The Vincentian Center: Vincent de Paul

TOWARD THE REALIZATION OF A CULTURE OF PEACE :

THE UNITED NATIONS, THE CHURCH AND INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT

H.E. The Most Reverend Celestino Migliore *

Titular Archbishop of Canosa,
Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See
to the United Nations

* Celestino Migliore obtained a master's degree in theology at the Center of Theological Studies in Fossano, Italy. He pursued his studies at the Pontifical Lateran University, where he was awarded a Doctorate in Cannon Law. In 1980 after graduating from the Pontifical Academy for Ecclesiastical Diplomacy, he joined the Holy See's diplomatic service. He served in Angola, the United States, Poland, Egypt and to the Council of Europe in France. Additionally, he served in the Secretariate of State at the Vatican as Under-Secretary of the Section for Relations with States. In this capacity he led delegations to several states in Asia. He was named the fourth Permanent Observer to the UN in New York in 2003.

Archbishop Migliore delivered the 12 th annual Vincentian Chair of Social Justice Lecture on January 26, 2006 at the Vincentian Convocation. On this occasion, Rev. Donald J. Harrington, C.M., President, conferred on Archbishop Migliore an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from St. John's University. In his introductory remarks, the Archbishop acknowledged and thanked Sister Margaret John Kelly and Father Harrington for the "excellent" collaboration between the faculty of the University and the Mission of the Holy See at the United Nations.

In this lecture, Archbishop Migliore outlined some of the priorities of the Holy See at the UN in working toward the vision of peace shared by Pope Benedict in his first World Day of Peace Message in 2006, "In Truth, Peace". Initiatives at the UN, including some of the reforms that he described as "adapting to the 'signs of the times'", present opportunities to advance this vision of peace. He addressed priorities of the Holy See in the Millennium +5 Summit Outcome Document, the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission, the transformation of the Commission on Human Rights into the Human Rights Council, and the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.

The challenge in the reform of global governance is to find a "lever long enough to move the earth". Archbishop Migliore proposes that the lever needed is a "consistent ethic," an authority of credibility and moral legitimacy, which requires governments and civil society to work together for the common good. It will also require the cooperation and contribution that "religions can and should offer to promote a climate of understanding and cooperation between cultures and civilizations". While cautious that inter-religious dialogue be left in the hands of religious representatives, he emphasized that religious forces are needed to cooperate in the various processes of peace making, peace keeping and peace building.

Introduction

first day of January every year to all people of good will, each time proposing a fresh theme concerning peace and how to achieve it. These Messages have already started to form a mosaic of topics and experiences for the realization of a culture of peace.

The theme for 2006 is In Truth, Peace . In this, his very first Message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Benedict tells us why he chose the name Benedict: "It is a sign of my personal commitment to peace ," he wrote. "In taking this name, I wanted to evoke both the Patron Saint of Europe, who inspired a civilization of peace on the whole continent, and Pope Benedict XV, who condemned the First World War as a 'useless slaughter' and worked for a universal acknowledgment of the lofty demands of peace."

Now, some of you may be asking, "Why should the Pope, who is essentially a religious authority, engage in this type of diplomacy whenever he speaks about peace and the ways to achieve it?" Indeed, how can the Pope engage the Holy See and the Catholic Church, which are primarily of a religious nature, in this kind of project, which is, fostering peace, human rights, and sustainable development?

The Holy See acts in the international arena according to its nature and purpose, which are essentially religious, moral and humanitarian. Firstly, the religious nature of the Holy See calls for it to sustain the creative role of religious and ethical factors that can transform the evolution of geopolitical paradigms. Secondly, the universal nature of the Holy See calls it to follow carefully the unfolding of the impact of globalization, not only on global governance, but on the daily life of every human being and every human society in the world. And thirdly, the humanitarian nature of the Holy See gives it a balanced, realistic and prophetic perspective on today's world, even if the use of force may not be totally ruled out, because there will always be the oppressors and the oppressed. Force will always be needed occasionally in the real world to disarm oppressors - but that surely does not excuse us from the duty to strive to make war obsolete or outmoded.

With its long tradition of social thought, the Holy See has maintained strong positions concerning war and peace, not based on some precarious balance of power or alliances, but on its vision of humanity and society in light of the Gospel and of right reason. For example, when it looks at the causes of contemporary terrorism, the Holy See considers not only terrorism's political and social causes, but looks in particular to its deeper cultural, religious and ideological motivations.

In his Message for the 2006 World Day of Peace, Benedict XVI singles out three insidious threats to peace: terrorism, nihilism, and fanatical fundamentalism.

"Looked at closely", he says, "nihilism and the fundamentalism of which we are speaking share an erroneous relationship to truth: the nihilist denies the very existence of truth, while the fundamentalist claims to be able to impose it by force. Despite their different origins and cultural backgrounds, both show a dangerous contempt for human beings and human life, and ultimately for God himself. Indeed, this shared tragic outcome results from a distortion of the full truth about God: nihilism denies God's existence and his provident presence in history, while fanatical fundamentalism disfigures his loving and merciful countenance, replacing him with idols made in its own image".

While statistics suggest an actual decrease in the number of conflicts in the world today, well-informed observers point out that the world still needs peace as much as ever it did. This is why the Pope's Message tackles the crucial issue of the link between disarmament, development and security, and reiterates the Pope's confidence in the United Nations as one of the key institutions at humanity's disposal for the spread of a culture of peace.

TOWARD A VISION OF PEACE:

THE PRIORITIES OF THE HOLY SEE AT THE UNITED NATIONS

I would like to take a few moments to share with you briefly how the Permanent Mission of the Holy See at the United Nations is trying to implement the Pope's vision of peace and development that I've just outlined. To illustrate my point, I intend to say something about our participation and contribution to the debate on the reform of the United Nations .

With the United Nations almost at its door, this University will not be unaware of the formal debate on the reform of the UN, which got under way about a year ago. The UN's Member States outlined a series of institutional and methodological reforms based on this fundamental principle: the collective responsibility to protect. This is the idea that a state's sovereignty is to be treated as a responsibility rather than a right, and that a State fully interprets and exercises its sovereignty when it is willing and up to meeting its responsibility to its citizens and to the international community. It was always traditionally supposed that every state has the primary responsibility to protect its own population from man-made crimes or disasters, such as genocide, forced starvation or human rights violations. More recently, this concept has been supplemented by the growing consensus that, when a given country cannot or does not want to intervene to protect its population, the international community represented by the UN has not only the right but also the duty to intervene. Currently, these means of intervention are in the hands of the Security Council.

The Millennium +5 Summit Outcome Document: The Collective Responsibility to Protect

The Outcome document adopted by the Heads of State and Government at the end of the Millennium +5 Summit, on September 16, 2005, retained this concept of a collective "responsibility to protect", although in a slightly diluted form.

Clearly, the recent tragedies in the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa have jolted world opinion, and nations have had to reconsider their roles here. What is important now is the commitment we make to foster a culture of conflict prevention, but we must also explore thoroughly the problem of the use of force to disarm the aggressor. In connection with the reform of the UN, the Holy See has been encouraging and supporting the Member States to continue discussions on the application and practical consequences of the "responsibility to protect", in order to find the best solution, through the Security Council and in accordance with the indications given in Chapter VII of the UN Statutes, to those situations in which national authorities either cannot or will not protect their own populations in the face of internal or external threats.

The idea that sovereignty should be treated above all as a responsibility of states was stressed by Pope Benedict XVI in the Message I just mentioned, in his reference to freedom. He says, and I quote: "In the development of international law today, it is becoming increasingly clear that no Government can feel free to neglect its duty to ensure suitable conditions of freedom for its own citizens without thereby damaging its credibility to speak out on international problems." In other words, the classical understanding of sovereignty that "might makes right" is becoming more and more obsolete in light of the evolution of this international legal doctrine that dovetails with the refinement of global sensitivity towards human rights.

Allow me to digress for a moment. What we have been doing at the UN in these past months has been called "reform". Maybe that's not the best word for it because if we adhere to the facts, we often realize that change happens first and reform follows later, reform that is sometimes more of an adaptation than a drastic change. The spread of human rights, environmental concerns, the urgency to halt nuclear proliferation; work towards general disarmament, the need to extend and respect humanitarian law in war, as well as in peace time, and so on - all these things have changed the way countries regard their power and authority. International law, international affairs and international relations are becoming more and more attentive and selective towards national political organization than towards public authority in itself. Moral authority, in terms of respect for and promotion of human rights and democracy, is starting to prevail over might; and the simple fact that a Head of State or Government has constitutional power no longer grants him automatic immunity for his actions while in power, nor makes him automatically an interlocutor at the international level. We saw an example of this the other day when Sudan was bypassed in the rotation of the presidency of the African Union.

So the shape of the reform of the UN that we've been working on these months is probably not going to create anything absolutely new, but it may well achieve an important recognition of one of the "signs of the times", to borrow a phrase from the Second Vatican Council. Through debate and negotiation, this exercise at the UN will hopefully confirm the truth and urgency of these new trends and lead to their codification, making them into effective and constructive directives for our future peaceful coexistence and cooperation.

In this light, the Cardinal Secretary of State focused his intervention at the UN's Millennium +5 Summit last September on the need for " a reform that is attentive to the real demands of our peoples rather than to the balance of power".

Peacebuilding Commission: Toward a Just and Lasting Peace

Similarly, the Holy See showed its support by intervening during the recent negotiations for the new Peacebuilding Commission, whose statutes were adopted just a month ago by the General Assembly. Since the Second World War, the moral and material devastation of wars have brought to the forefront a new and urgent problem: in addition to the existing international norms known as " jus ad bellum " (law on the legitimate use of force) and " jus in bello " (law on the conduct of warfare), a need has been identified for a " jus post bellum " as well; that is, norms to promote the rapid and effective construction of a just and lasting peace - which is, after all, the only reason for the use of force in the first place.

In recent times, there has been a growing realization that in many cases, once peace has been restored and after a period of UN peacekeeping and reconstruction, too many countries relapsed into conflict. There are many reasons for relapse: peace was not followed up by a period of truth and reconciliation; infrastructures that would have promoted democratic reforms were not in place; social and economic development was ignored; human rights were not sufficiently monitored; and so on. Thus the Peacebuilding Commission is intended to help countries emerging from conflict to undertake all these processes, and will offer its own logistical and juridical support to local initiatives in this direction.

Another concern is the silence of the Outcome document on the subject of disarmament. Given that the Holy See has no strict strategic interests to defend, why is it so interested in disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament? The reason is, we believe strongly, that the use of arms must never create evils or disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. Nuclear weapons assault all life on the planet, they assault the planet itself, and in so doing they assault the process of the continuing development of the planet. Therefore, it's urgent and extremely important that not only non-proliferation but also nuclear disarmament be dealt with seriously.

For example, a direct result of over-spending on arms is that governments are less able to meet long-term commitments to education, healthcare and housing. The United Nations has pioneered studies which show the integral relationship between disarmament, development and security. Security for all is enhanced when steps in disarmament and development complement one another. The Holy See intends to continue to draw attention to the economic benefits of disarmament measures, thus the reason for the strong appeal on this point in the Pope's Message for the World Day of Peace.

Human Rights Council: The Promotion and Enforcement of Human Rights, along with Education at the National Level

On the subject of strengthening the UN human rights machinery, the UN membership is working on a project intended to transform the Commission on Human Rights into the Human Rights Council. Under the existing arrangements, it has been too easy for major human rights offenders to become members of the Commission on Human Rights, making them immune from international criticism, not to mention judges and arbiters of the implementation of human rights in the world. International law and its institutions are vital for the application and enforcement of human rights; however, we should not lose sight of the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights attaches importance to the incorporation of its principles into national law and education in fostering a rights-respecting culture. Hence, in the statutes of the Human Rights Council, as the replacement body will be called, the Holy See would like to see a greater emphasis on the promotion and enforcement of human rights at the national level coupled with constant attention to education in every country. These items will remain indispensable in allowing human rights to prosper in the new system. They are indispensable to the point that even with the new Council, respect for human rights will continue to be directly proportional to the national degree of commitment to education and implementation.

Millennium Development Goals: Sustainable Development is Economics from the Perspective of the Environment

The Holy See also follows closely action in the field of sustainable development, especially from the economic and environmental perspectives. Again, in this area the Holy See is wont to propose an inversion of the typical perspective, that is, it prefers to consider economics from the perspective of the environment, and not vice versa. The reason being, if we simply stand back and allow the gradual obliteration of the environment, soon there will be a shortage of the basic substratum of economics that largely continues to rely upon agriculture, water, fishing, forests and natural resources. Without an environment there can be no viable economic activity, let alone progress.

As for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs ), these are a bold attempt, and an overdue one, by the world's nations to address poverty, hunger, education, health, and the environment, using goals expected to be implemented by 2015 with increased international cooperation. Taken broadly, these commitments converge very well with the traditional social doctrine of the Church. Indeed, they go back to basics -to the works of mercy found in the Gospel itself, so the Holy See has naturally given its support to these commitments. It is of course a support that goes hand in hand with a careful discernment of the differing and diverging ways of interpreting and implementing the MDGs from country to country.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the reform of the UN, and prior to that, the reform of the global governance, needs in particular a consistent ethic. This need can be expressed with Archimedes' famous phrase "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can move the Earth." While global governance has logic of its own, it lacks its own ethics. It lacks a "lever long enough" to give the world a jolt, something the world's nations, governments and civil society together, must find and employ if they wish to overcome the sense of uneasiness among their people that things are not going in the right direction. The reform of the United Nations is thus not simply aimed at realizing a few short-term goals, but at granting the institution the necessary authority, in terms of credibility and moral legitimacy, to act for the good of the global community and to stimulate political good will at all levels.

In this context, much has been said during this past year at the UN Headquarters, and also in operative terms, of the contribution that religions can and should offer to promote a climate of understanding and cooperation between cultures and civilizations. The Holy See is very much proactive on this field convinced as it is that strictly inter-religious dialogue has to be left in the hands of religious representatives, while religious forces at the UN are called to cooperate in their own ways to the various processes of peace making, peace keeping and peace building.