| International News

In Nov. 10 remarks to the U.N. General Assembly on poverty and development, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio to the Holy See’s permanent mission to the U.N., reminded the international body the eradication of poverty is “rightly recognized as the cornerstone” of its development agenda as well as a “moral obligation.”

Calling poverty eradication “an ethical, social, political and economic imperative,” the archbishop stressed that “poverty often stems from the violation of human rights and that the promotion of human rights can help alleviate poverty.”

“The link between peace and development appears quite evident to those on the ground who must confront the constraints placed on the poor and who know, sometimes from bitter experience, that ‘development is the new name for peace,’” he said, quoting Pope Paul VI.

Pointing to the work of the Catholic Church and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) throughout the world to eradicate poverty and acknowledging that “charity and welfare will always be needed to assist the poorest,” Archbishop Migliore stressed that the U.N. and individual member nations need to ensure that the poor receive the protection of rights in accord with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international legal instruments.

He identified that, “ like everyone else, the poor have the right to justice, decent work, adequate food, health and education” and “the right to development.”

“However,” the nuncio said, “since the poor are many times, by their very condition, excluded from society, their capacity to secure their rights is often very limited.”

He noted that three-quarters of the world’s countries are signers of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognizes the fundamental right to food, clothing and housing, and improvement of living conditions and methods of production and distribution.

But, he stressed, “almost a sixth of the world’s population goes hungry and a child dies of hunger every five seconds.”

“In spite of the sometimes Herculean efforts of agencies” to deploy food aid, he said, “national and international machinery still lets many hundreds of millions of people down.”

The archbishop pointed to the use of finite national resources “as a constraint or as an excuse to dismiss the acknowledgment or vindication of such a right” to development.

“if we are going to help people climb out of poverty,” he said, “we must use all the means at our disposal.”

Earlier in the week, another top Vatican official called on the world community to take immediate action on sustainable development and debt relief to relieve the growing burden on “those living in extreme poverty.”

At a Nov. 7 ceremony here to launch the International Financing Facility for Immunization, a fund to immunize 500 million children in the world’s poorest areas, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that those facing crushing poverty “over many, many years” continue to wait for effective practical measures to be implemented.

Pope Benedict XVI became the official first buyer of a multigovernment bond supporting the campaign that will focus on immunization against such diseases as polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, hepatitis B and yellow fever.

Debt relief and debt cancellation for least developed nations is key, the Vatican justice and peace council president said, in providing the means for sustainable development and the basic needs of life for the world’s poorest.

“People living in extreme poverty are waiting for the time when long term debt sustainability through the cancellation of 100 percent of the official multilateral and bilateral debt of heavily indebted poor countries along with debt relief or restructuring for low and middle income developing countries” takes place, the cardinal said.

This, he noted, “will open the way for initiatives such as universal access to those goods that will satisfy the basic necessities of life and development such as drinkable water, safe sanitation, nutrition programs, health care, education and adequate shelter as well as microcredit, microfinance and employment opportunities.”