Archbishop Bernardito Auza addresses committee meeting on the Rights of the Child
Eliminating violence against children demands that States, governments, civil society and religious communities support and enable the family to carry out its proper responsibility, according to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York.
Archbishop Bernardito Auza was speaking on Friday at a committee meeting on the Rights of the Child. He also reminded delegates of the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which he called a “prominent standard” in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child.
“It contains such fundamental principles as the protection of the rights of the child before as well as after birth, the family as the natural environment for the growth and education of children, and the right of the child to health care and education,” said Archbishop Auza.
“Moreover, my delegation recalls that too many children are denied the most fundamental right to life; that prenatal selection eliminates babies suspected to have disabilities and female children simply because of their sex; that too many children still lack sufficient food and housing; that in many countries they have no access to medicines; that they are sold to traffickers, sexually exploited, recruited into irregular armies, uprooted by forced displacements, or compelled into debilitating work,” he said.
