right to life, both at the national level and at the level of the treaty bodies and other human rights mechanisms. That tendency is particularly apparent within a current of the human rights discourse that refuses to recognize the inherent value and dignity of human life at every stage of its beginning, development and end.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Earlier this year, in his address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis noted some trends that, in the very name of the promotion of human rights, are in fact undermining the enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He noted that, “debatable notions of human rights have been advanced that are at odds with the culture of many countries”. He cautioned that that trend portends the “risk that, in the very name of human rights, we will see the rise of modern forms of ideological colonization by the stronger and the wealthier to the detriment of the poorer and the most vulnerable”.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Article 4 states that “[n]o one shall be held in slavery or servitude”, yet tens of millions of people are ensnared by various forms of so-called modern slavery. Article 18 upholds the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the right to change one’s religion or belief, and the freedom to manifest, alone or in community with others, in public or private, that religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Yet those rights are infringed upon, restricted or denied. In so many places, changing one’s religion or even practising one’s faith can lead to a death sentence or can serve as a reason to be discriminated against.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“While it is heartening to read of the positive developments in the area of human rights accomplished in the past seven decades, it is sobering to note, however, that one in 10 children continues to be subjected to child labour, one in three people currently in detention is held without trial, 29 per cent of children under the age of 5 do not have birth registration and 250 million women were married when under the age of 15. It is scandalous to see that human rights continue to be violated today, seven decades after the adoption of the Universal Declaration. The Declaration affirms that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person, and yet in many places those rights are not only not respected but their violations are even celebrated.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration is also a favourable occasion on which to renew our shared commitment, not just in words, but also in practice to those rights that flow from every person’s inherent dignity. The report of the Secretary- General on the work of the Organization (A/73/1) highlights that fact. Although there has been much progress made in the advancement of human rights at the global level, challenges to the protection of human rights are a global phenomenon.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“To speak of human dignity 70 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration means, above all, to restate the centrality and intrinsic worth of the human person and to reaffirm the inherent rights shared by all men and women, no matter how young or old, rich or poor, strong or vulnerable, healthy or sick, wanted or undesired, economically productive or incapacitated, or politically influential or insignificant. The world needs, in fact, to regain an all-encompassing vision of the human person, human dignity and human rights, as any reductive vision of the human person inevitably dehumanizes and effectively excludes certain persons from membership in the human race, opening the way to inequality, injustice and injury.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“It undergirds all fundamental human rights. It drives the search for justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other appropriate sources of international law, because so many abuses of human dignity begin with a failure to uphold laws that respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. It spurs individuals and societies to achieve social progress and better standards of life in greater freedom through what the Holy See calls “integral human development”.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“At the outset, I wish to extend the cordial greetings of His Holiness, Pope Francis, to the President and to all of the delegations participating in this seventy-third session of the General Assembly. As the international community marks the seventieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on 10 December 1948, it is worthwhile to recall and re-emphasize its assertion that, “[The] recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” The recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings is the bedrock on which the pillars of the United Nations are grounded. It is the ultimate principle behind the founders’ determination to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“While much remains to be done for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to truly make a difference and fulfil its full promise, the Holy Seebelieves that it is one more blow on the anvil towards the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.””
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The Holy See has signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and has already deposited its ratification document because it believes that it is an important contribution to the overall effort towards total and complete nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, that it represents progress toward the fulfilment of the commitment of the States parties to the Treaty to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and a step towards negotiating a general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In his 2017 World Day of Peace Message, Pope Francis once again made a plea for disarmament and for the prohibition and abolition of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the proliferation of nuclear weapons continues to increase international tensions, as can be seen in the situation on the Korean peninsula. As history shows, regional and bilateral treaties on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons have been effective in establishing whole regions free from these weapons. It therefore seems all the more urgent that we invest in creating those circumstances that would facilitate the crafting of new bilateral and regional treaties.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The proliferation of weapons simply aggravates situations of conflict and results in unimaginable human suffering and material costs, profoundly undermining development, human rights and the search for lasting peace. Without greater international and regional cooperation, especially among weapon-producing States, in terms of strictly controlling and limiting the production and movement of weapons, a world free of wars and violent conflicts will surely remain an illusion. When Pope Francis addressed the General Assembly two years ago today, he drew attention to the urgent need to “work hard for a world free of nuclear weapons by implementing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in letter and in spirit, until such instruments are totally banned” (ibid., p. 5).”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The world is awash in all types of weapons, from nuclear weapons to small arms and light weapons. The arms trade, both licit and illicit, keeps on growing. The proliferation of arms, including weapons of mass destruction, among terrorist groups and other non-State actors has become a real danger. These trends are deeply worrying, but more disturbing still is the deep chasm that separates commitments made from actions taken in the field of disarmament and arms control. While everyone condemns the grave effects of arms proliferation, nothing has substantially changed on the ground, because, as Pope Francis has observed, “[W]e say the words ‘no more war!’, but at the same time we manufacture weapons and sell them ... to those who are at war with one another”. This must change.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Modern slavery happens when people are treated as objects, which leads to their being deceived, raped, often sold and resold for various purposes, and in the end either killed or left devastated in mind and body, only to be finally thrown away or abandoned. By refocusing its attention on people and putting people first in its overall work, the Organization should unerringly support the fight against trafficking in persons and other contemporary forms of slavery. Pope Francis calls on everyone, and especially the competent authorities, to address this heinous crime through effective legal instruments, punish those who benefit from it, assist in the healing and the reintegration of its victims and eradicate its root causes. Our response must be commensurate with this great evil of our time.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The Holy See and the Catholic Church have long spoken out against the evil of trafficking in persons and, through the dedicated work of so many individuals and institutions, have sought to fight its root causes, care for the victims, raise awareness about this scourge and work with anyone and everyone to try to eliminate it. In an address on 10 April 2014, at the International Conference on Combating Human Trafficking, Pope Francis called trafficking in persons an “open wound on the body of contemporary society” and at the signing of the Universal Declaration Against Slavery, on 2 December 2014, he termed it an “atrocious scourge that is present throughout the world on a broad scale”. At the heart of this evil is the utter loss of respect for human dignity and the total indifference to the sufferings of fellow human beings.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“But we ought to recognize that on the demand side of such criminal trafficking there is also a crass selfishness that reaches the unimaginable heights of moral irresponsibility in the case of the trafficking of children, organs, tissues and embryos and in so-called transplant tourism. Such execrable forms of trade are exacerbated by corruption on the part of publicofficials and common people willing to do anything for financial gain. Indeed, the migration and refugee crises are today facilitating an increase in trafficking in persons and other contemporary forms of slavery.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The focus in negotiating the Compacts therefore should not be limited to stopping migrants in their tracks or confining refugees to camps, but, instead, it should address the causes that deprive them of living with dignity and force them to make life-threatening journeys. This should be our goal, and it should be a key part of the Global Compact for Migration. Another great challenge facing the international community is trafficking in persons. At the root of this and other contemporary forms of slavery are wars and conflicts, extreme poverty, underdevelopment and exclusion, lack of education or employment opportunities and environmental catastrophes.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In order to achieve the desired outcome, the contribution of political communities, civil society and all stakeholders is indispensable, each according to their respective responsibilities. While some migrants may be motivated by the legitimate desire to improve their already acceptable situations, most would likely choose not to migrate if they enjoyed peace and economic security in their home countries. It is a basic human right to live in one’s own country, but that right is effective only if the root causes that force people to migrate, such as wars and conflicts, mass atrocities and persecutions, and dire economic and environmental hardships, are met with adequate solutions. Indeed, if basic necessary conditions were met, people would not feel forced to leave their homes, making migration manageable and voluntary.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In particular, they express our shared responsibility towards the victims of the genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity that the international community has failed to prevent or stop, in blatant neglect of the principles of international law. The Holy See will vigorously work to see these four concepts enshrined and reflected in the future Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees. The Holy See believes that these United Nations-led processes offer a unique opportunity to respond collectively to challenges through international cooperation and shared responsibility. The Holy See urges the international community to overcome the current political impasse and go beyond the negative sentiments that we face in opening safe, orderly and regular pathways for migration.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The lamentable situation of the hundreds of millions of migrants and refugees fleeing from wars, persecution, natural disasters and extreme poverty, particularly in Nigeria, Myanmar, Somalia and countries of the sub-Saharan region, inter alia, is a great responsibility for all without exception. Our common humanity compels us all, as Pope Francis has proposed, to welcome, protect, promote and integrate those who flee from such adverse conditions. These four actions are based on the proposition that migrants, despite many real or imagined challenges, are good for society, and on the principle of solidarity with those in need.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“However, the protection of civilian populations must also be ensured during times of war The recent gangrenous conflicts both weaken and reveal the shortcomings of the international order and cause inexplicable suffering, massive displacements, blatant violations of universal human rights and fundamental freedoms and extreme poverty. There is no worse manmade crisis than violent conflicts. They drive people forcibly to migrate or become refugees. They engender mass atrocities and crimes against humanity. Indeed, as Pope Francis told the Assembly, “War is the negation of all rights”.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The drug trade has joined other forms of corruption and has “penetrated into every level of life — social, political, military, artistic and religious — and in many cases has given rise to a parallel structure that threatens the credibility of our institutions”. In a similar vein, the Holy See is concerned with the challenges of fighting corruption and terrorism and with promoting stable peace and a sustainable development in many countries of the world. The Holy See wishes to stress again that terrorism can be countered only by more cohesive and coherent measures at the international level: as terror knows no border, the international community must act as a whole. The full protection of people is possible only with a durable peace.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The ongoing violence and intense political tension in the Democratic Republic of the Congo necessitate an urgent and efficient commitment from all parties to finding a solution to the constitutional crisis. Furthermore, there is a need for greater public awareness of certain ongoing conflict situations with a view to reaching negotiated and peaceful solutions to them, especially in Ukraine, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, inter alia. Along the same lines, as Pope Francis has stated, there is “another kind of conflict that is not always so explicit and yet is silently killing millions of people. Many of our societies experience a different kind of war as a result of the drug trade”.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“At the same time, States, especially those that at some time in recent history have been directly or indirectly involved in the conflict, must undertake all means to reach a ceasefire, which is a first step towards peace. The Holy See is particularly concerned about the political divisions and instability in Venezuela and its humanitarian crisis. In addition, the international community must address the complex political and diplomatic tensions in the Arabian peninsula, as well as the violence and the various humanitarian situations in the Middle East. We must all strive for an end to violence and for reaching a solution that can enable both Palestinians and Israelis alike to live at last in peace within clearly established and internationally recognized borders, thus implementing the two- State solution.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The Holy See therefore supports all initiatives designed to facilitate observing obligations under the responsibility to protect, but it would like to remind the international community once again that without a legal framework or fair respect of the international rule of law, the application of the principle is unfeasible. The war in Yemen is causing a humanitarian catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. The tragedy stemming from the war in Syria continues to grow every day. Involved stakeholders should sit at the United Nations negotiating table with the sole precondition that human rights law and principles be respected and that humanitarian access and assistance be allowed.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“By negotiating with good will and with respect for mutual rights, they will realize that sincere and active negotiations never preclude an honourable success.” In such a context, I would like to recall that a dozen years have passed since the historica gathering of world leaders in this Hall for the 2005 World Summit. Focusing on people, the Heads of State and Government of the Members of the Organization reached consensus on the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. There is no doubt that a collective political consensus is necessary, but a reflection on Articles 2, paragraph 7 and 39 of the Charter of the United Nations is also needed.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“All countries should take a decisive and urgent step back from the present escalation of military preparations. The largest countries and those that have a stronger tradition of respecting human rights should be the first to perform generous actions of pacification. All diplomatic and political means of mediation should be engaged in order to avoid the unspeakable. Allow me to recall the appeal of Pope Pius XII to all nations on 24 August 1939, on the eve of the Second World War: “The way of justice is promoted by the strength of reason and not with the force of arms... The danger is imminent, but there is still time. Nothing is lost with peace. With war, everything is lost. May people come back to understand each other and take up again negotiations.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Although our common home is falling into serious disrepair, we can reverse the trend of environmental degradation. Indeed, as Pope Francis emphasized in his encyclical Laudato si \ while we are capable of the worst, we are also capable of the best, rising above ourselves, choosing again what is good and making a new start. The duty to prevent wars and violent conflicts is an essential component of the responsibility to protect. The Holy See therefore appreciates the Secretary-General’s explicit and strong emphasis on preventive diplomacy and concurs with his assessment that the most serious shortcoming of the entire international community is the frequent inability to prevent crises. Prevention requires, first of all, restoring faith in the capacity of humankind for dialogue. An environment of trust is urgently needed.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Any harm done to the environment is harm done to humankind today and tomorrow. Therefore, the misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion, given that the deterioration of the planet affects, first and foremost, the many billions trapped in poverty or in conditions of environmental stress across the globe. This dramatic reality of exclusion and inequality must lead all of us to take stock of our shared and individualresponsibilities. The pressing call and challenge to care for creation invite all humankind to work unhesitatingly towards sustainable and integral development. Improving climate conditions and the natural environment is possible only if we accept the need to change the way we perceive the world and thus our way of relating to it.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Christian churches, in particular the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, celebrate together on 1 September the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation to heighten public awareness of their shared responsibility to take care of our common home and contribute to reversing environmental degradation. To mark the World Day of Prayer this year, Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I released a joint message affirming that the Earth was entrusted to us as a sublime gift and legacy for which all of us share responsibility. Our human dignity and welfare are deeply connected to our care for the whole of creation. This call for responsible stewardship finds particular urgency before the deteriorating conditions of our common home and an often purely utilitarian world view concerning the things that surround us.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“With this in mind, responsible compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, as well as the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 2030 Agenda, could be a way of focusing all countries and international organizations on working together for peace, setting aside the dangerous game of exchanging threats. From this perspective, the Holy See sees the forthcoming reform and fine-tuning of the United Nations development system as an additional opportunity for placing people and their needs at the centre of our action. In so doing so, as Pope Francis reminded us in this Hall two years ago, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“With regard to political commitments, Pope Francis has also urged the Organization and the international community not to fall into what could be called “declarationist nominalism”. Accordingly, we must guard against having soothed consciences and feeling good simply because we adopted the 2030 Agenda and other important international accords. On the contrary, we must not rest until our legal commitments have been truly fulfilled and our political promises kept when it comes to the lives of people. We must therefore take a hard and honest look at the principal challenges that the peoples of the world are facing today and will face tomorrow.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the international community committed itself to effective measures to eradicate the root causes of various evils and indignities that many people in the world are facing today. Moments before the Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Pope Francis defined the Agenda as an important sign of hope. One of the fundamental reasons for this hope is that world leaders had agreed on a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity and were determined to end poverty and hunger in all their forms and manifestations and to ensure that all human beings could fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment. Their common resolve to leave no one behind articulates the core of this focus on people.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Always putting people first means protecting, at every stage and in every circumstance, the dignity of the person, human rights, fundamental freedoms and, in a specific way, the rights to life and to freedom of religion, from which all other rights flow. These two human rights are the common foundation of the pillars of peace, security and integral human development. They are indivisible from those other rights and fundamental freedoms relating to a dignified, spiritual, material and intellectual life for all citizens and their families, including, inter alia, the right to food, water, housing, a safe environment and work.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The Catholic Church expresses the meaning of focusing on people in these words: the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men and women of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ, because, indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in our hearts. Focusing on people means not only protecting them from heinous crimes, but also placing them ahead of all national and geopolitical interests and fulfilling all the international political commitments undertaken throughout the history of the United Nations relating to social and economic development, starting with those set forth in the Charter of the United Nations.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“On behalf of His Holiness Pope Francis, I am pleased to congratulate Your Excellency on your election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-second session and to commend you on the choice of the theme for the general debate: “Focusing on people: Striving for peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet.” It is a congenial topic for the Holy See. Pope Francis never tires of insisting on people first, especially those who suffer, those who are excluded, marginalized or left behind.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Pope Benedict XVI, in 2008, and Pope Paul VI, during his visit 50 years ago for the Organization’s twentieth anniversary, both pointed out that the United Nations is called increasingly to serve as a sign of unity among States and an instrument of service to the entire human family, and that, consequently, the Organization represents the obligatory path of modern civilization and world peace. The United Nations must, therefore, become a place where a true family of nations and peoples can meet and prosper, a place where all forms of war and unilateral intervention will be forever prohibited, not only in words, but above all in the spirit and intentions of every governmental authority.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Such limitations are rather the inevitable shadows of the great framework of the first global project for peace and international cooperation, which has, happily, endured for 70 years and is an incentive to achieving full respect for the law in force and to promoting greater trust and cooperation. The Holy See thus expresses the hope that this seventieth anniversary, marked by the solemn adoption of the 2030 Agenda, may be the beginning of a harmonious and ever fuller cooperation for the benefit of all humankind.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“An effective accord on those issues, in addition to the important value they possess in and of themselves, can only contribute to general agreements between States regarding integral human development, the responsibility to protect, peace, disarmament and respect for international law. To acknowledge the limitations of the Charter of the United Nations with regard to new crisis situations or, sadly, in the face of evidence of a failure to observe its prescriptions, is not the same thing as stating or lamenting the failure of the Organization itself.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The Paris Conference represents an important phase in the process of re-establishing a balance between global greenhouse-gas emissions and the Earth’s capacity to absorb them. To that end, we urgently need to adopt a fair, transformational and legally binding global agreement. That would send a meaningful signal to the entire international community, by promoting a rapid transition to development marked by a low carbon footprint and by providing a powerful impetus to reinforcing the intrinsic link between two objectives — eradicating poverty and easing the effects of climate change. That link shows that the threat of climate change and our responses to it can be a promising opportunity for improving health, transportation, energy security and new opportunities for employment.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Looking ahead, we see another grave responsibility, both for the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda and for peace itself. That is the hoped-for agreement on climate change, which is to be adopted at the Paris Conference in December. The climate is a global common good, a responsibility that we all bear, particularly towards the most vulnerable groups of present and future generations. It is a responsibility that is necessarily transversal, requiring effective multilateral and interdisciplinary cooperation on the part of individuals, based on their own abilities and characteristics, but united in the face of the challenging question as to the kind of world we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“They are aimed at stigmatizing and banning those dreadful ordnances, which have such a devastating and indiscriminate impact on civilian populations. The Holy See joins all those who are working for their effective implementation in expressing the hope that they will soon be signed by those States that have not yet done so. Effective and full enactment of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations calls for replacing a mindset of thr rejection of others, of distrust and fear, with an ethic of responsibility. That, too, demands that we reflect on the meaning of the concept of collective security, which has to do not only with war and military actions but also with broader economic, financial, ethical, social and humanitarian dimensions.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In the final analysis, the nuclear arms race, and indeed the arms race in 15-29940 3/18 A/70/PV.27 02/10/2015 general, with its expenditure of human and economic resources, is based on a denial of the human dignity of one’s potential enemies and even the denial of one’s own dignity and survival. A process aimed at a deeper understanding of the grave humanitarian effects of the use of weapons of mass destruction, and nuclear arms in particular, should therefore not only be encouraged but should be considered necessary. With regard to the humanitarian dimension, I should also mention the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, two instruments for disarmament and for adapting humanitarian law to the complexities of today’s world.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“There is the telling example of the failure in May of the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In view of that impasse, it is all the more important that the international community and the individual States most involved clearly signal a real desire to pursue the shared objective of a world free of nuclear arms, in full application of the Treaty, in letter and spirit, with the goal of a complete prohibition of such weapons. As Pope Francis has noted in various forums, nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction are irreconcilable with and contrary to an ethic of fraternity and peaceful coexistence between peoples and between States.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“As Pope Francis recently said, “[W]e do not lack for hard evidence of the negative consequences of military and political interventions undertaken without coordination among the members of the international community.” (A/70/PV.3, p. 5) The current crisis calls us, therefore, to renew efforts to apply the law that is in force and to develop new norms that are also aimed at combating the phenomenon of international terrorism, in full respect for the law. Multilateral action for peace and collective security can be effectively advanced with the help of another instrument recognized by the Charter and often considered in the Assembly, namely, disarmament. Here, too, we find ourselves in an area of light and shadows, with the latter, unfortunately, prevailing.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)