Holy See diplomat: ‘the international community must intervene’ to protect the persecuted

October 14, 2014

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the apostolic nuncio to the United Nations, said that the “international community must intervene” to protect the Middle East’s persecuted minorities when national governments cannot protect them.

Speaking at an October 13 meeting devoted to the rule of law, the prelate said that

the “responsibility to protect” is a recognition of the equality of all before the law, based on the innate dignity of every man and woman. The Holy See wishes to reaffirm that every State has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights and from the consequences of humanitarian crises. If States are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the UN Charter and in other international instruments.

The action of the international institutions, provided that it respects the principles undergirding the international order, cannot be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty. The Holy See hopes that the alarming, escalating phenomenon of international terrorism, new in some of its expressions and utterly ruthless in its barbarity, be an occasion for a deeper and more urgent study on how to re-enforce the international juridical framework of a multilateral application of our common responsibility to protect people from all forms of unjust aggression.

 

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Further information:

• Vatican to UN: Middle East minorities need our protection (Vatican Radio)