Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 108, December 2008

Second Global Forum

on Migration and Development

(Manila, October 29^th, 2008)

                                                            Achbishop Agostino MARCHETTO

                                                            Secretary of the Pontifical Council

                                                            for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

Mr. Chairman,  

The decision of the "Troika" to grant only a few  minutes to the representatives of the States at this meeting is significant for its nature and forces me to be brief.

First of all, on behalf of the Holy See, I would like to express my congratulations for this bond established between migration and development, because whoever sees migration as a structural, growing and global phenomenon, and limits its vision to the economy,  is forced to consider in migration this favorable light, positively, beyond any negative prejudice. I add to this the appreciation of the Catholic Church as a whole, in its universal expression which is the Holy See, because in this Second Forum - the theme of which is "Protecting and Empowering Migrants for development” - emerges the fact that international migration, development and human rights are interconnected. It means that  the respect of migrants’ human rights is essential in order to benefit fully from international migration.

This signifies - and we agree - that all migrants, regardless of their status, are entitled to enjoy human rights, with special attention being paid to the avoidance of discrimination and administrative detention and to the protection especially of migrant women, unaccompanied minors and domestic workers. Here is posed the question of the ratification, from the part of the States, of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have encouraged many times. Here is posed also the question of the necessity of special measures to protect migrants from violence, discrimination, trafficking, exploitation and abuse and to provide protection to those in need of asylum. The Protocols against the trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants are considered by the Holy See keys instruments in the fight against these crimes. Moreover the multilateral  Framework on Labour Migration of the International Labour Organization is useful to provide guidelines to ensure the respect of the rights and fundamental freedoms of migrants workers, which are linked - and this must be one of the purposes of our Forum - with development. In fact how can a man, a woman, contribute in their best way to it if his/her situation is not humane?

In this sense it is necessary for me to mention the Address of Pope Benedict XVI to United Nations, of  April 18^th of this year, when He said: “the future will be built on Human Rights”: there is in it a conversion  and a fundamental nucleous of values, and therefore of rights, which mean also duties and responsibilities. There is expressed the necessity  to promote justice and human rights without accepting either cultural relativism, or cultural imperialism, with full acceptance of the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. May I dare to say, in this context, that the Holy See has been  revealing itself in the last decades as the principal institutional defender of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its integrity, with a renewed vision of the natural Law.

Is therefore with great satisfaction that my Delegation see that the first Round table of this Forum has the theme “Migration, Development and Human Rights”, even if effective follow-up of declarations, plans of action and other non binding commitments depend crucially on the political will of each and every Government.

However, from our point of view, we must continue to assert the centrality of the human person, under which discrimination, violence, restrictions of personal and collective freedoms, are also due to poverty. This was outlined in  the Final Document, and its appeal, of the Continental Congress of pastoral care for migrants and refugees, in Nairobi, organized last June by our Pontifical Council, in collaboration with the Kenya Bishops’ Conference. In a few days, in Bangkok, we shall discuss the same pastoral care in Asia.

The poverty which I have previously mentioned, on the one hand, reduces socio-economic development and, on the other, forms blocks which empoverishes the encounter and the dialogue, the enrichment and the exchange, in one word the just integration and reciprocity, understanding and common benefit.

Indeed, in the long term, there is no future for a Country or culture closed in on themselves, or arriving to fight those coming from abroad. After all Christianity, which is at the root of European identity and culture - not to mention Latin America - has given its high contribution to improving the condition of peoples in terms of humanism, in view to create societies more free and equal, questioning stereotypes and promoting, at the same time, dialogue and values such as human dignity, tolerance and freedom of conscience and cult. Once said this, history must be considered, with its lights and shades! 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman