"Promoting human rights remains the most effective strategy to remove inequalities between different countries and social groups, as well as to increase security". This was said today by Benedict XVI, as he spoke to the UN General Assembly in New York, about the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Pope mentioned the need, in international relations, to "acknowledge the superior role played by the rules and the facilities that are inherently designed to promote the common good". As to scientific and technological research, he recalled that, "despite the huge benefits that it can have on man, some aspects of such applications are a clear breach of the order of the Creation, to such an extent that they not only contradict the holy character of life, but the human being and the family are even deprived of their natural identity". Then, Benedict XVI emphasised the principles of the "responsibility to protect": "Every State has the primary duty to protect its people from serious, ongoing breaches of human rights as well as from the consequences of the humanitarian crises that are caused by both nature and man". But, "if the States cannot guarantee such protection, the international community must act, using specific legal measures". (continued)
