'The Most Powerful Pro-Life Speech Ever Heard at the United Nations'
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| Archbishop Francis Chullikatt |
A leading pro-life advocate who lobbies at the United Nations says the Holy See has given what he considered to be the most powerful pro-life speech ever presented to the UN.
Peter Smith, Chief Administrative office to the UN for SPUC, the British pro-life group, and the International Right to Life Federation emailed LifeNews a copy of the speech.
'I have been attending UN meetings for over 18 years (more than 100 in total) . The Holy See gave the best speech I have ever heard at the UN,' he said. 'This speech was very pro-life and pro-family and took a swipe at the crooked compliance committee that oversees the Convention on the rights of the child.'The opening paragraphs of Archbishop Chullikatt's speech ...
Mr Chairman:
This year’s Secretary General’s Report on the Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (A/68/257) helpfully draws attention to child mortality, which goes to the heart of what the Convention in article 6 enshrines as the child’s "right to life, survival and development". Indeed, without life, all other rights are meaningless. It is a cause for encouragement that his Report concludes that the goal of ending all preventable child deaths is now within our reach.
Among the key factors for achieving this goal the Report identifies maternal health. This is confirmed by the logic of the Convention itself, which affords the child the right to both pre-natal and post-natal healthcare (article 24(d)). This provision has meaning only if the unborn baby is first afforded the right to life and survival. This accords with my Delegation’s understanding of the Convention’s definition of the term "child", which article 1 addresses with an explicit terminus ad quem of 18 years and a terminus a quo implicit in the preamble’s clear reference to the child’s rights "before and after birth".
It follows that each child must be accorded in the first place the right to be born. This is a right, moreover, which must be protected equally – without discrimination on any grounds, including those of sex or disability or policies dictated by eugenics. Thus, pre-natal diagnosis undertaken for the purpose of deciding whether or not the baby will be permitted to be born is inconsistent with the Convention, which my Delegation regards as the fundamental normative instrument on the rights of the child. The unborn baby is a member of our human family and does not belong to a "sub-category of human beings". ...
Read his excellency's remarks in their entirety here.
Please pray for Archbishop Francis Chullikatt and the Holy See’s chief negotiator Fr. Justin Wylie as they courageously exhort the UN to honor the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death.
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