RESPECTING THE JURIDICAL MECHANISMS OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Vatican City,  (VIS) - Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States, yesterday spoke before the sixty-seventh General Assembly of the United Nations, which has as its theme: "Adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations by peaceful means".

In his address the archbishop highlighted how "loss of faith in the value of dialogue, and the temptation to favour 'a priori' one of the sides in regional and national conflicts, threaten respect for the juridical mechanisms of the United Nations. However, the pre-eminence of the values contained in the Charter should lead to the adoption of all possible means to ensure the protection of the most vulnerable, the promotion of respect for the rule of law and the rights of man, and the safeguarding of centuries-old cultural and religious balances".

The secretary for Relations with States went on: "The urgency of the situation is even more evident with respect to current events in the Middle East, and in particular in Syria. A solution is impossible if it fails to respect the rules of international and humanitarian law, or falls outside the mechanisms established in the United Nations Charter. All interested parties should not only facilitate the mission of the special envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League, but also ensure humanitarian assistance to the suffering peoples. The international community must unite its efforts so that all sides replace the race to arms with negotiation, just as it must insist on effective respect for religious liberty, human rights and all fundamental freedoms".

"Only an international community strongly anchored in values that are truly concordant with human dignity will be capable of suggesting feasible solutions to new types of conflict. These include transnational groups which diffuse a hegemonic, pseudo-religious ideology that fails to respect the rights of persons and civil peace. We are thinking of recent terrorist attacks in certain parts of Africa and Asia, and of the collusion between drug trafficking and terrorism in other parts of the world".

"It is of vial importance", Archbishop Mamberti concluded, "to reach an effective outcome in the debate about the reform and improvement of the working of the United Nations Organisation, in order to revive its capacities to foresee conflicts and to resolve then using peaceful means".