PROTECTING CIVILIANS DURING CONFLICT

VATICAN CITY, 16 JAN 2009 (VIS) - On 14 January, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, addressed the Security Council in the course of an open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.

  Speaking English, the archbishop noted that although the Security Council has been discussing this topic for more than a decade, "civilian security during conflict is becoming more and more critical, if not at times dramatic, as we have been witnessing in these past months, weeks and days in the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to name just a few".

  "Humanitarian access, special protection of children and women and disarmament continue to be three vital pillars for providing greater protection to civilians", he said. "It is sadly clear that political and military designs supersede basic respect for the dignity and rights of persons and communities, when methods or armaments are used without taking all reasonable measures to avoid civilians; when women and children are used as a shield for combatants; when humanitarian access is denied in the Gaza Strip; when people are displaced and villages destroyed in Darfur and when we see sexual violence devastating the lives of women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo".

  In this context he noted that "protection of civilians requires not only a renewed commitment to humanitarian law, but demands first and foremost good political will and action".

  "The broad spectrum of mechanisms the UN is putting in place to ensure the protection of civilians will be successful if, at the very least, it is able to foster a culture of responsible exercise of leadership among its members and holds them and every party in a conflict accountable to such a responsibility towards individuals and communities.

  "The increasing burden of war casualties and consequences imposed on civilians comes also from the massive production, continued innovation and sophistication of armaments", Archbishop Migliore added. "In this context", he concluded, the Holy See "fully supports and encourages the objectives of the recent General Assembly resolution 'Towards an Arms Trade Treaty', which lays down the first important step toward a legally binding instrument on arms trade and transfers".
DELSS/ARMED CONFLICTS/U.N.:MIGLIORE            VIS 20090116 (380)