UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Archbishop Renato Martino, representative of the Vatican at the United Nations, addressed the UN preparatory meeting for the upcoming Special Session on Children Wednesday. In his remarks, Archbishop Martino called for protections for life and family to be included in the final document to come out of the Special Session.
The first of three points the archbishop wanted included in the document was “The promotion and protection of the right to life as well as the human dignity and rights of the child, before as well as after birth.” The statement comes from the preamble to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC para 9) but is not yet included in the draft statement of the Special Session.
The second point asked for the inclusion of “The fact that the family is the basic unit of society, and ‘has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children from infancy to adolescence’ [statements from the Plan of Action Para 18] and thus ‘should be afforded necessary protection and assistance so that it can duly assume its responsibility within the community’ [CRC Preamble Para 5].”
The Vatican also wishes to see included references from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Archbishop Martino noted that “it is critical that children’s rights must at all times be seen in the light of parents’ prior right [UDHR Art 26 (3)] ‘to provide in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child’ [CRC Art. 5].”
See Archbishop Martino’s full address at: https://zenit.org/english/archive/0102/ZE010201.htm#2188