Confront violence, slavery facing women,Vatican Nuncio urges U.N.

Catholic Online

UNITED NATIONS (Catholic Online) – The international community must live up to its responsibility to confront and eliminate new forms of violence and slavery directed at women, the Vatican told a United Nations commission, noting the irony of such growing rights abuses at a time of apparent greater sensitivity to women’s issues.

In a March 2 address to the U.N. Economic and Social Council’s 51st session on the Commission on the Status of Women, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio of the Holy See permanent observer mission to the U.N., said that each day women, adolescents and young girls throughout the world have to face abuses and rights violations that are tolerated by society.

“Women bear the brunt of the world’s child prostitution, sexual exploitation, abuse, domestic violence, child labor and human trafficking,” he said.

“The mistreatment of women,” the nuncio stressed, “is a longstanding reality in many places and a disregard for the age and vulnerability of young people in particular is especially repugnant.”

Acknowledging progress made on behalf of women and expressing hope for positive achievements on this issue to establish a more “sane and solid foundation for the future,” Archbishop Migliore said that “peoples throughout the world need to find common purpose to “uphold the inherent dignity and worth of every human being.”

“At a time when the sensitivity for women’s issues appears stronger than ever, the world is now obliged to confront new forms of violence and slavery directed especially at women,” he said.

Women, especially younger women, are so vulnerable, the archbishop said, due to, among other causes, “inferior status bestowed upon women” and “prejudiced traditions” in some cultures as well as female infants seen in terms of being a financial burden.

“In this way, abortion, often considered a tool of liberation, is ironically employed by women against women,” he said. “Even those allowed to live are sometimes considered as if they were a piece of property best disposed of a soon as possible.”

The nuncio pointed to the international sex trade as “degrading as almost any mistreatment of women prior to it.”

“This trade is often passed over in silence,” Archbishop Migliore said, “because it is considered a part of supposedly democratic freedoms and is too deeply rooted in places or is too lucrative to confront.”

Even “the institution of marriage” is misused to provide a “safe façade to sexual exploitation and slave labor” through the “mail-order brides” industry, he said.

“The trade which results in the exploitation and profit of women forms a driving motive in this equation,” Archbishop Migliore said. “No one profits from this except the traffickers and the clients.”

Sensationalizing the “tragic plight” of those trafficked is not enough, he stressed, noting that the international community must get to the root of the “cultural prejudice, exploitation and profit” that is the reason for the violence against women.

“This is a clear question of human rights, since trafficked women have their right to life and dignity violated,” the nuncio said. He added that “health, freedom and security” are all compromised as well as for younger women “a question of forced marriage, the violation of the right to education, the right to work and the right to self-determination.”

More needs to be done than the passage of “a few social laws or customs,” construction of some new refuges and sending back of those trafficked to their home countries,” Archbishop Migliore said.

He urged ways be found to ensure those trafficked be allowed to return safely to their home country “without shame,” to all women to find safety when they do decide to work abroad and for local communities to be given information on how to understand and deal with the phenomenon of girls feeling forced to seek work elsewhere.

In a Feb. 27 panel discussion, “The Human Dignity of Women in Contemporary Society: Addressing Violence against Women,” Candy Hill, Catholic Charities USA senior vice president for social policy, said that domestic violence has a devastating impact on families throughout the United States requiring healing to which the Catholic Church is called to minister.

Sponsored by the Vatican’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations, the Path to Peace Foundation and the Vincentian Center for Church and Society of St. John’s University in New York, the event served as a side meeting to the 51st session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which is taking place from Feb. 26 to March 9. The forum was held at the Church of the Holy Family here.

The panel examined key contemporary social, economic and legal issues that violence has upon women and discussed these issues within an understanding of the dignity of the human person. It also sought to describe best practices to deal with the issue of violence against women and its prevention, to offer a forum for exchange of experiences across nations.

In her presentation on “Domestic Violence: Service and Policy,” Hill, an adjunct professor of law at The Catholic University of America, highlighted the response of the U.S. Catholic Church, pointing to the 2002 U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter, “When I Call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women.”

“This important document draws attention to the teachings of the Catholic Church with respect to domestic violence. The U.S. bishops remind us that the covenant of marriage is broken by domestic violence and is sinful.” said Hill. “This statement calls us all to be aware, serve, educate and advocate on behalf of all who are victimized by this epidemic.”