HOLY SEE SUPPORT FOR CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS CONTROL

VATICAN CITY, OCT 10, 2006 (VIS) - The work of the 1st committee of the UN General Assembly, being held in New York, includes discussions on a proposed Resolution concerning the international control of the import, export and transfer of conventional weapons, and calling for the creation of a working group charged with preparing a draft of a treaty on the international trade in conventional weapons.

  In this context, Cardinal Raffaele Martino and Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council "Justice and Peace" today published a declaration, in the name of the Holy See, expressing support for this initiative.

  "Weapons cannot be considered as any other good exchanged," they write in their English-language statement, "their possession, production and trade have deep ethical and social implications and they must be regulated by paying due attention to specific principles of the moral and legal order."

  The two prelates recall John Paul II's call to governments in his 1999 World Peace Day Message for "legally binding measures on trade control of conventional weapons on the global, regional and national level."

  "The Holy See is convinced," the statement concludes, "that such a convention can be an important step towards a true global culture of peace, in which States, civil society and the military industry cooperate, with responsibility and solidarity, for a more peaceful and secure world."
CON-IP/CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS/MARTINO                VIS 20061010 (240)