HOLY SEE AT U.N. ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

VATICAN CITY, NOV 7, 2001 (VIS) - Yesterday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Archbishop Renato R. Martino, permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N., spoke before the Second Committee of the General Assembly on "Sustainable Development and International Economic Cooperation."

He stated that "'At the beginning of a new century, the one issue which most challenges our human and Christian conscience is the poverty of countless millions of men and women'. In repeating these words of the Pope, my Delegation would like first of all to call attention to three points within the discussion of international economic cooperation. Poverty and its eradication are, today more than ever, a pre-eminent issue; the concern for this issue occupies the attention of the international community and of the Holy See; and finally, as this issue challenges the human conscience, it has a clear moral connotation."

"A fundamental ethical principle of the social teaching of the Holy See is the principle of the universal purpose of created goods," noted the apostolic nuncio. He added that "International economic cooperation should be based on the principle of the universal destination of material goods which can offer a starting point of a conceptual way to look for means to eradicate poverty. A successful way of achieving the poverty reduction goal is to promote a more pro-poor growth."

Archbishop Martino also focussed on: problems relative to rural poverty; the need to substantially reduce the obstacles to market access-tariffs; a system of intellectual property rights that allows poor countries to share in the benefits, and the need for the right to food security and to healthy and quality nutrition to always be put before commercial targets.

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