” “A task without frontiers” “

“Economic globalization and the fight against terrorism threaten respect for human rights throughout the world”: On the basis of this observation, the Justice and Peace Commissions of the European Episcopal Conferences, meeting in Geneva for their annual assembly in recent days, renewed their pledge to defend human rights. They also reaffirmed the Churches’ determination to “work to ensure that human rights and lasting development guide the economic and political decisions taken at the national and international level”. The Geneva meeting was followed up with a seminar on “Social justice in a globalized world”, which brought together representatives of international organizations, food multinationals and European and Latin-American NGOs. It emerged, among other things, that in Central and Eastern Europe the perception of the question North/South of the world “is almost non-existent, except for experts, such as missionaries, anthropologists, representatives of aid organizations”, explained Piotr Cywinski , chairman of the Club of Catholic Intelligenzia (KIK) in Warsaw. This is because, in contrast to Western Europe, “we did not have colonies, and so we don’t have any complexes or sense of guilt”. The quality of Europe’s presence in the world, in his view, “will be fostered by the same values that inspire Europe itself: solidarity, justice, subsidiarity”, in a logic not of aid but of the exchange of goods and values between North and South. The seminar’s conclusions were drawn by Dominique Peccoud , counsellor of the ILO (International Labour Organization, a UN body). We interviewed him. How can the Churches have a greater impact on the issues of justice and peace, in Europe and in the world? “I believe a form of collaboration between the Conference of Justice and Peace Commissions and the international organizations could exist. An official request ought to be presented for the Conference of Justice and Peace Commissions to be inserted in the special list of the NGOs accredited to the United Nations, and especially to the ILO. In June next year, for example, there will be a discussion on all the international conventions that affect migrants; and it’s therefore very important that the Churches should also be present. The greatest emergencies in Europe are in fact unemployment, especially in the countries of Eastern Europe, and immigration. Whenever we meet the poor, in whatever part of the world, they ask us to participate in the creation of new employment opportunities. The challenge is therefore to develop a strategy for creating jobs in decent conditions. The NGOs at times don’t realise that the multilateral organizations of the UN do what governments ask them to do. In the same government there may be ministers who intervene in different international organizations with different positions: NGOs and Justice and Peace Commissions must demand political consistency from their governments”. What’s needed at the level of the international organizations? “What’s needed is an economic and social organization able to prevent wars, which always break out for economic and social reasons. Such an organization could comprise the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the ILO (because the ILO’s mandate, ever since it was founded by the UNO in 1945, is to permit the material and spiritual development of the human person). What’s needed, in short, is a new structure to monitor and control all the international organizations, with an economic security council within it”.