New York, 3–9 October 2025

Mr. Chair,

My Delegation would like to congratulate you and the Bureau on your election and to assure of its constructive engagement during this session.

The contemporary world is confronted with significant challenges, including conflict and violence, poverty and hunger, the curtailment of rights, and social fragmentation. In this contest, efforts to optimize the United Nations’s effectiveness are frequently hindered by polarization, and further complicated by the financial constraints imposed by the liquidity crisis. In such circumstances, there is a necessity for careful consideration, innovative thinking, and the courage to make challenging decisions.

The establishment of the United Nations eighty years ago was the result of a concerted effort on the part of the international community to address the profound social, cultural, economic, moral and spiritual wounds caused by World War II. In addressing this situation, a consensus was reached on shared values and a multilateral framework for collaborative endeavours to promote them. Notwithstanding the challenges faced from both internal and external sources, these principles continue to underpin multilateralism. True reform is invariably predicated on a return to the foundational principles, accompanied by a perspicacious evaluation of the elements that have demonstrated resilience, those that necessitate reinforcement, and the superfluous additions to the foundational structure that fail to serve its original design and should be excised.  

One of the most significant intellectual contributions of the architects of the United Nations was to establish the well-being of the human person as the central focus of the global institution by incorporating human rights as one of its fundamental principles. This commitment was further consolidated through the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The roots of human rights are to be found in the God-given dignity that belongs to each human being. The State has the duty to promote and protect human rights, which are necessary conditions for human flourishing. This must be done within a framework that upholds both the freedoms of the individual and our responsibilities to each other.

These rights are universal, inviolable, inalienable. Universal because they are present in all human beings, without exception. Inviolable insofar as they are inherent in the human person and in human dignity. Inalienable insofar as no one can legitimately deprive another person of these rights, since this would violate their nature.

Many States have incorporated these provisions of the UDHR directly into their own constitutions and legislation. People have also become more aware of their rights, enabling them to educate others and advocate for change. These provisions have contributed to the advancement of women, to progress combatting racism and intolerance, to respect for Indigenous peoples, to ensuring the equal rights of persons with disabilities, and to the protection of children. 

Indeed, “human rights are to be defended not only individually but also as a whole: protecting them only partially would imply a kind of failure to recognize them. They correspond to the demands of human dignity and entail, in the first place, the fulfilment of the essential needs of the person in the material and spiritual spheres.”[1]

However, the Holy See notes that the interpretation of human rights has often been expanded beyond the scope of both law and consensus, with unintended ramifications. Consequently, the assertion of new concepts as rights can become an instrument of ideological colonization. “In the past, the colonialist mentality disregarded the concrete life of people and imposed certain predetermined cultural models; yet today too, there are any number of forms of ideological colonization that clash with the reality of life, stifle the natural attachment of peoples to their values, and attempt to uproot their traditions, history and religious ties. This mentality, presumptuously thinking that the dark pages of history have been left behind, becomes open to the ‘cancel culture’ that would judge the past purely on the basis of certain contemporary categories. The result is a cultural fashion that levels everything out, makes everything equal, proves intolerant of differences and concentrates on the present moment, on the needs and rights of individuals, while frequently neglecting their duties with regard to the most weak and vulnerable of our brothers and sisters: the poor, migrants, the elderly, the sick, the unborn… They are the forgotten ones in ‘affluent societies’; they are the ones who, amid general indifference, are cast aside like dry leaves to be burnt.”[2]

Furthermore, affirming rights necessarily involves acknowledging corresponding responsibilities. Regrettably, over time, this mutually enriching relationship has been weakened, as autonomy has come to dominate human rights discourse. A disproportionate focus on autonomy separates rights from their reciprocal duties and promotes an excessive individualism which, in turn, undermines solidarity. This is most evident in attempts to undermine the family, which is “a school of deeper humanity,”[3] where each member comes to know himself both as an individual and in relation to others.

Reducing rights to the exercise of autonomy, prioritizes the idea of rights over the human beings they are meant to serve. If there is no room for dependence and frailty, natural parts of the human condition, ultimately there will be no room for those human beings who experience them. This undermines the universality of human dignity, which jeopardizes those who are already at the margins of society, and risks creating a sense of competition and scarcity inimical to equality.

Mr. Chair,

The Holy See insists on the central role of religious freedom, not because it ignores other freedoms, but because it is the litmus test for the respect of all other human rights and fundamental freedoms. It serves as barometer which accurately indicates the true level of the enjoyment of the fundamental human rights within a society.

            The “genuine recognition and complete observance of all the rights and freedoms outlined in the Declaration is a goal to be sought by all peoples and all nations.”[4] This can be best achieved by rejecting the imposition of ideologies which lack consensus or legal basis.  While there is much work to be done, there is also much to be proud of over the past eighty years and good reason for hope. As Pope Leo says, by working together there is an opportunity to “build a world in which everyone can lead an authentically human life in truth, justice and peace.”[5] The Holy See will continue to do its part.

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[1] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, 154.

[2] Pope Francis, Apostolic Journey to Canada: Meeting with Civil Authorities, Representatives of Indigenous Peoples and Members of the Diplomatic Corps, 27 July 2022.

[3] Gaudium et Spes (1965), No. 52.

[4] Pope St. John XXIII, Pacem in terris, No. 143 (1963).

[5] Pope Leo XIV, Address to the Diplomatic Corps, 16 May 2025.