Humanity deserves to be free from scourge of self-destruction, says Vatican Ambassador to UN

Oct 2, 2005 / 22:00 pm

In a speech to the General Assembly’s First committee, of disarmament and international security, Msgr. Migliore, Ambassador of the Holy See to the United Nations, reiterated the Vatican’s commitment to "the importance of arms control and disarmament, which are fundamental pillars of the architecture for peace."

He expressed his confidence in the will of nations to rid the earth of weapons, saying "many of them care a great deal about the suffering and increased dangers posed by the proliferation of weaponry of all kinds." But he regretted the lack of concrete decisions in order to fulfill that mission. "It remains deplorable that the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May ended without a single substantive decision," he added. As well no declaration was made in the outcome document of the World Summit held in New York a few weeks ago.

He vowed for a world free of all weapons, stressing that "Nuclear weapons are becoming a permanent feature of some military doctrines, and there has been a dramatic 20 percent increase in world military spending in the past two years. Small arms kill at least 500,000 people per year, and the U.N. conferences on this subject have still not produced a legally-binding instrument on small arms transfers."

"It is disappointing that the principles and progress of disarmament are being weakened both by the reluctance of some to disarm and by the unwillingness of others publicly to take to task such an attitude."

"The "we the peoples" of the United Nations, as the Charter so eloquently refers to humanity, deserve to be free from the scourge of self destruction," he concluded.