U.N.: FOLLOW-UP TO MILLENNIUM SUMMIT 2000

VATICAN CITY, OCT 10, 2003 (VIS) - In an address yesterday in New York, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke on Agenda Item 60, Follow-up to the Outcome of the Millennium Summit. This summit was held from September 6 to 8, 2000 at U.N. headquarters.

The nuncio noted that "the struggle for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is a struggle for the globalization of ethics, equity, inclusion, human security, sustainability and development. Such goods can be delivered by market forces only if attention is paid to the preservation and enhancement of human, community and environmental resources." Our challenge, he added, is to ensure that "globalization works for the good of people and not just for profit."

"When we speak about the MDGs," the archbishop said, "we are addressing our immediate future and, thus, we are talking about children." He pointed out that when the U.N. General Assembly established UNICEF in 1946, the acronym meant "United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund." The meaning has changed to "educational fund," he noted, adding that the Holy See delegation "reaffirms the centrality of education." However, he said, there is also an "emergency" when "children are not welcomed, where their rights are tampered, and their plights abandoned."

Archbishop Migliore also addressed "the feminization of poverty and some historical forms of marginalization of women that have deprived the human race of untold resources, ... the elusive conditions for peace, ... the dramatic increase of human traffic, specially women and children, spawning drug related crimes, ... and chronic environmental degradation (which) is becoming today's silent emergency."

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