PROMOTE HUMAN RIGHTS, ABOVE ALL THE RIGHT TO LIFE

VATICAN CITY, MAY 5, 1999 (VIS) - At the conclusion of today's weekly general audience, the Pope stated that "in these days, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, an important meeting is taking place concerning the application of what was decided in the Cairo Conference (on Population and Development) of 1994."

"On that occasion," he continued, "the Holy See had reiterated insistently that human life be put at the center of any development program. This means that any solution to population problems must respect the dignity of each human being and, at the same time, promote their fundamental rights, above all the right to life. To this must be added the right to health and education involving the family in its irreplaceable role of promoter of human, spiritual and moral values."

The Holy Father concluded: "Five years after the International Conference on Population and Development, governments must renew the commitment they made there in order to assure true and lasting human development."

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