ARCHBISHOP MARTINO ADDRESSES THE U.N. ON POVERTY

VATICAN CITY, OCT 13, 2001 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke yesterday afternoon before the Second Committee of the 56th session of the U.N. General Assembly on the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty.

He recalled that "the first principle of the (1992) Rio Conference states that 'human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development'. ... We are not only dealing with numbers, but we are discussing the lives and well-being of hundreds of millions of the world's people living in poverty. This is, for my delegation, the most important idea in each and every discussion ... within the United Nations system. Is this not the raison d'etre of the United Nations? If, when we discuss the eradication of poverty, we are not discussing the well-being of each and every human person, our discussions are empty words."

"In the eyes of the Holy See," Archbishop Martino underscored, "consideration must be given to amending the understanding of the foundation of sustainable development. Speaking of 'economic development, social development and environmental protection' no longer seems to be sufficient in the light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other diseases that continue to take their devastating toll, armed conflict, the great numbers of refugees and displaced persons, and the inability to close the gaps in the provision of basic social services."

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