New York City, N.Y., Nov 6, 2017 / 15:18 pm
Persecuted religious minorities in Syria and Iraq deserve a better future after suffering at the hands of the Islamic State group.
That was the message of Archbishop Bernadito Auza, the apostolic nuncio leading the Holy See's permanent observer mission to the U.N. He said justice for the survivors "demands that we seek to return to them, as much as possible, what Daesh pillaged from them."
"This means ensuring the conditions for religious and ethnic minorities to return to their places of origin and live in dignity and safety, with the basic social, economic and political frameworks necessary to ensure community cohesion."
The Holy See and the U.N. NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief co-organized the Nov. 2 event, held at the U.N. building in New York City. The event served as a forum for victims of Islamic State and for the civil society leaders who wanted to hold the group accountable. There was a speakers' panel with Archbishop Auza; Michael Farris, president of ADF International; and ambassadors from Iraq, Hungary, the U.K., and the U.S.