HUMAN DIGNITY, EQUALITY ARE TRUE BASIS OF SOCIAL RELATIONS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 27, 2004 (VIS) - Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, C.S., Holy See permanent observer to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva, spoke on March 22 during the 60th session of the Human Rights Commission during the debate on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all forms of discrimination. This session started March 15 and ends April 23.

  In his talk, which was published today, the nuncio noted that "the wound of racism keeps returning to poison human relations. The forms taken by contemporary manifestations of racism are evident in spontaneous, officially tolerated or sometimes institutionalized behavior. In recent events intolerance, based on the idea of group superiority on the basis of the group's origin or attributed characteristics, provokes new violence and death, ethnic cleansing, refugee flows and untold misery."
 
  In the ongoing fight against racism, affirmed Archbishop Tomasi, "the cornerstone remains the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with its principles of equality without distinction of any kind such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."

  "The challenge now facing us is to implement the growing body of directives protecting human rights and aiming in particular at the elimination of every form of racism and related intolerance. ... The achievement of these objectives has to begin from an attitude of acceptance of the ''other' and of a genuine appreciation of the multiplicity of gifts that human groups and cultures contribute to the work of the human family."

  In concluding remarks, the archbishop said that "the struggle against racism and all forms of intolerance stands a chance of success when human dignity and equality are recognized as the true foundation of social relations."
DELSS/RACISM/GENEVA:TOMASI    VIS 20040329 (290)