Feb 9, 2007 / 12:33 pm
Workers and workers rights must be at the forefront of all sustainable development efforts, urged the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations in New York this week.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore told the UN’s 45th session of the Commission for Social Development on Thursday that it is imperative for the international community to enable economic growth through the availability of decent work and wages.
“Work itself should be decent,” he said. “Work is a right but it is also the duty of all people to contribute to the good of their society and the whole human family. Work is dignified by the people who do it; but it must also be dignified in itself,” he stated plainly.
The archbishop underlined the importance of work to “the whole social question”. It is “the condition not only for social development but for the cultural and moral development of all of us,” he told the UN’s Economic and Social Council.
“A constant policy goal at national and international levels must surely be the creation of a balance between economic development on the one hand and social justice on the other, enshrined in law, which protects workers and promotes their rights,” he said.