HOLY SEE ADDRESSES INTERNATIONAL LABOR CONFERENCE

VATICAN CITY, JUN 14, 2001 (VIS) - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Holy See permanent observer to the Office of the United Nations and of Specialized Institutions in Geneva, addressed the 89th session of the General Labor Conference of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on the last day of its June 5 to 12 meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. That talk was published today.

Highlighting the concept of "decent work," he cited Pope John Paul's words during the Jubilee Year to workers: "All must work so that the economic system in which we live does not upset the fundamental order of the priority of work over capital, of the common good over private interest." He emphasized that "it is neither technology nor the market which are the primary subjects of work, but the human person."

A work agenda, said Archbishop Martin, must address both the quantity and quality of work. With regard to the latter, he pointed to the ILO's "pioneering and painstaking efforts" in "building up the widest possible consensus on issues such as the elimination of forced and compulsory labor and the worst forms of child labor. We must ensure that this consensus now becomes universal."

The head of delegation expressed the Holy See's satisfaction at "references in the Director General's report to the relationship between work and the family." But he urged the ILO to do more to remedy the problem of children who leave school and enter the workforce at a young age and to "integrate the concept of decent work more effectively into development and poverty reduction programs."

In closing remarks, Archbishop Martin said: "The aspiration of our initiatives to fight poverty is rightly moving from an assistential approach, with its attendant dangers of creating dependency, to one founded on empowerment, on enabling people to realize their God-given capacities. This movement to human empowerment must inevitably pass along the way of work."

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